as Carol,"--the first of the
"Christmas Stories,"--appeared.

This earned for its author the sobriquet, "The Apostle of Christmas."

Its immediate popularity and success was, perhaps, influenced by the
following endorsement from Thackeray:

"It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man or woman who reads it
a personal kindness."

Others under the same generic title followed: "The Chimes," 1844; "The
Cricket on the Hearth," 1845; "The Battle of Life," 1846; and "The Haunted
Man," 1848. In January, 1846, Dickens began his short connection with the
_Daily News_. Here his "Pictures from Italy" appeared, he having just
returned from a journey thither.

"Dombey and Son," which Dickens had begun at Rosemont, Lausanne, took him
from 1846 to 1848 to complete.

In 1850 the idea of _Household Words_, the periodical with which Dickens'
fame is best remembered, took shape. His idea was for a low-priced
periodical, to be partly original, and in part selected. "I want to
suppose," he wrote, "a certain shadow which may go into any place by
starlight, moonlight, sunlight, or candle-light, and be in all homes and
all nooks and corners." The general outlines and plans were settled, but
there appears to have been no end of difficulty in choosing a suitable
name. "The Highway of Life," "The Holly Tree," "The Household Voice," "The
Household Guest," and many others were thought of, and finally was hit
upon "Household Words," the first number of which appeared on March 30,
1850, with the opening chapters of a serial by Mrs. Gaskell, whose work
Dickens greatly admired. In number two appeared Dickens' own pathetic
story, "The Child's Dream of a Star." In 1859, as originally conceived,
_Household Words_ was discontinued, from no want of success, but as an
expediency brought about through disagreement among the various
proprietors. Dickens bought the property in, and started afresh under the
title of _All the Year Round_, among whose contributors were Edmund Yates,
Percy Fitzgerald, Charles Lever, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade, and Lord
Lytton. This paper in turn came to its finish, and phoenix-like took
shape again as _Household Words_, which in one form or another has endured
to the present day, its present editor (1903) being Hall Caine, Jr., a son
of the novelist.

Apart from the general circulation, the special Christmas numbers had an
enormous sale. In these appeared other of the shorter pieces which have
since become famous,