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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19337-8.txt b/19337-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a3f0885 --- /dev/null +++ b/19337-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3854 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Christmas Carol + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Illustrator: George Alfred Williams + +Release Date: September 20, 2006 [EBook #19337] +Last updated: January 21, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** + + + + +Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +By CHARLES DICKENS + +ILLUSTRATED BY +GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS + +New York +THE PLATT & PECK CO. + +_Copyright, 1905, by_ THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY + +[Illustration: "He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."] + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist which Dickens +possessed to a remarkable degree, together with his naturally jovial +attitude toward life in general, seem to have given him a remarkably +happy feeling toward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of +his boyhood could have allowed him but little real experience with this +day of days. + +Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in +his series of small books, the first of which was the famous "Christmas +Carol," the one perfect chrysolite. The success of the book was +immediate. Thackeray wrote of it: "Who can listen to objections +regarding such a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to +every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness." + +This volume was put forth in a very attractive manner, with +illustrations by John Leech, who was the first artist to make these +characters live, and his drawings were varied and spirited. + +There followed upon this four others: "The Chimes," "The Cricket on the +Hearth," "The Battle of Life," and "The Haunted Man," with illustrations +on their first appearance by Doyle, Maclise, and others. The five are +known to-day as the "Christmas Books." Of them all the "Carol" is the +best known and loved, and "The Cricket on the Hearth," although third in +the series, is perhaps next in point of popularity, and is especially +familiar to Americans through Joseph Jefferson's characterisation of +Caleb Plummer. + +Dickens seems to have put his whole self into these glowing little +stories. Whoever sees but a clever ghost story in the "Christmas Carol" +misses its chief charm and lesson, for there is a different meaning in +the movements of Scrooge and his attendant spirits. A new life is +brought to Scrooge when he, "running to his window, 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 sun-light; Heavenly sky; +sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!" All this +brightness has its attendant shadow, and deep from the childish heart +comes that true note of pathos, the ever memorable toast of Tiny Tim, +"God bless Us, Every One!" "The Cricket on the Hearth" strikes a +different note. Charmingly, poetically, the sweet chirping of the little +cricket is associated with human feelings and actions, and at the crisis +of the story decides the fate and fortune of the carrier and his wife. + +Dickens's greatest gift was characterization, and no English writer, +save Shakespeare, has drawn so many and so varied characters. It would +be as absurd to interpret all of these as caricatures as to deny Dickens +his great and varied powers of creation. Dickens exaggerated many of his +comic and satirical characters, as was his right, for caricature and +satire are very closely related, while exaggeration is the very essence +of comedy. But there remains a host of characters marked by humour and +pathos. Yet the pictorial presentation of Dickens's characters has ever +tended toward the grotesque. The interpretations in this volume aim to +eliminate the grosser phases of the caricature in favour of the more +human. If the interpretations seem novel, if Scrooge be not as he has +been pictured, it is because a more human Scrooge was desired--a Scrooge +not wholly bad, a Scrooge of a better heart, a Scrooge to whom the +resurrection described in this story was possible. It has been the +illustrator's whole aim to make these people live in some form more +fully consistent with their types. + + GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS. +_Chatham, N.J._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +STAVE PAGE + + I _Marley's Ghost_ 11 + II _The First of the Three Spirits_ 32 +III _The Second of the Three Spirits_ 51 + IV _The Last of the Spirits_ 76 + V _The End of it_ 93 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +_"He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."_ Frontispiece + +_"A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice._ 14 + +_To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a moment, + would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him._ 26 + +_"You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember it!" cried + Scrooge, with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."_ 36 + +_"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old + honest Ali Baba!"_ 38 + + + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +In Prose + +BEING A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS + + + + +STAVE ONE + +MARLEY'S GHOST + + +Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. +The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the +undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name +was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old +Marley was as dead as a door-nail. + +Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there +is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, +myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in +the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my +unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You +will, therefore, permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as +dead as a door-nail. + +Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? +Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge +was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his +sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even +Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was +an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and +solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. + +The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started +from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly +understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to +relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died +before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his +taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, +than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning +out after dark in a breezy spot--say St. Paul's Church-yard, for +instance--literally to astonish his son's weak mind. + +Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There it stood, years +afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was +known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called +Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It +was all the same to him. + +Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the 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 eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his +own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the +dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas. + +External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could +warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than +he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain +less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The +heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet could boast of the +advantage over him in only one respect. They often "came down" +handsomely and Scrooge never did. + +Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My +dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars +implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was +o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to +such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to +know him; and, when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into +doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they +said, "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!" + +But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his +way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep +its distance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge. + +Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, on Christmas +Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, +biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court +outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, +and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The City +clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already--it had +not been light all day--and candles were flaring in the windows of the +neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The +fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense +without, that, although the court was of the narrowest, the houses +opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, +obscuring everything, one might have thought that nature lived hard by +and was brewing on a large scale. + +The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, that he might keep his +eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, +was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire +was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't +replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so +surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that +it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his +white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which +effort, not being a man of 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 +handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. + +"Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean +that, I am sure?" + +"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be 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. + +[Illustration: _"A Merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a +cheerful voice._] + +"What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I live in such a world +of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's +Christmas-time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time +for finding yourself a year older, 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 'Merry Christmas' +on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a +stake of holly through his heart. He should!" + +"Uncle!" pleaded the nephew. + +"Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas in your own way, +and let me keep it in 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! +Much 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 +consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people +below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and +not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, +uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I +believe that it _has_ done me good, and _will_ do me good; and I say, +God bless it!" + +The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming immediately +sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the +last frail spark for ever. + +"Let me hear another sound from _you_," said Scrooge, "and you'll keep +your Christmas by losing your situation! You're quite a powerful +speaker, sir," 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 the expression, and said that he would see him in that +extremity first. + +"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?" + +"Why did you get married?" said Scrooge. + +"Because I fell in love." + +"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if that were the only +one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. "Good +afternoon!" + +"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 of you; why cannot we be +friends?" + +"Good afternoon!" said Scrooge. + +"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never +had any quarrel to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial +in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas 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 gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with +their hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their +hands, and bowed to him. + +"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, referring +to his list. "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. +Marley?" + +"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years," Scrooge replied. "He died +seven years ago, this very night." + +"We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving +partner," said the gentleman, presenting his credentials. + +It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits. At the ominous +word "liberality" Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the +credentials back. + +"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, +taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make +some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at +the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; +hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." + +"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge. + +"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 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 am very +glad to hear it." + +"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind +or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are +endeavouring 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 mentioned--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 population. Besides--excuse me--I don't know that." + +"But you might know it," observed the gentleman. + +"It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's enough for a man to +understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. +Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!" + +Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the +gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labours with an improved opinion +of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him. + +Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with +flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in +carriages, and conduct them on their way. The ancient tower of a church, +whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a +Gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and +quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards, as if its +teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. The cold became +intense. In the main street, at the corner of the court, some labourers +were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, +round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their +hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug +being left in solitude, its overflowings suddenly congealed, and turned +to misanthropic ice. The brightness of the shops, where holly sprigs and +berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy +as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers' trades became a splendid joke: +a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that +such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. The Lord +Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his +fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household +should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on +the previous Monday for being drunk and blood-thirsty 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 weapons, then indeed he +would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, +gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, +stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol; +but, at the first sound of + + "God bless you, merry 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 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, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. "But I +suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next +morning." + +The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. +The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends +of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no +great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of +boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas-eve, and then ran +home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman's +buff. + +Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and +having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening +with his banker's book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had +once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of +rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little +business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run +there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other +houses, and 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 explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, +having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its +undergoing any intermediate process of change--not a knocker, but +Marley's face. + +Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow, as the other objects +in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in +a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as +Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly +forehead. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath of hot air; +and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless. +That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to +be in spite of the face, and beyond its control, rather than a part of +its own expression. + +As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. + +To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of +a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would +be untrue. But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished, turned +it sturdily, walked in, and lighted his candle. + +He _did_ pause, with a moment's irresolution, before he shut the door; +and he _did_ look cautiously behind it first, as if he half expected to +be terrified with the sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the +hall. But there was nothing on the back of the door, except the screws +and nuts that held the knocker on, so he said, "Pooh, pooh!" and closed +it with a bang. + +The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above, +and every cask in the wine merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a +separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be +frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, +and up the stairs: slowly, too: trimming his candle as he went. + +You may talk vaguely about driving a coach and six up a good old flight +of stairs, or through a bad young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say +you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, +with the splinter-bar towards the wall, and the door towards the +balustrades: and done it easy. There was plenty of width for that, and +room to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a +locomotive hearse going on before him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen +gas-lamps out of the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well, so +you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge's dip. + +Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness is cheap, and +Scrooge liked it. But, before he shut his heavy door, he walked through +his rooms to see that all was right. He had just enough recollection of +the face to desire to do that. + +Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they should be. Nobody under +the table, nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and +basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his +head) upon the hob. Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody +in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude +against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two +fish baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and a poker. + +Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; double +locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus secured against +surprise, he took off his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, +and his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take his gruel. + +It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. He was +obliged to sit close to it, and brood over it, before he could extract +the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. The +fire-place was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and +paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the +Scriptures. There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters, Queens of +Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like +feather beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in +butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; and yet that +face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophet's rod, +and swallowed up the whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at +first, with power to shape some picture on its surface from the +disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would have been a copy of +old Marley's head on every one. + +"Humbug!" said Scrooge; and walked across the room. + +After several turns he sat down again. As he threw his head back in the +chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that +hung in the room, and communicated, for some purpose now forgotten, with +a chamber in the highest story of the building. It was with great +astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that, as he +looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in the +outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and +so did every bell in the house. + +This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an +hour. The bells ceased, as they had begun, together. They were succeeded +by a clanking noise, deep down below, as if some person were dragging a +heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant's cellar. Scrooge then +remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as +dragging chains. + +The cellar door flew open with a booming sound, and then he heard the +noise much louder on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then +coming straight towards his door. + +"It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I 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 transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking +through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind. + +Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had +never believed it until now. + +No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through +and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling +influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the +folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not +observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his +senses. + +"How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. "What do you want +with me?" + +"Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it. + +"Who are you?" + +"Ask me who I _was_." + +"Who _were_ you, then?" said Scrooge, raising his voice. "You're +particular, for a shade." He was going to say "_to_ a shade," but +substituted this, as more appropriate. + +"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." + +"Can you--can you sit down?" 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 explanation. But the Ghost sat down on the +opposite side of the fire-place, as if he were quite used to it. + +"You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost. + +"I don't," said Scrooge. + +"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your own +senses?" + +"I don't know," said Scrooge. + +"Why do you doubt your senses?" + +"Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. A slight disorder +of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, +a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. +There's more of gravy than 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 his own. Scrooge could not feel it himself, but this was +clearly the case; for though the Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its +hair, and skirts, and tassels were still agitated as by the hot vapour +from an oven. + +"You see this toothpick?" said Scrooge, returning quickly to the charge, +for the reason just assigned; and wishing, though it were only for a +second, to divert the vision's stony gaze from himself. + +"I do," replied the Ghost. + +"You are not looking at it," said Scrooge. + +"But I see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding." + +"Well!" returned Scrooge, "I have but to swallow this, and be for the +rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own +creation. 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 his head, as if it +were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its +breast! + +Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face. + +"Mercy!" he said. "Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?" + +"Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do you believe in me or +not?" + +"I do," said Scrooge. "I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and +why do they come to me?" + +[Illustration: _To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, +for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him._] + +"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit +within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and +wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do +so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world--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 link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free-will, and of my +own free-will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to _you_?" + +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 heavy and as 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 Marley, tell me more! Speak +comfort to me, Jacob!" + +"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 became thoughtful, to put his +hands in his breeches pockets. Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he +did so now, but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his knees. + +"You must have been 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 silence of the night, that the Ward would have +been justified in indicting it for a nuisance. + +"Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "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 usefulness! 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, +and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a +poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have +conducted _me_?" + +Scrooge was very 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 wiped 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. "Thankee!" + +"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. + +"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 sound its teeth made when the jaws were brought together by the +bandage. He ventured to raise his eyes again, and found his supernatural +visitor confronting him in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over +and about its arm. + +The apparition walked backward from him; and, at every step it took, the +window raised itself a little, so that, when the spectre reached it, it +was wide open. It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. When they +were within two paces of each other, Marley's Ghost held up its hand, +warning him to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped. + +Not so much in obedience as in surprise and fear; for, on the raising of +the hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent +sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and +self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in +the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night. + +Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked +out. + +The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in +restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains +like Marley's Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were +linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to +Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost in +a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who +cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an +infant, whom it saw below upon a 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 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 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 could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more +perplexed he was; and, the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he +thought. + +Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within +himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew +back again, like a strong spring released, to its first position, and +presented the same problem to be worked all through, "Was it a dream 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 resolved to lie awake until the +hour was passed; and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than +go to Heaven, this was, perhaps, the wisest resolution in his power. + +The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he must +have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock. At length it +broke upon his listening ear. + +"Ding, dong!" + +"A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting. + +"Ding, dong!" + +"Half past," said Scrooge. + +"Ding, dong!" + +"A quarter to it," said Scrooge. + +"Ding, dong!" + +"The hour itself," said Scrooge triumphantly, "and nothing else!" + +He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, +dull, hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the +instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn. + +The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not the +curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which +his face was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and +Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face +to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am +now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. + +It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a child as like +an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the +appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a +child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its +back, was white, as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in +it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and +muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. +Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper +members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist +was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a +branch of fresh green holly in its hand: and, in singular contradiction +of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But +the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there +sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and +which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a +great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. + +Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, +was _not_ its strangest quality. For, as its belt sparkled and +glittered, now in one part and now in another, and what was light one +instant at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its +distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with +twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a +body: of which dissolving parts no outline would be visible in the dense +gloom wherein they melted away. And, in the very wonder of this, it +would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever. + +"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 demanded. + +"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." + +"Long Past?" inquired Scrooge; observant of its dwarfish stature. + +"No. Your past." + +Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have +asked him; but he had a special desire to see the Spirit in his cap; and +begged him to be covered. + +"What!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you so soon put out, with worldly +hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those +whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years +to wear it low upon my brow?" + +Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any knowledge +of having 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 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 _there_," said the Spirit, laying it upon +his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more than this!" + +As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood upon +an open country road, with fields on either hand. The city had entirely +vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The darkness and the mist +had vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with the +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 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. +"Let us go on." + +[Illustration: _"You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember +it!" cried Scrooge with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."_] + +They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every gate, and post, +and tree, until a little market-town appeared in the distance, with its +bridge, its church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen +trotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other +boys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were +in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields were +so full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it. + +"These are but shadows of the things that have been," said the Ghost. +"They have no consciousness 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 by-ways for their several +homes? What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! +What good had it ever done to him? + +"The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A solitary 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 overrun 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 earthly savour in the air, a chilly bareness in the +place, which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by +candle-light, and not too much to eat. + +They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the +back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, +melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and +desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and +Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as +he 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: wonderfully +real and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe +stuck in his belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood. + +"Why, it's 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 like that. Poor boy! And Valentine," said Scrooge, "and his +wild brother, Orson; there they go! And what's his name, who was put +down in his drawers, asleep, at the gate of Damascus; don't you see him? +And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the Genii: there he is upon +his head! Serve him right! I'm glad of it. What business had _he_ to be +married to the Princess?" + +To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such +subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; and +to see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to +his business friends in the City, indeed. + +[Illustration: _"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. +"It's dear old honest Ali Baba."_] + +"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! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!" + +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 something: +that's all." + +The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand: saying, as it did so, +"Let us see another Christmas!" + +Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the room became a +little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked; +fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were +shown instead; but how all this was brought about Scrooge knew no more +than you do. He only knew that it was quite correct: that everything had +happened so; that there he was, alone again, when all the other boys had +gone home for the jolly holidays. + +He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly. Scrooge +looked at the Ghost, and, with a mournful shaking of his head, glanced +anxiously towards the door. + +It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting +in, and, putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing him, +addressed him as her "dear, 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 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!" exclaimed the boy. + +She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his head; but, +being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace him. +Then she began to drag him, in her childish eagerness, towards the door; +and he, nothing loath to go, accompanied 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 produced +a decanter of curiously light wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake, +and administered instalments of those dainties to the young people: at +the same time sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of +"something" 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!" + +Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, "Yes." + +Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, they were +now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers passed +and repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and +all the strife and tumult of a real city were. It was made plain enough, +by the dressing of the shops, that here, too, it was Christmas-time +again; but it was evening, and the streets were lighted up. + +The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge if he +knew it. + +"Know it!" 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 waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his +organ of benevolence; and called out, in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, +jovial voice: + +"Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!" + +Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly in, +accompanied by his fellow-'prentice. + +"Dick Wilkins, to be sure!" said Scrooge to the Ghost. "Bless me, yes. +There he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, +dear!" + +"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. Christmas-eve, +Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up," cried old +Fezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands, "before a man can say Jack +Robinson!" + +You wouldn't believe how 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 ball-room as you would desire to +see upon a winter's night. + +In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and +made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomachaches. In came Mrs. +Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, +beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they +broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In +came the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with +her brother's particular friend the milkman. In came the boy from over +the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his master; +trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, who was +proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all came, +one after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some +awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all came, any how 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 provided for that purpose. +But, scorning rest upon his reappearance, he instantly began again, +though there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been +carried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man +resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish. + +There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and +there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold +Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were +mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came +after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The +sort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told +it him!) struck up "Sir Roger de Coverley." 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 Mrs. Fezziwig. As to _her_, she +was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. If that's not +high praise, tell me higher, and I'll use it. A positive light appeared +to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part of the dance +like moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any given time, what would +become of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone +all through the dance; advance and retire, both hands to your partner, +bow and curtsy, cork-screw, 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 the door, and, shaking +hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him +or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two +'prentices, they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died +away, and the lads were left to their beds; which were under a counter +in the back-shop. + +During the whole of this time Scrooge had acted like a man out of his +wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former self. He +corroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and +underwent the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when the bright +faces of his former self and Dick were turned from them, that he +remembered the Ghost, and became conscious that it was looking full upon +him, while the light upon its head burnt very clear. + +"A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly folks so full of +gratitude." + +"Small!" echoed Scrooge. + +The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were +pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig; and, when he had done +so, said: + +"Why! Is it not? 