sl@0: A CHRISTMAS CAROL sl@0: A Ghost Story of Christmas sl@0: sl@0: by Charles Dickens sl@0: sl@0: STAVE I: MARLEY'S GHOST sl@0: sl@0: MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt sl@0: whatever about that. The register of his burial was sl@0: signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, sl@0: and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and sl@0: Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he sl@0: chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a sl@0: door-nail. sl@0: sl@0: Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my sl@0: own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about sl@0: a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to sl@0: regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery sl@0: in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors sl@0: is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands sl@0: shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You sl@0: will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that sl@0: Marley was as dead as a door-nail. sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. sl@0: How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were sl@0: partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge sl@0: was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole sl@0: assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sl@0: sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully sl@0: cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent sl@0: man of business on the very day of the funeral, sl@0: and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. sl@0: sl@0: The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to sl@0: the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley sl@0: was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or sl@0: nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going sl@0: to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that sl@0: Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there sl@0: would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a sl@0: stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, sl@0: than there would be in any other middle-aged sl@0: gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy sl@0: spot--say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance-- sl@0: literally to astonish his son's weak mind. sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. sl@0: There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse sl@0: door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as sl@0: Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the sl@0: business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, sl@0: but he answered to both names. It was all the sl@0: same to him. sl@0: sl@0: Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone, sl@0: Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, sl@0: clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, sl@0: from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; sl@0: secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The sl@0: cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed sl@0: nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his sl@0: eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his sl@0: grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his sl@0: eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low sl@0: temperature always about with him; he iced his office in sl@0: the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas. sl@0: sl@0: External heat and cold had little influence on sl@0: Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather sl@0: chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, sl@0: no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no sl@0: pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't sl@0: know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and sl@0: snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage sl@0: over him in only one respect. They often "came down" sl@0: handsomely, and Scrooge never did. sl@0: sl@0: Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with sl@0: gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? sl@0: When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored sl@0: him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him sl@0: what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all sl@0: his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of sl@0: Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to sl@0: know him; and when they saw him coming on, would sl@0: tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and sl@0: then would wag their tails as though they said, "No sl@0: eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!" sl@0: sl@0: But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing sl@0: he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths sl@0: of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, sl@0: was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, sl@0: on Christmas Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his sl@0: counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy sl@0: withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, sl@0: go wheezing up and down, beating their hands sl@0: upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the sl@0: pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had sl@0: only just gone three, but it was quite dark already-- sl@0: it had not been light all day--and candles were flaring sl@0: in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like sl@0: ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog sl@0: came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was sl@0: so dense without, that although the court was of the sl@0: narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. sl@0: To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring sl@0: everything, one might have thought that Nature sl@0: lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale. sl@0: sl@0: The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open sl@0: that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a sl@0: dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying sl@0: letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's sl@0: fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one sl@0: coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept sl@0: the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the sl@0: clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted sl@0: that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore sl@0: the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to sl@0: warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being sl@0: a man of a strong imagination, he failed. sl@0: sl@0: "A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried sl@0: a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's sl@0: nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was sl@0: the first intimation he had of his approach. sl@0: sl@0: "Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!" sl@0: sl@0: He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the sl@0: fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was sl@0: all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his sl@0: eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. sl@0: sl@0: "Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's sl@0: nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure?" sl@0: sl@0: "I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What sl@0: right have you to be merry? What reason have you sl@0: to be merry? You're poor enough." sl@0: sl@0: "Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What sl@0: right have you to be dismal? What reason have you sl@0: to be morose? You're rich enough." sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur sl@0: of the moment, said, "Bah!" again; and followed it up sl@0: with "Humbug." sl@0: sl@0: "Don't be cross, uncle!" said the nephew. sl@0: sl@0: "What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I sl@0: live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! sl@0: Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas sl@0: time to you but a time for paying bills without sl@0: money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but sl@0: not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books sl@0: and having every item in 'em through a round dozen sl@0: of months presented dead against you? If I could sl@0: work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot sl@0: who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, sl@0: should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried sl@0: with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!" sl@0: sl@0: "Uncle!" pleaded the nephew. sl@0: sl@0: "Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas sl@0: in your own way, and let me keep it in mine." sl@0: sl@0: "Keep it!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you sl@0: don't keep it." sl@0: sl@0: "Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much sl@0: good may it do you! Much good it has ever done sl@0: you!" sl@0: sl@0: "There are many things from which I might have sl@0: derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare sl@0: say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the sl@0: rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas sl@0: time, when it has come round--apart from the sl@0: veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything sl@0: belonging to it can be apart from that--as a sl@0: good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant sl@0: time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar sl@0: of the year, when men and women seem by one consent sl@0: to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think sl@0: of people below them as if they really were sl@0: fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race sl@0: of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, sl@0: uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or sl@0: silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me sl@0: good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!" sl@0: sl@0: The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded. sl@0: Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, sl@0: he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark sl@0: for ever. sl@0: sl@0: "Let me hear another sound from you," said sl@0: Scrooge, "and you'll keep your Christmas by losing sl@0: your situation! You're quite a powerful speaker, sl@0: sir," he added, turning to his nephew. "I wonder you sl@0: don't go into Parliament." sl@0: sl@0: "Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us to-morrow." sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge said that he would see him--yes, indeed he sl@0: did. He went the whole length of the expression, sl@0: and said that he would see him in that extremity first. sl@0: sl@0: "But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?" sl@0: sl@0: "Why did you get married?" said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Because I fell in love." sl@0: sl@0: "Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if sl@0: that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous sl@0: than a merry Christmas. "Good afternoon!" sl@0: sl@0: "Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before sl@0: that happened. Why give it as a reason for not sl@0: coming now?" sl@0: sl@0: "Good afternoon," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; sl@0: why cannot we be friends?" sl@0: sl@0: "Good afternoon," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so sl@0: resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I sl@0: have been a party. But I have made the trial in sl@0: homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas sl@0: humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!" sl@0: sl@0: "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "And A Happy New Year!" sl@0: sl@0: "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: His nephew left the room without an angry word, sl@0: notwithstanding. He stopped at the outer door to sl@0: bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who, sl@0: cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned sl@0: them cordially. sl@0: sl@0: "There's another fellow," muttered Scrooge; who sl@0: overheard him: "my clerk, with fifteen shillings a sl@0: week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry sl@0: Christmas. I'll retire to Bedlam." sl@0: sl@0: This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had sl@0: let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen, sl@0: pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off, sl@0: in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in sl@0: their hands, and bowed to him. sl@0: sl@0: "Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the sl@0: gentlemen, referring to his list. "Have I the pleasure sl@0: of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?" sl@0: sl@0: "Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years," sl@0: Scrooge replied. "He died seven years ago, this very sl@0: night." sl@0: sl@0: "We have no doubt his liberality is well represented sl@0: by his surviving partner," said the gentleman, presenting sl@0: his credentials. sl@0: sl@0: It certainly was; for they had been two kindred sl@0: spirits. At the ominous word "liberality," Scrooge sl@0: frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials sl@0: back. sl@0: sl@0: "At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," sl@0: said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than sl@0: usually desirable that we should make some slight sl@0: provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer sl@0: greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in sl@0: want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands sl@0: are in want of common comforts, sir." sl@0: sl@0: "Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down sl@0: the pen again. sl@0: sl@0: "And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. sl@0: "Are they still in operation?" sl@0: sl@0: "They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish sl@0: I could say they were not." sl@0: sl@0: "The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, sl@0: then?" said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Both very busy, sir." sl@0: sl@0: "Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, sl@0: that something had occurred to stop them in their sl@0: useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to sl@0: hear it." sl@0: sl@0: "Under the impression that they scarcely furnish sl@0: Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," sl@0: returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring sl@0: to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, sl@0: and means of warmth. We choose this time, because sl@0: it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, sl@0: and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down sl@0: for?" sl@0: sl@0: "Nothing!" Scrooge replied. sl@0: sl@0: "You wish to be anonymous?" sl@0: sl@0: "I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you sl@0: ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. sl@0: I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't sl@0: afford to make idle people merry. I help to support sl@0: the establishments I have mentioned--they cost sl@0: enough; and those who are badly off must go there." sl@0: sl@0: "Many can't go there; and many would rather die." sl@0: sl@0: "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had sl@0: better do it, and decrease the surplus population. sl@0: Besides--excuse me--I don't know that." sl@0: sl@0: "But you might know it," observed the gentleman. sl@0: sl@0: "It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's sl@0: enough for a man to understand his own business, and sl@0: not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies sl@0: me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!" sl@0: sl@0: Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue sl@0: their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed sl@0: his labours with an improved opinion of himself, sl@0: and in a more facetious temper than was usual sl@0: with him. sl@0: sl@0: Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that sl@0: people ran about with flaring links, proffering their sl@0: services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct sl@0: them on their way. The ancient tower of a church, sl@0: whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down sl@0: at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became sl@0: invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the sl@0: clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if sl@0: its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. sl@0: The cold became intense. In the main street, at the sl@0: corner of the court, some labourers were repairing sl@0: the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, sl@0: round which a party of ragged men and boys were sl@0: gathered: warming their hands and winking their sl@0: eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug sl@0: being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed, sl@0: and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness sl@0: of the shops where holly sprigs and berries sl@0: crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale sl@0: faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers' sl@0: trades became a splendid joke: a glorious pageant, sl@0: with which it was next to impossible to believe that sl@0: such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything sl@0: to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the sl@0: mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks sl@0: and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's sl@0: household should; and even the little tailor, whom he sl@0: had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for sl@0: being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up sl@0: to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean sl@0: wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef. sl@0: sl@0: Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting sl@0: cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped sl@0: the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather sl@0: as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then sl@0: indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The sl@0: owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled sl@0: by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, sl@0: stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with sl@0: a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of sl@0: sl@0: "God bless you, merry gentleman! sl@0: May nothing you dismay!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, sl@0: that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to sl@0: the fog and even more congenial frost. sl@0: sl@0: At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house sl@0: arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his sl@0: stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant sl@0: clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, sl@0: and put on his hat. sl@0: sl@0: "You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" said sl@0: Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "If quite convenient, sir." sl@0: sl@0: "It's not convenient," said Scrooge, "and it's not sl@0: fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you'd sl@0: think yourself ill-used, I'll be bound?" sl@0: sl@0: The clerk smiled faintly. sl@0: sl@0: "And yet," said Scrooge, "you don't think me ill-used, sl@0: when I pay a day's wages for no work." sl@0: sl@0: The clerk observed that it was only once a year. sl@0: sl@0: "A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every sl@0: twenty-fifth of December!" said Scrooge, buttoning sl@0: his great-coat to the chin. "But I suppose you must sl@0: have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next sl@0: morning." sl@0: sl@0: The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge sl@0: walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a sl@0: twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his sl@0: white comforter dangling below his waist (for he sl@0: boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, sl@0: at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in sl@0: honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home sl@0: to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play sl@0: at blindman's-buff. sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual sl@0: melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and sl@0: beguiled the rest of the evening with his sl@0: banker's-book, went home to bed. He lived in sl@0: chambers which had once belonged to his deceased sl@0: partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a sl@0: lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so sl@0: little business to be, that one could scarcely help sl@0: fancying it must have run there when it was a young sl@0: house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, sl@0: and forgotten the way out again. It was old enough sl@0: now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but sl@0: Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices. sl@0: The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew sl@0: its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. sl@0: The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway sl@0: of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of sl@0: the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the sl@0: threshold. sl@0: sl@0: Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all sl@0: particular about the knocker on the door, except that it sl@0: was very large. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had sl@0: seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence sl@0: in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what sl@0: is called fancy about him as any man in the city of sl@0: London, even including--which is a bold word--the sl@0: corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be sl@0: borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one sl@0: thought on Marley, since his last mention of his sl@0: seven years' dead partner that afternoon. And then sl@0: let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened sl@0: that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, sl@0: saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate sl@0: process of change--not a knocker, but Marley's face. sl@0: sl@0: Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow sl@0: as the other objects in the yard were, but had a sl@0: dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark sl@0: cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked sl@0: at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly sl@0: spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The sl@0: hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air; sl@0: and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly sl@0: motionless. That, and its livid colour, made it sl@0: horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the sl@0: face and beyond its control, rather than a part of sl@0: its own expression. sl@0: sl@0: As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it sl@0: was a knocker again. sl@0: sl@0: To say that he was not startled, or that his blood sl@0: was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it sl@0: had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue. sl@0: But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished, sl@0: turned it sturdily, walked in, and lighted his candle. sl@0: sl@0: He did pause, with a moment's irresolution, before sl@0: he shut the door; and he did look cautiously behind sl@0: it first, as if he half expected to be terrified with the sl@0: sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the hall. sl@0: But there was nothing on the back of the door, except sl@0: the screws and nuts that held the knocker on, so he sl@0: said "Pooh, pooh!" and closed it with a bang. sl@0: sl@0: The sound resounded through the house like thunder. sl@0: Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant's sl@0: cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal sl@0: of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to sl@0: be frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and sl@0: walked across the hall, and up the stairs; slowly too: sl@0: trimming his candle as he went. sl@0: sl@0: You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-and-six sl@0: up a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad sl@0: young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say you sl@0: might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken sl@0: it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall sl@0: and the door towards the balustrades: and done it sl@0: easy. There was plenty of width for that, and room sl@0: to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge sl@0: thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before sl@0: him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of sl@0: the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well, sl@0: so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with sl@0: Scrooge's dip. sl@0: sl@0: Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. sl@0: Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before sl@0: he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms sl@0: to see that all was right. He had just enough recollection sl@0: of the face to desire to do that. sl@0: sl@0: Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they sl@0: should be. Nobody under the table, nobody under sl@0: the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin sl@0: ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had sl@0: a cold in his head) upon the hob. Nobody under the sl@0: bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown, sl@0: which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude sl@0: against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, sl@0: old shoes, two fish-baskets, washing-stand on three sl@0: legs, and a poker. sl@0: sl@0: Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked sl@0: himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his sl@0: custom. Thus secured against surprise, he took off sl@0: his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and sl@0: his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take sl@0: his gruel. sl@0: sl@0: It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a sl@0: bitter night. He was obliged to sit close to it, and sl@0: brood over it, before he could extract the least sl@0: sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. sl@0: The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch sl@0: merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint sl@0: Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. sl@0: There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters; sl@0: Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending sl@0: through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams, sl@0: Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats, sl@0: hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; sl@0: and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came sl@0: like the ancient Prophet's rod, and swallowed up the sl@0: whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at first, sl@0: with power to shape some picture on its surface from sl@0: the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would sl@0: have been a copy of old Marley's head on every one. sl@0: sl@0: "Humbug!" said Scrooge; and walked across the sl@0: room. sl@0: sl@0: After several turns, he sat down again. As he sl@0: threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened sl@0: to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the sl@0: room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten sl@0: with a chamber in the highest story of the sl@0: building. It was with great astonishment, and with sl@0: a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he sl@0: saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in sl@0: the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it sl@0: rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. sl@0: sl@0: This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, sl@0: but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased as they had sl@0: begun, together. They were succeeded by a clanking sl@0: noise, deep down below; as if some person were sl@0: dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the sl@0: wine-merchant's cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have sl@0: heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as sl@0: dragging chains. sl@0: sl@0: The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound, sl@0: and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors sl@0: below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight sl@0: towards his door. sl@0: sl@0: "It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I won't believe it." sl@0: sl@0: His colour changed though, when, without a pause, sl@0: it came on through the heavy door, and passed into sl@0: the room before his eyes. Upon its coming in, the sl@0: dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, "I know sl@0: him; Marley's Ghost!" and fell again. sl@0: sl@0: The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail, sl@0: usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on sl@0: the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, sl@0: and the hair upon his head. The chain he drew was sl@0: clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound sl@0: about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge sl@0: observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, sl@0: ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. sl@0: His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him, sl@0: and looking through his waistcoat, could see sl@0: the two buttons on his coat behind. sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no sl@0: bowels, but he had never believed it until now. sl@0: sl@0: No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he sl@0: looked the phantom through and through, and saw sl@0: it standing before him; though he felt the chilling sl@0: influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very sl@0: texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head sl@0: and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; sl@0: he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses. sl@0: sl@0: "How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. sl@0: "What do you want with me?" sl@0: sl@0: "Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it. sl@0: sl@0: "Who are you?" sl@0: sl@0: "Ask me who I was." sl@0: sl@0: "Who were you then?" said Scrooge, raising his sl@0: voice. "You're particular, for a shade." He was going sl@0: to say "to a shade," but substituted this, as more sl@0: appropriate. sl@0: sl@0: "In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." sl@0: sl@0: "Can you--can you sit down?" asked Scrooge, looking sl@0: doubtfully at him. sl@0: sl@0: "I can." sl@0: sl@0: "Do it, then." sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know sl@0: whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in sl@0: a condition to take a chair; and felt that in the event sl@0: of its being impossible, it might involve the necessity sl@0: of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat sl@0: down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he sl@0: were quite used to it. sl@0: sl@0: "You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost. sl@0: sl@0: "I don't," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of sl@0: your senses?" sl@0: sl@0: "I don't know," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Why do you doubt your senses?" sl@0: sl@0: "Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. sl@0: A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may sl@0: be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of sl@0: cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of sl@0: gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking sl@0: jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means sl@0: waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be sl@0: smart, as a means of distracting his own attention, sl@0: and keeping down his terror; for the spectre's voice sl@0: disturbed the very marrow in his bones. sl@0: sl@0: To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence sl@0: for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very sl@0: deuce with him. There was something very awful, sl@0: too, in the spectre's being provided with an infernal sl@0: atmosphere of its own. Scrooge could not feel it sl@0: himself, but this was clearly the case; for though the sl@0: Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair, and skirts, sl@0: and tassels, were still agitated as by the hot vapour sl@0: from an oven. sl@0: sl@0: "You see this toothpick?" said Scrooge, returning sl@0: quickly to the charge, for the reason just assigned; sl@0: and wishing, though it were only for a second, to sl@0: divert the vision's stony gaze from himself. sl@0: sl@0: "I do," replied the Ghost. sl@0: sl@0: "You are not looking at it," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "But I see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding." sl@0: sl@0: "Well!" returned Scrooge, "I have but to swallow sl@0: this, and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a sl@0: legion of goblins, all of my own creation. Humbug, sl@0: I tell you! humbug!" sl@0: sl@0: At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook sl@0: its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that sl@0: Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself sl@0: from falling in a swoon. But how much greater was sl@0: his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage sl@0: round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, sl@0: its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast! sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands sl@0: before his face. sl@0: sl@0: "Mercy!" he said. "Dreadful apparition, why do sl@0: you trouble me?" sl@0: sl@0: "Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do sl@0: you believe in me or not?" sl@0: sl@0: "I do," said Scrooge. "I must. But why do spirits sl@0: walk the earth, and why do they come to me?" sl@0: sl@0: "It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, sl@0: "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among sl@0: his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that sl@0: spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so sl@0: after death. It is doomed to wander through the sl@0: world--oh, woe is me!--and witness what it cannot sl@0: share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to sl@0: happiness!" sl@0: sl@0: Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain sl@0: and wrung its shadowy hands. sl@0: sl@0: "You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell sl@0: me why?" sl@0: sl@0: "I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. sl@0: "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded sl@0: it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I sl@0: wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge trembled more and more. sl@0: sl@0: "Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the sl@0: weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? sl@0: It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven sl@0: Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. sl@0: It is a ponderous chain!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the sl@0: expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty sl@0: or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see sl@0: nothing. sl@0: sl@0: "Jacob," he said, imploringly. "Old Jacob Marley, sl@0: tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!" sl@0: sl@0: "I have none to give," the Ghost replied. "It comes sl@0: from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed sl@0: by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor sl@0: can I tell you what I would. A very little more is sl@0: all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I sl@0: cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked sl@0: beyond our counting-house--mark me!--in life my sl@0: spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our sl@0: money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before sl@0: me!" sl@0: sl@0: It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became sl@0: thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets. sl@0: Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now, sl@0: but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his sl@0: knees. sl@0: sl@0: "You must have been very slow about it, Jacob," sl@0: Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though sl@0: with humility and deference. sl@0: sl@0: "Slow!" the Ghost repeated. sl@0: sl@0: "Seven years dead," mused Scrooge. "And travelling sl@0: all the time!" sl@0: sl@0: "The whole time," said the Ghost. "No rest, no sl@0: peace. Incessant torture of remorse." sl@0: sl@0: "You travel fast?" said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "On the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost. sl@0: sl@0: "You might have got over a great quantity of sl@0: ground in seven years," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and sl@0: clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of sl@0: the night, that the Ward would have been justified in sl@0: indicting it for a nuisance. sl@0: sl@0: "Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the sl@0: phantom, "not to know, that ages of incessant labour sl@0: by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into sl@0: eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is sl@0: all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit sl@0: working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may sl@0: be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast sl@0: means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of sl@0: regret can make amends for one life's opportunity sl@0: misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!" sl@0: sl@0: "But you were always a good man of business, sl@0: Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this sl@0: to himself. sl@0: sl@0: "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands sl@0: again. "Mankind was my business. The common sl@0: welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, sl@0: and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings sl@0: of my trade were but a drop of water in the sl@0: comprehensive ocean of my business!" sl@0: sl@0: It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were sl@0: the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it sl@0: heavily upon the ground again. sl@0: sl@0: "At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said, sl@0: "I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of sl@0: fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never sl@0: raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise sl@0: Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to sl@0: which its light would have conducted me!