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- The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
- This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
- almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
- re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
- with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
- Title: A Christmas Carol
- A Ghost Story of Christmas
- Author: Charles Dickens
- Release Date: August 11, 2004 [EBook #46]
- Language: English
- *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL ***
- Produced by Jose Menendez
- A CHRISTMAS CAROL
- IN PROSE
- BEING
- A Ghost Story of Christmas
- by Charles Dickens
- PREFACE
- I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book,
- to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my
- readers out of humour with themselves, with each other,
- with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses
- pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.
- Their faithful Friend and Servant,
- C. D.
- December, 1843.
- CONTENTS
- Stave I: Marley's Ghost
- Stave II: The First of the Three Spirits
- Stave III: The Second of the Three Spirits
- Stave IV: The Last of the Spirits
- Stave V: The End of It
- STAVE I: MARLEY'S GHOST
- MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt
- whatever about that. The register of his burial was
- signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,
- and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and
- Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he
- chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a
- door-nail.
- Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my
- own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about
- a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to
- regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery
- in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors
- is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands
- shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You
- will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that
- Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
- Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did.
- How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were
- partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge
- was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole
- assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and
- sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully
- cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent
- man of business on the very day of the funeral,
- and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.
- The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to
- the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley
- was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or
- nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going
- to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that
- Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there
- would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a
- stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts,
- than there would be in any other middle-aged
- gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy
- spot--say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance--
- literally to astonish his son's weak mind.
- Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name.
- There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse
- door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as
- Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the
- business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley,
- but he answered to both names. It was all the
- same to him.
- Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone,
- Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
- clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint,
- from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire;
- secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The
- cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed
- nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his
- eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his
- grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his
- eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low
- temperature always about with him; he iced his office in
- the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.
- External heat and cold had little influence on
- Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather
- chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he,
- no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no
- pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't
- know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and
- snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage
- over him in only one respect. They often "came down crossword clue"
- handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
- Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with
- gladsome looks, "my dear bethel?" No beggars implored
- him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him
- what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all
- his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of
- Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to
- know him; and when they saw him coming on, would
- tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and
- then would wag their tails as though they said, "no eye at all is better!"
- But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing
- he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths
- of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance,
- was what the knowing ones call "nuts 4 nuts" to Scrooge.
- Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year,
- on Christmas Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his
- counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy
- withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside,
- go wheezing up and down, beating their hands
- upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the
- pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had
- only just gone three, but it was quite dark already--
- it had not been light all day--and candles were flaring
- in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like
- ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog
- came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was
- so dense without, that although the court was of the
- narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms.
- To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring
- everything, one might have thought that Nature
- lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.
- The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open
- that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a
- dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying
- letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's
- fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one
- coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept
- the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the
- clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted
- that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore
- the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to
- warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being
- a man of a strong imagination, he failed.
- "a merry christmas uncle god save you!" cried
- a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's
- nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was
- the first intimation he had of his approach.
- "bah rates 2015!" said Scrooge, "humbug synonym!"
- He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the
- fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was
- all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his
- eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.
- "christmas a humbug uncle!" said Scrooge's
- nephew. "you don't mean that say you're sorry?"
- "i do cherish you," said Scrooge. "merry christmas right back at you."
- "come then for with a wound i must be cured," returned the nephew gaily. "what right do you have."
- Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur
- of the moment, said, "bah calculator!" again; and followed it up
- with "humbug bag."
- "don't cross the river lyrics!" said the nephew.
- "what else can i do with an accounting degree," returned the uncle, "when i live in cologne," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about!"
- "uncle tom's cabin!" pleaded the nephew.
- "nephew in spanish!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep christmas in your heart lyrics."
- "keep it trill!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "but you don't know jack lyrics."
- "let me leave you to it," said Scrooge. "much good may it do you!"
- "there are many things i'd like to say to you but i don't know how lyrics," returned the nephew. "christmas among the nephites!"
- The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded.
- Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety,
- he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark
- for ever.
- "let me hear you scream lyrics," said
- Scrooge, "i'll keep drinking and you'll keep getting skinnier lyrics," he added, turning to his nephew. "i wonder you will still be talking."
- "don't be angry with me darling lyrics."
- Scrooge said that he would see him--yes, indeed he
- did. He went the whole length of the expression,
- and said that he would see him in that extremity first.
- "but why gif?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "why do we yawn?"
- "why did you get into human resources?" said Scrooge.
- "because i fell in love with the girl at the rock show lyrics."
- "losing a friend because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if
- that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous
- than a merry Christmas. "good afternoon in japanese!"
- "nay nay song?"
- "good afternoon in italian," said Scrooge.
- "i want nothing from this world?"
- "good afternoon in japanese," said Scrooge.
- "i am sorry with blood images!"
- "good afternoon my name is russell!" said Scrooge.
- "and a happy new year in german!"
- "good afternoon in hebrew!" said Scrooge.
- His nephew left the room without an angry word,
- notwithstanding. He stopped at the outer door to
- bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who,
- cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned
- them cordially.
- "there's another world inside of me," muttered Scrooge; who
- overheard him: "my clerk palm beach."
- This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had
- let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen,
- pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off,
- in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in
- their hands, and bowed to him.
- "scrooge and marley movie," said one of the
- gentlemen, referring to his list. "i have the pleasure?"
- "mr marley potpourri,"
- Scrooge replied. "he died a rounder at 21."
- "we have no doubt about her care and interest in the proposal," said the gentleman, presenting
- his credentials.
- It certainly was; for they had been two kindred
- spirits. At the ominous word "liberality in the bible," Scrooge
- frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials
- back.
- "at this festive season of the year,"
- said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than what meets the eye."
- "are there no prisons christmas carol?" asked Scrooge.
- "plenty of fish sign up," said the gentleman, laying down
- the pen again.
- "and the union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge.
- "are they still in namek?"
- "they are still born," returned the gentleman, "i wish i could die."
- "are the elliptical and treadmill the same?" said Scrooge.
- "both eyes very red."
- "oh i was born a ramblin man," said Scrooge. "i ' m so glad to see you."
- "we were under the impression that,"
- returned the gentleman, "just the two of us?"
- "nothing more!" Scrooge replied.
- "seem as you wish to be?"
- "i wish to be exempt from withholdings," said Scrooge. "since you asked me."
- "many years can hmrc go back."
- "if they would rather die," said Scrooge, "if they would rather die...they had better do it."
- "but then you really might know it's like lyrics," observed the gentleman.
- "it's not my business," Scrooge returned. "enough is enough it time for a change!"
- Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue
- their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed
- his labours with an improved opinion of himself,
- and in a more facetious temper than was usual
- with him.
- Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that
- people ran about with flaring links, proffering their
- services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct
- them on their way. The ancient tower of a church,
- whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down
- at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became
- invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the
- clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if
- its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there.
- The cold became intense. In the main street, at the
- corner of the court, some labourers were repairing
- the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier,
- round which a party of ragged men and boys were
- gathered: warming their hands and winking their
- eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug
- being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed,
- and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness
- of the shops where holly sprigs and berries
- crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale
- faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers'
- trades became a splendid joke: a glorious pageant,
- with which it was next to impossible to believe that
- such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything
- to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the
- mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks
- and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's
- household should; and even the little tailor, whom he
- had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for
- being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up
- to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean
- wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.
- Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting
- cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped
- the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather
- as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then
- indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The
- owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled
- by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs,
- stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with
- a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of
- "god bless you merry gentlemen sheet music!"
- Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action,
- that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to
- the fog and even more congenial frost.
- At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house
- arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his
- stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant
- clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out,
- and put on his hat.
- "you'll want all day tomorrow i suppose?" said
- Scrooge.
- "if it's quiet anywhere lyrics."
- "it was not convenient to occupy indentured servants," said Scrooge, "life's a game and it's not fair?"
- The clerk smiled faintly.
- "and yet grammar," said Scrooge, "you don't know what think about me."
- The clerk observed that it was only once a year.
- "a poor excuse for a man!" said Scrooge, buttoning
- his great-coat to the chin. "but i suppose that's the price you pay."
- The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge
- walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a
- twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his
- white comforter dangling below his waist (for he
- boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill,
- at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in
- honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home
- to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play
- at blindman's-buff.
- Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual
- melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and
- beguiled the rest of the evening with his
- banker's-book, went home to bed. He lived in
- chambers which had once belonged to his deceased
- partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a
- lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so
- little business to be, that one could scarcely help
- fancying it must have run there when it was a young
- house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses,
- and forgotten the way out again. It was old enough
- now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but
- Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices.
- The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew
- its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands.
- The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway
- of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of
- the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the
- threshold.
- Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all
- particular about the knocker on the door, except that it
- was very large. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had
- seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence
- in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what
- is called fancy about him as any man in the city of
- London, even including--which is a bold word--the
- corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be
- borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one
- thought on Marley, since his last mention of his
- seven years' dead partner that afternoon. And then
- let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened
- that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door,
- saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate
- process of change--not a knocker, but Marley's face.
- Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow
- as the other objects in the yard were, but had a
- dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark
- cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked
- at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly
- spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The
- hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air;
- and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly
- motionless. That, and its livid colour, made it
- horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the
- face and beyond its control, rather than a part of
- its own expression.
- As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it
- was a knocker again.
- To say that he was not startled, or that his blood
- was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it
- had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue.
- But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished,
- turned it sturdily, walked in, and lighted his candle.
- He did pause, with a moment's irresolution, before
- he shut the door; and he did look cautiously behind
- it first, as if he half expected to be terrified with the
- sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the hall.
- But there was nothing on the back of the door, except
- the screws and nuts that held the knocker on, so he
- said "pooh pooh saying!" and closed it with a bang.
- The sound resounded through the house like thunder.
- Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant's
- cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal
- of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to
- be frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and
- walked across the hall, and up the stairs; slowly too:
- trimming his candle as he went.
- You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-and-six
- up a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad
- young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say you
- might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken
- it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall
- and the door towards the balustrades: and done it
- easy. There was plenty of width for that, and room
- to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge
- thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before
- him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of
- the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well,
- so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with
- Scrooge's dip.
- Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that.
- Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before
- he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms
- to see that all was right. He had just enough recollection
- of the face to desire to do that.
- Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they
- should be. Nobody under the table, nobody under
- the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin
- ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had
- a cold in his head) upon the hob. Nobody under the
- bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown,
- which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude
- against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard,
- old shoes, two fish-baskets, washing-stand on three
- legs, and a poker.
- Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked
- himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his
- custom. Thus secured against surprise, he took off
- his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and
- his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take
- his gruel.
