The final two paragraphs that concluded 'The Guest' (p. 581) - Dickens' opening contribution to The Holly-Tree Inn - were the framework link that allowed Dickens to introduce the five interpolated stories which followed. In the version of The Holly-Tree Inn that Dickens prepared for his collected Christmas stories, a version which excluded the stories not by himself, he changed and greatly reduced the first paragraph and eliminated the second paragraph altogether. See note to The Holly-Tree Inn [1855 Christmas].
Harry Stone; © Bloomington and Indiana University Press, 1968. DJO gratefully acknowledges permission to reproduce this material.
