A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Audiobook with holidays music)

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a christmas carol by charles dickens read by bob neufeld
preface i have endeavored in this ghostly little book to raise the ghost of an idea
which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves with each other
with the season or with me may it haunt their houses pleasantly and no one wished to lay it
their faithful friend and servant charles dickens december 1843
Stage one: 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 scrooch's name was good upon change for anything he chose to put his hand to
old marley was as dead as a doornail 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 iron mongeri in the trade
but the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it
for the country is done for you will therefore permit me to repeat emphatically that marley
was as dead as a doornail 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 soul assign his sole residuary legacy his soul friend and soul mourner
and even scrooge was not so dreadfully caught up by the sad events but that he was an excellent
man of business on the very day of the funeral and solemnized it with an undaunted bargain the
mention of marty'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 then there would be any other middle-aged gentleman brashly 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 molly'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 grindstone 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 shriveled his cheek
stiffened his gate made his eyes red his thin lips blew and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice
a frosty rhyme was on his head and on his eyebrows and his wiery 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 chilled him no wind that blew was better 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 that boast of the advantage over him in only
one respect they often came down handsomely and scrooge never did nobody ever stopped him
in the street to say with gladsome looks my dear scrooge how are you when will you come to see me
though 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 away 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 i at all is better than an evil one dark master 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 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 there was cold bleak biting weather foggy with all 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 neighboring offices like bloody smears upon the palpable brown air
the fog came pouring in at every [ __ ] 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 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 shuffle 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 efforts 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
said scrooge hum bug he had so heated himself with his rapid walking in the fog and frost
this nephew of screeches 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
i am sure i do said scrooge merry christmas what right have you to be married
what reason have you to be married you're poor enough oh come then return the nephew gaby
what right have you to be dismal what reason have you to be morose you're rich enough throughge
having no better answer ready on the spirit of the moment said again and followed it up with hamburg
don't be cross uncle said the nephew but what else can i be returned the uncle when i live in
such a world of fools as this merry christmas out upon merry christmas what's christmas time to you
but a time for paying bills without money a time for finding yourself a year older
but not an hour richer a time for balancing your books and having every item in them through a
round dozen of once presented dead against you if i could work my will said scrooge indignantly
every idiot who goes about with merry christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own
pudding and buried with a steak of honey through his heart he should uncle pleaded the nephew
nephew returned the uncle sternly keep christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mind
keep it repeated scrooge's nephew but you don't keep it let me leave it alone then said scrooge
much good man do you much good has it ever done you there are many things from which i might have
derived good by which i have not profited i daresay returned the nephew christmas among
the rest but i am sure i have always thought of christmas time when it has come round apart from
the veneration due its sacred name and origin if anything belonging to it can be apart from that
as a good time a kind forgiving charitable pleasant time the only time i know of in the
long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut up hearts freely
and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave
and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys and therefore uncle though it has never
put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket i believe that it has done me good and will do
me good and i say god bless it the clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded becoming immediately
sensible of the impropriety he poked the fire and distinguished the last frail spark forever
let me hear another sound from you said scrooge and you'll keep your christmas
by losing your situation you're quite a powerful speaker sir we added turning to
his nephew i wonder you don't go into parliament don't be angry uncle come dine with us tomorrow
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 cried scrooge's nephew
why why did you get married said scrooge because i fell in love 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 may uncle but you never came to see me before that happened
why give it as a reason for not coming now good afternoon said scrooge i want nothing from you
i ask nothing of you why cannot we be friends good afternoon said scrooge i am sorry with all
my heart to find you so resolute we have never had any quarrel to which i have been a party
but i have made the trial in homage to christmas and i'll keep my christmas humor to the last so a
merry christmas uncle good afternoon said scrooge and a happy new year good afternoon 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 fellow muttered scrooge who overheard him my clerk with
15 shillings a week and a wife and family talking about a merry christmas i'll retire to bedlam
this lunatic and letting scrooge's nephew out had let two other people in they were partly
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 maris i believe said
one of the gentlemen referring to his list have i the pleasure of addressing mr scrooge or mr marley
mr marley has been dead these seven years scrooge replied he died seven years ago
this very night we have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner said the
gentleman presenting his credentials it certainly was for they had been two kindred spirits at the
ominous word liberality scrooge frowned and shook his head and handed the credentials back
at this festive season of the year mr scrooge said the gentleman taking up a pen it is more than
usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute
who suffer greatly at the present time many thousands are in want of common necessaries
hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts sir are there no prisons asked scrooge
oh plenty of prisons said the gentleman laying down the pen again and the union work houses
demanded scrooge are they still in operation they are still returned the gentleman
i wish i could say they were not the treadmill and the poor law are in full vigor then
said scrooge both very busy sir ah i was afraid from what you said at first but something
had occurred to stop them in their useful course said scrooge i'm very glad to hear it
under the impression that they scarcely furnish christian chair of mind or body to the multitude
return the gentleman a few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and
drink and means of warmth we choose this time because it is a time of all others when want
is keenly felt and abundance rejoices what shall we put you down for nothing
scrooge replied ah you wish to remain anonymous i wish to be left alone said scrooge since you ask
me what i wish gentlemen that is my answer i don't make marry myself for christmas and i can't afford
to make idle people marry i help to support the establishments i have mentioned they cost enough
and those who are badly off must go there oh many can't go there and many would rather die
oh if they would rather die said scrooge they had better do it and decrease the surplus population
besides excuse me i don't know that but you might know it observe the gentleman
it's not my business scrooge returned it's enough for a man to understand his own business
and not to interfere with other peoples mine occupies me constantly good afternoon gentlemen
seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point the gentleman withdrew scrooge resumed
his labors 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 slyly 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 laborers were repairing
the gas pipes and had lighted a great fire in a brazier around 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 solidly 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 50 cooks and butlers to keep christmas as a lord mayor's household should
and even the little taylor whom he had fined five shillings on the previous monday for being
drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets stirred up tomorrow's pudding and his garrett 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 nod by dogs stooped down at scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a christmas carol
but at the first sound of god bless you mary gentlemen may nothing you dismay
seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror leaving the keyhole
to the fog an 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 quite convenient sir
it's not convenient said scrooge and it's not fair if i was to stop half a crown for it you'd think
yourself ill used i'll be bound the clerk smiled faintly and yet said scrooge you don't think me
ill used when i pay a day's wages for no work the clerk observed that it was only once a year
a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of december said scrooge buttoning his great
coat to the chin but i suppose you must have the whole day be here all the earlier next morning
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 20 times in
honor of its being christmas eve and then ran home to camden town as hard as he could pelt
to play at blind man'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 it hide and seek with other houses and forgotten the way out again
it was old enough now and dreary enough but 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 his every stone was
