Speaker 1: A Christmas Pudding by Charles Knight. Mister Oldnow had been
Speaker 1: romping with his children on Christmas Eve. At last they
Speaker 1: had gone to bed with flushed faces and disordered curls,
Speaker 1: and the drawing room was deserted. Missus oldnow a careful matron,
Speaker 1: looked thoughtful as she saw that the pride of the
Speaker 1: sponge cake was utterly fallen, and that unquestionably another must
Speaker 1: be procured for the next day's festival. Mister Oldnow, on
Speaker 1: hospitable thoughts, intent half soliloquising, said, my dear, we must
Speaker 1: have a second pudding to morrow. Indeed, how is it
Speaker 1: to be made? Replied the lady. How made? Why? Of course,
Speaker 1: with plums and flour and plenty of brandy. Oh you
Speaker 1: are a precious cook, said missus Oldnow you think a
Speaker 1: Christmas pudding can be made as easily as a pancake?
Speaker 1: Do you why? Our pudding is made already? Come into
Speaker 1: the kitchen. The cook is gone to bed, and I
Speaker 1: will show it you. The kitchen mantle was radiant with
Speaker 1: the brightness of brass candlesticks that were never used but
Speaker 1: were duly cleaned. Pewter water plates also for ornament, gleamed
Speaker 1: over the dresser, an ancient clock, something too big for
Speaker 1: the corner in which he stood, stretched up from the
Speaker 1: floor to the ceiling, with the crown of his respectable
Speaker 1: old head pressed against its whitewashed surface, and his vigorous
Speaker 1: pendulum passing and repassing behind its own peculiar little window
Speaker 1: like a sentry always on guard. A walnut tree bureau
Speaker 1: was still smart in another and larger recess, under the
Speaker 1: polishing of half a century. Mister old Nose sighed as
Speaker 1: he recollected that in his father's time he had often
Speaker 1: taken his frugal meals in that kitchen, and when the
Speaker 1: family home had acknowledged him as master for twenty years,
Speaker 1: the refinement of our days had banished him from a
Speaker 1: room where his father used to sit in patriarchal dignity.
Speaker 1: There was the identical armchair, the fine, old high backed chair, which,
Speaker 1: to his boyish imagination, was a king's throne. Missus Oldna
Speaker 1: took out her family receipt book from the polished bureau
Speaker 1: and then read aloud for her husband's edification. A pound
Speaker 1: Christmas pudding, one pound raisins, one pound currants, one pound suet,
Speaker 1: one pound bread crumbs, quarter pound orange peel, two antces
Speaker 1: citron peel, two antces lemon peel, one nutmeg, one teaspoonful
Speaker 1: powdered ginger, one teaspoonful powdered cinnamon, one wineglassful brandy, seven eggs,
Speaker 1: one teaspoonful salt, quarter pound raw sugar milk enough to
Speaker 1: liquefy the mass. If the eggs and brandy be not
Speaker 1: sufficient for this purpose, and why, my love, can't we
Speaker 1: have two pound Christmas puddings or four half pound puddings,
Speaker 1: said mister Oldno, I want the porters to have a pudding,
Speaker 1: And old Nurse Franklin and the corderies fruit is cheap,
Speaker 1: And why not, my dear old No, they always do
Speaker 1: have a pudding, every one of them. Look here, missus
Speaker 1: oldnow then lifted a cloth off a vast earthen pan,
Speaker 1: and behold a rich, semi liquefied mass, speckled throughout with
Speaker 1: plums and currants, presented itself to her husband's view. He
Speaker 1: was content. He learned that at the peep of dawn,
Speaker 1: the copper fire would be lighted, and the fruity treasure
Speaker 1: would be divided into several portions, the mightiest of which
Speaker 1: would be for the home table, and the others for
Speaker 1: the porters, and the Franklins and the corderies. My love,
Speaker 1: said the contented mister Oldknow, As I am in the
Speaker 1: old kitchen for the first time these dozen years, I
Speaker 1: think our light a cigar, for there is a fire
Speaker 1: I see in this new fashioned cooking range. And rest
Speaker 1: for a quarter of an hour after all the pulking
Speaker 1: and blind man's buff we have had. And so missus
Speaker 1: Oldknow went to bed. Now. Mister Oldknow was a great
Speaker 1: reader of travels, ancient and modern, a kind of social antiquarian. Also,
Speaker 1: he read the travelers, partly for commercial information and general
Speaker 1: views of life, and partly with an imaginative taste for
Speaker 1: unfamiliar scenes. The moving panoramas, the Niles and Mississippis and
Speaker 1: overland roots had given a new intensity to these studies.
