1.1 --- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
     1.2 +++ b/os/security/crypto/weakcryptospi/test/tcryptospi/testdata/hashhmac/largehash-src.dat	Fri Jun 15 03:10:57 2012 +0200
     1.3 @@ -0,0 +1,2390 @@
     1.4 +A CHRISTMAS CAROL
     1.5 +A Ghost Story of Christmas
     1.6 +
     1.7 +by Charles Dickens
     1.8 +
     1.9 +STAVE I:  MARLEY'S GHOST
    1.10 +
    1.11 +MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt
    1.12 +whatever about that. The register of his burial was
    1.13 +signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,
    1.14 +and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and
    1.15 +Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he
    1.16 +chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a
    1.17 +door-nail.
    1.18 +
    1.19 +Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my
    1.20 +own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about
    1.21 +a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to
    1.22 +regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery
    1.23 +in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors
    1.24 +is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands
    1.25 +shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You
    1.26 +will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that
    1.27 +Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
    1.28 +
    1.29 +Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did.
    1.30 +How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were
    1.31 +partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge
    1.32 +was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole
    1.33 +assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and
    1.34 +sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully
    1.35 +cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent
    1.36 +man of business on the very day of the funeral,
    1.37 +and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.
    1.38 +
    1.39 +The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to
    1.40 +the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley
    1.41 +was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or
    1.42 +nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going
    1.43 +to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that
    1.44 +Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there
    1.45 +would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a
    1.46 +stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts,
    1.47 +than there would be in any other middle-aged
    1.48 +gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy
    1.49 +spot--say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance--
    1.50 +literally to astonish his son's weak mind.
    1.51 +
    1.52 +Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name.
    1.53 +There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse
    1.54 +door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as
    1.55 +Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the
    1.56 +business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley,
    1.57 +but he answered to both names. It was all the
    1.58 +same to him.
    1.59 +
    1.60 +Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone,
    1.61 +Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
    1.62 +clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint,
    1.63 +from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire;
    1.64 +secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The
    1.65 +cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed
    1.66 +nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his
    1.67 +eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his
    1.68 +grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his
    1.69 +eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low
    1.70 +temperature always about with him; he iced his office in
    1.71 +the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.
    1.72 +
    1.73 +External heat and cold had little influence on
    1.74 +Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather
    1.75 +chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he,
    1.76 +no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no
    1.77 +pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't
    1.78 +know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and
    1.79 +snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage
    1.80 +over him in only one respect. They often "came down"
    1.81 +handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
    1.82 +
    1.83 +Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with
    1.84 +gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you?
    1.85 +When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored
    1.86 +him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him
    1.87 +what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all
    1.88 +his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of
    1.89 +Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to
    1.90 +know him; and when they saw him coming on, would
    1.91 +tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and
    1.92 +then would wag their tails as though they said, "No
    1.93 +eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!"
    1.94 +
    1.95 +But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing
    1.96 +he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths
    1.97 +of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance,
    1.98 +was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge.
    1.99 +
   1.100 +Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year,
   1.101 +on Christmas Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his
   1.102 +counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy
   1.103 +withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside,
   1.104 +go wheezing up and down, beating their hands
   1.105 +upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the
   1.106 +pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had
   1.107 +only just gone three, but it was quite dark already--
   1.108 +it had not been light all day--and candles were flaring
   1.109 +in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like
   1.110 +ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog
   1.111 +came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was
   1.112 +so dense without, that although the court was of the
   1.113 +narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms.
   1.114 +To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring
   1.115 +everything, one might have thought that Nature
   1.116 +lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.
   1.117 +
   1.118 +The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open
   1.119 +that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a
   1.120 +dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying
   1.121 +letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's
   1.122 +fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one
   1.123 +coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept
   1.124 +the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the
   1.125 +clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted
   1.126 +that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore
   1.127 +the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to
   1.128 +warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being
   1.129 +a man of a strong imagination, he failed.
   1.130 +
   1.131 +"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried
   1.132 +a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's
   1.133 +nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was
   1.134 +the first intimation he had of his approach.
   1.135 +
   1.136 +"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"
   1.137 +
   1.138 +He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the
   1.139 +fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was
   1.140 +all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his
   1.141 +eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.
   1.142 +
   1.143 +"Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's
   1.144 +nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure?"
   1.145 +
   1.146 +"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What
   1.147 +right have you to be merry? What reason have you
   1.148 +to be merry? You're poor enough."
   1.149 +
   1.150 +"Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What
   1.151 +right have you to be dismal? What reason have you
   1.152 +to be morose? You're rich enough."
   1.153 +
   1.154 +Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur
   1.155 +of the moment, said, "Bah!" again; and followed it up
   1.156 +with "Humbug."
   1.157 +
   1.158 +"Don't be cross, uncle!" said the nephew.
   1.159 +
   1.160 +"What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I
   1.161 +live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas!
   1.162 +Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas
   1.163 +time to you but a time for paying bills without
   1.164 +money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but
   1.165 +not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books
   1.166 +and having every item in 'em through a round dozen
   1.167 +of months presented dead against you? If I could
   1.168 +work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot
   1.169 +who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips,
   1.170 +should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried
   1.171 +with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"
   1.172 +
   1.173 +"Uncle!" pleaded the nephew.
   1.174 +
   1.175 +"Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas
   1.176 +in your own way, and let me keep it in mine."
   1.177 +
   1.178 +"Keep it!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you
   1.179 +don't keep it."
   1.180 +
   1.181 +"Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much
   1.182 +good may it do you! Much good it has ever done
   1.183 +you!"
   1.184 +
   1.185 +"There are many things from which I might have
   1.186 +derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare
   1.187 +say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the
   1.188 +rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas
   1.189 +time, when it has come round--apart from the
   1.190 +veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything
   1.191 +belonging to it can be apart from that--as a
   1.192 +good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant
   1.193 +time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar
   1.194 +of the year, when men and women seem by one consent
   1.195 +to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think
   1.196 +of people below them as if they really were
   1.197 +fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race
   1.198 +of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore,
   1.199 +uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or
   1.200 +silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me
   1.201 +good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"
   1.202 +
   1.203 +The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded.
   1.204 +Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety,
   1.205 +he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark
   1.206 +for ever.
   1.207 +
   1.208 +"Let me hear another sound from you," said
   1.209 +Scrooge, "and you'll keep your Christmas by losing
   1.210 +your situation! You're quite a powerful speaker,
   1.211 +sir," he added, turning to his nephew. "I wonder you
   1.212 +don't go into Parliament."
   1.213 +
   1.214 +"Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us to-morrow."
   1.215 +
   1.216 +Scrooge said that he would see him--yes, indeed he
   1.217 +did. He went the whole length of the expression,
   1.218 +and said that he would see him in that extremity first.
   1.219 +
   1.220 +"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?"
   1.221 +
   1.222 +"Why did you get married?" said Scrooge.
   1.223 +
   1.224 +"Because I fell in love."
   1.225 +
   1.226 +"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if
   1.227 +that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous
   1.228 +than a merry Christmas. "Good afternoon!"
   1.229 +
   1.230 +"Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before
   1.231 +that happened. Why give it as a reason for not
   1.232 +coming now?"
   1.233 +
   1.234 +"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
   1.235 +
   1.236 +"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you;
   1.237 +why cannot we be friends?"
   1.238 +
   1.239 +"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
   1.240 +
   1.241 +"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so
   1.242 +resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I
   1.243 +have been a party. But I have made the trial in
   1.244 +homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas
   1.245 +humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!"
   1.246 +
   1.247 +"Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.
   1.248 +
   1.249 +"And A Happy New Year!"
   1.250 +
   1.251 +"Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.
   1.252 +
   1.253 +His nephew left the room without an angry word,
   1.254 +notwithstanding. He stopped at the outer door to
   1.255 +bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who,
   1.256 +cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned
   1.257 +them cordially.
   1.258 +
   1.259 +"There's another fellow," muttered Scrooge; who
   1.260 +overheard him: "my clerk, with fifteen shillings a
   1.261 +week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry
   1.262 +Christmas. I'll retire to Bedlam."
   1.263 +
   1.264 +This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had
   1.265 +let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen,
   1.266 +pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off,
   1.267 +in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in
   1.268 +their hands, and bowed to him.
   1.269 +
   1.270 +"Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the
   1.271 +gentlemen, referring to his list. "Have I the pleasure
   1.272 +of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?"
   1.273 +
   1.274 +"Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years,"
   1.275 +Scrooge replied. "He died seven years ago, this very
   1.276 +night."
   1.277 +
   1.278 +"We have no doubt his liberality is well represented
   1.279 +by his surviving partner," said the gentleman, presenting
   1.280 +his credentials.
   1.281 +
   1.282 +It certainly was; for they had been two kindred
   1.283 +spirits. At the ominous word "liberality," Scrooge
   1.284 +frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials
   1.285 +back.
   1.286 +
   1.287 +"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,"
   1.288 +said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than
   1.289 +usually desirable that we should make some slight
   1.290 +provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer
   1.291 +greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in
   1.292 +want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands
   1.293 +are in want of common comforts, sir."
   1.294 +
   1.295 +"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.
   1.296 +
   1.297 +"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down
   1.298 +the pen again.
   1.299 +
   1.300 +"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge.
   1.301 +"Are they still in operation?"
   1.302 +
   1.303 +"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish
   1.304 +I could say they were not."
   1.305 +
   1.306 +"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour,
   1.307 +then?" said Scrooge.
   1.308 +
   1.309 +"Both very busy, sir."
   1.310 +
   1.311 +"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first,
   1.312 +that something had occurred to stop them in their
   1.313 +useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to
   1.314 +hear it."
   1.315 +
   1.316 +"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish
   1.317 +Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,"
   1.318 +returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring
   1.319 +to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink,
   1.320 +and means of warmth. We choose this time, because
   1.321 +it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt,
   1.322 +and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down
   1.323 +for?"
   1.324 +
   1.325 +"Nothing!" Scrooge replied.
   1.326 +
   1.327 +"You wish to be anonymous?"
   1.328 +
   1.329 +"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you
   1.330 +ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer.
   1.331 +I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't
   1.332 +afford to make idle people merry. I help to support
   1.333 +the establishments I have mentioned--they cost
   1.334 +enough; and those who are badly off must go there."
   1.335 +
   1.336 +"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
   1.337 +
   1.338 +"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had
   1.339 +better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
   1.340 +Besides--excuse me--I don't know that."
   1.341 +
   1.342 +"But you might know it," observed the gentleman.
   1.343 +
   1.344 +"It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's
   1.345 +enough for a man to understand his own business, and
   1.346 +not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies
   1.347 +me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!"
   1.348 +
   1.349 +Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue
   1.350 +their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed
   1.351 +his labours with an improved opinion of himself,
   1.352 +and in a more facetious temper than was usual
   1.353 +with him.
