The Cricket on the Hearth

Classic from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, , course: -, language: English, abstract: The 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

kettle 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 away 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!

Why, I am not naturally positive. Every one knows that. I wouldn¿t

set my own opinion against the opinion of Mrs. Peerybingle, unless

I were quite sure, on any account whatever. Nothing should induce

me. But, this is a question of act. And the fact is, that the kettle

began it, at least five minutes before the Cricket gave any sign of

being in existence. Contradict me, and I¿ll say ten.

Let me narrate exactly how it happened. I should have proceeded to

do so in my very first word, but for this plain consideration¿if I

am to tell a story I must begin at the beginning; and how is it

possible to begin at the beginning, without beginning at the kettle?

It appeared as if there were a sort of match, or trial of skill, you

must understand, between the kettle and the Cricket. And this is

what led to it, and how it came about. [...]