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the sl@0: spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake sl@0: exceedingly. sl@0: sl@0: "Hear me!" cried the Ghost. "My time is nearly sl@0: gone." sl@0: sl@0: "I will," said Scrooge. "But don't be hard upon sl@0: me! Don't be flowery, Jacob! Pray!" sl@0: sl@0: "How it is that I appear before you in a shape that sl@0: you can see, I may not tell. I have sat invisible sl@0: beside you many and many a day." sl@0: sl@0: It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered, sl@0: and wiped the perspiration from his brow. sl@0: sl@0: "That is no light part of my penance," pursued sl@0: the Ghost. "I am here to-night to warn you, that you sl@0: have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A sl@0: chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer." sl@0: sl@0: "You were always a good friend to me," said sl@0: Scrooge. "Thank'ee!" sl@0: sl@0: "You will be haunted," resumed the Ghost, "by sl@0: Three Spirits." sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the sl@0: Ghost's had done. sl@0: sl@0: "Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, sl@0: Jacob?" he demanded, in a faltering voice. sl@0: sl@0: "It is." sl@0: sl@0: "I--I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Without their visits," said the Ghost, "you cannot sl@0: hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow, sl@0: when the bell tolls One." sl@0: sl@0: "Couldn't I take 'em all at once, and have it over, sl@0: Jacob?" hinted Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Expect the second on the next night at the same sl@0: hour. The third upon the next night when the last sl@0: stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see sl@0: me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you sl@0: remember what has passed between us!" sl@0: sl@0: When it had said these words, the spectre took its sl@0: wrapper from the table, and bound it round its head, sl@0: as before. Scrooge knew this, by the smart sound its sl@0: teeth made, when the jaws were brought together sl@0: by the bandage. He ventured to raise his eyes again, sl@0: and found his supernatural visitor confronting him sl@0: in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and sl@0: about its arm. sl@0: sl@0: The apparition walked backward from him; and at sl@0: every step it took, the window raised itself a little, sl@0: so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open. sl@0: sl@0: It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. sl@0: When they were within two paces of each other, sl@0: Marley's Ghost held up its hand, warning him to sl@0: come no nearer. Scrooge stopped. sl@0: sl@0: Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear: sl@0: for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible sl@0: of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of sl@0: lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and sl@0: self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment, sl@0: joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the sl@0: bleak, dark night. sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his sl@0: curiosity. He looked out. sl@0: sl@0: The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither sl@0: and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they sl@0: went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's sl@0: Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) sl@0: were linked together; none were free. Many had sl@0: been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He sl@0: had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white sl@0: waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to sl@0: its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist sl@0: a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, sl@0: upon a door-step. The misery with them all was, sl@0: clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in sl@0: human matters, and had lost the power for ever. sl@0: sl@0: Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist sl@0: enshrouded them, he could not tell. But they and sl@0: their spirit voices faded together; and the night became sl@0: as it had been when he walked home. sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door sl@0: by which the Ghost had entered. It was double-locked, sl@0: as he had locked it with his own hands, and sl@0: the bolts were undisturbed. He tried to say "Humbug!" sl@0: but stopped at the first syllable. And being, sl@0: from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues sl@0: of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or sl@0: the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of sl@0: the hour, much in need of repose; went straight to sl@0: bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the sl@0: instant. sl@0: sl@0: sl@0: STAVE II: THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS sl@0: sl@0: WHEN Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that looking out of bed, sl@0: he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from sl@0: the opaque walls of his chamber. He was endeavouring to sl@0: pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a sl@0: neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened sl@0: for the hour. sl@0: sl@0: To his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from sl@0: six to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to sl@0: twelve; then stopped. Twelve! It was past two when he sl@0: went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have sl@0: got into the works. Twelve! sl@0: sl@0: He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most sl@0: preposterous clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve: sl@0: and stopped. sl@0: sl@0: "Why, it isn't possible," said Scrooge, "that I can have sl@0: slept through a whole day and far into another night. It sl@0: isn't possible that anything has happened to the sun, and sl@0: this is twelve at noon!" sl@0: sl@0: The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed, sl@0: and groped his way to the window. He was obliged to rub sl@0: the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown before he sl@0: could see anything; and could see very little then. All he sl@0: could make out was, that it was still very foggy and extremely sl@0: cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and fro, sl@0: and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been sl@0: if night had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the sl@0: world. This was a great relief, because "three days after sight sl@0: of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his sl@0: order," and so forth, would have become a mere United States' sl@0: security if there were no days to count by. sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought sl@0: it over and over and over, and could make nothing of it. The more he sl@0: thought, the more perplexed he was; and the more he endeavoured sl@0: not to think, the more he thought. sl@0: sl@0: Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved sl@0: within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his sl@0: mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first sl@0: position, and presented the same problem to be worked all through, sl@0: "Was it a dream or not?" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters sl@0: more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned sl@0: him of a visitation when the bell tolled one. He resolved to lie sl@0: awake until the hour was passed; and, considering that he could sl@0: no more go to sleep than go to Heaven, this was perhaps the sl@0: wisest resolution in his power. sl@0: sl@0: The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he sl@0: must have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock. sl@0: At length it broke upon his listening ear. sl@0: sl@0: "Ding, dong!" sl@0: sl@0: "A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting. sl@0: sl@0: "Ding, dong!" sl@0: sl@0: "Half-past!" said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Ding, dong!" sl@0: sl@0: "A quarter to it," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Ding, dong!" sl@0: sl@0: "The hour itself," said Scrooge, triumphantly, "and nothing else!" sl@0: sl@0: He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a sl@0: deep, dull, hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room sl@0: upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn. sl@0: sl@0: The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a sl@0: hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his sl@0: back, but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains sl@0: of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a sl@0: half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the sl@0: unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now sl@0: to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. sl@0: sl@0: It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a sl@0: child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural sl@0: medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded sl@0: from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions. sl@0: Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was sl@0: white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in sl@0: it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were sl@0: very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold sl@0: were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately sl@0: formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic sl@0: of the purest white; and round its waist was bound sl@0: a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held sl@0: a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular sl@0: contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed sl@0: with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, sl@0: that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear sl@0: jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was sl@0: doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a sl@0: great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. sl@0: sl@0: Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing sl@0: steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt sl@0: sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another, sl@0: and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so sl@0: the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a sl@0: thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, sl@0: now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a sl@0: body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible sl@0: in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the sl@0: very wonder of this, it would be itself again; distinct and sl@0: clear as ever. sl@0: sl@0: "Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to sl@0: me?" asked Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "I am!" sl@0: sl@0: The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if sl@0: instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance. sl@0: sl@0: "Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded. sl@0: sl@0: "I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." sl@0: sl@0: "Long Past?" inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish sl@0: stature. sl@0: sl@0: "No. Your past." sl@0: sl@0: Perhaps, Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if sl@0: anybody could have asked him; but he had a special desire sl@0: to see the Spirit in his cap; and begged him to be covered. sl@0: sl@0: "What!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you so soon put out, sl@0: with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough sl@0: that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and sl@0: force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon sl@0: my brow!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend sl@0: or any knowledge of having wilfully "bonneted" the Spirit at sl@0: any period of his life. He then made bold to inquire what sl@0: business brought him there. sl@0: sl@0: "Your welfare!" said the Ghost. sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not sl@0: help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been sl@0: more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard sl@0: him thinking, for it said immediately: sl@0: sl@0: "Your reclamation, then. Take heed!" sl@0: sl@0: It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him sl@0: gently by the arm. sl@0: sl@0: "Rise! and walk with me!" sl@0: sl@0: It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the sl@0: weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; sl@0: that bed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below sl@0: freezing; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers, sl@0: dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon him at sl@0: that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, sl@0: was not to be resisted. He rose: but finding that the Spirit sl@0: made towards the window, clasped his robe in supplication. sl@0: sl@0: "I am a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to fall." sl@0: sl@0: "Bear but a touch of my hand there," said the Spirit, sl@0: laying it upon his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more sl@0: than this!" sl@0: sl@0: As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, sl@0: and stood upon an open country road, with fields on either sl@0: hand. The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it sl@0: was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished sl@0: with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with snow upon sl@0: the ground. sl@0: sl@0: "Good Heaven!" said Scrooge, clasping his hands together, sl@0: as he looked about him. "I was bred in this place. I was sl@0: a boy here!" sl@0: sl@0: The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch, sl@0: though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still sl@0: present to the old man's sense of feeling. He was conscious sl@0: of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected sl@0: with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares sl@0: long, long, forgotten! sl@0: sl@0: "Your lip is trembling," said the Ghost. "And what is sl@0: that upon your cheek?" