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 had n't finished striking , and the convulsive little Hay-maker at the top of it , jerking away right and left with a scythe in front of a Moorish Palace , had n't mowed down half an acre of imaginary grass before the Cricket joined in at all ! Why , I am not naturally positive . Every one knows that I would n't set my own opinion against the opinion of Mrs. Peerybingle , unless I were quite sure , on any account whatever . Nothing should induce me . But , this is a question of fact . And the fact is , that the kettle began it at least five minutes before the Cricket gave any sign of being in existence . Contradict me , and I 'll say ten . Let me narrate exactly how it happened . I should have proceeded to do so , in my very first word , but for this plain consideration -- if I am to tell a story I must begin at the beginning ; and how is it possible to begin at the beginning without beginning at the kettle ? It appeared as if there were a sort of match , or trial of skill , you must understand , between the kettle and the Cricket . And this is what led to it , and how it came about . Mrs. Peerybingle , going out into the raw twilight , and clicking over the wet stones in a pair of pattens that worked innumerable rough impressions of the first proposition in Euclid all about the yard -- Mrs. Peerybingle filled the kettle at the water-butt . Presently returning , less the pattens -LRB- and a good deal less , for they were tall , and Mrs. Peerybingle was but short -RRB- , she set the kettle on the fire . In doing which she lost her temper , or mislaid it for an instant ; for , the water being uncomfortably cold , and in that slippy , slushy , sleety sort of state wherein it seems to penetrate through every kind of substance , patten rings included -- had laid hold of Mrs. Peerybingle 's toes , and even splashed her legs . And when we rather plume ourselves -LRB- with reason too -RRB- upon our legs , and keep ourselves particularly neat in point of stockings , we find this , for the moment , hard to bear . Besides , the kettle was aggravating and obstinate . It would n't allow itself to be adjusted on the top bar ; it would n't hear of accommodating itself kindly to the knobs of coal ; it would lean forward with a drunken air , and dribble , a very Idiot of a kettle , on the hearth . It was quarrelsome , and hissed and spluttered morosely at the fire .
To sum up all , the lid , resisting Mrs. Peerybingle 's fingers , first of all turned topsy-turvy , and then , with an ingenious pertinacity deserving of a better cause , dived sideways XXXXX -- down to the very bottom of the kettle .
about against for if in into of over unless upon