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One dinner a week, and travels in the east
One dinner a week and travels in the east Author:Charles Dickens Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: On the morning of my visit the hall was three times filled, and the order of procedure was the same in every case. First entered the guests, marching in qui... more »ck time to music of their own making, a chattering chorus in the minor, with brisk pedal accompaniment . Attendants quickly followed, bearing two enormous tin tureens of Irish stew, one to each end of the room. Then a whistle sounded shrilly, and silence was proclaimed, and to the tune of the Old Hundredth the children rose and sang a short and simple grace, whereof the final line bore reference to "feasting in Paradise," which must seem a heavenly pleasure to a hungry little child. Young singers, as a rule, are apt to drag the time, but I am bound to say the fault was here by no means to be found. Indeed, a critic might have fancied that the grace towards its close was just a trifle hurried, and certainly the " Amen " was sung with an alacrity which showed no sign of dragging. Very possibly, however, this was due, not quite so much to the musical instruction which the singers had received, as to the toothsome and delightful savour of the stew. This with a delicious fragrance floated in the air, and set the mouth watering with pleasant expectation, so that it was small wonder that the time was never dragged. Then there arose a hungry clamour, which was speedily subdued, for when once the little tongues had tasted of the stew, they ceased with one consent to waste their energy in prattling. And although I saw no sign of unfair striving ofthe stronger to get helped before the weakly, there was certainly a great outstretching of the arms and uprising of the hands, which, but for the fact of their holding plates and basins, might have called to mind the Crowd Scene in the German Julius Caesar. Hands and arms, however, ha...« less