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, sl@0: that it was a pimple; and begged the Ghost to lead him sl@0: where he would. sl@0: sl@0: "You recollect the way?" inquired the Spirit. sl@0: sl@0: "Remember it!" cried Scrooge with fervour; "I could sl@0: walk it blindfold." sl@0: sl@0: "Strange to have forgotten it for so many years!" observed sl@0: the Ghost. "Let us go on." sl@0: sl@0: They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every sl@0: gate, and post, and tree; until a little market-town appeared sl@0: in the distance, with its bridge, its church, and winding river. sl@0: Some ponies now were seen trotting towards them sl@0: with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in sl@0: country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys sl@0: were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the sl@0: broad fields were so full of merry music, that the crisp air sl@0: laughed to hear it! sl@0: sl@0: "These are but shadows of the things that have been," said sl@0: the Ghost. "They have no consciousness of us." sl@0: sl@0: The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge sl@0: knew and named them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond sl@0: all bounds to see them! Why did his cold eye glisten, and sl@0: his heart leap up as they went past! Why was he filled sl@0: with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry sl@0: Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for sl@0: their several homes! What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? sl@0: Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done sl@0: to him? sl@0: sl@0: "The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. "A sl@0: solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still." sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed. sl@0: sl@0: They left the high-road, by a well-remembered lane, and sl@0: soon approached a mansion of dull red brick, with a little sl@0: weathercock-surmounted cupola, on the roof, and a bell sl@0: hanging in it. It was a large house, but one of broken sl@0: fortunes; for the spacious offices were little used, their walls sl@0: were damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their sl@0: gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables; sl@0: and the coach-houses and sheds were over-run with grass. sl@0: Nor was it more retentive of its ancient state, within; for sl@0: entering the dreary hall, and glancing through the open sl@0: doors of many rooms, they found them poorly furnished, sl@0: cold, and vast. There was an earthy savour in the air, a sl@0: chilly bareness in the place, which associated itself somehow sl@0: with too much getting up by candle-light, and not too sl@0: much to eat. sl@0: sl@0: They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a sl@0: door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and sl@0: disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by sl@0: lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely sl@0: boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down sl@0: upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he sl@0: used to be. sl@0: sl@0: Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle sl@0: from the mice behind the panelling, not a drip from the sl@0: half-thawed water-spout in the dull yard behind, not a sigh among sl@0: the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar, not the idle sl@0: swinging of an empty store-house door, no, not a clicking in sl@0: the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with a softening sl@0: influence, and gave a freer passage to his tears. sl@0: sl@0: The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his sl@0: younger self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man, in sl@0: foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at: sl@0: stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and sl@0: leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood. sl@0: sl@0: "Why, it's Ali Baba!" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "It's sl@0: dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know! One Christmas sl@0: time, when yonder solitary child was left here all alone, sl@0: he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy! And sl@0: Valentine," said Scrooge, "and his wild brother, Orson; there sl@0: they go! And what's his name, who was put down in his sl@0: drawers, asleep, at the Gate of Damascus; don't you see him! sl@0: And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the Genii; sl@0: there he is upon his head! Serve him right. I'm glad of it. sl@0: What business had he to be married to the Princess!" sl@0: sl@0: To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature sl@0: on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between sl@0: laughing and crying; and to see his heightened and excited sl@0: face; would have been a surprise to his business friends in sl@0: the city, indeed. sl@0: sl@0: "There's the Parrot!" cried Scrooge. "Green body and sl@0: yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the sl@0: top of his head; there he is! Poor Robin Crusoe, he called sl@0: him, when he came home again after sailing round the sl@0: island. 'Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin sl@0: Crusoe?' The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't. sl@0: It was the Parrot, you know. There goes Friday, running sl@0: for his life to the little creek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!" sl@0: sl@0: Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his sl@0: usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, "Poor sl@0: boy!" and cried again. sl@0: sl@0: "I wish," Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his sl@0: pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes with his sl@0: cuff: "but it's too late now." sl@0: sl@0: "What is the matter?" asked the Spirit. sl@0: sl@0: "Nothing," said Scrooge. "Nothing. There was a boy sl@0: singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should sl@0: like to have given him something: that's all." sl@0: sl@0: The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand: sl@0: saying as it did so, "Let us see another Christmas!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the sl@0: room became a little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, sl@0: the windows cracked; fragments of plaster fell out of the sl@0: ceiling, and the naked laths were shown instead; but how sl@0: all this was brought about, Scrooge knew no more than you sl@0: do. He only knew that it was quite correct; that everything sl@0: had happened so; that there he was, alone again, when all sl@0: the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays. sl@0: sl@0: He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly. sl@0: Scrooge looked at the Ghost, and with a mournful shaking of sl@0: his head, glanced anxiously towards the door. sl@0: sl@0: It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy, sl@0: came darting in, and putting her arms about his neck, and sl@0: often kissing him, addressed him as her "Dear, dear sl@0: brother." sl@0: sl@0: "I have come to bring you home, dear brother!" said the sl@0: child, clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh. sl@0: "To bring you home, home, home!" sl@0: sl@0: "Home, little Fan?" returned the boy. sl@0: sl@0: "Yes!" said the child, brimful of glee. "Home, for good sl@0: and all. Home, for ever and ever. Father is so much kinder sl@0: than he used to be, that home's like Heaven! He spoke so sl@0: gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed, that sl@0: I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come sl@0: home; and he said Yes, you should; and sent me in a coach sl@0: to bring you. And you're to be a man!" said the child, sl@0: opening her eyes, "and are never to come back here; but sl@0: first, we're to be together all the Christmas long, and have sl@0: the merriest time in all the world." sl@0: sl@0: "You are quite a woman, little Fan!" exclaimed the boy. sl@0: sl@0: She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his sl@0: head; but being too little, laughed again, and stood on sl@0: tiptoe to embrace him. Then she began to drag him, in her sl@0: childish eagerness, towards the door; and he, nothing loth to sl@0: go, accompanied her. sl@0: sl@0: A terrible voice in the hall cried, "Bring down Master sl@0: Scrooge's box, there!" and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster sl@0: himself, who glared on Master Scrooge with a ferocious sl@0: condescension, and threw him into a dreadful state of mind sl@0: by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed him and his sl@0: sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best-parlour that sl@0: ever was seen, where the maps upon the wall, and the celestial sl@0: and terrestrial globes in the windows, were waxy with cold. sl@0: Here he produced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a sl@0: block of curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments sl@0: of those dainties to the young people: at the same time, sl@0: sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of "something" sl@0: to the postboy, who answered that he thanked the gentleman, sl@0: but if it was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had sl@0: rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by this time tied sl@0: on to the top of the chaise, the children bade the schoolmaster sl@0: good-bye right willingly; and getting into it, drove sl@0: gaily down the garden-sweep: the quick wheels dashing the sl@0: hoar-frost and snow from off the dark leaves of the evergreens sl@0: like spray. sl@0: sl@0: "Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have sl@0: withered," said the Ghost. "But she had a large heart!" sl@0: sl@0: "So she had," cried Scrooge. "You're right. I will not sl@0: gainsay it, Spirit. God forbid!" sl@0: sl@0: "She died a woman," said the Ghost, "and had, as I think, sl@0: children." sl@0: sl@0: "One child," Scrooge returned. sl@0: sl@0: "True," said the Ghost. "Your nephew!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, sl@0: "Yes." sl@0: sl@0: Although they had but that moment left the school behind sl@0: them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, sl@0: where shadowy passengers passed and repassed; where shadowy sl@0: carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and sl@0: tumult of a real city were. It was made plain enough, by sl@0: the dressing of the shops, that here too it was Christmas sl@0: time again; but it was evening, and the streets were sl@0: lighted up. sl@0: sl@0: The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked sl@0: Scrooge if he knew it. sl@0: sl@0: "Know it!" said Scrooge. "Was I apprenticed here!" sl@0: sl@0: They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh sl@0: wig, sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two sl@0: inches taller he must have knocked his head against the sl@0: ceiling, Scrooge cried in great excitement: sl@0: sl@0: "Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it's Fezziwig sl@0: alive again!" sl@0: sl@0: Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the sl@0: clock, which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his sl@0: hands; adjusted his capacious waistcoat; laughed all over sl@0: himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; and sl@0: called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice: sl@0: sl@0: "Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly sl@0: in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice. sl@0: sl@0: "Dick Wilkins, to be sure!" said Scrooge to the Ghost. sl@0: "Bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached sl@0: to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!" sl@0: sl@0: "Yo ho, my boys!" said Fezziwig. "No more work to-night. sl@0: Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's sl@0: have the shutters up," cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap sl@0: of his hands, "before a man can say Jack Robinson!" sl@0: sl@0: You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it! sl@0: They charged into the street with the shutters--one, two, sl@0: three--had 'em up in their places--four, five, six--barred sl@0: 'em and pinned 'em--seven, eight, nine--and came back sl@0: before you could have got to twelve, panting like race-horses. sl@0: sl@0: "Hilli-ho!" cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the sl@0: high desk, with wonderful agility. "Clear away, my lads, sl@0: and let's have lots of room here! Hilli-ho, Dick! Chirrup, sl@0: Ebenezer!" sl@0: sl@0: Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared sl@0: away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking sl@0: on. It was done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if sl@0: it were dismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was sl@0: swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon sl@0: the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and sl@0: bright a ball-room, as you would desire to see upon a winter's sl@0: night. sl@0: sl@0: In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the sl@0: lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty sl@0: stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial sl@0: smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and sl@0: lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they sl@0: broke. In came all the young men and women employed in sl@0: the business. In came the housemaid, with her cousin, the sl@0: baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular friend, sl@0: the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was sl@0: suspected of not having board enough from his master; trying sl@0: to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, who sl@0: was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. sl@0: In they all came, one after another; some shyly, some boldly, sl@0: some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; sl@0: in they all came, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went, sl@0: twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again sl@0: the other way; down the middle and up again; round sl@0: and round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old sl@0: top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top sl@0: couple starting off again, as soon as they got there; all top sl@0: couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them! When