Full text of "A Christmas carol"

See other formats

^f^®f *'*♦

o ^ oo

»#(B

^ro
«*

^ ^.^

u c^

CHRISTMAS'CAROL

NY PUBLIC LIBRARY ,mE BRANCH LIBRAR

3 3333 08115 2064

/\ (o£irOi,0,S^-^

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/christmascarolOOdick

Tiny Tim. . . . His active little
crutch was heard upon the floor.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

"/ know him ! Marley's Ghost ! "

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

BYCPiARLES DICKENS^
ILLUSTRATED BY A.C.MICHAEL

HODDERsr STOUGHTON.Ltd.
LONDON • NEWYORK • TORONTO

AMD

Printed in Great Britain by Hazeil, Watson &• Viney Ld.
Landon and Aylesbury.

ILLUSTRATIONS

" I KNOW HIM ! Marley's Ghost ! "" , , Frontispiece

FiCINO PAGB

The clerk . . . tried to warm himself at the

CANDLE 4

The clerk . . . went down a slide on Cornhill . 14
Scrooge sat down before the fiee to take his

GRUEL ......... 18

In came a fiddler with a music-book , , , 46

Old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezzi-

wiG 50

Tiny Tim. . . . His active- .lirrrLp'; crutch yr'A& :meard

UPON the floor . • - ..• • • • • '^^

Mrs. Cratchit entered . .; . with the pudding . 76

All the Cratchit family drew round the hearth 78

The way Topper went after that plump sister . . .
was an outrage on the credulity of human
nature •*..•••• 92

vi ILLUSTRATIONS

wkcaa piQB
" Why, what was the mattkr with him ? " asked a
third, taking a vast quantity of snuff out of

A VERY LARGE SNUFF-BOX. " I THOUGHT HE'd NEVER
die'' 100

** Here's the turkey. . . . How are you ? Merry

Christmas ! " 128

"Is your master at home, my dear?" said Scrooge

to the girl ....... 130

" And therefore I am about to raise your salary ! " 134

Stave Oxe
MARLEY'S GHOST

Marley was dead, to begin wdth. 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 Scrooges name was good upon
'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind ! I dont mean to say that I know, of
my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead
about a door-nail. 1 might have been inclined,
myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece
of ironmongery in the trade. But the ^^'isdom of
our ancestors is in the simile ; and my unhallowed
hands shall not disturb it, or the country's done
for. You will therefore permit me to repeat
emphatically, that ^larley was as dead as a door-
nail.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Scrooge knew he was dead ? Of course he did.
How could it be otherwise ? Scrooge and he were
partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge
was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his
sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend,
and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so
dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he
was an excellent man of business on the very day
of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted
bargain.

The mention of Marley's funeral brings me
back to the point I started from. There is no
doubt that Marley was dead.

This must be distinctly understood, or nothing
wonderful can come of the story I am going to
relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that
Hamlet's father died before the play began, there
would be nothing more remarkable in his taking
a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his
own ramparts, than there would be in any other
middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after
dark in a breezy spot — say St. Paul's Churchyard
for instance — literally to astonish his son's w^ak
mind.

Scrooge never painted out Old JNlarley's name.
There it stood, years afterwards, above the ware-
house door : Scrooge and Marley. The firm was
known as Scrooge and INIarley. Sometimes people
new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and
2

MARLEY'S GHOST

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, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his
gait ; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue ; and
spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A
frosty rime was on his head, and on his eye-
brows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own
low temperature always about with him ; he iced
his office in the dog-days ; and didn't thaw it
one degree at Christmas.

External heat and cold had little influence on
Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry
weather chill him. No wind that blew was
bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent
upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to
entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to
have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and
hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage
over him in only one respect. They often " came
down " handsomely, and Scrooge never did.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say,
with gladsome looks, " My dear Scrooge, how are

A CIIRISTIMAS CAROL

you ? When will you come to see me ? " No
bcfj^ars implored him to bestow a trifle, no
children asked him what it was o'clock, no man
or woman ever once in all his life inquired the
way to sucli and such a place, of Scrooge. Even
the blind men's dogs appeared to know him ; and
when they saw him coming on, would tug their
owners into doorways and up courts ; and then
would wag their tails as though they said, " No
eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master I "

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. It was cold, bleak, biting
weather : foggy withal : and he could hear the
people in the court outside go wheezing up and
down, beating their hands upon their breasts,
and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones
to warm them. The city clocks had only just
gone three, but it was quite dark already — it had
not been light all day — and candles were flaring
in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like
ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The
fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole,
and was so dense without, that although the court
4

The clerk . . . tried to
warm himself at the candle.

MARLEY'S GHOST

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 hved hard by, and was
brewing on a large scale.

The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open
that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who,
in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was
copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire,
but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that
it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish
it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room ;
and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel,
the master predicted that it would be necessary for
them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his
white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the
candle ; in which effort, not being a man of strong
imagination, he failed.

" A Merry Christmas, uncle ! God save you ! "
cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of
Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly
that this was the first intimation he had of his
approach.

" Bah ! " said Scrooge. " Humbug ! "

He had so heated himself with rapid walking in
the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he
was all in a glow ; his face was ruddy and hand-
some ; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked
again.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

" 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 merry ? What
reason have you to be merry ? You're poor
enough."

" Come, then," returned the nephew gaily.
'* What right have you to be dismal ? What
reason have you to be morose ? You're rich
enough."

Scrooge, having no better answer ready on the
spur of the moment, said, " Bah ! " again ; and
followed it up with " Humbug."

" Don't be cross, uncle ! " said the nephew.

*' 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 !
AV hat's Christmas time to you but a time for
paying bills without money ; a time for finding
yourself a year older, and not an hour richer ; a
time for balancing your books and having every
item in 'em through a round dozen of months
presented dead against you ? If I could work
my will," said Scrooge indignantly, '^ every idiot
who goes about with ' IMerry Christmas ' on his
lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and
buried with a stake of holly through his heart.
He should ! "

" Uncle I " pleaded the nephew.
6

MARLEY'S GHOST

*' Nephew ! " returned the uncle sternly, " keep
Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in
mine."

" Keep it ! " repeated Scrooge's nephew. " But
you don't keep it."

" Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge.
" Much good may it do you ! JNluch good it has
ever done you ! "

" There are many things from which I might
have derived good, by which I have not profited,
I dare say," 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 to 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 con-
sent 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 jour-
neys. 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,

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail
spark for ever.

" Let me hear another sound from ?/ow," said
Scrooge, " and you'll keep your Christmas by
losing your situation ! You're quite a powerful
speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew.
" I wonder you don't go into Parliament."

" Don't be angry, uncle. Come ! Dine with us
to-morrow."

Scrooge said that he would see him Yes,

indeed he did. He went the whole length of that
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 ! "

"Nay, 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 ot
you ; why cannot we be friends ? "

" Good-afternoon," said Scrooge.

" 1 am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so
resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to
8

MARLEY'S GHOST

which I have been a party. But I have made the
trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my
Christmas humour 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 fifteen shillings a
week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry
Christmas. I'll retire to Bedlam."

This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had
let two other people in. They were portly gentle-
men, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their
hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and
papers in their hands, and bowed to him.

" Scrooge and Marley's, I beheve," said one of
the gentlemen, referring to his Hst. " Have I
the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge or Mr.
Marley ? "

" Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years,"
Scrooge repKed. " He died seven years ago, this
very night."

" We have no doubt his Hberality is well repre-
c »

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

sented by his surviving partner," said the gentle-
man, presenting his credentials.

It certainly was ; for they had been two kindred
spirits. At the ominous words " 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 thou-
sands are in want of common necessaries ; hundreds
of thousands are in want of common comforts,
sir."

" Are there no prisons ? " asked Scrooge.

" Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying
down the pen again.

"And the union workhouses ? " demanded
Scrooge. " Are they still in operation ? "

" They are. Still," returned the gentleman, " I
wish I could say that they were not."

" The treadmill and the Poor Law are in full
vigour, then ? " said Scrooge.

" Both very busy, sir."

" Oh ! I was afraid, from what you said at first,
that 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
10

MARLEY'S GHOST

Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,"
returned the gentleman, " a few of us are endeav-
ouring 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
I put you down for ? "

" Nothing ! " Scrooge replied.

*' You wish to be 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 merry myself at Christmas,
and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I
help to support the establishments I have men-
tioned— they cost enough ; and those who are
badly off must go there."

" Many can't go there ; and many would rather
die."

" If they would rather die," said Scrooge, " they
had better do it, and decrease the surplus popula-
tion. Besides — excuse me — I don't know that."

" But you might know it," observed the gentle-
man.

" It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's
enough for a man to understand his own business,
and not to interfere with other people's. Mine
occupies me constantly. Good-afternoon, gentle-
men !

Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge
resumed his labours with an improved opinion of
himself, and in a more facetious temper than was
usual with him.

JMeanwhile 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 gi'uff 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 vibra-
tions afterwards, as if its teeth were chattering in
its frozen head up there. The cold became in-
tense. In the main street, at the corner of the
court, some labourers were repairing the gas-pipes,
and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, round
which a party of ragged men and boys were
gathered warming their hands and winking their
eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug
being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly
congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice. The
brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and
berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows,
made pale faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers'
and grocers' trades became a splendid joke — a
glorious pageant, with which it was next to im-
possible to believ^e that such dull principles as
bargain and sale had anything to do. The Lord
12

MARLEY'S GHOST

Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion
House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers
to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household
should ; and even the little tailor, whom he had
fined five shillings on the previous Monday for
being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred
up to-morrow's pudding in his garret while his
lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the
beef.

Foggier yet, and colder ! Piercing, searching,
biting cold. If the good St. Dunstan had but
nipped the evil spirit's nose with a touch of such
weather as that, instead of using his familiar weap-
ons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty
purpose. The owner of one scant young nose,
gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones
are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge's
keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol ; but
at the first sound of —

"God bless you, merry gentleman!
May nothing you dismay ! "

Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of
action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the
keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.

At length the hour of shutting up the counting-
house arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted
from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

expectant clerk in the tank, who instantly snuffed
his candle out, and put on his hat.

" You'll want all day to-morrow, 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
twenty-fifth of December ! " said Scrooge, button-
ing his greatcoat 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 greatcoat), went down a slide on
Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty
times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve, and
then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he
could pelt, to play at blind-man's buff.

Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual
melancholy tavern ; and having read all the news-
14

The clerk .... went
down a slide on Cornhill.

