On a narrow London street the sweet-shop crackles
with color. Red-ribboned chocolate boxes are piled
high, trays of glazed fruit and bins of glistening
candies ring the Christmas tree. Above the shop the
cozy rooms are home for white-haired Mrs. Mutterance
and for her “children,” young Amy and Wallace. And
around the shop, over the whole of the city, drifts
the greatest blizzard London has ever known. For the
children it means sliding down Latchmere Hill on tea
trays, for Mrs. Mutterance a sudden recollection of
her own long-ago Cockney childhood.
But there is something else. Only the day before,
the surly landlord, Snyder, had threatened to evict
the little family from shop and home. Now Snyder has
vanished. Is he lost in the snow? What should Mrs.
Mutterance and the children do for the man she
scornfully calls “Beanwit”? The answer is both
exciting and heartwarming. |