Speaker 1: The vast pudding dish was before him, and he mused
Speaker 1: and mused over the mercantile history of the various substances
Speaker 1: of which that pudding was composed. The light wreath of
Speaker 1: the cigar crept round the old kitchen, forming fantastic shapes
Speaker 1: before it melted in the dim distance. More and more
Speaker 1: obscure became the well remembered room, As old nose sent
Speaker 1: forth feebler and feebler puffs from the weed, its dying
Speaker 1: fragrance mingled with thoughts of nutmeg and cinnamon, and became
Speaker 1: severe odors from the spicy shore of Araby. The blessed
Speaker 1: The walls of the kitchen then gradually expanded. The bright
Speaker 1: pewter plates became mirrors in which landscapes of every climb
Speaker 1: were reflected at length. All the other mirrors were absorbed
Speaker 1: by one central mirror of vast proportions, upon whose vivid
Speaker 1: pictures the contemplative mister oldno long gazed with a blissful serenity.
Speaker 1: And first the shores of Malaga floated before his vision.
Speaker 1: Groves of orange trees clustered around secluded convents. The sugar
Speaker 1: cane and the cotton plant covered the plains. Vineyards creeping
Speaker 1: up the bright mountain slopes basked in the autumnal sun,
Speaker 1: and their ponderous fruitage grew browner and browner, as the
Speaker 1: white or red skin of the delicious muscat shriveled in
Speaker 1: the noontide heat. Ruins of Moorish towers and mosques were
Speaker 1: studied amidst whitewashed houses, and the brilliant columns of the
Speaker 1: Alhambra glittered as in mockery amidst its fallen roofs. By
Speaker 1: the side of the tributaries of the guadal Quivere, the Carmenes,
Speaker 1: the vineyard gardens of the Arabs formed in chanting walks,
Speaker 1: and as are traveler heard the night breeze, laden with
Speaker 1: a thousand perfumes, whispering amidst the orange groves. An articulate
Speaker 1: sound gradually dropped upon his ear, and he saw the
Speaker 1: genius of the raisin, with the fresh vine wreaths of
Speaker 1: a Greek pecante on the head, and the cashmere shawl
Speaker 1: of an Arabian sultana round the waste sun of a
Speaker 1: vine less land, said the form, Behold, how I labor
Speaker 1: for THEE. I gather the sunbeams in my hand, and
Speaker 1: range over the salt wave of the Mediterranean to scatter
Speaker 1: ripeness wherever the vineyards bow beneath the pulpy clusters which
Speaker 1: are too rich for the wine press. Your ships throng
Speaker 1: my Andalusian ports of Malagar and Valencia, ranging onward to
Speaker 1: the eastern Chisme, and they bear to your cold and
Speaker 1: cloudy land, the richest gifts of our sunny south. Why
Speaker 1: come ye every year more and more with your linens
Speaker 1: and your woolens, your glass and your pottery, to exchange
Speaker 1: with our native fruit. Why strip ye the gardens which
Speaker 1: the faithful planted, of the grapes which ought to be
Speaker 1: reserved for the unfermented wine which the prophet delighted to drink.