feigned 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 started 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 was 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
alderman and livery that had also been bored 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 of 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 his 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 color 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 ear resolution 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 pig
dale 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 poo poo and close it with a bang
the sound resounded through the house like thunder every room above and every cask in
the wine merchant cellars below appeared to have a separate peel 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 a 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 carrying 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 small 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 coal 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 night cap and sat down before the fire to take his gruel
it was a very low fire in dean 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 cain's and abel's pharaoh's daughters
queens of sheba angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather beds
abrahams belshazzars apostles pulling off to sea and 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 hole 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 everyone hum bug 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 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
it's hamburg still said scrooge i won't believe it his color 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 marley's ghost and
fell again the same face the very same marley in his pigtail usual waistcoats tights and boots the
tassels on the ladder bristling like his pigtail in 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 rotten 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 rapper he had not observed before he was still incredulous and fought against his senses
oh no said scrooge caustic and cold as ever but what do you want with me
marge marley's voice no doubt about it who are you ask me who i was
who were you then said scrooge raising his voice you're particular for a shade
he was going to say to a shade but substituted this as more appropriate in life i was your
partner jacob marley can you can you sit down ask scrooge looking doubtfully at him
i can will do it then scrooge asked the question because he didn't know whether a ghost so
transparent might find himself in the 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 me observe the ghost i don't said scrooge what evidence would you have
of my reality beyond that of your senses i don't know said scrooge why do you doubt your senses
because said scrooge a little thing affects them a slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats
you may be an undigested bit of beef a blot of mustard a crumb of cheese
a fragment of an underdone potato there's more of gravy than a grave about you whatever you are
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 specters
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 vapor from an oven
you see this toothpick said scrooge returning quickly to the charge but the reason just assigned
and wishing though it were only for a second to divert the vision's stony gaze from himself
i do replied the ghost you are not looking at it said scrooge but i see it said the ghost
notwithstanding well returned scrooge i have but to swallow this and be for the rest of
my days persecuted by a legion of goblins all of my own creation hamburg i tell you hamburg
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 spoon
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 he said dreadful apparition
why do you trouble me man of the worldly mind replied because do you believe in me or not i do
said scrooge i must but why do spirits walk the earth and why do they come to me it is required
of every man the ghost returned that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men
and travel far and wide and if that spirit goes not forth in life
it is condemned to do so after death it is doomed to wander through the world
ah woe is me and witness what it cannot share but might have shed on earth and turned to happiness
again the spectre raised a cry and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands
you are fettered said scrooge trembling tell me why i wear the chain i forged in life
replied the ghost i made it blink by link and yard by god i girded it on of my own free will
but of my own free will i wore it is its pattern strange do you scrooge trembled more and more or
would you know pursue the ghost the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself
it was full as heavy and long as this seven christmas eves ago you have labored on it
since it is a ponderous chain scrooge glanced about him on the floor in the expectation
of finding himself surrounded by some 50 or 60 fathoms of iron cable but he could see nothing
jacob he said implore me oh jacob marley tell me more speak comfort to me jacob
i have none to give the ghost replied it comes from other regions of a nation's crude
and is conveyed by other ministers to other kinds of men nor can i tell you what i would
a very little more is permitted to me i cannot rest i cannot stay i cannot linger anywhere
my spirit never walked beyond our counting house mark me in life my spirit never roved beyond the
narrow limits of our money-changing whole and weary journeys lie before me it was a habit with
scrooge whenever he became thoughtful to put his hands in his breach's 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 very slow about it jacob scrooge observed in a business-like manner
though with humility and deference slow the ghost repeated seven years dead mused scrooge
and traveling all the time the whole time said the ghost no rest no peace incessant torture
of remorse he traveled fast said scrooge on the wings of the wind replied the ghost you
might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years 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 captain bound and double ironed
cried the phantom not to know that ages of incessant labor by immortal creatures
for this earth must pass into eternity for the good of which it is susceptible is all developed
not to know that any christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere whatever it may be
will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness not to know that no
space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused yet such was i oh such was i
but you were always a good man of business jacob faltered scrooge who now began to
apply this to himself business cried the ghost ringing his hands again mankind was my business
the common welfare was my business charity mercy forbearance and benevolence were all my business
the dealings of my trade were about a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of 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 the rolling year the specter said i suffer most
why did i walk through the crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down
and never raised them to that blessed star which led the wise men to a poor abode
were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me
scrooge was very dismayed to hear the specter go on at this rate and began to quake exceedingly
hear me cried the ghost my time is nearly gone i i will said scrooge but
don't be hard upon me don't be flowery jacob pray how it is that i appear before you in a
shape that you can see i may not tell i have sat invisible beside you many and many a day
it was not an agreeable idea scrooge shivered and wiped the perspiration from his brow
that is no light part of my penance pursued the ghost i am here tonight to warn you that you
have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate a trance and hope of my procuring ebenezer you
were always a good friend to me said scrooge thank you you will be haunted resume the ghost by three
spirits scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the ghosts had done is that the chance and hope
you mentioned jacob it demanded in a faltering voice it is i i think i'd rather not said scrooge
without their visits said the ghost you cannot hope to shun the path i tread
expect the first tomorrow when the bell tolls one couldn't i take them all at once and have
it over jacob hinted scrooge expect the second on the next night at the same hour
the third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to vibrate
look to see me no more and look that for your own sake you'll remember what has passed between us
when it had said these words the specter 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 wailing 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 heather 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 his ankle who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant
whom it saw below upon a doorstep the misery with them all was clearly
that they sought to interfere for good in human matters and had lost the power forever
whether these creatures faded into mist or missed and shrouded 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
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 hambug but stops 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 need
of repose went straight to bed without undressing and fell asleep upon the instant end of stave one
stave two of a christmas carol the first of the three spirits it was 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 endeavoring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes
when the chimes of a neighboring 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 it isn't possible said scrooge that i can have slept through a whole day and far
into another night it isn't possible that anything has happened to the sun and this is 12 at noon
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 wouldn't have been if knight had beaten off bright
day and taken possession of the world this was a great relief because three days after sight of the
first of exchange paid to mr ebenezer scrooge or his order 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
ben 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 string released to its
first position and presented the same problem to be worked all through was it a dream or not
crucially 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 told 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 a quarter past said scrooge counting ding dong half past said scrooge ding dong
a quarter to it said scrooge ding dong the hour itself said scrooge triumphantly and nothing else
he spoke before the our 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 sprang 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 had 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 another time was dark so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness
being now a thing with one arm well 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
are you the spirit sir whose coming was foretold to me asked scrooge i am the voice was soft and
gentle singularly low as if instead of being so close beside him they were at a distance
who and what are you scrooge demanded i am the ghost of christmas past
long past inquired scrooge observant of its dwarfish stature no your past
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 exclaimed the ghost would
you so soon put out with worldly hands the light i give is it not enough that you are one of those
whose passions made this cap and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow
scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any knowledge of having willfully
bonneted the spirit at any period of his life he then made bold to inquire what business
brought him there your 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 your reclamation then take heed
it put out its strong hand as it spoke and clasped him gently by the arm rise and walk with me
it wouldn't 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 the 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 a mortal scrooge remonstrated and liable to fall bear but a touch of my hand there
said the spirit laying it upon his heart and you shall be upheld in more than this
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 heaven said scrooge clasping his hands together as he looked about him
i was bred in this place i was a boy here 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 odors floating in the air
each one connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and joys and cares long long forgotten
your lip is trembling said the ghost and what is that upon your cheek scrooge muttered with an
unusual catching in his voice that it was a pimple and begged the ghost to lead him where he would
you recollect the way inquired the spirit remember it cried scrooge with fervor i could
walk it blindfold strange to have forgotten it for so many years observe the ghost let us go on
they walked along the road scrooge recognizing 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 of the things that have been said the ghost they have no consciousness of us
the jarkan travelers came on and as they came scrooge knew and named them everyone
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 crossroads and byways 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 quite deserted
said the ghost a solitary child neglected by his friends is left there still
scrooge said he knew it and he saw they left the high road by a well-remembered lane and
soon approached a mansion of dull red brick with a little weather cocksurmounted cupola on the roof
and a bell hanging in it it was a large house but one of broken fortunes for the spacious officers
were little used their walls were damp and mossy their windows broken and their gates decayed fouls
clucked and strutted in the stables and the coach houses and sheds were overrun with grass
nor was it more retentive of its ancient states 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 earthly saber in the air a chilly bareness in the place which associated itself somehow
with too much getting up by candlelight but 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 bearer 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 paneling not a drip from the half thawed
water spout in the dull yard behind not a sigh among the leafless vows of one despondent poplar
not of the idle swinging of an empty storehouse door no not a clicking in the fire but
fell upon the heart of scrooge with a softening influence gave it a freer passage to his tears
the spirit touched him on his 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 and ass laden with wood
why it's alibaba scrooge exclaimed ecstasy it's their old honest alibaba yes yes i
know oh one christmas time when yonder solitary child was left here all alone he did come for
the first time just like that poor boy and valentine said scrooge and his wild brother orson
there they go and what's his name who was put down in his drawers asleep at the gate of damascus
don't you see him and the sultan's groom turned upside down by the genie oh there he is upon his
head serve him right the i'm glad of it what business had he to be married to the princess
to hear scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such objects 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 oh there's the parrot cried scrooge green
body and yellow tail with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head oh there he
is poor robin crusoe he called him when he came home again after sailing round the island poor
robin crusoe where have you been robin cruzo the man thought he was dreaming but he wasn't it was
the parrot you know oh there goes friday running for his life to the little creek hello hope hello
then with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character he said in pity for his
former self poor boy and cried again i wish scrooge muttered putting his hand in
his pocket and looking about him after drying his eyes with his cuff but it's too late now
what is the matter ask the spirit nothing said scrooge nothing there was a boy singing
a christmas carol at my door last night i should like to have given him something
that's all the ghost smiled thoughtfully and waved his hand saying it as he did so
let us see another christmas 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 lads 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 dear brother i have come to bring you
home dear brother said the child clapping her tiny hands and bending down to laugh to bring you home
home home home little fan returned the boy yes said the child a brim full of glee home for good
and all home forever and ever father is so much kinder than he used to be that homes like heaven
he spoke so gently to me one dear night when i was going to bed that i was not afraid to ask
him once more if you might come home and he said yes you should and sent me in a coach to bring you
and you're to be a man said the child opening her eyes and are never to come back here
but first we're to be together all the christmas long and have the merriest time in all the world
you are quite a woman little fan 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 lost to go accompanied her
a terrible voice in the hall cried bring down master scrooge's box there and in the
hall appeared the school master 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 various old well of a shivering best partner that ever was seen
for 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 installments of these deities to the young people at the same time sending out
a meager servant to offer a glass of something to the post-boy who answered that he thanked
the gentleman but if it was the same tap as he had tasted before he would rather not master scrooge's
trunk being by this time tied on to the top of the shells the children bad the schoolmaster goodbye
right willingly and getting into it drove gaily down the garden sweep the quick wheels dashing
the whole frost and snow from off the dark leaves of the evergreens like spray always
a delicate creature whom a breath might have withered said the ghost but she had a large heart
so she had cried scrooge you're right i will not gain saiyan spirit god forbid she died a woman
said the ghost and had as i think children one child scrooge returned true said the ghost
your nephew scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind and answered briefly 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 re-passed where shadowy carts and coaches battled for their 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 said scrooge was i apprenticed here
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's old fazzy wig bless his heart it's fuzzywig alive again 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 yoho there ebenezer dick
scrooge's former self now grown a young man came briskly in accompanied by his fellow prentice
dick wilkins to be sure said scrooge to the ghost bless me yes there he is
he was very much attached to me was dick poor dick dear dear yoho my boys said fuzzy wig
no more work tonight christmas eve dick christmas ebenezer let's have the shutters up
cried old fezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands before a man can say jack robinson
you wouldn't believe how these two fellows went at it they charged into the street with the shutters
one two three had them up in their places four five six barred them and pinned them seven eight
nine and came back before you could have got to 12 panting-like racehorses
cried old fezziwick skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility
clear away my lads and let's have a lots of room here hi ellie ho dick cheer up ebenezer
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 removable was packed off as if it
were dismissed from public life forever more 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 ballroom
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 50 stomachaches
in came mrs fessywig one vast substantial smile in came the three miss fezzy wigs 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 bored enough from his master trying to hide himself behind the girl from the next door but one
who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress and they all came one after another some
shyly some boldly some gracefully some awkwardly some pushing some pulling and they all came anyhow
and everyhow the way they all went 20 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 but 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 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 brand 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 minced 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 then old fancy wigs stood out to dance with mrs fezzywig top
couple too with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them three or four or twenty pair of partners
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 fuzzywig
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 fezzy wigg'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 fazzywig and mrs fezzywig had gone all through
the dance advance and retire both hands to your partner bow and curtsy corkscrew thread the needle
and back again to your place pezzy wig 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 11 the domestic ball broke up
mr and mrs fezzywig took their station 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 apprentices 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 had 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 said the ghost to make these silly folks so full of gratitude small i called scrooge
the spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices
who were pouring out their hearts in praise of fezzywig and when he had done so said why
is it not he has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money three or four perhaps
is that so much that he deserves this praise but isn't that said scrooge heated by the remark
and speaking unconsciously like his former not his latter self and isn't that spirit he has the
power to render us happy or unhappy to make our service lights or burdensome a pleasure or a toil
say that his power lies in words and looks in things so slight and insignificant that it is
impossible to add and count them up what then the happiness he gives is quite as great as if
it cost a fortune he felt the spirits glance and stopped what is the matter asked the ghost
nothing particular said scrooge something i think the ghost insisted no said scrooge no
i should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now that's all
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
this was not addressed to scrooge or to anyone 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 gritty 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 morning dress in whose eyes there
were tears which sparkled in the light that shone out of the ghost of christmas past
it matters little she said softly to you very little another idol has displaced me and if it can
cheer and comfort you in time to come as i would have tried to do i have no just cause to grieve
what idol has displaced you he rejoined a golden one this is the even-handed dealing
of the world he said there is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty
and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth
you fear the world too much she answered gently all your other hopes have merged into the hope of
being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach i have seen your nobler aspirations fall off
one by one until the master passion gain and grosses you have i not what then he retorted even
if i have grown so much wiser what then i have not changed towards you she shook her head am i
our contract is an old one it was made when we were both poor and content to be so
until in good season we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry
you are changed when it was made you were another man i was a boy he said impatiently your own
feeling tells you that you were not what you are she returned i am that which promised happiness
when we were one in heart is fraught with misery now that we are too how often and how keenly i
have thought of this i will not say it is enough that i have thought of it and can release you
have i ever sought release in words no never or in what then in a changed nature in an altered spirit
in another atmosphere of life another hope as its great end in everything that made my love of any
worth or value in your sight if this had never been between us said the girl looking mildly but
with steadiness upon him tell me would you seek me out and try to win me now now he seemed to yield
to the justice of this supposition in spite of himself but he said with a struggle you think not
i would gladly think otherwise if i could she answered heaven knows when
i have learned a truth like this i know how strong and irresistible it must be
but if you were free today tomorrow yesterday can even i believe that you would choose a dourless
girl you who in your very confidence with her weighing everything by gain
or choosing her if for a moment you were false enough to your own guiding principle to do so
do i not know that your repentance and regret would surely follow i do
and i release you for the fall of heart for the love of him you once were
he was about to speak but with her head turned from him she resumed you may the memory of what
his past half makes me hope you will have pain in this a very very brief time and you will dismiss
the recollection of it gladly as an unprofitable dream from which it happened well that you awoke
may you be happy in the life you have chosen she left him and they parted spirit said scrooge show
me no more conduct me home why do you delight to torture me one shadow more exclaimed the ghost
no more cried scrooge no more i don't wish to see it show me 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 in 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 but there were more children there than scrooge in his
agitated state of mind could count and unlike the celebrated heard in the poem there were
not 40 children conducting themselves like one but every child was conducting itself like 40.
the consequences were uproarious beyond belief but no one seemed to care on the contrary
the mother and daughter laughed utterly 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 waste in sport as they did bold young brood i couldn't have done it i
should have expected my arm to have grown rounded 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 my 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 license of a child
and yet to have been mad enough to know its value
but now a knocking at the door was heard when such a rush immediately ensued that with laughing
face and plundered dress was born towards it the center 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 defenseless porter
the scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his pockets to spoil him of brown
paper parcels hold on tight by his cravats 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 parlor 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 springtime in the haggard winter of his life his sight grew very dim indeed
bell said the husband turning to his wife with a smile i saw an old friend of yours this afternoon
who was it who guess well how can i i don't know she added in the same breath laughing as he
laughed mr scrooge mr scrooge it was i passed his office window and as he was not shut up and he had
a candle inside i could scarcely help seeing him his partner lies upon the point of death i hear
and there he sat alone quite alone in the world i do believe spirit said scrooge in a broken voice
remove me from this place i told you these were shadows of the things that have been said the
ghost that they are what they are do not blame me remove me scrooge exclaimed i cannot bear it
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 believe me
take me back haunt me no longer 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 capped
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
end of stave too
stave three of a christmas carol the second of the three spirits
awakening 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 dispatched 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 specter would draw back he put them everyone aside with his own hands
and lying down again established a sharp lookout all around 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 swords who plume themselves are 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 heartily 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 a 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 center of a blaze of ready 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 by 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 and 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 bat 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 like a perfect
grove from every part of which bright gleaming berries glistened the crisp leaves of harley
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 marlies or for many and many a winter season gone heaped up on
the floor to form a kind of throne where 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 cheat apples juicy oranges luscious pears immense 12th cakes
and seething bowls of punch that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam an 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 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 of christmas present said the spirit look upon me 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 watered 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 sat 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 demeanor 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 have never seen the like of me before exclaimed the spirit
never scrooge made answer to it i've never walked forth with the younger members of my family
meaning for i am very young my elder brothers born in these later years
pursued the phantom i don't think i have said scrooge i am afraid i have not
have you had many brothers spirit more than eighteen hundred said the ghost
oh a tremendous family to provide for murdered scrooge the ghost of christmas present bros
spirit said scrooge submissively conduct me where you will i went forth last night on compulsion and
i learned a lesson which is working now tonight if you have ought to teach me let me profit by it
touch my robe 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 once it was mad delight to the boys to see it
come plumping down into the road below and splitting into artificial little snowstorms
the house fronts looked black enough and the windows blacker contrasting with a
smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs and with the dirtier snow upon the ground
which last deposit had been plowed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and wagons
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 and icy water the sky
was gloomy and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist half-thought half-frozen whose
heavier particles descended in a shower of [ __ ] atoms as if all the chimneys in great britain had
by one consent caught fire and were blazing away to their dear heart's content
there is nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town and yet there was an air of cheerfulness
abroad that the clearest summer air and the brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to
diffuse in vain for the people who were shoveling away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee
calling out to one another from the parapets but now and then exchanging a facetious snowball
better natured missile far than many a worded jest laughing heartily if it went right but not
less heartily if it went wrong the 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 want and slyness of the girls
as they went by and glanced merely at the hung up mistletoe there were pears and apples clustered
high in blooming pyramids there were bunches of grapes made in the shopkeeper's 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 two of fish went gasping round and round their little world in slow and passionless
excitement the grossers all the grocers nearly closed with perhaps two shutters down or one
but through these 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
sense 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 spice
