E-text prepared by Anne Storer and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from digital material generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) [Pg 1] [Pg 1] THE MAGIC FISHBONE BY CHARLES DICKENS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY S. BEATRICE PEARSE [Pg 4] [Pg 4] [Pg 5] [Pg 5] THE MAGIC FISHBONE A HOLIDAY ROMANCE FROM THE PEN OF MISS ALICE RAINBIRD AGED 7. BY CHARLES DICKENS LONDON: CONSTABLE AND CO. LTD. [Pg 6] [Pg 6] FOREWORD The story contained herein was written by Charles Dickens in 1867. It is the second of four stories entitled “Holiday Romance” and was published originally in a children’s magazine in America. It purports to be written by a child aged seven. It was republished in England in “All the Year Round” in 1868. For this and four other Christmas pieces Dickens received £1,000. “Holiday Romance” was published in book form by Messrs Chapman & Hall in 1874, with “Edwin Drood” and other stories. For this reprint the text of the story as it appeared in