Meantime , the jolly blaze uprose and fell , flashing and gleaming on the little Hay-maker at the top of the Dutch clock , until one might have thought he stood stock-still before the Moorish Palace , and nothing was in motion but the flame . He was on the move , however ; and had his spasms , two to the second , all right and regular . But his sufferings when the clock was going to strike were frightful to behold ; and when a Cuckoo looked out of a trap-door in the Palace , and gave note six times , it shook him , each time , like a spectral voice -- or like a something wiry plucking at his legs . It was not until a violent commotion and a whirring noise among the weights and ropes below him had quite subsided that this terrified Hay-maker became himself again . Nor was he startled without reason ; for these rattling , bony skeletons of clocks are very disconcerting in their operation , and I wonder very much how any set of men , but most of all how Dutchmen , can have had a liking to invent them . There is a popular belief that Dutchmen love broad cases and much clothing for their own lower selves ; and they might know better than to leave their clocks so very lank and unprotected , surely . Now it was , you observe , that the kettle began to spend the evening . Now it was that the kettle , growing mellow and musical , began to have irrepressible gurglings in its throat , and to indulge in short vocal snorts , which it checked in the bud , as if it had n't quite made up its mind yet to be good company . Now it was that after two or three such vain attempts to stifle its convivial sentiments , it threw off all moroseness , all reserve , and burst into a stream of song so cosy and hilarious as never maudlin nightingale yet formed the least idea of . So plain , too ! Bless you , you might have understood it like a book -- better than some books you and I could name , perhaps . With its warm breath gushing forth in a light cloud which merrily and gracefully ascended a few feet , then hung about the chimney-corner as its own domestic Heaven , it trolled its song with that strong energy of cheerfulness , that its iron body hummed and stirred upon the fire ; and the lid itself , the recently rebellious lid -- such is the influence of a bright example -- performed a sort of jig , and clattered like a deaf and dumb young cymbal that had never known the use of its twin brother . That this song of the kettle 's was a song of invitation and welcome to somebody out of doors : to somebody at that moment coming on towards the snug small home and the crisp fire : there is no doubt whatever . Mrs. Peerybingle knew it perfectly , as she sat musing before the hearth . It 's a dark night , sang the kettle , and the rotten leaves are lying by the way ; and , above , all is mist and darkness , and , below , all is mire and clay ; and there 's only one relief in all the sad and murky air ; and I do n't know that it is one , for it 's nothing but a glare ; of deep and angry crimson , where the sun and wind together ; set a brand upon the clouds for being guilty of such weather ; and the widest open country is a long dull streak of black ; and there 's hoar frost on the finger-post , and thaw upon the track ; and the ice it is n't water , and the water is n't free ; and you could n't say that anything is what it ought to be ; but he 's coming , coming , coming ! -- And here , if you like , the Cricket DID chime in ! with a Chirrup , Chirrup , Chirrup of such magnitude , by way of chorus ; with a voice so astoundingly disproportionate to its size , as compared with the kettle ; -LRB- size ! you could n't see it ! -RRB- that , if it had then and there burst itself like an overcharged gun , if it had fallen a victim on the spot , and chirruped its little body into fifty pieces , it would have seemed a natural and inevitable consequence , for which it had expressly laboured . The kettle had had the last of its solo performance .
It persevered XXXXX undiminished ardour ; but the Cricket took first fiddle , and kept it .
among as at by if like than until with without