1
00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:07,240
A Christmas Pudding by Charles Knight.
Mister Oldnow had been romping with his children

2
00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:11,839
on Christmas Eve. At last they
had gone to bed with flushed faces and

3
00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:18,280
disordered curls, and the drawing room
was deserted. Missus oldnow a careful matron,

4
00:00:18,519 --> 00:00:23,000
looked thoughtful as she saw that the
pride of the sponge cake was utterly

5
00:00:23,039 --> 00:00:28,239
fallen, and that unquestionably another must
be procured for the next day's festival.

6
00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:36,759
Mister Oldnow, on hospitable thoughts,
intent half soliloquising, said, my dear,

7
00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:42,119
we must have a second pudding to
morrow. Indeed, how is it

8
00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:47,479
to be made? Replied the lady. How made? Why? Of course,

9
00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:53,679
with plums and flour and plenty of
brandy. Oh you are a precious

10
00:00:53,799 --> 00:00:58,799
cook, said missus Oldnow you think
a Christmas pudding can be made as easily

11
00:00:58,799 --> 00:01:03,599
as a pancake? Do you why? Our pudding is made already? Come

12
00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:07,000
into the kitchen. The cook is
gone to bed, and I will show

13
00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:14,120
it you. The kitchen mantle was
radiant with the brightness of brass candlesticks that

14
00:01:14,200 --> 00:01:19,599
were never used but were duly cleaned. Pewter water plates also for ornament,

15
00:01:19,799 --> 00:01:25,359
gleamed over the dresser, an ancient
clock, something too big for the corner

16
00:01:25,439 --> 00:01:29,000
in which he stood, stretched up
from the floor to the ceiling, with

17
00:01:29,159 --> 00:01:34,079
the crown of his respectable old head
pressed against its whitewashed surface, and his

18
00:01:34,239 --> 00:01:40,599
vigorous pendulum passing and repassing behind its
own peculiar little window like a sentry always

19
00:01:40,599 --> 00:01:47,239
on guard. A walnut tree bureau
was still smart in another and larger recess,

20
00:01:47,599 --> 00:01:52,760
under the polishing of half a century. Mister old Nose sighed as he

21
00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:57,159
recollected that in his father's time he
had often taken his frugal meals in that

22
00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:04,319
kitchen, and when the family home
had acknowledged him as master for twenty years,

23
00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:08,080
the refinement of our days had banished
him from a room where his father

24
00:02:08,199 --> 00:02:15,000
used to sit in patriarchal dignity.
There was the identical armchair, the fine,

25
00:02:15,039 --> 00:02:20,240
old high backed chair, which,
to his boyish imagination, was a

26
00:02:20,360 --> 00:02:25,840
king's throne. Missus Oldna took out
her family receipt book from the polished bureau

27
00:02:27,319 --> 00:02:34,360
and then read aloud for her husband's
edification. A pound Christmas pudding, one

28
00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:39,800
pound raisins, one pound currants,
one pound suet, one pound bread crumbs,

29
00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:46,439
quarter pound orange peel, two antces
citron peel, two antces lemon peel,

30
00:02:46,039 --> 00:02:53,599
one nutmeg, one teaspoonful powdered ginger, one teaspoonful powdered cinnamon, one

31
00:02:53,719 --> 00:03:00,360
wineglassful brandy, seven eggs, one
teaspoonful salt, quarter pound raw sugar milk

32
00:03:00,479 --> 00:03:05,639
enough to liquefy the mass. If
the eggs and brandy be not sufficient for

33
00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:10,759
this purpose, and why, my
love, can't we have two pound Christmas

34
00:03:10,759 --> 00:03:16,400
puddings or four half pound puddings,
said mister Oldno, I want the porters

35
00:03:16,439 --> 00:03:22,680
to have a pudding, And old
Nurse Franklin and the corderies fruit is cheap,

36
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:28,280
And why not, my dear old
No, they always do have a

37
00:03:28,319 --> 00:03:32,400
pudding, every one of them.
Look here, missus oldnow then lifted a

38
00:03:32,439 --> 00:03:39,000
cloth off a vast earthen pan,
and behold a rich, semi liquefied mass,

39
00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:45,400
speckled throughout with plums and currants,
presented itself to her husband's view.