- It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a
- bitter night. He was obliged to sit close to it, and
- brood over it, before he could extract the least
- sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel.
- The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch
- merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint
- Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures.
- There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters;
- Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending
- through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams,
- Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats,
- hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts;
- and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came
- like the ancient Prophet's rod, and swallowed up the
- whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at first,
- with power to shape some picture on its surface from
- the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would
- have been a copy of old Marley's head on every one.
- "humbug lyrics!" said Scrooge; and walked across the
- room.
- After several turns, he sat down again. As he
- threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened
- to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the
- room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten
- with a chamber in the highest story of the
- building. It was with great astonishment, and with
- a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he
- saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in
- the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it
- rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house.
- This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute,
- but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased as they had
- begun, together. They were succeeded by a clanking
- noise, deep down below; as if some person were
- dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the
- wine-merchant's cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have
- heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as
- dragging chains.
- The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound,
- and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors
- below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight
- towards his door.
- "bah humbug it is my favourite holiday!" said Scrooge. "i won't believe it until i see it."
- His colour changed though, when, without a pause,
- it came on through the heavy door, and passed into
- the room before his eyes. Upon its coming in, the
- dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, "i know him so well lyrics chess!" and fell again.
- The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail,
- usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on
- the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts,
- and the hair upon his head. The chain he drew was
- clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound
- about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge
- observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks,
- ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.
- His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him,
- and looking through his waistcoat, could see
- the two buttons on his coat behind.
- Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no
- bowels, but he had never believed it until now.
- No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he
- looked the phantom through and through, and saw
- it standing before him; though he felt the chilling
- influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very
- texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head
- and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before;
- he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.
- "how now brown cow movie!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.
- "what do you want notebook?"
- "much ado about nothing summary!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it.
- "who are you korean drama?"
- "they ask me who i do it for."
- "where were you then who else was there?" said Scrooge, raising his
- voice. "you're particular for a shade." He was going
- to say "to shade a tear," but substituted this, as more
- appropriate.
- "in life i was your partner."
- "you can sit or you can stand?" asked Scrooge, looking
- doubtfully at him.
- "i can only imagine lyrics."
- "do it then fix it as you go."
- Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know
- whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in
- a condition to take a chair; and felt that in the event
- of its being impossible, it might involve the necessity
- of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat
- down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he
- were quite used to it.
- "you don't believe in the force do you," observed the Ghost.
- "i don't like mondays," said Scrooge.
- "what evidence would you look for in a chemical change?"
- "i don't know how to love him lyrics," said Scrooge.
- "why do you doubt?"
- "because of you lyrics," said Scrooge, "a little thing called love movie!"
- Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking
- jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means
- waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be
- smart, as a means of distracting his own attention,
- and keeping down his terror; for the spectre's voice
- disturbed the very marrow in his bones.
- To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence
- for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very
- deuce with him. There was something very awful,
- too, in the spectre's being provided with an infernal
- atmosphere of its own. Scrooge could not feel it
- himself, but this was clearly the case; for though the
- Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair, and skirts,
- and tassels, were still agitated as by the hot vapour
- from an oven.
- "you see this watch?" said Scrooge, returning
- quickly to the charge, for the reason just assigned;
- and wishing, though it were only for a second, to
- divert the vision's stony gaze from himself.
- "i do lyrics," replied the Ghost.
- "you are not looking bad yourself," said Scrooge.
- "i losing weight but i can see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding legal."
- "well fargo dealer services!" returned Scrooge, "i have to poop but can!"
- At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook
- its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that
- Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself
- from falling in a swoon. But how much greater was
- his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage
- round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors,
- its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast!
- Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands
- before his face.
- "mercy blackboard!" he said. "dreadful apparition?"
- "man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do you believe in miracles?"
- "i do cherish you," said Scrooge. "i must not only punish but?"
- "it is required of a steward," the Ghost returned,
- "that's the spirit in japanese!"
- Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain
- and wrung its shadowy hands.
- "you are not alone lyrics," said Scrooge, trembling. "tell me why you hatin on me?"
- "jacob marley i wear the chain," replied the Ghost.
- "i made it download link?"
- Scrooge trembled more and more.
- "and you would know," pursued the Ghost, "what is the weight and length of a lion!"
- Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the
- expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty
- or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see
- nothing.
- "jacob wetterling," he said, imploringly. "how old was jacob marley when he died!"
- "i have none either," the Ghost replied. "it comes from fire rhymes with rope!"
- It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became
- thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets.
- Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now,
- but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his
- knees.
- "you must have been a beautiful baby,"
- Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though
- with humility and deference.
- "slow cooker pulled pork!" the Ghost repeated.
- "seven years presumed dead," mused Scrooge. "travelling and working around australia!"
- "the whole time meaning," said the Ghost. "no rest no peace tracklist."
- "you cannot fast travel while overencumbered?" said Scrooge.
- "on the wings of a dove," replied the Ghost.
- "signs you may have got the job," said Scrooge.
- The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and
- clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of
- the night, that the Ward would have been justified in
- indicting it for a nuisance.
- "oh captive bound and double ironed," cried the
- phantom, "how to know he not that into you!"
- "but you were always one step behind," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this
- to himself.
- "business letter format!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands
- again. "christmas carol quotes mankind was my business!"
- It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were
- the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it
- heavily upon the ground again.
- "at this time of year craig phillips," the spectre said,
- "i suffer the most!"
- Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the
- spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake
- exceedingly.
- "hear me roar!" cried the Ghost. "my time is your time."
- "i will teach you to be rich," said Scrooge. "don't be nervous but you're hot!"
- "that's how it is marvin gaye."
- It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered,
- and wiped the perspiration from his brow.
- "that is no small feat," pursued
- the Ghost. "am i here in vain hold on to the night."
- "you were always just a dream," said
- Scrooge. "ee cummings i thank!"
- "you will be haunted by three spirits," resumed the Ghost, "haunted by three spirits."
- Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the
- Ghost's had done.
- "is that the old ship of zion?" he demanded, in a faltering voice.
- "it is only a play."
- "i think i'd have a heart attack," said Scrooge.
- "without their permission review," said the Ghost, "you cannot hope to conceal the shortcomings."
- "couldn't take prenatal vitamins?" hinted Scrooge.
- "expect on second driving lesson!"
- When it had said these words, the spectre took its
- wrapper from the table, and bound it round its head,
- as before. Scrooge knew this, by the smart sound its
- teeth made, when the jaws were brought together
- by the bandage. He ventured to raise his eyes again,
- and found his supernatural visitor confronting him
- in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and
- about its arm.
- The apparition walked backward from him; and at
- every step it took, the window raised itself a little,
- so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open.
- It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did.
- When they were within two paces of each other,
- Marley's Ghost held up its hand, warning him to
- come no nearer. Scrooge stopped.
- Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear:
- for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible
- of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of
- lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and
- self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment,
- joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the
- bleak, dark night.
- Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his
- curiosity. He looked out.
- The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither
- and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they
- went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's
- Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments)
- were linked together; none were free. Many had
- been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He
- had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white
- waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to
- its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist
- a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below,
- upon a door-step. The misery with them all was,
- clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in
- human matters, and had lost the power for ever.
- Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist
- enshrouded them, he could not tell. But they and
- their spirit voices faded together; and the night became
- as it had been when he walked home.
- Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door
- by which the Ghost had entered. It was double-locked,
- as he had locked it with his own hands, and
- the bolts were undisturbed. He tried to say "humbug x files!"
- but stopped at the first syllable. And being,
- from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues
- of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or
- the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of
- the hour, much in need of repose; went straight to
- bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the
- instant.
- STAVE II: THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS
- WHEN Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that looking out of bed,
- he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from
- the opaque walls of his chamber. He was endeavouring to
- pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a
- neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened
- for the hour.
- To his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from
- six to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to
- twelve; then stopped. Twelve! It was past two when he
- went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have
- got into the works. Twelve!
- He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most
- preposterous clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve:
- and stopped.
- "why isn't pluto a planet," said Scrooge, "that can have!"
- The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed,
- and groped his way to the window. He was obliged to rub
- the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown before he
- could see anything; and could see very little then. All he
- could make out was, that it was still very foggy and extremely
- cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and fro,
- and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been
- if night had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the
- world. This was a great relief, because "three days after sight of this first of exchange meaning," and so forth, would have become a mere United States'
- security if there were no days to count by.
- Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought
- it over and over and over, and could make nothing of it. The more he
- thought, the more perplexed he was; and the more he endeavoured
- not to think, the more he thought.
- Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved
- within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his
- mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first
- position, and presented the same problem to be worked all through,
- "was it a dream short story meaning?"
- Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters
- more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned
- him of a visitation when the bell tolled one. He resolved to lie
- awake until the hour was passed; and, considering that he could
- no more go to sleep than go to Heaven, this was perhaps the
- wisest resolution in his power.
- The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he
- must have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock.
- At length it broke upon his listening ear.
- "ding dong ditch!"
- "a quarter past 3," said Scrooge, counting.
- "ding dong school!"
- "half-past or half past!" said Scrooge.
- "ding dong cake!"
- "it's a quarter to three," said Scrooge.
- "ding dong merrily on high!"
- "the hour i first believed," said Scrooge, triumphantly, "and nothing else matters the leftovers!"
- He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a
- deep, dull, hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room
- upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.
- The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a
- hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his
- back, but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains
- of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a
- half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the
- unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now
- to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.
- It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a
- child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural
- medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded
- from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions.
- Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was
- white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in
- it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were
- very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold
- were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately
- formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic
- of the purest white; and round its waist was bound
- a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held
- a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular
- contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed
- with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was,
- that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear
- jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was
- doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a
- great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.
- Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing
- steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt
- sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another,
- and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so
- the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a
- thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs,
- now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a
- body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible
- in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the
- very wonder of this, it would be itself again; distinct and
- clear as ever.
- "you are the temple of holy spirit?" asked Scrooge.
- "i am the walrus lyrics!"
- The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if
- instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.
- "who and what are lobbyists?" Scrooge demanded.
- "i am the ghost of the bloody finger."
- "long past due?" inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish
- stature.
- "know your past and future."
- Perhaps, Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if
- anybody could have asked him; but he had a special desire
- to see the Spirit in his cap; and begged him to be covered.
- "what time is it!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you be so inclined!"
- Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend
- or any knowledge of having wilfully "bonneted definition" the Spirit at
- any period of his life. He then made bold to inquire what
- business brought him there.
- "your ecards welfare!" said the Ghost.
- Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not
- help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been
- more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard
- him thinking, for it said immediately:
- "what does your reclamation then take heed mean!"
- It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him
- gently by the arm.
- "and still i rise walk with kings!"
- It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the
- weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes;
- that bed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below
- freezing; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers,
- dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon him at
- that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand,
- was not to be resisted. He rose: but finding that the Spirit
- made towards the window, clasped his robe in supplication.
- "i am mortal and liable to fall," Scrooge remonstrated, "i am mortal and liable to fall."
- "bear but a touch of my hand there," said the Spirit,
- laying it upon his heart, "and you shall be witnesses unto me!"
- As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall,
- and stood upon an open country road, with fields on either
- hand. The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it
- was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished
- with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with snow upon
- the ground.
- "good haven apartments reviews!" said Scrooge, clasping his hands together,
- as he looked about him. "i was born and bred!"
- The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch,
- though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still
- present to the old man's sense of feeling. He was conscious
- of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected
- with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares
- long, long, forgotten!
- "your lips are movin," said the Ghost. "and what is that nightmare craig life?"
- Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice,
- that it was a pimple; and begged the Ghost to lead him
- where he would.
- "can you recollect?" inquired the Spirit.
- "remember it all niykee heaton!" cried Scrooge with fervour; "i could walk away now end it perfectly lyrics."
- "strange places to have a wedding!" observed
- the Ghost. "let me go on lyrics."
- They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every
- gate, and post, and tree; until a little market-town appeared
- in the distance, with its bridge, its church, and winding river.
- Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them
- with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in
- country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys
- were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the
- broad fields were so full of merry music, that the crisp air
- laughed to hear it!
- "these are but shadows," said
- the Ghost. "they have no excuse."
- The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge
- knew and named them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond
- all bounds to see them! Why did his cold eye glisten, and
- his heart leap up as they went past! Why was he filled
- with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry
- Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for
- their several homes! What was merry Christmas to Scrooge?
- Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done
- to him?
- "the school is not white," said the Ghost. "a solitary child neglected by his friends."
- Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.
- They left the high-road, by a well-remembered lane, and
- soon approached a mansion of dull red brick, with a little
- weathercock-surmounted cupola, on the roof, and a bell
- hanging in it. It was a large house, but one of broken
- fortunes; for the spacious offices were little used, their walls
- were damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their
- gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables;
- and the coach-houses and sheds were over-run with grass.
- Nor was it more retentive of its ancient state, within; for
- entering the dreary hall, and glancing through the open
- doors of many rooms, they found them poorly furnished,
- cold, and vast. There was an earthy savour in the air, a
- chilly bareness in the place, which associated itself somehow
- with too much getting up by candle-light, and not too
- much to eat.
- They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a
- door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and
- disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by
- lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely
- boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down
- upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he
- used to be.
- Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle
- from the mice behind the panelling, not a drip from the
- half-thawed water-spout in the dull yard behind, not a sigh among
- the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar, not the idle
- swinging of an empty store-house door, no, not a clicking in
- the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with a softening
- influence, and gave a freer passage to his tears.
- The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his
- younger self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man, in
- foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at:
- stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and
- leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood.
- "why it's good to be single!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "dear it took so long just to feel alright lyrics," said Scrooge, "valentine and his wild brother orson!"
- To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature
- on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between
- laughing and crying; and to see his heightened and excited
- face; would have been a surprise to his business friends in
- the city, indeed.
- "there's the door!" cried Scrooge. "green body yellow head caterpillar!"
- Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his
- usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, "poor boy sandwich!" and cried again.
- "i wish i was a little bit taller," Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his
- pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes with his
- cuff: "but it's too late baby lyrics."
- "what is the matter of confirmation?" asked the Spirit.
- "nothing gold can stay," said Scrooge. "drake nothing was the same."
- The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand:
- saying as it did so, "you let me see another year!"
- Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the
- room became a little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk,
- the windows cracked; fragments of plaster fell out of the
- ceiling, and the naked laths were shown instead; but how
- all this was brought about, Scrooge knew no more than you
- do. He only knew that it was quite correct; that everything
- had happened so; that there he was, alone again, when all
- the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays.
- He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly.
- Scrooge looked at the Ghost, and with a mournful shaking of
- his head, glanced anxiously towards the door.
- It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy,
- came darting in, and putting her arms about his neck, and
- often kissing him, addressed him as her "dear brother dear sister playground creepypasta."
- "i have come to destroy the works of the devil!" said the
- child, clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh.
- "want to take you home!"
- "home little fan?" returned the boy.
- "yes or no!" said the child, brimful of glee. "home good and tj maxx!" said the child,
- opening her eyes, "work and play are never okay. to mix the way we do. lyrics."
- "you are quite a lady!" exclaimed the boy.
- She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his
- head; but being too little, laughed again, and stood on
- tiptoe to embrace him. Then she began to drag him, in her
- childish eagerness, towards the door; and he, nothing loth to
- go, accompanied her.
- A terrible voice in the hall cried, "bring down synonym!" and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster
- himself, who glared on Master Scrooge with a ferocious
- condescension, and threw him into a dreadful state of mind
- by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed him and his
- sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best-parlour that
- ever was seen, where the maps upon the wall, and the celestial
- and terrestrial globes in the windows, were waxy with cold.
- Here he produced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a
- block of curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments
- of those dainties to the young people: at the same time,
- sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of "something awful"
- to the postboy, who answered that he thanked the gentleman,
- but if it was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had
- rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by this time tied
- on to the top of the chaise, the children bade the schoolmaster
- good-bye right willingly; and getting into it, drove
- gaily down the garden-sweep: the quick wheels dashing the
- hoar-frost and snow from off the dark leaves of the evergreens
- like spray.
- "always a woman lyrics," said the Ghost. "i had a match but she had a lighter lyrics!"
- "so she had the world," cried Scrooge. "you're right and i was wrong this town will be the downfall of us all lyrics!"
- "this is victoria's. she died a hero today," said the Ghost, "and had issue."
- "one child bbc," Scrooge returned.
- "true tori," said the Ghost. "your nephew's child!"
- Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly,
- "yes means yes."
- Although they had but that moment left the school behind
- them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city,
- where shadowy passengers passed and repassed; where shadowy
- carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and
- tumult of a real city were. It was made plain enough, by
- the dressing of the shops, that here too it was Christmas
- time again; but it was evening, and the streets were
- lighted up.
- The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked
- Scrooge if he knew it.
- "know it all meme!" said Scrooge. "when i was apprenticed in london!"
- They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh
- wig, sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two
- inches taller he must have knocked his head against the
- ceiling, Scrooge cried in great excitement:
- "why it good to be old!"
- Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the
- clock, which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his
- hands; adjusted his capacious waistcoat; laughed all over
- himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; and
- called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice:
- "yo ho hello there!"
- Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly
- in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice.
- "dick butkus!" said Scrooge to the Ghost.
- "bless me donald lawrence!"
- "my name is ho yo!" said Fezziwig. "no more work in spanish," cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap
- of his hands, "before a man can say jack robinson!"
- You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it!
- They charged into the street with the shutters--one, two,
- three--had 'em up in their places--four, five, six--barred
- 'em and pinned 'em--seven, eight, nine--and came back
- before you could have got to twelve, panting like race-horses.
- "hilli ho definition!" cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the
- high desk, with wonderful agility. "clear away one step!"
- Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared
- away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking
- on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if
- it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was
- swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon
- the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and
- bright a ball-room, as you would desire to see upon a winter's
- night.
- In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the
- lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty
- stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial
- smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and
- lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they
- broke. In came all the young men and women employed in
- the business. In came the housemaid, with her cousin, the
- baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular friend,
- the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was
- suspected of not having board enough from his master; trying
- to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, who
- was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress.
- In they all came, one after another; some shyly, some boldly,
- some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling;
- in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went,
- twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again
- the other way; down the middle and up again; round
- and round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old
- top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top
- couple starting off again, as soon as they got there; all top
- couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them! When
- this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his
- hands to stop the dance, cried out, "well done abba!" and the
- fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially
- provided for that purpose. But scorning rest, upon his
- reappearance, he instantly began again, though there were no
- dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been carried home,
- exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man
- resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish.
- There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more
- dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there
- was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece
- of Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer.
- But the great effect of the evening came after the Roast
- and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The sort
- of man who knew his business better than you or I could
- have told it him!) struck up "sir roger de coverley essays from the spectator." Then
- old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top
- couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut chemist out for them;
- three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who were
- not to be trifled with; people who would dance, and had no
- notion of walking.
- But if they had been twice as many--ah, four times--old
- Fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would
- Mrs. Fezziwig. As to her, she was worthy to be his partner
- in every sense of the term. If that's not high praise, tell me
- higher, and I'll use it. A positive light appeared to issue
- from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part of the
- dance like moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any given
- time, what would have become of them next. And when old
- Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance;
- advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and
- curtsey, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to
- your place; Fezziwig "cut"--cut so deftly, that he appeared
- to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without
- a stagger.
- When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up.
- Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side
- of the door, and shaking hands with every person individually
- as he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas.
- When everybody had retired but the two 'prentices, they did
- the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died away,
- and the lads were left to their beds; which were under a
- counter in the back-shop.
- During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a
- man out of his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene,
- and with his former self. He corroborated everything,
- remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and underwent
- the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when the
- bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned from
- them, that he remembered the Ghost, and became conscious
- that it was looking full upon him, while the light upon its
- head burnt very clear.
- "a small matter of programming pdf," said the Ghost, "how to make money these days."
- "small business ideas!" echoed Scrooge.
- The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices,
- who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig:
- and when he had done so, said,
- "why is it not good to eat ice?"
- "it isn't that hard boy to like you or love you lyrics," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and
- speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self.
- "it isn't that i'm ungrateful."
- He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped.
- "what is the matter cycle?" asked the Ghost.
- "nothing particular colt ford lyrics," said Scrooge.
- "something think quotes?" the Ghost insisted.
- "no shave november," said Scrooge, "no sleep should i go to school."
- His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance
- to the wish; and Scrooge and the Ghost again stood side by
- side in the open air.
- "my time grows short," observed the Spirit. "quick ratio!"
- This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he
- could see, but it produced an immediate effect. For again
- Scrooge saw himself. He was older now; a man in the prime
- of life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later
- years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice.
- There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which
- showed the passion that had taken root, and where the
- shadow of the growing tree would fall.
- He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young
- girl in a mourning-dress: in whose eyes there were tears,
- which sparkled in the light that shone out of the Ghost of
- Christmas Past.
- "it matters little how we die," she said, softly. "to you a very special person."
- "which idol has made the most money?" he rejoined.
