“As good as gold, and better,” replied his father. Just then his little crutch was heard on the floor, and back came Tiny Tim to sit before the fire, and wait while his brothers and sisters brought in the dinner. Such a bustle ensued, and such a dinner! Bob took Tiny Tim by him at the table; then the plates were put on and grace said. There was a breathless pause as Mrs. Cratchit plunged the carving knife into the breast of the goose. Never was there such a goose, and the potatoes and apple sauce made your mouth water.
When the plates were cleared off the pudding was brought in, steaming hot, looking like a speckled cannon ball, with Christmas holly. Oh, such a wonderful pudding!
Bob Cratchit said it was the greatest success ever achieved by his wife. The dinner finished and all cleared off, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a shovel of chestnuts placed on the fire, sputtering and cracking noisily.
Then Bob Cratchit proposed: “A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears, God bless us!” which all the family re-echoed. “God bless us every one!” said Tiny Tim the last of all.
TINY TIM
Part Two
In which a miser has a change of heart and has a happy Christmas after all.
While the Cratchits were having their merry Christmas dinner, old Mr. Scrooge had gone home and gone to bed. “All this is foolishness,” he said, “and a waste of time and money. I wish there was no such thing as Christmas,” and with that he went to sleep.
Mr. Scrooge had some disagreeable dreams on Christmas Eve. In one of them he dreamed that a Christmas spirit showed him his clerk’s home. He saw them all gathered around the fire, and heard them drink his health, and Tiny Tim sing a song. Not a word of abuse for Mr. Scrooge who had been so hard on Bob Cratchit.