You may be familiar with Charles Dickens Christmas Carol. It has been called a perfect Christmas Story. Some families read it aloud at Christmas time, and there is always a movie passing on TV during Christmas week. Perhaps you know, then, that Bob Cratchit and his family were quite poor, but that they also made much of keeping Christmas.
As you read the following passage from the story, you will get the spirit of bustle and excitement that stirred the household while Christmas dinner was being prepared. Charles Dickens knew how to choose words to make you catch the spirit.
" Such a bustle ensued that you might have
thought a goose the rarest of all birds,
Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy; Master Peter
mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor;
Miss Belinda sweetened the apple sauce;
Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took
Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the
table; the two younger Cratchit set chairs
for everybody, not forgetting themselves,
and mounting guard on their posts, crammed
spoons into their mouths, lest they should
shriek for goose before their turn came to be
helped.
At last the dishes were set on, and grace
was said. It was succeeded by a breathless
pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all
along with the carving knife, prepared to plunge it
in the breasts; but when she did, and when
the long-expected gush of stuffing issued
forth, one murmur of delight arose all around
the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by
the two young Cratchits, beat on the table
with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried " Hurrah!".
Adapted :) Lucy Campbell DÃaz
Merry Christmas!