MARLEY'S GHOST

papers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with
his banker's book, went home to bed. He Hved in
chambers which had once belonged to his deceased
partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in
a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had
so little business to be, that one could scarcely help
fancying it must have run there when it was a
young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other
houses, and have forgotten the way out again. It
was old enough now, and dreary enough, for
nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms
being all let out as offices. The yard was so dark
that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was
fain to grope with his hands. The fog and frost so
hung about the black old gateway of the house,
that it seemed as if the genius of the weather sat
in mournful meditation on the threshold.

Now, it is a fact that there was nothing at all
particular about the knocker on the door, except
that it was very large. It is also a fact that
Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during
his whole residence in that place ; also that Scrooge
had as little of what is called fancy about him as
any man in the city of London, even including — ■
which is a bold word — the corporation, aldermen,
and livery. Let it also be borne in mind that
Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley,
since his last mention of his seven-years dead
partner that afternoon. And then let any man

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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 JNIarley's face.

Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable
shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but
had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a
dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but
looked at Scrooge as JNIarley used to look, with
ghostly spectacles turned up on his ghostly fore-
head. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by
breath or hot air ; and, though the eyes were wide
open, they were perfectly motionless. That, and
its livid colour, made it horrible ; but its horror
seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond
its control, rather than a part of its ow^n 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 fi'om infancy, would
be untrue. But he put his hand upon the key he
had relinquished, turned it sturdily, walked in, and
lighted his candle.

He did pause, with a moment's irresolution,

before he shut the door ; and he did look cautiously

behind it first, as if he half expected to be terrified

with the sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into

MARLEY'S GHOST

the hall. But there was nothing on the back of
the door, except the screws and nuts that held the
knocker on, so he said, " Pooh, pooh ! " and closed
it with a bang.

The sound resounded through the house like
thunder. Every room above, and every cask in
the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to
have a separate peal of echoes of its own.
Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes.
He fastened the door, and walked across the hall,
and up the stairs ; slowly, too ; trimming his candle
as he went.

You may talk vaguely about driving a coach -
and-six up a good old flight of stairs, or through a
bad young Act of Parliament ; but I mean to say
you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and
taken it broadwdse, with the splinter-bar towards
the wall and the door towards the balustrades ; and
done it easy. There was plenty of width for that,
and room to spare ; which is perhaps the reason
why Scrooge thought he saw a locomotive hearse
going on before him in the gloom. Half a dozen
gas-lamps out of the street wouldn't have lighted
the entry too well, so you may suppose that it was
pretty dark with Scrooge's dip.

Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that.

Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But

before he shut his heavy door, he walked through

his rooms to see that all was right. He had just

D 17

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

enough recollection of the face to desire to do
that.

Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as
they should be. Nobody under the table, nobody
under the sofa ; a small fire in the grate ; spoon and
basin ready ; and the little saucepan of gruel
(Scrooge had a cold in his head) upon the hob.
Nobody under the bed ; nobody in the closet ;
nobody in his dressing-gown, which was hanging
up in a suspicious attitude against the wall.
Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes,
two fish-baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and
a poker.

Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked
himself in — double-locked himself in, which was
not his custom. Thus secured against surprise, he
took off his cravat ; put on his dressing-gown and
slippers, and his night- cap ; and sat down before
the fire to take his gruel.

It was a very low fire indeed ; nothing on such
a bitter night. He was obliged to sit close to it,
and brood over it, before he could extract the
least sensation of warmth from such a handful of
fuel. The fireplace was an old one, built by some
Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round
with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the
Scriptures. There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's
daughters. Queens of Sheba, angelic messengers
descending through the air on clouds like feather-
18

SCROOGE SAT DOWN BEFORE THE FIRE TO TAKE HIS GRUEL.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off
to sea in butter-boats, hundreds of figures to
attract his thoughts ; and yet that face of JNlarley,
seven years dead, came hke the ancient pro-
phet's rod, and swallowed up the whole. If each
smooth tile had been a blank at first, with power
to shape some picture on its surface from the
disjointed fragment of his thoughts, there would
have been a copy of old Marley's head on every
one.

" Humbug I " 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 storey of the building. It was with great
astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable
dread, that as he looked he saw this bell begin to
swing. It swung so softly in the outset that it
scarcely made a sound ; but soon it rang out
loudly, and so did every bell in the house.

This might have lasted half a minute, or a
minute, but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased
as they had begun, together. They were succeeded
by a clanking noise, deep down below ; as if some
person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks
in the wine -merchant's cellar. Scrooge then
'20

MARLEY'S GHOST

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 humbug still ! " said Scrooge. " 1 won't
believe it."

His colour changed, though, when, without a
pause, it came on through the heavy door, and
passed into the room before his eyes. Upon its
coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as though
it cried, " I know him ! Marley's ghost ! " and fell
again.

The same face : the very same. Marley in his
pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights, and boots ; the
tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and
his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. The
chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It
was long, and wound about him like a tail ; and it
was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-
boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy
purses wrought in steel. His body was trans-
parent ; so that Scrooge, observing him, and look-
ing 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.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he
looked tlie phantom through and through, and saw
it standing before him ; though he felt tlie chilling
influence of its death-cold eyes : and marked the
very texture of the folded kerchief bound about
his head and chin, which wrapper he had not
observed before ; he was still incredulous, and
fought afjainst his senses.

" How now ! " said Scrooge, caustic and cold as
ever. " What do you want with me ? "

" JNluch ! " — Marley's voice, no doubt about it.

" Who are you ? "

" Ask me who I tvas."

" 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 JNlarley."

" Can you — can you sit down ? " asked Scrooge,
looking doubtfully at him.

" I can."

" Do it, then."

Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't
know whether a ghost so transparent might find
himself in a condition to take a chair ; and felt
that in the event of its being impossible, it might
involve the necessity of an embarrassing explana-
tion. But the ghost sat down on the opposite
side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it.
22

MARLEY'S GHOST

" You don't believe in me," observed the ghost.

" I don't," said Scrooge.

" What evidence vv^ould you have of my reahty
beyond that of your senses ? "

" I don't know," said Scrooge.

" Why do you doubt your senses ? "

" Because," said Scrooge, " a httle thing affects
them. A shght disorder of the stomach makes
them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of
beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a frag-
ment of an underdone potato. There's more of
gravy than of 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 spectre's being provided with an
infernal atmosphere of its own. Scrooge could
not feel it himself, but this was clearly the case ;
for though the ghost sat perfectly motionless, its
hair, its skirts, and tassels were still agitated as by
the hot vapour from an oven.

" You see this toothpick ? " said Scrooge, return-

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

ing quickly to the charge, for the reason just
assigned ; and wishing, though it were only for
a second, to divert the vision's stony gaze from
himself.

" I do," replied the ghost.

" You are not looking at it," said Scrooge.

" But I see it," said the ghost, " notwithstand-
ing."

*' Well ! " returned Scrooge, " I have but to
swallow this, and be for the rest of my days per-
secuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own
creation. Humbug, I tell you — humbug ! "

At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and
shook its chain with such a dismal and appalling
noise, that Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to
save himself from falling in a swoon. But how
much greater was his horror, when the phantom
taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were
too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped
down upon its breast !

Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his
hand before his face.

" Mercy ! " he said. " Dreadful apparition, why
do you trouble me ? "

" Man of the worldly mind," replied the ghost,
" do you believe in me or not ? "

" I do," said Scrooge. " 1 must. But why
do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come
to me ? "
24

MARLEY'S GHOST

" It is required of every man," the ghost re-
turned, " 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 — oh, woe is me ! — and
witness what it cannot share, but might have
shared 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 link by Hnk, and yard by yard ;
1 girded it on of my own free will, and of my
own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to
you i

Scrooge trembled more and more.

" Or would you know," pursued the ghost, " the
weight and length of the strong coil you bear
yourself ? It was full as hea\y and long as this,
seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on
it, since. It is a ponderous chain ! "

Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the
expectation of finding himself surrounded by some
fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable : but he could
see nothing.

" Jacob," he said imploringly. " Old Jacob Mar-
ley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob !
E 23

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

" I have none to give," the ghost replied. " It
comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and
is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of
men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very
little more, is all 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 hole ; and
weary journeys lie before me ! "

It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he be-
came thoughtful, to put his hand in his breeches
pockets. Pondering on what the ghost had said,
he did so now, but without lifting up his eyes, or
getting off his knees.

" You must have been 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
travelling all the time ? "

" The whole time," said the ghost. " No rest,
no peace. Incessant torture of remorse."

*' You travel 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
26

MARLEY'S GHOST

of the night, that the ward would have been
justified in indicting it for a nuisance.

" Oh ! captive, bound, and double-ironed,"
cried the phantom, "not to know, that ages of
incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this
earth must pass into eternity before 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 useful-
ness. Not to know that no space of regret can
make amends for one life's opportunities 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, wringing its 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 but 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 spectre
said, " I suffer most. Why did I walk through
crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

and never raise them to that blessed Star which
led the Wise JMen to a poor abode ? Were there
no poor homes to which its light would have
conducted me ? "

Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the
spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake
exceedingly.

" Hear me ! " cried the ghost. " My time is
nearly gone."

" 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 w4ped the perspiration from his brow.

" That is no light part of my penance," pursued
the ghost. " I am here to-night to warn you, that
you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my
fate. A chance and hope of my procuring,
Ebenezer."

"You were always a good friend to me," said
Scrooge. " Thank'ee ! "

" You will be haunted," resumed the ghost, " by
three spirits."

Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the
ghost's had done.

" Is that the chance and hope you mentioned,
Jacob ? " he demanded, in a faltering voice.
28

MARLEY'S GHOST

« 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 to-morrow, when the bell tolls one."

" Couldn't I take 'em 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 remember what has passed between
us !

When it had said these words, the spectre took
its wrapper from the table, and bound it round its
head, as before. Scrooge knew this, by the smart
soand 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

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

fear ; for on the raising of the hand, he became
sensible of confused noises in the air ; incoherent
sounds of lamentation and regret ; wailings in-
expressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory. The
spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in the
mournful dirge ; and floated out upon the bleak,
dark night.

Scrooge followed to the window : desperate in
his curiosity. He looked out.

The air was filled with phantoms, wandering
hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as
they went. Every one of them wore chains like
Marley's ghost ; some few (they might be guilty
governments) were linked together ; none were
free. Many had been personally known to
Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar
with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a
monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who
cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched
woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a
doorstep. The misery with them all was, clearly,
that they sought to interfere, for good, in human
matters, and had lost the power for ever.

Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist
enshrouded them, he could not tell. But they and
their spirit voices faded together ; and the night
became as it had been when he walked home.