Speaker 1: Immortal child of the Arab, replied the son of the
Speaker 1: wineless land. Your nation gave us the best element of
Speaker 1: commerce when you gave us your numerals, your learning, and
Speaker 1: your poetry. Your science, and your industry no longer fructify
Speaker 1: in heaven favored and lucia. The sun which ripens your
Speaker 1: grapes and your oranges makes the people lazy and the
Speaker 1: priests rapacious. We come to your ports with the products
Speaker 1: of our looms and our furnaces, and we induce a
Speaker 1: taste for comfort that will become the habit. When our
Speaker 1: glass and our porcelain shall find its way into your
Speaker 1: peasant's hut, then will your olives be better tended and
Speaker 1: your grapes more carefully dried. Man only worthily labors when
Speaker 1: he labors for exchange. With other labor. Behold that pudding.
Speaker 1: It is our England's annual luxury. It is the emblem
Speaker 1: of our commercial eminence. The artisan of Birmingham and Manchester,
Speaker 1: the seamen of London and Liverpool, whose festive board will
Speaker 1: be made joyous tomorrow with that national dish, has contributed
Speaker 1: by his labor to make the raisins of Malagar and
Speaker 1: the currents of Zante, the oranges of our garve, the
Speaker 1: cinnamon of Ceylon, and the nutmegs of the Maloccas of
Speaker 1: commercial value. And he has thus called them into existence
Speaker 1: as effectually as the labor of the native cultivator, child
Speaker 1: of the Arab civilizer. Be great. Mister Oldno looked for
Speaker 1: an approving answer, But the genius of the raisin had fled.
Speaker 1: The hillsides of Andalusia rapidly change into the great plain
Speaker 1: of Zante. No longer is it the woodies a synthus
Speaker 1: of Homer, but a land of olives and vines. There
Speaker 1: lies the flower of the Levant before our home traveler,
Speaker 1: with its gardens of pomegranates and peaches, and oranges and melons,
Speaker 1: and its fields of vines and currants. The genius of
Speaker 1: the current arose a diminutive figure, winged like the Pegasus
Speaker 1: of Corinth, and having the rows of England en twined
Speaker 1: with the olive leaf amongst his hair. The Genius smiled
Speaker 1: upon the listener. Welcome is your Christmas, said he to
Speaker 1: Zanti and Cephalonia. We have twelve thousand acres of our
Speaker 1: little grapes under culture for your festivities, and your ships
Speaker 1: have this year carried off our fifty million pounds of
Speaker 1: currants for your puddings and your cakes. Welcome, I ye
Speaker 1: with your sugar and your coffee, your rice and your cheese. Welcome,
Speaker 1: I ye with your gold. Our corn crops are gone,
Speaker 1: and without ye the maria would not yield us the
Speaker 1: wheat and the maize which we shall need till the
Speaker 1: next harvest. It is better to grow currants in the
Speaker 1: soil which they delight in, and buy our wheat, than
Speaker 1: plow up our little vines for a bread producing crop.
Speaker 1: We are sure of our bread for our currants, whilst
Speaker 1: England demands plum puddings, as England is sure of her puddings,
Speaker 1: whilst she weaves calico and forges steel. So are happy
Speaker 1: Christmas to you, and good night the same to you,
Speaker 1: and bravo my little free trader, cried mister Oldnow to
Speaker 1: the genius of the current. An English scene, It is
Speaker 1: harvest time all over the wide chalkfields of Kent, wherever
Speaker 1: the eye can stretch. In land, the golden corn is
Speaker 1: bending under the sea breeze, or the sheaves are patiently
Speaker 1: waiting for the coming wagon. On every side, a visible
Speaker 1: plenty smiles upon the traveler. The genius of bread arises.
Speaker 1: He is a stalwart figure in a white smock frock.