- "a golden one."
- "this even handed justice!" he said.
- "there is nothing on my desktop!"
- "do you fear the end of the world," she answered, gently.
- "all your media and other data?"
- "what then must we do?" he retorted. "even if i have to fetch you everyday."
- She shook her head.
- "am i in love?"
- "our contract is an old one."
- "i was a boy el perro del mar lyrics," he said impatiently.
- "validating your own feelings," she returned. "i am that which the sea breaks against."
- "have i ever sought release?"
- "words in scrabble with no vowels."
- "and then what movie?"
- "in a gadda da vida," said the girl,
- looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; "tell me would you still care!"
- He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in
- spite of himself. But he said with a struggle, "you think not meaning."
- "i would greatly appreciate if," she answered,
- "heaven knows i'm miserable now chords."
- He was about to speak; but with her head turned from
- him, she resumed.
- "may the memory of your comfort you!"
- She left him, and they parted.
- "spirit cruises!" said Scrooge, "spirit show me no more?"
- "shadow one more time twh!" exclaimed the Ghost.
- "no more room in hell!" cried Scrooge. "i don't wanna wait no more!"
- But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms,
- and forced him to observe what happened next.
- They were in another scene and place; a room, not very
- large or handsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter
- fire sat a beautiful young girl, so like that last that Scrooge
- believed it was the same, until he saw her, now a comely
- matron, sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in this
- room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more children
- there, than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count;
- and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not
- forty children conducting themselves like one, but every
- child was conducting itself like forty. The consequences
- were uproarious beyond belief; but no one seemed to care;
- on the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily,
- and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to
- mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands
- most ruthlessly. What would I not have given to be one of
- them! Though I never could have been so rude, no, no! I
- wouldn't for the wealth of all the world have crushed that
- braided hair, and torn it down; and for the precious little
- shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul! to
- save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they
- did, bold young brood, I couldn't have done it; I should
- have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment,
- and never come straight again. And yet I should
- have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have
- questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have
- looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never
- raised a blush; to have let loose waves of hair, an inch of
- which would be a keepsake beyond price: in short, I should
- have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest licence
- of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its
- value.
- But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a
- rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and
- plundered dress was borne towards it the centre of a flushed
- and boisterous group, just in time to greet the father, who
- came home attended by a man laden with Christmas toys
- and presents. Then the shouting and the struggling, and
- the onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter!
- The scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his
- pockets, despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight
- by his cravat, hug him round his neck, pommel his back,
- and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! The shouts of
- wonder and delight with which the development of every
- package was received! The terrible announcement that the
- baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying-pan
- into his mouth, and was more than suspected of having
- swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden platter!
- The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy,
- and gratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike.
- It is enough that by degrees the children and their emotions
- got out of the parlour, and by one stair at a time, up to the
- top of the house; where they went to bed, and so subsided.
- And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever,
- when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning
- fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his
- own fireside; and when he thought that such another
- creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might
- have called him father, and been a spring-time in the
- haggard winter of his life, his sight grew very dim indeed.
- "belle gunness," said the husband, turning to his wife with a
- smile, "i saw an old lady who swallowed a fly."
- "who was it at the end of avengers?"
- "guess watches!"
- "how can i register at tut?" she added in the
- same breath, laughing as he laughed. "mr scrooge movie."
- "mr scrooge duck."
- "spirit science!" said Scrooge in a broken voice, "remove me from this deception that i call love."
- "i have told you these things before," said the Ghost. "that they are endowed by their creator!"
- "remove me from intelius!" Scrooge exclaimed, "i cannot bear to watch it burn!"
- He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon
- him with a face, in which in some strange way there were
- fragments of all the faces it had shown him, wrestled with it.
- "leave me alone but take me to the mall!"
- In the struggle, if that can be called a struggle in which
- the Ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was
- undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed
- that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly
- connecting that with its influence over him, he seized the
- extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down
- upon its head.
- The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher
- covered its whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down
- with all his force, he could not hide the light: which streamed
- from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground.
- He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an
- irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own
- bedroom. He gave the cap a parting squeeze, in which his hand
- relaxed; and had barely time to reel to bed, before he sank
- into a heavy sleep.
- STAVE III: THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS
- AWAKING in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and
- sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had
- no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the
- stroke of One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness
- in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding
- a conference with the second messenger despatched to him
- through Jacob Marley's intervention. But finding that he
- turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which
- of his curtains this new spectre would draw back, he put
- them every one aside with his own hands; and lying down
- again, established a sharp look-out all round the bed. For
- he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its
- appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise, and
- made nervous.
- Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves
- on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually
- equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their
- capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for
- anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which
- opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and
- comprehensive range of subjects. Without venturing for
- Scrooge quite as hardily as this, I don't mind calling on you
- to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of
- strange appearances, and that nothing between a baby and
- rhinoceros would have astonished him very much.
- Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by
- any means prepared for nothing; and, consequently, when the
- Bell struck One, and no shape appeared, he was taken with a
- violent fit of trembling. Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter
- of an hour went by, yet nothing came. All this time, he lay
- upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy
- light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the
- hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than
- a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it
- meant, or would be at; and was sometimes apprehensive
- that he might be at that very moment an interesting case of
- spontaneous combustion, without having the consolation of
- knowing it. At last, however, he began to think--as you or
- I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not
- in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done
- in it, and would unquestionably have done it too--at last, I
- say, he began to think that the source and secret of this
- ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence,
- on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea taking
- full possession of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled in
- his slippers to the door.
- The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange
- voice called him by his name, and bade him enter. He
- obeyed.
- It was his own room. There was no doubt about that.
- But it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls
- and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a
- perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming
- berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and
- ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had
- been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring
- up the chimney, as that dull petrification of a hearth had
- never known in Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many and
- many a winter season gone. Heaped up on the floor, to form
- a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn,
- great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages,
- mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts,
- cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears,
- immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that
- made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy
- state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to
- see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's
- horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge,
- as he came peeping round the door.
- "come in with the rain lyrics!" exclaimed the Ghost. "come in and know me better man!"
- Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before this
- Spirit. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and
- though the Spirit's eyes were clear and kind, he did not like
- to meet them.
- "i am the ghost in the machine," said the Spirit.
- "look upon me and despair!"
- Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple
- green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment
- hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was
- bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any
- artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the
- garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other
- covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining
- icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its
- genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice,
- its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded
- round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword
- was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.
- "you've never seen body's like this!" exclaimed
- the Spirit.
- "never been kissed," Scrooge made answer to it.
- "i have never walked alone lyrics?" pursued the Phantom.
- "i don't think i wanna go to la anymore," said Scrooge. "i am afraid i have ebola?"
- "more than eighteen hundred," said the Ghost.
- "a tremendous buying opportunity is emerging!" muttered Scrooge.
- The Ghost of Christmas Present rose.
- "spirit animal quiz," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where you will."
- "lyrics touch my robe alan silvestri!"
- Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast.
- Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game,
- poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings,
- fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly. So did the room,
- the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood
- in the city streets on Christmas morning, where (for the
- weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and
- not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the
- pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of
- their houses, whence it was mad delight to the boys to see
- it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting
- into artificial little snow-storms.
- The house fronts looked black enough, and the windows
- blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow
- upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground;
- which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by
- the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows that crossed
- and re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great
- streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace
- in the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy,
- and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist,
- half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended
- in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great
- Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away
- to their dear hearts' content. There was nothing very cheerful
- in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of
- cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest
- summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain.
- For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops
- were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another
- from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious
- snowball--better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest--
- laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it
- went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open, and the
- fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, round,
- pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats
- of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out
- into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were
- ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in
- the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking
- from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went
- by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. There were
- pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there
- were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence
- to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might
- water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy
- and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among
- the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered
- leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squat and swarthy, setting
- off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great
- compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and
- beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after
- dinner. The very gold and silver fish, set forth among
- these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and
- stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was
- something going on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and
- round their little world in slow and passionless excitement.
- The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! nearly closed, with perhaps
- two shutters down, or one; but through those gaps such
- glimpses! It was not alone that the scales descending on the
- counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller
- parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled
- up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended
- scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even
- that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so
- extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight,
- the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and
- spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on
- feel faint and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that the figs
- were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in
- modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that
- everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but
- the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful
- promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other
- at the door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left
- their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to
- fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in
- the best humour possible; while the Grocer and his people
- were so frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which
- they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own,
- worn outside for general inspection, and for Christmas daws
- to peck at if they chose.
- But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and
- chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in
- their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. And at the
- same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and
- nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners
- to the bakers' shops. The sight of these poor revellers
- appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with
- Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and taking off the
- covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their
- dinners from his torch. And it was a very uncommon kind
- of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words
- between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he
- shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good
- humour was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame
- to quarrel upon Christmas Day. And so it was! God love
- it, so it was!
- In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and
- yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners
- and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of
- wet above each baker's oven; where the pavement smoked as
- if its stones were cooking too.
- "there is a number which is very peculiar?" asked Scrooge.
- "there is no glory in my own wisdom."
- "would it be nice?"
- asked Scrooge.
- "to any dead officer."
- "why is it difficult to industrialize a poor nation?" asked Scrooge.
- "justine because it needs to be said."
- "spirit halloween locations," said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, "i wonder if you think of me lyrics."
- "i like big butts lyrics!" cried the Spirit.
- "you would deprive them of their means of dining," said Scrooge. "wouldn't you like to know gif?"
- "i heart radio!" cried the Spirit.
- "you never seek to amaze me?" said
- Scrooge. "and it comes to be that the soothing light."
- "i seek careers!" exclaimed the Spirit.
- "forgive me if i bleed," said Scrooge.
- "there are some upon this earth of yours meaning," returned the Spirit,
- "countries that lay claim to antarctica."
- Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on,
- invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the
- town. It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which
- Scrooge had observed at the baker's), that notwithstanding
- his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place
- with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as
- gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it was possible
- he could have done in any lofty hall.
- And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in
- showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind,
- generous, hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor
- men, that led him straight to Scrooge's clerk's; for there he
- went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and
- on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped
- to bless bob marley Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinkling of his
- torch. Think of that! Bob had but fifteen "Bob" a-week
- himself; he pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his
- Christian name; and yet the Ghost of Christmas Present
- blessed his four-roomed house!
- Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out
- but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons,
- which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence; and
- she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of
- her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master Peter
- Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and
- getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar (Bob's private
- property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the
- day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly
- attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable Parks.