Scrooge closed the window, and examined the
door by which the ghost had entered. It was
30

MARLEY'S GHOST

double-locked, as he had locked it with his own
hands, and the bolts were undisturbed. He tried
to say " Humbug ! " but stopped at the first
syllable. And being, from the emotion he had
undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse
of the invisible world, or the dull conversation of
the ghost, or the lateness of the hour, much in
need of repose, went straight to bed, without
undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant.

Stave Two

THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS

When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that,
looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish
the transparent window from the opaque walls of
his chamber. He was endeavouring to pierce the
darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a
neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So
he listened for the hour.

To his great astonishment the heavy bell went
on from six to seven, and from seven to eight, and
regularly up to twelve ; then stopped. Twelve !
it was past two when he went to bed. The clock
was wrong. An icicle must have got into the
works. Twelve !

He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct
this most preposterous clock. Its rapid little pulse
beat twelve ; and stopped.

" Why, it isn't possible," said Scrooge, " that I
32

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

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 twelve 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 would have been if night had
beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the
world. This was a great relief, because " three
days after sight of this first of exchange pay 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, and
thought, and thought it over and over and over,
and could make nothing of it. The more he
thought the more perplexed he was ; and the
more he endeavoured not to think, the more he
thought.

JNlarley's ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every

time he resolved within himself, after mature

inquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew

back again, like a strong spring released, to its

F 33

A CIIRISTIMAS CAROL

first position, and presented tlie same problem to
be worked all through, " Was it a dream or not ? "

Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had
gone three quarters more, when he remembered,
on a sudden, that the ghost had warned him of a
visitation when the bell tolled one. He resolv^ed
to lie awake until the hour was passed ; and, con-
sidering 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,
" aiad nothing else !

He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it
now did with a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy
ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the
instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.

The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell
you, by a hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor
34

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

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 1 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 un-
common strength. Its legs and feet, most
dehcately 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 hai< i ; 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 doubt-
less the occasion of its using, in its duller

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which
it now held under its arm.

Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it
with increasing steadiness, was not its strangest
quality. For as its belt sparkled and glittered now
in one part and now in another, and what was
light one instant, at another time was dark, so the
figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness ; now being
a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with
twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head,
now a head without a body ; of which dissolving
parts, no outline would be visible in the dense
gloom wherein they melted away. And in the
very wonder of this, it would be itself again ;
distinct and clear as ever.

"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, it were
at a distance.

" Who, and what are you ? " Scrooge de-
manded.

" I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."

" Long past ? " inquired Scrooge, observant of his
dwarfish stature.

"No. Your past."

Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody
why, if anybody could have asked him, but he had
36

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

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 wilfully
" 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 would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead
that the weather and the hour were not adapted to
pedestrian purposes ; that bed was warm, and the
thermometer a long way below freezing ; that he
was clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing-gown,
and nightcap ; and that he had a cold upon him at

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's
hand, was not to be resisted. He rose ; but finding
that the spirit made towards the window, clasped
its robe in supplication.

" I am a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, " and
liable to fall."

" Bear but a touch of my hand thcre^ 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 odours
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
38

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

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 fervour ;
*' I could walk it blindfold."

" Strange to have forgotten it for so many
years ! " observed the ghost. " I^et us go on."

They walked along the road — Scrooge recognis-
ing 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 con-
sciousness of us."

The jocund travellers came on ; and as they
came, Scrooge knew and named them every one.
Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see
them? Why did his cold eye glisten, and his
heart leap up as they went past? Why was he
filled with gladness when he heard them give each
other Merry Christmas, as they parted at cross-
roads and byways, for their several homes ? What

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

was JNIerry 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 sohtary child, neglected by his friends,
is left there still."

Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.

They left the high road, by a well-remembered
lane, and soon approached a mansion of dull red
brick, with a little weather-cock-surmounted cupola
on the roof, and a bell hanging in it. It was a
large house, but one of broken fortunes ; for the
spacious offices were little used, their walls were
damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their
gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the
stables ; and the coach-houses and sheds were over-
run with grass. Nor was it more retentive of its
ancient state, within ; for entering the dreary hall,
and glancing through the open doors of many
rooms, they found them poorly furnished, cold and
vast. There was an earthy savour in the air, a
hilly bareness in the place, which associated itself
somehow with too much getting up by candle-
light, and not too much to eat.

They went, the ghost and Scrooge, across the
hall, to a door at the back of the house. It opened
before them, and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy
room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms
and desks. At one of these a lonely boy was
40

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

reading near a feeble fire ; and Scrooge sat down
upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten
self as he had used to be.

Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak
and scuffle from the mice behind the panelling,
not a drip from the half-thawed water-spout in the
dull yard behind, not a sigh among the leafless
boughs of one despondent poplar, not the idle
swinging of an empty storehouse door, no, not a
clicking in the fire, but fell upon the heart of
Scrooge with softening influence, and gave a freer
passage to his tears.

The spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed
to his younger self, intent upon his reading.
Suddenly a man, in foreign garments — wonder-
fully real and distinct to look at — stood outside
the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and
leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood.

" Why, it's Ali Baba ! " Scrooge exclaimed in
ecstasy. " It's dear old honest Ali Baba ! Yes,
yes, I know ! One Christmas time, when yonder
solitary child was left here all alone, he did come,
for the first time, just Hke 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 Genii ; there he
is upon his head ! Serve him right ! I'm glad of
G 41

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

it. What business had Jic to be married to the
Princess ? "

To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness
of his nature on such subjects, in a most extra-
ordinary voice between laughing and crying, and
to see his heightened and excited face, would have
been a surprise to his business friends in the city,
indeed.

" There's the parrot," cried Scrooge. " Green
body and yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce
growing out of the top of his head ; 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
Crusoe ? ' The man thought he was dreaming,
but he wasn't. It was the parrot, you know.
There goes Friday, running for his life to the little
creek ! Hollo ! Hoop ! Hollo ! "

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 ? " asked 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 some-
thing ; that's all."
42

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

The ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its
hand, saying as it did so, " Let us see another
Christmas ! "

Scrooge's former self grew large at the words,
and the room became a little darker and more
dirty. The panels shrank, the windows cracked ;
fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the
naked laths were shown instead ; but how all this
was brought about, Scrooge knew no more than
you do. He only knew that it was quite correct ;
that everjrthing 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, brimful of glee. " Home,
for good and all. Home, for ever and ever.
Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

home's 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 ! " ex-
claimed 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, to-
wards the door ; and he, nothing loth to go, accom-
panied her.

A terrible voice in the hall cried, " Bring down
Master Scrooge's box, there ! " and in the hall
appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared on
Master Scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and
threw him into a dreadful state of mind by shaking
hands with him. He then conveyed him and his
sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best-
parlour that ever was seen, where the maps upon
the wall, and the celestial and terrestrial globes in
the windows, were waxy with cold. Here he pro-
duced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a
block of curiously hea\y cake, and administered
44

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

instalments of those dainties to the young people ;
at the same time, sending out a negro servant to
offer a glass of " something " to the postboy, who
answered that he thanked the gentleman, but if it
was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had
rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by this
time tied on to the top of the chaise, the children
bade the schoolmaster good-bye right willingly ;
and getting into it drove gaily down the garden
sweep : the quick wheels dashing the hoar-frost
and snow from off the dark leaves of the evergreens
like spray.

" Always a 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 gainsay it, 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 I "

Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind ; and an
swered 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 repassed ; where shadowy carts and
coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and
tumult of a real city were. It was made plain

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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 I " 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 Fezziwig ! Bless his heart ; it's
Fezziwig 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 waist-
coat ; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to
his organ of benevolence ; and called out in a
comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice —

" Yo ho, there ! Ebenezer ! Dick ! "

Scrooge's former self, now growTi 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 ! "

" Yo ho, my boys ! " said Fezziwig. '* No more
46

IN CAME A FIDDLER WITH A JIUSIC-BOOK.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas,
Ebenezer I 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 beheve how those two fellows
went at it ! They charged into the street with the
shutters — one, two, three — had 'em up in their
places — four, five, six — barred 'em and pinned
'em — seven, eight, nine — and came back before
you could have got to twelve, panting like race-
horses.

" Hilli-ho ! " cried old Fezziwig, skipping down
from the high desk with wonderful agility. " Clear
away, my lads, and let's have lots of room here !
Hilli-ho, Dick ! Chirrup, 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 movable was packed off, as if
it were dismissed from public life for evermore ;
the floor was swept and watered, the lamps were
trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire ; and the
warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and
bright a 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 fifty stomach-aches. In came ]Mrs.

Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

the three Misses Fezziwig, beaming and lovable.
In came the six young followers whose hearts they
broke. In came all the young men and women
employed in the business. In came the housemaid,
with her cousin, the baker. In came the cook,
with her brother's particular friend, the milkman.
In came the boy from over the way, who was
suspected of not having board enough from his
master ; trying to hide himself behind the girl
from next door but one, who was proved to have
had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all
came, one after another ; some shyly, some boldly,
some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing,
some pulling ; in they all came, anyhow and every-
how. Away they all went, twenty couple at once;
hands half round and back again the other way ;
down the middle and up again ; round and round
in various stages of affectionate grouping ; old top
couple always turning up in the wrong place ; new
top couple starting off again, as soon as they got
there ; all top couples at last and not a bottom one
to help them ! When this result was brought
about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the
dance, cried out, " Well done ! " and the fiddler
plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially
pro\dded for that purpose. But scorning rest upon
his reappearance, he instantly began again, though
there were no dances yet, as if the other fiddler
had been carried home, exhausted, on a shutter,
H 49

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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 Avas a great piece of cold
roast, and there was a great piece of cold boiled,
and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer.
But the great effect of the evening came after the
roast and boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog,
mind ! the sort of man who knew his business
better than you or I could have told it him !)
struck up " Sir Roger de Coverley." Then old
Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig.
Top couple, too ; with a good stiff piece of work
cut out for them ; three or four-and-twenty pair of
partners ; people who were not to be trifled with ;
people who would dance, and had no notion of
walking.

But if they had been twice as many — ah, four
times — old Fezziwig would have been a match for
them, and so would JNIrs. Fezziwig. As to he?\
she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of
the term. If that's not high praise, tell me higher,
and I'll use it. A positive light appeared to issue
from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part
of the dance like moons. You couldn't hpve pre-
dicted, at any given time, what would become
of them next. And when old Fezziwig and JNIrs.
Fezziwig had gone all through the dance — advance
50

Old Fezziwig stood out io
dance with Mrs. Fezziwig.

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and
curtsy, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back
again to your place — Fezziwig " cut " — cut so
deftly, that he appeared to wink with his legs, and
came upon his feet again without a stagger.

