TINY TIM
Part One
In which a loving family has a happy Christmas upon small means.
It will surprise you very much to hear that there was once a man who did not like Christmas. His name was Scrooge. Mr. Scrooge had no wife and children and Christmas meant nothing to him. He hated the noise, and the merriment, and thought the time was wasted. He was a very unhappy man because he had nobody to love and loved nobody.
Well, it was Christmas Eve, a very cold and foggy one, and Mr. Scrooge, having given his poor clerk permission to spend Christmas Day at home, locked up his office and went home himself in a very bad temper. He got into bed and had some wonderful and disagreeable dreams, to which we will leave him while we see how Tiny Tim, the son of the poor clerk, spent Christmas Day.
The name of the clerk was Bob Cratchit. He had a wife and six children. Tiny Tim, the youngest, was a weak and delicate little cripple, and for this reason was dearly loved by his family. Whenever he could spare the time Bob Cratchit delighted to take his little boy on his shoulder to see the shops and the people, and to-day he had taken him to church for the first time.
“Whatever has made your precious father and your brother, Tiny Tim, so late for dinner!” exclaimed Mrs. Cratchit. “The dinner is ready to be dished up.”
“Here they are now!” cried Belinda. In came Bob Cratchit with Tiny Tim on his shoulders. Then out ran two of the boys and hustled Tiny Tim out to the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing on the copper.
“And how did Tiny Tim behave?” asked Mrs. Cratchit.