germ
origin), such, for instance, as appendicitis, to the disuse in the
present generation of the Copper teakettle of our forefathers.
Saint
Paul thought fit to tell Timothy " it was Alexander, the Coppersmith,
who did him much evil." (" The Lord reward him according to his works !
") But in those early days the cheery domestic copper teakettle of
more modern times was as yet unknown. Dickens, in 1845, made his
Christmas story, The Cricket on the Hearth, commence thus : "
The kettle began it," " full five minutes by the little waxy-faced
Dutch clock in the corner, before the cricket uttered a chirp." Several
years previously the same genial author had described, with inimitable
force of graphic, glowing, diction, a festive family tea-drinking,
whereat the kettle likewise played a prominent part. It took place in
Gabriel Varden, (the sturdy, jovial locksmith's) little back parlour,
for the hospitable reception of his pretty daughter, Dolly Varden, and
Joseph Willett, newly betrothed to one another ; (he being minus an
arm, "took off in the defence of the Salwanners : ")—"there sat
Gabriel; the rosiest, cosiest, merriest, heartiest, best-contented old
buck in Great Britain, or out of it: " there he sat, watching his wife
as she decorated the room with flowers for the greater honour of Dolly
and Joseph, who had gone out walking, and for whom " the Tea-Kettle had
been singing gaily on the hob for fully twenty minutes, chirping as
never Kettle chirped before ; for whom the best service of real
undoubted china, patterned with divers round-faced mandarins holding up
broad umbrellas, was now displayed in all its glory ; to tempt whose
appetites a clear, transparent, juicy ham, garnished with cool green
lettuce leaves, and
