Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back-yard and stolen it , while they were merry with the goose -- a supposition at which the two young Cratchits became livid ! All sorts of horrors were supposed . Hallo ! A great deal of steam ! The pudding was out of the copper . A smell like a washing-day ! That was the cloth . A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook 's next door to each other , with a laundress 's next door to that ! That was the pudding ! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered -- flushed , but smiling proudly -- with the pudding , like a speckled cannon-ball , so hard and firm , blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy , and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top . Oh , a wonderful pudding ! Bob Cratchit said , and calmly too , that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage . Mrs. Cratchit said that , now the weight was off her mind , she would confess she had her doubts about the quantity of flour . Everybody had something to say about it , but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family . It would have been flat heresy to do so . Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing . At last the dinner was all done , the cloth was cleared , the hearth swept , and the fire made up . The compound in the jug being tasted , and considered perfect , apples and oranges were put upon the table , and a shovel full of chestnuts on the fire . Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth in what Bob Cratchit called a circle , meaning half a one ; and at Bob Cratchit 's elbow stood the family display of glass . Two tumblers and a custard cup without a handle .
These held the hot stuff from the jug , however , XXXXX well as golden goblets would have done ; and Bob served it out with beaming looks , while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily .
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