is so delicious the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest
lookers on a 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 their 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 man committed hundreds of
like mistakes in the best humor 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 one outside for general inspection and for christmas doors 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 by streets lanes and nameless turnings
people carrying their dinners to the baker's 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 past 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 humor 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 shot 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 or the pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too
is there a peculiar flavor in what you sprinkle from your torch master scrooge there is
my own would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day asked scrooge to any kindly given
to a poor one most why to a poor one most asked scrooge because it needs it most
spirit said scrooge after a moment's thought i wonder you of all the beings in the many
worlds about us should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment
i cried the spirit you would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day
often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all said scrooge wouldn't you i
cried the spirit you seek to close these places on the seventh day
said scrooge and it comes to the same thing i seek exclaimed the spirit
forgive me if i am wrong it has been done in your name but at least in that of your family
said scrooge there are some upon this earth of yours return the spirit who lay claim to know us
and who do their deeds of passion pride ill will hatred envy bigotry and selfishness
in our name who are as strange to us and all are kept and kin as if they had never lived
remember that and charge their doings on themselves not us 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 bakers 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 hearted nature and his sympathy with all poor men that
led him straight to scrooge's clerks 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 cratchit's dwelling with
the sprinkling of his torch think of that bob had 15 bob a week himself he pocketed on saturdays but
15 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 honor 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 bakers 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 peel
what has ever got your precious father then said mrs cratchit and your brother tiny tim
and martha weren't as late last christmas day by half an hour here's martha mother said a girl
appearing as she spoke here's martha mother cry the two young crashes hurrah there's such a goose
martha my bless your heart alive my dear how late you are said mrs cratchit kissing her a
dozen times and taking off her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal we'd a deal of work
to finish up last night replied the girl and had to clear away this morning mother
well never mind so long as you are come said mrs cratchit sit here down before the fire my dear
and have a warm lord bless you no no there's father coming cry the two young cratchits
who were everywhere at once hi martha hide 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's our martha cried bob cratchit looking around
not coming said mrs cratchit not coming 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 upon christmas day martha didn't like to see him disappointed if it were only a 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 little tim behave said mrs cratchit when
she had rallied bob on his credulity and bob had hugged his daughter to his heart's content
oh as good as gold said bob and better somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much and
thinks the strangest things you ever heard he told me coming home that he hoped the people saw him in
the church because he was a [ __ ] and it might be pleasant to them to remember on christmas day
who made the lame beggars walk and blind men see bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this
and trembled more when he said that tiny tim was growing strong and hearty he active little crotch
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 mr scratchett made the gravy ready beforehand in a little saucepan hissing hot
master peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor miss belinda sweetened up the applesauce
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
time 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 an even tiny tim excited by the two young cratchits
beat on the table with the handle of his knife and feebly cried hoorah
there was never such a goose bob said he didn't believe that ever was such a goose cooked
its tenderness and flavor size and cheapness were the themes of universal admiration
eked out by applesauce 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 everyone 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 backyard 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
hello 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 pastry cooks next door to each other
with a laundresses 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 cannonball so hard and firm blazing in
half a half a quarter of ignited brandy and bedite with christmas harley 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 that she had her doubts about the quantity of flour everybody had something to
say about 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 the 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 that 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 us all my dears god bless us which all the family re-echoed
god bless us everyone 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
said scrooge with an interest he had never felt before tell me if tiny tim will live
i see a vacant seat replied the ghost in the poor chimney corner and a crotch
without an owner carefully preserved if these shadows remain unaltered by the future
the child will die no no said scrooge oh no kind spirit say he will be spared if these
shadows remain unaltered by the future another of my race returned the ghost will find him here
what then if he'd be like to die he had better do it and decrease the surplus population scrooge
hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the spirit and was overcome with penitence and grief
man said the ghost if man you be in heart not adamant forbear
that wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus is and where it is will you
decide what men shall live what men shall die it may be that in the sight of heaven
you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child oh god to hear
the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust
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 said bob i'll give you mr scrooge
the founder of the feast the founder of the feast indeed cried mrs cratchit reddening i wish i had
him here i'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon and i'd hope he'd have a good appetite for it
my dear said bob the children christmas day it should be a christmas day i am sure said
she on which one drinks the health of such an odious stingy hard unfeeling man as mr scrooge
you know he is robert nobody knows it better than you do poor fellow my dear was bob's mild answer
christmas day i'll drink his health for your sake and the days said mrs cratchit not for his long
life to him a merry christmas and a happy new year he'll be very merry and very happy i have no doubt
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 tuppence 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 callers as if he were deliberating what
particular investments he should favor when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income
martha who was a poor apprentice at a millionaires 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 a bed tomorrow morning for
a good long rest tomorrow being a holiday she passed at home also how she had seen a
countess and a lord some days before and how the lord was much about as tall as peter at
which peter pulled up his collar 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 by they had a song
about a lost child traveling 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 waterproof their clothes were scanty
and peter might have known or very likely did the inside of a pawn brokers but they were happy
grateful pleased with one another and contended 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 parlors and all sorts of rooms was wonderful here
the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cozy dinner with hot plates baking through
and through before the fire and deep red curtains ready to be drawn to shut out cold in 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 neighbor's house
where whoa 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 exalted how it bared its breadth of breasts 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
the little canned 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 moon 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 furs and coarse rank grass down in the west the setting sun
had left the 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 asked scrooge a place where miners live who labor in the bowels of the earth
returned the spirit but they know me see 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 around a glowing fire 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 blithed and loud and so surely as they stopped his vigor sank again
the spirit did not tarry here but bad scrooge hold his robe and passing on above the moor sped
with her not to see to see 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 seaweed clung to its base and storm birds born of the wind one might
suppose as seaweed 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 threw 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 figurehead 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
lookout 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 recognize it as his own nephews and to find himself in a bright dry gleaming room with a
spirit standing smiling by his side and looking at that same nephew with approving affability
laughed scrooge's nephew
if you should happen by any unlikely chance to know a man more blessed 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
and disease and sorrow there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter
and good humor when scrooge's nephew laughed in his 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 behind hand roared out lustily
he said that christmas was a humbug as i live cried scrooge's nephew he believed it too
of more shame for him fred said scrooge's niece indignantly bless those women they never do
anything by haves they are always in earnest she was very pretty exceedingly pretty
