The Cricket on the Hearth _{A Fairy Tale of Home}

“ThThe kettle began it! Don’t tell me what Mrs. Peerybingle said. I know better. Mrs. Peerybingle
may leave it on record to the end of time that she couldn’t say which of them began it; but, I say the Thkettle did. I ought to know, I hope! The kettle began it, full five minutes by the little waxy-faced Dutch clock in the corner, before the Cricket uttered a chirp. As if the clock hadn’t finished striking, and the convulsive little Haymaker at the top of it, jerking ftaway right and left with a scythe in front of a Moorish Palace, hadn’t mowed down half an acre of imaginary grass before the Cricket joined in at all!”