CHRISTMAS STORIES FROM "HOUSEHOLD WORDS" AND "ALL THE YEAR ROUND"

TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS BY E. G. DALZIEL

"I'm only a common soldier, sir," said he. "It signifies very little what such a poor brute comes to"—Seven Poor Travellers, chap. ii.

And when the visitor (oppressed with pie) had fallen asleep, this wicked landlord would look softly in with a lamp in one hand and a knife in the other, would cut his throat, &c.—Holly Tree Inn, First Branch.

"My dear Captain Kavender," says he. "Of all the men on earth, I wanted to see you most. I was on my way to you"—The Wreck of the Golden Mary—The Wreck

"O Christian George King sar berry sorry!" says the Sambo vagabond—The Perils of Certain English Prisoners, chap. i.

A grizzled personage in velveteen, with a face so cut up by varieties of weather that he looked as if he had been tattooed, was found smoking a pipe at the door of a wooden house on wheels—Going into Society

An imperturbable and speechless man, he had sat at his supper, with Streaker present in a swoon—The Haunted House, The Mortals in the House

"Might you be married now?" asked the Captain when he had some task with this new acquaintance. . . . "Not yet." . . . "Going to be?" said the Captain. . . . "I hope so"—A Message from the Sea, chap. i.

"What is your name, sir, and where do you come from!" asked Mr. Mopes the hermit—Tom Tiddler's Ground, chap. i.

"But it is not impossible that you are a pig!" retorted Madame Bouclet—Somebody's Luggage, chap. ii.

"I am glad to see you employed," said Mr. Traveller. . . . "I am glad to be employed," returned the tinker-Tom Tiddler's Ground, chap. vii.

Willing Sophy down upon her knees scrubbing early and late and ever cheerful but always smiling with a black face—Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings, chap. i.

"Come, sir! Remove me to my vile dungeon. Where is my mouldy straw!"—Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy, chap. i.

And at last sitting dozing against a muddy cart wheel, I come upon the poor girl who was deaf and dumb—Dr. Marigold

While I was speaking to him, I saw it open, and a man look in, who very earnestly and mysteriously beckoned to me—Two Ghost Stories, I.

"I took you for some one else yesterday evening. That troubles me"—Two Ghost Stories, II.

"What would you do with twopence, if I gave it you!" . . . "'Pend it"—Mugby Junction, chap. ii.

Cotched the decanter out of his hand, and said "Put it down, I won't allow that!"—Mugby Junction, chap. iii.

"It's from the best corner of our best forty-five-year-old bin," said Mr. Wilding. . . . "Thank you, sir," said Mr. Bintry. "It's most excellent"—No Thoroughfare, Act i.

"We are famous for the growth in this vault, aren't we!"—No Thoroughfare, Act i.

"If there had been a wrestle with a robber, as I dreamed," said Obenreizer, "you see I was stripped for it." . . . "And armed too," said Vendale, glancing at his girdle—No Thoroughfare, Act iii.

He became roused to the knowledge that Obenreizer had set upon him, and that they were struggling desperately in the snow—No Thoroughfare, Act iii.

At the side door of the church are the same two men from the Hospice—No Thoroughfare, Act iv.