with a dimpled surprise 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 comical old fellow said scrooge's nephew that's the truth and not so pleasant as
he might be however his offenses carry their own punishment and i have nothing to say against him
i'm sure he's very rich fred hinted scrooch's niece at least you always tell me so what of
that my dear said scrooge's nephew his wealth is of no use to him he don't do any good with
it he don't make himself comfortable with it because of the satisfaction of thinking
that he is ever going to benefit us with it i have no patience with him observed scrooge's niece
scrooge's niece's sisters and all the other ladies expressed the same opinion
oh i have said scrooge's nephew i am sorry for him i couldn't be angry with him if i tried
who suffers by his ill whims himself always here he takes it into his head to dislike
us and he won't come and dine with us what's the consequence he don't lose much of a dinner
indeed i think he loses a very good dinner 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
very glad to hear it said scrooge's nephew because i haven't great faith in these young housekeepers
what do you say topper 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 whereas scrooge's niece's sister the plump one with the lace tucker
not the one with the roses blushed do go on fred said scrooge's niece
clapping her hands he never finishes what he begins to say he is such a ridiculous fellow
scrooge's nephew reveled 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 going to say said scrooge's nephew that the consequence of his taking a dislike to us and
not making mary with us is i think that he loses some pleasant moments which could do him no harm
i am sure he loses pleasanter companions that he can find in his own thoughts either in his moldy
old office or his dusty chambers i mean to give him the same chance every year whether he likes
it or not for i pity him he may rail at christmas till he dies but he can't help thinking better of
it i defy him if he finds me going there in good temper year after year and saying uncle
scrooge how are you if it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk 50 pounds that's
something and i think i shook him yesterday it was their turn to laugh now with 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 very musical family and knew what they were about
when they sang a glee or catch i can assure you especially topper who would growl away in the base
like a good one and never swell the large veins in his forehead or get bread 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 sextan'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 christmas when its mighty founder was a child himself
stop there was first a game at blind man's bluff of course there was and i no more belief topper
was really blind that 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 faint of endeavoring 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 soaking rustlings and her rapid flutterings past him
he got her into a corner whence there was no escape then his conduct was the most executable
for his pretending not to know her is pretending that it was necessary to touch her headdress
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 foot stool 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 20 people there young and old but they all played and so did scrooge
for holy forgetting in the interest he had and 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 white chapel
warranted not to cut in the eye was not sharper than scrooge blunt as he took it at his head to be
the ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood and looked upon him with such favor
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 a new game said scrooge oh one half hour spirit only one
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 was it 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 and 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 ah i have found it
i know what it is fred i know what it is what is it cried fred it's your uncle scrooge
which it certainly was
admiration was the universal sentiment though some objected that to reply to is it a bear
ought to have been yes 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 plenty of merriment i am sure said fred and it would be ungrateful not to drink his
health here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment and i say uncle scrooge
well uncle scrooge they cried a merry christmas and a happy new year to the old man whatever he
is said scrooge's nephew he wouldn't take it from me but may he have it nevertheless uncle scrooge
uncle scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay in light of heart that he would have pledged
the unconscious company in return and thanked them in an inaudible speech if 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 spirits 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 greatest hope by poverty and it was rich
in alms house hospital and jail in miseries every refuge where vain man and his little
brief authority had not made fast the door and barred the spirit out he left his blessing and
taught scrooge his presence 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 ghosts grew older clearly older scrooge had observed this change but never spoke of it
until they left the children's twelfth night party when looking at the spirit as they stood
together in an open place he noticed that his hair was gray ah spirits lives so short asked scrooge
my life upon this globe is very brief replied the ghost it ends tonight tonight cried scrooge
tonight at midnight hark the time is drawing near
the chimes were ringing the three-quarters past eleven at that moment
forgive me if i am not justified in what i ask said scrooge looking intently at the spirit's robe
but i see something strange and not belonging to yourself protruding from your skirts is it a
foot or a claw it might be a claw for the flesh there is upon it said the spirit's sorrowful reply
look here from the foldings of its robe it brought two children wretched abject
frightful hideous miserable they knelt down at his feet and clung upon the outside of his garment
oh man look here look look down here exclaimed the ghost they were a boy and a girl
yellow meager 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 shriveled 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
as 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 mans said the spirit looking down upon them and they cling to me appealing from their fathers
this boy is ignorance this girl is want beware them both and all of their degree but most of all
beware this boy for on his brow i see that written which is doom unless the writing be erased deny it
cried the spirit stretching out his hand towards the city slander those who tell it ye
admit it for your fascist purposes and make it worse and bide the end
have you no refuge or resource cried scrooge are there no prisons said the spirit
turning on him for the last time with his own words are there no work houses
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 end of stave
three stave four of a christmas carol 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 separated 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 presence of the ghost of
christmas yet to come said scrooge the spirit answered not but pointed onward with its hand
you are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened but will happen in the time
before us scrooge pursued is that so spirit 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 him
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 that 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 than one great heap of black
ghost of the future he exclaimed i fear you are more than any specter i have seen
but as i know your purpose is to do me good and as i hope to live to be another man from what i was
i am prepared to bear you company and do it with a thankful heart will you not speak to me
it gave him no reply the hand was pointed straight before them lead on said scrooge lead on
the night is waning fast and it is precious time to be i know lead on spirit
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 as its own act and 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 businessmen observing that the hand was pointed
to them scrooge advanced to listen to their talk no said a great fat man with a monstrous chin
i don't know much about it either way i only know he's dead but when did he die
inquired another last night i believe why what was the matter with him asked a third taking a vast
quantity of snuff out of a very large snuff box i thought he'd never die god knows said the first
with a yawn what has he done with his money asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous exercise on
the end of his nose that shook like the gills of a turkey [ __ ] i haven't heard said the man with
a large chin yawning again left it to his company perhaps he hasn't left it to me that's all i know
the pleasantry was received with a general laugh it's likely to be a very cheap funeral
said the same speaker for upon my life i don't know of anybody to go to it
suppose we make up a party and volunteer i don't mind going if a lunch is provided
observe the gentleman with the exocrescence on his nose but i must be fed if i make one
another laugh well i am the most disinterested among you after all
said the first speaker for i never wear black gloves but i never eat lunch
but i'll offer to go if anybody else will when i come to think of it i'm not at all
sure that i wasn't his most particular friend for we used to stop and speak whenever we met bye bye
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 his 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 said one how are you returned the
other well said the first old scratch has got his own at last eh so i'm told return of the second
cold isn't it seasonable for christmas time you're not a skater i suppose oh no something else to
think of good morning 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 would 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 anyone 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 hope he saw his newborn resolutions carried out in this
quiet and dark beside him stood the phantom with his 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
old left the busy scene and went into an obscure part of the town
where scrooge had never penetrated before although he recognized its situation and its bad repute the
ways were found and narrow the shops and houses wretched the people half naked drunken slipshod
ugly alleys and archways like so many cesspools disgorged their offenses of smell and dirt and
life upon the straggling streets and the whole quarter wreaked with crime with filth and misery
