Kettle making play in the distance , like a great top . Chirp , chirp , chirp ! Cricket round the corner . Hum , hum , hum -- m -- m ! Kettle sticking to him in his own way ; no idea of giving in . Chirp , chirp , chirp ! Cricket fresher than ever . Hum , hum , hum -- m -- m ! Kettle slow and steady . Chirp , chirp , chirp ! Cricket going in to finish him . Hum , hum , hum -- m -- m ! Kettle not to be finished . Until at last they got so jumbled together , in the hurry-skurry , helter-skelter , of the match , that whether the kettle chirped and the Cricket hummed , or the Cricket chirped and the kettle hummed , or they both chirped and both hummed , it would have taken a clearer head than yours or mine to have decided with anything like certainty . But of this there is no doubt : that , the kettle and the Cricket , at one and the same moment , and by some power of amalgamation best known to themselves , sent , each , his fireside song of comfort streaming into a ray of the candle that shone out through the window , and a long way down the lane . And this light , bursting on a certain person who , on the instant , approached towards it through the gloom , expressed the whole thing to him , literally in a twinkling , and cried , `` Welcome home , old fellow ! Welcome home , my boy ! '' This end attained , the kettle , being dead beat , boiled over , and was taken off the fire . Mrs. Peerybingle then went running to the door , where , what with the wheels of a cart , the tramp of a horse , the voice of a man , the tearing in and out of an excited dog , and the surprising and mysterious appearance of a baby , there was soon the very What 's - his-name to play . Where the baby came from , or how Mrs. Peerybingle got hold of it in that flash of time , I do n't know .
But a live baby there was in Mrs. Peerybingle 's arms ; and a pretty tolerable amount of pride she seemed to have in it , when she was drawn gently XXXXX the fire , by a sturdy figure of a man , much taller and much older than herself , who had to stoop a long way down to kiss her .
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