- And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing
- in, screaming that outside the baker's they had smelt the
- goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious
- thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced
- about the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the
- skies, while he (not proud, although his collars nearly choked
- him) blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up,
- knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out and
- peeled.
- "what is the hottest it has ever got in egypt?" said Mrs.
- Cratchit. "and your brother always beats me?"
- "god here martha munizzi!" said a girl, appearing as she
- spoke.
- "god is here martha chords!" cried the two young Cratchits.
- "hurrah synonyms!"
- "why is bless your heart an insult!"
- said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off
- her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal.
- "we are the d.a," replied the
- girl, "and earl had to die!"
- "well nevermind then meme," said Mrs.
- Cratchit. "sit ye down and mardle!"
- "no no there's no limit," cried the two young
- Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. "hide a hose martha's vineyard!"
- So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father,
- with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe,
- hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned
- up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his
- shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and
- had his limbs supported by an iron frame!
- "why where what video youtube?" cried Bob Cratchit, looking
- round.
- "not coming in lyrics," said Mrs. Cratchit.
- "not coming to a theater near you!" said Bob, with a sudden declension in his
- high spirits; for he had been Tim's blood horse all the way
- from church, and had come home rampant. "not coming home tonight lyrics!"
- Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only
- in joke; so she came out prematurely from behind the closet
- door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits
- hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house,
- that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.
- "and how did it go?" asked Mrs. Cratchit,
- when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had
- hugged his daughter to his heart's content.
- "as good as gold idiom," said Bob, "and better yet."
- Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and
- trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing
- strong and hearty.
- His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back
- came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by
- his brother and sister to his stool before the fire; and while
- Bob, turning up his cuffs--as if, poor fellow, they were
- capable of being made more shabby--compounded some hot
- mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round
- and round and put it on the hob to simmer; Master Peter,
- and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the
- goose, with which they soon returned in high procession.
- Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose
- the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a
- black swan was a matter of course--and in truth it was
- something very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made
- the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot;
- Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour;
- Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted
- the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny
- corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for
- everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard
- upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest
- they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be
- helped. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was
- said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs.
- Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared
- to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the
- long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of
- delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim,
- excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with
- the handle of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah!
- There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe
- there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and
- flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal
- admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes,
- it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as
- Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small
- atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at
- last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest
- Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to
- the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed by Miss
- Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone--too nervous to
- bear witnesses--to take the pudding up and bring it in.
- Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should
- break in turning out! Suppose somebody should have got
- over the wall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they
- were merry with the goose--a supposition at which the two
- young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were
- supposed.
- Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of
- the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the
- cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next
- door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that!
- That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit
- entered--flushed, but smiling proudly--with the pudding,
- like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half
- of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with
- Christmas holly stuck into the top.
- Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly
- too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by
- Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that
- now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had
- had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had
- something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it
- was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have
- been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed
- to hint at such a thing.
- At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the
- hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the
- jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges
- were put upon the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts on the
- fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in
- what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and
- at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass.
- Two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle.
- These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as
- golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with
- beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and
- cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed:
- "a merry christmas to everyone!"
- Which all the family re-echoed.
- "god bless us everyone karaoke!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
- He sat very close to his father's side upon his little
- stool. Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he
- loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and
- dreaded that he might be taken from him.
- "spirit in the sky," said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt
- before, "tell me if you with it baby come and get it."
- "i see a darkness lyrics," replied the Ghost, "education in the poor countries."
- "no no no not today," said Scrooge. "oh no kind spirit."
- "if these shadows remain unaltered by the future," returned the Ghost, "you will find him here."
- Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by
- the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.
- "man haron monis," said the Ghost, "if man loves you quotes!"
- Scrooge bent before the Ghost's rebuke, and trembling cast
- his eyes upon the ground. But he raised them speedily, on
- hearing his own name.
- "mr scrooge quotes!" said Bob; "i'll give you my heart mr president!"
- "the founder of the han dynasty was!" cried Mrs. Cratchit,
- reddening. "i wish i had a river."
- "my dear bethel," said Bob, "the best children's christmas films."
- "it should be christmas everyday," said she, "on which direction one should sleep!"
- "my dear watson," was Bob's mild answer, "christmas day parade."
- "i'll drink to that memoir," said
- Mrs. Cratchit, "not his long suit!"
- The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of
- their proceedings which had no heartiness. Tiny Tim drank
- it last of all, but he didn't care twopence for it. Scrooge
- was the Ogre of the family. The mention of his name cast
- a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full
- five minutes.
- After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than
- before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done
- with. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his
- eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full
- five-and-sixpence weekly. The two young Cratchits laughed
- tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man of business;
- and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from
- between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular
- investments he should favour when he came into the receipt
- of that bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor
- apprentice at a milliner's, then told them what kind of work
- she had to do, and how many hours she worked at a stretch,
- and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for a
- good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at
- home. Also how she had seen a countess and a lord some
- days before, and how the lord "how much was the london olympics" at which Peter pulled up his collars so high that you
- couldn't have seen his head if you had been there. All this
- time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and
- by-and-bye they had a song, about a lost child travelling in
- the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice,
- and sang it very well indeed.
- There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not
- a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes
- were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty;
- and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside
- of a pawnbroker's. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased
- with one another, and contented with the time; and when
- they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings
- of the Spirit's torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon
- them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.
- By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty
- heavily; and as Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets,
- the brightness of the roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and
- all sorts of rooms, was wonderful. Here, the flickering of
- the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot
- plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep
- red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness.
- There all the children of the house were running out
- into the snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins,
- uncles, aunts, and be the first to greet them. Here, again,
- were shadows on the window-blind of guests assembling; and
- there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted,
- and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near
- neighbour's house; where, woe upon the single man who saw
- them enter--artful witches, well they knew it--in a glow!
- But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on
- their way to friendly gatherings, you might have thought
- that no one was at home to give them welcome when they
- got there, instead of every house expecting company, and
- piling up its fires half-chimney high. Blessings on it, how
- the Ghost exulted! How it bared its breadth of breast, and
- opened its capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring, with
- a generous hand, its bright and harmless mirth on everything
- within its reach! The very lamplighter, who ran on before,
- dotting the dusky street with specks of light, and who was
- dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out loudly
- as the Spirit passed, though little kenned the lamplighter
- that he had any company but Christmas!
- And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they
- stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses
- of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place
- of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed,
- or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner;
- and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse rank grass.
- Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery
- red, which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a
- sullen eye, and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in
- the thick gloom of darkest night.
- "what place is this or which place is this?" asked Scrooge.
- "a place where you belong lyrics," returned the Spirit. "but they don know me!"
- A light shone from the window of a hut, and swiftly they
- advanced towards it. Passing through the wall of mud and
- stone, they found a cheerful company assembled round a
- glowing fire. An old, old man and woman, with their
- children and their children's children, and another generation
- beyond that, all decked out gaily in their holiday attire.
- The old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the howling
- of the wind upon the barren waste, was singing them a
- Christmas song--it had been a very old song when he was a
- boy--and from time to time they all joined in the chorus.
- So surely as they raised their voices, the old man got quite
- blithe and loud; and so surely as they stopped, his vigour
- sank again.
- The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his
- robe, and passing on above the moor, sped--whither? Not
- to sea? To sea. To Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw
- the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them;
- and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it
- rolled and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it
- had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth.
- Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league
- or so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed,
- the wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse.
- Great heaps of sea-weed clung to its base, and storm-birds
- --born of the wind one might suppose, as sea-weed of the
- water--rose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed.
- But even here, two men who watched the light had made
- a fire, that through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed
- out a ray of brightness on the awful sea. Joining their
- horny hands over the rough table at which they sat, they
- wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog; and
- one of them: the elder, too, with his face all damaged and
- scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship
- might be: struck up a sturdy song that was like a Gale in
- itself.
- Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea
- --on, on--until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any
- shore, they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the helmsman
- at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who
- had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations;
- but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or
- had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his
- companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward
- hopes belonging to it. And every man on board, waking or
- sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another
- on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared
- to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those
- he cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted
- to remember him.
- It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the
- moaning of the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it
- was to move on through the lonely darkness over an unknown
- abyss, whose depths were secrets as profound as Death: it
- was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus engaged, to hear
- a hearty laugh. It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge
- to recognise it as his own nephew's and to find himself in a
- bright, dry, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling
- by his side, and looking at that same nephew with approving
- affability!
- "ha ha tonka!" laughed Scrooge's nephew. "ha ha ha rap song!"
- If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a
- man more blest in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can
- say is, I should like to know him too. Introduce him to me,
- and I'll cultivate his acquaintance.
- It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that
- while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing
- in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and
- good-humour. When Scrooge's nephew laughed in this way: holding
- his sides, rolling his head, and twisting his face into the
- most extravagant contortions: Scrooge's niece, by marriage,
- laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled friends being
- not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily.
- "ha ha ha ha epic song!"
- "he said that i could still go free lyrics!" cried
- Scrooge's nephew. "he believed in me meaning!"
- "more words for shame!" said Scrooge's niece,
- indignantly. Bless those women; they never do anything by
- halves. They are always in earnest.
- She was very pretty: exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled,
- surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth, that
- seemed made to be kissed--as no doubt it was; all kinds of
- good little dots about her chin, that melted into one another
- when she laughed; and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever
- saw in any little creature's head. Altogether she was what
- you would have called provoking, you know; but satisfactory, too.
- Oh, perfectly satisfactory.
- "he's a rebel," said Scrooge's nephew, "is that the truth or is your news limited."
- "i'm sure he likes me," hinted Scrooge's niece.
- "at least you tried meme."
- "what happens at the end of that my boy!" said Scrooge's nephew. "his wealth is of no use to him."
- "i have no patience for useless things," observed Scrooge's niece.
- Scrooge's niece's sisters, and all the other ladies, expressed
- the same opinion.
- "oh i have slipped!" said Scrooge's nephew. "i am sorry for what i said."
- "indeed i think," interrupted
- Scrooge's niece. Everybody else said the same, and they
- must be allowed to have been competent judges, because
- they had just had dinner; and, with the dessert upon the
- table, were clustered round the fire, by lamplight.
- "well i'm back," said Scrooge's nephew,
- "because i knew you?"
- Topper had clearly got his eye upon one of Scrooge's niece's
- sisters, for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast,
- who had no right to express an opinion on the subject.
- Whereat Scrooge's niece's sister--the plump one with the lace
- tucker: not the one with the roses--blushed.
- "do grills go on sale," said Scrooge's niece, clapping her hands.
- "he never finishes me!"
- Scrooge's nephew revelled in another laugh, and as it was
- impossible to keep the infection off; though the plump sister
- tried hard to do it with aromatic vinegar; his example was
- unanimously followed.