   1.354 +
   1.355 +Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that
   1.356 +people ran about with flaring links, proffering their
   1.357 +services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct
   1.358 +them on their way. The ancient tower of a church,
   1.359 +whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down
   1.360 +at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became
   1.361 +invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the
   1.362 +clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if
   1.363 +its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there.
   1.364 +The cold became intense. In the main street, at the
   1.365 +corner of the court, some labourers were repairing
   1.366 +the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier,
   1.367 +round which a party of ragged men and boys were
   1.368 +gathered: warming their hands and winking their
   1.369 +eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug
   1.370 +being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed,
   1.371 +and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness
   1.372 +of the shops where holly sprigs and berries
   1.373 +crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale
   1.374 +faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers'
   1.375 +trades became a splendid joke: a glorious pageant,
   1.376 +with which it was next to impossible to believe that
   1.377 +such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything
   1.378 +to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the
   1.379 +mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks
   1.380 +and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's
   1.381 +household should; and even the little tailor, whom he
   1.382 +had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for
   1.383 +being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up
   1.384 +to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean
   1.385 +wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.
   1.386 +
   1.387 +Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting
   1.388 +cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped
   1.389 +the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather
   1.390 +as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then
   1.391 +indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The
   1.392 +owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled
   1.393 +by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs,
   1.394 +stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with
   1.395 +a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of
   1.396 +
   1.397 +        "God bless you, merry gentleman!
   1.398 +         May nothing you dismay!"
   1.399 +
   1.400 +Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action,
   1.401 +that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to
   1.402 +the fog and even more congenial frost.
   1.403 +
   1.404 +At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house
   1.405 +arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his
   1.406 +stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant
   1.407 +clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out,
   1.408 +and put on his hat.
   1.409 +
   1.410 +"You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" said
   1.411 +Scrooge.
   1.412 +
   1.413 +"If quite convenient, sir."
   1.414 +
   1.415 +"It's not convenient," said Scrooge, "and it's not
   1.416 +fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you'd
   1.417 +think yourself ill-used, I'll be bound?"
   1.418 +
   1.419 +The clerk smiled faintly.
   1.420 +
   1.421 +"And yet," said Scrooge, "you don't think me ill-used,
   1.422 +when I pay a day's wages for no work."
   1.423 +
   1.424 +The clerk observed that it was only once a year.
   1.425 +
   1.426 +"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every
   1.427 +twenty-fifth of December!" said Scrooge, buttoning
   1.428 +his great-coat to the chin. "But I suppose you must
   1.429 +have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next
   1.430 +morning."
   1.431 +
   1.432 +The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge
   1.433 +walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a
   1.434 +twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his
   1.435 +white comforter dangling below his waist (for he
   1.436 +boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill,
   1.437 +at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in
   1.438 +honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home
   1.439 +to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play
   1.440 +at blindman's-buff.
   1.441 +
   1.442 +Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual
   1.443 +melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and
   1.444 +beguiled the rest of the evening with his
   1.445 +banker's-book, went home to bed. He lived in
   1.446 +chambers which had once belonged to his deceased
   1.447 +partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a
   1.448 +lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so
   1.449 +little business to be, that one could scarcely help
   1.450 +fancying it must have run there when it was a young
   1.451 +house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses,
   1.452 +and forgotten the way out again. It was old enough
   1.453 +now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but
   1.454 +Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices.
   1.455 +The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew
   1.456 +its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands.
   1.457 +The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway
   1.458 +of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of
   1.459 +the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the
   1.460 +threshold.
   1.461 +
   1.462 +Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all
   1.463 +particular about the knocker on the door, except that it
   1.464 +was very large. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had
   1.465 +seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence
   1.466 +in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what
   1.467 +is called fancy about him as any man in the city of
   1.468 +London, even including--which is a bold word--the
   1.469 +corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be
   1.470 +borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one
   1.471 +thought on Marley, since his last mention of his
   1.472 +seven years' dead partner that afternoon. And then
   1.473 +let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened
   1.474 +that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door,
   1.475 +saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate
   1.476 +process of change--not a knocker, but Marley's face.
   1.477 +
   1.478 +Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow
   1.479 +as the other objects in the yard were, but had a
   1.480 +dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark
   1.481 +cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked
   1.482 +at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly
   1.483 +spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The
   1.484 +hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air;
   1.485 +and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly
   1.486 +motionless. That, and its livid colour, made it
   1.487 +horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the
   1.488 +face and beyond its control, rather than a part of
   1.489 +its own expression.
   1.490 +
   1.491 +As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it
   1.492 +was a knocker again.
   1.493 +
   1.494 +To say that he was not startled, or that his blood
   1.495 +was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it
   1.496 +had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue.
   1.497 +But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished,
   1.498 +turned it sturdily, walked in, and lighted his candle.
   1.499 +
   1.500 +He did pause, with a moment's irresolution, before
   1.501 +he shut the door; and he did look cautiously behind
   1.502 +it first, as if he half expected to be terrified with the
   1.503 +sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the hall.
   1.504 +But there was nothing on the back of the door, except
   1.505 +the screws and nuts that held the knocker on, so he
   1.506 +said "Pooh, pooh!" and closed it with a bang.
   1.507 +
   1.508 +The sound resounded through the house like thunder.
   1.509 +Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant's
   1.510 +cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal
   1.511 +of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to
   1.512 +be frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and
   1.513 +walked across the hall, and up the stairs; slowly too:
   1.514 +trimming his candle as he went.
   1.515 +
   1.516 +You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-and-six
   1.517 +up a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad
   1.518 +young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say you
   1.519 +might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken
   1.520 +it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall
   1.521 +and the door towards the balustrades: and done it
   1.522 +easy. There was plenty of width for that, and room
   1.523 +to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge
   1.524 +thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before
   1.525 +him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of
   1.526 +the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well,
   1.527 +so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with
   1.528 +Scrooge's dip.
   1.529 +
   1.530 +Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that.
   1.531 +Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before
   1.532 +he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms
   1.533 +to see that all was right. He had just enough recollection
   1.534 +of the face to desire to do that.
   1.535 +
   1.536 +Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they
   1.537 +should be. Nobody under the table, nobody under
   1.538 +the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin
   1.539 +ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had
   1.540 +a cold in his head) upon the hob. Nobody under the
   1.541 +bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown,
   1.542 +which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude
   1.543 +against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard,
   1.544 +old shoes, two fish-baskets, washing-stand on three
   1.545 +legs, and a poker.
   1.546 +
   1.547 +Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked
   1.548 +himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his
   1.549 +custom. Thus secured against surprise, he took off
   1.550 +his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and
   1.551 +his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take
   1.552 +his gruel.
   1.553 +
   1.554 +It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a
   1.555 +bitter night. He was obliged to sit close to it, and
   1.556 +brood over it, before he could extract the least
   1.557 +sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel.
   1.558 +The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch
   1.559 +merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint
   1.560 +Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures.
   1.561 +There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters;
   1.562 +Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending
   1.563 +through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams,
   1.564 +Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats,
   1.565 +hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts;
   1.566 +and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came
   1.567 +like the ancient Prophet's rod, and swallowed up the
   1.568 +whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at first,
   1.569 +with power to shape some picture on its surface from
   1.570 +the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would
   1.571 +have been a copy of old Marley's head on every one.
   1.572 +
   1.573 +"Humbug!" said Scrooge; and walked across the
   1.574 +room.
   1.575 +
   1.576 +After several turns, he sat down again. As he
   1.577 +threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened
   1.578 +to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the
   1.579 +room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten
   1.580 +with a chamber in the highest story of the
   1.581 +building. It was with great astonishment, and with
   1.582 +a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he
   1.583 +saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in
   1.584 +the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it
   1.585 +rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house.
   1.586 +
   1.587 +This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute,
   1.588 +but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased as they had
   1.589 +begun, together. They were succeeded by a clanking
   1.590 +noise, deep down below; as if some person were
   1.591 +dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the
   1.592 +wine-merchant's cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have
   1.593 +heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as
   1.594 +dragging chains.
   1.595 +
   1.596 +The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound,
   1.597 +and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors
   1.598 +below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight
   1.599 +towards his door.
   1.600 +
   1.601 +"It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I won't believe it."
   1.602 +
   1.603 +His colour changed though, when, without a pause,
   1.604 +it came on through the heavy door, and passed into
   1.605 +the room before his eyes. Upon its coming in, the
   1.606 +dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, "I know
   1.607 +him; Marley's Ghost!" and fell again.
   1.608 +
   1.609 +The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail,
   1.610 +usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on
   1.611 +the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts,
   1.612 +and the hair upon his head. The chain he drew was
   1.613 +clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound
   1.614 +about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge
   1.615 +observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks,
   1.616 +ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.
   1.617 +His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him,
   1.618 +and looking through his waistcoat, could see
   1.619 +the two buttons on his coat behind.
   1.620 +
   1.621 +Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no
   1.622 +bowels, but he had never believed it until now.
   1.623 +
   1.624 +No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he
   1.625 +looked the phantom through and through, and saw
   1.626 +it standing before him; though he felt the chilling
   1.627 +influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very
   1.628 +texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head
   1.629 +and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before;
   1.630 +he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.
   1.631 +
   1.632 +"How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.
   1.633 +"What do you want with me?"
   1.634 +
   1.635 +"Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it.
   1.636 +
   1.637 +"Who are you?"
   1.638 +
   1.639 +"Ask me who I was."
   1.640 +
   1.641 +"Who were you then?" said Scrooge, raising his
   1.642 +voice. "You're particular, for a shade." He was going
   1.643 +to say "to a shade," but substituted this, as more
   1.644 +appropriate.
   1.645 +
   1.646 +"In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley."
   1.647 +
   1.648 +"Can you--can you sit down?" asked Scrooge, looking
   1.649 +doubtfully at him.
   1.650 +
   1.651 +"I can."
   1.652 +
   1.653 +"Do it, then."
   1.654 +
   1.655 +Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know
   1.656 +whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in
   1.657 +a condition to take a chair; and felt that in the event
   1.658 +of its being impossible, it might involve the necessity
   1.659 +of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat
   1.660 +down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he
   1.661 +were quite used to it.
   1.662 +
   1.663 +"You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost.
   1.664 +
   1.665 +"I don't," said Scrooge.
   1.666 +
   1.667 +"What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of
   1.668 +your senses?"
   1.669 +
   1.670 +"I don't know," said Scrooge.
   1.671 +
   1.672 +"Why do you doubt your senses?"
   1.673 +
   1.674 +"Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them.
   1.675 +A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may
   1.676 +be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of
   1.677 +cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of
   1.678 +gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"
   1.679 +
   1.680 +Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking
   1.681 +jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means
   1.682 +waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be
   1.683 +smart, as a means of distracting his own attention,
   1.684 +and keeping down his terror; for the spectre's voice
   1.685 +disturbed the very marrow in his bones.
