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Master Humphrey's Clock, New Christmas Stories, General Index of Characters and Their Appearances, Familiar Sayings from Dickens's Works
Master Humphrey's Clock New Christmas Stories General Index of Characters and Their Appearances Familiar Sayings from Dickens's Works Author:Charles Dickens General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1870 Original Publisher: Hurd and Houghton Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missin... more »g text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: ADDITIONAL CHRISTMAS STORIES. SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS. THE FIRST POOR TRAVELLER. Strictly speaking, there were only six Poor Travellers ; but, being a Traveller myself, though an idle one, and being withal as poor as I hope to be, I brought the number up to seven. This word of explanation is due at once; for what says the iuscription over the quaint old door ? RICHARD WATTS, ESQ., RT HIS WILL, DATED 22 AUG., 1579, FOUNDED THIS CHARITY FOR SIX POOR TRAVELLERS, WHO, MOT REING ROGUES OR PROCTORS, MAT RECEIVE GRATIS, FOR ONE NIGHT, LODGING, ENTERTAINMENT, AND FOUR-PENCE EACH. It was in the ancient little city of Rochester, in Kent, of all the good days in the year, upon a Christmas Eve, that I stood reading this inscription over the quaint old door in question. I had been wandering about the neighboring Cathedral, and had seen the tomb of Richard Watts, with the effigy of worthy Master Richard starting out of it like a ship's figure-head ; and I had felt that I could do no less, as I gave the Verger his fee, than inquire the way to Watts's Charity. The way being very short and very plain, I had come prosperously to the inscription and the quaint old door. " Now," said I to myself, as I looked at the knocker, " I know I am not a Proctor; I wonder whether I am a Rogue!" Upon the whole, though Conscience reproduced two or three pretty faces which might have had smaller attraction for a moral Goliath than they had had for me, who nm but a Tom Th...« less