40
00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:50,800
He was content. He learned that
at the peep of dawn, the copper

41
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,879
fire would be lighted, and the
fruity treasure would be divided into several portions,

42
00:03:55,319 --> 00:03:59,759
the mightiest of which would be for
the home table, and the others

43
00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:04,759
for the porters, and the Franklins
and the corderies. My love, said

44
00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:10,240
the contented mister Oldknow, As I
am in the old kitchen for the first

45
00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:15,479
time these dozen years, I think
our light a cigar, for there is

46
00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:19,160
a fire I see in this new
fashioned cooking range. And rest for a

47
00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:24,560
quarter of an hour after all the
pulking and blind man's buff we have had.

48
00:04:25,639 --> 00:04:30,759
And so missus Oldknow went to bed. Now. Mister Oldknow was a

49
00:04:30,759 --> 00:04:35,279
great reader of travels, ancient and
modern, a kind of social antiquarian.

50
00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:42,519
Also, he read the travelers,
partly for commercial information and general views of

51
00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:48,480
life, and partly with an imaginative
taste for unfamiliar scenes. The moving panoramas,

52
00:04:48,959 --> 00:04:55,480
the Niles and Mississippis and overland roots
had given a new intensity to these

53
00:04:55,560 --> 00:05:00,759
studies. The vast pudding dish was
before him, and he mused and mused

54
00:05:00,839 --> 00:05:06,199
over the mercantile history of the various
substances of which that pudding was composed.

55
00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:15,040
The light wreath of the cigar crept
round the old kitchen, forming fantastic shapes

56
00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:20,480
before it melted in the dim distance. More and more obscure became the well

57
00:05:20,519 --> 00:05:26,759
remembered room, As old nose sent
forth feebler and feebler puffs from the weed,

58
00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:33,639
its dying fragrance mingled with thoughts of
nutmeg and cinnamon, and became severe

59
00:05:33,839 --> 00:05:41,800
odors from the spicy shore of Araby. The blessed The walls of the kitchen

60
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:48,439
then gradually expanded. The bright pewter
plates became mirrors in which landscapes of every

61
00:05:48,639 --> 00:05:56,560
climb were reflected at length. All
the other mirrors were absorbed by one central

62
00:05:56,680 --> 00:06:03,439
mirror of vast proportions, upon whose
vivid pictures the contemplative mister oldno long gazed

63
00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:12,319
with a blissful serenity. And first
the shores of Malaga floated before his vision.

64
00:06:13,199 --> 00:06:18,319
Groves of orange trees clustered around secluded
convents. The sugar cane and the

65
00:06:18,360 --> 00:06:25,800
cotton plant covered the plains. Vineyards
creeping up the bright mountain slopes basked in

66
00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:30,519
the autumnal sun, and their ponderous
fruitage grew browner and browner, as the

67
00:06:30,519 --> 00:06:38,199
white or red skin of the delicious
muscat shriveled in the noontide heat. Ruins

68
00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:44,439
of Moorish towers and mosques were studied
amidst whitewashed houses, and the brilliant columns

69
00:06:44,439 --> 00:06:49,519
of the Alhambra glittered as in mockery
amidst its fallen roofs. By the side

70
00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:55,720
of the tributaries of the guadal Quivere, the Carmenes, the vineyard gardens of

71
00:06:55,759 --> 00:07:01,439
the Arabs formed in chanting walks,
and as are traveler heard the night breeze,

72
00:07:01,759 --> 00:07:08,600
laden with a thousand perfumes, whispering
amidst the orange groves. An articulate

73
00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:14,519
sound gradually dropped upon his ear,
and he saw the genius of the raisin,