far in this den of infamous resort there was a low browed beetling shop below a penthouse roof
where iron old rags bottles bones and greasy awful were brought 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 scrutinize were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags
masses of corrupted fat and sepal curse of bones sitting in among the wares he dealt in
by a charcoal stove made of old bricks with a gray-haired rascal nearly 70 years of
age who had screened himself from the cold air without by a frosty 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 fathered 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 char woman allowed to bathe her first cried she who had entered first let
the laundress alone to be the second and let the undertaker's man alone to be the third
look here old joe here's a chance if we haven't all three met here without
meaning it you couldn't have met in a better place said old joe removing his pipe from his mouth
come into the parlor you were made free of it long ago you know and the other two ain't
strangers stop till i shut the door the sharp ah oh it shrieks there ain't such a rustic bit of
metal in the place as its own inches i believe and i'm sure there's no such old bones here as mine
we're all suitable to our calling we're well matched come into the parlor come into the parlor
the parlor was the space between the screen of rags
the old man rakes 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 odd stan what odds mrs dilbert said the woman every person has a right to take care
of themselves he always did that's true indeed said the laundress no man more so
why then don't stand staring as if you was afraid woman who's the wiser we're not gonna pick holes
in each other's coats i suppose no indeed said mrs dilber and the man together we should hope not
very well then cried the woman that's enough who's the worst for the loss of a few things like these
not a dead man i suppose no indeed said mrs dilbert if he wanted to keep him after
he was dead a wicked old screw pursued the woman why wasn't he natural in his lifetime
if he had been he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with death instead
of lying gasping out his last there alone by himself it's the truest word that ever was spoke
said mrs dilber it's a judgment on him well i wish he was a little heavier judgment replied the woman
and it should have been you may depend on it if i could have laid my hands on anything else
open that bundle oh joe and let me know the value of it
speak out plain i'm not afraid to be the first nor afraid for them to see it we know pretty
well that we were helping ourselves before we met here i believe it's no sin open the bundle joe
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 that's your account said joe and i wouldn't
give another sixpence if i was to be boiled for not doing it who's next 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 to ladies it's a weakness of mine and that's the way i ruined myself
said old joe that's your account if you asked me for another penny and made it an open question
i'd repent of being so liberal and knock off half a crown and now undo my bundle joe 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 this
said joe bed curtains ah returned the woman laughing and leaning forward on her crossed arms
bad curtains you don't mean to say you took him down rings and all with him lying there said joe
yes i do replied the woman why not why you were born to make your fortune said joe and you'll
certainly do it i certainly can't hold my hand when i can get anything in it by reaching out
for the sake of such a man as he was i promise you joe returned the woman [ __ ] don't drop
that oil upon the blankets now is blankets as joe oh asses do you think replied the woman
he isn't likely to take hole without him i dare say i hope he didn't die of anything
catching eh said old joe stopping in his work and looking up don't you be afraid of that returned
the woman i ain't so fond of his company that i'd loiter about him for such doings if he did
ah you may look through that shirt till your eyes ache but you won't find a hole in it nor a
threadbare place it's the bestie ad and a fine one too they'd have wasted it if it hadn't been for me
what do you call wasting it asked old joe or putting it on him to be buried in to be sure
replied the woman with a laugh somebody was fool enough to do it
but i took it off again if calico ain't good enough for such a purpose it isn't good enough
for anything it's quite as becoming to the body he can't look uglier than he did in that one
scrooge listen 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
laugh the same woman when old joe producing a flannel bag with money and it
told out there several gains upon the ground this is the end of it you see
he frightened everyone away from him when he was alive to profit us when he was dead
spirit said scrooge shuttering from head to foot i see i see the case of this unhappy man might be
my own my life tends that way now merciful heaven what is this he recoiled in terror for the scene
had changed and now he almost touched a bed a bare uncurtained bed on which beneath a racket 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
around 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 o cold cold rigid dreadful death set up
thine altar here and dress it with such terrors as thou hasteth thy command for this is thy dominion
but of the loved revered and honored head thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes
and 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 of 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 a rich and 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 hearthstone what they wanted in the
room of death and why they were so restless and disturbed scrooge did not dare to think
spirit he said this is a fearful place and leaving it i shall not leave its lesson trust me
let us go still the ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to the head i understand you
scrooge returned and i would do it if i could but i have not the power spirit i have not the power
again it seemed to look upon him if there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by
this man's death said scrooge quite agonized show that person to me spirit i beseech you
the phantom spread its dark robe before him for a moment like a wing
and withdrawing it revealed a room by daylight where her mother and her children were
she was expecting someone 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 care-worn 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 she said or bad to help him bad he answered we are quite ruined no there is hope yet caroline
if he relents she said amazed there is nothing is past hope if such a miracle has happened
he is past relenting said her husband he is dead 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 half-drunken woman whom i told you of last night said to me when i tried to see him
and obtain a week's delay and what i thought was a mere excuse to avoid me turns out to
have been quite true he was not only very ill but dying then to whom will our debt be transferred
i don't know but before that time we shall be ready with the money
and even though we were not it would be a bad fortune indeed to find so
merciless a creditor and his successor we may sleep tonight with light hearts caroline
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 would show him caused by the event was one of pleasure
let me see some tenderness connected with a death
said scrooge or that dark chamber spirit which we leave just now will be forever present to me
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 child and set him in the midst of them where had scrooge heard these words they
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 hurts my eyes she said the color oh poor tiny tim they're better now again said cratchit's
wife it makes them weak by candlelight and i wouldn't show we guys to your father when he
comes home for the world it must be near his time past it rather peter answered shutting up his book
but i think he has walked a little slower than he used these few last evenings mother
they were very quiet again at last she said that in a steady cheerful voice that only faltered once
i have known him walk with i have known him walk with tiny tim upon his shoulder
very fast indeed and so have i cried peter often and so have i explained another so had all
but he was very light to carry she resumed intent upon her work and his father loved him
so it was no trouble no trouble ah and there is your father at the door
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 father don't be grieved 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
sunday you went today then robert said his wife yes my dear
returned bob i wish you could have gone it would have done you good to see how green a place it is
but you'll see it often i promised him that i would walk there on a sunday
my little little child cried bob my little child he broke down all at once he couldn't help it
if he could have helped it he and his child would have been further apart perhaps than they were
he left the room and went upstairs into the room above which was lighted cheerfully and hung with
christmas there was a chair sat close beside the child and there were signs of someone 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 a little down you know said bob inquired what had happened to distress him
on which said bob for he is the pleasantest spoken gentleman you ever heard
i told him i am heartily sorry for it mr cratchit he said and heartily sorry for your good wife
bye-bye how he ever knew that i don't know knew what my dear why that you were a good wife
replied bob oh everybody knows that said peter very well observed my boy cried bob i hope they do
heartily sorry he said for your good wife if i can be of service to you in any way he said
giving me his card that's where i live pray come to me now it wasn't cried bob for the sake of
anything he might be able to do for us so much as for his kind way that this was quite delightful
it really seemed as if he had known our tiny tim and felt with us i'm sure he's a good soul
said mrs cratchit you would be surer of it my dear returned bob if you saw and spoke to him
i shouldn't be at all surprised mark what i say if he got peter a better situation
only hear that peter said mrs cratchit and then cried one of the girls peter will be keeping
company with someone and setting up for himself get along with you retorted peter grinning it's
just as likely as not said bob one of these days though there's plenty of time for that my dear
but however and whenever we part from one another i am sure we shall none of us forget tiny tin
shall we or this first parting that there was among us never father cried they all
and i know said bob i know my dears that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was although