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 remark, 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. + +"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 immediate effect. For again Scrooge saw himself. He was +older now; a man in the prime of life. His face had not the harsh and +rigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care +and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, +which showed the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of +the growing tree would fall. + +He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning +dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in the light that +shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past. + +"It matters little," she said softly. "To you, very little. Another idol +has displaced me; and, if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come +as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve." + +"What Idol has displaced you?" he rejoined. + +"A golden one." + +"This is the even-handed dealing of the world!" he said. "There is +nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it +professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!" + +"You fear the world too much," she answered gently. "All your other +hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid +reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until +the master passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?" + +"What then?" he retorted. "Even if I have grown 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 was a boy," he said impatiently. + +"Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are," she +returned. "I am. That which promised happiness when we were one in heart +is fraught with misery now that we are 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 +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 _I_ 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!" + +She left him, and they parted. + +"Spirit!" said Scrooge, "show me no more! Conduct me home. Why do you +delight to torture me?" + +"One shadow more!" exclaimed the Ghost. + +"No more!" cried Scrooge. "No more! I don't wish to see it. Show me no +more!" + +But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and forced him +to observe what happened next. + +They were in another scene and place; a room, not very large or +handsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful +young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same, +until he saw _her_, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter. +The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more +children there than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count; +and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty +children conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting +itself like forty. The consequences were uproarious beyond belief; but +no one seemed to care; on the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed +heartily, and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to +mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most +ruthlessly. What would I not have given to be one of them! Though I +never could have been so rude, no, no! I wouldn't for the wealth of all +the world have crushed that braided hair, and torn it down; and, for the +precious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul! +to save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did, bold +young brood, I couldn't have done it; I should have expected my arm to +have grown round it for a punishment, and never come straight again. And +yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have +questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked upon the +lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose +waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price: in +short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest +licence of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value. + +But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a rush immediately +ensued that she, with laughing face and plundered dress, was borne +towards it in the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time +to greet the father, who came home attended by a man laden with +Christmas toys and presents. Then the shouting and the struggling, and +the onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter! The scaling him, +with chairs for ladders, to dive into his pockets, despoil him of +brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round the +neck, pummel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! The +shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package +was received! The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in +the act of putting a doll's frying-pan into his mouth, and was more than +suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden +platter! The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy, and +gratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike. It is enough +that by degrees, the children and their emotions got out of the parlour, +and, by one stair at a time, up to the top of the house, where they went +to bed, and so subsided. + +And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, when the master of +the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her +and her mother at his own fireside; and when he thought that such +another creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might have +called him father, and been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his +life, his sight grew very dim indeed. + +"Belle," 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 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, I could scarcely help seeing him. His +partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. +Quite alone in the world, I do believe." + +"Spirit!" said Scrooge in a broken voice, "remove me from this place." + +"I told you these were shadows of the things that have been," said the +Ghost. "That they are what they are, do not blame me!" + +"Remove me!" Scrooge exclaimed. "I cannot bear it!" + +He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon him with a face +in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces it +had shown him, wrestled with it. + +"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. + +The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its +whole form; but, though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he +could not hide the light, which streamed from under it in an unbroken +flood upon the ground. + +He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an irresistible +drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own bedroom. He gave the cap a +parting squeeze, in which his hand relaxed; and had barely time to reel +to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep. + + + + +STAVE THREE + +THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS + + +Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in +bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told +that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. He felt that he was +restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial +purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger dispatched to +him through Jacob Marley's intervention. But, finding that he turned +uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this +new spectre would draw back, he put them every one aside with his own +hands, and, lying down again, established a sharp look-out all round the +bed. For he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its +appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous. + +Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves on being +acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time of +day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing +that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; +between which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide +and comprehensive range of subjects. Without venturing for Scrooge quite +as hardily as this, I don't mind calling on you to believe that he was +ready for a good broad field of strange appearances, and that nothing +between a baby and a rhinoceros would have astonished him very much. + +Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means +prepared for nothing; and consequently, when the bell struck One, and +no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling. Five +minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet nothing came. +All this time he lay upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze +of ruddy light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the +hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than a dozen +ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant, or would be at; +and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that very moment an +interesting case of spontaneous combustion, without having the +consolation of knowing it. At last, however, he began to think--as you +or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the +predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would +unquestionably have done it too--at last, I say, he began to think that +the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining +room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea +taking full possession of his mind, he got up softly, and shuffled in +his slippers to the door. + +The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange voice called him by +his name, and bade him enter. He obeyed. + +It was his own room. There was no doubt about that. But it had undergone +a surprising transformation. The walls and ceiling were so hung with +living green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which +bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, +and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been +scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney as +that dull 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-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, +cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense +twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim +with their delicious steam. In easy state upon this couch there sat a +jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not +unlike Plenty's horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on +Scrooge as he came peeping round the door. + +"Come in!" 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 artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the +ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no +other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining +icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial +face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its +unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was +an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was +eaten up with rust. + +"You have never seen the like 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 I am very young) my elder brothers born in these later years?" +pursued the Phantom. + +"I don't think I have," said Scrooge. "I am afraid I have not. Have you +had many brothers, Spirit?" + +"More than eighteen hundred," said the Ghost. + +"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 learnt a lesson which is working +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 instantly. So did the room, the fire, the ruddy glow, the +hour of night, and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning, +where (for the weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk +and not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the pavement +in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses, whence +it was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the +road below, and splitting into artificial little snow-storms. + +The house-fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, +contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with +the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last deposit had been ploughed +up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows +that crossed and 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 was there an air of +cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer +sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain. + +For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial +and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now +and then exchanging a facetious snowball--better-natured missile far +than many a wordy jest--laughing heartily if it went right, and not less +heartily if it went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open, +and the fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, +round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of +jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the +street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, +broad-girthed Spanish onions, shining in the fatness of their growth +like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at +the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up +mistletoe. There were pears and apples clustered high in blooming +pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' +benevolence, to dangle from conspicuous hooks that people's mouths might +water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and +brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and +pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were +Norfolk Biffins, 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 +among these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and +stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was something going +on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and round their little world in +slow and passionless excitement. + +The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! nearly closed, with perhaps two shutters +down, or one; but through those gaps such glimpses! It was not alone +that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that +the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters +were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended +scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the +raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the +sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, +the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the +coldest lookers-on feel faint, and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that +the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in +modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that everything +was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but the customers were all +so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they +tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets +wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back +to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best +humour possible; while the Grocer and his people were so frank and +fresh, that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons +behind might have been their own, worn outside for general inspection, +and for Christmas daws to peck at if they chose. + +But soon the steeples called good people all to church and chapel, and +away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and +with their gayest faces. And at the same time there emerged, from scores +of 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 uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice, when there +were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each +other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their +good-humour was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame to +quarrel upon Christmas-day. And so it was! God love it, so it was! + +In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was +a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners, and the progress of their +cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker's oven; where the +pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. + +"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." + +"I!" cried the Spirit. + +"You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, +often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all," said +Scrooge; "wouldn't you?" + +"I!" cried the Spirit. + +"You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day," said Scrooge. "And +it comes to the same thing." + +"_I_ seek!" exclaimed the Spirit. + +"Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in +that of your family," said Scrooge. + +"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! + +Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a +twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap, and make a +goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda +Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master +Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and, +getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar (Bob's private +property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the day) into his +mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to +show his linen in the fashionable Parks. And now two smaller Cratchits, +boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker's they +had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and, basking in +luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about +the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not +proud, although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the +slow potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan lid to be let +out and peeled. + +"What has ever got your precious father, then?" said Mrs. Cratchit. "And +your brother, Tiny Tim? And Martha warn't as late last Christmas-day by +half an hour!" + +"Here's Martha, mother!" said a girl, appearing as she spoke. + +"Here's Martha, mother!" cried the two young Cratchits. "Hurrah! There's +_such_ 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! 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 declension in his high spirits; for +he had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church, and had come home +rampant. "Not coming upon Christmas-day!" + +Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so +she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his +arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off +into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the +copper. + +"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit when she had +rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his +heart's content. + +"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. Somehow, he gets thoughtful, +sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever +heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the +church, because he was a 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 while Bob, turning up his cuffs--as +if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby--compounded +some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and +round, and put it on the hob to simmer, Master Peter and the two +ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon +returned in high procession. + +Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of +all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of +course--and, in truth, it was something very like it in that house. Mrs. +Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing +hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss +Belinda sweetened up the apple sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob +took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young +Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and, +mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest +they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At +last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a +breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the +carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, +and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of +delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two +young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and +feebly cried Hurrah! + +There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe there ever was +such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, +were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple sauce and +mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; +indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small +atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at last! Yet every +one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits, in particular, were +steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being +changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone--too nervous +to bear witnesses--to take the pudding up, and bring it in. + +Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning +out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back-yard and +stolen it, while they were merry with the goose--a supposition at which +the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were +supposed. + +Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell +like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and +a pastrycook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to +that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit +entered--flushed, but smiling proudly--with the pudding, like a speckled +cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of +ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. + +Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he +regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since +their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that, now the weight was off her +mind, she would confess she had her doubts about the quantity of flour. +Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it +was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat +heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a +thing. + +At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth +swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted, and +considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a +shovel full of chestnuts on the fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew +round the hearth in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a +one; and at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass. Two +tumblers and a custard cup without a handle. + +These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden +goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while +the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. Then Bob +proposed: + +"A merry Christmas to 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 +remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die." + +"No, no," said Scrooge. "Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared." + +"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my +race," returned the Ghost, "will find him here. What then? If he be like +to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." + +Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and +was overcome with penitence and grief. + +"Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear +that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and +Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It +may be that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit +to live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the +Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry +brothers in the dust!" + +Scrooge bent before the Ghost's rebuke, and, trembling, cast his eyes +upon the ground. But he raised them speedily on hearing his own name. + +"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob. "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the +Feast!" + +"The Founder of the Feast, indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. "I +wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and +I 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," said Mrs. Cratchit, +"not for his. Long life to him! A merry Christmas and a happy New Year! +He'll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!" + +The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their +proceedings which had no heartiness 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 relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Bob Cratchit +told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which +would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly. The two +young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man +of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from +between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular +investments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that +bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliner's, +then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she +worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for +a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Also how +she had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord +"was much 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 little voice, and sang it very well indeed. + +There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; +they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being 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 parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny +Tim, until the last. + +By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty heavily; and as +Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets, the brightness of the +roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of rooms was +wonderful. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a +cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the fire, +and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. +There, all the children of the house were running out into the snow to +meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and be the +first to greet them. Here, again, were shadows on the window blinds of +guests assembling; and there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and +fur-booted, and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near +neighbour's house; where, woe upon the single man who saw them +enter--artful witches, well they knew it--in a glow! + +But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on their way to +friendly gatherings, you might have thought that no one was at home to +give them welcome when they got there, instead of every house expecting +company, and piling up its fires half-chimney high. Blessings on it, how +the Ghost exulted! How it bared its breadth of breast, and opened its +capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring, with a generous hand, its +bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach! The very +lamp-lighter, who ran on before, dotting the dusky street with specks of +light, and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out +loudly as the Spirit passed, though little kenned the lamp-lighter that +he had any company but Christmas. + +And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they stood upon a +bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast +about, as though it were the burial-place or 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 hold his robe, and, +passing on above the moor, sped whither? Not to sea? To sea. To +Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw the last of the land, a frightful +range of rocks, behind them; and his ears were deafened by the +thundering of water, as it rolled and roared, and raged among the +dreadful caverns it had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth. + +Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, +on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there +stood a solitary lighthouse. Great heaps of seaweed clung to its base, +and storm-birds--born of the wind, one might suppose, as seaweed of the +water--rose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed. + +But, even here, two men who watched the light had made a fire that +through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of +brightness on the awful sea. Joining their horny hands over the rough +table at which they sat, they wished each other Merry Christmas in their +can of grog; and one of them, the elder too, with his face all damaged +and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship might +be, struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale in itself. + +Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea--on, on--until, +being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a +ship. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the +bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their +several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or +had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of +some bygone Christmas-day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. And +every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder +word for 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 listening to the moaning of +the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the +lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as +profound as death: it was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus +engaged, to hear a hearty laugh. It was a much greater surprise to +Scrooge to recognise it as his own nephew's, and to find himself in a +bright, dry, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his +side, and looking at that same nephew with approving affability! + +"Ha, ha!" laughed Scrooge's nephew. "Ha, ha, ha!" + +If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blessed +in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is, I should like to +know him too. Introduce him to me, and I'll cultivate his acquaintance. + +It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that, while there +is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so +irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. When Scrooge's +nephew laughed in this way, holding his sides, rolling his head, and +twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions, Scrooge's +niece, by marriage, laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled +friends, being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily. + +"Ha, ha! Ha, ha, 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 little creature's head. +Altogether she was what you would have called provoking, you know; but +satisfactory, too. Oh, perfectly satisfactory! + +"He's a comical old fellow," said Scrooge's nephew, "that's the truth; +and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his 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 _me_ so." + +"What of that, my dear?" said Scrooge's nephew. "His wealth is of no use +to him. He don't do any good with it. He don't make himself comfortable +with it. 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 competent judges, because they had just had dinner; and, with the +dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire, by lamp-light. + +"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 chance every year, whether he likes it or not, for +I pity him. He may rail at Christmas till he dies, but he can't help +thinking better of it--I defy him--if he finds me going there in good +temper, year after year, and saying, 'Uncle Scrooge, how are you?' If it +only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, _that's_ +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 sung a Glee or Catch, I can assure you: +especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good one, and +never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over +it. Scrooge's niece played well upon the harp; and played, among other +tunes, a simple little air (a mere nothing: you might learn to whistle +it in two minutes), which had been familiar to the child who fetched +Scrooge from the boarding-school, as he had been reminded by the Ghost +of Christmas Past. When this strain of music sounded, all the things +that Ghost had shown him came upon his mind; he softened more and more; +and thought that if he could have listened to it often, years ago, he +might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his own happiness with +his own hands, without resorting to the sexton's spade that buried Jacob +Marley. + +But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After awhile 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 +amongst the curtains, wherever she went, there went he! He always knew +where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch anybody else. If you had +fallen up against him (as some of them did) on purpose, he would have +made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would have been an +affront to your understanding, and would instantly have sidled off in +the direction of the plump sister. She often cried out that it wasn't +fair; and it really was not. But when, at last, he caught her; when, in +spite of all her silken rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, +he got her into a corner whence there was no escape, then his conduct +was the most execrable. For his pretending not to know her; his +pretending that it was necessary to touch her head-dress, and further to +assure himself of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her +finger, and a certain chain about her neck, was vile, monstrous! No +doubt she told him her opinion of it when, another blind man being in +office, they were so very confidential together behind the curtains. + +Scrooge's niece was not one of the blindman's buff party, but was made +comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in a snug corner where +the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her. But she joined in the +forfeits, and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the +alphabet. Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where, she was very +great, and, to the secret joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat her sisters +hollow: though they were sharp girls too, as Topper could have told you. +There might have been twenty people there, young and old, but they all +played, and so did Scrooge; for, wholly forgetting, in the interest he +had in what was going on, that his voice made no sound in their ears, he +sometimes came out with his guess quite loud, and very often guessed +right, too, for the sharpest needle, best Whitechapel, warranted not to +cut in the eye, was not sharper than Scrooge; blunt as he took it in his +head to be. + +The Ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood, and looked upon +him with such favour, that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay +until the guests departed. But this the Spirit said could not be done. + +"Here is a new game," said Scrooge. "One half-hour, Spirit, only one!" + +It was a game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew had to think of +something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their +questions yes or no, as the case was. The brisk fire of questioning to +which he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an +animal, a live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an +animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and +lived in London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show +of, and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie, and was +never killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a +bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every +fresh question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar +of laughter; and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to +get up off the sofa, and stamp. At last the plump sister, falling into a +similar state, cried out: + +"I have found it 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, whatever he is!" +said Scrooge's nephew. "He wouldn't take it from me, but may he have it +nevertheless. Uncle Scrooge!" + +Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that +he would have pledged the unconscious company in return, and thanked +them in an inaudible speech, if the Ghost had given him time. But the +whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his +nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels. + +Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but +always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they +were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by +struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, +and it was rich. In almshouse, hospital, and gaol, in misery's every +refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast +the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught +Scrooge his precepts. + +It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had his doubts +of this, because the Christmas holidays appeared to be condensed into +the space of time they passed together. It was strange, too, that, while +Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older, +clearly older. Scrooge had observed this change, but never spoke of it, +until they left a children's Twelfth-Night party, when, looking at the +Spirit as they stood together in an open place, he noticed that its hair +was grey. + +"Are spirits' lives so short?" asked Scrooge. + +"My life upon this globe is very brief," replied the Ghost. "It ends +to-night." + +"To-night!" cried Scrooge. + +"To-night at midnight. Hark! The time is drawing near." + +The chimes were ringing the three-quarters past eleven at that moment. + +"Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask," said Scrooge, looking +intently at the Spirit's robe, "but I see something strange, and not +belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a +claw?" + +"It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the Spirit's +sorrowful reply. "Look here." + +From the foldings of its robe it brought two children; wretched, abject, +frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at 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 monsters half so horrible and +dread. + +Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he +tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, +rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. + +"Spirit! are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more. + +"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they +cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This +girl is Want. Beware of 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 him for the Ghost, and saw it not. As the last +stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob +Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and +hooded, coming like a mist along the ground towards him. + + + + +STAVE 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. + +The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand. + +"You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, +but will happen in the time before us," Scrooge pursued. "Is that so, +Spirit?" + +The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an instant in its +folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head. That was the only answer +he received. + +Although well used to ghostly company by this time, Scrooge feared the +silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found +that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow 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?" + +It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them. + +"Lead on!" said Scrooge. "Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is +precious time to 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 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 _me_. 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 provided," observed the gentleman with +the excrescence on his nose. "But I must be fed if I make one." + +Another laugh. + +"Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all," said the first +speaker, "for I never wear black gloves, 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 with other groups. +Scrooge knew the men, and looked towards the Spirit for an explanation. + +The Phantom glided on into a street. Its finger pointed to two persons +meeting. Scrooge listened again, thinking that the explanation might lie +here. + +He knew these men, also, perfectly. They were men of business: very +wealthy, and of great importance. He had made a point always of standing +well in their esteem: in a business point of view, that is; strictly in +a business point of view. + +"How are you?" 