74
00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:17,920
with the fresh vine wreaths of a
Greek pecante on the head, and

75
00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:25,199
the cashmere shawl of an Arabian sultana
round the waste sun of a vine less

76
00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:30,720
land, said the form, Behold, how I labor for THEE. I

77
00:07:30,959 --> 00:07:35,000
gather the sunbeams in my hand,
and range over the salt wave of the

78
00:07:35,079 --> 00:07:43,279
Mediterranean to scatter ripeness wherever the vineyards
bow beneath the pulpy clusters which are too

79
00:07:43,439 --> 00:07:49,360
rich for the wine press. Your
ships throng my Andalusian ports of Malagar and

80
00:07:49,439 --> 00:07:57,319
Valencia, ranging onward to the eastern
Chisme, and they bear to your cold

81
00:07:57,399 --> 00:08:03,360
and cloudy land, the richest gifts
of our sunny south. Why come ye

82
00:08:03,519 --> 00:08:09,199
every year more and more with your
linens and your woolens, your glass and

83
00:08:09,279 --> 00:08:15,480
your pottery, to exchange with our
native fruit. Why strip ye the gardens

84
00:08:15,519 --> 00:08:20,120
which the faithful planted, of the
grapes which ought to be reserved for the

85
00:08:20,199 --> 00:08:26,279
unfermented wine which the prophet delighted to
drink. Immortal child of the Arab,

86
00:08:26,639 --> 00:08:33,679
replied the son of the wineless land. Your nation gave us the best element

87
00:08:33,799 --> 00:08:39,759
of commerce when you gave us your
numerals, your learning, and your poetry.

88
00:08:39,879 --> 00:08:45,759
Your science, and your industry no
longer fructify in heaven favored and lucia.

89
00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:50,039
The sun which ripens your grapes and
your oranges makes the people lazy and

90
00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:56,679
the priests rapacious. We come to
your ports with the products of our looms

91
00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:01,120
and our furnaces, and we induce
a taste for comfort that will become the

92
00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:07,120
habit. When our glass and our
porcelain shall find its way into your peasant's

93
00:09:07,159 --> 00:09:11,440
hut, then will your olives be
better tended and your grapes more carefully dried.

94
00:09:13,519 --> 00:09:18,279
Man only worthily labors when he labors
for exchange. With other labor.

95
00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:24,360
Behold that pudding. It is our
England's annual luxury. It is the emblem

96
00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:31,360
of our commercial eminence. The artisan
of Birmingham and Manchester, the seamen of

97
00:09:31,399 --> 00:09:35,559
London and Liverpool, whose festive board
will be made joyous tomorrow with that national

98
00:09:35,639 --> 00:09:41,120
dish, has contributed by his labor
to make the raisins of Malagar and the

99
00:09:41,159 --> 00:09:46,559
currents of Zante, the oranges of
our garve, the cinnamon of Ceylon,

100
00:09:46,679 --> 00:09:52,200
and the nutmegs of the Maloccas of
commercial value. And he has thus called

101
00:09:52,240 --> 00:09:56,759
them into existence as effectually as the
labor of the native cultivator, child of

102
00:09:56,799 --> 00:10:03,440
the Arab civilizer. Be great.
Mister Oldno looked for an approving answer,

103
00:10:03,879 --> 00:10:11,519
But the genius of the raisin had
fled. The hillsides of Andalusia rapidly change

104
00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:16,120
into the great plain of Zante.
No longer is it the woodies a synthus

105
00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:22,000
of Homer, but a land of
olives and vines. There lies the flower

106
00:10:22,039 --> 00:10:28,159
of the Levant before our home traveler, with its gardens of pomegranates and peaches,

107
00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:33,799
and oranges and melons, and its
fields of vines and currants. The

108
00:10:33,919 --> 00:10:41,360
genius of the current arose a diminutive
figure, winged like the Pegasus of Corinth,

109
00:10:41,879 --> 00:10:45,840
and having the rows of England en
twined with the olive leaf amongst his