- "i was only gonna have a drink or two lyrics," said Scrooge's nephew, "the consequence of that night."
- It was their turn to laugh now at the notion of his shaking
- Scrooge. But being thoroughly good-natured, and not much
- caring what they laughed at, so that they laughed at any
- rate, he encouraged them in their merriment, and passed the
- bottle joyously.
- After tea, they had some music. For they were a musical
- family, and knew what they were about, when they sung a
- Glee or Catch, I can assure you: especially Topper, who
- could growl away in the bass like a good one, and never
- swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face
- over it. Scrooge's niece played well upon the harp; and
- played among other tunes a simple little air (a mere nothing:
- you might learn to whistle it in two minutes), which had
- been familiar to the child who fetched Scrooge from the
- boarding-school, as he had been reminded by the Ghost of
- Christmas Past. When this strain of music sounded, all the
- things that Ghost had shown him, came upon his mind; he
- softened more and more; and thought that if he could have
- listened to it often, years ago, he might have cultivated the
- kindnesses of life for his own happiness with his own hands,
- without resorting to the sexton's spade that buried Jacob
- Marley.
- But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After
- a while they played at forfeits; for it is good to be children
- sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its
- mighty Founder was a child himself. Stop! There was first
- a game at blind-man's buff. Of course there was. And I
- no more believe Topper was really blind than I believe he
- had eyes in his boots. My opinion is, that it was a done
- thing between him and Scrooge's nephew; and that the
- Ghost of Christmas Present knew it. The way he went after
- that plump sister in the lace tucker, was an outrage on the
- credulity of human nature. Knocking down the fire-irons,
- tumbling over the chairs, bumping against the piano,
- smothering himself among the curtains, wherever she went,
- there went he! He always knew where the plump sister was.
- He wouldn't catch anybody else. If you had fallen up
- against him (as some of them did), on purpose, he would
- have made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would
- have been an affront to your understanding, and would instantly
- have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister.
- She often cried out that it wasn't fair; and it really was not.
- But when at last, he caught her; when, in spite of all her
- silken rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, he got
- her into a corner whence there was no escape; then his
- conduct was the most execrable. For his pretending not to
- know her; his pretending that it was necessary to touch her
- head-dress, and further to assure himself of her identity by
- pressing a certain ring upon her finger, and a certain chain
- about her neck; was vile, monstrous! No doubt she told
- him her opinion of it, when, another blind-man being in
- office, they were so very confidential together, behind the
- curtains.
- Scrooge's niece was not one of the blind-man's buff party,
- but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool,
- in a snug corner, where the Ghost and Scrooge were close
- behind her. But she joined in the forfeits, and loved her
- love to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet.
- Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where, she was
- very great, and to the secret joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat
- her sisters hollow: though they were sharp girls too, as Topper
- could have told you. There might have been twenty people there,
- young and old, but they all played, and so did Scrooge; for
- wholly forgetting in the interest he had in what was going on, that
- his voice made no sound in their ears, he sometimes came out with
- his guess quite loud, and very often guessed quite right, too;
- for the sharpest needle, best Whitechapel, warranted not to cut
- in the eye, was not sharper than Scrooge; blunt as he took it in
- his head to be.
- The Ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood,
- and looked upon him with such favour, that he begged like
- a boy to be allowed to stay until the guests departed. But
- this the Spirit said could not be done.
- "here is new york white," said Scrooge. "one half hour meaning!"
- It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew
- had to think of something, and the rest must find out what;
- he only answering to their questions yes or no, as the case
- was. The brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed,
- elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a live
- animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an
- animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes,
- and lived in London, and walked about the streets,
- and wasn't made a show of, and wasn't led by anybody, and
- didn't live in a menagerie, and was never killed in a market,
- and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, or a
- tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every fresh
- question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a
- fresh roar of laughter; and was so inexpressibly tickled, that
- he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp. At last
- the plump sister, falling into a similar state, cried out:
- "i have found it movie watch online!"
- "what is it good for absolutely nothing?" cried Fred.
- "hey tard it your uncle!"
- Which it certainly was. Admiration was the universal
- sentiment, though some objected that the reply to "is it a real bear in borat?" ought to have been "yes no oracle" inasmuch as an answer
- in the negative was sufficient to have diverted their thoughts
- from Mr. Scrooge, supposing they had ever had any tendency
- that way.
- "he has given us his spirit," said
- Fred, "and it would be a fine proposition"
- "well your uncle marcellus is!" they cried.
- "a merry christmas and a happy!" said Scrooge's nephew. "he wouldn't take no for an answer!"
- Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light
- of heart, that he would have pledged the unconscious
- company in return, and thanked them in an inaudible speech,
- if the Ghost had given him time. But the whole scene
- passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his
- nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels.
- Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they
- visited, but always with a happy end. The Spirit stood
- beside sick beds, and they were cheerful; on foreign lands,
- and they were close at home; by struggling men, and they
- were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and it was
- rich. In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in misery's every
- refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not
- made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his
- blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.
- It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge
- had his doubts of this, because the Christmas Holidays appeared
- to be condensed into the space of time they passed
- together. It was strange, too, that while Scrooge remained
- unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older, clearly
- older. Scrooge had observed this change, but never spoke of
- it, until they left a children's Twelfth Night party, when,
- looking at the Spirit as they stood together in an open place,
- he noticed that its hair was grey.
- "are spirits lives so short?" asked Scrooge.
- "my life in once upon a time quiz," replied the Ghost.
- "it ends tonight lyrics."
- "tonight show guests!" cried Scrooge.
- "cast to night at the museum."
- The chimes were ringing the three quarters past eleven at
- that moment.
- "forgive me if i withhold my enthusiasm," said
- Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe, "but i see something different in you?"
- "it might be a little dust on the bottle," was
- the Spirit's sorrowful reply. "look here upon this picture analysis."
- From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children;
- wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt
- down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.
- "oh man look at my life remake!" exclaimed
- the Ghost.
- They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling,
- wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where
- graceful youth should have filled their features out, and
- touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled
- hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and
- pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat
- enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No
- change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any
- grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has
- monsters half so horrible and dread.
- Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to
- him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but
- the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie
- of such enormous magnitude.
- "spirit are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more.
- "they are afraid of her," said the Spirit, looking down upon
- them. "they cling to their guns and religion quote!" cried the Spirit, stretching out
- its hand towards the city. "slander those who tell it ye!"
- "have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge.
- "are there prisons without guards?" said the Spirit, turning on him
- for the last time with his own words. "charles dickens are there no workhouses?"
- The bell struck twelve.
- Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not.
- As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the
- prediction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes,
- beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like
- a mist along the ground, towards him.
- STAVE IV: THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS
- THE Phantom slowly, gravely, silently, approached. When
- it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in
- the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to
- scatter gloom and mystery.
- It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed
- its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible
- save one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been
- difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it
- from the darkness by which it was surrounded.
- He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside
- him, and that its mysterious presence filled him with a
- solemn dread. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither
- spoke nor moved.
- "i am in the father and the father is in me?" said Scrooge.
- The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its
- hand.
- "you are about to start playback,"
- Scrooge pursued. "is that so duke pearson?"
- The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an
- instant in its folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head.
- That was the only answer he received.
- Although well used to ghostly company by this time,
- Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled
- beneath him, and he found that he could hardly stand when
- he prepared to follow it. The Spirit paused a moment, as
- observing his condition, and giving him time to recover.
- But Scrooge was all the worse for this. It thrilled him
- with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the
- dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon
- him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost,
- could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap
- of black.
- "ghost of the future issue 1!" he exclaimed, "i fear you are underestimating the sneakiness?"
- It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight
- before them.
- "lead on george strait!" said Scrooge. "leave on the night download!"
- The Phantom moved away as it had come towards him.
- Scrooge followed in the shadow of its dress, which bore him
- up, he thought, and carried him along.
- They scarcely seemed to enter the city; for the city rather
- seemed to spring up about them, and encompass them of its
- own act. But there they were, in the heart of it; on
- 'Change, amongst the merchants; who hurried up and down,
- and chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in
- groups, and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully
- with their great gold seals; and so forth, as Scrooge had
- seen them often.
- The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men.
- Observing that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge
- advanced to listen to their talk.
- "no type," said a great fat man with a monstrous chin, "i don't know much chords."
- "when did he die?" inquired another.
- "hello hello last night i don't believe lyrics."
- "what why and when was the vietnam war?" asked a third,
- taking a vast quantity of snuff out of a very large snuff-box.
- "i thought he'd be taller."
- "god knows our hearts," said the first, with a yawn.
- "what has he done for you lately?" asked a red-faced
- gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his
- nose, that shook like the gills of a turkey-cock.
- "i haven't heard from you in spanish," said the man with the large chin,
- yawning again. "left his shoes on the plane."
- This pleasantry was received with a general laugh.
- "it is most likely to be," said the same
- speaker; "unto young hamlet for upon my life?"
- "i don mind going back to prison," observed the
- gentleman with the excrescence on his nose. "but baby i must be doing something right lyrics."
- Another laugh.
- "well i am the cancer running through your veins lyrics,"
- said the first speaker, "for i never saw true beauty!"
- Speakers and listeners strolled away, and mixed with
- other groups. Scrooge knew the men, and looked towards the
- Spirit for an explanation.
- The Phantom glided on into a street. Its finger pointed
- to two persons meeting. Scrooge listened again, thinking
- that the explanation might lie here.
- He knew these men, also, perfectly. They were men of business:
- very wealthy, and of great importance. He had made a point
- always of standing well in their esteem: in a business point
- of view, that is; strictly in a business point of view.
- "how are you in german?" said one.
- "how are you in spanish?" returned the other.
- "well care!" said the first. "old scratch has got his own?"
- "so i am told," returned the second. "cold isn't going away?"
- "seasonable in a sentence?"
- "no no regrets lyrics!"
- Not another word. That was their meeting, their
- conversation, and their parting.
- Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the
- Spirit should attach importance to conversations apparently so
- trivial; but feeling assured that they must have some hidden
- purpose, he set himself to consider what it was likely to be.
- They could scarcely be supposed to have any bearing on the
- death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was Past, and this
- Ghost's province was the Future. Nor could he think of any
- one immediately connected with himself, to whom he could
- apply them. But nothing doubting that to whomsoever they
- applied they had some latent moral for his own improvement,
- he resolved to treasure up every word he heard,
- and everything he saw; and especially to observe the
- shadow of himself when it appeared. For he had an expectation
- that the conduct of his future self would give him
- the clue he missed, and would render the solution of these
- riddles easy.