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 are 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 death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was +Past, and this Ghost's province was the Future. Nor could he think of +any one immediately connected with himself, to whom he could apply them. +But nothing doubting that, to whomsoever they applied, they had some +latent moral for his own improvement, he resolved to treasure up every +word he heard, and everything he saw; and especially to observe the +shadow of himself when it appeared. For he had an expectation that the +conduct of his future self would give him the clue he missed, and would +render the solution of these riddles easy. + +He looked about in that very place for his own image, but another man +stood in his accustomed corner, and, though the clock pointed to his +usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among +the multitudes that poured in through the Porch. It gave him little +surprise, however; for he had been revolving in his mind a change of +life, and thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried out +in this. + +Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its outstretched +hand. When he roused himself from his thoughtful quest, he fancied, from +the turn of the hand, and its situation in reference to himself, that +the Unseen Eyes were looking at him keenly. It made him shudder, and +feel very cold. + +They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, +where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he recognised its +situation and its bad repute. The ways were foul and narrow; the shops +and houses wretched; the people half naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. +Alleys and archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offences of +smell, and dirt, and life upon the straggling streets; and the whole +quarter reeked with crime, with filth and misery. + +Far in this den of infamous resort, there was a low-browed, beetling +shop, below a pent-house roof, where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and +greasy offal were bought. Upon the floor within were piled up heaps of +rusty keys, nails, chains, hinges, files, scales, weights, and refuse +iron of all kinds. Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred +and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and +sepulchres of bones. Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a +charcoal stove made of old bricks, was a grey-haired rascal, nearly +seventy years of age, who had screened himself from the cold air without +by a frouzy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters hung upon a line, and +smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement. + +Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as a +woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely +entered, when another woman, similarly laden, came in too, and she was +closely followed by a man in faded black, who was no less startled by +the sight of them than they had been upon the recognition of each other. +After a short period of blank astonishment, in which the old man with +the pipe had joined them, they all three burst into a laugh. + +"Let the charwoman alone to be the first!" cried she who had entered +first. "Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the +undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here's a +chance! If we haven't all three met here without meaning it!" + +"You couldn't have met in a better place," said old Joe, removing his +pipe from his mouth. "Come into the parlour. You were made free of it +long ago, you know; and the other two an't strangers. Stop till I shut +the door of the shop. Ah! How it skreeks! There an'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 calling, +we're well matched. Come into the parlour. Come into the parlour." + +The parlour was the space behind the screen of rags. The old man raked +the fire together with an old stair-rod, and, having trimmed his smoky +lamp (for it was night) with the stem of his pipe, put it into his mouth +again. + +While he did this, the woman who had already spoken threw her bundle on +the floor, and sat down in a flaunting manner on a stool; crossing her +elbows on her knees, and looking with a bold defiance at the other two. + +"What odds, 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!" 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," replied the woman; "and it +should have been, you 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 severally examined +and appraised by old Joe, who chalked the sums he was disposed to give +for each upon the wall, and added them up into a total when he found +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 weakness 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 question, I'd repent of being +so liberal, and knock off half-a-crown." + +"And now undo _my_ bundle, Joe," said the first woman. + +Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening it, +and, having unfastened a great many knots, dragged out a large 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? Eh?" said old Joe, stopping +in his work, and looking up. + +"Don't you be afraid of that," returned the woman. "I an'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 threadbare 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 an'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 away from him when he +was alive, 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 life tends that way now. +Merciful Heaven, what is this?" + +He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now he almost +touched a bed: a bare, uncurtained bed: on which, beneath a ragged +sheet, there lay a something covered up, which, though it was dumb, +announced itself in awful language. + +The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any accuracy, +though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse, +anxious to know what kind of room it was. A pale light, rising in the +outer air, fell straight upon the bed: and on it, plundered and bereft, +unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man. + +Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom. Its steady hand was pointed to the +head. The cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of +it, the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part, would have disclosed the +face. He thought of it, felt how easy it would be to do, and longed to +do it; but had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the +spectre at his side. + +Oh, cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and +dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy +dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head thou canst not +turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is +not that the hand is heavy, and will fall down when released; it is not +that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand WAS open, +generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a +man's. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the +wound, to sow the world with life immortal! + +No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge's ears, and yet he heard them +when he looked upon the bed. He thought, if this man could be raised up +now, what would be his foremost thoughts? Avarice, hard dealing, griping +cares? They have brought him to a rich end, truly! + +He lay, in the dark, empty house, with not a man, a woman, or a child to +say 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. + +"I understand you," Scrooge returned, "and I would do it if I could. But +I have not the power, Spirit. I have not the power." + +Again it seemed to look upon him. + +"If there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by this +man's death," said Scrooge, quite 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 her children in their play. + +At length the long-expected knock was heard. She hurried to the door, +and met her husband; a man whose face was careworn and depressed, though +he was young. There was a remarkable expression in it now; a kind of +serious delight of which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled to +repress. + +He sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for him by the fire, +and, when she asked him faintly what news (which was not until after a +long silence), he appeared embarrassed how to answer. + +"Is it good," she said, "or bad?" to help him. + +"Bad," he answered. + +"We are quite ruined?" + +"No. There is hope yet, Caroline." + +"If _he_ relents," she said, amazed, "there is! Nothing is past hope, if +such a miracle has happened." + +"He is past relenting," said her husband. "He is dead." + +She was a mild and patient creature, if her face spoke truth; but she +was thankful in her soul to hear it, and she said so with clasped hands. +She prayed forgiveness the next moment, and was sorry; but the first was +the emotion of her heart. + +"What the half-drunken woman, whom I told you of last night, said to me +when I tried to see him and obtain a week's delay, and what I thought +was a mere excuse to avoid me, turns out to have been quite true. He was +not only very ill, but dying, then." + +"To whom will our debt be transferred?" + +"I don't know. But, before that time, we shall be ready with the money; +and, even though we were not, it would be 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 round to hear what they so little +understood, were brighter; and it was a happier house for this man's +death! The only emotion that the Ghost could show him, caused by the +event, was one of pleasure. + +"Let me see some 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 dwelling he had visited before,--and found the mother and +the children seated round the fire. + +Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues +in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a book before him. +The mother and her daughters were engaged in sewing. But surely they +were very quiet! + +"'And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.'" + +Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not dreamed them. The boy +must have read them out, as he and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why +did he not go on? + +The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand up to her +face. + +"The colour hurts my eyes," she said. + +The colour? Ah, poor Tiny Tim! + +"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, 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, little +child!" cried Bob. "My little child!" + +He broke down all at once. He couldn't help it. If he could have helped +it, he and his child would have been farther apart, perhaps, than they +were. + +He left the room, and went up-stairs into the room above, which was +lighted cheerfully, and hung with Christmas. There was a chair set close +beside the child, and there were signs of some one having been there +lately. Poor Bob sat down in it, and, when he had thought a little and +composed himself, he kissed the little face. He was reconciled to what +had happened, and went down again quite happy. + +They drew about the fire, and talked; the girls and mother working +still. Bob told them of the extraordinary kindness of Mr. Scrooge's +nephew, whom he had scarcely seen but once, and who, meeting him in the +street that day, and seeing that he looked a little--"just 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!" said Mrs. Cratchit. + +"You would be sure 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!" 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! + +"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 elsewhere. + +"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 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 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; and, following the +finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, +EBENEZER SCROOGE. + +"Am _I_ 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 I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this +intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?" + +For the first time the hand appeared to shake. + +"Good Spirit," he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: +"your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may +change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life?" + +The kind hand trembled. + +"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I +will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all +Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they +teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!" + +In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but +he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit, stronger +yet, repulsed him. + +Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw +an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and +dwindled down into a bedpost. + + + + +STAVE FIVE + +THE END OF IT + + +Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his +own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make +amends in! + +"I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" Scrooge repeated +as he scrambled out of bed. "The Spirits of all Three shall strive +within me. Oh, Jacob Marley! Heaven and the Christmas Time be praised +for this! I say it on my knees, 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, folding one of his bed-curtains +in his arms, "they are not torn down, rings and all. They are here--I am +here--the shadows of the things that would have been may be dispelled. +They will be. I know they will!" + +His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside +out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making +them parties to every kind of extravagance. + +"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the +same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. +"I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as +a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to +everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! +Hallo!" + +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 fire-place. "There's the door by which +the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There's the corner where the Ghost of +Christmas Present sat! 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 illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long +line of brilliant laughs! + +"I don't know what day of the month it is," said Scrooge. "I don't know +how long I have 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. Hallo! Whoop! +Hallo here!" + +He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the +lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clash, 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 sun-light; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry +bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious! + +"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward 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. +Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow!" + +"Hallo!" 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 remarkable 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 directions where to take it. +Come back with the man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him +in less than five minutes, and I'll give you half-a-crown!" + +The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady hand at a trigger +who could have got a shot off half so fast. + +"I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's," whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, +and splitting with a laugh. "He shan't know who sends it. It's twice the +size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to +Bob's will be!" + +The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one; but write +it he did, somehow, and went down-stairs to open the street-door, ready +for the coming of the poulterer's man. As he stood there, waiting his +arrival, the knocker caught his eye. + +"I shall love 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. Hallo! +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 requires attention, even when you don't dance while you are +at it. But, if he had cut the end of his nose off, he would have put a +piece of sticking-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 delighted 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 +yesterday. It was very kind of you. A merry Christmas to you, sir!" + +"Mr. Scrooge?" + +"Yes," said Scrooge. "That is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant +to you. Allow me to ask your pardon. And will you have the goodness----" +Here Scrooge whispered in his ear. + +"Lord bless me!" cried the gentleman, as if his breath were taken away. +"My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?" + +"If you please," said Scrooge. "Not a farthing less. A great many +back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that +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. Will +you come and see me?" + +"I will!" cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he meant to do it. + +"Thankee," 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 the children on the head, and questioned +beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the +windows; and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had +never dreamed that any walk--that anything--could give him so much +happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's +house. + +He passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and +knock. But he made a dash, and did it. + +"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 +up-stairs, if you please." + +"Thankee. He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand already on the +dining-room lock. "I'll go in here, my dear." + +He turned it gently, and sidled his face in round the door. They were +looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these +young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see +that everything is right. + +"Fred!" said Scrooge. + +Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started! Scrooge had +forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting in the corner with the +footstool, or he wouldn't have done it on any account. + +"Why, bless 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! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in +five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. +So did Topper when _he_ came. So did the plump sister when _she_ came. +So did every one when _they_ came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, +wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! + +But he was early at the office next morning. Oh, he was early there! If +he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That +was the thing he had set his heart upon. + +And he did it; yes, he did! The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter +past. No Bob. He was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. +Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the +tank. + +His hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on +his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to +overtake nine o'clock. + +"Hallo!" 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 repeated. I 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 man as the good old City +knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old +world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them +laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that +nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did +not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and, knowing that such as +these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they +should wrinkle up their eyes in grins as have the malady in less +attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for +him. + +He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the +Total-Abstinence Principle ever afterwards; and it was always said of +him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed +the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as +Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** + +***** This file should be named 19337-8.txt or 19337-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/3/19337/ + +Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/19337-8.zip b/19337-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd8a0f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/19337-8.zip diff --git a/19337-h.zip b/19337-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b010368 --- /dev/null +++ b/19337-h.zip diff --git a/19337-h/19337-h.htm b/19337-h/19337-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6aeb0e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/19337-h/19337-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4365 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 2em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + img{border:none;} + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: .7em; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + + .center {text-align: center;} + .left {text-align: left;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Christmas Carol + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Illustrator: George Alfred Williams + +Release Date: September 20, 2006 [EBook #19337] +Last updated: January 21, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** + + + + +Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h4>There are several editions of this ebook in the Project Gutenberg collection. Various characteristics of each ebook are listed to aid in selecting the preferred file.<br />Click on any of the filenumbers belowto quickly view each ebook. +</h4> + + +<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3"> + +<tr><td> + <B><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm"> +46</a></B></td><td>(Original First Edition Cover; 1843 Original Illustrations in Color by John Leech) +</td></tr> + +<tr><td> + <B><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19337/19337-h/19337-h.htm"> +19337</a></B> </td><td>(Published in 1905; Illustrations in Black and White by G. A. Williams) +</td></tr> + +<tr><td> + <B><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24022/24022-h/24022-h.htm"> +24022</a></B> </td><td>(Published in 1915; Illustrations in Black and White and Color by By Arthur Rackham) +</td></tr> + +<tr><td> + <B><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30368/30368-h/30368-h.htm"> +30368</a> </B> </td><td>(First edition with original hand written pages; Black and White illustrations.) +</td></tr> + +</table> + + +<p><!-- Page i --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> +<h1>A CHRISTMAS CAROL</h1> + +<h2>By CHARLES DICKENS</h2> + +<h2>ILLUSTRATED BY +GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS</h2> + +<h5>New York +THE PLATT & PECK CO.</h5> +<p><!-- Page ii --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> +<h5><i>Copyright, 1905, by</i> <span class="smcap">The Baker & Taylor Company</span></h5> +<p><!-- Page iii --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 607px;"> +<a href="images/i01.jpg"><img src="images/i01-t.jpg" width="607" height="425" alt=""He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."" title=""He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."" /></a> +<span class="caption">"He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> + + +<p>The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist +which Dickens possessed to a remarkable degree, +together with his naturally jovial attitude toward life +in general, seem to have given him a remarkably happy feeling +toward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of his +boyhood could have allowed him but little real experience with +this day of days.</p> + +<p>Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas +thoughts in his series of small books, the first of which was +the famous "Christmas Carol," the one perfect chrysolite. +The success of the book was immediate. Thackeray wrote of +it: "Who can listen to objections regarding such a book as +this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to every man +or woman who reads it, a personal kindness."</p> + +<p>This volume was put forth in a very attractive manner, +with illustrations by John Leech, who was the first artist to make +these characters live, and his drawings were varied and spirited.</p> + +<p>There followed upon this four others: "The Chimes," +"The Cricket on the Hearth," "The Battle of Life," and "The +Haunted Man," with illustrations on their first appearance by +Doyle, Maclise, and others. The five are known to-day as the +"Christmas Books." Of them all the "Carol" is the best known +and loved, and "The Cricket on the Hearth," although third in +the series, is perhaps next in point of popularity, and is especially +familiar to Americans through Joseph Jefferson's +characterisation of Caleb Plummer.</p> + +<p>Dickens seems to have put his whole self into these glowing +little stories. Whoever sees but a clever ghost story in the<!-- Page iv --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span> +"Christmas Carol" misses its chief charm and lesson, for there +is a different meaning in the movements of Scrooge and his +attendant spirits. A new life is brought to Scrooge when he, +"running to his window, 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 sun-light; Heavenly sky; sweet +fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!" All this +brightness has its attendant shadow, and deep from the childish +heart comes that true note of pathos, the ever memorable +toast of Tiny Tim, "God bless Us, Every One!" "The Cricket +on the Hearth" strikes a different note. Charmingly, poetically, +the sweet chirping of the little cricket is associated with +human feelings and actions, and at the crisis of the story decides +the fate and fortune of the carrier and his wife.</p> + +<p>Dickens's greatest gift was characterization, and no English +writer, save Shakespeare, has drawn so many and so varied +characters. It would be as absurd to interpret all of these as +caricatures as to deny Dickens his great and varied powers +of creation. Dickens exaggerated many of his comic and satirical +characters, as was his right, for caricature and satire are +very closely related, while exaggeration is the very essence of +comedy. But there remains a host of characters marked by +humour and pathos. Yet the pictorial presentation of Dickens's +characters has ever tended toward the grotesque. The interpretations +in this volume aim to eliminate the grosser phases +of the caricature in favour of the more human. If the interpretations +seem novel, if Scrooge be not as he has been pictured, +it is because a more human Scrooge was desired—a +Scrooge not wholly bad, a Scrooge of a better heart, a Scrooge +to whom the resurrection described in this story was possible. +It has been the illustrator's whole aim to make these people +live in some form more fully consistent with their types.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 17.5em;"><span class="smcap">George Alfred Williams.</span></span><br /> +<i>Chatham, N.J.</i><br /> +<!-- Page v --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + +<table width="80%" summary="Contents"> + <tr><th colspan="2" class="left">STAVE</th><th align="right">PAGE</th></tr> + <tr><td>I</td><td><i>Marley's Ghost</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td></tr> + <tr><td>II</td><td><i>The First of the Three Spirits</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr> + <tr><td>III</td><td><i>The Second of the Three Spirits</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> + <tr><td>IV</td><td><i>The Last of the Spirits</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> + <tr><td>V</td><td><i>The End of it</i></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><!-- Page vi --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<table width="80%" summary="List of Illustrations"> + <tr><td> + <i>"He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."</i> + </td><td align='right'> + <a href="#Page_iii">Frontispiece</a> + </td></tr> + <tr><td> + <i>"A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice.</i> + </td><td align='right'> + <a href="#Page_14">14</a> + </td></tr> + <tr><td> + <i>To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a moment, + would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.</i> + </td><td align='right'> + <a href="#Page_26">26</a> + </td></tr> + <tr><td> + <i>"You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember it!" cried + Scrooge, with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."</i> + </td><td align='right'> + <a href="#Page_36">36</a> + </td></tr> + <tr><td> + <i>"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old + honest Ali Baba!"</i> + </td><td align='right'> + <a href="#Page_38">38</a> + </td></tr> +</table> +<p><!-- Page 11 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A CHRISTMAS CAROL</h2> + +<h4>In Prose</h4> + +<h3>BEING A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>STAVE ONE</h2> + +<h3>MARLEY'S GHOST</h3> + + +<p>Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt +whatever about that. The register of his burial +was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, +and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's +name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his +hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.</p> + +<p>Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, +what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I +might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the +deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom +of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands +shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will, therefore, +permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as +dead as a door-nail.</p> + +<p>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<!-- Page 12 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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 Church-yard, for instance—literally to astonish his son's +weak mind.</p> + +<p>Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There it +stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge +and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. +Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, +and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It +was all the same to him.</p> + +<p>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 eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature +always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; +and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.</p> + +<p>External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No<!-- Page 13 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome +looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come +to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no +children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever +once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, +of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know +him; and, when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners +into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails +as though they said, "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, +dark master!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Once upon a time—of all the good days in the year, on +Christmas Eve—old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. +It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could +hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down, +beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet +upon the pavement stones to warm them. The City clocks had +only just gone three, but it was quite dark already—it had not +been light all day—and candles were flaring in the windows +of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable +brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, +and was so dense without, that, although the court was of +the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To +see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything,<!-- Page 14 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +one might have thought that nature lived hard by and was +brewing on a large scale.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Bah!" said Scrooge. "Humbug!"</p> + +<p>He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and +frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his +face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath +smoked again.</p> + +<p>"Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. +"You don't mean that, I am sure?"</p> + +<p>"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right +have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? +You're poor enough."</p> + +<p>"Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What right +have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? +You're rich enough."</p> + +<p>Scrooge, having no better answer ready on the spur of the +moment, said, "Bah!" again; and followed it up with "Humbug!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be cross, uncle!" said the nephew.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;"> +<img src="images/i02.jpg" width="415" height="624" alt=""A Merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice." title=""A Merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice." /> +<span class="caption">"A Merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice.</span> +</div> + +<p>"What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I live in +<!-- Page 15 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon +merry Christmas! What's Christmas-time to you but a time +for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a +year older, 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 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his +own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his +heart. He should!"</p> + +<p>"Uncle!" pleaded the nephew.</p> + +<p>"Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas +in your own way, and let me keep it in mine."</p> + +<p>"Keep it!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you don't +keep it."</p> + +<p>"Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much good +may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!"</p> + +<p>"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 consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to +think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers +to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on +other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put +a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it <i>has</i> done +me good, and <i>will</i> do me good; and I say, God bless it!"</p> + +<p>The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming +immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and +extinguished the last frail spark for ever.<!-- Page 16 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let me hear another sound from <i>you</i>," 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."</p> + +<p>"Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Scrooge said that he would see him——Yes, indeed he +did. He went the whole length of the expression, and said that +he would see him in that extremity first.</p> + +<p>"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?"</p> + +<p>"Why did you get married?" said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Because I fell in love."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that +happened. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?"</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot +we be friends?"</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We +have never had any quarrel to which I have been a party. But I +have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my +Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!"</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"And A Happy New Year!"</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."<!-- Page 17 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two +other people in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to +behold, and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge's office. +They had books and papers in their hands, and bowed to him.</p> + +<p>"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, +referring to his list. "Have I the pleasure of addressing +Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years," Scrooge +replied. "He died seven years ago, this very night."</p> + +<p>"We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his +surviving partner," said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.</p> + +<p>It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits. At +the ominous word "liberality" Scrooge frowned, and shook his +head, and handed the credentials back.</p> + +<p>"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the +gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable +that we should make some slight provision for the poor and +destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands +are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands +are in want of common comforts, sir."</p> + +<p>"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the +pen again.</p> + +<p>"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are +they still in operation?"</p> + +<p>"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I +could say they were not."</p> + +<p>"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" +said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Both very busy, sir."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something +had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said +Scrooge. "I am very glad to hear it."<!-- Page 18 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian +cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, +"a few of us are endeavouring 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?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" Scrooge replied.</p> + +<p>"You wish to be anonymous?"</p> + +<p>"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 mentioned—they +cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there."</p> + +<p>"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."</p> + +<p>"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better +do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides—excuse +me—I don't know that."</p> + +<p>"But you might know it," observed the gentleman.</p> + +<p>"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, gentlemen!"</p> + +<p>Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, +the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labours with an +improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper +than was usual with him.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people +ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before +horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. The +ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always +peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the +wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the +clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards, as if its teeth +were chattering in its frozen head up there. The cold became<!-- Page 19 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +intense. In the main street, at the corner of the court, some +labourers were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great +fire in a brazier, round which a party of ragged men and boys +were gathered: warming their hands and winking their eyes +before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug being left in solitude, +its overflowings suddenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic +ice. The brightness of the shops, where holly sprigs +and berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made +pale faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers' +trades became a splendid joke: a glorious pageant, with which +it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as +bargain and sale had anything to do. The Lord Mayor, in the +stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his +fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's +household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined +five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and blood-thirsty +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.</p> + +<p>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 +weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. +The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by +the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at +Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol; but, at +the first sound of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"God bless you, merry gentleman,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May nothing you dismay!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived.<!-- Page 20 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly +admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the tank, who instantly +snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat.</p> + +<p>"You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"If quite convenient, sir."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>The clerk smiled faintly.</p> + +<p>"And yet," said Scrooge, "you don't think <i>me</i> ill used when +I pay a day's wages for no work."</p> + +<p>The clerk observed that it was only once a year.</p> + +<p>"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth +of December!" said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to +the chin. "But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be +here all the earlier next morning."</p> + +<p>The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out +with a growl. The office was closed in a twinkling, and the +clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below +his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on +Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour +of its being Christmas-eve, and then ran home to Camden Town +as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman's buff.</p> + +<p>Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy +tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the +rest of the evening with his banker's book, went home to bed. +He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased +partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering +pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, +that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there +when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other +houses, and 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<!