Speaker 1: From his straw hat to his laced boots, all is
Speaker 1: tight and trim about him. He is slow of speech,
Speaker 1: but he, ever and anon mutters the word protection. Protection,
Speaker 1: exclaimed mister Oldna, who taught you that song? Do you
Speaker 1: want protection against cheap bread, my friend? Against warm and
Speaker 1: clean clothing, against a sound roof with windows, against a
Speaker 1: coal fire, Against your tea, your sugar, your butter, your cheese,
Speaker 1: your bacon, and your Christmas pudding? What are you thinking
Speaker 1: of anything? Call up the ghost of your grandfather, show
Speaker 1: him your wheat and bread, and ask him to compare
Speaker 1: it with his black loaf of rye. You have small wages,
Speaker 1: it is true, But your wages do not depend upon
Speaker 1: the cheapness of your produce. Your real wages are as
Speaker 1: great as you ever got in the protection days, and
Speaker 1: they go twice as far. You stand up now as
Speaker 1: a man, instead of breaking stones upon the road at
Speaker 1: the bidding of the parish, leave the beer shop, cultivate
Speaker 1: your garden, have a pig in the stye, send your
Speaker 1: children to school, and believe me, you will be better
Speaker 1: off than any other laborer of Europe. Mister Oldno was excited,
Speaker 1: but he was fairly angry when the genius of Suet
Speaker 1: presented himself in the guise of a smithfield drover with
Speaker 1: an over driven ox falling upon his knees in a
Speaker 1: crowded street, as if imploring for rest. Mister old No
Speaker 1: groaned and was wicked enough to wish that the drover's
Speaker 1: dog was scattering the court of Aldermen. The Banda Islands
Speaker 1: now filled the scene. Grouped in the Indian Archipelago, they
Speaker 1: reared their volcanic peaks abruptly from the ocean, their mountain
Speaker 1: sides clothed with timber trees and the sago palms, yielding
Speaker 1: sustenance to the people of the plains. In the covert
Speaker 1: of the forest, trees sat the brilliant birds of paradise
Speaker 1: occasional visitants. But the great feature of the landscape was
Speaker 1: contributed by the nutmeg trees. It is the gathering time
Speaker 1: the Bandonese mingled with their Dutch masters, applucking the peachlike
Speaker 1: fruit from their shelter of green and gray leaves. The
Speaker 1: ripe fruit has split in half as it hangs on
Speaker 1: the tree, and there is the kernel surrounded by the mace.
Speaker 1: But the precious nutmeg has a second protection, its shell.
Speaker 1: The mace is removed, the kernel is dried in the sun.
Speaker 1: The shell splits, and there is the nutmeg of commerce.
Speaker 1: The genius of the nutmeg appeared. He was a fantastic figure,
Speaker 1: half man, half bird, a Dutchman's head on a woodpigeon's body.
Speaker 1: Englishman said he, you have wrestled with me for the
Speaker 1: spice islands, but they are mine. You have taken from
Speaker 1: me the cinnamon groves of Ceylon, they are yours. In
Speaker 1: the sea traditions of your country. You have the flying Dutchman.
Speaker 1: I am he. We of the Zayderzey built up our
Speaker 1: commerce upon restrictions and anapolis. When we drove the Portuguese
Speaker 1: from the archipelago. We rooted up all the clove trees
Speaker 1: but those of Amboyna, and all the nutmeg trees but
Speaker 1: those of Banda. We limited the world to a fixed
Speaker 1: quantity of cloves and nutmegs, as we limited also the
Speaker 1: commerce of cinnamon. Rather than fill the market and lower
Speaker 1: the price, we have thrown our nutmegs into the deep
Speaker 1: and made a bonfire of our cinnamon in the streets
Speaker 1: of Amsterdam. When in the Indian seas, in the dim
Speaker 1: twilight or under the hazy moon, a figure has been
Speaker 1: seen flying along the still waters in which the keel
Speaker 1: left no furrow. I was that navigator. I was pursuing
Speaker 1: the woodpigeon who defied all the rigors of my unsocial
Speaker 1: laws and carried the nutmeg seed to lands which owed
Speaker 1: Holland no tribute. I have given up the contest against nature.