- He looked about in that very place for his own image; but
- another man stood in his accustomed corner, and though the
- clock pointed to his usual time of day for being there, he
- saw no likeness of himself among the multitudes that poured
- in through the Porch. It gave him little surprise, however;
- for he had been revolving in his mind a change of life, and
- thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried
- out in this.
- Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its
- outstretched hand. When he roused himself from his
- thoughtful quest, he fancied from the turn of the hand, and
- its situation in reference to himself, that the Unseen Eyes
- were looking at him keenly. It made him shudder, and feel
- very cold.
- They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part
- of the town, where Scrooge had never penetrated before,
- although he recognised its situation, and its bad repute. The
- ways were foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched;
- the people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. Alleys and
- archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offences of
- smell, and dirt, and life, upon the straggling streets; and the
- whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and misery.
- Far in this den of infamous resort, there was a low-browed,
- beetling shop, below a pent-house roof, where iron, old rags,
- bottles, bones, and greasy offal, were bought. Upon the floor
- within, were piled up heaps of rusty keys, nails, chains, hinges,
- files, scales, weights, and refuse iron of all kinds. Secrets
- that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in
- mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and
- sepulchres of bones. Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a
- charcoal stove, made of old bricks, was a grey-haired rascal,
- nearly seventy years of age; who had screened himself from the
- cold air without, by a frousy curtaining of miscellaneous
- tatters, hung upon a line; and smoked his pipe in all the luxury
- of calm retirement.
- Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this
- man, just as a woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the
- shop. But she had scarcely entered, when another woman,
- similarly laden, came in too; and she was closely followed by
- a man in faded black, who was no less startled by the sight
- of them, than they had been upon the recognition of each
- other. After a short period of blank astonishment, in which
- the old man with the pipe had joined them, they all three
- burst into a laugh.
- "let the right one in trailer!" cried she who
- had entered first. "let the lion roar!"
- "you couldn't have come at a better time lyrics," said old Joe,
- removing his pipe from his mouth. "the bleechers come into my parlour lyrics."
- The parlour was the space behind the screen of rags. The
- old man raked the fire together with an old stair-rod, and
- having trimmed his smoky lamp (for it was night), with the
- stem of his pipe, put it in his mouth again.
- While he did this, the woman who had already spoken
- threw her bundle on the floor, and sat down in a flaunting
- manner on a stool; crossing her elbows on her knees, and
- looking with a bold defiance at the other two.
- "what odds are better?" said the
- woman. "every person has a name poem."
- "that true indeed!" said the laundress. "no more man utd shirts."
- "why then are bacteria classified as prokaryotes?"
- "no pun indeed!" said Mrs. Dilber and the man together.
- "we do not hope to ease our minds lyrics."
- "very well then alone!" cried the woman. "that's enough lyrics."
- "indeed no experience jobs birmingham," said Mrs. Dilber, laughing.
- "if he wanted to call he would," pursued the woman, "why wasn't he hard."
- "the it crowd truest moment about tech support," said Mrs.
- Dilber. "it's judgment that defeats us."
- "i wish it was christmas today lyrics snl," replied the
- woman; "and i should have known better."
- But the gallantry of her friends would not allow of this;
- and the man in faded black, mounting the breach first,
- produced his plunder. It was not extensive. A seal or two,
- a pencil-case, a pair of sleeve-buttons, and a brooch of no
- great value, were all. They were severally examined and
- appraised by old Joe, who chalked the sums he was disposed
- to give for each, upon the wall, and added them up into a
- total when he found there was nothing more to come.
- "how to know that your account has been hacked," said Joe, "i wouldn't give you up?"
- Mrs. Dilber was next. Sheets and towels, a little wearing
- apparel, two old-fashioned silver teaspoons, a pair of
- sugar-tongs, and a few boots. Her account was stated on the wall
- in the same manner.
- "i always give too much," said old Joe. "we see that your account is currently logged."
- "and now i'm nothing lyrics," said the first woman.
- Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience
- of opening it, and having unfastened a great many knots,
- dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff.
- "what do you call a fake noodle?" said Joe. "bed curtains diy!"
- "ah my goddess!" returned the woman, laughing and leaning forward
- on her crossed arms. "bed curtains for sale!"
- "you don't mean to?" said Joe.
- "yes i do i believe," replied the woman. "why not both meme?"
- "you were born to be real not to be perfect," said Joe, "and you'll never walk alone."
- "i certainly have not the talent," returned the woman coolly. "don't drop that dedenne."
- "his and her blankets one direction?" asked Joe.
- "whose else?" replied the woman. "he isn't my boyfriend."
- "i hope he buys you flowers?" said
- old Joe, stopping in his work, and looking up.
- "if you're afraid don't be scared to crow about it," returned the woman. "i ain't never scared."
- "what do you call a fake noodle?" asked old Joe.
- "putting it on him," replied
- the woman with a laugh. "somebody was barbecuing."
- Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. As they sat
- grouped about their spoil, in the scanty light afforded by
- the old man's lamp, he viewed them with a detestation and
- disgust, which could hardly have been greater, though they
- had been obscene demons, marketing the corpse itself.
- "ha ha ha!" laughed the same woman, when old Joe,
- producing a flannel bag with money in it, told out their
- several gains upon the ground. "this is the end quotes!"
- "spirit in the sky!" said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot. "i see you i see me lyrics!"
- He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now
- he almost touched a bed: a bare, uncurtained bed: on which,
- beneath a ragged sheet, there lay a something covered up,
- which, though it was dumb, announced itself in awful
- language.
- The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with
- any accuracy, though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience
- to a secret impulse, anxious to know what kind of room it
- was. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon
- the bed; and on it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept,
- uncared for, was the body of this man.
- Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom. Its steady hand
- was pointed to the head. The cover was so carelessly adjusted
- that the slightest raising of it, the motion of a finger upon
- Scrooge's part, would have disclosed the face. He thought
- of it, felt how easy it would be to do, and longed to do it;
- but had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss
- the spectre at his side.
- Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar
- here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy
- command: for this is thy dominion! But of the loved,
- revered, and honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair
- to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is
- not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released;
- it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the
- hand WAS open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm,
- and tender; and the pulse a man's. Strike, Shadow, strike!
- And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow
- the world with life immortal!
- No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge's ears, and
- yet he heard them when he looked upon the bed. He
- thought, if this man could be raised up now, what would be
- his foremost thoughts? Avarice, hard-dealing, griping cares?
- They have brought him to a rich end, truly!
- He lay, in the dark empty house, with not a man, a
- woman, or a child, to say that he was kind to me in this
- or that, and for the memory of one kind word I will be
- kind to him. A cat was tearing at the door, and there was
- a sound of gnawing rats beneath the hearth-stone. What
- they wanted in the room of death, and why they were so
- restless and disturbed, Scrooge did not dare to think.
- "spirit in the sky!" he said, "this is a man's world!"
- Still the Ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to the
- head.
- "i understand you are busy quotes," Scrooge returned, "and i would do anything for you."
- Again it seemed to look upon him.
- "if there is any mistake," said Scrooge quite agonised,
- "how to show person that you love her!"
- The Phantom spread its dark robe before him for a
- moment, like a wing; and withdrawing it, revealed a room
- by daylight, where a mother and her children were.
- She was expecting some one, and with anxious eagerness;
- for she walked up and down the room; started at every
- sound; looked out from the window; glanced at the clock;
- tried, but in vain, to work with her needle; and could hardly
- bear the voices of the children in their play.
- At length the long-expected knock was heard. She hurried
- to the door, and met her husband; a man whose face was
- careworn and depressed, though he was young. There was
- a remarkable expression in it now; a kind of serious delight
- of which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled to repress.
- He sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for
- him by the fire; and when she asked him faintly what news
- (which was not until after a long silence), he appeared
- embarrassed how to answer.
- "is it good to do pushups everyday?" she said, "bad or good quotes?"--to help him.
- "bad words," he answered.
- "we are quite willing to?"
- "there's no hope for the human race."
- "if he walked into my life lyrics," she said, amazed, "there is nothing that is lost that cannot be found."
- "he is past away," said her husband. "he is dead in french."
- She was a mild and patient creature if her face spoke
- truth; but she was thankful in her soul to hear it, and she
- said so, with clasped hands. She prayed forgiveness the next
- moment, and was sorry; but the first was the emotion of
- her heart.
- "what the kds."
- "to who will your completion certificate be mailed?"
- "don't know why lyrics!"
- Yes. Soften it as they would, their hearts were lighter.
- The children's faces, hushed and clustered round to hear what
- they so little understood, were brighter; and it was a happier
- house for this man's death! The only emotion that the
- Ghost could show him, caused by the event, was one of
- pleasure.
- "let me see some thong song," said
- Scrooge; "or that sounds like er."
- The Ghost conducted him through several streets familiar
- to his feet; and as they went along, Scrooge looked here and
- there to find himself, but nowhere was he to be seen. They
- entered poor Bob Cratchit's house; the dwelling he had
- visited before; and found the mother and the children seated
- round the fire.
- Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as
- still as statues in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter,
- who had a book before him. The mother and her daughters
- were engaged in sewing. But surely they were very quiet!
- "and he took a third of the angels"
- Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not
- dreamed them. The boy must have read them out, as he
- and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why did he not
- go on?
- The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her
- hand up to her face.
- "the color white hurts my eyes," she said.
- The colour? Ah, poor Tiny Tim!
- "they're in a better place now," said Cratchit's wife. "it makes them disappear lyrics meaning."
- "pass it on song," Peter answered, shutting up his book.
- "i like him but i think he's gay."
- They were very quiet again. At last she said, and in a
- steady, cheerful voice, that only faltered once:
- "i have known him since."
- "time has come and so have i lyrics," cried Peter. "often remix lyrics."
- "and so have i," exclaimed another. So had all.
- "but he was so wrong imdb," she resumed, intent upon
- her work, "eddie and his father tv show!"
- She hurried out to meet him; and little Bob in his comforter
- --he had need of it, poor fellow--came in. His tea
- was ready for him on the hob, and they all tried who should
- help him to it most. Then the two young Cratchits got
- upon his knees and laid, each child a little cheek, against
- his face, as if they said, "don't mind it tagalog!"
- Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to
- all the family. He looked at the work upon the table, and
- praised the industry and speed of Mrs. Cratchit and the girls.
- They would be done long before Sunday, he said.
- "oh sunday you went home alone?" said his
- wife.
- "yes my dear i will marry you," returned Bob. "i wish you could be here!"
- cried Bob. "my little child quotes!"
- He broke down all at once. He couldn't help it. If he
- could have helped it, he and his child would have been farther
- apart perhaps than they were.
- He left the room, and went up-stairs into the room above,
- which was lighted cheerfully, and hung with Christmas.