sl@0: this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his sl@0: hands to stop the dance, cried out, "Well done!" and the sl@0: fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially sl@0: provided for that purpose. But scorning rest, upon his sl@0: reappearance, he instantly began again, though there were no sl@0: dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been carried home, sl@0: exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man sl@0: resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish. sl@0: sl@0: There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more sl@0: dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there sl@0: was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece sl@0: of Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer. sl@0: But the great effect of the evening came after the Roast sl@0: and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The sort sl@0: of man who knew his business better than you or I could sl@0: have told it him!) struck up "Sir Roger de Coverley." Then sl@0: old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top sl@0: couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them; sl@0: three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who were sl@0: not to be trifled with; people who would dance, and had no sl@0: notion of walking. sl@0: sl@0: But if they had been twice as many--ah, four times--old sl@0: Fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would sl@0: Mrs. Fezziwig. As to her, she was worthy to be his partner sl@0: in every sense of the term. If that's not high praise, tell me sl@0: higher, and I'll use it. A positive light appeared to issue sl@0: from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part of the sl@0: dance like moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any given sl@0: time, what would have become of them next. And when old sl@0: Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance; sl@0: advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and sl@0: curtsey, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to sl@0: your place; Fezziwig "cut"--cut so deftly, that he appeared sl@0: to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without sl@0: a stagger. sl@0: sl@0: When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. sl@0: Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side sl@0: of the door, and shaking hands with every person individually sl@0: as he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas. sl@0: When everybody had retired but the two 'prentices, they did sl@0: the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died away, sl@0: and the lads were left to their beds; which were under a sl@0: counter in the back-shop. sl@0: sl@0: During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a sl@0: man out of his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, sl@0: and with his former self. He corroborated everything, sl@0: remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and underwent sl@0: the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when the sl@0: bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned from sl@0: them, that he remembered the Ghost, and became conscious sl@0: that it was looking full upon him, while the light upon its sl@0: head burnt very clear. sl@0: sl@0: "A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly sl@0: folks so full of gratitude." sl@0: sl@0: "Small!" echoed Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, sl@0: who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig: sl@0: and when he had done so, said, sl@0: sl@0: "Why! Is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of sl@0: your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so sl@0: much that he deserves this praise?" sl@0: sl@0: "It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and sl@0: speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. sl@0: "It isn't that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy sl@0: or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a sl@0: pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and sl@0: looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is sl@0: impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness sl@0: he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune." sl@0: sl@0: He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped. sl@0: sl@0: "What is the matter?" asked the Ghost. sl@0: sl@0: "Nothing particular," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Something, I think?" the Ghost insisted. sl@0: sl@0: "No," said Scrooge, "No. I should like to be able to say sl@0: a word or two to my clerk just now. That's all." sl@0: sl@0: His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance sl@0: to the wish; and Scrooge and the Ghost again stood side by sl@0: side in the open air. sl@0: sl@0: "My time grows short," observed the Spirit. "Quick!" sl@0: sl@0: This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he sl@0: could see, but it produced an immediate effect. For again sl@0: Scrooge saw himself. He was older now; a man in the prime sl@0: of life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later sl@0: years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice. sl@0: There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which sl@0: showed the passion that had taken root, and where the sl@0: shadow of the growing tree would fall. sl@0: sl@0: He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young sl@0: girl in a mourning-dress: in whose eyes there were tears, sl@0: which sparkled in the light that shone out of the Ghost of sl@0: Christmas Past. sl@0: sl@0: "It matters little," she said, softly. "To you, very little. sl@0: Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort sl@0: you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have sl@0: no just cause to grieve." sl@0: sl@0: "What Idol has displaced you?" he rejoined. sl@0: sl@0: "A golden one." sl@0: sl@0: "This is the even-handed dealing of the world!" he said. sl@0: "There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and sl@0: there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity sl@0: as the pursuit of wealth!" sl@0: sl@0: "You fear the world too much," she answered, gently. sl@0: "All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being sl@0: beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your sl@0: nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, sl@0: Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?" sl@0: sl@0: "What then?" he retorted. "Even if I have grown so sl@0: much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you." sl@0: sl@0: She shook her head. sl@0: sl@0: "Am I?" sl@0: sl@0: "Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were sl@0: both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could sl@0: improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You sl@0: are changed. When it was made, you were another man." sl@0: sl@0: "I was a boy," he said impatiently. sl@0: sl@0: "Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you sl@0: are," she returned. "I am. That which promised happiness sl@0: when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that sl@0: we are two. How often and how keenly I have thought of sl@0: this, I will not say. It is enough that I have thought of it, sl@0: and can release you." sl@0: sl@0: "Have I ever sought release?" sl@0: sl@0: "In words. No. Never." sl@0: sl@0: "In what, then?" sl@0: sl@0: "In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another sl@0: atmosphere of life; another Hope as its great end. In sl@0: everything that made my love of any worth or value in your sl@0: sight. If this had never been between us," said the girl, sl@0: looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; "tell me, sl@0: would you seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!" sl@0: sl@0: He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in sl@0: spite of himself. But he said with a struggle, "You think sl@0: not." sl@0: sl@0: "I would gladly think otherwise if I could," she answered, sl@0: "Heaven knows! When I have learned a Truth like this, sl@0: I know how strong and irresistible it must be. But if you sl@0: were free to-day, to-morrow, yesterday, can even I believe sl@0: that you would choose a dowerless girl--you who, in your sl@0: very confidence with her, weigh everything by Gain: or, sl@0: choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your sl@0: one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your sl@0: repentance and regret would surely follow? I do; and I sl@0: release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you sl@0: once were." sl@0: sl@0: He was about to speak; but with her head turned from sl@0: him, she resumed. sl@0: sl@0: "You may--the memory of what is past half makes me sl@0: hope you will--have pain in this. A very, very brief time, sl@0: and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an sl@0: unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you sl@0: awoke. May you be happy in the life you have chosen!" sl@0: sl@0: She left him, and they parted. sl@0: sl@0: "Spirit!" said Scrooge, "show me no more! Conduct sl@0: me home. Why do you delight to torture me?" sl@0: sl@0: "One shadow more!" exclaimed the Ghost. sl@0: sl@0: "No more!" cried Scrooge. "No more. I don't wish to sl@0: see it. Show me no more!" sl@0: sl@0: But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, sl@0: and forced him to observe what happened next. sl@0: sl@0: They were in another scene and place; a room, not very sl@0: large or handsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter sl@0: fire sat a beautiful young girl, so like that last that Scrooge sl@0: believed it was the same, until he saw her, now a comely sl@0: matron, sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in this sl@0: room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more children sl@0: there, than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count; sl@0: and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not sl@0: forty children conducting themselves like one, but every sl@0: child was conducting itself like forty. The consequences sl@0: were uproarious beyond belief; but no one seemed to care; sl@0: on the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily, sl@0: and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to sl@0: mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands sl@0: most ruthlessly. What would I not have given to be one of sl@0: them! Though I never could have been so rude, no, no! I sl@0: wouldn't for the wealth of all the world have crushed that sl@0: braided hair, and torn it down; and for the precious little sl@0: shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul! to sl@0: save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they sl@0: did, bold young brood, I couldn't have done it; I should sl@0: have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment, sl@0: and never come straight again. And yet I should sl@0: have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have sl@0: questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have sl@0: looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never sl@0: raised a blush; to have let loose waves of hair, an inch of sl@0: which would be a keepsake beyond price: in short, I should sl@0: have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest licence sl@0: of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its sl@0: value. sl@0: sl@0: But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a sl@0: rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and sl@0: plundered dress was borne towards it the centre of a flushed sl@0: and boisterous group, just in time to greet the father, who sl@0: came home attended by a man laden with Christmas toys sl@0: and presents. Then the shouting and the struggling, and sl@0: the onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter! sl@0: The scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his sl@0: pockets, despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight sl@0: by his cravat, hug him round his neck, pommel his back, sl@0: and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! The shouts of sl@0: wonder and delight with which the development of every sl@0: package was received! The terrible announcement that the sl@0: baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying-pan sl@0: into his mouth, and was more than suspected of having sl@0: swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden platter! sl@0: The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy, sl@0: and gratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike. sl@0: It is enough that by degrees the children and their emotions sl@0: got out of the parlour, and by one stair at a time, up to the sl@0: top of the house; where they went to bed, and so subsided. sl@0: sl@0: And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, sl@0: when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning sl@0: fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his sl@0: own fireside; and when he thought that such another sl@0: creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might sl@0: have called him father, and been a spring-time in the sl@0: haggard winter of his life, his sight grew very dim indeed. sl@0: sl@0: "Belle," said the husband, turning to his wife with a sl@0: smile, "I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon." sl@0: sl@0: "Who was it?" sl@0: sl@0: "Guess!" sl@0: sl@0: "How can I? Tut, don't I know?" she added in the sl@0: same breath, laughing as he laughed. "Mr. Scrooge." sl@0: sl@0: "Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office window; and as sl@0: it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside, I could sl@0: scarcely help seeing him. His partner lies upon the point sl@0: of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in sl@0: the world, I do believe." sl@0: sl@0: "Spirit!" said Scrooge in a broken voice, "remove me sl@0: from this place." sl@0: sl@0: "I told you these were shadows of the things that have sl@0: been," said the Ghost. "That they are what they are, do sl@0: not blame me!" sl@0: sl@0: "Remove me!" Scrooge exclaimed, "I cannot bear it!" sl@0: sl@0: He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon sl@0: him with a face, in which in some strange way there were sl@0: fragments of all the faces it had shown him, wrestled with it. sl@0: sl@0: "Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer!" sl@0: sl@0: In the struggle, if that can be called a struggle in which sl@0: the Ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was sl@0: undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed sl@0: that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly sl@0: connecting that with its influence over him, he seized the sl@0: extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down sl@0: upon its head. sl@0: sl@0: The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher sl@0: covered its whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down sl@0: with all his force, he could not hide the light: which streamed sl@0: from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground. sl@0: sl@0: He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an sl@0: irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own sl@0: bedroom. He gave the cap a parting squeeze, in which his hand sl@0: relaxed; and had barely time to reel to bed, before he sank sl@0: into a heavy sleep. sl@0: sl@0: sl@0: STAVE III: THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS sl@0: sl@0: AWAKING in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sl@0: sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had sl@0: no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the sl@0: stroke of One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness sl@0: in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding sl@0: a conference with the second messenger despatched to him sl@0: through Jacob Marley's intervention. But finding that he sl@0: turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which sl@0: of his curtains this new spectre would draw back, he put sl@0: them every one aside with his own hands; and lying down sl@0: again, established a sharp look-out all round the bed. For sl@0: he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its sl@0: appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise, and sl@0: made nervous. sl@0: sl@0: Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves sl@0: on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually sl@0: equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their sl@0: capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for sl@0: anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which sl@0: opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and sl@0: comprehensive range of subjects. Without venturing for sl@0: Scrooge quite as hardily as this, I don't mind calling on you sl@0: to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of sl@0: strange appearances, and that nothing between a baby and sl@0: rhinoceros would have astonished him very much. sl@0: sl@0: Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by sl@0: any means prepared for nothing; and, consequently, when the sl@0: Bell struck One, and no shape appeared, he was taken with a sl@0: violent fit of trembling. Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter sl@0: of an hour went by, yet nothing came. All this time, he lay sl@0: upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy sl@0: light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the sl@0: hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than sl@0: a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it sl@0: meant, or would be at; and was sometimes apprehensive sl@0: that he might be at that very moment an interesting case of sl@0: spontaneous combustion, without having the consolation of sl@0: knowing it. At last, however, he began to think--as you or sl@0: I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not sl@0: in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done sl@0: in it, and would unquestionably have done it too--at last, I sl@0: say, he began to think that the source and secret of this sl@0: ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence, sl@0: on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea taking sl@0: full possession of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled in sl@0: his slippers to the door. sl@0: sl@0: The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange sl@0: voice called him by his name, and bade him enter. He sl@0: obeyed. sl@0: sl@0: It was his own room. There was no doubt about that. sl@0: But it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls sl@0: and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a sl@0: perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming sl@0: berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and sl@0: ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had sl@0: been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring sl@0: up the chimney, as that dull petrification of a hearth had sl@0: never known in Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many and sl@0: many a winter season gone. Heaped up on the floor, to form sl@0: a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, sl@0: great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, sl@0: mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, sl@0: cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, sl@0: immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that sl@0: made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy sl@0: state upon this couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to sl@0: see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike Plenty's sl@0: horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge, sl@0: as he came peeping round the door. sl@0: sl@0: "Come in!" exclaimed the Ghost. "Come in! and know sl@0: me better, man!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before this sl@0: Spirit. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and sl@0: though the Spirit's eyes were clear and kind, he did not like sl@0: to meet them. sl@0: sl@0: "I am the Ghost of Christmas Present," said the Spirit. sl@0: "Look upon me!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple sl@0: green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment sl@0: hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious breast was sl@0: bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any sl@0: artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the sl@0: garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other sl@0: covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining sl@0: icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its sl@0: genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, sl@0: its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded sl@0: round its middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword sl@0: was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust. sl@0: sl@0: "You have never seen the like of me before!" exclaimed sl@0: the Spirit. sl@0: sl@0: "Never," Scrooge made answer to it. sl@0: sl@0: "Have never walked forth with the younger members of sl@0: my family; meaning (for I am very young) my elder brothers sl@0: born in these later years?" pursued the Phantom. sl@0: sl@0: "I don't think I have," said Scrooge. "I am afraid I have sl@0: not. Have you had many brothers, Spirit?" sl@0: sl@0: "More than eighteen hundred," said the Ghost. sl@0: sl@0: "A tremendous family to provide for!" muttered Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: The Ghost of Christmas Present rose. sl@0: sl@0: "Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where sl@0: you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt sl@0: a lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught sl@0: to teach me, let me profit by it." sl@0: sl@0: "Touch my robe!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. sl@0: sl@0: Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, sl@0: poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, sl@0: fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly. So did the room, sl@0: the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood sl@0: in the city streets on Christmas morning, where (for the sl@0: weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and sl@0: not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the sl@0: pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of sl@0: their houses, whence it was mad delight to the boys to see sl@0: it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting sl@0: into artificial little snow-storms. sl@0: sl@0: The house fronts looked black enough, and the windows sl@0: blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow sl@0: upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground; sl@0: which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by sl@0: the heavy wheels of carts and waggons; furrows that crossed sl@0: and re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great sl@0: streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace sl@0: in the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy, sl@0: and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, sl@0: half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended sl@0: in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great sl@0: Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away sl@0: to their dear hearts' content. There was nothing very cheerful sl@0: in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of sl@0: cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest sl@0: summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain. sl@0: sl@0: For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops sl@0: were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another sl@0: from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious sl@0: snowball--better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest-- sl@0: laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it sl@0: went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open, and the sl@0: fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, round, sl@0: pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats sl@0: of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out sl@0: into the street in their apoplectic opulence. There were sl@0: ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish Onions, shining in sl@0: the fatness of their growth like Spanish Friars, and winking sl@0: from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went sl@0: by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe. There were sl@0: pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there sl@0: were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' benevolence sl@0: to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that people's mouths might sl@0: water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy sl@0: and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among sl@0: the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered sl@0: leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins, squat and swarthy, setting sl@0: off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great sl@0: compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and sl@0: beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after sl@0: dinner. The very gold and silver fish, set forth among sl@0: these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and sl@0: stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was sl@0: something going on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and sl@0: round their little world in slow and passionless excitement. sl@0: sl@0: The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! nearly closed, with perhaps sl@0: two shutters down, or one; but through those gaps such sl@0: glimpses! It was not alone that the scales descending on the sl@0: counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller sl@0: parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled sl@0: up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended sl@0: scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even sl@0: that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so sl@0: extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, sl@0: the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and sl@0: spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on sl@0: feel faint and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that the figs sl@0: were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in sl@0: modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that sl@0: everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but sl@0: the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful sl@0: promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other sl@0: at the door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left sl@0: their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to sl@0: fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in sl@0: the best humour possible; while the Grocer