he was a little little child we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves and forget poor tiny tim in
doing it no never father they all cried again i am very happy said little father i am very happy
mr scratch had kissed him his daughters kissed him the two young cratchits kissed
him and peter and himself shook hands spirits of tiny tim thy childish essence was from god
specter said scrooge something informs me that our parting moment is at hand
i know it but i know not how tell me one man that was whom we saw lying dead 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 businessmen
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 terry for a moment
this court said scrooge through which we hurry now is where my place of occupation is and
has been for a length of time i see the house let me behold what i shall be in days to come
the spirit stopped the hand was pointed elsewhere the house is younger scrooge
exclaimed why do you point away 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 whether 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 its 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 to which you point said scrooge answer me one question
are these the shadows of the things that will be or are they the shadows of things that may be
only still the ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood
man's courses will foreshadow certain ends to which if persevered in they must lead said scrooge
but if the course is be departed from the ends will change say it is thus with what you show me
the spirit was unmovable 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 ebeneezer scrooge
am i the man that lay upon the bed he cried upon his knees the finger pointed from the grave to him
and back again no spirit no no no the finger still was there spirit he cried tightly clutching at its
robe hear me i am not the man i was i will not be the man i must have been but for this intercourse
why show me this if i am past all hope for the first time the hand appeared to shake
good spirit he pursued as down upon the ground he fell before it your nature intercedes for
me and pities me assure me that i yet may change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life
the kind hand trembled i will honor christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year i
will live in the past the present and the future the spirits of all three shall strive within me
i will not shut out the lessons that they teach oh tell me i may sponge away the writing on this
stone 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 bed post end of stave four
stay five of a christmas carol 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 the spirits of all three shall strive within me oh jacob marley heaven and the christmas time
be praised for this i say it on my knees o jacob on my knees 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 torn down cried scrooge folding one of his bed curtains in his arms they are not
torn down rings and all they are here i am here the shadows of the things that would have been
may be dispelled they will be i know they will 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 i don't know what to do cried scrooge
laughing and crying in the same breath and making a perfect laccoon of himself with his stockings
i am light as a feather i am as happy as an angel i am married as a schoolboy i am as giddy
as a drunken man a merry christmas to everybody a happy new year to all the world hello there hello
he had frisked into the sitting room and was now standing there perfectly winded there's
the saucepan that the gruel was in cried scrooge starting off again and going round the fireplace
there's the door by which the ghost of jacob marley entered there's the corner where the
ghost of christmas presents sat oh there's the window where i saw the wandering spirits
it's all right it's all true it all happened
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 day of the month it is
said scrooge i don't know how long i've been among the spirits i don't know anything i'm quite a baby
never mind i don't care i'd rather be a baby hello whoop a hello here
he was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peels he had ever heard
clash clang hammer ding dong bell bell dong ding hammered 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 mary bells so glorious glorious what's today
cried scrooge calling downward to a boy in sunday clothes who perhaps had loitered in to look about
him i returned the boy with all his might of wonder what's today my fine fellow said scrooge
today replied the boy by a christmas day it's christmas day said scrooge to himself i haven't
missed it the spirits have done it all in one night or they can do anything they like
of course they can of course they can hello hello my fine fellow hello return the boy do
you know the poulterers in the next street but one at the corner scrooge inquired i should hope i did
replied the lad ah an intelligent boy said scrooge a remarkable boy do you know whether they've saw
the prize turkey that was hanging up there not the little prize turkey the big one what the one
as big as me returned the boy what a delightful boy said scrooge it is a pleasure to talk to him
yes my buck it's hanging there now replied the boy is it said scrooge go and buy it walker exclaimed
the boy no no said scrooge i am an earnest go and buy it and tell him to bring it here that i may
give them the direction where to take it come back with the man and i'll give you a shilling
come back with him in less than five minutes and i'll give you half a crown 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 bob cratchits whispered scrooge rubbing his hands and splitting with a laugh
he shall know who sends it it's twice the size of tiny tim joe miller never made such a joke
as sending it to bob's will be the hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one
but right he did somehow and went downstairs 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 it as long as i live cried scrooge patting it with his hand i scarcely ever looked at
it before what an honest expression it has in his face it's a wonderful knocker ah here's the turkey
hello how are you merry christmas it was a turkey it never could have stood upon his legs that bird
he would have snapped them off short in a minute like sticks of sealing wax
it's impossible to carry that to camden down said scrooge you must have a cab
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're at it
but if he had cut the end of his nose off he would have put a piece of sticking plaster over
it and been quite satisfied he dressed himself all in his best and at last got out into the street
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 everyone with a delighted smile
he looked so irresistibly pleasant in a word that three or four good humored
fellows said good morning sir a merry christmas to you 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 marty's i believe
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 sir
said scrooge quickening his pace and taking the old gentleman by both his hands
how do you do i hope you succeeded yesterday it was very kind of you a merry christmas to you sir
mr scrooge yes said scrooge that is my name and i fear it may not be pleasant to you
allow me to ask your pardon and will you have the goodness here scrooge whispered in his ear
lord bless me cried the gentleman as if his breath were taken away my dear mr scrooge
are you serious if you please said scrooge not a farthing less
a great many back payments are included in it i assure you will you do me that favor my dear sir
said the other shaking hands with him i i don't know what to say to such munifice
don't say anything please retorted scrooge come and see me will you come and see me
i will cried the old gentleman and it was clear he meant to do it thank he
said scrooge i am much obliged to you i thank you 50 times bless you
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 but 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 it's your master
at home my dear said scrooge to the girl nice girl very yes sir where is he my love
said scrooge he's in the dining room sir along with mistress i'll show you upstairs if you please
thank you he knows me said scrooge with his hand already on the dining room lock
i'll go in here my dear 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 said
scroon 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 my soul cried fred who's that it is i hear your uncle scrooge i have come to dinner
will you let me in fred let him in it is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off
he was at home in five minutes nothing could be harder his niece looked just
the same so did topper when he came so did the plump sister when she came so did
everyone when they came wonderful party wonderful games wonderful unanimity wonderful 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 in 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
18 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 crowd scrooge and his accustomed voice as near as he could feign it what
do you mean by coming here at this time of day i am very sorry sir said bob
i am behind my time you are repeated scrooge yes i think you are step this way sir if you please
it's only once a year sir pleaded bob appearing from the tank it shall not be repeated
i was making brother mary yesterday sir
now i'll tell you what my friend said scrooge i am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer
and therefore 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 going to raise your salary
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 straight waistcoat
a merry christmas bob said scrooge with an earnestness that could not be mistaken
as he clapped him on the back and a merrier christmas bob my good fellow than i have given
you for many a year i'll raise your salary and endeavor to assist your struggling family and
we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon over a christmas bowl of smoking bishop bob up the
fires and buy another coal scuttle before you dot another eye bob cratchit 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 heated them for he was wise enough to know
that nothing ever happened on this globe for good and 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 greens as have the melody 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 afterward and it was always said of him
that he knew how to keep christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge
may that truly be said of us and all of us and so as tiny tim observed god bless us everyone
end of a christmas carol by charles dickens
pride and prejudice by jane austen the great gatsby by f scott fitzgerald
it was the best of times it was the worst of times the art of war by tsun tzu