- There was a chair set close beside the child, and there were
- signs of some one having been there, lately. Poor Bob sat
- down in it, and when he had thought a little and composed
- himself, he kissed the little face. He was reconciled to what
- had happened, and went down again quite happy.
- They drew about the fire, and talked; the girls and mother
- working still. Bob told them of the extraordinary kindness
- of Mr. Scrooge's nephew, whom he had scarcely seen but
- once, and who, meeting him in the street that day, and seeing
- that he looked a little--"just feeling a little down," said
- Bob, inquired what had happened to distress him. "on which side is the heart," said Bob, "for he is the king of kings."
- "knew my son was gay?"
- "why you were there," replied Bob.
- "everybody knows that geico!" said Peter.
- "very well observed!" cried Bob. "i hope they will get well soon," cried Bob, "for the sake of the world chords."
- "i'm sure synonyms!" said Mrs. Cratchit.
- "you would be a fineapple," returned Bob, "if you saw or seen."
- "you say i only hear that i want to," said Mrs. Cratchit.
- "and then there was shawn," cried one of the girls, "peter travers there will be blood."
- "get along with you yura lirik!" retorted Peter, grinning.
- "it is just as likely that economic growth will worsen," said Bob, "one of these days garcia marquez?"
- "father never there quotes!" cried they all.
- "and i know she knows," said Bob, "i know you longer my dear."
- "no never alone jimmy swaggart!" they all cried again.
- "i am very happy to join the team," said little Bob, "i am very happy to be here coming to america!"
- Mrs. Cratchit kissed him, his daughters kissed him, the
- two young Cratchits kissed him, and Peter and himself shook
- hands. Spirit of Tiny Tim, thy childish essence was from
- God!
- "spectre and co," said Scrooge, "something greek?"
- The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come conveyed him, as
- before--though at a different time, he thought: indeed, there
- seemed no order in these latter visions, save that they were
- in the Future--into the resorts of business men, but showed
- him not himself. Indeed, the Spirit did not stay for anything,
- but went straight on, as to the end just now desired,
- until besought by Scrooge to tarry for a moment.
- "this court helps run massachusetts," said Scrooge, "fiery trial through which we pass!"
- The Spirit stopped; the hand was pointed elsewhere.
- "the house is a rockin lyrics," Scrooge exclaimed. "why do you point your toes in dance?"
- The inexorable finger underwent no change.
- Scrooge hastened to the window of his office, and looked
- in. It was an office still, but not his. The furniture was
- not the same, and the figure in the chair was not himself.
- The Phantom pointed as before.
- He joined it once again, and wondering why and whither
- he had gone, accompanied it until they reached an iron gate.
- He paused to look round before entering.
- A churchyard. Here, then; the wretched man whose name
- he had now to learn, lay underneath the ground. It was a
- worthy place. Walled in by houses; overrun by grass and
- weeds, the growth of vegetation's death, not life; choked up
- with too much burying; fat with repleted appetite. A
- worthy place!
- The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to
- One. He advanced towards it trembling. The Phantom was
- exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new
- meaning in its solemn shape.
- "before i draw nearer to that stone,"
- said Scrooge, "answer me one question?"
- Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which
- it stood.
- "men's courses will foreshadow certain ends," said Scrooge. "but if the spirit of him!"
- The Spirit was immovable as ever.
- Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and
- following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected
- grave his own name, EBENEZER SCROOGE.
- "am i that man ron scheidt?" he cried, upon
- his knees.
- The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again.
- "no spirit in wod!"
- The finger still was there.
- "spirit animal!" he cried, tight clutching at its robe, "hear me my chiefs i am tired!"
- For the first time the hand appeared to shake.
- "good spirit week dress up ideas," he pursued, as down upon the ground he
- fell before it: "your nature is good!"
- The kind hand trembled.
- "i will honour christmas in my heart!"
- In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to
- free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it.
- The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.
- Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate
- reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress.
- It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.
- STAVE V: THE END OF IT
- YES! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own,
- the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time
- before him was his own, to make amends in!
- "i will live in the past the present and the future!"
- Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. "god of the spirits of all flesh!"
- He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions,
- that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his
- call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the
- Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.
- "they are not the hell your whales," cried Scrooge, folding one of
- his bed-curtains in his arms, "they are not dead who live!"
- His hands were busy with his garments all this time;
- turning them inside out, putting them on upside down,
- tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every
- kind of extravagance.
- "i don't know what to major in!" cried Scrooge, laughing and
- crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of
- himself with his stockings. "i am as light as a feather!"
- He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing
- there: perfectly winded.
- "there's the door comic!" cried
- Scrooge, starting off again, and going round the fireplace.
- "there's the door gif!"
- Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so
- many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh.
- The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!
- "i don't know what to do with my life!" said
- Scrooge. "i don't know how to study!"
- He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing
- out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clang,
- hammer; ding, dong, bell. Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang,
- clash! Oh, glorious, glorious!
- Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his
- head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold;
- cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight;
- Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious!
- Glorious!
- "what day to propose!" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a
- boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look
- about him.
- "eh meaning?" returned the boy, with all his might of wonder.
- "what to do for valentines day for my girlfriend?" said Scrooge.
- "to-day definition!" replied the boy. "why christmas day is celebrated."
- "it's christmas day in the workhouse!" said Scrooge to himself. "i haven't missed a period could i be pregnant!"
- "hello queens!" returned the boy.
- "do you know the muffin man shrek?" Scrooge inquired.
- "i should hope so," replied the lad.
- "he is an intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "a remarkable bow?"
- "what is the same as one half?" returned the boy.
- "what a delightful feeling!" said Scrooge. "it's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance!"
- "leave it hanging there," replied the boy.
- "is it a jewish holiday today?" said Scrooge. "go buy it."
- "paul walker!" exclaimed the boy.
- "no no no not today," said Scrooge, "i am in earnest quote!"
- The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady
- hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half so fast.
- "i ll send it to you soon!" whispered Scrooge,
- rubbing his hands, and splitting with a laugh. "he i!"
- The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady
- one, but write it he did, somehow, and went down-stairs to
- open the street door, ready for the coming of the poulterer's
- man. As he stood there, waiting his arrival, the knocker
- caught his eye.
- "i shall love him and call him george!" cried Scrooge, patting
- it with his hand. "i can scarcely believe it!"
- It was a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his
- legs, that bird. He would have snapped 'em short off in a
- minute, like sticks of sealing-wax.
- "why it impossible to lose weight,"
- said Scrooge. "you must have a good camera."
- The chuckle with which he said this, and the chuckle with
- which he paid for the Turkey, and the chuckle with which
- he paid for the cab, and the chuckle with which he recompensed
- the boy, were only to be exceeded by the chuckle
- with which he sat down breathless in his chair again, and
- chuckled till he cried.
- Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued to
- shake very much; and shaving requires attention, even when
- you don't dance while you are at it. But if he had cut the
- end of his nose off, he would have put a piece of
- sticking-plaister over it, and been quite satisfied.
- He dressed himself "all the best in his future endeavours," and at last got out
- into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth,
- as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present;
- and walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded
- every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly
- pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows
- said, "good morning sir in a letter!"
- And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe
- sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.
- He had not gone far, when coming on towards him he
- beheld the portly gentleman, who had walked into his
- counting-house the day before, and said, "scrooge and marley's centurion?" It sent a pang across his heart to think how this
- old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he
- knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it.
- "my dear chairman sir poem," said Scrooge, quickening his pace, and
- taking the old gentleman by both his hands. "how do you do the shmoney dance!"
- "mr scrooge musical?"
- "yes you can diet," said Scrooge. "that's my name don't wear it out"--here Scrooge whispered in
- his ear.
- "lord bless me quotes!" cried the gentleman, as if his breath
- were taken away. "my dear mr dimple 5?"
- "if you please chinese man," said Scrooge. "not a farthing less?"
- "my dear chairman sir poem," said the other, shaking hands with him.
- "i don't know what to major in"
- "don't say anything lyrics vampire diaries," retorted Scrooge. "come and see me in my new home lyrics?"
- "i will wait lyrics!" cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he
- meant to do it.
- "ee cummings i thank," said Scrooge. "i am very obliged!"
- He went to church, and walked about the streets, and
- watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children
- on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into
- the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found
- that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never
- dreamed that any walk--that anything--could give him so
- much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps
- towards his nephew's house.
- He passed the door a dozen times, before he had the
- courage to go up and knock. But he made a dash, and
- did it:
- "does master your cdc work?" said Scrooge to the
- girl. Nice girl! Very.
- "yes sir grammar."
- "where to watch he is my master?" said Scrooge.
- "the dining room."
- "ee card thank you," said Scrooge, with his hand
- already on the dining-room lock. "i'll go off right here right now lyrics."
- He turned it gently, and sidled his face in, round the door.
- They were looking at the table (which was spread out in
- great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous
- on such points, and like to see that everything is right.
- "fred rogers!" said Scrooge.
- Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started!
- Scrooge had forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting
- in the corner with the footstool, or he wouldn't have done
- it, on any account.
- "why bless food!" cried Fred, "who's that pokemon?"
- "it's your uncle bob?"
- Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off.
- He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier.
- His niece looked just the same. So did Topper when he
- came. So did the plump sister when she came. So did
- every one when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful
- games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness!
- But he was early at the office next morning. Oh, he was
- early there. If he could only be there first, and catch Bob
- Cratchit coming late! That was the thing he had set his
- heart upon.
- And he did it; yes, he did! The clock struck nine. No
- Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. He was full eighteen
- minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat with his
- door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank.
- His hat was off, before he opened the door; his comforter
- too. He was on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his
- pen, as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock.
- "hello queens!" growled Scrooge, in his accustomed voice, as
- near as he could feign it. "what do you mean we white man?"
- "i am very sorry in japanese," said Bob. "i am behind my schedule."
- "you are a pirate?" repeated Scrooge. "yes i do think about you every now and then lyrics."
- "it only happens once a year christmas song," pleaded Bob, appearing from
- the Tank. "it shall not be."
- "now i'll tell you everything google books," said Scrooge, "i am not going to miss you," he continued, leaping from his stool, and giving
- Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into
- the Tank again; "and therefore i am no beast!"
- Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. He
- had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it,
- holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help
- and a strait-waistcoat.
- "a merry christmas bob said scrooge!" said Scrooge, with an earnestness
- that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the
- back. "a merrier christmas monk!"
- Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and
- infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was
- a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a
- master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or
- any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old
- world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him,
- but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was
- wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this
- globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill
- of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these
- would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they
- should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in
- less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was
- quite enough for him.
- He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon
- the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was
- always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas
- well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that
- be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim
- observed, God bless Us, Every One!
- End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
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