-- Page 21 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Now, it is a fact that there was nothing at all particular +about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. +It is also a fact that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, +during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had +as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the +City of London, even including—which is a bold word—the +corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be borne in +mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley +since his last mention of his seven-years'-dead partner that +afternoon. And then let any man explain to me, if he can, +how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock +of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any +intermediate process of change—not a knocker, but Marley's +face.</p> + +<p>Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow, as the +other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, +like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, +but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly +spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The hair was +curiously stirred, as if by breath of hot air; and, though the eyes +were wide open, they were perfectly motionless. That, and its +livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to be in +spite of the face, and beyond its control, rather than a part of +its own expression.</p> + +<p>As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a +knocker again.</p> + +<p>To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not +conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger +from infancy, would be untrue. But he put his hand upon the<!-- Page 22 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +key he had relinquished, turned it sturdily, walked in, and +lighted his candle.</p> + +<p>He <i>did</i> pause, with a moment's irresolution, before he shut +the door; and he <i>did</i> look cautiously behind it first, as if he half +expected to be terrified with the sight of Marley's pigtail sticking +out into the hall. But there was nothing on the back of the door, +except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on, so he said, +"Pooh, pooh!" and closed it with a bang.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>You may talk vaguely about driving a coach and six up a +good old flight of stairs, or through a bad young Act of Parliament; +but I mean to say you might have got a hearse up that +staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards +the wall, and the door towards the balustrades: and done it +easy. There was plenty of width for that, and room to spare; +which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a +locomotive hearse going on before him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen +gas-lamps out of the street wouldn't have lighted the +entry too well, so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with +Scrooge's dip.</p> + +<p>Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness +is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But, before he shut his heavy +door, he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. He +had just enough recollection of the face to desire to do that.</p> + +<p>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-<!-- Page 23 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; +double locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus +secured against surprise, he took off his cravat; put on his dressing-gown +and slippers, and his nightcap; and sat down before +the fire to take his gruel.</p> + +<p>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 fire-place was an old one, built by some Dutch +merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch +tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. There were Cains +and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters, Queens of Sheba, Angelic +messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather +beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in +butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; and +yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient +Prophet's rod, and swallowed up the whole. If each smooth +tile had been a blank at first, with power to shape some picture +on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, +there would have been a copy of old Marley's head on every +one.</p> + +<p>"Humbug!" said Scrooge; and walked across the room.</p> + +<p>After several turns he sat down again. As he threw his head +back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a +disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated, for +some purpose now forgotten, with a chamber in the highest +story of the building. It was with great astonishment, and with +a strange, inexplicable dread, that, as he looked, he saw this +bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in the outset that it +scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and so did +every bell in the house.<!-- Page 24 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> + +<p>This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it +seemed an hour. The bells ceased, as they had begun, together. +They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below, +as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks +in the wine merchant's cellar. Scrooge then remembered to +have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as +dragging chains.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I won't believe it."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail, usual +waistcoat, tights, and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, +like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. +The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, +and wound about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge +observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, +deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. His body was transparent; +so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through +his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind.</p> + +<p>Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, +but he had never believed it until now.</p> + +<p>No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the +phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; +though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and +marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its +head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he +was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.</p> + +<p>"How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. "What +do you want with me?"<!-- Page 25 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Much!"—Marley's voice, no doubt about it.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?"</p> + +<p>"Ask me who I <i>was</i>."</p> + +<p>"Who <i>were</i> you, then?" said Scrooge, raising his voice. +"You're particular, for a shade." He was going to say "<i>to</i> a +shade," but substituted this, as more appropriate.</p> + +<p>"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley."</p> + +<p>"Can you—can you sit down?" asked Scrooge, looking +doubtfully at him.</p> + +<p>"I can."</p> + +<p>"Do it, then."</p> + +<p>Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know whether +a ghost so transparent might find himself in a condition to take +a chair; and felt that, in the event of its being impossible, it +might involve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation. +But the Ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fire-place, +as if he were quite used to it.</p> + +<p>"You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost.</p> + +<p>"I don't," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that +of your own senses?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Why do you doubt your senses?"</p> + +<p>"Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. A +slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may +be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, +a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy +than of grave about you, whatever you are!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a<!-- Page 26 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +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 his own. Scrooge +could not feel it himself, but this was clearly the case; for though +the Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair, and skirts, and +tassels were still agitated as by the hot vapour from an oven.</p> + +<p>"You see this toothpick?" said Scrooge, returning quickly +to the charge, for the reason just assigned; and wishing, though +it were only for a second, to divert the vision's stony gaze from +himself.</p> + +<p>"I do," replied the Ghost.</p> + +<p>"You are not looking at it," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"But I see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding."</p> + +<p>"Well!" returned Scrooge, "I have but to swallow this, and +be for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all +of my own creation. Humbug, I tell you; humbug!"</p> + +<p>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 his head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, +its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast!</p> + +<p>Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before +his face.</p> + +<p>"Mercy!" he said. "Dreadful apparition, why do you +trouble me?"</p> + +<p>"Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do you +believe in me or not?"</p> + +<p>"I do," said Scrooge. "I must. But why do spirits walk +the earth, and why do they come to me?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;"> +<img src="images/i03.jpg" width="639" height="420" alt="To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a moment, would play, +Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him." title="To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a moment, would play, +Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him." /> +<span class="caption">To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a moment, would play, +Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.</span> +</div> + +<p>"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that +the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, +and travel far and wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth +in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to<!-- Page 27 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +wander through the world—oh, woe is me!—and witness +what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and +turned to happiness!"</p> + +<p>Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and +wrung its shadowy hands.</p> + +<p>"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me +why?"</p> + +<p>"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I +made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own +free-will, and of my own free-will I wore it. Is its pattern +strange to <i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>Scrooge trembled more and more.</p> + +<p>"Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and +length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy +and as long as this, seven Christmas-eves ago. You have +laboured on it since. It is a ponderous chain!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Jacob!" he said imploringly. "Old Jacob Marley, tell +me more! Speak comfort to me, Jacob!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thoughtful, +to put his hands in his breeches pockets. Pondering on what +the Ghost had said, he did so now, but without lifting up his +eyes, or getting off his knees.</p> + +<p>"You must have been very slow about it, Jacob," Scrooge<!-- Page 28 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +observed in a business-like manner, though with humility and +deference.</p> + +<p>"Slow!" the Ghost repeated.</p> + +<p>"Seven years dead," mused Scrooge. "And travelling all +the time?"</p> + +<p>"The whole time," said the Ghost. "No rest, no peace. +Incessant torture of remorse."</p> + +<p>"You travel fast?" said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"On the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost.</p> + +<p>"You might have got over a great quantity of ground in +seven years," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and clanked +its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the +Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance.</p> + +<p>"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 +usefulness! 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!"</p> + +<p>"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," +faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said, "I suffer<!-- Page 29 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with +my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star +which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor +homes to which its light would have conducted <i>me</i>?"</p> + +<p>Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going +on at this rate, and began to quake exceedingly.</p> + +<p>"Hear me!" cried the Ghost. "My time is nearly gone."</p> + +<p>"I will," said Scrooge. "But don't be hard upon me! +Don't be flowery, Jacob! Pray!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered, and wiped +the perspiration from his brow.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You were always a good friend to me," said Scrooge. +"Thankee!"</p> + +<p>"You will be haunted," resumed the Ghost, "by Three +Spirits."</p> + +<p>Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the Ghost's had +done.</p> + +<p>"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?" he +demanded in a faltering voice.</p> + +<p>"It is."</p> + +<p>"I—I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't I take 'em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?" +hinted Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Expect the second on the next night at the same hour.<!-- Page 30 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>When it had said these words, the spectre took its wrapper +from the table, and bound it round its head as before. Scrooge +knew this by the smart sound its teeth made when the jaws were +brought together by the bandage. He ventured to raise his +eyes again, and found his supernatural visitor confronting him in +an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and about its arm.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Not so much in obedience as in surprise and fear; for, on +the raising of the hand, he became sensible of confused noises +in the air; incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings +inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory. The spectre, after +listening for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge; and floated +out upon the bleak, dark night.</p> + +<p>Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. +He looked out.</p> + +<p>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.<!-- Page 31 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which +the Ghost had entered. It was double locked, as he had locked +it with his own hands, and the bolts were undisturbed. He +tried to say "Humbug!" 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.<!-- Page 32 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>STAVE TWO</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most +preposterous clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve, and +stopped.</p> + +<p>"Why, it isn't possible," said Scrooge, "that I can have +slept through a whole day and far into another night. It isn't +possible that anything has happened to the sun, and this is +twelve at noon!"</p> + +<p>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<!-- Page 33 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and +thought it 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.</p> + +<p>Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he +resolved within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a +dream, his mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, +to its first position, and presented the same problem to be worked +all through, "Was it a dream or not?"</p> + +<p>Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three +quarters more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the +Ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one. +He resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed; and, considering +that he could no more go to sleep than go to Heaven, +this was, perhaps, the wisest resolution in his power.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Ding, dong!"</p> + +<p>"A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting.</p> + +<p>"Ding, dong!"</p> + +<p>"Half past," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Ding, dong!"</p> + +<p>"A quarter to it," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Ding, dong!"</p> + +<p>"The hour itself," said Scrooge triumphantly, "and nothing +else!"</p> + +<p>He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with +a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy <span class="smcap">One</span>. Light flashed up in the +room upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.<!-- Page 34 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<p>The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a +hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, +but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains of his +bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent +attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly +visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I +am standing in the spirit at your elbow.</p> + +<p>It was a strange figure—like a child: yet not so like a child +as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, +which gave him the appearance of having receded from the +view, and being diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, +which hung about its neck and down its back, was white, as if +with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the +tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and +muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon +strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like +those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest +white; and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen +of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly +in its hand: and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, +had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the +strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head +there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was +visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in +its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now +held under its arm.</p> + +<p>Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing +steadiness, was <i>not</i> its strangest quality. For, as its belt sparkled +and glittered, now in one part and now in another, and what +was light one instant at another time was dark, so the figure +itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one +arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs +without a head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving +parts no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein<!-- Page 35 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +they melted away. And, in the very wonder of this, it would be +itself again; distinct and clear as ever.</p> + +<p>"Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?" +asked Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"I am!"</p> + +<p>The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if, instead +of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.</p> + +<p>"Who and what are you?" Scrooge demanded.</p> + +<p>"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."</p> + +<p>"Long Past?" inquired Scrooge; observant of its dwarfish +stature.</p> + +<p>"No. Your past."</p> + +<p>Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody +could have asked him; but he had a special desire to see +the Spirit in his cap; and begged him to be covered.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Your welfare!" said the Ghost.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Your reclamation, then. Take heed!"</p> + +<p>It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him gently +by the arm.</p> + +<p>"Rise! and walk with me!"</p> + +<p>It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the +weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes;<!-- Page 36 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +that bed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below +freezing; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing-gown, +and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon him at that +time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was not +to be resisted. He rose: but, finding that the Spirit made +towards the window, clasped its robe in supplication.</p> + +<p>"I am a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to fall."</p> + +<p>"Bear but a touch of my hand <i>there</i>," said the Spirit, laying +it upon his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more than this!"</p> + +<p>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 the snow upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"Good Heaven!" said Scrooge, clasping his hands together +as he looked about him. "I was bred in this place. I was +a boy here!"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"Your lip is trembling," said the Ghost. "And what is +that upon your cheek?"</p> + +<p>Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, +that it was a pimple; and begged the Ghost to lead him where +he would.</p> + +<p>"You recollect the way?" inquired the Spirit.</p> + +<p>"Remember it!" cried Scrooge with fervour; "I could walk +it blindfold."</p> + +<p>"Strange to have forgotten it for so many years!" observed +the Ghost. "Let us go on."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 414px;"> +<img src="images/i04.jpg" width="414" height="635" alt=""You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember it!" cried Scrooge +with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."" title=""You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember it!" cried Scrooge +with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."" /> +<span class="caption">"You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember it!" cried Scrooge +with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."</span> +</div> + +<p>They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every +<!-- Page 37 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>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.</p> + +<p>"These are but shadows of the things that have been," said +the Ghost. "They have no consciousness of us."</p> + +<p>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 by-ways for their several homes? +What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry +Christmas! What good had it ever done to him?</p> + +<p>"The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A +solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still."</p> + +<p>Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.</p> + +<p>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 +overrun 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 earthly savour in the air, a chilly +bareness in the place, which associated itself somehow with too +much getting up by candle-light, and not too much to eat.</p> + +<p>They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door<!-- Page 38 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +at the back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed +a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by +lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely +boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down upon +a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used +to be.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his +younger self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man in +foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at: stood +outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and leading +by the bridle an ass laden with wood.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>did</i> +come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy! And Valentine," +said Scrooge, "and his wild brother, Orson; there they +go! And what's his name, who was put down in his drawers, +asleep, at the gate of Damascus; don't you see him? And the +Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the Genii: there he is +upon his head! Serve him right! I'm glad of it. What business +had <i>he</i> to be married to the Princess?"</p> + +<p>To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature +on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing +and crying; and to see his heightened and excited face; +would have been a surprise to his business friends in the City, +indeed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 623px;"> +<img src="images/i05.jpg" width="623" height="420" alt=""Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old honest Ali Baba."" title=""Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old honest Ali Baba."" /> +<span class="caption">"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old honest Ali Baba."</span> +</div> + +<p>"There's the Parrot!" cried Scrooge. "Green body and +<!-- Page 39 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>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! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" asked the Spirit.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Scrooge. "Nothing. There was a boy +singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like +to have given him something: that's all."</p> + +<p>The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand: saying, +as it did so, "Let us see another Christmas!"</p> + +<p>Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the room +became a little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, +the windows cracked; fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, +and the naked laths were shown instead; but how all this was +brought about Scrooge knew no more than you do. He only +knew that it was quite correct: that everything had happened +so; that there he was, alone again, when all the other boys had +gone home for the jolly holidays.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"I have come to bring you home, dear brother!" said the<!-- Page 40 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +child, clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh. +"To bring you home, home, home!"</p> + +<p>"Home, little Fan?" returned the boy.</p> + +<p>"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 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."</p> + +<p>"You are quite a woman, little Fan!" exclaimed the boy.</p> + +<p>She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his +head; but, being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe +to embrace him. Then she began to drag him, in her childish +eagerness, towards the door; and he, nothing loath to go, accompanied +her.</p> + +<p>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 +produced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a block of +curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments of those +dainties to the young people: at the same time sending out a +meagre servant to offer a glass of "something" 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,<!-- Page 41 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have +withered," said the Ghost. "But she had a large heart!"</p> + +<p>"So she had," cried Scrooge. "You're right. I will not +gainsay it, Spirit. God forbid!"</p> + +<p>"She died a woman," said the Ghost, "and had, as I think, +children."</p> + +<p>"One child," Scrooge returned.</p> + +<p>"True," said the Ghost. "Your nephew!"</p> + +<p>Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, +"Yes."</p> + +<p>Although they had but that moment left the school +behind them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a +city, where shadowy passengers passed and repassed; where +shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the +strife and tumult of a real city were. It was made plain +enough, by the dressing of the shops, that here, too, it was +Christmas-time again; but it was evening, and the streets were +lighted up.</p> + +<p>The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked +Scrooge if he knew it.</p> + +<p>"Know it!" said Scrooge. "Was I apprenticed here?"</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it's Fezziwig alive +again!"</p> + +<p>Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, +which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; +adjusted his capacious waistcoat; laughed all over himself,<!-- Page 42 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; and called out, in a +comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice:</p> + +<p>"Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!"</p> + +<p>Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly +in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. +Christmas-eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have +the shutters up," cried old Fezziwig with a sharp clap of his +hands, "before a man can say Jack Robinson!"</p> + +<p>You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it! +They charged into the street with the shutters—one, two, three—had +'em up in their places—four, five, six—barred 'em +and pinned 'em—seven, eight, nine—and came back before +you could have got to twelve, panting like race-horses.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared +away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking +on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, +as if it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor +was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped +upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and +dry, and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see upon a +winter's night.</p> + +<p>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 +stomachaches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial +smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. +In came the six young followers whose hearts they broke. In +came all the young men and women employed in the business.<!-- Page 43 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +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, any +how 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 +provided for that purpose. But, scorning rest upon his reappearance, +he instantly began again, though there were no dancers +yet, as if the other fiddler had been carried home, exhausted, on +a shutter, and he were a bran-new man resolved to beat him +out of sight, or perish.</p> + +<p>There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more +dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there +was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece of +Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer. +But the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and +Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The sort of +man who knew his business better than you or I could have told +it him!) struck up "Sir Roger de Coverley." 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 <i>would</i> dance, and had no notion of walking.<!-- Page 44 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>But if they had been twice as many—ah! four times—old +Fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. +Fezziwig. As to <i>her</i>, she was worthy to be his partner in every +sense of the term. If that's not high praise, tell me higher, and +I'll use it. A positive light appeared to issue from Fezziwig's +calves. They shone in every part of the dance like moons. +You couldn't have predicted, at any given time, what would +become of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig +had gone all through the dance; advance and retire, both +hands to your partner, bow and curtsy, cork-screw, 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.</p> + +<p>When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. +Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side +the door, and, shaking hands with every person individually as +he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas. +When everybody had retired but the two 'prentices, they did +the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died away, and +the lads were left to their beds; which were under a counter +in the back-shop.</p> + +<p>During the whole of this time Scrooge had acted like a man +out of his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with +his former self. He corroborated everything, remembered +everything, enjoyed everything, and underwent the strangest +agitation. It was not until now, when the bright faces of his +former self and Dick were turned from them, that he remembered +the Ghost, and became conscious that it was looking +full upon him, while the light upon its head burnt very +clear.</p> + +<p>"A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly +folks so full of gratitude."</p> + +<p>"Small!" echoed Scrooge.</p> + +<p>The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices,<!-- Page 45 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig; and, +when he had done so, said:</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, 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."</p> + +<p>He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" asked the Ghost.</p> + +<p>"Nothing particular," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Something, I think?" the Ghost insisted.</p> + +<p>"No," said Scrooge, "no. I should like to be able to say a +word or two to my clerk just now. That's all."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My time grows short," observed the Spirit. "Quick!"</p> + +<p>This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he +could see, but it produced an immediate effect. For again +Scrooge saw himself. He was older now; a man in the prime +of life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years; +but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice. There +was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which showed +the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of the +growing tree would fall.</p> + +<p>He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a +mourning dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled +in the light that shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past.<!-- Page 46 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It matters little," she said softly. "To you, very little. +Another idol has displaced me; and, if it can cheer and comfort +you in time to come as I would have tried to do, I have no just +cause to grieve."</p> + +<p>"What Idol has displaced you?" he rejoined.</p> + +<p>"A golden one."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"You fear the world too much," she answered gently. "All +your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond +the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler +aspirations fall off one by one, until the master passion, Gain, +engrosses you. Have I not?"</p> + +<p>"What then?" he retorted. "Even if I have grown so much +wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you."</p> + +<p>She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Am I?"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>are</i> +changed. When it was made you were another man."</p> + +<p>"I was a boy," he said impatiently.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>have</i> thought of it, and can release you."</p> + +<p>"Have I ever sought release?"</p> + +<p>"In words. No. Never."</p> + +<p>"In what, then?"</p> + +<p>"In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere +of life; another Hope as its great end. In everything<!-- Page 47 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +that made my love of any worth or value in your sight. If this +had never been between us," said the girl, looking mildly, but +with steadiness, upon him, "tell me, would you seek me out +and try to win me now? Ah, no!"</p> + +<p>He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition in spite +of himself. But he said, with a struggle, "You think not."</p> + +<p>"I would gladly think otherwise if I could," she answered. +"Heaven knows! When <i>I</i> 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."</p> + +<p>He was about to speak; but, with her head turned from him, +she resumed.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>She left him, and they parted.</p> + +<p>"Spirit!" said Scrooge, "show me no more! Conduct me +home. Why do you delight to torture me?"</p> + +<p>"One shadow more!" exclaimed the Ghost.</p> + +<p>"No more!" cried Scrooge. "No more! I don't wish to see +it. Show me no more!"</p> + +<p>But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and +forced him to observe what happened next.</p> + +<p>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<!-- Page 48 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +believed it was the same, until he saw <i>her</i>, now a comely matron, +sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in this room was perfectly +tumultuous, for there were more children there than +Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count; and, unlike +the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty children +conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting +itself like forty. The consequences were uproarious beyond +belief; but no one seemed to care; on the contrary, the mother +and daughter laughed heartily, and enjoyed it very much; and +the latter, soon beginning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged +by the young brigands most ruthlessly. What would I not have +given to be one of them! Though I never could have been so +rude, no, no! I wouldn't for the wealth of all the world have +crushed that braided hair, and torn it down; and, for the precious +little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul! +to save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did, +bold young brood, I couldn't have done it; I should have expected +my arm to have grown round it for a punishment, and +never come straight again. And yet I should have dearly liked, +I own, to have touched her lips; to have questioned her, that she +might have opened them; to have looked upon the lashes of her +downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose waves +of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price: +in short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the +lightest licence of a child, and yet to have been man enough to +know its value.</p> + +<p>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 in 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-<!-- Page 49 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>paper +parcels, hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round the +neck, pummel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! +The shouts of wonder and delight with which the development +of every package was received! The terrible announcement +that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll's +frying-pan into his mouth, and was more than suspected of +having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden platter! +The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy, and +gratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike. It is +enough that by degrees, the children and their emotions got out +of the parlour, and, by one stair at a time, up to the top of the +house, where they went to bed, and so subsided.</p> + +<p>And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, +when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning +fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his own +fireside; and when he thought that such another creature, quite +as graceful and as full of promise, might have called him father, +and been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his life, his +sight grew very dim indeed.</p> + +<p>"Belle," said the husband, turning to his wife with a smile, +"I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Who was it?"</p> + +<p>"Guess!"</p> + +<p>"How can I? Tut, don't I know?" she added in the same +breath, laughing as he laughed. "Mr. Scrooge."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office window; and as it +was not shut up, and he had a candle inside, I could scarcely help +seeing him. His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; +and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe."</p> + +<p>"Spirit!" said Scrooge in a broken voice, "remove me from +this place."</p> + +<p>"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!"<!-- Page 50 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Remove me!" Scrooge exclaimed. "I cannot bear it!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Leave me! Take me back! Haunt me no longer!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher +covered its whole form; but, though Scrooge pressed it down +with all his force, he could not hide the light, which streamed +from under it in an unbroken flood upon the ground.</p> + +<p>He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an +irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own bedroom. +He gave the cap a parting squeeze, in which his hand relaxed; +and had barely time to reel to bed before he sank into a heavy +sleep.<!