110
00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:52,960
hair. The Genius smiled upon the
listener. Welcome is your Christmas, said

111
00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:58,879
he to Zanti and Cephalonia. We
have twelve thousand acres of our little grapes

112
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:05,159
under culture for your festivities, and
your ships have this year carried off our

113
00:11:05,279 --> 00:11:11,480
fifty million pounds of currants for your
puddings and your cakes. Welcome, I

114
00:11:11,639 --> 00:11:16,879
ye with your sugar and your coffee, your rice and your cheese. Welcome,

115
00:11:16,879 --> 00:11:22,320
I ye with your gold. Our
corn crops are gone, and without

116
00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:26,559
ye the maria would not yield us
the wheat and the maize which we shall

117
00:11:26,639 --> 00:11:31,879
need till the next harvest. It
is better to grow currants in the soil

118
00:11:31,919 --> 00:11:35,279
which they delight in, and buy
our wheat, than plow up our little

119
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:41,559
vines for a bread producing crop.
We are sure of our bread for our

120
00:11:41,639 --> 00:11:46,879
currants, whilst England demands plum puddings, as England is sure of her puddings,

121
00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,519
whilst she weaves calico and forges steel. So are happy Christmas to you,

122
00:11:52,879 --> 00:11:58,320
and good night the same to you, and bravo my little free trader,

123
00:11:58,639 --> 00:12:05,440
cried mister Oldnow to the genius of
the current. An English scene,

124
00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:11,840
It is harvest time all over the
wide chalkfields of Kent, wherever the eye

125
00:12:11,879 --> 00:12:16,559
can stretch. In land, the
golden corn is bending under the sea breeze,

126
00:12:16,919 --> 00:12:20,840
or the sheaves are patiently waiting for
the coming wagon. On every side,

127
00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:26,639
a visible plenty smiles upon the traveler. The genius of bread arises.

128
00:12:28,639 --> 00:12:33,440
He is a stalwart figure in a
white smock frock. From his straw hat

129
00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,639
to his laced boots, all is
tight and trim about him. He is

130
00:12:37,759 --> 00:12:43,440
slow of speech, but he,
ever and anon mutters the word protection.

131
00:12:46,159 --> 00:12:52,480
Protection, exclaimed mister Oldna, who
taught you that song? Do you want

132
00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:58,759
protection against cheap bread, my friend? Against warm and clean clothing, against

133
00:12:58,759 --> 00:13:03,240
a sound roof with windows, against
a coal fire, Against your tea,

134
00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:07,360
your sugar, your butter, your
cheese, your bacon, and your Christmas

135
00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:15,120
pudding? What are you thinking of
anything? Call up the ghost of your

136
00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:18,919
grandfather, show him your wheat and
bread, and ask him to compare it

137
00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:24,960
with his black loaf of rye.
You have small wages, it is true,

138
00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:30,000
But your wages do not depend upon
the cheapness of your produce. Your

139
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,440
real wages are as great as you
ever got in the protection days, and

140
00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:39,559
they go twice as far. You
stand up now as a man, instead

141
00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:43,840
of breaking stones upon the road at
the bidding of the parish, leave the

142
00:13:43,879 --> 00:13:48,080
beer shop, cultivate your garden,
have a pig in the stye, send

143
00:13:48,159 --> 00:13:52,559
your children to school, and believe
me, you will be better off than

144
00:13:52,639 --> 00:13:58,679
any other laborer of Europe. Mister
Oldno was excited, but he was fairly

145
00:13:58,679 --> 00:14:03,720
angry when the genius of Suet presented
himself in the guise of a smithfield drover

146
00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:09,679
with an over driven ox falling upon
his knees in a crowded street, as

147
00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:15,759
if imploring for rest. Mister old
No groaned and was wicked enough to wish

148
00:14:15,799 --> 00:14:22,840
that the drover's dog was scattering the
court of Aldermen. The Banda Islands now