   1.686 +
   1.687 +To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence
   1.688 +for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very
   1.689 +deuce with him. There was something very awful,
   1.690 +too, in the spectre's being provided with an infernal
   1.691 +atmosphere of its own. Scrooge could not feel it
   1.692 +himself, but this was clearly the case; for though the
   1.693 +Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair, and skirts,
   1.694 +and tassels, were still agitated as by the hot vapour
   1.695 +from an oven.
   1.696 +
   1.697 +"You see this toothpick?" said Scrooge, returning
   1.698 +quickly to the charge, for the reason just assigned;
   1.699 +and wishing, though it were only for a second, to
   1.700 +divert the vision's stony gaze from himself.
   1.701 +
   1.702 +"I do," replied the Ghost.
   1.703 +
   1.704 +"You are not looking at it," said Scrooge.
   1.705 +
   1.706 +"But I see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding."
   1.707 +
   1.708 +"Well!" returned Scrooge, "I have but to swallow
   1.709 +this, and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a
   1.710 +legion of goblins, all of my own creation. Humbug,
   1.711 +I tell you! humbug!"
   1.712 +
   1.713 +At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook
   1.714 +its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that
   1.715 +Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself
   1.716 +from falling in a swoon. But how much greater was
   1.717 +his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage
   1.718 +round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors,
   1.719 +its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast!
   1.720 +
   1.721 +Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands
   1.722 +before his face.
   1.723 +
   1.724 +"Mercy!" he said. "Dreadful apparition, why do
   1.725 +you trouble me?"
   1.726 +
   1.727 +"Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do
   1.728 +you believe in me or not?"
   1.729 +
   1.730 +"I do," said Scrooge. "I must. But why do spirits
   1.731 +walk the earth, and why do they come to me?"
   1.732 +
   1.733 +"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned,
   1.734 +"that the spirit within him should walk abroad among
   1.735 +his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that
   1.736 +spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so
   1.737 +after death. It is doomed to wander through the
   1.738 +world--oh, woe is me!--and witness what it cannot
   1.739 +share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to
   1.740 +happiness!"
   1.741 +
   1.742 +Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain
   1.743 +and wrung its shadowy hands.
   1.744 +
   1.745 +"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell
   1.746 +me why?"
   1.747 +
   1.748 +"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost.
   1.749 +"I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded
   1.750 +it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I
   1.751 +wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?"
   1.752 +
   1.753 +Scrooge trembled more and more.
   1.754 +
   1.755 +"Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the
   1.756 +weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself?
   1.757 +It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven
   1.758 +Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since.
   1.759 +It is a ponderous chain!"
   1.760 +
   1.761 +Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the
   1.762 +expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty
   1.763 +or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see
   1.764 +nothing.
   1.765 +
   1.766 +"Jacob," he said, imploringly. "Old Jacob Marley,
   1.767 +tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!"
   1.768 +
   1.769 +"I have none to give," the Ghost replied. "It comes
   1.770 +from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed
   1.771 +by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor
   1.772 +can I tell you what I would. A very little more is
   1.773 +all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I
   1.774 +cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked
   1.775 +beyond our counting-house--mark me!--in life my
   1.776 +spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our
   1.777 +money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before
   1.778 +me!"
   1.779 +
   1.780 +It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became
   1.781 +thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets.
   1.782 +Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now,
   1.783 +but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his
   1.784 +knees.
   1.785 +
   1.786 +"You must have been very slow about it, Jacob,"
   1.787 +Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though
   1.788 +with humility and deference.
   1.789 +
   1.790 +"Slow!" the Ghost repeated.
   1.791 +
   1.792 +"Seven years dead," mused Scrooge. "And travelling
   1.793 +all the time!"
   1.794 +
   1.795 +"The whole time," said the Ghost. "No rest, no
   1.796 +peace. Incessant torture of remorse."
   1.797 +
   1.798 +"You travel fast?" said Scrooge.
   1.799 +
   1.800 +"On the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost.
   1.801 +
   1.802 +"You might have got over a great quantity of
   1.803 +ground in seven years," said Scrooge.
   1.804 +
   1.805 +The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and
   1.806 +clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of
   1.807 +the night, that the Ward would have been justified in
   1.808 +indicting it for a nuisance.
   1.809 +
   1.810 +"Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the
   1.811 +phantom, "not to know, that ages of incessant labour
   1.812 +by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into
   1.813 +eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is
   1.814 +all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit
   1.815 +working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may
   1.816 +be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast
   1.817 +means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of
   1.818 +regret can make amends for one life's opportunity
   1.819 +misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!"
   1.820 +
   1.821 +"But you were always a good man of business,
   1.822 +Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this
   1.823 +to himself.
   1.824 +
   1.825 +"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands
   1.826 +again. "Mankind was my business. The common
   1.827 +welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance,
   1.828 +and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings
   1.829 +of my trade were but a drop of water in the
   1.830 +comprehensive ocean of my business!"
   1.831 +
   1.832 +It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were
   1.833 +the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it
   1.834 +heavily upon the ground again.
   1.835 +
   1.836 +"At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said,
   1.837 +"I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of
   1.838 +fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never
   1.839 +raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise
   1.840 +Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to
   1.841 +which its light would have conducted me!"
   1.842 +
   1.843 +Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the
   1.844 +spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake
   1.845 +exceedingly.
   1.846 +
   1.847 +"Hear me!" cried the Ghost. "My time is nearly
   1.848 +gone."
   1.849 +
   1.850 +"I will," said Scrooge. "But don't be hard upon
   1.851 +me! Don't be flowery, Jacob! Pray!"
   1.852 +
   1.853 +"How it is that I appear before you in a shape that
   1.854 +you can see, I may not tell. I have sat invisible
   1.855 +beside you many and many a day."
   1.856 +
   1.857 +It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered,
   1.858 +and wiped the perspiration from his brow.
   1.859 +
   1.860 +"That is no light part of my penance," pursued
   1.861 +the Ghost. "I am here to-night to warn you, that you
   1.862 +have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A
   1.863 +chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer."
   1.864 +
   1.865 +"You were always a good friend to me," said
   1.866 +Scrooge. "Thank'ee!"
   1.867 +
   1.868 +"You will be haunted," resumed the Ghost, "by
   1.869 +Three Spirits."
   1.870 +
   1.871 +Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the
   1.872 +Ghost's had done.
   1.873 +
   1.874 +"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned,
   1.875 +Jacob?" he demanded, in a faltering voice.
   1.876 +
   1.877 +"It is."
   1.878 +
   1.879 +"I--I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge.
   1.880 +
   1.881 +"Without their visits," said the Ghost, "you cannot
   1.882 +hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow,
   1.883 +when the bell tolls One."
   1.884 +
   1.885 +"Couldn't I take 'em all at once, and have it over,
   1.886 +Jacob?" hinted Scrooge.
   1.887 +
   1.888 +"Expect the second on the next night at the same
   1.889 +hour. The third upon the next night when the last
   1.890 +stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see
   1.891 +me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you
   1.892 +remember what has passed between us!"
   1.893 +
   1.894 +When it had said these words, the spectre took its
   1.895 +wrapper from the table, and bound it round its head,
   1.896 +as before. Scrooge knew this, by the smart sound its
   1.897 +teeth made, when the jaws were brought together
   1.898 +by the bandage. He ventured to raise his eyes again,
   1.899 +and found his supernatural visitor confronting him
   1.900 +in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and
   1.901 +about its arm.
   1.902 +
   1.903 +The apparition walked backward from him; and at
   1.904 +every step it took, the window raised itself a little,
   1.905 +so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open.
   1.906 +
   1.907 +It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did.
   1.908 +When they were within two paces of each other,
   1.909 +Marley's Ghost held up its hand, warning him to
   1.910 +come no nearer. Scrooge stopped.
   1.911 +
   1.912 +Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear:
   1.913 +for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible
   1.914 +of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of
   1.915 +lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and
   1.916 +self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment,
   1.917 +joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the
   1.918 +bleak, dark night.
   1.919 +
   1.920 +Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his
   1.921 +curiosity. He looked out.
   1.922 +
   1.923 +The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither
   1.924 +and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they
   1.925 +went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's
   1.926 +Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments)
   1.927 +were linked together; none were free. Many had
   1.928 +been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He
   1.929 +had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white
   1.930 +waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to
   1.931 +its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist
   1.932 +a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below,
   1.933 +upon a door-step. The misery with them all was,
   1.934 +clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in
   1.935 +human matters, and had lost the power for ever.
   1.936 +
   1.937 +Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist
   1.938 +enshrouded them, he could not tell. But they and
   1.939 +their spirit voices faded together; and the night became
   1.940 +as it had been when he walked home.
   1.941 +
   1.942 +Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door
   1.943 +by which the Ghost had entered. It was double-locked,
   1.944 +as he had locked it with his own hands, and
   1.945 +the bolts were undisturbed. He tried to say "Humbug!"
   1.946 +but stopped at the first syllable. And being,
   1.947 +from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues
   1.948 +of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or
   1.949 +the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of
   1.950 +the hour, much in need of repose; went straight to
   1.951 +bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the
   1.952 +instant.
   1.953 +
   1.954 +
   1.955 +STAVE II:  THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS
   1.956 +
   1.957 +WHEN Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that looking out of bed,
   1.958 +he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from
   1.959 +the opaque walls of his chamber. He was endeavouring to
   1.960 +pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a
   1.961 +neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened
   1.962 +for the hour.
   1.963 +
   1.964 +To his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from
   1.965 +six to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to
   1.966 +twelve; then stopped. Twelve! It was past two when he
   1.967 +went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have
   1.968 +got into the works. Twelve!
   1.969 +
   1.970 +He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most
   1.971 +preposterous clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve:
   1.972 +and stopped.
   1.973 +
   1.974 +"Why, it isn't possible," said Scrooge, "that I can have
   1.975 +slept through a whole day and far into another night. It
   1.976 +isn't possible that anything has happened to the sun, and
   1.977 +this is twelve at noon!"
   1.978 +
   1.979 +The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed,
   1.980 +and groped his way to the window. He was obliged to rub
   1.981 +the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown before he
   1.982 +could see anything; and could see very little then. All he
   1.983 +could make out was, that it was still very foggy and extremely
   1.984 +cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and fro,
   1.985 +and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been
   1.986 +if night had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the
   1.987 +world.  This was a great relief, because "three days after sight
   1.988 +of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his
   1.989 +order," and so forth, would have become a mere United States'
   1.990 +security if there were no days to count by.
   1.991 +
   1.992 +Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought
   1.993 +it over and over and over, and could make nothing of it.  The more he
   1.994 +thought, the more perplexed he was; and the more he endeavoured
   1.995 +not to think, the more he thought.
