And old Joseph suddenly laid his arm on the mantelpiece and buried his
face upon it, his gaunt figure shaking with sobs.




CHAPTER III

THE DEATH OF UNCLE JOE


When Thomas Bingle made his inspired visit to Geoffrey Hooper in the
interest of peace, he took it upon himself to advise his wealthy
cousin to read "The Christmas Carol" before it was too late, and
formed a permanent and irradicable opinion of the pauper's son when
that individual curtly informed him that he was not in the habit of
reading "trash." Mr. Bingle was patient enough to inquire if he knew
anything about "The Christmas Carol" and Geoffrey in turn asked "who
wrote the words for it," although it really didn't matter, he added by
way of cutting off the reply of his astonished visitor, who naturally
could not have expected to know that his cousin was a consistent
church-goer and knew a great deal about Christmas carols. If it had
been in his power to hate any one, Mr. Bingle would have hated his
solitary male cousin for that stupendous insult to literature. As it
was, he could only pity him for his ignorance, and at the same time
blame Uncle Joseph for bringing up his son in such a slip-shod manner.

It all went to show the trend of the world, however, in this callous
age of ours; it went to show that the right sort of missionary work
was not being performed. Mr. Bingle never forgave Geoffrey for calling