-- Page 51 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>STAVE THREE</h2> + +<h3>THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS</h3> + + +<p>Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and +sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had +no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of +One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right +nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding a conference +with the second messenger dispatched to him through Jacob +Marley's intervention. But, finding that he turned uncomfortably +cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains +this new spectre would draw back, he put them every one aside +with his own hands, and, lying down again, established a sharp +look-out all round the bed. For he wished to challenge the +Spirit on the moment of its appearance, and did not wish to be +taken by surprise and made nervous.</p> + +<p>Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves +on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually +equal to the time of day, express the wide range of their capacity +for adventure by observing that they are good for anything +from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which opposite +extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and comprehensive +range of subjects. Without venturing for Scrooge +quite as hardily as this, I don't mind calling on you to believe +that he was ready for a good broad field of strange appearances, +and that nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros would have +astonished him very much.</p> + +<p>Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by +any means prepared for nothing; and consequently, when the<!-- Page 52 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +bell struck One, and no shape appeared, he was taken with a +violent fit of trembling. Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter +of an hour went by, yet nothing came. All this time he lay +upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy light, +which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour; +and which, being only light, was more alarming than a dozen +ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant, or would +be at; and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that +very moment an interesting case of spontaneous combustion, +without having the consolation of knowing it. At last, however, +he began to think—as you or I would have thought at first; +for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows +what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably +have done it too—at last, I say, he began to think that the +source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining +room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. +This idea taking full possession of his mind, he got up softly, +and shuffled in his slippers to the door.</p> + +<p>The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange +voice called him by his name, and bade him enter. He obeyed.</p> + +<p>It was his own room. There was no doubt about that. +But it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls +and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a +perfect grove; from every part of which bright gleaming berries +glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected +back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered +there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney +as that dull 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-puddings, barrels +of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy +oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething<!-- Page 53 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"Come in!" exclaimed the Ghost. "Come in! and know +me better, man!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present," said the Spirit. +"Look upon me!"</p> + +<p>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 +artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the +garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other covering +than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. +Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, +its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained +demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle +was an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient +sheath was eaten up with rust.</p> + +<p>"You have never seen the like of me before!" exclaimed +the Spirit.</p> + +<p>"Never," Scrooge made answer to it.</p> + +<p>"Have never walked forth with the younger members of +my family; meaning (for I am very young) my elder brothers +born in these later years?" pursued the Phantom.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I have," said Scrooge. "I am afraid I have +not. Have you had many brothers, Spirit?"</p> + +<p>"More than eighteen hundred," said the Ghost.<!-- Page 54 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p> + +<p>"A tremendous family to provide for," muttered Scrooge.</p> + +<p>The Ghost of Christmas Present rose.</p> + +<p>"Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where +you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a +lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught to +teach me, let me profit by it."</p> + +<p>"Touch my robe!"</p> + +<p>Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast.</p> + +<p>Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, +poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, +fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly. So did the room, the +fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood in the +city streets on Christmas morning, where (for the weather was +severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and not unpleasant +kind of music, in scraping the snow from the pavement in front +of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses, whence it +was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into +the road below, and splitting into artificial little snow-storms.</p> + +<p>The house-fronts looked black enough, and the windows +blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon +the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last +deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy +wheels of carts and waggons; furrows that crossed and 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 was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the +clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured +to diffuse in vain.<!-- Page 55 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<p>For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops +were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the +parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball—better-natured +missile far than many a wordy jest—laughing +heartily if it went right, and not less heartily if it went wrong. +The poulterers' shops were still half open, and the fruiterers' +were radiant in their glory. There were great, round, pot-bellied +baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly +old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the +street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, +broad-girthed Spanish onions, shining in the fatness of +their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves +in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced +demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. There were pears and +apples clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches +of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence, to dangle +from conspicuous hooks that people's mouths might water +gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and +brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the +woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered +leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, 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 among these choice +fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and stagnant-blooded +race, appeared to know that there was something going on; +and, to a fish, went gasping round and round their little world +in slow and passionless excitement.</p> + +<p>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<!-- Page 56 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of tea +and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins +were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the +sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so +delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten +sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint, and subsequently +bilious. Nor was it that the figs were moist and pulpy, +or that the French plums blushed in modest tartness from their +highly-decorated boxes, or that everything was good to eat and +in its Christmas dress; but the customers were all so hurried and +so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they tumbled +up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets +wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came +running back to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the +like mistakes, in the best humour possible; while the Grocer +and his people were so frank and fresh, that the polished hearts +with which they fastened their aprons behind might have been +their own, worn outside for general inspection, and for Christmas +daws to peck at if they chose.</p> + +<p>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 uncommon kind of torch, for +once or twice, when there were angry words between some +dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few drops +of water on them from it, and their good-humour was restored +directly. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas-day. +And so it was! God love it, so it was!<!-- Page 57 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + +<p>In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and +yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners, and +the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above +each baker's oven; where the pavement smoked as if its stones +were cooking too.</p> + +<p>"Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your +torch?" asked Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"There is. My own."</p> + +<p>"Would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?" asked +Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"To any kindly given. To a poor one most."</p> + +<p>"Why to a poor one most?" asked Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Because it needs it most."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I!" cried the Spirit.</p> + +<p>"You would deprive them of their means of dining every +seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to +dine at all," said Scrooge; "wouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I!" cried the Spirit.</p> + +<p>"You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day," said +Scrooge. "And it comes to the same thing."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> seek!" exclaimed the Spirit.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, +or at least in that of your family," said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, invisible,<!-- Page 58 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out +but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which +are cheap, and make a goodly show for sixpence; and she laid +the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her daughters, +also brave in ribbons; while Master Peter Cratchit plunged a +fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and, getting the corners of +his monstrous shirt collar (Bob's private property, conferred +upon his son and heir in honour of the day) into his mouth, rejoiced +to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to show +his linen in the fashionable Parks. And now two smaller +Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside +the baker's they had smelt the goose, and known it for their +own; and, basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, +these young Cratchits danced about the table, and exalted +Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not proud, although +his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the slow +potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan lid to +be let out and peeled.<!-- Page 59 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What has ever got your precious father, then?" said Mrs. +Cratchit. "And your brother, Tiny Tim? And Martha warn't +as late last Christmas-day by half an hour!"</p> + +<p>"Here's Martha, mother!" said a girl, appearing as she +spoke.</p> + +<p>"Here's Martha, mother!" cried the two young Cratchits. +"Hurrah! There's <i>such</i> a goose, Martha!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"We'd a deal of work to finish up last night," replied the +girl, "and had to clear away this morning, mother!"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"No, no! There's father coming," cried the two young +Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. "Hide, Martha, +hide!"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"Why, where's our Martha?" cried Bob Cratchit, looking +round.</p> + +<p>"Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit.</p> + +<p>"Not coming!" said Bob with a sudden declension in his +high spirits; for he had been Tim's blood horse all the way from +church, and had come home rampant. "Not coming upon +Christmas-day!"</p> + +<p>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<!-- Page 60 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, that +he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.</p> + +<p>"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit +when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged +his daughter to his heart's content.</p> + +<p>"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. Somehow, he +gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the +strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, +that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he +was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember +upon Christmas-day who made lame beggars walk and blind +men see."</p> + +<p>Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and +trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong +and hearty.</p> + +<p>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 while Bob, +turning up his cuffs—as if, poor fellow, they were capable of +being made more shabby—compounded some hot mixture in +a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round, and +put it on the hob to simmer, Master Peter and the two ubiquitous +young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon +returned in high procession.</p> + +<p>Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose +the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a +black swan was a matter of course—and, in truth, it was something +very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy +(ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master +Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss Belinda +sweetened up the apple sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; +Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; +the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting +themselves, and, mounting guard upon their posts, crammed<!-- Page 61 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before +their turn came to be helped. At last the dishes were set +on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless +pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, +prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, +and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one +murmur of delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny +Tim, excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table +with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should +break in turning out! Suppose somebody should have got over +the wall of the back-yard and stolen it, while they were merry +with the goose—a supposition at which the two young Cratchits +became livid! All sorts of horrors were supposed.</p> + +<p>Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of +the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the cloth. +A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next door to +each other, with a laundress's next door to that! That was the +pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered—flushed, but +smiling proudly—with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, +so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited +brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.<!-- Page 62 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + +<p>Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly +too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. +Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that, now the +weight was off her mind, she would confess she had 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.</p> + +<p>At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the +hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug +being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges were +put upon the table, and a shovel full of chestnuts on the fire. +Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth in what +Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and at Bob +Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass. Two tumblers +and a custard cup without a handle.</p> + +<p>These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as +golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with +beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and +cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed:</p> + +<p>"A merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!"</p> + +<p>Which all the family re-echoed.</p> + +<p>"God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Spirit," said Scrooge with an interest he had never felt +before, "tell me if Tiny Tim will live."</p> + +<p>"I see a vacant seat," replied the Ghost, "in the poor +chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. +If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the +child will die."<!-- Page 63 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, no," said Scrooge. "Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he will +be spared."</p> + +<p>"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 like to die, he had better do it, and decrease +the surplus population."</p> + +<p>Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the +Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.</p> + +<p>"Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not adamant, +forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What +the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what men +shall live, what men shall die? It may be that, in the sight of +Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions +like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the Insect on the +leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers +in the dust!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob. "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the +Founder of the Feast!"</p> + +<p>"The Founder of the Feast, indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. +"I wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my +mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it."</p> + +<p>"My dear," said Bob, "the children! Christmas-day."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"My dear!" was Bob's mild answer. "Christmas-day."</p> + +<p>"I'll drink his health for your sake and the Day's," said +Mrs. Cratchit, "not for his. Long life to him! A merry Christmas +and a happy New Year! He'll be very merry and very +happy, I have no doubt!"<!-- Page 64 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After it had passed away they were ten times merrier than +before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done +with. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his +eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full +five-and-sixpence weekly. The two young Cratchits laughed +tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man of business; +and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between +his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular investments +he should favour when he came into the receipt of that +bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a +milliner's, then told them what kind of work she had to do, +and how many hours she worked at a stretch, and how she +meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for a good long rest; to-morrow +being a holiday she passed at home. Also how she had +seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord +"was much 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 little +voice, and sang it very well indeed.</p> + +<p>There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a +handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were +far from being 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<!-- Page 65 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially +on Tiny Tim, until the last.</p> + +<p>By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty heavily; +and as Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets, the brightness +of the roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of +rooms was wonderful. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed +preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through +and through before the fire, and deep red curtains, ready to be +drawn to shut out cold and darkness. There, all the children +of the house were running out into the snow to meet their married +sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and be the first to greet +them. Here, again, were shadows on the window blinds of +guests assembling; and there a group of handsome girls, all +hooded and fur-booted, and all chattering at once, tripped +lightly off to some near neighbour's house; where, woe upon the +single man who saw them enter—artful witches, well they +knew it—in a glow!</p> + +<p>But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on their +way to friendly gatherings, you might have thought that no one +was at home to give them welcome when they got there, instead +of every house expecting company, and piling up its fires half-chimney +high. Blessings on it, how the Ghost exulted! How +it bared its breadth of breast, and opened its capacious palm, +and floated on, outpouring, with a generous hand, its bright and +harmless mirth on everything within its reach! The very lamp-lighter, +who ran on before, dotting the dusky street with specks +of light, and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere, +laughed out loudly as the Spirit passed, though little kenned +the lamp-lighter that he had any company but Christmas.</p> + +<p>And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they +stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses +of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place +or giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed; or would +have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner; and nothing<!-- Page 66 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"What place is this?" asked Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"A place where Miners live, who labour in the bowels of the +earth," returned the Spirit. "But they know me. See!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his +robe, and, passing on above the moor, sped whither? Not to +sea? To sea. To Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw the +last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them; and his +ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it rolled and +roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it had worn, and +fiercely tried to undermine the earth.</p> + +<p>Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so +from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild +year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse. Great heaps +of seaweed clung to its base, and storm-birds—born of the +wind, one might suppose, as seaweed of the water—rose and +fell about it, like the waves they skimmed.</p> + +<p>But, even here, two men who watched the light had made a<!-- Page 67 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea—on, +on—until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any +shore, they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the helmsman +at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the +watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations; but every +man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas +thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of +some bygone Christmas-day, with homeward hopes belonging +to it. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or +bad, had had a kinder word for 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.</p> + +<p>It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the +moaning of the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it was +to move on through the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, +whose depths were secrets as profound as death: it was a great +surprise to Scrooge, while thus engaged, to hear a hearty laugh. +It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognise it as his +own nephew's, and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming +room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking +at that same nephew with approving affability!</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha!" laughed Scrooge's nephew. "Ha, ha, ha!"</p> + +<p>If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a +man more blessed in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can +say is, I should like to know him too. Introduce him to me, +and I'll cultivate his acquaintance.<!-- Page 68 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that, +while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing +in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. +When Scrooge's nephew laughed in this way, holding +his sides, rolling his head, and twisting his face into the +most extravagant contortions, Scrooge's niece, by marriage, +laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled friends, being +not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily.</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha!"</p> + +<p>"He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live!" cried +Scrooge's nephew. "He believed it, too!"</p> + +<p>"More shame for him, Fred!" said Scrooge's niece indignantly. +Bless those women! they never do anything by halves. +They are always in earnest.</p> + +<p>She was very pretty; exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled, +surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth, that seemed +made to be kissed—as no doubt it was; all kinds of good little +dots about her chin, that melted into one another when she +laughed; and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any little +creature's head. Altogether she was what you would have +called provoking, you know; but satisfactory, too. Oh, perfectly +satisfactory!</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he is very rich, Fred," hinted Scrooge's niece. +"At least, you always tell <i>me</i> so."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I have no patience with him," observed Scrooge's niece.<!-- Page 69 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +Scrooge's niece's sisters, and all the other ladies, expressed the +same opinion.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner," interrupted +Scrooge's niece. Everybody else said the same, and they must +be allowed to have been competent judges, because they had +just had dinner; and, with the dessert upon the table, were +clustered round the fire, by lamp-light.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>you</i> say, Topper?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 chance every year, whether he likes it or not, for I pity<!-- Page 70 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +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, <i>that's</i> something; and I think I shook him +yesterday."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>After tea they had some music. For they were a musical +family, and knew what they were about when they sung a Glee +or Catch, I can assure you: especially Topper, who could growl +away in the bass like a good one, and never swell the large +veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over it. Scrooge's +niece played well upon the harp; and played, among other +tunes, a simple little air (a mere nothing: you might learn to +whistle it in two minutes), which had been familiar to the child +who fetched Scrooge from the boarding-school, as he had been +reminded by the Ghost of Christmas Past. When this strain +of music sounded, all the things that Ghost had shown him +came upon his mind; he softened more and more; and thought +that if he could have listened to it often, years ago, he might +have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his own happiness +with his own hands, without resorting to the sexton's spade that +buried Jacob Marley.</p> + +<p>But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After +awhile 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<!-- Page 71 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +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 amongst the curtains, +wherever she went, there went he! He always knew where the +plump sister was. He wouldn't catch anybody else. If you +had fallen up against him (as some of them did) on purpose, he +would have made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which +would have been an affront to your understanding, and would +instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister. +She often cried out that it wasn't fair; and it really was not. +But when, at last, he caught her; when, in spite of all her silken +rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, he got her into a +corner whence there was no escape, then his conduct was the +most execrable. For his pretending not to know her; his pretending +that it was necessary to touch her head-dress, and +further to assure himself of her identity by pressing a certain +ring upon her finger, and a certain chain about her neck, was +vile, monstrous! No doubt she told him her opinion of it when, +another blind man being in office, they were so very confidential +together behind the curtains.</p> + +<p>Scrooge's niece was not one of the blindman's buff party, +but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in +a snug corner where the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind +her. But she joined in the forfeits, and loved her love to admiration +with all the letters of the alphabet. Likewise at the +game of How, When, and Where, she was very great, and, to +the secret joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat her sisters hollow: +though they were sharp girls too, as Topper could have told you. +There might have been twenty people there, young and old, +but they all played, and so did Scrooge; for, wholly forgetting, +in the interest he had in what was going on, that his voice made +no sound in their ears, he sometimes came out with his guess<!-- Page 72 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +quite loud, and very often guessed right, too, for the sharpest +needle, best Whitechapel, warranted not to cut in the eye, was +not sharper than Scrooge; blunt as he took it in his head to be.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Here is a new game," said Scrooge. "One half-hour, +Spirit, only one!"</p> + +<p>It was a game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew +had to think of something, and the rest must find out what; he +only answering to their questions yes or no, as the case was. +The brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed elicited +from him that he was thinking of an animal, a live animal, +rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal that +growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and +lived in London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't +made a show of, and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in +a menagerie, and was never killed in a market, and was not a +horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a +pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every fresh question that was put to +him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter; and was so +inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the sofa, +and stamp. At last the plump sister, falling into a similar +state, cried out:</p> + +<p>"I have found it out! I know what it is, Fred! I know +what it is!"</p> + +<p>"What is it?" cried Fred.</p> + +<p>"It's your uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge!"</p> + +<p>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.<!-- Page 73 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<p>"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!'"</p> + +<p>"Well! Uncle Scrooge!" they cried.</p> + +<p>"A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to the old +man, whatever he is!" said Scrooge's nephew. "He wouldn't +take it from me, but may he have it nevertheless. Uncle +Scrooge!"</p> + +<p>Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light +of heart, that he would have pledged the unconscious company +in return, and thanked them in an inaudible speech, if the +Ghost had given him time. But the whole scene passed off in +the breath of the last word spoken by his nephew; and he and +the Spirit were again upon their travels.</p> + +<p>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 gaol, 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.</p> + +<p>It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had +his doubts of this, because the Christmas holidays appeared to +be condensed into the space of time they passed together. It +was strange, too, that, while Scrooge remained unaltered in his +outward form, the Ghost grew older, clearly older. Scrooge +had observed this change, but never spoke of it, until they left +a children's Twelfth-Night party, when, looking at the Spirit +as they stood together in an open place, he noticed that its hair +was grey.</p> + +<p>"Are spirits' lives so short?" asked Scrooge.<!-- Page 74 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My life upon this globe is very brief," replied the Ghost. +"It ends to-night."</p> + +<p>"To-night!" cried Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"To-night at midnight. Hark! The time is drawing near."</p> + +<p>The chimes were ringing the three-quarters past eleven at +that moment.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask," said Scrooge, +looking intently at the Spirit's robe, "but I see something strange, +and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is +it a foot or a claw?"</p> + +<p>"It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the +Spirit's sorrowful reply. "Look here."</p> + +<p>From the foldings of its robe it brought two children; wretched, +abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its +feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Man! look here! Look, look, down here!" exclaimed +the Ghost.</p> + +<p>They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, +wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful +youth should have filled their features out, and touched them +with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of +age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. +Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared +out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of +humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful +creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.</p> + +<p>Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to +him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the +words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such +enormous magnitude.</p> + +<p>"Spirit! are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more.</p> + +<p>"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. +"And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy +is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware of them both, and<!-- Page 75 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +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!"</p> + +<p>"Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for +the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?"</p> + +<p>The bell struck Twelve.</p> + +<p>Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. +As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction +of old Jacob Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a +solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming like a mist along +the ground towards him.<!-- Page 76 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>STAVE FOUR</h2> + +<h3>THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to +Come?" said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an +instant in its folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head. That +was the only answer he received.</p> + +<p>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.<!-- Page 77 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before +them.</p> + +<p>"Lead on!" said Scrooge. "Lead on! The night is waning +fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"When did he die?" inquired another.</p> + +<p>"Last night, I believe."</p> + +<p>"Why, what was the matter with him?" asked a third, taking +a vast quantity of snuff out of a very large snuff-box. "I thought +he'd never die."<!-- Page 78 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<p>"God knows," said the first with a yawn.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>me</i>. That's all I know."</p> + +<p>This pleasantry was received with a general laugh.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I don't mind going if a lunch is provided," observed the +gentleman with the excrescence on his nose. "But I must be +fed if I make one."</p> + +<p>Another laugh.</p> + +<p>"Well, I 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!"</p> + +<p>Speakers and listeners strolled away, and mixed with other +groups. Scrooge knew the men, and looked towards the Spirit +for an explanation.</p> + +<p>The Phantom glided on into a street. Its finger pointed to +two persons meeting. Scrooge listened again, thinking that the +explanation might lie here.</p> + +<p>He knew these men, also, perfectly. They were men of +business: very wealthy, and of great importance. He had +made a point always of standing well in their esteem: in a +business point of view, that is; strictly in a business point of +view.</p> + +<p>"How are you?" said one.</p> + +<p>"How are you?" returned the other.<!-- Page 79 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well!" said the first. "Old Scratch has got his own at +last, hey?"</p> + +<p>"So I am told," returned the second. "Cold, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Seasonable for Christmas-time. You are not a skater, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No. No. Something else to think of. Good morning!"</p> + +<p>Not another word. That was their meeting, their conversation, +and their parting.</p> + +<p>Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the Spirit +should attach importance to conversations apparently so trivial; +but, feeling assured that they must have some hidden purpose, +he set himself to consider what it was likely to be. They could +scarcely be supposed to have any bearing on the death of Jacob, +his old partner, for that was Past, and this Ghost's province +was the Future. Nor could he think of any one immediately +connected with himself, to whom he could apply them. But +nothing doubting that, to whomsoever they applied, they had +some latent moral for his own improvement, he resolved to +treasure up every word he heard, and everything he saw; and +especially to observe the shadow of himself when it appeared. +For he had an expectation that the conduct of his future self +would give him the clue he missed, and would render the solution +of these riddles easy.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its +outstretched hand. When he roused himself from his thoughtful +quest, he fancied, from the turn of the hand, and its situa<!-- Page 80 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>tion +in reference to himself, that the Unseen Eyes were looking +at him keenly. It made him shudder, and feel very cold.</p> + +<p>They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of +the town, where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although +he recognised its situation and its bad repute. The ways were +foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched; the people half +naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. Alleys and archways, like so +many cesspools, disgorged their offences of smell, and dirt, and +life upon the straggling streets; and the whole quarter reeked +with crime, with filth and misery.</p> + +<p>Far in this den of infamous resort, there was a low-browed, +beetling shop, below a pent-house roof, where iron, old rags, +bottles, bones, and greasy offal were bought. Upon the floor +within were piled up heaps of rusty keys, nails, chains, hinges, +files, scales, weights, and refuse iron of all kinds. Secrets that +few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains +of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of +bones. Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a charcoal +stove made of old bricks, was a grey-haired rascal, nearly seventy +years of age, who had screened himself from the cold air without +by a frouzy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters hung +upon a line, and smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm +retirement.