   1.996 +
   1.997 +Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved
   1.998 +within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his
   1.999 +mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first
  1.1000 +position, and presented the same problem to be worked all through,
  1.1001 +"Was it a dream or not?"
  1.1002 +
  1.1003 +Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters
  1.1004 +more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned
  1.1005 +him of a visitation when the bell tolled one.  He resolved to lie
  1.1006 +awake until the hour was passed; and, considering that he could
  1.1007 +no more go to sleep than go to Heaven, this was perhaps the
  1.1008 +wisest resolution in his power.
  1.1009 +
  1.1010 +The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he
  1.1011 +must have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock.
  1.1012 +At length it broke upon his listening ear.
  1.1013 +
  1.1014 +"Ding, dong!"
  1.1015 +
  1.1016 +"A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting.
  1.1017 +
  1.1018 +"Ding, dong!"
  1.1019 +
  1.1020 +"Half-past!" said Scrooge.
  1.1021 +
  1.1022 +"Ding, dong!"
  1.1023 +
  1.1024 +"A quarter to it," said Scrooge.
  1.1025 +
  1.1026 +"Ding, dong!"
  1.1027 +
  1.1028 +"The hour itself," said Scrooge, triumphantly, "and nothing else!"
  1.1029 +
  1.1030 +He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a
  1.1031 +deep, dull, hollow, melancholy ONE.  Light flashed up in the room
  1.1032 +upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.
  1.1033 +
  1.1034 +The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a
  1.1035 +hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his
  1.1036 +back, but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains
  1.1037 +of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a
  1.1038 +half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the
  1.1039 +unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now
  1.1040 +to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.
  1.1041 +
  1.1042 +It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a
  1.1043 +child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural
  1.1044 +medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded
  1.1045 +from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions.
  1.1046 +Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was
  1.1047 +white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in
  1.1048 +it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were
  1.1049 +very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold
  1.1050 +were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately
  1.1051 +formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic
  1.1052 +of the purest white; and round its waist was bound
  1.1053 +a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held
  1.1054 +a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular
  1.1055 +contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed
  1.1056 +with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was,
  1.1057 +that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear
  1.1058 +jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was
  1.1059 +doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a
  1.1060 +great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.
  1.1061 +
  1.1062 +Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing
  1.1063 +steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt
  1.1064 +sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another,
  1.1065 +and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so
  1.1066 +the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a
  1.1067 +thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs,
  1.1068 +now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a
  1.1069 +body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible
  1.1070 +in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the
  1.1071 +very wonder of this, it would be itself again; distinct and
  1.1072 +clear as ever.
  1.1073 +
  1.1074 +"Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to
  1.1075 +me?" asked Scrooge.
  1.1076 +
  1.1077 +"I am!"
  1.1078 +
  1.1079 +The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if
  1.1080 +instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.
  1.1081 +
  1.1082 +"Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded.
  1.1083 +
  1.1084 +"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."
  1.1085 +
  1.1086 +"Long Past?" inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish
  1.1087 +stature.
  1.1088 +
  1.1089 +"No. Your past."
  1.1090 +
  1.1091 +Perhaps, Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if
  1.1092 +anybody could have asked him; but he had a special desire
  1.1093 +to see the Spirit in his cap; and begged him to be covered.
  1.1094 +
  1.1095 +"What!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you so soon put out,
  1.1096 +with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough
  1.1097 +that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and
  1.1098 +force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon
  1.1099 +my brow!"
  1.1100 +
  1.1101 +Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend
  1.1102 +or any knowledge of having wilfully "bonneted" the Spirit at
  1.1103 +any period of his life. He then made bold to inquire what
  1.1104 +business brought him there.
  1.1105 +
  1.1106 +"Your welfare!" said the Ghost.
  1.1107 +
  1.1108 +Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not
  1.1109 +help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been
  1.1110 +more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard
  1.1111 +him thinking, for it said immediately:
  1.1112 +
  1.1113 +"Your reclamation, then. Take heed!"
  1.1114 +
  1.1115 +It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him
  1.1116 +gently by the arm.
  1.1117 +
  1.1118 +"Rise! and walk with me!"
  1.1119 +
  1.1120 +It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the
  1.1121 +weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes;
  1.1122 +that bed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below
  1.1123 +freezing; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers,
  1.1124 +dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon him at
  1.1125 +that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand,
  1.1126 +was not to be resisted. He rose: but finding that the Spirit
  1.1127 +made towards the window, clasped his robe in supplication.
  1.1128 +
  1.1129 +"I am a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to fall."
  1.1130 +
  1.1131 +"Bear but a touch of my hand there," said the Spirit,
  1.1132 +laying it upon his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more
  1.1133 +than this!"
  1.1134 +
  1.1135 +As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall,
  1.1136 +and stood upon an open country road, with fields on either
  1.1137 +hand. The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it
  1.1138 +was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished
  1.1139 +with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with snow upon
  1.1140 +the ground.
  1.1141 +
  1.1142 +"Good Heaven!" said Scrooge, clasping his hands together,
  1.1143 +as he looked about him. "I was bred in this place. I was
  1.1144 +a boy here!"
  1.1145 +
  1.1146 +The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch,
  1.1147 +though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still
  1.1148 +present to the old man's sense of feeling. He was conscious
  1.1149 +of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected
  1.1150 +with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares
  1.1151 +long, long, forgotten!
  1.1152 +
  1.1153 +"Your lip is trembling," said the Ghost. "And what is
  1.1154 +that upon your cheek?"
  1.1155 +
  1.1156 +Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice,
  1.1157 +that it was a pimple; and begged the Ghost to lead him
  1.1158 +where he would.
  1.1159 +
  1.1160 +"You recollect the way?" inquired the Spirit.
  1.1161 +
  1.1162 +"Remember it!" cried Scrooge with fervour; "I could
  1.1163 +walk it blindfold."
  1.1164 +
  1.1165 +"Strange to have forgotten it for so many years!" observed
  1.1166 +the Ghost. "Let us go on."
  1.1167 +
  1.1168 +They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every
  1.1169 +gate, and post, and tree; until a little market-town appeared
  1.1170 +in the distance, with its bridge, its church, and winding river.
  1.1171 +Some ponies now were seen trotting towards them
  1.1172 +with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in
  1.1173 +country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys
  1.1174 +were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the
  1.1175 +broad fields were so full of merry music, that the crisp air
  1.1176 +laughed to hear it!
  1.1177 +
  1.1178 +"These are but shadows of the things that have been," said
  1.1179 +the Ghost. "They have no consciousness of us."
  1.1180 +
  1.1181 +The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge
  1.1182 +knew and named them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond
  1.1183 +all bounds to see them! Why did his cold eye glisten, and
  1.1184 +his heart leap up as they went past! Why was he filled
  1.1185 +with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry
  1.1186 +Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for
  1.1187 +their several homes! What was merry Christmas to Scrooge?
  1.1188 +Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done
  1.1189 +to him?
  1.1190 +
  1.1191 +"The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A
  1.1192 +solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still."
  1.1193 +
  1.1194 +Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.
  1.1195 +
  1.1196 +They left the high-road, by a well-remembered lane, and
  1.1197 +soon approached a mansion of dull red brick, with a little
  1.1198 +weathercock-surmounted cupola, on the roof, and a bell
  1.1199 +hanging in it. It was a large house, but one of broken
  1.1200 +fortunes; for the spacious offices were little used, their walls
  1.1201 +were damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their
  1.1202 +gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables;
  1.1203 +and the coach-houses and sheds were over-run with grass.
  1.1204 +Nor was it more retentive of its ancient state, within; for
  1.1205 +entering the dreary hall, and glancing through the open
  1.1206 +doors of many rooms, they found them poorly furnished,
  1.1207 +cold, and vast. There was an earthy savour in the air, a
  1.1208 +chilly bareness in the place, which associated itself somehow
  1.1209 +with too much getting up by candle-light, and not too
  1.1210 +much to eat.
  1.1211 +
  1.1212 +They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a
  1.1213 +door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and
  1.1214 +disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by
  1.1215 +lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely
  1.1216 +boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down
  1.1217 +upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he
  1.1218 +used to be.
  1.1219 +
  1.1220 +Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle
  1.1221 +from the mice behind the panelling, not a drip from the
  1.1222 +half-thawed water-spout in the dull yard behind, not a sigh among
  1.1223 +the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar, not the idle
  1.1224 +swinging of an empty store-house door, no, not a clicking in
  1.1225 +the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with a softening
  1.1226 +influence, and gave a freer passage to his tears.
  1.1227 +
  1.1228 +The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his
  1.1229 +younger self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man, in
  1.1230 +foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at:
  1.1231 +stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and
  1.1232 +leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood.
  1.1233 +
  1.1234 +"Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's
  1.1235 +dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know! One Christmas
  1.1236 +time, when yonder solitary child was left here all alone,
  1.1237 +he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy! And
  1.1238 +Valentine," said Scrooge, "and his wild brother, Orson; there
  1.1239 +they go! And what's his name, who was put down in his
  1.1240 +drawers, asleep, at the Gate of Damascus; don't you see him!
  1.1241 +And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the Genii;
  1.1242 +there he is upon his head! Serve him right. I'm glad of it.
  1.1243 +What business had he to be married to the Princess!"
  1.1244 +
  1.1245 +To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature
  1.1246 +on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between
  1.1247 +laughing and crying; and to see his heightened and excited
  1.1248 +face; would have been a surprise to his business friends in
  1.1249 +the city, indeed.
  1.1250 +
  1.1251 +"There's the Parrot!" cried Scrooge. "Green body and
  1.1252 +yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the
  1.1253 +top of his head; there he is! Poor Robin Crusoe, he called
  1.1254 +him, when he came home again after sailing round the
  1.1255 +island. 'Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin
  1.1256 +Crusoe?'  The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't.
  1.1257 +It was the Parrot, you know. There goes Friday, running
  1.1258 +for his life to the little creek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!"
  1.1259 +
  1.1260 +Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his
  1.1261 +usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, "Poor
  1.1262 +boy!" and cried again.
  1.1263 +
  1.1264 +"I wish," Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his
  1.1265 +pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes with his
  1.1266 +cuff: "but it's too late now."
  1.1267 +
  1.1268 +"What is the matter?" asked the Spirit.
  1.1269 +
  1.1270 +"Nothing," said Scrooge. "Nothing. There was a boy
  1.1271 +singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should
  1.1272 +like to have given him something: that's all."
  1.1273 +
  1.1274 +The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand:
  1.1275 +saying as it did so, "Let us see another Christmas!"
  1.1276 +
  1.1277 +Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the
  1.1278 +room became a little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk,
  1.1279 +the windows cracked; fragments of plaster fell out of the
  1.1280 +ceiling, and the naked laths were shown instead; but how
  1.1281 +all this was brought about, Scrooge knew no more than you
  1.1282 +do. He only knew that it was quite correct; that everything
  1.1283 +had happened so; that there he was, alone again, when all
  1.1284 +the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays.