When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball
broke up. Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their
stations, one on either side of the door, and shaking
hands with every person individually, as he or she
went out, vidshed him or her A IVIerry Christmas.
When everybody had retired but the two 'pren-
tices, 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 every-
thing, enjoyed everything, and underwent the
strangest agitation. It was not until now, when
the bright faces of his former self and Dick were
turned from them, that he remembered the ghost,
and became conscious that it was looking full
upon him, while the light upon its head burned
very clear.

" A small matter," said the ghost, " to make
these silly folks so full of gratitude."

" Small I " echoed Scrooge.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

The spirit signed to him to hsten to the two
apprentices, who were pouring out their hearts
in praise of Fezziwig ; and when he had done so,
said —

" Why ! Is it not ? He has spent but a few
pounds of your mortal money ; three or four,
perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this
praise ? "

" It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the re-
mark, and speaking unconsciously like his former,
not his latter, self. " It isn't that, spirit. He has
the power to render us happy or unhappy ; to
make our service light 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 'em up — what then ?
The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it
cost a fortune."

He felt the spirit's 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.
52

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

" My time grows short," observed the spirit.
" Quick ! "

This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any
one whom he could see, but it produced an im-
mediate effect. For again Scrooge saw himself.
He was older now ; a man in the prime of life.
His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later
years ; but it had begun to wear the signs of care
and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless
motion in the eye, which showed the passion that
had taken root, and where the shadow of the grow-
ing tree would fall.

He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair
young girl in mourning-dress ; in whose eyes there
were tears, which sparkled in the light that shone
out of the Ghost of Christmas Past.

" It matters Uttle," 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

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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, en-
grosses you. Have I not ? "

*' What then ? " he retorted. " Even if I have
orrown so much wiser, what then ? I am 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 w^as 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 two.
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."

" 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
54

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

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 ?
Ah, no ! "

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 / have
learned a truth like this, I know how strong and
irresistible it must be. But if you were free
to-day, to-morrow, yesterday, can even I believe
that you would choose a dowerless girl — you who,
in your very confidence with her, weigh everything
by gain ; or, choosing her, if for a moment you
were false enough to your one guiding principle to
do so, do I not know that your repentance and
regret would surely follow ? I do ; and I release
you. With a full 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 is 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 ! "

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

She left him, and they parted.

" Spirit ! " said Scrooge, " show me no more I
Conduct me home. Why do you deh^^ht to
torture me ? "

" One shadow more ! " exclaimed the ghost.

" No more ! " cried Scrooge. " No more. 1
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 and place ; a room,
not very large or handsome, but full of comfort.
Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful young girl,
so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the
same, until he saw her, now a comely matron,
sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in this
room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were
more children there than Scrooge in his agitated
state of mind could count ; and, unlike the
celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty
children conducting themselves like one, but every
child was conducting itself like forty. The con-
sequences were uproarious beyond belief; but no
one seemed to care ; on the contrary, the mother
and daughter laughed heartily, and enjoyed it very
much ; and the latter, soon beginning to mingle in
the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands
most ruthlessly. What would I not have given to
be one of them ? Though I never could have
56

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

been so rude, no, no ! I wouldn't for the wealth
of all the world have crushed that braided hair, and
torn it down ; and for the precious little shoe, I
wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul !
to save my life. As to measuring her waist in
sport, as they did, bold young brood, I couldn't
have done it ; I should have expected my arm to
have grown round it for a punishment, and never
come straight again. And yet I should have
dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips ; to
have questioned her, that she might have opened
them ; to have looked upon the lashes of her
downcast eyes, and never raised a blush ; to have
let loose waves of hair, an inch of which would be
a keepsake beyond price : in short, I should have
liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license
of a child, and yet to have been man enough to
know its value.

But now a knocking at the door was heard, and
such a rush immediately ensued that she, with
laughing face and plundered dress, was borne
towards it the centre of a flushed and boisterous
group, just in time to greet the father, who came
home attended by a man laden with Christmas
toys and presents. Then the shouting and the
struggling, and the onslaught that was made on
the defenceless porter ! The scaling him, with
chairs for ladders, to dive into his pockets, despoil
him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his
I 57

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

cravat, liufr him round his neck, pommel his back,
and kick his legs in irrepressible af lection ! The
shouts of wonder and delight with which the
development of every package was received !
The terrible announcement that the baby had
been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying-pan
into his mouth, and was more than suspected of
having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a
wooden platter ! The immense relief of finding
this a false alarm ! The joy, and gratitude, and
ecstasy ! They are all indescribable alike. It is
enough that by degrees the children and their
emotions got out of the parlour and by one stair at
a time, up to the top of the house ; where they
went to bed, and so subsided.

And now Scrooge looked on more attentively
than ever, when the master of the house, having
his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat do\^^l with
her and her mother at his own fireside ; and when
he thought that such another creature, quite as
graceful and as full of promise, might have called
him father, and been a spring-time in the haggard
winter of his life, his sight grew very dim indeed.

" Belle," said the husband, turning to his wife,
with a smile, " I saw an old friend of yours this
afternoon."

" Who was it ? "

" Guess ! "

''How can I ? Tut, don't I know," she added
58

FIRST OF THREE SPIRITS

in the same breath, laughing as he laughed. '* Mr.
Scrooge."

" Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office
window ; and as it was not shut up, and he had a
candle inside, 1 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.

" Leave 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-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it
down upon its head.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

The spirit dropped beneath it, so tliat the ex-
tinguisher 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 over-
come by an irresistible drowsiness ; and, further,
of being in his own bedroom. He gave the cap a
parting squeeze, in which his hand relaxed ; and
had barely time to reel to bed, before he sank into
a heavy sleep.

Stave Three

THE SECOND OF THE
SPIRITS

THREE

Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough
snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts
together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that
the bell was again upon the stroke of one. He
felt that he was restored to consciousness in the
right nick of time, for the especial purpose of hold-
ing a conference with the second messenger des-
patched to him through Jacob JNIarley's intervention.
But, finding that he turned uncomfortably cold
when he began to wonder which of his curtains
this new spectre would draw back, he put them
every one aside with his own hands, and lying
down again, established a good look-out all round
the bed ; for he wished to challenge the spirit on
the moment of its appearance, and did not wish to
be taken by surprise, and made nervous.

A CHRIST ]M AS CAROL

Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume
themselves on being acquainted with a move or
two, and being usually equal to the time-of-day,
express the wide range of their capacity for ad-
venture by observing that they are good for any-
thing from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter ; between
which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a
tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects.
Without venturing for Scrooge quite as hardily as
this, I don't mind calling on you to believe that he
was ready for a good broad field of strange appear-
ances, and that nothing between a baby and rhino-
ceros would have astonished him very much.

Now, being prepared for almost anything, he
was not by any means prepared for nothing ; and,
consequently, when the bell struck one, and no
shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of
trembling. Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter
of an hour went by, yet nothing came. All this
time, he lay upon his bed, the very core and
centre of a blaze of ruddy light, which streamed
upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour ; and
which, being only light, was more alarming than
a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out
what it meant, or would be at ; and was sometimes
apprehensive that he might be at that very moment
an interesting case of spontaneous combustion,
■wdthout having the consolation of knowing it. At
last, however, he began to think — as you or I
62

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

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 un-
questionably have done it too — at last I say, he
began to think that the source and secret of this
ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from
whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine.
This idea taking full possession of his mind, he
got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the
door.

The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a
strange voice called him by his name, and bade
him enter. He obeyed.

It was his own room. There was no doubt
about that. But it had undergone a surprising
transformation. The walls and ceiling were so
hung with living green, that it looked a perfect
grove ; from every part of which, bright gleaming
berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistle-
toe, and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many
httle mirrors had been scattered there ; and such a
mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as that
dull petrifaction of a hearth had never known in
Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many and many
a winter season gone. Heaped up on the floor, to
form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game,
poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs,
long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-pud-
dings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears,
immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of
punch, that made the chamber dim with their
delicious steam. In easy state upon this couch,
there sat a jolly giant, glorious to see ; who bore
a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's horn,
and held it up, high up, to shed its light on
Scrooge, as he came peeping round the door.

" Come in ! " 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, deep-green robe, or mantle, bordered
with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on
the figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if
disdaining to be warded or concealed by any arti-
fice. 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 WTeath, set
here and there with shining icicles. Its dark-
brown curls w^ere long and free ; free as its genial
face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery
voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful
air. Girded round its middle was an antique
64

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

scabbard ; but no sword was in it, and the ancient
sheath was eaten up with rust.

" You have never seen the hke of me before ! "
exclaimed the spirit.

" Never," Scrooge made answer to it.

" Have never walked forth with the younger
members of my family ; meaning (for 1 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.

" A tremendous family to provide for ! " muttered
Scrooge.

The Ghost of Christmas Present rose.

" Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, " conduct
me where you will. I went forth last night on
compulsion, and I learned a lesson which is work-
ing now. To-night, if you have aught 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 in-
stantly. 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
K 65

A C II R I S T ]\I A S CAROL

weather was severe) tlie people made a rou<^h, but
brisk and not unpleasant, kind of music, in scrap-
ing the snow I'roni the pavement in front of their
dwellings, and from the tops of their houses,
whence it was mad delight to the boys to see it
come plumping down into the road below, and
splitting into artificial little snow-storms.

The house fronts looked black enough, and the
windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth white
sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with the dirtier
snow upon the ground ; which last deposit had
been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy
wheels of carts and wagons ; furrows that crossed
and recrossed each other hundreds of times where
the great streets branched off; and made intricate
channels, hard to trace, in the thick yellow mud
and icy water. The sky was gloomy, and the
shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist,
half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles
descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the
chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent,
caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear
hearts' content. There was nothing very cheerful
in the climate or the town, and yet there was an
air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer
air and brightest summer sun might have en-
deavoured to diffuse in vain.

For the people who were shovelling away on the
housetops were jovial and full of glee ; calling out
66

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

to one another from the parapets, and now and
then exchanging a facetious snow-ball — better-
natured missile far than many a wordy jest —
laughing heartily if it went right, and not less
heartily if it went wrong. The poulterers' shops
were still half open, and the fruiterers' were radiant
in their glory. There were great, round, pot-
bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waist-
coats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors,
and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic
opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-
girthed Spanish onions, shining in the fatness of their
growth like Spanish friars, and winking from their
shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went
by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe.
There were pears and apples, clustered high in
blooming pyramids ; there were bunches of grapes,
made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence, to dangle
from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths
might water gratis as they passed ; there were piles
of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their
fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and
pleasant shufflings ankle-deep through withered
leaves ; there were Norfolk biffins, squab 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

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

among these choice fruits in a bowl, tliough
members of a dull and stagnant-blooded race,
appeared to know that there was something going
on ; and, to a fish, went gasping round and round
their little world in slow and passionless excite-
ment.

