Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Glossary
A Merry Christmas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Editorial Practice
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Tragedy of Crusoe, C.S.
- Twenty Years After
- Dis Aliter Visum
- De Profundis
- The Unlimited “Draw” of “Tick” Boileau
- My Christmas Caller
- The History of a Crime
- Prisoners and Captives
- “From Olympus to Hades”
- “Les Miserables.”
- A Nightmare of Rule
- What Came of It
- An Official Secret
- Le Roi en Exil
- A Scrap of Paper
- The Mystification of Santa Claus
- “Love in Old Cloathes”
- The Case of Adamah
- A Tale of ’98
- A Rather More Fishy Case
- The House of Shadows
- The Confession of an Impostor
- The Judgment of Paris
- Five Days After Date
- The Hill of Illusion
- Le Monde ou L'On S'Amuse
- An Intercepted Letter
- The Recurring Smash
- How Liberty Came to the Bolan
- “Under Sentence”
- The Dreitarbund
- In Memoriam
- On Signatures
- The Great Strike
- “The Biggest Liar in Asia”
- Deputating a Viceroy
- A Merry Christmas
- The New Year's Sermon
- New Year's Gifts
- Mister Anthony Dawking
- “The Luck of Roaring Camp”
- The Wedding Guest
- The Tracking of Chuckerbutti
- “Bread upon the Waters”
- A Free Gift
- A Hill Homily
- The “Kingdom” of Bombay
- Bombaystes Furioso
- A Day Off
- The Unpunishable Cherub
- In Gilded Halls
- “Till the Day Break”
- The Fountain of Honour
- The Burden of Nineveh
- His Natural Destiny
- That District Log-Book
- An Unequal Match
- A Horrible Scandal
- An Exercise in Administration
- My New Purchase
- Exercises in Administration
- The Dignity of It.
- Exercises in Administration
- In Wonderland
- In the Year ’92
- “A Free Hand”
- Susannah and the Elder
- The Coming K
- What the World Said
- An Interesting Condition
- The Comet of a Season
- Gallihauk's Pup
- The Inauthorated Corpses
- One Lady at Wairakei
- The Princess in the Pickle-Bottle
- Why Snow Falls at Vernet
- The Cause of Humanity
- appendices
- Glossary
Summary
Published: Civil and Military Gazette, 31 December 1887.
Attribution: In Scrapbook 4 (28/4, p. 44).
Text: Civil and Military Gazette.
Notes: RK had left the CMG and Lahore for the Pioneer and Allahabad around mid November 1887, but he continued to contribute stories to the CMG regularly through the next year and irregularly thereafter.
RK used the pseudonym ‘The Reveller’ three times in quick succession in the CMG for the following stories: ‘A Merry Christmas’, 31 December 1887; ‘A New Year's Sermon’, 1 January 1888; and ‘The Luck of Roaring Camp’, 17 January 1888.
‘A Merry Christmas’ has been reprinted in the Martindell–Ballard pamphlets and in Harbord, iii, 1629–32.
Everyone who, by hook or by crook, could get an invitation to dine with a friend was dining out, and the big Club dining-room was thinly speckled with six men – to wit, Pelletbough, the Judge, who is an old man, Markin, the barrister, who is middle-aged and fat, Goyle, the veterinary surgeon, and Saulez, the man doctor, old Colonel Cassanade, and I myself. We were – we felt it as we foregathered round the fire in the smoking-room – the outcastes of Kalanaghar on Christmas Eve 1887 – men deemed unworthy of an invitation to any family circle. Cassande stared into the fire and grinned horribly at something he saw in the embers. Then he pulled his moustache and ordered a sherry and bitters. A cold wind came in with the khitmatgar and made Goyle, who is a singularly vituperative man, swear fluently. Otherwise the silence was unbroken except by the flapping of the leaves of the Pink ‘Un in Markin's hands.
“Sirwa inez par” said the khansamah, and we trooped into the dining- room, which echoed our footsteps and was not too warm.
There was an air of unusual splendour about the table and a profusion of frost-nipped roses in the center-piece. Cassanade grunted and tucked the napkin into his collar. Then he began to turn purple and to point to the center-piece. “What in the world” – but he used a much worse expression – “is that doing here?” “That” was a piece of mistletoe procured, from goodness knows where, by the khansamah, who explained to the horrified Cassanade that it was a phul, which had some connection with Christmas. “It's Christmas Eve, you know,” said Markin drearily. “D— it, so it is,” said Goyle.
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- Information
- The Cause of Humanity and Other StoriesThe Cause of Humanity and Other Stories Uncollected Prose Fictions, pp. 169 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018