THE LAST DAY ON STORY ISLAND
The Cricket on the Hearth
XXXIV
CHIRP THE FIRST
WHEN the Story People were all assembled, the Story Lady began:
“To-day we have only one story, ‘The Cricket on the Hearth,’ which was first told by one of our greatest story-tellers, Charles Dickens, who wrote ‘The Christmas Carol’ and many other stories that children love to hear.”
The Peerybingles
“Heyday! The cricket’s merrier than ever to-night, I think,” said John, stopping, in his slow way, to listen to its musical chirp, chirp, chirp!
“And it’s sure to bring us good fortune, John! It always has done so. To have a cricket on the hearth is the luckiest thing in the world!”
That is what John Peerybingle’s little wife Dot said one stormy night after John had come in from delivering packages and boxes, and she had given him his tea and had put the baby to sleep. For John Peerybingle was a local expressman; or, as they say in England, a carrier.