Determined to have some sort of Christmas celebration, the first year after their mother's death, the Bastable children get into quite a pickle in this hilarious holiday tale. With their father called away on a business matter, and maid/cook Matilda ignoring them for the most part, they are free to pursue their idea of making a real Christmas pudding. Their well-meaning but highly unusual methods make for a pudding that tastes of soap and hair oil. Then a terrible discovery is made: H.O. (Horace Octavius) misrepresented the situation to the wealthy neighbors from whom he obtained the money for the ingredients, making them believe they were giving charity to poor children. Convinced that the honor of the house of Bastable is at stake, Oswald insists that they must make sure the pudding goes to the intended recipient: the children of the poor. But will their "conscience pudding" be so uneasy to unload...?

I'm afraid that I covered myself in disgrace today, at the splendid Rose Reading Room of the New York Public Library, where I go to read those titles that cannot be taken out of the library, but must be perused on the premises. Reading E. Nesbit's The Conscience Pudding, a chapter from her novel The New Treasure Seekers, which is the third of her stories about the adventures of the Bastable children, I found myself continually reduced to helpless, hastily stifled giggling. I'm sure I must have appeared quite maniacal to some of my table mates, as I attempted to swallow my hilarity (to no avail), but I simply couldn't help myself. The scenes in which the children make the pudding! The one in which Oswald waxes poetic about family honor! Most of all, the one in which they inflict a slice of pudding on a hapless beggar, only to meet with an angry response - all of these had me snickering, chortling, laughing out loud. A delightful book, humorous and heartwarming, with a true child's perspective, this reminded me of everything I love about E. Nesbit's work! It's been many years since I read the Treasure Seekers series, and I don't recall them as vividly as some of the author's others, but based on this slim short story sample, I will have to revisit them.

It's worth noting that, in addition to its other splendid qualities, this title is illustrated by the marvelous Erik Blegvad, whose artwork is simply delightful. As the original novel from which the story is taken was illustrated by H.R. Millar (I believe), that makes hunting down this individual chapter worthwhile, if for no other reason than to peruse Blegvad's illustrations. Recommended to Blegvad fans, Nesbit fans, and anyone who enjoys humorous children's fiction. ( )