149
00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:28,720
filled the scene. Grouped in the
Indian Archipelago, they reared their volcanic peaks

150
00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:33,720
abruptly from the ocean, their mountain
sides clothed with timber trees and the sago

151
00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:39,840
palms, yielding sustenance to the people
of the plains. In the covert of

152
00:14:39,879 --> 00:14:45,639
the forest, trees sat the brilliant
birds of paradise occasional visitants. But the

153
00:14:45,679 --> 00:14:50,639
great feature of the landscape was contributed
by the nutmeg trees. It is the

154
00:14:50,679 --> 00:14:58,399
gathering time the Bandonese mingled with their
Dutch masters, applucking the peachlike fruit from

155
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:03,519
their shelter of green and gray leaves. The ripe fruit has split in half

156
00:15:03,559 --> 00:15:07,639
as it hangs on the tree,
and there is the kernel surrounded by the

157
00:15:07,679 --> 00:15:13,480
mace. But the precious nutmeg has
a second protection, its shell. The

158
00:15:13,519 --> 00:15:18,320
mace is removed, the kernel is
dried in the sun. The shell splits,

159
00:15:18,799 --> 00:15:24,279
and there is the nutmeg of commerce. The genius of the nutmeg appeared.

160
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:31,159
He was a fantastic figure, half
man, half bird, a Dutchman's

161
00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:37,080
head on a woodpigeon's body. Englishman
said he, you have wrestled with me

162
00:15:37,159 --> 00:15:43,039
for the spice islands, but they
are mine. You have taken from me

163
00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:48,480
the cinnamon groves of Ceylon, they
are yours. In the sea traditions of

164
00:15:48,519 --> 00:15:54,679
your country. You have the flying
Dutchman. I am he. We of

165
00:15:54,759 --> 00:16:02,440
the Zayderzey built up our commerce upon
restrictions and anapolis. When we drove the

166
00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:07,320
Portuguese from the archipelago. We rooted
up all the clove trees but those of

167
00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:12,320
Amboyna, and all the nutmeg trees
but those of Banda. We limited the

168
00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:18,120
world to a fixed quantity of cloves
and nutmegs, as we limited also the

169
00:16:18,159 --> 00:16:23,960
commerce of cinnamon. Rather than fill
the market and lower the price, we

170
00:16:25,159 --> 00:16:29,960
have thrown our nutmegs into the deep
and made a bonfire of our cinnamon in

171
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:34,279
the streets of Amsterdam. When in
the Indian seas, in the dim twilight

172
00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:38,919
or under the hazy moon, a
figure has been seen flying along the still

173
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:47,320
waters in which the keel left no
furrow. I was that navigator. I

174
00:16:47,559 --> 00:16:52,320
was pursuing the woodpigeon who defied all
the rigors of my unsocial laws and carried

175
00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:59,519
the nutmeg seed to lands which owed
Holland no tribute. I have given up

176
00:16:59,679 --> 00:17:06,680
the contest against nature. My spice
monopoly was ruin us to myself and injury

177
00:17:06,799 --> 00:17:12,720
us to my colonists in Ceylon.
I saw your English diffusing comfort and equal

178
00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:21,640
laws, opening roads, encouraging industry, destroying forced labor, and selling cinnamon

179
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:26,279
to all the world. I have
made an alliance with the woodpigeon. I

180
00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:32,400
have planted the nutmeg in Java,
and there will I contest with you the

181
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:37,279
commerce of cinnamon. I have learnt
that a small demand at high prices for

182
00:17:37,359 --> 00:17:44,680
any useful commodity is neither so safe
nor so profitable as a large demand at

183
00:17:44,759 --> 00:17:51,039
moderate prices. I have learnt further
that the end of commerce is not to

184
00:17:51,119 --> 00:17:57,599
make individuals rich and support public expenditure
by heavy duties, but to diffuse all

185
00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:04,440
the productions of nature and art amongst
all the inhabitants of the globe. You

