"Meanwhile the _fog_ and darkness thickened so, that the people ran about with flaring _links_." A London boy would not need a footnote to tell him that the fogs of London are famous; that they are at times so thick that all traffic is obliged to cease. Nor would he need to be told that links are torches of tow and pitch, which enterprising London boys provided themselves with at foggy times, that they might earn money by piloting people about. The word _brazier_, too, is in commoner use in England than it is in the United States. The _poulterers'_ trade is another English touch. Every one knows that the _Lord Mayor_ is the chief official of the city of London, but perhaps we do not all know that _Mansion House_, with its great banqueting-hall where the state dinners are held, is the residence of the Lord Mayor. Now-a-days we all know what English _plum pudding_ is--it is served at many American tables on Christmas day. But nothing is more characteristically English, unless, indeed, it is the _roast beef_, not turkey, which the tailor was planning to have for his Christmas dinner. Probably no one but an English writer, writing of an English subject, would refer in Dickens's off-hand manner to Dunstan, the English statesman and archbishop who accomplished so much for religion that he came to be known as Saint Dunstan. One of the most characteristically English touches in the two paragraphs is the reference to the _carol_ sung by the boy at Scrooge's keyhole. Other countries have Christmas carols, but the custom of singing them before people's houses is peculiarly common in England. The carol of which the first two lines are quoted is perhaps the one most frequently sung. These instances will give some idea of what is meant by local color, and of the methods used in securing it. It will be an interesting study to find other words and phrases in the remainder of the story which strengthen our feeling of the "Englishness" of _A Christmas Carol_. _Journeys Through Bookland_ furnishes an abundance of good stories of fine descriptive power. A few of the best are the following: Volume II, page 405. _The King of the Golden River._ Volume IV, page 174. _Incident of the French Camp._ Volume IV, page 322. _The Attack on the Castle._ Volume VI, page 173. _Sohrab and Rustum._ D AND E. THE LESSON AND THE AUTHOR'S PURPOSE