  1.1285 +
  1.1286 +He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly.
  1.1287 +Scrooge looked at the Ghost, and with a mournful shaking of
  1.1288 +his head, glanced anxiously towards the door.
  1.1289 +
  1.1290 +It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy,
  1.1291 +came darting in, and putting her arms about his neck, and
  1.1292 +often kissing him, addressed him as her "Dear, dear
  1.1293 +brother."
  1.1294 +
  1.1295 +"I have come to bring you home, dear brother!" said the
  1.1296 +child, clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh.
  1.1297 +"To bring you home, home, home!"
  1.1298 +
  1.1299 +"Home, little Fan?" returned the boy.
  1.1300 +
  1.1301 +"Yes!" said the child, brimful of glee. "Home, for good
  1.1302 +and all. Home, for ever and ever. Father is so much kinder
  1.1303 +than he used to be, that home's like Heaven! He spoke so
  1.1304 +gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed, that
  1.1305 +I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come
  1.1306 +home; and he said Yes, you should; and sent me in a coach
  1.1307 +to bring you. And you're to be a man!" said the child,
  1.1308 +opening her eyes, "and are never to come back here; but
  1.1309 +first, we're to be together all the Christmas long, and have
  1.1310 +the merriest time in all the world."
  1.1311 +
  1.1312 +"You are quite a woman, little Fan!" exclaimed the boy.
  1.1313 +
  1.1314 +She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his
  1.1315 +head; but being too little, laughed again, and stood on
  1.1316 +tiptoe to embrace him. Then she began to drag him, in her
  1.1317 +childish eagerness, towards the door; and he, nothing loth to
  1.1318 +go, accompanied her.
  1.1319 +
  1.1320 +A terrible voice in the hall cried, "Bring down Master
  1.1321 +Scrooge's box, there!" and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster
  1.1322 +himself, who glared on Master Scrooge with a ferocious
  1.1323 +condescension, and threw him into a dreadful state of mind
  1.1324 +by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed him and his
  1.1325 +sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best-parlour that
  1.1326 +ever was seen, where the maps upon the wall, and the celestial
  1.1327 +and terrestrial globes in the windows, were waxy with cold.
  1.1328 +Here he produced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a
  1.1329 +block of curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments
  1.1330 +of those dainties to the young people: at the same time,
  1.1331 +sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of "something"
  1.1332 +to the postboy, who answered that he thanked the gentleman,
  1.1333 +but if it was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had
  1.1334 +rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by this time tied
  1.1335 +on to the top of the chaise, the children bade the schoolmaster
  1.1336 +good-bye right willingly; and getting into it, drove
  1.1337 +gaily down the garden-sweep: the quick wheels dashing the
  1.1338 +hoar-frost and snow from off the dark leaves of the evergreens
  1.1339 +like spray.
  1.1340 +
  1.1341 +"Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have
  1.1342 +withered," said the Ghost. "But she had a large heart!"
  1.1343 +
  1.1344 +"So she had," cried Scrooge. "You're right. I will not
  1.1345 +gainsay it, Spirit. God forbid!"
  1.1346 +
  1.1347 +"She died a woman," said the Ghost, "and had, as I think,
  1.1348 +children."
  1.1349 +
  1.1350 +"One child," Scrooge returned.
  1.1351 +
  1.1352 +"True," said the Ghost. "Your nephew!"
  1.1353 +
  1.1354 +Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly,
  1.1355 +"Yes."
  1.1356 +
  1.1357 +Although they had but that moment left the school behind
  1.1358 +them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city,
  1.1359 +where shadowy passengers passed and repassed; where shadowy
  1.1360 +carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and
  1.1361 +tumult of a real city were. It was made plain enough, by
  1.1362 +the dressing of the shops, that here too it was Christmas
  1.1363 +time again; but it was evening, and the streets were
  1.1364 +lighted up.
  1.1365 +
  1.1366 +The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked
  1.1367 +Scrooge if he knew it.
  1.1368 +
  1.1369 +"Know it!" said Scrooge. "Was I apprenticed here!"
  1.1370 +
  1.1371 +They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh
  1.1372 +wig, sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two
  1.1373 +inches taller he must have knocked his head against the
  1.1374 +ceiling, Scrooge cried in great excitement:
  1.1375 +
  1.1376 +"Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it's Fezziwig
  1.1377 +alive again!"
  1.1378 +
  1.1379 +Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the
  1.1380 +clock, which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his
  1.1381 +hands; adjusted his capacious waistcoat; laughed all over
  1.1382 +himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; and
  1.1383 +called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice:
  1.1384 +
  1.1385 +"Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!"
  1.1386 +
  1.1387 +Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly
  1.1388 +in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice.
  1.1389 +
  1.1390 +"Dick Wilkins, to be sure!" said Scrooge to the Ghost.
  1.1391 +"Bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached
  1.1392 +to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!"
  1.1393 +
  1.1394 +"Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night.
  1.1395 +Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's
  1.1396 +have the shutters up," cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap
  1.1397 +of his hands, "before a man can say Jack Robinson!"
  1.1398 +
  1.1399 +You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it!
  1.1400 +They charged into the street with the shutters--one, two,
  1.1401 +three--had 'em up in their places--four, five, six--barred
  1.1402 +'em and pinned 'em--seven, eight, nine--and came back
  1.1403 +before you could have got to twelve, panting like race-horses.
  1.1404 +
  1.1405 +"Hilli-ho!" cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the
  1.1406 +high desk, with wonderful agility. "Clear away, my lads,
  1.1407 +and let's have lots of room here! Hilli-ho, Dick! Chirrup,
  1.1408 +Ebenezer!"
  1.1409 +
  1.1410 +Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared
  1.1411 +away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking
  1.1412 +on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if
  1.1413 +it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was
  1.1414 +swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon
  1.1415 +the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and
  1.1416 +bright a ball-room, as you would desire to see upon a winter's
  1.1417 +night.
  1.1418 +
  1.1419 +In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the
  1.1420 +lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty
  1.1421 +stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial
  1.1422 +smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and
  1.1423 +lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they
  1.1424 +broke. In came all the young men and women employed in
  1.1425 +the business. In came the housemaid, with her cousin, the
  1.1426 +baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular friend,
  1.1427 +the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was
  1.1428 +suspected of not having board enough from his master; trying
  1.1429 +to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, who
  1.1430 +was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress.
  1.1431 +In they all came, one after another; some shyly, some boldly,
  1.1432 +some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling;
  1.1433 +in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went,
  1.1434 +twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again
  1.1435 +the other way; down the middle and up again; round
  1.1436 +and round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old
  1.1437 +top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top
  1.1438 +couple starting off again, as soon as they got there; all top
  1.1439 +couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them! When
  1.1440 +this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his
  1.1441 +hands to stop the dance, cried out, "Well done!" and the
  1.1442 +fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially
  1.1443 +provided for that purpose. But scorning rest, upon his
  1.1444 +reappearance, he instantly began again, though there were no
  1.1445 +dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been carried home,
  1.1446 +exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man
  1.1447 +resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish.
  1.1448 +
  1.1449 +There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more
  1.1450 +dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there
  1.1451 +was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece
  1.1452 +of Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer.
  1.1453 +But the great effect of the evening came after the Roast
  1.1454 +and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The sort
  1.1455 +of man who knew his business better than you or I could
  1.1456 +have told it him!) struck up "Sir Roger de Coverley."  Then
  1.1457 +old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top
  1.1458 +couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them;
  1.1459 +three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who were
  1.1460 +not to be trifled with; people who would dance, and had no
  1.1461 +notion of walking.
  1.1462 +
  1.1463 +But if they had been twice as many--ah, four times--old
  1.1464 +Fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would
  1.1465 +Mrs. Fezziwig. As to her, she was worthy to be his partner
  1.1466 +in every sense of the term. If that's not high praise, tell me
  1.1467 +higher, and I'll use it. A positive light appeared to issue
  1.1468 +from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part of the
  1.1469 +dance like moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any given
  1.1470 +time, what would have become of them next. And when old
  1.1471 +Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance;
  1.1472 +advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and
  1.1473 +curtsey, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to
  1.1474 +your place; Fezziwig "cut"--cut so deftly, that he appeared
  1.1475 +to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without
  1.1476 +a stagger.
  1.1477 +
  1.1478 +When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up.
  1.1479 +Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side
  1.1480 +of the door, and shaking hands with every person individually
  1.1481 +as he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas.
  1.1482 +When everybody had retired but the two 'prentices, they did
  1.1483 +the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died away,
  1.1484 +and the lads were left to their beds; which were under a
  1.1485 +counter in the back-shop.
  1.1486 +
  1.1487 +During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a
  1.1488 +man out of his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene,
  1.1489 +and with his former self. He corroborated everything,
  1.1490 +remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and underwent
  1.1491 +the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when the
  1.1492 +bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned from
  1.1493 +them, that he remembered the Ghost, and became conscious
  1.1494 +that it was looking full upon him, while the light upon its
  1.1495 +head burnt very clear.
  1.1496 +
  1.1497 +"A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly
  1.1498 +folks so full of gratitude."
  1.1499 +
  1.1500 +"Small!" echoed Scrooge.
  1.1501 +
  1.1502 +The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices,
  1.1503 +who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig:
  1.1504 +and when he had done so, said,
  1.1505 +
  1.1506 +"Why! Is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of
  1.1507 +your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so
  1.1508 +much that he deserves this praise?"
  1.1509 +
  1.1510 +"It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and
  1.1511 +speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self.
  1.1512 +"It isn't that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy
  1.1513 +or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a
  1.1514 +pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and
  1.1515 +looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is
  1.1516 +impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness
  1.1517 +he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."
  1.1518 +
  1.1519 +He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped.
  1.1520 +
  1.1521 +"What is the matter?" asked the Ghost.
  1.1522 +
  1.1523 +"Nothing particular," said Scrooge.
  1.1524 +
  1.1525 +"Something, I think?" the Ghost insisted.
  1.1526 +
  1.1527 +"No," said Scrooge, "No. I should like to be able to say
  1.1528 +a word or two to my clerk just now. That's all."
  1.1529 +
  1.1530 +His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance
  1.1531 +to the wish; and Scrooge and the Ghost again stood side by
  1.1532 +side in the open air.
  1.1533 +
  1.1534 +"My time grows short," observed the Spirit. "Quick!"
  1.1535 +
  1.1536 +This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he
  1.1537 +could see, but it produced an immediate effect. For again
  1.1538 +Scrooge saw himself. He was older now; a man in the prime
  1.1539 +of life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later
  1.1540 +years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice.
  1.1541 +There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which
  1.1542 +showed the passion that had taken root, and where the
  1.1543 +shadow of the growing tree would fall.
