where cordials are at their liveliest of brown and amber, and the
white fingers of the lady of the house gleam in and out of the
piling of herbs and the stirring of compounds--both innocent and
inebriating? On what other day is the kitchen so important? Why, the
cook is actually thinner than she was the yesterday! Christmas day
in the morning is taking it out of her. "No men cooks about me",
growls Sir Humphrey Desart, "we'll keep Sarah." So Sarah is kept,
and though she be fat, aye, and getting on to three score, yet her
strength faileth not, as you may observe. Somewhat of a martinet,
yet kindly withal and leading the hubbub in the kitchen with all the
gusto of twenty years ago. My lady will descend presently to see if
all goes on properly, and Sarah must lose no time. Heavens, how many
eggs is she going to break? What are they all for? Will not the
resources of the farmyard fail her? This, then, explains all the
crow and cackle outside. Now what is she at? Lemons this time, and
anon giving a fine stimulus with her master-hand to the lumpy yellow
contents of a smooth yellow bowl. Ah! No lumps now; one turn and all
resolved into a perfect cadence. Anyone is an artist and a great one
who can so resolve a discordant measure. And now she is busy with
the brandy! Ah! Sarah, will no temptation accrue from the pouring of
the warming draught? "Out upon thee!" says Sarah. "Am I not already
as warm over my work as I want to be, and shall I not have my good
glass of beer at my dinner? Leave the quality upstairs their brandy,"
says Sarah, "and let me get to my work."
Well, and the upshot of all this is, that, despite all one may
affirm to the contrary, the one grand essential, the peculiar and
individualizing attribute of Christmas is--the dinner. The parson
may think of his preaching (and if he ever does so, surely most of
all on this day) and the virtuous may think of the poor; the old may
remember the young, and the young be pardoned for only remembering
each other, but the chief thought, the most blissful remembrance is
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