The grocers' ! oh, the grocers' ! nearly closed,
with perhaps two shutters down, or one ; but
through those gaps such glimpses ! It was not
alone that the scales descending on the counter
made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller
parted company so briskly, or that the canisters
were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or
even that the blended scents of tea and coffee were
so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins
W'Cre so plentiful and rare, the almonds so ex-
tremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and
straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied
fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as
to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint and
subsequently bilious. Nor was it that the figs
were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums
blushed in modest tartness from their highly
decorated boxes, or that everything was good to
eat and in its Christmas dress. But the customers
were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful
promise of the day, that they tumbled up against
each other at the door, crashing their wicker
baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the
68

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

counter, and came running back to fetch them,
and committed hundreds of the Hke mistakes, in
the best humour possible ; while the grocer and his
people were so frank and fresh that the polished
hearts with which they fastened their aprons
behind might have been their own, worn outside
for general inspection, and for Christmas daws to
peck at if they chose.

But soon the steeples called good people all to
church and chapel, and away they came, flocking
through the streets in their best clothes, and with
their gayest faces. And at the same time there
emerged from scores of by-streets, lanes, and
nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying
their dinners to the bakers' shops. The sight of
these poor revellers appeared to interest the spirit
very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him
in a baker's doorway, and taking off the covers as
their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their
dinners from his torch. And it was a very un-
common kind of torch, for once or twice when
there were angry words between some dinner-
carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few
drops of water on them from it, and their good-
humour was restored directly. For they said, it
was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day.
And so it was ! God love it, so it was !

In time the bells ceased, and the bakers' were
shut up ; and yet there was a genial shadowing

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

forth of all these dinners iind the prof^ress of their
cooking, in the thawed blotcli of wet above each
baker's oven ; Avhere the pavement smoked as if its
stones were cooking too.

" Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle
from your torch ? " asked 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."

" 1 ? " cried the spirit.

" You w^ould 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."

" / seek ? " exclaimed the spirit.

" Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done
in your name, or at least in that of your family,"
said Scrooge.
70

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

" There are some upon this earth of yours,"
returned 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 our kith 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
baker's) that, notwithstanding his gigantic size, he
could accommodate himself to any place with ease ;
and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as
gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it
was possible he could have done in any lofty hall.

And perhaps it was the pleasure the good spirit
had in showing off this power of his, or else it was
his own kind, generous, hearty nature, and his
sympathy with all poor men, that led him straight
to Scrooge's clerk's ; for there he went, and took
Scrooge with him, holding to his robe : and on the
threshold of the door the spirit smiled, and stopped
to bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings
of his torch. Think of that ! Bob had but fifteen
" Bob " a week himself ; he pocketed on Saturdays
but fifteen copies of his Christian name ; and yet
the Ghost of Christmas Present blessed his four-
roomed house!

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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 mon-
strous shirt-collar (Bob's private property conferred
upon his son and heir in honour of the day) into
his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly
attired, and yearned to show his linen in the
fashionable parks. And now two smaller Cratchits,
boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that
outside the baker's they had smelled 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
JNIaster Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not
proud, although his collars nearly choked him)
blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up,
knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out
and peeled.

" What has ever got your precious father then ? "
said Mrs. Cratchit. " And your brother. Tiny
Tim I And Martha warn't as late last Christmas
Day by half an hour."

" Here's Martha, mother I " said a girl, ap-
pearing as she spoke.
72

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

" Here's Martha, mother ! " cried the two
young Cratchits. " Hurrah 1 There's inich a
goose, Martha ! "

"Why, 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 ye down before the fire,
my dear, and have a warm. Lord bless ye ! "

" No, no I There's father coming," cried the two
young Cratchits, who were everywhere at once.
" Hide, 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 round.

" Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit.

" Not coming ! " said Bob, with a sudden de-
clension in his high spirits ; for he had been Tim's
L 73

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

blood-horse all the way from church, and had
come home rampant. " Not coming upon Christ-
mas Day ! "

Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if
it were only in joke ; so she came out prematurely
from behind the closet door, and ran into his arms,
while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim,
and bore liim off into the wash-house, that he might
hear the pudding singing in the copper.

*' And how did little Tim behave ? " asked JMrs.
Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity,
and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart's
content.

" As good as gold," said Bob, " and better.
Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himselt
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 cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to
remember upon Christmas Day who made 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.

His active little crutch was heard upon the
floor, and back came Tiny Tim before another
word was spoken, escorted by his brother and
sister to his stool beside the fire ; and w^hile Bob,
turning up his cuffs — as if, poor fellow, they were
74

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

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 ubi-
quitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose,
with which they soon returned in high pro-
cession.

Such a bustle ensued that you might have
thought a goose the rarest of all birds ; a feathered
phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter
of course — and in truth it was something very like
it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy
(ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot ;
Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible
vigour ; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-
sauce ; Martha dusted the hot plates ; Bob took
Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the
table ; the two young Cratchits set chairs for
everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mount-
ing guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into
their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose
before their turn came to be helped. At last the
dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was
succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit,
looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared
to plunge it in the breast ; but when she did, and
when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued
forth, one murmur of delight arose all round the
board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two

A CHRIST INI AS CAROL

young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle
of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah J

There never was such a goose. Bob said he
didn't believe there ever was such a goose cooked.
Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness,
were the themes of universal admiration. Eked
out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a
sufficient dinner for the whole family ; indeed, as
Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying
one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they
hadn't ate it all at last ! Yet every one had had
enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular,
were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows !
But now, the plates being changed by Miss
Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone — too
nervous to bear witnesses — to take the pudding up,
and bring it in.

Suppose it should not be done enough ! Sup-
pose it should break in turning out ! Suppose
somebody should have got over the wall of the
back-yard, and stolen it, while they were merry
with the goose — a supposition at which the two
young Cratchits became livid ! All sorts of
horrors were supposed.

Hollo ! A great deal of steam ! The pudding
was out of the copper. A smell like a wash-
ing-day ! That was the cloth. A smell like
an eating-house and a pastrycook's next door to
each other, with a laundress's next door to that.
76

MRS. CRATCHIT ENTERED . , . WITH THE PUDDING.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

That was the pudding ! In half a minute Mrs.
Cratcliit entered — flushed, but smihng proudly —
with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so
hard and firm, blazing in half of half a quartern
of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly
stuck into the top.

Oh, a wonderful pudding ! Bob Cratchit said,
and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest
success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their
mamage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight
was ofl' her mind, she would confess that she had
had her doubts about the quantity of flour.
Everybody had something to say about it, but
nobody said or thought it was at all a small
pudding for a large family. It would have been
flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have
blushed to hint at such a thing.

At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was
cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up.
The compound in the jug being tasted, and con-
sidered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon
the table, and a shovelful of chestnuts on the fire.
Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth,
in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half
a one ; and at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the
family display of glass. Two tumblers, and a
custard-cup without a handle.

These held the hot stuff: from the jug, however,
as well as golden goblets would have done ; and
78

All the Cratchit family
drew round the hearth.

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

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 every one ! " 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 crutch without an
owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows re-
main 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, none other of my race," returned the ghost,
" will find him here. What then ? If he be hke
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 peni-
tence and grief.

A CHRISTIMAS CAROL

" Man," said the ghost — " if man you be in heart,
not adamant — forbear that wicked cant until you
have discovered what the surphis 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. O 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 1 had him here.
I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and
I hope he'd have a good appetite for it."

" My dear," said Bob, " the children ! Christmas
Day."

" It should be 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 day's,"
80

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

said Mrs. Cratchit, " not for his. Long life to him I
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year t
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
in it. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn't
care twopence for it. Scrooge was the ogre of the
family. The mention of his name cast a dark
shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for
full five minutes.

After it had passed away, they were ten times
merrier than before, from the mere rehef 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 Crat chits
laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being
a man of business ; and Peter himself looked
thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars,
as if he were deliberating what particular invest-
ments he should favour when he came into the
receipt of that bewildering income. Martha, who
was a poor apprentice at a milliner's, then told
them what kind of work she had to do, and how
many hours she worked at a stretch, and how she
meant to lie abed to-morrow morning, for a good
long rest ; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at
home. Also, how she had seen a countess and
M 81

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

a lord some days before, and how the lord " was
mueh about as tall as Peter " ; at which Peter
pulled up his collars so high that you couldn't have
seen his head if you had been there. All this
time the chestnuts and the jug went round and
round ; and by and by they had a song, about a
lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim,
who had a plaintive httle voice, and sang it very
well indeed.

There was nothing of high mark in this. They were
not a handsome family; tliey were not well dressed ;
their shoes were far from being waterproof; their
clothes were scanty; and Peter might have
known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawn-
broker's. But they were happy, grateful, pleased
with one another, and contented with the time ;
and when they faded, and looked happier yet in
the bright sprinklings of the spirit's torch at part-
ing, 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
m kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of rooms, was
wonderful. Here the flickering of the blaze showed
preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot plates
baking through and through before the fire, and
deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out
cold and darkness. There, all the children of the
82

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

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-bUnd of guests
assembHng ; and there a group of handsome girls,
all hooded and fur-booted, and all chattering at
once, tripped lightly off to some near neighbour's
house ; where, woe upon the single man who saw
them enter — artful witches, well they knew it —
in a glow !

But, if you had judged from the numbers of
people on their way to friendly gatherings, you
mio'ht have thought that no one was at home to
give them welcome when they got there, instead
of every house expecting company, and piling up
its fires half-chimney high. Blessings on it, how
the ghost exulted ! How it bared its breadth
of breast, and opened its capacious palm, and
floated on, outpouring, with a generous hand, its
bright and harmless mirth on everything within
its reach ! The very lamplighter, who ran on be-
fore, dotting the dusky street with specks of light,
and who was dressed to spend the evening some-
where, laughed out loud as the spirit passed, though
little kenned the lamplighter that he had any
company but Christmas !

And now, without a word of warning from the
ghost, they stood upon a bleak and desert moor,
where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

about, as though it were the burial-place of giants ;
and water spread itself wheresoever it listed, or
would have done so, but for the frost that held it
prisoner ; and nothing grew but moss and furze, and
coarse, rank grass. Down in the west the setting
sun had left a streak of fiery red, which glared
upon the desolation for an instant, like a sullen eye,
and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in
the thick gloom of darkest night.

" What place is this ? " asked Scrooge.