</p> + +<p>Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this +man, just as a woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. +But she had scarcely entered, when another woman, similarly +laden, came in too, and she was closely followed by a man in +faded black, who was no less startled by the sight of them than +they had been upon the recognition of each other. After a short +period of blank astonishment, in which the old man with the +pipe had joined them, they all three burst into a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Let the charwoman alone to be the first!" cried she who +had entered first. "Let the laundress alone to be the second; +and let the undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here,<!-- Page 81 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +old Joe, here's a chance! If we haven't all three met here without +meaning it!"</p> + +<p>"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 +an't strangers. Stop till I shut the door of the shop. Ah! +How it skreeks! There an'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 +calling, we're well matched. Come into the parlour. Come +into the parlour."</p> + +<p>The parlour was the space behind the screen of rags. The +old man raked the fire together with an old stair-rod, and, +having trimmed his smoky lamp (for it was night) with the +stem of his pipe, put it into his mouth again.</p> + +<p>While he did this, the woman who had already spoken threw +her bundle on the floor, and sat down in a flaunting manner on +a stool; crossing her elbows on her knees, and looking with a +bold defiance at the other two.</p> + +<p>"What odds, then? What odds, Mrs. Dilber?" said the +woman. "Every person has a right to take care of themselves. +<i>He</i> always did!"</p> + +<p>"That's true, indeed!" said the laundress. "No man +more so."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed!" said Mrs. Dilber and the man together. +"We should hope not."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," said Mrs. Dilber, laughing.</p> + +<p>"If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a wicked old<!-- Page 82 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"It's the truest word that ever was spoke," said Mrs. Dilber, +"It's a judgment on him."</p> + +<p>"I wish it was a little heavier judgment," replied the woman; +"and it should have been, you 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."</p> + +<p>But the gallantry of her friends would not allow of this; +and the man in faded black, mounting the breach first, produced +<i>his</i> plunder. It was not extensive. A seal or two, a pencil-case, +a pair of sleeve-buttons, and a brooch of no great value, +were all. They were severally examined and appraised by old +Joe, who chalked the sums he was disposed to give for each +upon the wall, and added them up into a total when he found +that there was nothing more to come.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I always give too much to ladies. It's a weakness 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 question, I'd repent of being so liberal, and knock off +half-a-crown."</p> + +<p>"And now undo <i>my</i> bundle, Joe," said the first woman.<!-- Page 83 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<p>Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of +opening it, and, having unfastened a great many knots, dragged +out a large heavy roll of some dark stuff.</p> + +<p>"What do you call this?" said Joe. "Bed-curtains?"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" returned the woman, laughing and leaning forward +on her crossed arms. "Bed-curtains!"</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say you took 'em down, rings and all, +with him lying there?" said Joe.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," replied the woman. "Why not?"</p> + +<p>"You were born to make your fortune," said Joe, "and you'll +certainly do it."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"His blankets?" asked Joe.</p> + +<p>"Whose else's do you think?" replied the woman. "He +isn't likely to take cold without 'em, I dare say."</p> + +<p>"I hope he didn't die of anything catching? Eh?" said +old Joe, stopping in his work, and looking up.</p> + +<p>"Don't you be afraid of that," returned the woman. "I an'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 threadbare place. +It's the best he had, and a fine one too. They'd have wasted +it, if it hadn't been for me."</p> + +<p>"What do you call wasting of it?" asked old Joe.</p> + +<p>"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 an'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."</p> + +<p>Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. As they sat<!-- Page 84 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"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 away from him when he was alive, to profit us when +he was dead! Ha, ha, ha!"</p> + +<p>"Spirit!" said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot. "I +see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. +My life tends that way now. Merciful Heaven, what is this?"</p> + +<p>He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now he +almost touched a bed: a bare, uncurtained bed: on which, beneath +a ragged sheet, there lay a something covered up, which, +though it was dumb, announced itself in awful language.</p> + +<p>The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any +accuracy, though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a +secret impulse, anxious to know what kind of room it was. A +pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed: +and on it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared +for, was the body of this man.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Oh, cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar +here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: +for this is thy dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured +head thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or +make one feature odious. It is not that the hand is heavy, and<!-- Page 85 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse +are still; but that the hand <span class="smcap">WAS</span> 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!</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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 <i>they</i> wanted in the room of death, +and why they were so restless and disturbed, Scrooge did not +dare to think.</p> + +<p>"Spirit!" he said, "this is a fearful place. In leaving it, I +shall not leave its lesson, trust me. Let us go!"</p> + +<p>Still the Ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to the +head.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Again it seemed to look upon him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<!-- Page 86 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +vain, to work with her needle; and could hardly bear the voices +of her children in their play.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for him +by the fire, and, when she asked him faintly what news (which +was not until after a long silence), he appeared embarrassed +how to answer.</p> + +<p>"Is it good," she said, "or bad?" to help him.</p> + +<p>"Bad," he answered.</p> + +<p>"We are quite ruined?"</p> + +<p>"No. There is hope yet, Caroline."</p> + +<p>"If <i>he</i> relents," she said, amazed, "there is! Nothing is +past hope, if such a miracle has happened."</p> + +<p>"He is past relenting," said her husband. "He is dead."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"To whom will our debt be transferred?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>Yes. Soften it as they would, their hearts were lighter. +The children's faces, hushed and clustered round to hear what<!-- Page 87 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +they so little understood, were brighter; and it was a happier +house for this man's death! The only emotion that the Ghost +could show him, caused by the event, was one of pleasure.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The Ghost conducted him through several streets familiar +to his feet; and, as they went along, Scrooge looked here and +there to find himself, but nowhere was he to be seen. They +entered poor Bob Cratchit's house,—the dwelling he had visited +before,—and found the mother and the children seated round the +fire.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"'And he took a child, and set him in the midst of +them.'"</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand +up to her face.</p> + +<p>"The colour hurts my eyes," she said.</p> + +<p>The colour? Ah, poor Tiny Tim!</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>They were very quiet again. At last she said, and in a steady, +cheerful voice, that only faltered once:<!-- Page 88 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I have known him walk with—I have known him walk +with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder very fast indeed."</p> + +<p>"And so have I," cried Peter. "Often."</p> + +<p>"And so have I," exclaimed another. So had all.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>She hurried out to meet him; and little Bob in his comforter—he +had need of it, poor fellow—came in. His tea was ready +for him on the hob, and they all tried who should help him to it +most. Then the two young Cratchits got upon his knees, and +laid, each child, a little cheek against his face, as if they said, +"Don't mind it, father. Don't be grieved!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Sunday! You went to-day, then, Robert?" said his wife.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear," returned Bob. "I wish you could have +gone. It would have done you good to see how green a place it +is. But you'll see it often. I promised him that I would walk +there on a Sunday. My little, little child!" cried Bob. "My +little child!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He left the room, and went up-stairs into the room above, +which was lighted cheerfully, and hung with Christmas. There +was a chair set close beside the child, and there were signs of +some one having been there lately. Poor Bob sat down in it, +and, when he had thought a little and composed himself, he +kissed the little face. He was reconciled to what had happened, +and went down again quite happy.</p> + +<p>They drew about the fire, and talked; the girls and mother<!-- Page 89 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +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 <i>that</i> I don't know."</p> + +<p>"Knew what, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that you were a good wife," replied Bob.</p> + +<p>"Everybody knows that," said Peter.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he's a good soul!" said Mrs. Cratchit.</p> + +<p>"You would be sure 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."</p> + +<p>"Only hear that, Peter," said Mrs. Cratchit.</p> + +<p>"And then," cried one of the girls, "Peter will be keeping +company with some one, and setting up for himself."</p> + +<p>"Get along with you!" retorted Peter, grinning.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Never, father!" cried they all.</p> + +<p>"And I know," said Bob, "I know, my dears, that when we<!-- Page 90 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +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."</p> + +<p>"No, never, father!" they all cried again.</p> + +<p>"I am very happy," said little Bob, "I am very happy!"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The Spirit stopped; the hand was pointed elsewhere.</p> + +<p>"The house is yonder," Scrooge exclaimed. "Why do you +point away?"</p> + +<p>The inexorable finger underwent no change.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He joined it once again, and, wondering why and whither +he had gone, accompanied it until they reached an iron gate. +He paused to look round before entering.</p> + +<p>A churchyard. Here, then, the wretched man, whose name<!-- Page 91 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 shadows of the things +that May be only?"</p> + +<p>Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which +it stood.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>The Spirit was immovable as ever.</p> + +<p>Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and, following +the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his +own name, <span class="smcap">Ebenezer Scrooge</span>.</p> + +<p>"Am <i>I</i> that man who lay upon the bed?" he cried upon his +knees.</p> + +<p>The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again.</p> + +<p>"No, Spirit! Oh no, no!"</p> + +<p>The finger still was there.</p> + +<p>"Spirit!" he cried, tight clutching at its robe, "hear me! +I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have +been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past +all hope?"</p> + +<p>For the first time the hand appeared to shake.</p> + +<p>"Good Spirit," he pursued, as down upon the ground he<!-- Page 92 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +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?"</p> + +<p>The kind hand trembled.</p> + +<p>"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all +the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. +The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut +out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge +away the writing on this stone!"</p> + +<p>In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to +free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. +The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.</p> + +<p>Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, +he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. +It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.<!-- Page 93 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>STAVE FIVE</h2> + +<h3>THE END OF IT</h3> + + +<p>Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his +own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, +the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!</p> + +<p>"I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" +Scrooge repeated as he scrambled out of bed. "The Spirits of +all Three shall strive within me. Oh, Jacob Marley! Heaven +and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I say it on my +knees, old Jacob; on my knees!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"They are not torn down," cried Scrooge, folding one of his +bed-curtains in his arms, "they are not torn down, rings and all. +They are here—I am here—the shadows of the things that +would have been may be dispelled. They will be. I know they +will!"</p> + +<p>His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning +them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, +mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and +crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of +himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as +happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as +giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody!<!-- Page 94 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! +Hallo!"</p> + +<p>He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing +there: perfectly winded.</p> + +<p>"There's the saucepan that the gruel was in!" cried Scrooge, +starting off again, and going round the fire-place. "There's +the door by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! +There's the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present sat! +There's the window where I saw the wandering Spirits! It's +all right, it's all true, it all happened. Ha, ha, ha!"</p> + +<p>Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many +years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The +father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!</p> + +<p>"I don't know what day of the month it is," said +Scrooge. "I don't know how long I have 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. Hallo! Whoop! +Hallo here!"</p> + +<p>He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out +the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clash, hammer; ding, +dong, bell! Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash! Oh, +glorious, glorious!</p> + +<p>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 sun-light; Heavenly sky; +sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!</p> + +<p>"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy +in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about +him.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Eh</span>?" returned the boy with all his might of wonder.</p> + +<p>"What's to-day, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>"To-day!" replied the boy. "Why, <span class="smcap">Christmas Day</span>."</p> + +<p>"It's Christmas Day!" said Scrooge to himself. "I haven't +missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can<!-- Page 95 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they +can. Hallo, my fine fellow!"</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" returned the boy.</p> + +<p>"Do you know the Poulterer's in the next street but one, at +the corner?" Scrooge inquired.</p> + +<p>"I should hope I did," replied the lad.</p> + +<p>"An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy! +Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was +hanging up there?—Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?"</p> + +<p>"What! the one as big as me?" returned the boy.</p> + +<p>"What a delightful boy!" said Scrooge. "It's a pleasure +to talk to him. Yes, my buck!"</p> + +<p>"It's hanging there now," replied the boy.</p> + +<p>"Is it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy it."</p> + +<p>"Walk-<span class="smcap">ER</span>!" exclaimed the boy.</p> + +<p>"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 directions +where to take it. Come back with the man, and I'll give you a +shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes, and +I'll give you half-a-crown!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never +made such a joke as sending it to Bob's will be!"</p> + +<p>The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady +one; but write it he did, somehow, and went down-stairs to open +the street-door, ready for the coming of the poulterer's man. +As he stood there, waiting his arrival, the knocker caught his +eye.</p> + +<p>"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<!-- Page 96 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>!—Here's +the Turkey. Hallo! Whoop! How are you? Merry +Christmas!"</p> + +<p>It <i>was</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's impossible to carry that to Camden Town," said +Scrooge. "You must have a cab."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued to +shake very much; and shaving requires attention, even when +you don't dance while you are at it. But, if he had cut the end +of his nose off, he would have put a piece of sticking-plaster +over it, and been quite satisfied.</p> + +<p>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 delighted 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"My dear sir," said Scrooge, quickening his pace, and tak<!-- Page 97 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>ing +the old gentleman by both his hands, "how do you do? I +hope you succeeded yesterday. It was very kind of you. A +merry Christmas to you, sir!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Scrooge?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Scrooge. "That is my name, and I fear it may +not be pleasant to you. Allow me to ask your pardon. And +will you have the goodness——" Here Scrooge whispered in +his ear.</p> + +<p>"Lord bless me!" cried the gentleman, as if his breath were +taken away. "My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"My dear sir," said the other, shaking hands with him, "I +don't know what to say to such munifi——"</p> + +<p>"Don't say anything, please," retorted Scrooge. "Come +and see me. Will you come and see me?"</p> + +<p>"I will!" cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he +meant to do it.</p> + +<p>"Thankee," said Scrooge. "I am much obliged to you. I +thank you fifty times. Bless you!"</p> + +<p>He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched +the people hurrying to and fro, and patted the children on the +head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens +of houses, and up to the windows; and found that everything +could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any +walk—that anything—could give him so much happiness. +In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's house.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Is your master at home, my dear?" said Scrooge to the +girl. Nice girl! Very.</p> + +<p>"Yes sir."</p> + +<p>"Where is he, my love?" said Scrooge.<!-- Page 98 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress. I'll +show you up-stairs, if you please."</p> + +<p>"Thankee. He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand +already on the dining-room lock. "I'll go in here, my dear."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Fred!" said Scrooge.</p> + +<p>Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started! +Scrooge had forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting in +the corner with the footstool, or he wouldn't have done it on +any account.</p> + +<p>"Why, bless my soul!" cried Fred, "who's that?"</p> + +<p>"It's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. +Will you let me in, Fred?"</p> + +<p>Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He +was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His +niece looked just the same. So did Topper when <i>he</i> came. So +did the plump sister when <i>she</i> came. So did every one when +<i>they</i> came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful +unanimity, won-der-ful happiness!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" growled Scrooge in his accustomed voice as near<!-- Page 99 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +as he could feign it. "What do you mean by coming here at +this time of day?"</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry, sir," said Bob. "I <i>am</i> behind my time."</p> + +<p>"You are!" repeated Scrooge. "Yes. I think you are. +Step this way, sir, if you please."</p> + +<p>"It's only once a year, sir," pleaded Bob, appearing from +the tank. "It shall not be repeated. I was making rather +merry yesterday, sir."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely +more; and to Tiny Tim, who did <span class="smcap">NOT</span> die, he was a second +father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and +as good a man as the good old City knew, or any other good old +city, town, or borough in the good old world. Some people +laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and +little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing +ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people<!-- Page 100 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** + +***** This file should be named 19337-h.htm or 19337-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/3/19337/ + +Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Christmas Carol + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Illustrator: George Alfred Williams + +Release Date: September 20, 2006 [EBook #19337] +Last updated: January 21, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** + + + + +Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +By CHARLES DICKENS + +ILLUSTRATED BY +GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS + +New York +THE PLATT & PECK CO. + +_Copyright, 1905, by_ THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY + +[Illustration: "He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."] + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist which Dickens +possessed to a remarkable degree, together with his naturally jovial +attitude toward life in general, seem to have given him a remarkably +happy feeling toward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of +his boyhood could have allowed him but little real experience with this +day of days. + +Dickens gave his first formal expression to his Christmas thoughts in +his series of small books, the first of which was the famous "Christmas +Carol," the one perfect chrysolite. The success of the book was +immediate. Thackeray wrote of it: "Who can listen to objections +regarding such a book as this? It seems to me a national benefit, and to +every man or woman who reads it, a personal kindness." + +This volume was put forth in a very attractive manner, with +illustrations by John Leech, who was the first artist to make these +characters live, and his drawings were varied and spirited. + +There followed upon this four others: "The Chimes," "The Cricket on the +Hearth," "The Battle of Life," and "The Haunted Man," with illustrations +on their first appearance by Doyle, Maclise, and others. The five are +known to-day as the "Christmas Books." Of them all the "Carol" is the +best known and loved, and "The Cricket on the Hearth," although third in +the series, is perhaps next in point of popularity, and is especially +familiar to Americans through Joseph Jefferson's characterisation of +Caleb Plummer. + +Dickens seems to have put his whole self into these glowing little +stories. Whoever sees but a clever ghost story in the "Christmas Carol" +misses its chief charm and lesson, for there is a different meaning in +the movements of Scrooge and his attendant spirits. A new life is +brought to Scrooge when he, "running to his window, 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 sun-light; Heavenly sky; +sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!" All this +brightness has its attendant shadow, and deep from the childish heart +comes that true note of pathos, the ever memorable toast of Tiny Tim, +"God bless Us, Every One!" "The Cricket on the Hearth" strikes a +different note. Charmingly, poetically, the sweet chirping of the little +cricket is associated with human feelings and actions, and at the crisis +of the story decides the fate and fortune of the carrier and his wife. + +Dickens's greatest gift was characterization, and no English writer, +save Shakespeare, has drawn so many and so varied characters. It would +be as absurd to interpret all of these as caricatures as to deny Dickens +his great and varied powers of creation. Dickens exaggerated many of his +comic and satirical characters, as was his right, for caricature and +satire are very closely related, while exaggeration is the very essence +of comedy. But there remains a host of characters marked by humour and +pathos. Yet the pictorial presentation of Dickens's characters has ever +tended toward the grotesque. The interpretations in this volume aim to +eliminate the grosser phases of the caricature in favour of the more +human. If the interpretations seem novel, if Scrooge be not as he has +been pictured, it is because a more human Scrooge was desired--a Scrooge +not wholly bad, a Scrooge of a better heart, a Scrooge to whom the +resurrection described in this story was possible. It has been the +illustrator's whole aim to make these people live in some form more +fully consistent with their types. + + GEORGE ALFRED WILLIAMS. +_Chatham, N.J._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +STAVE PAGE + + I _Marley's Ghost_ 11 + II _The First of the Three Spirits_ 32 +III _The Second of the Three Spirits_ 51 + IV _The Last of the Spirits_ 76 + V _The End of it_ 93 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +_"He had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church."_ Frontispiece + +_"A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice._ 14 + +_To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, for a moment, + would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him._ 26 + +_"You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember it!" cried + Scrooge, with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."_ 36 + +_"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's dear old + honest Ali Baba!"_ 38 + + + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +In Prose + +BEING A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS + + + + +STAVE ONE + +MARLEY'S GHOST + + +Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. +The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the +undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name +was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old +Marley was as dead as a door-nail. + +Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there +is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, +myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in +the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my +unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You +will, therefore, permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as +dead as a door-nail. + +Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? +Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge +was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his +sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even +Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was +an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and +solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. + +The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started +from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly +understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to +relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died +before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his +taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, +than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning +out after dark in a breezy spot--say St. Paul's Church-yard, for +instance--literally to astonish his son's weak mind. + +Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There it stood, years +afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was +known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called +Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It +was all the same to him. + +Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the 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 eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his +own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the +dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas. + +External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could +warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than +he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain +less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The +heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet could boast of the +advantage over him in only one respect. They often "came down" +handsomely and Scrooge never did. + +Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My +dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars +implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was +o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to +such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to +know him; and, when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into +doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they +said, "No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!" + +But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his +way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep +its distance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge. + +Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, on Christmas +Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, +biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court +outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, +and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The City +clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already--it had +not been light all day--and candles were flaring in the windows of the +neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The +fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense +without, that, although the court was of the narrowest, the houses +opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, +obscuring everything, one might have thought that nature lived hard by +and was brewing on a large scale. + +The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, that he might keep his +eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, +was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire +was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't +replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so +surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that +it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his +white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which +effort, not being a man of 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 +handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. + +"Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean +that, I am sure?" + +"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be 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. + +[Illustration: _"A Merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a +cheerful voice._] + +"What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I live in such a world +of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's +Christmas-time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time +for finding yourself a year older, 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 'Merry Christmas' +on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a +stake of holly through his heart. He should!" + +"Uncle!" pleaded the nephew. + +"Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas in your own way, +and let me keep it in 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! +Much 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 +consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people +below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and +not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, +uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I +believe that it _has_ done me good, and _will_ do me good; and I say, +God bless it!" + +The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming immediately +sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the +last frail spark for ever. + +"Let me hear another sound from _you_," said Scrooge, "and you'll keep +your Christmas by losing your situation! You're quite a powerful +speaker, sir," 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 the expression, and said that he would see him in that +extremity first. + +"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?" + +"Why did you get married?" said Scrooge. + +"Because I fell in love." + +"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if that were the only +one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. "Good +afternoon!" + +"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 of you; why cannot we be +friends?" + +"Good afternoon!" said Scrooge. + +"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never +had any quarrel to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial +in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas 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 gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with +their hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their +hands, and bowed to him. + +"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentlemen, referring +to his list. "Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. +Marley?" + +"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years," Scrooge replied. "He died +seven years ago, this very night." + +"We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving +partner," said the gentleman, presenting his credentials. + +It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits. At the ominous +word "liberality" Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the +credentials back. + +"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, +taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make +some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at +the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; +hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." + +"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge. + +"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 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 am very +glad to hear it." + +"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind +or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are +endeavouring 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 mentioned--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 population. Besides--excuse me--I don't know that." + +"But you might know it," observed the gentleman. + +"It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's enough for a man to +understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. +Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!" + +Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the +gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labours with an improved opinion +of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him. + +Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with +flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in +carriages, and conduct them on their way. The ancient tower of a church, +whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a +Gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and +quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards, as if its +teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. The cold became +intense. In the main street, at the corner of the court, some labourers +were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, +round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their +hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug +being left in solitude, its overflowings suddenly congealed, and turned +to misanthropic ice. The brightness of the shops, where holly sprigs and +berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy +as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers' trades became a splendid joke: +a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that +such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. The Lord +Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his +fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household +should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on +the previous Monday for being drunk and blood-thirsty 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 weapons, then indeed he +would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, +gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, +stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol; +but, at the first sound of + + "God bless you, merry 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 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, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. "But I +suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next +morning." + +The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. +The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends +of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no +great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of +boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas-eve, and then ran +home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman's +buff. + +Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and +having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening +with his banker's book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had +once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of +rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little +business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run +there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other +houses, and 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 explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, +having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its +undergoing any intermediate process of change--not a knocker, but +Marley's face. + +Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow, as the other objects +in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in +a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as +Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly +forehead. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath of hot air; +and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless. +That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to +be in spite of the face, and beyond its control, rather than a part of +its own expression. + +As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. + +To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of +a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would +be untrue. But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished, turned +it sturdily, walked in, and lighted his candle. + +He _did_ pause, with a moment's irresolution, before he shut the door; +and he _did_ look cautiously behind it first, as if he half expected to +be terrified with the sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the +hall. But there was nothing on the back of the door, except the screws +and nuts that held the knocker on, so he said, "Pooh, pooh!" and closed +it with a bang. + +The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above, +and every cask in the wine merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a +separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be +frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, +and up the stairs: slowly, too: trimming his candle as he went. + +You may talk vaguely about driving a coach and six up a good old flight +of stairs, or through a bad young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say +you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, +with the splinter-bar towards the wall, and the door towards the +balustrades: and done it easy. There was plenty of width for that, and +room to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a +locomotive hearse going on before him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen +gas-lamps out of the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well, so +you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge's dip. + +Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness is cheap, and +Scrooge liked it. But, before he shut his heavy door, he walked through +his rooms to see that all was right. He had just enough recollection of +the face to desire to do that. + +Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they should be. Nobody under +the table, nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and +basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his +head) upon the hob. Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody +in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude +against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two +fish baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and a poker. + +Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; double +locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus secured against +surprise, he took off his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, +and his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take his gruel. + +It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. He was +obliged to sit close to it, and brood over it, before he could extract +the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. The +fire-place was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and +paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the +Scriptures. There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters, Queens of +Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like +feather beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in +butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; and yet that +face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophet's rod, +and swallowed up the whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at +first, with power to shape some picture on its surface from the +disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would have been a copy of +old Marley's head on every one. + +"Humbug!" said Scrooge; and walked across the room. + +After several turns he sat down again. As he threw his head back in the +chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that +hung in the room, and communicated, for some purpose now forgotten, with +a chamber in the highest story of the building. It was with great +astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that, as he +looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in the +outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and +so did every bell in the house. + +This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an +hour. The bells ceased, as they had begun, together. They were succeeded +by a clanking noise, deep down below, as if some person were dragging a +heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant's cellar. Scrooge then +remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as +dragging chains. + +The cellar door flew open with a booming sound, and then he heard the +noise much louder on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then +coming straight towards his door. + +"It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I 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 transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking +through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind. + +Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had +never believed it until now. + +No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through +and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling +influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the +folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not +observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his +senses. + +"How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. "What do you want +with me?" + +"Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it. + +"Who are you?" + +"Ask me who I _was_." + +"Who _were_ you, then?" said Scrooge, raising his voice. "You're +particular, for a shade." He was going to say "_to_ a shade," but +substituted this, as more appropriate. + +"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." + +"Can you--can you sit down?" 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 explanation. But the Ghost sat down on the +opposite side of the fire-place, as if he were quite used to it. + +"You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost. + +"I don't," said Scrooge. + +"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your own +senses?" + +"I don't know," said Scrooge. + +"Why do you doubt your senses?" + +"Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. A slight disorder +of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, +a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. +There's more of gravy than 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 his own. Scrooge could not feel it himself, but this was +clearly the case; for though the Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its +hair, and skirts, and tassels were still agitated as by the hot vapour +from an oven. + +"You see this toothpick?" said Scrooge, returning quickly to the charge, +for the reason just assigned; and wishing, though it were only for a +second, to divert the vision's stony gaze from himself. + +"I do," replied the Ghost. + +"You are not looking at it," said Scrooge. + +"But I see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding." + +"Well!" returned Scrooge, "I have but to swallow this, and be for the +rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own +creation. 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 his head, as if it +were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its +breast! + +Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face. + +"Mercy!" he said. "Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?" + +"Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do you believe in me or +not?" + +"I do," said Scrooge. "I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and +why do they come to me?" + +[Illustration: _To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence, +for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him._] + +"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit +within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and +wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do +so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world--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 link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free-will, and of my +own free-will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to _you_?" + +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 heavy and as 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 Marley, tell me more! Speak +comfort to me, Jacob!" + +"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 became thoughtful, to put his +hands in his breeches pockets. Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he +did so now, but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his knees. + +"You must have been 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 silence of the night, that the Ward would have +been justified in indicting it for a nuisance. + +"Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "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 usefulness! 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, +and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a +poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have +conducted _me_?" + +Scrooge was very 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 wiped 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. "Thankee!" + +"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. + +"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 sound its teeth made when the jaws were brought together by the +bandage. He ventured to raise his eyes again, and found his supernatural +visitor confronting him in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over +and about its arm. + +The apparition walked backward from him; and, at every step it took, the +window raised itself a little, so that, when the spectre reached it, it +was wide open. It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. When they +were within two paces of each other, Marley's Ghost held up its hand, +warning him to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped. + +Not so much in obedience as in surprise and fear; for, on the raising of +the hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent +sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and +self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in +the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night. + +Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked +out. + +The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in +restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains +like Marley's Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were +linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to +Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost in +a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who +cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an +infant, whom it saw below upon a 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 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 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 could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more +perplexed he was; and, the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he +thought. + +Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within +himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew +back again, like a strong spring released, to its first position, and +presented the same problem to be worked all through, "Was it a dream 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 resolved to lie awake until the +hour was passed; and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than +go to Heaven, this was, perhaps, the wisest resolution in his power. + +The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he must +have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock. At length it +broke upon his listening ear. + +"Ding, dong!" + +"A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting. + +"Ding, dong!" + +"Half past," said Scrooge. + +"Ding, dong!" + +"A quarter to it," said Scrooge. + +"Ding, dong!" + +"The hour itself," said Scrooge triumphantly, "and nothing else!" + +He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, +dull, hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the +instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn. + +The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not the +curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which +his face was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and +Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face +to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am +now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. + +It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a child as like +an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the +appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a +child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its +back, was white, as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in +it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and +muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. +Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper +members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist +was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a +branch of fresh green holly in its hand: and, in singular contradiction +of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But +the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there +sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and +which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a +great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. + +Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, +was _not_ its strangest quality. For, as its belt sparkled and +glittered, now in one part and now in another, and what was light one +instant at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its +distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with +twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a +body: of which dissolving parts no outline would be visible in the dense +gloom wherein they melted away. And, in the very wonder of this, it +would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever. + +"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 demanded. + +"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." + +"Long Past?" inquired Scrooge; observant of its dwarfish stature. + +"No. Your past." + +Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have +asked him; but he had a special desire to see the Spirit in his cap; and +begged him to be covered. + +"What!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you so soon put out, with worldly +hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those +whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years +to wear it low upon my brow?" + +Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any knowledge +of having 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 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 _there_," said the Spirit, laying it upon +his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more than this!" + +As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood upon +an open country road, with fields on either hand. The city had entirely +vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The darkness and the mist +had vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with the +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 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. +"Let us go on." + +[Illustration: _"You recollect the way?" inquired the spirit. "Remember +it!" cried Scrooge with fervour; "I could walk it blindfold."_] + +They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every gate, and post, +and tree, until a little market-town appeared in the distance, with its +bridge, its church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen +trotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other +boys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were +in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields were +so full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it. + +"These are but shadows of the things that have been," said the Ghost. +"They have no consciousness 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 by-ways for their several +homes? What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! +What good had it ever done to him? + +"The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A solitary 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 overrun 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 earthly savour in the air, a chilly bareness in the +place, which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by +candle-light, and not too much to eat. + +They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the +back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, +melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and +desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and +Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as +he 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: wonderfully +real and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe +stuck in his belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood. + +"Why, it's 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 like that. Poor boy! And Valentine," said Scrooge, "and his +wild brother, Orson; there they go! And what's his name, who was put +down in his drawers, asleep, at the gate of Damascus; don't you see him? +And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the Genii: there he is upon +his head! Serve him right! I'm glad of it. What business had _he_ to be +married to the Princess?" + +To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such +subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; and +to see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to +his business friends in the City, indeed. + +[Illustration: _"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. +"It's dear old honest Ali Baba."_] + +"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! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!" + +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 something: +that's all." + +The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand: saying, as it did so, +"Let us see another Christmas!" + +Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the room became a +little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked; +fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were +shown instead; but how all this was brought about Scrooge knew no more +than you do. He only knew that it was quite correct: that everything had +happened so; that there he was, alone again, when all the other boys had +gone home for the jolly holidays. + +He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly. Scrooge +looked at the Ghost, and, with a mournful shaking of his head, glanced +anxiously towards the door. + +It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting +in, and, putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing him, +addressed him as her "dear, 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 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!" exclaimed the boy. + +She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his head; but, +being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace him. +Then she began to drag him, in her childish eagerness, towards the door; +and he, nothing loath to go, accompanied 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 produced +a decanter of curiously light wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake, +and administered instalments of those dainties to the young people: at +the same time sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of +"something" 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!" + +Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, "Yes." + +Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, they were +now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers passed +and repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and +all the strife and tumult of a real city were. It was made plain enough, +by the dressing of the shops, that here, too, it was Christmas-time +again; but it was evening, and the streets were lighted up. + +The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge if he +knew it. + +"Know it!" 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 waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his +organ of benevolence; and called out, in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, +jovial voice: + +"Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!" + +Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly in, +accompanied by his fellow-'prentice. + +"Dick Wilkins, to be sure!" said Scrooge to the Ghost. "Bless me, yes. +There he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, +dear!" + +"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. Christmas-eve, +Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up," cried old +Fezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands, "before a man can say Jack +Robinson!" + +You wouldn't believe how 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 ball-room as you would desire to +see upon a winter's night. + +In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and +made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomachaches. In came Mrs. +Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, +beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they +broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In +came the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with +her brother's particular friend the milkman. In came the boy from over +the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his master; +trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, who was +proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all came, +one after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some +awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all came, any how 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 provided for that purpose. +But, scorning rest upon his reappearance, he instantly began again, +though there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been +carried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man +resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish. + +There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and +there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold +Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were +mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came +after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The +sort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told +it him!) struck up "Sir Roger de Coverley." 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 Mrs. Fezziwig. As to _her_, she +was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. If that's not +high praise, tell me higher, and I'll use it. A positive light appeared +to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part of the dance +like moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any given time, what would +become of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone +all through the dance; advance and retire, both hands to your partner, +bow and curtsy, cork-screw, 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 the door, and, shaking +hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him +or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two +'prentices, they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died +away, and the lads were left to their beds; which were under a counter +in the back-shop. + +During the whole of this time Scrooge had acted like a man out of his +wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former self. He +corroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and +underwent the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when the bright +faces of his former self and Dick were turned from them, that he +remembered the Ghost, and became conscious that it was looking full upon +him, while the light upon its head burnt very clear. + +"A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly folks so full of +gratitude." + +"Small!" echoed Scrooge. + +The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were +pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig; and, when he had done +so, said: + +"Why! Is it not? 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 remark, 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. + +"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 immediate effect. For again Scrooge saw himself. He was +older now; a man in the prime of life. His face had not the harsh and +rigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care +and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, +which showed the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of +the growing tree would fall. + +He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning +dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in the light that +shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past. + +"It matters little," she said softly. "To you, very little. Another idol +has displaced me; and, if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come +as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve." + +"What Idol has displaced you?" he rejoined. + +"A golden one." + +"This is the even-handed dealing of the world!" he said. "There is +nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it +professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!" + +"You fear the world too much," she answered gently. "All your other +hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid +reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until +the master passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?" + +"What then?" he retorted. "Even if I have grown 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 was a boy," he said impatiently. + +"Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are," she +returned. "I am. That which promised happiness when we were one in heart +is fraught with misery now that we are 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 +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 _I_ 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!" + +She left him, and they parted. + +"Spirit!" said Scrooge, "show me no more! Conduct me home. Why do you +delight to torture me?" + +"One shadow more!" exclaimed the Ghost. + +"No more!" cried Scrooge. "No more! I don't wish to see it. Show me no +more!" + +But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and forced him +to observe what happened next. + +They were in another scene and place; a room, not very large or +handsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful +young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same, +until he saw _her_, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter. +The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more +children there than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count; +and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty +children conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting +itself like forty. The consequences were uproarious beyond belief; but +no one seemed to care; on the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed +heartily, and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to +mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most +ruthlessly. What would I not have given to be one of them! Though I +never could have been so rude, no, no! I wouldn't for the wealth of all +the world have crushed that braided hair, and torn it down; and, for the +precious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul! +to save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did, bold +young brood, I couldn't have done it; I should have expected my arm to +have grown round it for a punishment, and never come straight again. And +yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have +questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked upon the +lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose +waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price: in +short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest +licence of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value. + +But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a rush immediately +ensued that she, with laughing face and plundered dress, was borne +towards it in the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time +to greet the father, who came home attended by a man laden with +Christmas toys and presents. Then the shouting and the struggling, and +the onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter! The scaling him, +with chairs for ladders, to dive into his pockets, despoil him of +brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round the +neck, pummel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! The +shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package +was received! The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in +the act of putting a doll's frying-pan into his mouth, and was more than +suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden +platter! The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy, and +gratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike. It is enough +that by degrees, the children and their emotions got out of the parlour, +and, by one stair at a time, up to the top of the house, where they went +to bed, and so subsided. + +And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, when the master of +the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her +and her mother at his own fireside; and when he thought that such +another creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might have +called him father, and been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his +life, his sight grew very dim indeed. + +"Belle," 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 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, I could scarcely help seeing him. His +partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. +Quite alone in the world, I do believe." + +"Spirit!" said Scrooge in a broken voice, "remove me from this place." + +"I told you these were shadows of the things that have been," said the +Ghost. "That they are what they are, do not blame me!" + +"Remove me!" Scrooge exclaimed. "I cannot bear it!" + +He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon him with a face +in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces it +had shown him, wrestled with it. + +"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. + +The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its +whole form; but, though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he +could not hide the light, which streamed from under it in an unbroken +flood upon the ground. + +He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an irresistible +drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own bedroom. He gave the cap a +parting squeeze, in which his hand relaxed; and had barely time to reel +to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep. + + + + +STAVE THREE + +THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS + + +Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in +bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told +that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. He felt that he was +restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial +purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger dispatched to +him through Jacob Marley's intervention. But, finding that he turned +uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this +new spectre would draw back, he put them every one aside with his own +hands, and, lying down again, established a sharp look-out all round the +bed. For he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its +appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous. + +Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves on being +acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time of +day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing +that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; +between which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide +and comprehensive range of subjects. Without venturing for Scrooge quite +as hardily as this, I don't mind calling on you to believe that he was +ready for a good broad field of strange appearances, and that nothing +between a baby and a rhinoceros would have astonished him very much. + +Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means +prepared for nothing; and consequently, when the bell struck One, and +no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling. Five +minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet nothing came. +All this time he lay upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze +of ruddy light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the +hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than a dozen +ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant, or would be at; +and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that very moment an +interesting case of spontaneous combustion, without having the +consolation of knowing it. At last, however, he began to think--as you +or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the +predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would +unquestionably have done it too--at last, I say, he began to think that +the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining +room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea +taking full possession of his mind, he got up softly, and shuffled in +his slippers to the door. + +The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange voice called him by +his name, and bade him enter. He obeyed. + +It was his own room. There was no doubt about that. But it had undergone +a surprising transformation. The walls and ceiling were so hung with +living green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which +bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, +and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been +scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney as +that dull 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-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, +cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense +twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim +with their delicious steam. In easy state upon this couch there sat a +jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not +unlike Plenty's horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on +Scrooge as he came peeping round the door. + +"Come in!" 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 artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the +ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no +other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining +icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial +face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its +unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was +an antique scabbard; but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was +eaten up with rust. + +"You have never seen the like 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 I am very young) my elder brothers born in these later years?" +pursued the Phantom. + +"I don't think I have," said Scrooge. "I am afraid I have not. Have you +had many brothers, Spirit?" + +"More than eighteen hundred," said the Ghost. + +"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 learnt a lesson which is working +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 instantly. So did the room, the fire, the ruddy glow, the +hour of night, and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning, +where (for the weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk +and not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the pavement +in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses, whence +it was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the +road below, and splitting into artificial little snow-storms. + +The house-fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, +contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with +the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last deposit had been ploughed +up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows +that crossed and 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 was there an air of +cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer +sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain. + +For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial +and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now +and then exchanging a facetious snowball--better-natured missile far +than many a wordy jest--laughing heartily if it went right, and not less +heartily if it went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open, +and the fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, +round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of +jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the +street in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, +broad-girthed Spanish onions, shining in the fatness of their growth +like Spanish Friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at +the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up +mistletoe. There were pears and apples clustered high in blooming +pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' +benevolence, to dangle from conspicuous hooks that people's mouths might +water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and +brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and +pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were +Norfolk Biffins, 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 +among these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and +stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was something going +on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and round their little world in +slow and passionless excitement. + +The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! nearly closed, with perhaps two shutters +down, or one; but through those gaps such glimpses! It was not alone +that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that +the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters +were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended +scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the +raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the +sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, +the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the +coldest lookers-on feel faint, and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that +the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in +modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that everything +was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but the customers were all +so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they +tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets +wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back +to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best +humour possible; while the Grocer and his people were so frank and +fresh, that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons +behind might have been their own, worn outside for general inspection, +and for Christmas daws to peck at if they chose. + +But soon the steeples called good people all to church and chapel, and +away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and +with their gayest faces. And at the same time there emerged, from scores +of 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 uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice, when there +were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each +other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their +good-humour was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame to +quarrel upon Christmas-day. And so it was! God love it, so it was! + +In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was +a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners, and the progress of their +cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker's oven; where the +pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. + +"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." + +"I!" cried the Spirit. + +"You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, +often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all," said +Scrooge; "wouldn't you?" + +"I!" cried the Spirit. + +"You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day," said Scrooge. "And +it comes to the same thing." + +"_I_ seek!" exclaimed the Spirit. + +"Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in +that of your family," said Scrooge. + +"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! + +Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a +twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap, and make a +goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda +Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master +Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and, +getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar (Bob's private +property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the day) into his +mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to +show his linen in the fashionable Parks. And now two smaller Cratchits, +boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker's they +had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and, basking in +luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about +the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not +proud, although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the +slow potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan lid to be let +out and peeled. + +"What has ever got your precious father, then?" said Mrs. Cratchit. "And +your brother, Tiny Tim? And Martha warn't as late last Christmas-day by +half an hour!" + +"Here's Martha, mother!" said a girl, appearing as she spoke. + +"Here's Martha, mother!" cried the two young Cratchits. "Hurrah! There's +_such_ 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! 