186
00:18:04,599 --> 00:18:11,319
have taught me a lesson. The
old trade of the United Provinces has died

187
00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:18,079
under monopolies and restrictions. We may
once more be your honest rivals under a

188
00:18:18,119 --> 00:18:23,480
wiser code. You want two hundred
thousand pounds weight of nutmegs, yelly,

189
00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:32,920
we will deal like merchant princes and
good men and true ergreed, said mister

190
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:38,799
Oldner. A West Indian sugar plantation
is now mirrored, with its canes ripening

191
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:44,640
under a tropical sun, and its
mills with their machinery of cylinders and boilers.

192
00:18:45,559 --> 00:18:49,359
The genius of sugar is a freed
negro. It was said that in

193
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:56,200
freedom he would not work. He
has vindicated his privileges in his industry and

194
00:18:56,279 --> 00:19:03,160
his obedience. The grand experiment has
succeeded in all moral effects. But the

195
00:19:03,279 --> 00:19:08,279
nation that demanded cheap corn would not
be content with deer sugar. We must

196
00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:15,160
buy our sugar wherever the cane ripens. We use seven hundred millions of pounds

197
00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:21,480
of sugar annually, which yield a
duty of four millions sterling. Mister oldno

198
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:26,000
thought this, but was silent when
he saw the negroes sitting under his own

199
00:19:26,039 --> 00:19:33,279
figtory. For the political questions which
his freedom involved were somewhat complicated. He

200
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:37,079
would trust to the ultimate power of
a noble example, and in the meantime

201
00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:41,720
rejoice that the great body of the
British people could buy their sugar at half

202
00:19:41,839 --> 00:19:48,440
the price that their fathers paid.
Mister oldknow being somewhat at fault upon the

203
00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:55,759
sugar question, grew confused as new
forms flitted before him. The solitary egg

204
00:19:55,880 --> 00:20:00,519
collector of Cork was there, in
her blue cloak and her kit on her

205
00:20:00,559 --> 00:20:04,400
back. Her step was brisker than
in the famine years, and her light

206
00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:10,920
gray eye was once more laughing under
her long black eyelashes. She had walked

207
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:15,119
from cottage to cottage some twenty miles
and her kish was to form part of

208
00:20:15,160 --> 00:20:22,559
the many hundred egg crates that England
required for her Christmas puddings. May the

209
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:27,720
daughters and sons of erin soliloquized mister
Oldner, never again suffer as they have

210
00:20:27,839 --> 00:20:33,920
suffered. May plenty smile upon their
fields and comfort in their cottages. May

211
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:41,119
they have just masters and wise rulers. May they rely upon industry and not

212
00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:48,759
upon agitation. May they the blue
cloak was gone. A figure started up,

213
00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:53,480
half gnome, half ne reared.
Mister Oldno was thinking of his evening

214
00:20:53,559 --> 00:21:00,839
gambols of yes and no, So
with half consciousness he asked animal kingdom,

215
00:21:02,519 --> 00:21:15,119
no vegetable, no mineral Yes in
England. Yes. Here continued the figure,

216
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:22,119
I am free. I fly through
the land, scattering blessings as widely

217
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:26,519
as the dews of heaven. I
bring my treasures out of the bowels of

218
00:21:26,559 --> 00:21:30,319
the earth and from the depths of
the sea. I make the fields fruitful.

219
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:37,400
I forbid your food to perish without
me. The sustenance of man and

220
00:21:37,519 --> 00:21:42,640
beast is imperfect. The herds of
unfathomable forests wander to the plains in search

221
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:48,720
of me. The child that loves
me not loses the bloom of its cheek

222
00:21:48,839 --> 00:21:55,119
and the odor of its breath.
I am the universal friend. And yet

223
00:21:55,480 --> 00:22:00,880
kings have impiously dared to deny me
to their subjects. And though they should

224
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:07,759
perish, their crimes have been punished. Even now. The Hindu, whom

225
00:22:07,799 --> 00:22:11,599
you have benefited in so many things, is deprived of me by your fiscal

226
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:18,960
injustice. Learn to be wiser.
You have freed me from the burdens of

227
00:22:18,039 --> 00:22:26,279
your home taxation, and your industrial
wealth is quadrupled. I am salt,

228
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:33,119
guessed mister Oldknow. To salt succeeded
a singular figure as the Milky Genius.