Speaker 1: My spice monopoly was ruin us to myself and injury
Speaker 1: us to my colonists in Ceylon. I saw your English
Speaker 1: diffusing comfort and equal laws, opening roads, encouraging industry, destroying
Speaker 1: forced labor, and selling cinnamon to all the world. I
Speaker 1: have made an alliance with the woodpigeon. I have planted
Speaker 1: the nutmeg in Java, and there will I contest with
Speaker 1: you the commerce of cinnamon. I have learnt that a
Speaker 1: small demand at high prices for any useful commodity is
Speaker 1: neither so safe nor so profitable as a large demand
Speaker 1: at moderate prices. I have learnt further that the end
Speaker 1: of commerce is not to make individuals rich and support
Speaker 1: public expenditure by heavy duties, but to diffuse all the
Speaker 1: productions of nature and art amongst all the inhabitants of
Speaker 1: the globe. You have taught me a lesson. The old
Speaker 1: trade of the United Provinces has died under monopolies and restrictions.
Speaker 1: We may once more be your honest rivals under a
Speaker 1: wiser code. You want two hundred thousand pounds weight of nutmegs, yelly,
Speaker 1: we will deal like merchant princes and good men and
Speaker 1: true ergreed, said mister Oldner. A West Indian sugar plantation
Speaker 1: is now mirrored, with its canes ripening under a tropical sun,
Speaker 1: and its mills with their machinery of cylinders and boilers.
Speaker 1: The genius of sugar is a freed negro. It was
Speaker 1: said that in freedom he would not work. He has
Speaker 1: vindicated his privileges in his industry and his obedience. The
Speaker 1: grand experiment has succeeded in all moral effects. But the
Speaker 1: nation that demanded cheap corn would not be content with
Speaker 1: deer sugar. We must buy our sugar wherever the cane ripens.
Speaker 1: We use seven hundred millions of pounds of sugar annually,
Speaker 1: which yield a duty of four millions sterling. Mister oldno
Speaker 1: thought this, but was silent when he saw the negroes
Speaker 1: sitting under his own figtory. For the political questions which
Speaker 1: his freedom involved were somewhat complicated. He would trust to
Speaker 1: the ultimate power of a noble example, and in the
Speaker 1: meantime rejoice that the great body of the British people
Speaker 1: could buy their sugar at half the price that their
Speaker 1: fathers paid. Mister oldknow being somewhat at fault upon the
Speaker 1: sugar question, grew confused as new forms flitted before him.
Speaker 1: The solitary egg collector of Cork was there, in her
Speaker 1: blue cloak and her kit on her back. Her step
Speaker 1: was brisker than in the famine years, and her light
Speaker 1: gray eye was once more laughing under her long black eyelashes.
Speaker 1: She had walked from cottage to cottage some twenty miles
Speaker 1: and her kish was to form part of the many
Speaker 1: hundred egg crates that England required for her Christmas puddings.
Speaker 1: May the daughters and sons of erin soliloquized mister Oldner,
Speaker 1: never again suffer as they have suffered. May plenty smile
Speaker 1: upon their fields and comfort in their cottages. May they
Speaker 1: have just masters and wise rulers. May they rely upon
Speaker 1: industry and not upon agitation. May they the blue cloak
Speaker 1: was gone. A figure started up, half gnome, half ne reared.
Speaker 1: Mister Oldno was thinking of his evening gambols of yes
Speaker 1: and no, So with half consciousness he asked animal kingdom,
Speaker 1: no vegetable, no mineral Yes in England. Yes. Here continued
Speaker 1: the figure, I am free. I fly through the land,
Speaker 1: scattering blessings as widely as the dews of heaven. I
Speaker 1: bring my treasures out of the bowels of the earth
Speaker 1: and from the depths of the sea. I make the
Speaker 1: fields fruitful. I forbid your food to perish without me.
Speaker 1: The sustenance of man and beast is imperfect. The herds
Speaker 1: of unfathomable forests wander to the plains in search of me.