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 declension in his high spirits; for +he had been Tim's blood horse all the way from church, and had come home +rampant. "Not coming upon Christmas-day!" + +Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so +she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his +arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off +into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the +copper. + +"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit when she had +rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his +heart's content. + +"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. Somehow, he gets thoughtful, +sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever +heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the +church, because he was a 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 while Bob, turning up his cuffs--as +if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby--compounded +some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and +round, and put it on the hob to simmer, Master Peter and the two +ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon +returned in high procession. + +Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of +all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of +course--and, in truth, it was something very like it in that house. Mrs. +Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing +hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss +Belinda sweetened up the apple sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob +took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young +Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and, +mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest +they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At +last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a +breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the +carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, +and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of +delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two +young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and +feebly cried Hurrah! + +There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe there ever was +such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, +were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple sauce and +mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; +indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small +atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at last! Yet every +one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits, in particular, were +steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being +changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone--too nervous +to bear witnesses--to take the pudding up, and bring it in. + +Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning +out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back-yard and +stolen it, while they were merry with the goose--a supposition at which +the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were +supposed. + +Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell +like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and +a pastrycook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to +that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit +entered--flushed, but smiling proudly--with the pudding, like a speckled +cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of +ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. + +Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he +regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since +their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that, now the weight was off her +mind, she would confess she had her doubts about the quantity of flour. +Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it +was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat +heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a +thing. + +At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth +swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted, and +considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a +shovel full of chestnuts on the fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew +round the hearth in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a +one; and at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass. Two +tumblers and a custard cup without a handle. + +These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden +goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while +the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. Then Bob +proposed: + +"A merry Christmas to 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 +remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die." + +"No, no," said Scrooge. "Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared." + +"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my +race," returned the Ghost, "will find him here. What then? If he be like +to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." + +Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and +was overcome with penitence and grief. + +"Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear +that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and +Where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It +may be that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit +to live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear the +Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry +brothers in the dust!" + +Scrooge bent before the Ghost's rebuke, and, trembling, cast his eyes +upon the ground. But he raised them speedily on hearing his own name. + +"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob. "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the +Feast!" + +"The Founder of the Feast, indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. "I +wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and +I 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," said Mrs. Cratchit, +"not for his. Long life to him! A merry Christmas and a happy New Year! +He'll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!" + +The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their +proceedings which had no heartiness 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 relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Bob Cratchit +told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which +would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly. The two +young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man +of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from +between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular +investments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that +bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliner's, +then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she +worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for +a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Also how +she had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord +"was much 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 little voice, and sang it very well indeed. + +There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; +they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being 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 parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny +Tim, until the last. + +By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty heavily; and as +Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets, the brightness of the +roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of rooms was +wonderful. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a +cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the fire, +and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. +There, all the children of the house were running out into the snow to +meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and be the +first to greet them. Here, again, were shadows on the window blinds of +guests assembling; and there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and +fur-booted, and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near +neighbour's house; where, woe upon the single man who saw them +enter--artful witches, well they knew it--in a glow! + +But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on their way to +friendly gatherings, you might have thought that no one was at home to +give them welcome when they got there, instead of every house expecting +company, and piling up its fires half-chimney high. Blessings on it, how +the Ghost exulted! How it bared its breadth of breast, and opened its +capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring, with a generous hand, its +bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach! The very +lamp-lighter, who ran on before, dotting the dusky street with specks of +light, and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out +loudly as the Spirit passed, though little kenned the lamp-lighter that +he had any company but Christmas. + +And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they stood upon a +bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast +about, as though it were the burial-place or 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 hold his robe, and, +passing on above the moor, sped whither? Not to sea? To sea. To +Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw the last of the land, a frightful +range of rocks, behind them; and his ears were deafened by the +thundering of water, as it rolled and roared, and raged among the +dreadful caverns it had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth. + +Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, +on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there +stood a solitary lighthouse. Great heaps of seaweed clung to its base, +and storm-birds--born of the wind, one might suppose, as seaweed of the +water--rose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed. + +But, even here, two men who watched the light had made a fire that +through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of +brightness on the awful sea. Joining their horny hands over the rough +table at which they sat, they wished each other Merry Christmas in their +can of grog; and one of them, the elder too, with his face all damaged +and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship might +be, struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale in itself. + +Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea--on, on--until, +being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a +ship. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the +bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their +several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or +had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of +some bygone Christmas-day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. And +every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder +word for 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 listening to the moaning of +the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the +lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as +profound as death: it was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus +engaged, to hear a hearty laugh. It was a much greater surprise to +Scrooge to recognise it as his own nephew's, and to find himself in a +bright, dry, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his +side, and looking at that same nephew with approving affability! + +"Ha, ha!" laughed Scrooge's nephew. "Ha, ha, ha!" + +If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blessed +in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is, I should like to +know him too. Introduce him to me, and I'll cultivate his acquaintance. + +It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that, while there +is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so +irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. When Scrooge's +nephew laughed in this way, holding his sides, rolling his head, and +twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions, Scrooge's +niece, by marriage, laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled +friends, being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily. + +"Ha, ha! Ha, ha, 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 little creature's head. +Altogether she was what you would have called provoking, you know; but +satisfactory, too. Oh, perfectly satisfactory! + +"He's a comical old fellow," said Scrooge's nephew, "that's the truth; +and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his 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 _me_ so." + +"What of that, my dear?" said Scrooge's nephew. "His wealth is of no use +to him. He don't do any good with it. He don't make himself comfortable +with it. 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 competent judges, because they had just had dinner; and, with the +dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire, by lamp-light. + +"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 chance every year, whether he likes it or not, for +I pity him. He may rail at Christmas till he dies, but he can't help +thinking better of it--I defy him--if he finds me going there in good +temper, year after year, and saying, 'Uncle Scrooge, how are you?' If it +only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, _that's_ +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 sung a Glee or Catch, I can assure you: +especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good one, and +never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over +it. Scrooge's niece played well upon the harp; and played, among other +tunes, a simple little air (a mere nothing: you might learn to whistle +it in two minutes), which had been familiar to the child who fetched +Scrooge from the boarding-school, as he had been reminded by the Ghost +of Christmas Past. When this strain of music sounded, all the things +that Ghost had shown him came upon his mind; he softened more and more; +and thought that if he could have listened to it often, years ago, he +might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his own happiness with +his own hands, without resorting to the sexton's spade that buried Jacob +Marley. + +But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After awhile 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 +amongst the curtains, wherever she went, there went he! He always knew +where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch anybody else. If you had +fallen up against him (as some of them did) on purpose, he would have +made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would have been an +affront to your understanding, and would instantly have sidled off in +the direction of the plump sister. She often cried out that it wasn't +fair; and it really was not. But when, at last, he caught her; when, in +spite of all her silken rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, +he got her into a corner whence there was no escape, then his conduct +was the most execrable. For his pretending not to know her; his +pretending that it was necessary to touch her head-dress, and further to +assure himself of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her +finger, and a certain chain about her neck, was vile, monstrous! No +doubt she told him her opinion of it when, another blind man being in +office, they were so very confidential together behind the curtains. + +Scrooge's niece was not one of the blindman's buff party, but was made +comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in a snug corner where +the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her. But she joined in the +forfeits, and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the +alphabet. Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where, she was very +great, and, to the secret joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat her sisters +hollow: though they were sharp girls too, as Topper could have told you. +There might have been twenty people there, young and old, but they all +played, and so did Scrooge; for, wholly forgetting, in the interest he +had in what was going on, that his voice made no sound in their ears, he +sometimes came out with his guess quite loud, and very often guessed +right, too, for the sharpest needle, best Whitechapel, warranted not to +cut in the eye, was not sharper than Scrooge; blunt as he took it in his +head to be. + +The Ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood, and looked upon +him with such favour, that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay +until the guests departed. But this the Spirit said could not be done. + +"Here is a new game," said Scrooge. "One half-hour, Spirit, only one!" + +It was a game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew had to think of +something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their +questions yes or no, as the case was. The brisk fire of questioning to +which he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an +animal, a live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an +animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and +lived in London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show +of, and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie, and was +never killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a +bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every +fresh question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar +of laughter; and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to +get up off the sofa, and stamp. At last the plump sister, falling into a +similar state, cried out: + +"I have found it 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, whatever he is!" +said Scrooge's nephew. "He wouldn't take it from me, but may he have it +nevertheless. Uncle Scrooge!" + +Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that +he would have pledged the unconscious company in return, and thanked +them in an inaudible speech, if the Ghost had given him time. But the +whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his +nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels. + +Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but +always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they +were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by +struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, +and it was rich. In almshouse, hospital, and gaol, in misery's every +refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast +the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught +Scrooge his precepts. + +It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had his doubts +of this, because the Christmas holidays appeared to be condensed into +the space of time they passed together. It was strange, too, that, while +Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older, +clearly older. Scrooge had observed this change, but never spoke of it, +until they left a children's Twelfth-Night party, when, looking at the +Spirit as they stood together in an open place, he noticed that its hair +was grey. + +"Are spirits' lives so short?" asked Scrooge. + +"My life upon this globe is very brief," replied the Ghost. "It ends +to-night." + +"To-night!" cried Scrooge. + +"To-night at midnight. Hark! The time is drawing near." + +The chimes were ringing the three-quarters past eleven at that moment. + +"Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask," said Scrooge, looking +intently at the Spirit's robe, "but I see something strange, and not +belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a +claw?" + +"It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the Spirit's +sorrowful reply. "Look here." + +From the foldings of its robe it brought two children; wretched, abject, +frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at 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 monsters half so horrible and +dread. + +Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he +tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, +rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. + +"Spirit! are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more. + +"They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they +cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This +girl is Want. Beware of 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 him for the Ghost, and saw it not. As the last +stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob +Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and +hooded, coming like a mist along the ground towards him. + + + + +STAVE 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. + +The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand. + +"You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, +but will happen in the time before us," Scrooge pursued. "Is that so, +Spirit?" + +The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an instant in its +folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head. That was the only answer +he received. + +Although well used to ghostly company by this time, Scrooge feared the +silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found +that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow 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?" + +It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them. + +"Lead on!" said Scrooge. "Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is +precious time to 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 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 _me_. 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 provided," observed the gentleman with +the excrescence on his nose. "But I must be fed if I make one." + +Another laugh. + +"Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all," said the first +speaker, "for I never wear black gloves, 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 with other groups. +Scrooge knew the men, and looked towards the Spirit for an explanation. + +The Phantom glided on into a street. Its finger pointed to two persons +meeting. Scrooge listened again, thinking that the explanation might lie +here. + +He knew these men, also, perfectly. They were men of business: very +wealthy, and of great importance. He had made a point always of standing +well in their esteem: in a business point of view, that is; strictly in +a business point of view. + +"How are you?" 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 are 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 death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was +Past, and this Ghost's province was the Future. Nor could he think of +any one immediately connected with himself, to whom he could apply them. +But nothing doubting that, to whomsoever they applied, they had some +latent moral for his own improvement, he resolved to treasure up every +word he heard, and everything he saw; and especially to observe the +shadow of himself when it appeared. For he had an expectation that the +conduct of his future self would give him the clue he missed, and would +render the solution of these riddles easy. + +He looked about in that very place for his own image, but another man +stood in his accustomed corner, and, though the clock pointed to his +usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among +the multitudes that poured in through the Porch. It gave him little +surprise, however; for he had been revolving in his mind a change of +life, and thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried out +in this. + +Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its outstretched +hand. When he roused himself from his thoughtful quest, he fancied, from +the turn of the hand, and its situation in reference to himself, that +the Unseen Eyes were looking at him keenly. It made him shudder, and +feel very cold. + +They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, +where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he recognised its +situation and its bad repute. The ways were foul and narrow; the shops +and houses wretched; the people half naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. +Alleys and archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offences of +smell, and dirt, and life upon the straggling streets; and the whole +quarter reeked with crime, with filth and misery. + +Far in this den of infamous resort, there was a low-browed, beetling +shop, below a pent-house roof, where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and +greasy offal were bought. Upon the floor within were piled up heaps of +rusty keys, nails, chains, hinges, files, scales, weights, and refuse +iron of all kinds. Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred +and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and +sepulchres of bones. Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a +charcoal stove made of old bricks, was a grey-haired rascal, nearly +seventy years of age, who had screened himself from the cold air without +by a frouzy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters hung upon a line, and +smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement. + +Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as a +woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely +entered, when another woman, similarly laden, came in too, and she was +closely followed by a man in faded black, who was no less startled by +the sight of them than they had been upon the recognition of each other. +After a short period of blank astonishment, in which the old man with +the pipe had joined them, they all three burst into a laugh. + +"Let the charwoman alone to be the first!" cried she who had entered +first. "Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the +undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here's a +chance! If we haven't all three met here without meaning it!" + +"You couldn't have met in a better place," said old Joe, removing his +pipe from his mouth. "Come into the parlour. You were made free of it +long ago, you know; and the other two an't strangers. Stop till I shut +the door of the shop. Ah! How it skreeks! There an'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 calling, +we're well matched. Come into the parlour. Come into the parlour." + +The parlour was the space behind the screen of rags. The old man raked +the fire together with an old stair-rod, and, having trimmed his smoky +lamp (for it was night) with the stem of his pipe, put it into his mouth +again. + +While he did this, the woman who had already spoken threw her bundle on +the floor, and sat down in a flaunting manner on a stool; crossing her +elbows on her knees, and looking with a bold defiance at the other two. + +"What odds, 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!" 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," replied the woman; "and it +should have been, you 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 severally examined +and appraised by old Joe, who chalked the sums he was disposed to give +for each upon the wall, and added them up into a total when he found +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 weakness 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 question, I'd repent of being +so liberal, and knock off half-a-crown." + +"And now undo _my_ bundle, Joe," said the first woman. + +Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening it, +and, having unfastened a great many knots, dragged out a large 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? Eh?" said old Joe, stopping +in his work, and looking up. + +"Don't you be afraid of that," returned the woman. "I an'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 threadbare 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 an'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 away from him when he +was alive, 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 life tends that way now. +Merciful Heaven, what is this?" + +He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now he almost +touched a bed: a bare, uncurtained bed: on which, beneath a ragged +sheet, there lay a something covered up, which, though it was dumb, +announced itself in awful language. + +The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any accuracy, +though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse, +anxious to know what kind of room it was. A pale light, rising in the +outer air, fell straight upon the bed: and on it, plundered and bereft, +unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man. + +Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom. Its steady hand was pointed to the +head. The cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of +it, the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part, would have disclosed the +face. He thought of it, felt how easy it would be to do, and longed to +do it; but had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the +spectre at his side. + +Oh, cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and +dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: for this is thy +dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head thou canst not +turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is +not that the hand is heavy, and will fall down when released; it is not +that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand WAS open, +generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a +man's. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the +wound, to sow the world with life immortal! + +No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge's ears, and yet he heard them +when he looked upon the bed. He thought, if this man could be raised up +now, what would be his foremost thoughts? Avarice, hard dealing, griping +cares? They have brought him to a rich end, truly! + +He lay, in the dark, empty house, with not a man, a woman, or a child to +say 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. + +"I understand you," Scrooge returned, "and I would do it if I could. But +I have not the power, Spirit. I have not the power." + +Again it seemed to look upon him. + +"If there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by this +man's death," said Scrooge, quite 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 her children in their play. + +At length the long-expected knock was heard. She hurried to the door, +and met her husband; a man whose face was careworn and depressed, though +he was young. There was a remarkable expression in it now; a kind of +serious delight of which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled to +repress. + +He sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for him by the fire, +and, when she asked him faintly what news (which was not until after a +long silence), he appeared embarrassed how to answer. + +"Is it good," she said, "or bad?" to help him. + +"Bad," he answered. + +"We are quite ruined?" + +"No. There is hope yet, Caroline." + +"If _he_ relents," she said, amazed, "there is! Nothing is past hope, if +such a miracle has happened." + +"He is past relenting," said her husband. "He is dead." + +She was a mild and patient creature, if her face spoke truth; but she +was thankful in her soul to hear it, and she said so with clasped hands. +She prayed forgiveness the next moment, and was sorry; but the first was +the emotion of her heart. + +"What the half-drunken woman, whom I told you of last night, said to me +when I tried to see him and obtain a week's delay, and what I thought +was a mere excuse to avoid me, turns out to have been quite true. He was +not only very ill, but dying, then." + +"To whom will our debt be transferred?" + +"I don't know. But, before that time, we shall be ready with the money; +and, even though we were not, it would be 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 round to hear what they so little +understood, were brighter; and it was a happier house for this man's +death! The only emotion that the Ghost could show him, caused by the +event, was one of pleasure. + +"Let me see some 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 dwelling he had visited before,--and found the mother and +the children seated round the fire. + +Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues +in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a book before him. +The mother and her daughters were engaged in sewing. But surely they +were very quiet! + +"'And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.'" + +Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not dreamed them. The boy +must have read them out, as he and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why +did he not go on? + +The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand up to her +face. + +"The colour hurts my eyes," she said. + +The colour? Ah, poor Tiny Tim! + +"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, 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, little +child!" cried Bob. "My little child!" + +He broke down all at once. He couldn't help it. If he could have helped +it, he and his child would have been farther apart, perhaps, than they +were. + +He left the room, and went up-stairs into the room above, which was +lighted cheerfully, and hung with Christmas. There was a chair set close +beside the child, and there were signs of some one having been there +lately. Poor Bob sat down in it, and, when he had thought a little and +composed himself, he kissed the little face. He was reconciled to what +had happened, and went down again quite happy. + +They drew about the fire, and talked; the girls and mother working +still. Bob told them of the extraordinary kindness of Mr. Scrooge's +nephew, whom he had scarcely seen but once, and who, meeting him in the +street that day, and seeing that he looked a little--"just 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!" said Mrs. Cratchit. + +"You would be sure 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!" 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! + +"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 elsewhere. + +"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 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 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; and, following the +finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, +EBENEZER SCROOGE. + +"Am _I_ 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 I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this +intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?" + +For the first time the hand appeared to shake. + +"Good Spirit," he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: +"your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may +change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life?" + +The kind hand trembled. + +"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I +will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all +Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they +teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!" + +In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but +he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit, stronger +yet, repulsed him. + +Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw +an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and +dwindled down into a bedpost. + + + + +STAVE FIVE + +THE END OF IT + + +Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his +own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make +amends in! + +"I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" Scrooge repeated +as he scrambled out of bed. "The Spirits of all Three shall strive +within me. Oh, Jacob Marley! Heaven and the Christmas Time be praised +for this! I say it on my knees, 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, folding one of his bed-curtains +in his arms, "they are not torn down, rings and all. They are here--I am +here--the shadows of the things that would have been may be dispelled. +They will be. I know they will!" + +His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside +out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making +them parties to every kind of extravagance. + +"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the +same breath; and making a perfect Laocooen 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 school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to +everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! +Hallo!" + +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 fire-place. "There's the door by which +the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There's the corner where the Ghost of +Christmas Present sat! 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 illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long +line of brilliant laughs! + +"I don't know what day of the month it is," said Scrooge. "I don't know +how long I have 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. Hallo! Whoop! +Hallo here!" + +He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the +lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clash, 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 sun-light; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry +bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious! + +"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward 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. +Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow!" + +"Hallo!" 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 remarkable 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 directions where to take it. +Come back with the man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him +in less than five minutes, and I'll give you half-a-crown!" + +The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady hand at a trigger +who could have got a shot off half so fast. + +"I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's," whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, +and splitting with a laugh. "He shan't know who sends it. It's twice the +size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to +Bob's will be!" + +The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one; but write +it he did, somehow, and went down-stairs to open the street-door, ready +for the coming of the poulterer's man. As he stood there, waiting his +arrival, the knocker caught his eye. + +"I shall love 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. Hallo! +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 requires attention, even when you don't dance while you are +at it. But, if he had cut the end of his nose off, he would have put a +piece of sticking-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 delighted 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 +yesterday. It was very kind of you. A merry Christmas to you, sir!" + +"Mr. Scrooge?" + +"Yes," said Scrooge. "That is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant +to you. Allow me to ask your pardon. And will you have the goodness----" +Here Scrooge whispered in his ear. + +"Lord bless me!" cried the gentleman, as if his breath were taken away. +"My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?" + +"If you please," said Scrooge. "Not a farthing less. A great many +back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that +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. Will +you come and see me?" + +"I will!" cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he meant to do it. + +"Thankee," 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 the children on the head, and questioned +beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the +windows; and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had +never dreamed that any walk--that anything--could give him so much +happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's +house. + +He passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and +knock. But he made a dash, and did it. + +"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 +up-stairs, if you please." + +"Thankee. He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand already on the +dining-room lock. "I'll go in here, my dear." + +He turned it gently, and sidled his face in round the door. They were +looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these +young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see +that everything is right. + +"Fred!" said Scrooge. + +Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started! Scrooge had +forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting in the corner with the +footstool, or he wouldn't have done it on any account. + +"Why, bless 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! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in +five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. +So did Topper when _he_ came. So did the plump sister when _she_ came. +So did every one when _they_ came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, +wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! + +But he was early at the office next morning. Oh, he was early there! If +he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That +was the thing he had set his heart upon. + +And he did it; yes, he did! The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter +past. No Bob. He was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. +Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the +tank. + +His hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on +his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to +overtake nine o'clock. + +"Hallo!" 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 repeated. I 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 man as the good old City +knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old +world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them +laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that +nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did +not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and, knowing that such as +these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they +should wrinkle up their eyes in grins as have the malady in less +attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for +him. + +He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the +Total-Abstinence Principle ever afterwards; and it was always said of +him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed +the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as +Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** + +***** This file should be named 19337.txt or 19337.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/3/19337/ + +Produced by Jason Isbell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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