f black; and there's hoar frost on the finger-post,
and thaw upon the track; and the ice it isn't water, and the water isn't
free; and you couldn'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;
(size! you couldn't see it!) 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 with
undiminished ardour; but the Cricket took first fiddle, and kept it.
Good Heaven, how it chirped! Its shrill, sharp, piercing voice resounded
through the house, and seemed to twinkle in the outer darkness like a
star. There was an indescribable little trill and tremble in it at its
loudest, which suggested its being carried off its legs, and made to
leap again, by its own intense enthusiasm. Yet they went very well
together, the Cricket and the kettle. The burden of the song was still
the same; and louder, louder, louder still, they sang it in their
emulation.

The fair little listener--for fair she was, and young; though something
of what is called the dumpling shape; but I don't myself object to
that--lighted a candle, glanced at the Hay-maker on the top of the
clock, who was getting in a pretty average crop of minutes; and looked
out of the window, where she saw nothing, owing to the darkness, but her
own face imaged in the glass. And my opinion is (and so would yours have
been) that she might have looked a long way and seen nothing half so
agreeable. When she came back, and sat down in her former seat, the
Cricket and the kettle were still keeping it up, with a perfect fury of
competition. The kettle's weak side clearly being that he didn't know
when he was beat.

There was all the excitement of a race about it. Chirp, chirp, chirp!
Cricket a mile ahead. Hum, hum, hum--m--m! 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 s