Dickens' Stories About Children Every Child Can Read   By: Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Edited by

REV. JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT, D.D.

[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS.]

Illustrated

[Illustration: Every Child's Library]

The John C. Winston Co. Philadelphia

Copyright, 1909, By The John C. Winston Co.

PREFACE.

TO THE YOUNG READER:

Charles Dickens was one of the greatest among the many story writers of "the Victorian age;" that is, the middle and latter part of the Nineteenth Century, when Victoria was Queen of Great Britain. Perhaps he was the greatest of them all for now, a generation after he passed away, more people read the stories of Dickens than those by any other author of that period. In those wonderful writings are found many pictures of child life connected with the plan of the novels or stories. These child stories have been taken out of their connections and are told by themselves in this volume. By and by you will read for yourselves, "The Christmas Carol," "The Chimes," "David Copperfield," "The Old Curiosity Shop," and the other great books by that fascinating writer, who saw people whom nobody else ever saw, and made them real. When you read those books you will meet again these charming children, and will remember them as the friends of your childhood.

JESSE L. HURLBUT.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

TROTTY VECK AND MEG. From "The Chimes" 9

TINY TIM. From "Christmas Carol" 24

THE RUNAWAY COUPLE. From "The Holly Tree Inn" 34

LITTLE DORRIT. From "Little Dorrit" 49

THE TOY MAKER AND HIS BLIND DAUGHTER. From "Cricket on the Hearth" 68

LITTLE NELL. From "The Old Curiosity Shop" 86

LITTLE DAVID COPPERFIELD. From "David Copperfield" 123

JENNY WREN. From "Our Mutual Friend" 178

PIP'S ADVENTURE. From "Great Expectations" 185

TODGERS' 196

DICK SWIVELLER AND THE MARCHIONESS 219

MR. WARDLE'S SERVANT JOE 233

THE BRAVE AND HONEST BOY, OLIVER TWIST 248

ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHARLES DICKENS Frontispiece

PAGE

"THEY BROKE IN LIKE A GRACE, MY DEAR." 13

"MR. CLENNAM FOLLOWED HER HOME." 65

LITTLE NELL AND HER GRANDFATHER 86

DAVID COPPERFIELD AND LITTLE EM'LY 131

SEATED ON THE CRYSTAL CARPET WERE TWO GIRLS 179

"KEEP STILL, YOU LITTLE IMP, OR I'LL CUT YOUR THROAT." 185

"MR. TUPMAN, WE ARE OBSERVED!" 240

I.

TROTTY VECK AND HIS DAUGHTER MEG.

"TROTTY" seems a strange name for an old man, but it was given to Toby Veck because of his always going at a trot to do his errands; for he was a ticket porter or messenger and his office was to take letters and messages for people who were in too great a hurry to send them by post, which in those days was neither so cheap nor so quick as it is now. He did not earn very much, and had to be out in all weathers and all day long. But Toby was of a cheerful disposition, and looked on the bright side of everything, and was grateful for any small mercies that came in his way; and so was happier than many people who never knew what it is to be hungry or in want of comforts. His greatest joy was his dear, bright, pretty daughter Meg, who loved him dearly.

One cold day, near the end of the year, Toby had been waiting a long time for a job, trotting up and down in his usual place before the church, and trying hard to keep himself warm, when the bells chimed twelve o'clock, which made Toby think of dinner.