" A place where miners live, who labour 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 round a glowing fire. An old,
old man and woman, with their children and their
children's children, and another generation beyond
that, all decked out gaily in their holiday attire.
The old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the
howling of the wind upon the barren waste, was
singing them a Christmas song — it had been a very
old song when he was a boy — and from time to
time they all joined in the chorus. So surely as
they raised their voices, the old man got quite
blithe and loud ; and so surely as they stopped, his
vigour sank again.

The spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge
84

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

hold his robe, and passing on above the moor,
sped — whither ? Not to sea ? To sea. To Scrooge's
horror, looking back, he saw the last of the land, a
frightful range of rocks, behind them ; and his ears
were deafened by the thundering of water, as it
rolled, and roared, and raged among the dreadful
caverns it had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine
the earth.

Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rock, some
league or so from shore, and on which the waters
chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there
stood a solitary lighthouse. Great heaps of sea-
weed clung to its base, and storm-birds — born of
the wind one might suppose, as sea-weed of the
water — rose and fell about it, like the waves they
skimmed.

But even here, two men who watched the light
had made a fire, that through the loophole in the
thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on
the awful sea. Joining their horny hands over the
rough table at which they sat, they wished each
other Merry Christmas in their can of grog ; and
one of them — the elder, too, with his face all
damaged and scarred with hard weather, as the
figure-head of an old ship might be — struck up a
sturdy song that was like a gale in itself

Again the ghost sped on, above the black and
heaving sea — on, on — until, being far away, as he
told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a

A CHRISTIMAS CAROL

ship. They stood beside the hehnsman at the
wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who
had the watch ; dark, ghostly figures in their
several stations ; but every man among them
hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas
thought, or spoke below his breath to his com-
panion 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 one 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 listen-
ing 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 w^as a much greater
surprise to Scrooge to recognise it as his own
nephew's, and to find himself in a bright, dry,
gleaming room, with the spirit standing smiling by
his side, and looking at that same nephew with
approving affability !

" Ha, ha ! " laughed Scrooge's nephew. " Ha,
ha, ha ! "

If you should happen, by any unlikely chance,
86

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

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 in disease and
sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly
contagious as laughter and good-humour. When
Scrooge's nephew laughed in this way — holding
his sides, rolling his head, and twisting his face
into the most extravagant contortions — Scrooge's
niece, by marriage, laughed as heartily as he.
And their assembled friends being not a bit behind-
hand, roared out lustily.

" Ha, ha ! Ha, ha, ha, ha ! "

"He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I
live ! " cried Scrooge's nephew. " He believed it,
too!"

" More shame for him, Fred ! " said Scrooge's
niece indignantly. Bless those women ; they
never do anything by halves. They are always in
earnest.

She was very pretty — exceedingly pretty. With
a dimpled, surprised-looking, capital face ; a ripe
little mouth, that seemed made to be kissed — as no
doubt it was ; all kinds of good little dots about
her chin, that melted into one another when she
laughed ; and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever
saw in any httle creature's head. Altogether, she

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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 offences carry their
own punishment, and I have nothing to say against
him."

" I'm sure he is very rich, Fred," hinted Scrooge's
niece. " At least you always tell vie 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. He hasn't the satisfaction of
thinking — ha, ha, ha ! — 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
88

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

competent judges, because they had just had
dinner ; and, with the dessert upon the table, were
clustered round the fire, by lamplight.

" Well! I am very glad to hear it," said Scrooge's
nephew ; " because I haven't any 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. Whereat
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 revelled in another laugh, and
as it was impossible to keep the infection off —
though the plump sister tried hard to do it with
aromatic vinegar — his example was unanimously
followed.

" I was only going to say," said Scrooge's
nephew, " that the consequence of his taking a
dislike to us, and not making merry with us, is, as
I think, that he loses some pleasant moments,
which could do him no harm. I am sure he loses
pleasanter companions than he can find in his own
thoughts, either in his mouldy old office, or his
dusty chambers. I mean to give him the same
N 89

A CIIRISTIMAS CAROL

chance every year, whether he Ukes it or not, for 1
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 fifty pounds, thafs something ; and I
think I shook him yesterday."

It was their turn to laugh now, at the notion of
his shaking Scrooge. But being thoroughly good-
natured, and not much caring what they laughed
at, so that they laughed at any rate, he encouraged
them in their merriment, and passed the bottle,
joyously.

After tea, they had some music. For they were
a musical family, and knew what they were about,
when they sang a glee or catch, I can assure you :
especially Topper, who could growl away in the
bass like a good one, and never swell the large
veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over it.
Scrooge's niece played well upon the harp ; and
played among other tunes a simple little air (a
mere nothing : you might learn to whistle it in
two minutes), which had been familiar to the child
who fetched Scrooge from the boarding-school, as
he had been reminded by the Ghost of Christmas
Past. When this strain of music sounded, all the
things that ghost had shown him, came upon his
mind ; he softened more and more ; and thought
90

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

that if he could have Hstened to it often, years ago,
he might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for
his own happiness with his own hands, without
resorting to the sexton's spade that buried Jacob
Marley.

But they didn't devote the whole evening to
music. After a while they played at forfeits ; for
it is good to be children sometimes, and never
better than at Christmas, when its mighty
Founder was a child Himself Stop ! There
was first a game at blindman's-bufF. Of course
there was. And I no more believe Topper was
really blind than I believe he had eyes in his boots.
My opinion is, that it was a done thing between
him and Scrooge's nephew ; and that the Ghost of
Christmas Present knew it. The way he went
after that plump sister in the lace tucker, was an
outrage on the credulity of human nature.
Knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling over the
chairs, bumping up 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. It
you had fallen up against him (as some of them
did) on purpose, he would have made a feint of
endeavouring to seize you, which would have been
an affront to your understanding, and would
instantly have sidled off in the direction of the
plump sister. She often cried out that it wasn't

A CHRISTIMAS CAROL

fciir : and it really was not. But wlien at last he
caught her — when, in spite of all her silken
rustlings, and her rapid Hutterings past him, he
got her into a corner whence there was no escape —
then his conduct was the most execrable. For
his pretending not to know her — his pretending
that it was necessary to touch her head-dress, and
further to assure himself of her identity by pressing
a certain ring upon her finger, and a certain chain
about her neck — was vile, monstrous ! No doubt
she told him her opinion of it, when, another bhnd-
man being in office, they were so very confidential
together, behind the curtains.

Scrooge's niece was not one of the blindman'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 twenty people
there, young and old, but they all played, and so
did Scrooge ; for, wholly forgetting in the interest
he had in what was going on, that his voice made
no sound in their ears, he sometimes came out with
his guess quite loud, and very often guessed right,
92

|^Ky7~^B|'lslk (^

HiP^

' ^i^HN^'- , ^Kl^ -'*

B^^ 'IPHMriMP

hsKnl^

^Hp^BltaL ^^fl^l^lffw

^bPH^^I

m i!3||L '.^tX^^Mi

^^^Kf ^Kh^^B^^^^

-^K^ W \ , 'SSml ^Sn. *V ^^HK

HHpf ^^f Bh

W / ^^^""^^ ' jk ■

Kr ^

[BHU / 4^^^F^ "^^k ^m

TW^ 1

l^sil^H^^^v^ •^ jWBwt '^ ^

^ffi

^^B^^^^^^V V? *PV^^^^B^f I

hhh^^^^^^b '. ; ^^^^Hp.fl

Plf " ^' ' "^

^^J . 1 . ' t^^ ^ ^ ,^) ^

...

^^^

The way Topper went after that plump sister . . .
was an outrage on the credulity of human nature.

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

too ; for the sharpest needle, best Whitechapel
warranted not to cut in the eye, was not sharper
than Scrooge ; blunt as he took it in his head
to be.

The ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this
mood, and looked upon him with such favour, that
he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay until
the guests departed. But this the spirit said could
not be done.

" Here is a new game," said Scrooge. " One
half-hour, spirit, only one I "

It was a game called Yes and No, where
Scrooge's nephew had to think of something, and
the rest must find out what ; he only answering to
their questions yes or no, as the case was. The
brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed,
elicited from him that he was thinking of an
animal, a live animal, rather a disagreeable animal,
a savage animal, an animal that growled and
grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and
lived in London, and walked about the streets,
and wasn't made a show of, and wasn't led by
anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie, and was
never killed in a market, and was not a horse or an
ass, or a cow, or a bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a
pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every fresh question
that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh
roar of laughter ; and was so inexpressibly tickled
that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

stamp. At last the plump sister, falling into a
similar state, cried out —

" I have found it out ! I know what it is, Fred !
I know what it is ! "

" What is it ? " cried Fred.

" It's your uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge ! "

Which it certainly was. Admiration was the
universal sentiment, though some objected that
the 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, Avhatever 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
and light of heart, that he w^ould have pledged the
unconscious company in return, and thanked them
in an inaudible speech, if the ghost had given him
time. But the whole scene passed off in the
breath of the last word spoken by his nephew ;
94

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

and he and the spirit were again upon their
travels.

Much they saw, and far they went, and many
homes they visited, but always with a happy end.
The spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they were
cheerful ; on foreign lands, and they were close at
home ; by struggling men, and they were patient
in their greater hope ; by poverty, and it was rich.
In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in misery's every
refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority
had not made fast the door, and barred the spirit out,
he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.

It was a long night, if it were only a night ;
but Scrooge had his doubts of this, because the
Christmas holidays appeared to be condensed into
the space of time they passed together. It was
strange, too, that while Scrooge remained un-
altered in his outv/ard form, the ghost grew older,
clearly older. Scrooge had observed this change,
but never spoke of it, until they left a children's
Twelfth Night party, when, looking at the spirit
as they stood together in an open space, he noticed
that its hair was gray.

" Are spirits' lives so short ? " asked Scrooge.

" My life upon this globe is very brief," replied
the ghost. " It ends to-night."

" To-night ! " cried Scrooge.

" To-night at midnight. Hark I The time is
drawing near."

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

The chimes were ringing the three-quarters-past
eleven at tliat 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 be-
longing 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," was the spirit's sorrowful reply. " Look
here."

From the foldings of its robe, it brought two
children ; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous,
miserable. They kneeled down at its feet, and
clung upon the outside of its garment.

" Oh, man! look here. Look, look, down here!"
exclaimed the ghost.

They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre,
ragged, scowling, wolfish ; but prostrate, too, in
their humility. Where graceful youth should
have filled their features out, and touched them
with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand,
like that of age, had pinched and twisted them,
and pulled them into shreds. Where angels
might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and
glared out menacing. No change, no degradation,
no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through
all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has mon-
sters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them
96

SECOND OF THREE SPIRITS

shown to him in this way, he tried to say they
were fine children, but the words choked them-
selves, rather than be parties to a lie of such
enormous magnitude.