  1.1544 +
  1.1545 +He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young
  1.1546 +girl in a mourning-dress: in whose eyes there were tears,
  1.1547 +which sparkled in the light that shone out of the Ghost of
  1.1548 +Christmas Past.
  1.1549 +
  1.1550 +"It matters little," she said, softly. "To you, very little.
  1.1551 +Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort
  1.1552 +you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have
  1.1553 +no just cause to grieve."
  1.1554 +
  1.1555 +"What Idol has displaced you?" he rejoined.
  1.1556 +
  1.1557 +"A golden one."
  1.1558 +
  1.1559 +"This is the even-handed dealing of the world!" he said.
  1.1560 +"There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and
  1.1561 +there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity
  1.1562 +as the pursuit of wealth!"
  1.1563 +
  1.1564 +"You fear the world too much," she answered, gently.
  1.1565 +"All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being
  1.1566 +beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your
  1.1567 +nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion,
  1.1568 +Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?"
  1.1569 +
  1.1570 +"What then?" he retorted. "Even if I have grown so
  1.1571 +much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you."
  1.1572 +
  1.1573 +She shook her head.
  1.1574 +
  1.1575 +"Am I?"
  1.1576 +
  1.1577 +"Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were
  1.1578 +both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could
  1.1579 +improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You
  1.1580 +are changed. When it was made, you were another man."
  1.1581 +
  1.1582 +"I was a boy," he said impatiently.
  1.1583 +
  1.1584 +"Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you
  1.1585 +are," she returned. "I am. That which promised happiness
  1.1586 +when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that
  1.1587 +we are two. How often and how keenly I have thought of
  1.1588 +this, I will not say. It is enough that I have thought of it,
  1.1589 +and can release you."
  1.1590 +
  1.1591 +"Have I ever sought release?"
  1.1592 +
  1.1593 +"In words. No. Never."
  1.1594 +
  1.1595 +"In what, then?"
  1.1596 +
  1.1597 +"In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another
  1.1598 +atmosphere of life; another Hope as its great end. In
  1.1599 +everything that made my love of any worth or value in your
  1.1600 +sight. If this had never been between us," said the girl,
  1.1601 +looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; "tell me,
  1.1602 +would you seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!"
  1.1603 +
  1.1604 +He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in
  1.1605 +spite of himself. But he said with a struggle, "You think
  1.1606 +not."
  1.1607 +
  1.1608 +"I would gladly think otherwise if I could," she answered,
  1.1609 +"Heaven knows! When I have learned a Truth like this,
  1.1610 +I know how strong and irresistible it must be. But if you
  1.1611 +were free to-day, to-morrow, yesterday, can even I believe
  1.1612 +that you would choose a dowerless girl--you who, in your
  1.1613 +very confidence with her, weigh everything by Gain: or,
  1.1614 +choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your
  1.1615 +one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your
  1.1616 +repentance and regret would surely follow? I do; and I
  1.1617 +release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you
  1.1618 +once were."
  1.1619 +
  1.1620 +He was about to speak; but with her head turned from
  1.1621 +him, she resumed.
  1.1622 +
  1.1623 +"You may--the memory of what is past half makes me
  1.1624 +hope you will--have pain in this. A very, very brief time,
  1.1625 +and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an
  1.1626 +unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you
  1.1627 +awoke. May you be happy in the life you have chosen!"
  1.1628 +
  1.1629 +She left him, and they parted.
  1.1630 +
  1.1631 +"Spirit!" said Scrooge, "show me no more! Conduct
  1.1632 +me home. Why do you delight to torture me?"
  1.1633 +
  1.1634 +"One shadow more!" exclaimed the Ghost.
  1.1635 +
  1.1636 +"No more!" cried Scrooge. "No more. I don't wish to
  1.1637 +see it. Show me no more!"
  1.1638 +
  1.1639 +But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms,
  1.1640 +and forced him to observe what happened next.
  1.1641 +
  1.1642 +They were in another scene and place; a room, not very
  1.1643 +large or handsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter
  1.1644 +fire sat a beautiful young girl, so like that last that Scrooge
  1.1645 +believed it was the same, until he saw her, now a comely
  1.1646 +matron, sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in this
  1.1647 +room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more children
  1.1648 +there, than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count;
  1.1649 +and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not
  1.1650 +forty children conducting themselves like one, but every
  1.1651 +child was conducting itself like forty. The consequences
  1.1652 +were uproarious beyond belief; but no one seemed to care;
  1.1653 +on the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily,
  1.1654 +and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to
  1.1655 +mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands
  1.1656 +most ruthlessly. What would I not have given to be one of
  1.1657 +them! Though I never could have been so rude, no, no! I
  1.1658 +wouldn't for the wealth of all the world have crushed that
  1.1659 +braided hair, and torn it down; and for the precious little
  1.1660 +shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul! to
  1.1661 +save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they
  1.1662 +did, bold young brood, I couldn't have done it; I should
  1.1663 +have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment,
  1.1664 +and never come straight again. And yet I should
  1.1665 +have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have
  1.1666 +questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have
  1.1667 +looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never
  1.1668 +raised a blush; to have let loose waves of hair, an inch of
  1.1669 +which would be a keepsake beyond price: in short, I should
  1.1670 +have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest licence
  1.1671 +of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its
  1.1672 +value.
  1.1673 +
  1.1674 +But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a
  1.1675 +rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and
  1.1676 +plundered dress was borne towards it the centre of a flushed
  1.1677 +and boisterous group, just in time to greet the father, who
  1.1678 +came home attended by a man laden with Christmas toys
  1.1679 +and presents. Then the shouting and the struggling, and
  1.1680 +the onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter!
  1.1681 +The scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his
  1.1682 +pockets, despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight
  1.1683 +by his cravat, hug him round his neck, pommel his back,
  1.1684 +and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! The shouts of
  1.1685 +wonder and delight with which the development of every
  1.1686 +package was received! The terrible announcement that the
  1.1687 +baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying-pan
  1.1688 +into his mouth, and was more than suspected of having
  1.1689 +swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden platter!
  1.1690 +The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy,
  1.1691 +and gratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike.
  1.1692 +It is enough that by degrees the children and their emotions
  1.1693 +got out of the parlour, and by one stair at a time, up to the
  1.1694 +top of the house; where they went to bed, and so subsided.
  1.1695 +
  1.1696 +And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever,
  1.1697 +when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning
  1.1698 +fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his
  1.1699 +own fireside; and when he thought that such another
  1.1700 +creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might
  1.1701 +have called him father, and been a spring-time in the
  1.1702 +haggard winter of his life, his sight grew very dim indeed.
  1.1703 +
  1.1704 +"Belle," said the husband, turning to his wife with a
  1.1705 +smile, "I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon."
  1.1706 +
  1.1707 +"Who was it?"
  1.1708 +
  1.1709 +"Guess!"
  1.1710 +
  1.1711 +"How can I? Tut, don't I know?" she added in the
  1.1712 +same breath, laughing as he laughed. "Mr. Scrooge."
  1.1713 +
  1.1714 +"Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office window; and as
  1.1715 +it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside, I could
  1.1716 +scarcely help seeing him. His partner lies upon the point
  1.1717 +of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in
  1.1718 +the world, I do believe."
  1.1719 +
  1.1720 +"Spirit!" said Scrooge in a broken voice, "remove me
  1.1721 +from this place."
  1.1722 +
  1.1723 +"I told you these were shadows of the things that have
  1.1724 +been," said the Ghost. "That they are what they are, do
  1.1725 +not blame me!"
  1.1726 +
  1.1727 +"Remove me!" Scrooge exclaimed, "I cannot bear it!"
  1.1728 +
  1.1729 +He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon
  1.1730 +him with a face, in which in some strange way there were
  1.1731 +fragments of all the faces it had shown him, wrestled with it.
  1.1732 +
  1.1733 +"Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer!"
  1.1734 +
  1.1735 +In the struggle, if that can be called a struggle in which
  1.1736 +the Ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was
  1.1737 +undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed
  1.1738 +that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly
  1.1739 +connecting that with its influence over him, he seized the
  1.1740 +extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down
  1.1741 +upon its head.
  1.1742 +
  1.1743 +The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher
  1.1744 +covered its whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down
  1.1745 +with all his force, he could not hide the light: which streamed
  1.1746 +from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground.
  1.1747 +
  1.1748 +He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an
  1.1749 +irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own
  1.1750 +bedroom.  He gave the cap a parting squeeze, in which his hand
  1.1751 +relaxed; and had barely time to reel to bed, before he sank
  1.1752 +into a heavy sleep.
  1.1753 +
  1.1754 +
  1.1755 +STAVE III:  THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS
  1.1756 +
  1.1757 +AWAKING in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and
  1.1758 +sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had
  1.1759 +no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the
  1.1760 +stroke of One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness
  1.1761 +in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding
  1.1762 +a conference with the second messenger despatched to him
  1.1763 +through Jacob Marley's intervention. But finding that he
  1.1764 +turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which
  1.1765 +of his curtains this new spectre would draw back, he put
  1.1766 +them every one aside with his own hands; and lying down
  1.1767 +again, established a sharp look-out all round the bed. For
  1.1768 +he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its
  1.1769 +appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise, and
  1.1770 +made nervous.
  1.1771 +
  1.1772 +Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves
  1.1773 +on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually
  1.1774 +equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their
  1.1775 +capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for
  1.1776 +anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which
  1.1777 +opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and
  1.1778 +comprehensive range of subjects. Without venturing for
  1.1779 +Scrooge quite as hardily as this, I don't mind calling on you
  1.1780 +to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of
  1.1781 +strange appearances, and that nothing between a baby and
  1.1782 +rhinoceros would have astonished him very much.
  1.1783 +
  1.1784 +Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by
  1.1785 +any means prepared for nothing; and, consequently, when the
  1.1786 +Bell struck One, and no shape appeared, he was taken with a
  1.1787 +violent fit of trembling. Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter
  1.1788 +of an hour went by, yet nothing came. All this time, he lay
  1.1789 +upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy
  1.1790 +light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the
  1.1791 +hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than
  1.1792 +a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it
  1.1793 +meant, or would be at; and was sometimes apprehensive
  1.1794 +that he might be at that very moment an interesting case of
  1.1795 +spontaneous combustion, without having the consolation of
  1.1796 +knowing it. At last, however, he began to think--as you or
  1.1797 +I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not
  1.1798 +in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done
  1.1799 +in it, and would unquestionably have done it too--at last, I
  1.1800 +say, he began to think that the source and secret of this
  1.1801 +ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence,
  1.1802 +on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea taking
  1.1803 +full possession of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled in
  1.1804 +his slippers to the door.
  1.1805 +
  1.1806 +The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange
  1.1807 +voice called him by his name, and bade him enter. He
  1.1808 +obeyed.
