Dickens to this periodical were afterward
added to his published works under the title of "Master Humphrey's Clock."

Dickens' first tour to America followed the abandonment of the periodical
in 1842. This event called forth the following verses by Tom Hood,
entitled:

TO CHARLES DICKENS

_On his Proposed Voyage to America, 1842._

_"Pshaw! away with leaf and berry_
_And the sober-sided cup!_
_Bring a Goblet and bright Sherry!_
_And a bumper fill me up.--_
_Tho' I had a pledge to shiver,_
_And the longest ever was,--_
_Ere his vessel leaves our river,_
_I will drink a health to 'Boz.'_

_"Here's success to all his antics,_
_Since it pleases him to roam,_
_And to paddle o'er Atlantics,_
_After such a sale at home_
_May he shun all rocks whatever,_
_And the shallow sand that lurks,--_
_And his passage be as clever_
_As the best among his works."_

With what favour his visit was received in America is too well known to
require detailed mention here. His experiences and observations recounted
in "American Notes," first published in 1842 upon his return to England,
has told these vividly and picturesquely, if not exactly consistently.

As a reader, Dickens stood as preeminently to the fore as when posing as a
writer. His phenomenal success on the platform is given in detail in a
volume written by George Dolby, who accompanied him and managed his
American tour. The mental and physical strain was such that in fifteen
years of combined editorial, literary, and reading labours, it left him
attenuated and finally curtailed his brilliant work.

What the readings really did accomplish was to increase and firmly assure
the permanence of his already wide-spread fame.

"Martin Chuzzlewit" had begun to appear in shilling parts in 1843, and at
that time was considered by the novelist to be by far the best work he
had yet written. "Dombey and Son" followed, and afterward "David
Copperfield," to which Dickens transferred his affections from
"Chuzzlewit." This new "child of fancy," as he called it, was so largely
autobiographical as to be accepted by many as being a recounting of his
own early struggles as a poor boy in London, and his early literary
labours. He himself said: "I seemed to be sending a part of myself into
the shadowy world."

While "Chuzzlewit" was appearing in serial form, that masterpiece perhaps
of all Dickens' shorter stories, "A Christm