Dickens, Charles / 2008-06-27 00:00:00

"The Cricket on the Hearth",
by Charles Dickens.
[obi/Charles.Dickens/cricket.on.hearth.txt]
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH
CHIRP THE FIRST
The kettle began it! Don't tell me what Mrs.
Peerybingle said. I know better. Mrs. Peery-
bingle may leave it on record to the end of time
that she couldn't say which of them began it; but,
I say the kettle did. I ought to know, I hope! The
kettle began it, full five minutes by the little waxy-
faced Dutch clock in the corner, before the Cricket
uttered a chirp.
As if the clock hadn't finished striking, and the
convulsive little Haymaker at the top of it, jerking
away right and left with a scythe in front of a
Moorish Palace, hadn't mowed down half an acre of
imaginary grass before the Cricket joined in at all!
Why, I am not naturally positive. Every one
knows that. I wouldn't set my own opinion against
the opinion of Mrs. Peerybingle, unless I were quite
sure, on any account whatever. Nothing should in-
duce me. But, this is a question of fact. And the
fact is, that the kettle began it, at least five minutes
before the Cricket gave any sign of being in exist-
ence.
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