Independently Published

The Cricket on the Hearth Independently Published

The story centers on the house which the Peerybingle family, made up of John, his wife Mary, known as Dot, and their baby, share with the baby's nanny Tilly Slowboy and a mysterious old man with a long white beard who rents a room from the Peerybingles. A chirping cricket sits constantly in front of the fireplace. The cricket acts as the house's guardian spirit, watching over and protecting those who live in it. At one point, the cricket becomes able to talk and tells John that he is wrong to suspect Dot of having an affair with the mysterious old man.

Other characters in the story are a bad-tempered and miserly toy seller called Tackleton and Caleb Plummer, a poor old toymaker who works for Tackleton. Plummer has a blind daughter called Bertha and a son named Edward, presumed to be dead after having gone to South America. Edward's former sweetheart, May, is about to marry Tackleton, a man who she does not love.

The mysterious old man at the Peerybingle's house is revealed to be Edward in disguise. Edward marries May just a few hours before she was due to marry Tackleton. Like Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Tackleton mellows at the end of the story and allows May to marry the man she loves.