" Spirit ! are they yours ? " Scrooge could say
no more.

" They are man's," said the spirit, looking down
upon them. " And they cling to me, appealing
from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. Thi
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 its hand towards the city.
" Slander those who tell it ye ! Admit it for
your factious purposes, and make it worse ! And
bide the end."

" Have they 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 workhouses ? "

The bell struck twelve.

Scrooge looked about 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.

o 97

Stave Four

THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS

The phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached.
When it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon
his knee ; for in the very air through which this
spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and
mystery.

It was shrouded in a deep-black garment, which
concealed its head, its face, its form, and left
nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand.
But for this it would have been difficult to detach
its figure from the night, and separate it from the
darkness by which it was surrounded.

He felt that it was tall and stately when it came
beside him, and that its mysterious presence filled
him with a solemn dread. He knew no more, for
the spirit neither spoke nor moved.

" I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas
Yet to Come ? " said Scrooge.
98

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

The spirit answered not, but pointed onward
with his 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 con-
tracted for an instant in its folds, as if the spirit
had inclined its head. That was the only answer
he received.

Although well used to ghostly company by this
time, Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that
his legs trembled beneath him, and he found that
he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow
it. The spirit paused a moment, as observing his
condition, and giving him time to recover.

But Scrooge was all the worse for this. It
thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to
know that behind the dusky shroud there were
ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he,
though he stretched his own to the utmost, could
see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap
of black.

" Ghost of the future ! " he exclaimed, " I fear
you more than any spectre 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 ? "

a^^H^fi

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

It trave him no reply. The hand was pointed
straight before them.

"Lead on!" said Scrooge. "Lead on I The
night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me,
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 of its own act. But there they
were, in the heart of it ; on 'Change, amongst the
merchants ; who hurried up and down, and chinked
the money in their pockets, and conversed in
groups, and looked at their watches, and trifled
thoughtfully with their great gold seals ; and so
forth, as Scrooge had seen them often.

The spirit stopped beside one little knot of
business men. Observing that the hand was
pointed to them, Scrooge advanced to listen to
their talk.

" No," said a great fat man with a monstrous
chin, " I don't know much about it either way.
I only know he's dead."

" 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
100

" WHY, WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH HIM ? " ASKED A THIRD,

TAKING A VAST QUANTITY OF SKUFF OUT OF A VERY LARGE

SNUFF-BOX, " I THOUGHT HE'd NEVER DIE.''

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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 excrescence
on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills of
a turkey-cock.

" I haven't heard," said the man with the large
chin, yawning again. " Left it to his company,
perhaps. He hasn't left it to mc. That's all I
know."

This 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 pro\aded,"
observed the gentleman with the excrescence on
his nose. " But 1 must be fed, if I make one."

Another laugh.

" Well, 1 am the most disinterested among you,
after all," said the first speaker, " for I never wear
black gloves, and 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
102

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

with other groups. Scrooge knew the men, and
looked towards the spirit for an explanation.

The phantom glided on into a street. Its finger
pointed to two persons meeting. Scrooge listened
again, thinking that the explanation might lie
here.

He knew these men, also, perfectly. They were
men of business, very wealthy, and of great im-
portance. He had made a point of always 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, hey ? "

" So I am told," returned the second. " Cold,
isn't it ? "

" Seasonable for Christmas time. You're not
a skater, I suppose ? "

" No. 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 could
scarcely be supposed to have any bearing on the

103

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was past,
and tliis ghost's province was the future. Nor
could he think of any one immediately connected
with himself to whom he could apply them. But
nothing doubting that to whomsoever they applied
they had some latent moral for his own improve-
ment, he resolved to treasure up every word he
heard, and everything he saw ; and especially to
observe the shadow of himself when it appeared.
For he had an expectation that the conduct of his
future self would give him the clue he missed, and
would render the solution of these riddles easy.

He looked about in that very place for his own
image ; but another man stood in his accustomed
corner, and though the clock pointed to his usual
time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of
himself among the multitudes that poured in
through the porch. It gave him little surprise,
however ; for he had been revolving in his mind
a change of life, and thought and hoped he saw his
new-born resolutions carried out in this.

Quiet and dark, beside him stood the phantom,
with its outstretched hand. When he roused him-
self from 1ms thoughful quest, he fancied from the
turn of the hand, and its situation in reference to
himself, that the unseen eyes were looking at him
keenly. It made him shudder, and feel very cold.

They left the busy scene, and went into an
obscure part of the town, where Scrooge had never
104

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

penetrated before, although he recognised its situa-
tion, and its bad repute. The ways were foul and
narrow ; the shops and houses wretched ; the
people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. Alleys
and archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged
their offences of smell, and dirt, and life, upon the
straggling streets ; and the whole quarter reeked
with crime, with filth, and misery.

Far in this den of infamous resort, there was
a low-browed, beetling shop, below a pent-house
roof, where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and
greasy ofFal, were bought. Upon the floor within,
were piled up heaps of rusty keys, nails, chains,
hinges, files, scales, weights, and refuse iron of all
kinds. Secrets that few would like to scrutinise
were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly
rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of
bones. Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by
a charcoal stove, made of old bricks, was a gray-
haired rascal, nearly seventy years of age ; who
had screened himself from the cold air without, by
a frowsy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters, hung
upon a Hne ; and smoked his pipe in all the luxury
of calm retirement.

Scrooge and the phantom came into the presence
of this man, just as a woman with a heavy bundle
slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely entered,
when another woman, similarly laden, came in
too; and she was closely followed by a man Id
P 105

A CHRIST ]\I AS CAROL

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 charwoman alone to be the first ! "
cried she who had entered first. '* Let the laun-
dress alone to be the second ; and let the under-
taker'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 parlour. You were made free of it
long ago, you know ; and the other two ain't
strangers. Stop till I shut the door of the shop.
Ah! How it screaks! There ain't such a rusty
bit of metal in the place as its own hinges, I
believe ; and I'm sure there's no such old bones here,
as mine. Ha, ha ! We're all suitable to our call-
ing ; we're well matched. Come into the parlour.
Come into the parlour."

The parlour was the sp.ace behind the screen of
rags ; the old man raked the fire together with an
old stair-rod, and having trimmed his smoky lamp
(for it was night) with the stem of his pipe, put it
into his mouth again.

While he did this, the woman who had already
106

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

spoken threw her bundle on the floor and sat down
in a flaunting manner on a stool ; crossing her
elbows on her knees, and looking with a bold
defiance at the other two.

" What odds then ! What odds, Mrs. Dilber ? "
said the woman. " Every person has a right to
take care of themselves. He always did ! "

" That's true, indeed I " 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
going to 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 worse for the loss of a few
things like these ? Not a dead man, I suppose."

" No, indeed," said Mrs. Dilber, laughing.

" If he wanted to keep 'em 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."

" I wish it was a little heavier judgment," re-
plied the woman ; " and it should have been, you

107

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

may depend upon it, if I could have laid my hands
on anything else. Open that bundle, old 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 knew 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 severely 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 that 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 tea-
spoons, 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 weak-
ness of mine, and that's the way I ruin myself,"
said old Joe. "That's your account. If you
asked me for another penny, and made it an open
108

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

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 con-
venience of opening it, and having unfastened a
great many knots, dragged out a large 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. " Bed-
curtains ! "

" You don't mean to say you took 'em down,
rings and all, with him lying there ? " said Joe.

" Yes, I do," replied the woman. " Why
not ? "

" You were born to make your fortune,** said
Joe, " and you'll certainly do it."

" I certainly shan't hold my hand, when I can
get anything in it by reaching it out, for the sake
of such a man as he was, I promise you, Joe,"
returned the woman coolly. " Don't drop that oil
upon the blankets, now."

" His blankets ? " asked Joe.

" Whose else's do you think ?' replied the woman.
" He isn't likely to take cold without 'em, I
dare say."

" I hope he didn't die of anything catching ?

109

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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 things, 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 thread-
bare place. It's the best he had, and a fine one
too. They'd have wasted it if it hadn't been
for me."

" What do you call wasting of it ? " asked old
Joe.

" 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 listened to this dialogue in horror. As
they sat grouped about their spoil, in the scanty
light afforded by the old man's lamp, he viewed
them with a detestation and disgust, which could
hardly have been greater, though they had been
obscene demons, marketing the corpse itself.

" Ha, ha ! " laughed the same woman, when old

Joe, producing a flannel bag with money in it, told

out their several gains upon the ground. " This is

the end of it, you see. He frightened every one

110

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

away from him when he was aUve, to profit us
when he was dead ! Ha, ha, ha ! "

" Spirit ! " said Scrooge, shuddering from head
to foot. " I see, I see. The case of this unhappy-
man might be my own. My hfe 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, un-
curtained bed — on which, beneath a ragged sheet,
there lay a something covered up, which though it
was dumb, announced itself in awful language.
The room was very dark, too dark to be observed
with any accuracy, though Scrooge glanced round
it in obedience to a secret impulse, anxious to
know what kind of room it was. A pale light,
rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed ;
and on it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, un-
wept, uncared for, was the body of this man.

Scrooge glanced towards the phantom. Its
steady hand was pointed to the head. The cover
was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising
of it, the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part,
would have disclosed the face. He thought of it,
felt how easy it would be to do, and longed to do
it ; but had no more power to withdraw the veil
than to dismiss the spectre at his side.

Oh, cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up
thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as
thou hast at thy command ; for this is thy

111

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

dominion ! But of the loved, revered, and
honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to
thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious.
It is not that the hand is heavy, and will fall down
when released ; it is not that the heart and pulse
are still ; but that the hand was open, generous,
and true ; the heart brave, warm, and tender ; and
the pulse a man's. Strike, Shadow, strike ' And
see his good deeds springing from the wound, to
sow the world with life immortal !

No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge's
ears, and yet he heard them when he looked upon
the bed. He thought, if this man could be raised
up now, what would be his foremost thoughts ?
Avarice, hard-dealing, griping cares ? They have
brought him to a rich end, truly !

He lay, in the dark, empty house, with not a
man, a woman, or a child, to say, " he was kind to
me in this or that, and for the memory of one kind
word I will be kind to him." A cat was tearing at
the door, and there was a sound of gnawing rats
beneath the hearth-stone. What they wanted in
the room of death, and why they were so restless
and disturbed, Scrooge did not dare to think.

" Spirit ! " he said, " this is a fearful place. In
leaving it, I shall not leave its lesson, trust me.
Let us go ! "

Still the ghost pointed with an unmoved finger
to the head.
112

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

" 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 at him.

