2-889-445 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Crow-Boy's Christmas Lunch - drawn by Phiz, 1850. Illustration to a story about a child who scares crows off the crops for a living: 'He has had it in his wallet all the morning - an extra store of bread, bacon, and cheese; for this is Christmas Day!...Observe him while engaged in its mastication His cheek is stuffed with the wholesome and savoury morsel; while his dog, with his lips overflowing with slaver, looks up expectantly into his face; and his gun lies idly by the hedge...His gun for this day, at any rate, shall sound no alarm. The season, too, makes the Boy charitable to the poor crows. Out of the treasury of his happiness he can afford to impart a blessing to them. They shall also have their Christmas Day; for though,by convention they are his victims, by Creation they are his fellow-creatures'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.