title: The Cricket on the Hearth
author:  Charles Dickens 
description: Charles Dickens's early childhood was happy until his father was imprisoned for debt. The 12 - year - old Dickens then began working ten - hour days in a boot - blacking factory pasting labels on the jars of thick polish. The shocking conditions of the factory made a profound impression on him. His anger at his situation and at the conditions endured by working - class people became major themes in his fiction.
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  # The Cricket on the Hearth
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Charles Dickens
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  CHAPTER I—Chirp the First
  
  
  CHAPTER II—Chirp The Second
  
  
  CHAPTER III—Chirp the Third
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  
  Transcribed from the Charles Scribners Sons Works of Charles
  
  
  Dickens edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### CHAPTER I—Chirp the First
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
    
  The kettle began it! Don't tell me what Mrs. Peerybingle said. I
  
  
  know better. Mrs. Peerybingle may leave it on record to the end of
  
  
  time that she couldn't say which of them began it; but, I say the
  
  
  kettle did. I ought to know, I hope! The kettle began it, full five
  
  
  minutes by the little waxy-faced Dutch clock in the corner, before the
  
  
  Cricket uttered a chirp.
  
  
    
  As if the clock hadn't finished striking, and the convulsive little
  
  
  Haymaker at the top of it, jerking away right and left with a scythe in
  
  
  front of a Moorish