"If there is any person in the town who feels
emotion caused by this man's death," said Scrooge,
quite agonised, " 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 a mother and
her children were.

She was expecting some one, and with anxious
eagerness ; for she walked up and down the room ;
started at every sound ; looked out from the
window ; glanced at the clock ; tried, but in vain,
to work with her needle ; and could hardly bear
the voices of the children in their play.

At length the long-expected knock was heard.
She hurried to the door, and met her husband ; a
man whose face was careworn and depressed,
though he was young. There was a remarkable
expression in it now ; a kind of serious delight of
which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled to
repress.

He sat down to the dinner that had been hoard-
ing 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.
Q 113

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

" Is it good," she said, " or bad ? " — to help him.

" Bad," he answered.

" We are quite ruined ? "

" No. There is hope yet, Carohne."

" 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 bad fortune indeed to find so
merciless a creditor in his successor. We may
sleep to-night with light hearts, Caroline ! "

Yes. Soften it as they would, their hearts were
lighter. The children's faces, hushed and clustered
114

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

round to hear what they so Httle understood, were
brighter ; and it was a happier house for this man's
death ! The only emotion that the ghost could
show him, caused by the event, was one of
pleasure.

" Let me see some tenderness connected with a
death," said Scrooge ; " or that dark chamber,
spirit, which we left just now, will be for ever
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 dwelhng 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 those words ? He
had not dreamed them. The boy must have read
them out, as he and the spirit crossed the threshold.
Why did he not go on ?

The mother laid her work upon the table, and
put her hand up to her face.

115

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

" The colour hurts my eyes," she said.

The colour ? Ah, poor Tiny Tim I

*' They're better now again," said Cratchit's wife.
" It makes them weak by candle-light ; and I
wouldn't show weak eyes 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,
and 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," exclaimed another. So had
all.

" But he was very light to carry," she resumed,
intent upon her work, " and his father loved him
so, that it was no trouble ; no trouble. 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
116

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

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 to-day, 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, Httle 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 farther 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 set close
beside the child, and there were signs of some one
having been there lately. Poor Bob sat down in
it, and when he had thought a little and composed
himself, he kissed the little face. He was
reconciled to what had happened, and went down
again quite happy.

117

A CHRISTINIAS CAROL

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.'
By the bye, how he ever knew that I don't
know."

" Knew what, my dear ? "

" Why, that you were a good wife," replied
Bob.

" 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 I " said Mrs. Crat-
chit.

118

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

" 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 some one, 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 poor Tiny Tim — 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 I " they all cried again.

" I am very happy," said little Bob, " I am very
happy!"

Mrs. Cratchit kissed him, his daughters kissed
him, the two young Cratchits kissed him, and Peter
and himself shook hands. Spirit of Tiny Tim, thy
childish essence was from God 1

119

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

" Spectre," said Scrooge, " something informs me
that our parting moment is at hand. I know it,
but I know not how. Tell me what 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 business men, but showed him
not himself. Indeed, the spirit did not stay for
anything, but went straight on, as to the end just
now desired, until besought by Scrooge to tarry
for a moment.

" This court," 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 else-
where.

"The house is yonder," 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
120

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

whither he had gone, accompanied it until they
reached an iron gate. He paused to look round
before entering.

A churchyard. Here, then, the wretched man
whose name he had now to learn lay underneath
the ground. It was a worthy place. Walled in
by houses ; overrun by grass and weeds, the
growth of vegetation's death, not life ; choked up
with too much burying ; fat with repleted appetite.
A worthy place !

The spirit stood among the graves, and pointed
down to one. He advanced towards it, trembling.
The phantom was exactly as it had been, but he
dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn
shape.

" Before I draw nearer to that stone 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 the things that may be,
only ? "

Still the ghost pointed downward to the grave
by which it stood.

" Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to
which, if persevered in, they must lead," said
Scrooge. " But if the courses be departed from,
the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you
show me ! "

The spirit was immovable as ever.

Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went ;
R 121

A CHRISTINIAS CAROL

and following the finger, read upon the stone of
the neglected grave his own name, Ebenezer
Scrooge.

" A'm / that man who lay upon the bed ? " he
cried, upon his knees.

The finger pointed from the grave to him, and
back again.

" No, spirit ! Oh, no, no ! "

The finger still was there.

" Spirit ! " he cried, tight clutching at its robe,
" hear me. I am not the man 1 w^as. I wdll not
be the man I must have been but for this inter-
course. Why show me this, if 1 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 w ill honour Christmas in my heart, and try
to keep it all the year. I w^ill 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 en-
122

LAST OF THE SPIRITS

treaty, 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 shrank, collapsed,
and dwindled down into a bedpost.

123

Stave Five

THE END OF IT

Yes I and the bedpost was his own. The bed was
his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest
of aU, 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. O Jacob Marley ! Heaven, and the Christmas
time be praised for this ! I say it on my knees,
old 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, fold-
ing one of his bed-curtains in his arms, " they are
124.

THE END OF IT

not torn down, rings and all. They are here — I
am here — the shadows of the thinsfs 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 extrava-
gance.

" I don't know what to do ! " cried Scrooge,
laughing and crying in the same breath, and making
a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings.
I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an
angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as
giddy as a drunken man. A Merry Christmas to
everybody ! A Happy New Year to all the world.
Hollo, here! Whoop! Hollo!

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 Present sat I
There's the window where I saw the wandering
spirits ! It's all right, it's all true, it all happened.
Ha, ha, ha ! "

Really, for a man who had been out of practice
for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most

125

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

•■
illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line
of brilliant laughs !

" I don't know what day of the month it
is I " 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. Hollo ! Whoop ! Hollo,
here!"

He was checked in his transports by the churches
ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard.
Clash, clang, hammer ; ding, dong, bell. Bell,
dong, ding ; hammer, clang, clash ! Oh, glorious,
glorious !

Running to the window, he opened it, and put
out his head. No fog, no mist ; clear, bright,
jovial, stirring, cold ; cold, piping for the blood to
dance to ; golden sunlight ; heavenly sky ; sweet
fresh air ; merry bells. Oh, glorious. Glorious !

" What's to-day ? " cried Scrooge, calling down-
ward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had
loitered in to look about him.

"Eh ? " returned the boy, with all his might
of wonder.

" What's to-day, my fine fellow ? " said Scrooge.

" To-day ! " replied the boy. " Why, Christmas
Day."

" It's Christmas Day ! " said Scrooge to himself.
" I haven't missed it. The spirits have done it all
in one night. They can do anything they like.
126

THE END OF IT

Of course they can. Of course they can. Hollo,
my fine fellow ! "

" Hollo ! " returned the boy.

" Do you know the poulterer's in the next street
but one, at the corner ? " Scrooge inquired.

" I should hope I did," replied the lad.

" An intelligent boy ! " said Scrooge. "A re-
markable boy ! Do you know whether they've
sold 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's
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."

" Walk-ER ! " exclaimed the boy.

" No, no," said Scrooge, " I am in earnest. Go
and buy it, and tell 'em 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
shiUincr. 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 Cratchit's ! " whispered
Scrooge, rubbing his hands, and splitting with a
laugh. " He shan't know who sends it. It's twice

127

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

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 write it he did, somehow, and
went downstairs to open the street door, rea^y 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
its face. It's a wonderful knocker. Here's the
turkey. Hollo ! Whoop ! How are you ? Merry
Christmas ! "

It was a turkey ! He never could have stood
upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapped
'em short off in a minute, like sticks of sealing-
wax.

" Why, it's impossible to carry that to Camden
Town," 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 re-
128

'Here's the turkey. . . . How
are you ? Merry Christmas !

THE END OF IT

quires attention, even when you don't dance while
you are at it. But if he had cut the end of his nose
off, he would have put a piece of sticking-plaster
over it, and been quite satisfied.

He dressed himself " all in his best," and at last
got out into the streets. The people were by this
time pouring forth, as he had seen them with the
Ghost of Christmas Present ; and walking with his
hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one
with a delightful smile. He looked so irresistibly
pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-
humoured 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 Marley'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 yester-
day. It was very kind of you. A Merry
Christmas to you, sir I"

S 129

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

"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 good-
ness " 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
favour ? "

" My dear sir," said the other, shaking hands
with him. " I don't know what to say to such
munifi "

" Don't say anything, please," retorted Scrooge.
" Come and see me. WiU you come and see me ? "

" I will ! " cried the old gentleman. And it was
clear he meant to do it.

" Thank'ee," said Scrooge. " I am much obliged
to you. I thank you fifty 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 — that anything —
could give him so much happiness. In the after-
130

IS YOUa MASTER AT HOME t SAID SCROOGE TO THE GIRL.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

noon, 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.

" Is 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'ee. 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 I " said Scrooge.

Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage
started I 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's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to
dinner. Will you let me in, Fred ? "

Let him in I It is a mercy he didn't shake his
132

THE END OF IT

arm off. He was at home in five minutes.
Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just
the same. So did Topper when he came. So did
the plump sister when she came. So did every one
when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful
games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happi-
ness !

But he was early at the office next morning.
Oh, he was early there. If he could only be there
first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late ! That
was the thing he had set his heart upon.

And he did it ; yes, he did ! The clock struck
nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. He
was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his
time. Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that
he might see him come into the tank.

His hat was off before he opened the door ; his
comforter too. He was on his stool in a jifFy ;
driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to
overtake nine o'clock.

" Hollo ! " growled Scrooge, in 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 re-

133

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

peated. 1 was making rather merry 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 about 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 strait
waistcoat.

*' A Merry Christmas, Bob ! " said Scrooge, with
an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he
clapped him on the back. " A merrier Christmas,
Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for
many a year. I'll raise your salary, and endeavour
to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss
your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas
bowl of smoking bishop, Bob ! Make up the fires,
and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot
another i, 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

134

*' AND THEREFORE I AM ABOUT TO RAISE YOUR SALARY ! "^

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

man, as the good old city knew, or any other good
old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.
Some people laughed to see the alteration in
him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them ;
for he was wise enough to know that nothing
ever happened on this globe for good, at which
some people did not have their fill of laughter in
the outset ; and knowing that such as these would
be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that
they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have
the malady in less attractive forms. His own
heart laughed ; and that was quite enough for him.
He had no further intercourse with spirits, but
lived upon the total abstinence principle, ever
afterwards ; and it was always said of him, that
he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man
alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly
said of us, and all of us ! And so, as Tiny Tim
observed, God bless us every one 1

CJEKm-'

Printed in Great Britain hy Hatell, IVaison &• Viney, Ld.,
London and Ayletbury.

s-^

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "A Christmas carol"

See other formats