CHRISTMAS EVE AT MR WARDLE'S.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 10, 28 December 1906, Page 2

CHRISTMAS EVE AT MR WARDLE'S.

[From " Pickwick Papers."] As Mr Weller concluded, they all repaired to the large kitchen, in which the family were, by this time, assembled, according to annual custom on Christmas eve, observed by old Wardle's forefathers from time immemorial.

From the centre of the ceiling of the kitchen, old Wardlc had just suspended, with his own hands, a huge branch of mistletoe, and this same branch of mi Ml? to-: instantly gave rise to a scene of general and most delightful struggling and confusion ; in the midst of which, Mr Pickwick, with a gallantry that would have done honour to a descendant of Lady Tollimglower herself, took the lady by the hand, led her beneath the mystic branch, and saluted her in all courtesy and decorum. The old lady submitted to this piece of practical politeness with all the dignity which befitted so important and serious a solemnity, but the young ladies, not being so thoroughly imbued with a superstitious veneration for the custom : or imagining that the value of a salute is much enhanced if it cost a little trouble to obtain it: screamed and struggled, and ran into corners, and threatened and remonstrated, and did everything but leave the room, until some of the less adventurous gentlemen were on the point of desisting, when they all at once found it useless to resist any longer, and submitted to be kissed with a good grace. Mr Winkle kissed the young lady with the black eyes, and Mr Snodgrass kissed Emily, and Weller, not being particular about the form of being under the mistletoe, kissed Emma and the other female servants, just as he caught them. As to the poor relations, they kissed everybody, not even excepting the plainer portions of the young-lady visitors, who, in thier excessive confusion, ran right under the mistletoe, as soon as it was hung up, without knowing it ! Wardlc stood with his back to the tire, surveying the whole scene, with the utmost satisfaction ; and the tat boy took the opportunity of appropriating, to his own use, and summarily devouring, a particularly fine mince pie, that had been caret'ully put by, for somebody else. Now, thciscreaming had subsided, and faces were in a glow, and curls in a tangle, and Mr Pickwick, after kissing the old lady as before mentioned, was islanding under the mistletoe, looking with a very pleased countenance on all that was passing around him, when the young lady with the black eyes, after a little whispering with the other young ladies, made a sudden dart forward, and. putting her arm round Mr Pickwick's neck, saluted him affectionately on the left cheek; and before Mr Pickwick distinctly knew what was the matter, he was surrounded by the whole body, and kissed by every one of them. It was a pleasant thing to see Mr Pickwick in the centre of the group, now pulled this way, and then that, and first kissed on the chin, and then on the nose, and then on the spectacles : and to hear the peals of laughter which were raised on every side ; but it was a still more pleasant tiling to see Mr Pickwick, blinded shortly afterwards with a silk handkerchief, falling up against the wall, and scrambling into corners, and going through all the mysteries of blindman's buff, with the utmost relish for the game, until at last he caught one of the poor relations, and then had evade the blind-man himself, he did with a nimblencss and agility that elicited the admiration and applause of all beholders. The poor relations caught the people who they thought would like it, and, when the game flagged, got caught themselves. When they were all tired of blindman's buff, there was a great game of snaii-dragon, and when lingers enough were burned with that, and all the raisins were gone, they sat down by the huge lire of blazing logs to a sub-

stantial supper, and a mighty bowl of wassail, something smaller than sn ordinary wash-house copper, in which the hot apples were hissing nnd bubblingwith a rich look, end a jolly - sound, that were perfectly I rresistib Je. " This," said Mr Pickwick, looking round him, " this is, indeed, comfcrl." "Our invariable custom,'' replied Mr Wardle. " everybody sits down with us cr r "kristmas Eve, as you see * them now —servants and all; and here we wait, until the clock strikes twelve, to usher Christmas in, beguile the time with forfeits and old stories. Trundle, my boy, rake up the fire." Up flew the bright sparks in myriads as the logs were stirred. The deep red blaze sent forth a rich glow, that penetrated into the furthest corner of the room, and cast its cheerful tint on every face. " Come," said Wardle, " a song —a Christmas song ! I'll give you one, in default of a better." " Bravo !" said Mr Pickwick. " Fill up," cried Wardle. "It will be two hours, good, before you see the bottom of the bowl through the deep rich colour of the wassail; fill up all round, and now for the song." Thus saying, the merry old gentleman, in a good, round, sturdy voice, commenced without more ado. The song was tumultuously applauded —for friends and dependents make a capital audience — and the poor relations, especially, were in perfect ecstasies of rapture. Again was the fire replenished, and again went .the wassail round. " How it snows ?" said one of the men, in a low tone. " Snows, does it ?" said Wardle. " Rough, cold night, sir," replied the man ; " and there's a wind got up, that drifts it across the fields, in a thick white cloud." "What does Jem say?" inquired the old lady. " There ain't anything the matter, is there ?" " No, no, mother," replied Wardle ; "he says there's a snow-drift, and a wind that's piercing cold. I should know that, by the way it rumbles in the chimney." "Ah!" said the old lady, "there was just such a wind, and just such a fall of snow, a good many years back, I recollect just five years before your poor father died. It was a Christmas Eve, too ; and I remember that on that very night he told us the story about the goblins that carried away old Gabriel Grub." " The story about what ?" said Mr Pickwick. "Oh, nothing, nothing," replied Wardle. " About an old sexton, that * the good people down here suppose to have been carried away by goblins." "Suppose!" ejaculated the old lady. "Is there any body hardy enough to disbelieve it ? Suppose ! Haven't you heard since you were. a child, that he was carried away by goblins, and don't you know he was?'" " Very well, mother, he was, if you like," said Wardle laughing. "He was carried away by goblins, Pickwick; and there's an end of the matter."