Speaker 1: The child that loves me not loses the bloom of
Speaker 1: its cheek and the odor of its breath. I am
Speaker 1: the universal friend. And yet kings have impiously dared to
Speaker 1: deny me to their subjects. And though they should perish,
Speaker 1: their crimes have been punished. Even now. The Hindu, whom
Speaker 1: you have benefited in so many things, is deprived of
Speaker 1: me by your fiscal injustice. Learn to be wiser. You
Speaker 1: have freed me from the burdens of your home taxation,
Speaker 1: and your industrial wealth is quadrupled. I am salt, guessed
Speaker 1: mister Oldknow. To salt succeeded a singular figure as the
Speaker 1: Milky Genius. It seemed one half dairy woman, with her
Speaker 1: pale and stool, decently clad in woolen petticoat and black stockings.
Speaker 1: But above was a Naiad of the Thames, with dripping
Speaker 1: locks held loosely together with a wreath of rushes. Mister
Speaker 1: Oldknow was about to harangue when a brisk power loom
Speaker 1: weaver stepped forth with pudding cloth in hand. The water boils,
Speaker 1: said he. The ingredients are mixed, be it mine to
Speaker 1: bind them together? Right, cried mister Oldner again. Our country's emblem,
Speaker 1: the bundle of sticks and the pudding cloth, have each
Speaker 1: the same moral. Our ancestors, in their civil dudgeon made
Speaker 1: plum porridge, we, in our united interests, well bound together,
Speaker 1: produce Christmas pudding. There was a silence and a pause.
Speaker 1: Mister Oldknow peered out. The mirror had lost its brilliancy.
Speaker 1: But suddenly the great pudding bowl expanded into a mighty
Speaker 1: flat dish. The puddings swelled into an enormous globe, black
Speaker 1: with plums and odorous with streaming sauce. A holly tree
Speaker 1: with its prickly leaves at bottom, its smooth leaves on high,
Speaker 1: and its bright red berries grew up under a crystal dough.
Speaker 1: On the edge of the dish were grouped the Andalucian
Speaker 1: with the cashmere shawl, the Ionian islander with the wings
Speaker 1: of Corinth, the Kentish plowman in the smock frock, the
Speaker 1: flying Dutchman, the Negro without the chains, the Irish market woman,
Speaker 1: the Gnome Nereered, the London Naiad, and the weaver with
Speaker 1: the cloth. And they all took hands, and thrice danced
Speaker 1: round the edge of the dish, and lo out of
Speaker 1: the holly tree dropped a mustached denizen of the Palais royal.
Speaker 1: He had a flask of brandy in one hand and
Speaker 1: a huge silver bowl in the other, Oh, nation of
Speaker 1: anti chemical cooks, He cried, you put the cognac into
Speaker 1: the pudding, and nine hours boiling drives off all the
Speaker 1: spirit into unprofitable gas. Look at me, it is the
Speaker 1: genius of our nation to flare up with that. He
Speaker 1: emptied the flask into the bowl and set it on fire,
Speaker 1: and poured it over the pudding. And the makers of
Speaker 1: the pudding again danced round it in the blue flame.
Speaker 1: And the pudding was nothing hurt by the flare up,
Speaker 1: but remained as sound and unscathed as the land itself
Speaker 1: after a month's polemical fire. And then mister Oldknow volunteered
Speaker 1: a song, of which four lines remained in his memory,
Speaker 1: for he had learnt it as a child. When England
Speaker 1: was threatened with invasion. Britain to peaceful arts inclined, where
Speaker 1: commerce opens all her stores in social bands shall lead
Speaker 1: mankind and join the sea divided shores. Mister Oldno opened
Speaker 1: his eyes. The kitchen was in darkness, and his cigar
Speaker 1: smoked out. Bless my heart, said he. The weights are
Speaker 1: playing the wooden walls, and the clock strikes two end
Speaker 1: of a Christmas Pudding by Charles Knight