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Dickens, Charles

"The Cricket On The Hearth"

Just!'
The indignation of Dot at this presumptuous asser-
tion is not to be described. What next? His imagina-
tion would compass the possibility of just such an-
other Baby, perhaps. The man was mad.
'I say! A word with you,' murmured Tackleton,
nudging the Carrier with his elbow, and taking him
a little apart. 'You'll come to the wedding? We're
in the same boat, you know.'
'How in the same boat?' inquired the Carrier.
'A little disparity, you know'; said Tackleton, with
another nudge. 'Come and spend an evening with
us, beforehand.'
'Why?' demanded John, astonished at this pressing
hospitality.
'Why?' returned the other. 'That's a new way
of receiving an invitation. Why, for pleasure --
sociability, you know, and all that!'
'I thought you were never sociable,' said John, in
his plain way.
'Tchah! It's of no use to be anything but free
with you I see,' said Tackleton. 'Why, then, the
truth is you have a -- what tea-drinking people call a
sort of a comfortable appearance together, you and
your wife. We know better, you know.


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