  1.1809 +
  1.1810 +It was his own room. There was no doubt about that.
  1.1811 +But it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls
  1.1812 +and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a
  1.1813 +perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming
  1.1814 +berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and
  1.1815 +ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had
  1.1816 +been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring
  1.1817 +up the chimney, as that dull petrification of a hearth had
  1.1818 +never known in Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many and
  1.1819 +many a winter season gone. Heaped up on the floor, to form
  1.1820 +a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn,
  1.1821 +great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages,
  1.1822 +mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts,
  1.1823 +cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears,
  1.1824 +immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that
  1.1825 +made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy
  1.1826 +state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to
  1.1827 +see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's
  1.1828 +horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge,
  1.1829 +as he came peeping round the door.
  1.1830 +
  1.1831 +"Come in!" exclaimed the Ghost. "Come in! and know
  1.1832 +me better, man!"
  1.1833 +
  1.1834 +Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before this
  1.1835 +Spirit. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and
  1.1836 +though the Spirit's eyes were clear and kind, he did not like
  1.1837 +to meet them.
  1.1838 +
  1.1839 +"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present," said the Spirit.
  1.1840 +"Look upon me!"
  1.1841 +
  1.1842 +Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple
  1.1843 +green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment
  1.1844 +hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was
  1.1845 +bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any
  1.1846 +artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the
  1.1847 +garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other
  1.1848 +covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining
  1.1849 +icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its
  1.1850 +genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice,
  1.1851 +its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded
  1.1852 +round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword
  1.1853 +was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.
  1.1854 +
  1.1855 +"You have never seen the like of me before!" exclaimed
  1.1856 +the Spirit.
  1.1857 +
  1.1858 +"Never," Scrooge made answer to it.
  1.1859 +
  1.1860 +"Have never walked forth with the younger members of
  1.1861 +my family; meaning (for I am very young) my elder brothers
  1.1862 +born in these later years?" pursued the Phantom.
  1.1863 +
  1.1864 +"I don't think I have," said Scrooge. "I am afraid I have
  1.1865 +not. Have you had many brothers, Spirit?"
  1.1866 +
  1.1867 +"More than eighteen hundred," said the Ghost.
  1.1868 +
  1.1869 +"A tremendous family to provide for!" muttered Scrooge.
  1.1870 +
  1.1871 +The Ghost of Christmas Present rose.
  1.1872 +
  1.1873 +"Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where
  1.1874 +you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt
  1.1875 +a lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught
  1.1876 +to teach me, let me profit by it."
  1.1877 +
  1.1878 +"Touch my robe!"
  1.1879 +
  1.1880 +Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast.
  1.1881 +
  1.1882 +Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game,
  1.1883 +poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings,
  1.1884 +fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly. So did the room,
  1.1885 +the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood
  1.1886 +in the city streets on Christmas morning, where (for the
  1.1887 +weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and
  1.1888 +not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the
  1.1889 +pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of
  1.1890 +their houses, whence it was mad delight to the boys to see
  1.1891 +it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting
  1.1892 +into artificial little snow-storms.
  1.1893 +
  1.1894 +The house fronts looked black enough, and the windows
  1.1895 +blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow
  1.1896 +upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground;
  1.1897 +which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by
  1.1898 +the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows that crossed
  1.1899 +and re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great
  1.1900 +streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace
  1.1901 +in the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy,
  1.1902 +and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist,
  1.1903 +half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended
  1.1904 +in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great
  1.1905 +Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away
  1.1906 +to their dear hearts' content. There was nothing very cheerful
  1.1907 +in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of
  1.1908 +cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest
  1.1909 +summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain.
  1.1910 +
  1.1911 +For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops
  1.1912 +were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another
  1.1913 +from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious
  1.1914 +snowball--better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest--
  1.1915 +laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it
  1.1916 +went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open, and the
  1.1917 +fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, round,
  1.1918 +pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats
  1.1919 +of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out
  1.1920 +into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were
  1.1921 +ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in
  1.1922 +the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking
  1.1923 +from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went
  1.1924 +by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. There were
  1.1925 +pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there
  1.1926 +were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence
  1.1927 +to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might
  1.1928 +water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy
  1.1929 +and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among
  1.1930 +the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered
  1.1931 +leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squat and swarthy, setting
  1.1932 +off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great
  1.1933 +compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and
  1.1934 +beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after
  1.1935 +dinner. The very gold and silver fish, set forth among
  1.1936 +these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and
  1.1937 +stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was
  1.1938 +something going on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and
  1.1939 +round their little world in slow and passionless excitement.
  1.1940 +
  1.1941 +The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! nearly closed, with perhaps
  1.1942 +two shutters down, or one; but through those gaps such
  1.1943 +glimpses! It was not alone that the scales descending on the
  1.1944 +counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller
  1.1945 +parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled
  1.1946 +up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended
  1.1947 +scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even
  1.1948 +that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so
  1.1949 +extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight,
  1.1950 +the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and
  1.1951 +spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on
  1.1952 +feel faint and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that the figs
  1.1953 +were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in
  1.1954 +modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that
  1.1955 +everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but
  1.1956 +the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful
  1.1957 +promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other
  1.1958 +at the door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left
  1.1959 +their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to
  1.1960 +fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in
  1.1961 +the best humour possible; while the Grocer and his people
  1.1962 +were so frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which
  1.1963 +they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own,
  1.1964 +worn outside for general inspection, and for Christmas daws
  1.1965 +to peck at if they chose.
  1.1966 +
  1.1967 +But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and
  1.1968 +chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in
  1.1969 +their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. And at the
  1.1970 +same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and
  1.1971 +nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners
  1.1972 +to the bakers' shops. The sight of these poor revellers
  1.1973 +appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with
  1.1974 +Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and taking off the
  1.1975 +covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their
  1.1976 +dinners from his torch. And it was a very uncommon kind
  1.1977 +of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words
  1.1978 +between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he
  1.1979 +shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good
  1.1980 +humour was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame
  1.1981 +to quarrel upon Christmas Day. And so it was! God love
  1.1982 +it, so it was!
  1.1983 +
  1.1984 +In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and
  1.1985 +yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners
  1.1986 +and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of
  1.1987 +wet above each baker's oven; where the pavement smoked as
  1.1988 +if its stones were cooking too.
  1.1989 +
  1.1990 +"Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from
  1.1991 +your torch?" asked Scrooge.
  1.1992 +
  1.1993 +"There is. My own."
  1.1994 +
  1.1995 +"Would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?"
  1.1996 +asked Scrooge.
  1.1997 +
  1.1998 +"To any kindly given. To a poor one most."
  1.1999 +
  1.2000 +"Why to a poor one most?" asked Scrooge.
  1.2001 +
  1.2002 +"Because it needs it most."
  1.2003 +
  1.2004 +"Spirit," said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, "I wonder
  1.2005 +you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should
  1.2006 +desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent
  1.2007 +enjoyment."
  1.2008 +
  1.2009 +"I!" cried the Spirit.
  1.2010 +
  1.2011 +"You would deprive them of their means of dining every
  1.2012 +seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said
  1.2013 +to dine at all," said Scrooge. "Wouldn't you?"
  1.2014 +
  1.2015 +"I!" cried the Spirit.
  1.2016 +
  1.2017 +"You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day?" said
  1.2018 +Scrooge. "And it comes to the same thing."
  1.2019 +
  1.2020 +"I seek!" exclaimed the Spirit.
  1.2021 +
  1.2022 +"Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your
  1.2023 +name, or at least in that of your family," said Scrooge.
  1.2024 +
  1.2025 +"There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit,
  1.2026 +"who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion,
  1.2027 +pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness
  1.2028 +in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and
  1.2029 +kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge
  1.2030 +their doings on themselves, not us."
  1.2031 +
  1.2032 +Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on,
  1.2033 +invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the
  1.2034 +town. It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which
  1.2035 +Scrooge had observed at the baker's), that notwithstanding
  1.2036 +his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place
  1.2037 +with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as
  1.2038 +gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it was possible
  1.2039 +he could have done in any lofty hall.
  1.2040 +
  1.2041 +And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in
  1.2042 +showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind,
  1.2043 +generous, hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor
  1.2044 +men, that led him straight to Scrooge's clerk's; for there he
  1.2045 +went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and
  1.2046 +on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped
  1.2047 +to bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinkling of his
  1.2048 +torch. Think of that! Bob had but fifteen "Bob" a-week
  1.2049 +himself; he pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his
  1.2050 +Christian name; and yet the Ghost of Christmas Present
  1.2051 +blessed his four-roomed house!
  1.2052 +
  1.2053 +Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out
  1.2054 +but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons,
  1.2055 +which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence; and
  1.2056 +she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of
  1.2057 +her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master Peter
  1.2058 +Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and
  1.2059 +getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar (Bob's private
  1.2060 +property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the
  1.2061 +day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly
  1.2062 +attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable Parks.
  1.2063 +And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing
  1.2064 +in, screaming that outside the baker's they had smelt the
  1.2065 +goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious
  1.2066 +thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced
  1.2067 +about the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the
  1.2068 +skies, while he (not proud, although his collars nearly choked
  1.2069 +him) blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up,
  1.2070 +knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out and
  1.2071 +peeled.
  1.2072 +
  1.2073 +"What has ever got your precious father then?" said Mrs.
  1.2074 +Cratchit. "And your brother, Tiny Tim! And Martha
  1.2075 +warn't as late last Christmas Day by half-an-hour?"
  1.2076 +
  1.2077 +"Here's Martha, mother!" said a girl, appearing as she
  1.2078 +spoke.
  1.2079 +
  1.2080 +"Here's Martha, mother!" cried the two young Cratchits.
  1.2081 +"Hurrah! There's such a goose, Martha!"
  1.2082 +
  1.2083 +"Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are!"
  1.2084 +said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off
  1.2085 +her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal.
  1.2086 +
  1.2087 +"We'd a deal of work to finish up last night," replied the
  1.2088 +girl, "and had to clear away this morning, mother!"
  1.2089 +
  1.2090 +"Well! Never mind so long as you are come," said Mrs.
  1.2091 +Cratchit. "Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have
  1.2092 +a warm, Lord bless ye!"
  1.2093 +
  1.2094 +"No, no! There's father coming," cried the two young
  1.2095 +Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. "Hide, Martha,
  1.2096 +hide!"
  1.2097 +
  1.2098 +So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father,
  1.2099 +with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe,
  1.2100 +hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned
  1.2101 +up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his
  1.2102 +shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and
  1.2103 +had his limbs supported by an iron frame!
  1.2104 +
  1.2105 +"Why, where's our Martha?" cried Bob Cratchit, looking
  1.2106 +round.
  1.2107 +
  1.2108 +"Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit.