229
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:40,160
It seemed one half dairy woman,
with her pale and stool, decently clad

230
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:45,359
in woolen petticoat and black stockings.
But above was a Naiad of the Thames,

231
00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:49,960
with dripping locks held loosely together with
a wreath of rushes. Mister Oldknow

232
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:56,599
was about to harangue when a brisk
power loom weaver stepped forth with pudding cloth

233
00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:00,720
in hand. The water boils,
said he. The ingredients are mixed,

234
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:07,920
be it mine to bind them together? Right, cried mister Oldner again.

235
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:12,039
Our country's emblem, the bundle of
sticks and the pudding cloth, have each

236
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:18,359
the same moral. Our ancestors,
in their civil dudgeon made plum porridge,

237
00:23:18,799 --> 00:23:25,920
we, in our united interests,
well bound together, produce Christmas pudding.

238
00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:33,480
There was a silence and a pause. Mister Oldknow peered out. The mirror

239
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:41,359
had lost its brilliancy. But suddenly
the great pudding bowl expanded into a mighty

240
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:47,640
flat dish. The puddings swelled into
an enormous globe, black with plums and

241
00:23:47,839 --> 00:23:52,839
odorous with streaming sauce. A holly
tree with its prickly leaves at bottom,

242
00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:59,079
its smooth leaves on high, and
its bright red berries grew up under a

243
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:04,119
crystal dough. On the edge of
the dish were grouped the Andalucian with the

244
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:11,079
cashmere shawl, the Ionian islander with
the wings of Corinth, the Kentish plowman

245
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:15,279
in the smock frock, the flying
Dutchman, the Negro without the chains,

246
00:24:15,799 --> 00:24:22,400
the Irish market woman, the Gnome
Nereered, the London Naiad, and the

247
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:26,920
weaver with the cloth. And they
all took hands, and thrice danced round

248
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:32,559
the edge of the dish, and
lo out of the holly tree dropped a

249
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:37,480
mustached denizen of the Palais royal.
He had a flask of brandy in one

250
00:24:37,519 --> 00:24:41,480
hand and a huge silver bowl in
the other, Oh, nation of anti

251
00:24:41,559 --> 00:24:48,680
chemical cooks, He cried, you
put the cognac into the pudding, and

252
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:55,880
nine hours boiling drives off all the
spirit into unprofitable gas. Look at me,

253
00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:02,440
it is the genius of our nation
to flare up with that. He

254
00:25:02,519 --> 00:25:06,960
emptied the flask into the bowl and
set it on fire, and poured it

255
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:11,119
over the pudding. And the makers
of the pudding again danced round it in

256
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:15,200
the blue flame. And the pudding
was nothing hurt by the flare up,

257
00:25:15,319 --> 00:25:22,519
but remained as sound and unscathed as
the land itself after a month's polemical fire.

258
00:25:22,799 --> 00:25:27,880
And then mister Oldknow volunteered a song, of which four lines remained in

259
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:32,319
his memory, for he had learnt
it as a child. When England was

260
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:38,240
threatened with invasion. Britain to peaceful
arts inclined, where commerce opens all her

261
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:48,240
stores in social bands shall lead mankind
and join the sea divided shores. Mister

262
00:25:48,319 --> 00:25:53,039
Oldno opened his eyes. The kitchen
was in darkness, and his cigar smoked

263
00:25:53,039 --> 00:25:59,440
out. Bless my heart, said
he. The weights are playing the wooden

264
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:07,319
walls, and the clock strikes two
end of a Christmas Pudding by Charles Knight