The Cricket on the Hearth

Book 3 in Dickens' Christmas Books. The cricket of the title in this story comes to represent the life and home of John Peerybingle and his younger wife, Dot. When things go well, the cricket on the hearth chirps; it is silent when there is sorrow. Tackleton, a jealous old man, poisons John's mind about Dot, but the cricket, through its supernatural powers, restores John's confiden...