[300-12] Biffins are an excellent variety of apples raised in England.
[301-13] Baker’s here does not mean exactly what it means with us. In England the poorer people often take their dinners to a baker’s to be cooked.
[303-14] A bob, in English slang, is a shilling.
[311-15] Five-and-sixpence means five shillings and sixpence, or about $1.32.
[319-16] In what sense has Scrooge “resorted to the sexton’s spade that buried Jacob Marley” to cultivate the kindnesses of life?
[320-17] “I love my love” is an old game of which there are several slightly different forms. The player says “I love my love with an A because he’s—,” giving some adjective beginning with A; “I hate him with an A because he’s—; I took him to—and fed him on—,” all the blanks being filled with words beginning with A. This is carried out through the whole alphabet.
[346-18] The Laocoön is a famous ancient statue of a Trojan priest, Laocoön, and his two sons, struggling in the grip of two monstrous serpents. You have doubtless seen pictures of the group. Dickens’s figure gives us a humorously exaggerated picture of Scrooge and his stockings.
[349-19] This is a slang expression, used to express incredulity. It has somewhat the same meaning as the slang phrase heard in the United States—“Over the left.”
[349-20] Joe Miller was an English comedian who lived from 1684 to 1738. The year after his death there appeared a little book called Joe Miller’s Jests. These stories and jokes, however, were not written by Miller.