  1.2109 +
  1.2110 +"Not coming!" said Bob, with a sudden declension in his
  1.2111 +high spirits; for he had been Tim's blood horse all the way
  1.2112 +from church, and had come home rampant. "Not coming
  1.2113 +upon Christmas Day!"
  1.2114 +
  1.2115 +Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only
  1.2116 +in joke; so she came out prematurely from behind the closet
  1.2117 +door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits
  1.2118 +hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house,
  1.2119 +that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.
  1.2120 +
  1.2121 +"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit,
  1.2122 +when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had
  1.2123 +hugged his daughter to his heart's content.
  1.2124 +
  1.2125 +"As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. Somehow he
  1.2126 +gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the
  1.2127 +strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home,
  1.2128 +that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he
  1.2129 +was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember
  1.2130 +upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind
  1.2131 +men see."
  1.2132 +
  1.2133 +Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and
  1.2134 +trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing
  1.2135 +strong and hearty.
  1.2136 +
  1.2137 +His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back
  1.2138 +came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by
  1.2139 +his brother and sister to his stool before the fire; and while
  1.2140 +Bob, turning up his cuffs--as if, poor fellow, they were
  1.2141 +capable of being made more shabby--compounded some hot
  1.2142 +mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round
  1.2143 +and round and put it on the hob to simmer; Master Peter,
  1.2144 +and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the
  1.2145 +goose, with which they soon returned in high procession.
  1.2146 +
  1.2147 +Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose
  1.2148 +the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a
  1.2149 +black swan was a matter of course--and in truth it was
  1.2150 +something very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made
  1.2151 +the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot;
  1.2152 +Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour;
  1.2153 +Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted
  1.2154 +the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny
  1.2155 +corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for
  1.2156 +everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard
  1.2157 +upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest
  1.2158 +they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be
  1.2159 +helped. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was
  1.2160 +said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs.
  1.2161 +Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared
  1.2162 +to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the
  1.2163 +long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of
  1.2164 +delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim,
  1.2165 +excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with
  1.2166 +the handle of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah!
  1.2167 +
  1.2168 +There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe
  1.2169 +there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and
  1.2170 +flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal
  1.2171 +admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes,
  1.2172 +it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as
  1.2173 +Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small
  1.2174 +atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at
  1.2175 +last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest
  1.2176 +Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to
  1.2177 +the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed by Miss
  1.2178 +Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone--too nervous to
  1.2179 +bear witnesses--to take the pudding up and bring it in.
  1.2180 +
  1.2181 +Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should
  1.2182 +break in turning out! Suppose somebody should have got
  1.2183 +over the wall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they
  1.2184 +were merry with the goose--a supposition at which the two
  1.2185 +young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were
  1.2186 +supposed.
  1.2187 +
  1.2188 +Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of
  1.2189 +the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the
  1.2190 +cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next
  1.2191 +door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that!
  1.2192 +That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit
  1.2193 +entered--flushed, but smiling proudly--with the pudding,
  1.2194 +like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half
  1.2195 +of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with
  1.2196 +Christmas holly stuck into the top.
  1.2197 +
  1.2198 +Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly
  1.2199 +too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by
  1.2200 +Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that
  1.2201 +now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had
  1.2202 +had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had
  1.2203 +something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it
  1.2204 +was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have
  1.2205 +been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed
  1.2206 +to hint at such a thing.
  1.2207 +
  1.2208 +At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the
  1.2209 +hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the
  1.2210 +jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges
  1.2211 +were put upon the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts on the
  1.2212 +fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in
  1.2213 +what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and
  1.2214 +at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass.
  1.2215 +Two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle.
  1.2216 +
  1.2217 +These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as
  1.2218 +golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with
  1.2219 +beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and
  1.2220 +cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed:
  1.2221 +
  1.2222 +"A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!"
  1.2223 +
  1.2224 +Which all the family re-echoed.
  1.2225 +
  1.2226 +"God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
  1.2227 +
  1.2228 +He sat very close to his father's side upon his little
  1.2229 +stool. Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he
  1.2230 +loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and
  1.2231 +dreaded that he might be taken from him.
  1.2232 +
  1.2233 +"Spirit," said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt
  1.2234 +before, "tell me if Tiny Tim will live."
  1.2235 +
  1.2236 +"I see a vacant seat," replied the Ghost, "in the poor
  1.2237 +chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully
  1.2238 +preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future,
  1.2239 +the child will die."
  1.2240 +
  1.2241 +"No, no," said Scrooge. "Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he
  1.2242 +will be spared."
  1.2243 +
  1.2244 +"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none
  1.2245 +other of my race," returned the Ghost, "will find him here.
  1.2246 +What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and
  1.2247 +decrease the surplus population."
  1.2248 +
  1.2249 +Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by
  1.2250 +the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.
  1.2251 +
  1.2252 +"Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not
  1.2253 +adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered
  1.2254 +What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what
  1.2255 +men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the
  1.2256 +sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live
  1.2257 +than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear
  1.2258 +the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life
  1.2259 +among his hungry brothers in the dust!"
  1.2260 +
  1.2261 +Scrooge bent before the Ghost's rebuke, and trembling cast
  1.2262 +his eyes upon the ground. But he raised them speedily, on
  1.2263 +hearing his own name.
  1.2264 +
  1.2265 +"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the
  1.2266 +Founder of the Feast!"
  1.2267 +
  1.2268 +"The Founder of the Feast indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit,
  1.2269 +reddening. "I wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece
  1.2270 +of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good
  1.2271 +appetite for it."
  1.2272 +
  1.2273 +"My dear," said Bob, "the children! Christmas Day."
  1.2274 +
  1.2275 +"It should be Christmas Day, I am sure," said she, "on
  1.2276 +which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard,
  1.2277 +unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. You know he is, Robert!
  1.2278 +Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow!"
  1.2279 +
  1.2280 +"My dear," was Bob's mild answer, "Christmas Day."
  1.2281 +
  1.2282 +"I'll drink his health for your sake and the Day's," said
  1.2283 +Mrs. Cratchit, "not for his. Long life to him! A merry
  1.2284 +Christmas and a happy new year! He'll be very merry and
  1.2285 +very happy, I have no doubt!"
  1.2286 +
  1.2287 +The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of
  1.2288 +their proceedings which had no heartiness. Tiny Tim drank
  1.2289 +it last of all, but he didn't care twopence for it. Scrooge
  1.2290 +was the Ogre of the family. The mention of his name cast
  1.2291 +a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full
  1.2292 +five minutes.
  1.2293 +
  1.2294 +After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than
  1.2295 +before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done
  1.2296 +with. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his
  1.2297 +eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full
  1.2298 +five-and-sixpence weekly. The two young Cratchits laughed
  1.2299 +tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man of business;
  1.2300 +and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from
  1.2301 +between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular
  1.2302 +investments he should favour when he came into the receipt
  1.2303 +of that bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor
  1.2304 +apprentice at a milliner's, then told them what kind of work
  1.2305 +she had to do, and how many hours she worked at a stretch,
  1.2306 +and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for a
  1.2307 +good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at
  1.2308 +home. Also how she had seen a countess and a lord some
  1.2309 +days before, and how the lord "was much about as tall as
  1.2310 +Peter;" at which Peter pulled up his collars so high that you
  1.2311 +couldn't have seen his head if you had been there. All this
  1.2312 +time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and
  1.2313 +by-and-bye they had a song, about a lost child travelling in
  1.2314 +the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice,
  1.2315 +and sang it very well indeed.
  1.2316 +
  1.2317 +There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not
  1.2318 +a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes
  1.2319 +were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty;
  1.2320 +and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside
  1.2321 +of a pawnbroker's. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased
  1.2322 +with one another, and contented with the time; and when
  1.2323 +they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings
  1.2324 +of the Spirit's torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon
  1.2325 +them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.
  1.2326 +
  1.2327 +By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty
  1.2328 +heavily; and as Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets,
  1.2329 +the brightness of the roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and
  1.2330 +all sorts of rooms, was wonderful. Here, the flickering of
  1.2331 +the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot
  1.2332 +plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep
  1.2333 +red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness.
  1.2334 +There all the children of the house were running out
  1.2335 +into the snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins,
  1.2336 +uncles, aunts, and be the first to greet them. Here, again,
  1.2337 +were shadows on the window-blind of guests assembling; and
  1.2338 +there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted,
  1.2339 +and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near
  1.2340 +neighbour's house; where, woe upon the single man who saw
  1.2341 +them enter--artful witches, well they knew it--in a glow!
  1.2342 +
  1.2343 +But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on
  1.2344 +their way to friendly gatherings, you might have thought
  1.2345 +that no one was at home to give them welcome when they
  1.2346 +got there, instead of every house expecting company, and
  1.2347 +piling up its fires half-chimney high. Blessings on it, how
  1.2348 +the Ghost exulted! How it bared its breadth of breast, and
  1.2349 +opened its capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring, with
  1.2350 +a generous hand, its bright and harmless mirth on everything
  1.2351 +within its reach! The very lamplighter, who ran on before,
  1.2352 +dotting the dusky street with specks of light, and who was
  1.2353 +dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out loudly
  1.2354 +as the Spirit passed, though little kenned the lamplighter
  1.2355 +that he had any company but Christmas!
  1.2356 +
  1.2357 +And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they
  1.2358 +stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses
  1.2359 +of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place
  1.2360 +of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed,
  1.2361 +or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner;
  1.2362 +and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse rank grass.
  1.2363 +Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery
  1.2364 +red, which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a
  1.2365 +sullen eye, and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in
  1.2366 +the thick gloom of darkest night.
  1.2367 +
  1.2368 +"What place is this?" asked Scrooge.
  1.2369 +
  1.2370 +"A place where Miners live, who labour in the bowels of
  1.2371 +the earth," returned the Spirit. "But they know me. See!"
  1.2372 +
  1.2373 +A light shone from the window of a hut, and swiftly they
  1.2374 +advanced towards it. Passing through the wall of mud and
  1.2375 +stone, they found a cheerful company assembled round a
  1.2376 +glowing fire. An old, old man and woman, with their
  1.2377 +children and their children's children, and another generation
  1.2378 +beyond that, all decked out gaily in their holiday attire.
  1.2379 +The old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the howling
  1.2380 +of the wind upon the barren waste, was singing them a
  1.2381 +Christmas song--it had been a very old song when he was a
  1.2382 +boy--and from time to time they all joined in the chorus.
  1.2383 +So surely as they raised their voices, the old man got quite
  1.2384 +blithe and loud; and so surely as they stopped, his vigour
  1.2385 +sank again.
  1.2386 +
  1.2387 +The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his
  1.2388 +robe, and passing on above the moor, sped--whither? Not
  1.2389 +to sea? To sea. To Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw
  1.2390 +the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them;
  1.2391 +and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it
  1.2392 +rolled and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it
  1.2393 +had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth.
  1.2394 \ No newline at end of file