and his people sl@0: were so frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which sl@0: they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own, sl@0: worn outside for general inspection, and for Christmas daws sl@0: to peck at if they chose. sl@0: sl@0: But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and sl@0: chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in sl@0: their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. And at the sl@0: same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and sl@0: nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners sl@0: to the bakers' shops. The sight of these poor revellers sl@0: appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with sl@0: Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and taking off the sl@0: covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their sl@0: dinners from his torch. And it was a very uncommon kind sl@0: of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words sl@0: between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he sl@0: shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good sl@0: humour was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame sl@0: to quarrel upon Christmas Day. And so it was! God love sl@0: it, so it was! sl@0: sl@0: In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and sl@0: yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners sl@0: and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of sl@0: wet above each baker's oven; where the pavement smoked as sl@0: if its stones were cooking too. sl@0: sl@0: "Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from sl@0: your torch?" asked Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "There is. My own." sl@0: sl@0: "Would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?" sl@0: asked Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "To any kindly given. To a poor one most." sl@0: sl@0: "Why to a poor one most?" asked Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "Because it needs it most." sl@0: sl@0: "Spirit," said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, "I wonder sl@0: you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should sl@0: desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent sl@0: enjoyment." sl@0: sl@0: "I!" cried the Spirit. sl@0: sl@0: "You would deprive them of their means of dining every sl@0: seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said sl@0: to dine at all," said Scrooge. "Wouldn't you?" sl@0: sl@0: "I!" cried the Spirit. sl@0: sl@0: "You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day?" said sl@0: Scrooge. "And it comes to the same thing." sl@0: sl@0: "I seek!" exclaimed the Spirit. sl@0: sl@0: "Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your sl@0: name, or at least in that of your family," said Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, sl@0: "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, sl@0: pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness sl@0: in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and sl@0: kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge sl@0: their doings on themselves, not us." sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, sl@0: invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the sl@0: town. It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which sl@0: Scrooge had observed at the baker's), that notwithstanding sl@0: his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place sl@0: with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as sl@0: gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it was possible sl@0: he could have done in any lofty hall. sl@0: sl@0: And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in sl@0: showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind, sl@0: generous, hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor sl@0: men, that led him straight to Scrooge's clerk's; for there he sl@0: went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and sl@0: on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped sl@0: to bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinkling of his sl@0: torch. Think of that! Bob had but fifteen "Bob" a-week sl@0: himself; he pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his sl@0: Christian name; and yet the Ghost of Christmas Present sl@0: blessed his four-roomed house! sl@0: sl@0: Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out sl@0: but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, sl@0: which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence; and sl@0: she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of sl@0: her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master Peter sl@0: Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and sl@0: getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar (Bob's private sl@0: property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the sl@0: day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly sl@0: attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable Parks. sl@0: And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing sl@0: in, screaming that outside the baker's they had smelt the sl@0: goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious sl@0: thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced sl@0: about the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the sl@0: skies, while he (not proud, although his collars nearly choked sl@0: him) blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up, sl@0: knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out and sl@0: peeled. sl@0: sl@0: "What has ever got your precious father then?" said Mrs. sl@0: Cratchit. "And your brother, Tiny Tim! And Martha sl@0: warn't as late last Christmas Day by half-an-hour?" sl@0: sl@0: "Here's Martha, mother!" said a girl, appearing as she sl@0: spoke. sl@0: sl@0: "Here's Martha, mother!" cried the two young Cratchits. sl@0: "Hurrah! There's such a goose, Martha!" sl@0: sl@0: "Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are!" sl@0: said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off sl@0: her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal. sl@0: sl@0: "We'd a deal of work to finish up last night," replied the sl@0: girl, "and had to clear away this morning, mother!" sl@0: sl@0: "Well! Never mind so long as you are come," said Mrs. sl@0: Cratchit. "Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have sl@0: a warm, Lord bless ye!" sl@0: sl@0: "No, no! There's father coming," cried the two young sl@0: Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. "Hide, Martha, sl@0: hide!" sl@0: sl@0: So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, sl@0: with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe, sl@0: hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned sl@0: up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his sl@0: shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and sl@0: had his limbs supported by an iron frame! sl@0: sl@0: "Why, where's our Martha?" cried Bob Cratchit, looking sl@0: round. sl@0: sl@0: "Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit. sl@0: sl@0: "Not coming!" said Bob, with a sudden declension in his sl@0: high spirits; for he had been Tim's blood horse all the way sl@0: from church, and had come home rampant. "Not coming sl@0: upon Christmas Day!" sl@0: sl@0: Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only sl@0: in joke; so she came out prematurely from behind the closet sl@0: door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits sl@0: hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, sl@0: that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper. sl@0: sl@0: "And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit, sl@0: when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had sl@0: hugged his daughter to his heart's content. sl@0: sl@0: "As good as gold," said Bob, "and better. Somehow he sl@0: gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the sl@0: strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, sl@0: that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he sl@0: was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember sl@0: upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind sl@0: men see." sl@0: sl@0: Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and sl@0: trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing sl@0: strong and hearty. sl@0: sl@0: His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back sl@0: came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by sl@0: his brother and sister to his stool before the fire; and while sl@0: Bob, turning up his cuffs--as if, poor fellow, they were sl@0: capable of being made more shabby--compounded some hot sl@0: mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round sl@0: and round and put it on the hob to simmer; Master Peter, sl@0: and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the sl@0: goose, with which they soon returned in high procession. sl@0: sl@0: Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose sl@0: the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a sl@0: black swan was a matter of course--and in truth it was sl@0: something very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made sl@0: the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; sl@0: Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; sl@0: Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted sl@0: the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny sl@0: corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for sl@0: everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard sl@0: upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest sl@0: they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be sl@0: helped. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was sl@0: said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. sl@0: Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared sl@0: to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the sl@0: long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of sl@0: delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, sl@0: excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with sl@0: the handle of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah! sl@0: sl@0: There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe sl@0: there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and sl@0: flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal sl@0: admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, sl@0: it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as sl@0: Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small sl@0: atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at sl@0: last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest sl@0: Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to sl@0: the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed by Miss sl@0: Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone--too nervous to sl@0: bear witnesses--to take the pudding up and bring it in. sl@0: sl@0: Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should sl@0: break in turning out! Suppose somebody should have got sl@0: over the wall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they sl@0: were merry with the goose--a supposition at which the two sl@0: young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were sl@0: supposed. sl@0: sl@0: Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of sl@0: the copper. A smell like a washing-day! That was the sl@0: cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next sl@0: door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that! sl@0: That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit sl@0: entered--flushed, but smiling proudly--with the pudding, sl@0: like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half sl@0: of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with sl@0: Christmas holly stuck into the top. sl@0: sl@0: Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly sl@0: too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by sl@0: Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that sl@0: now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had sl@0: had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had sl@0: something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it sl@0: was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have sl@0: been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed sl@0: to hint at such a thing. sl@0: sl@0: At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the sl@0: hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the sl@0: jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges sl@0: were put upon the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts on the sl@0: fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in sl@0: what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and sl@0: at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass. sl@0: Two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle. sl@0: sl@0: These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as sl@0: golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with sl@0: beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and sl@0: cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed: sl@0: sl@0: "A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!" sl@0: sl@0: Which all the family re-echoed. sl@0: sl@0: "God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all. sl@0: sl@0: He sat very close to his father's side upon his little sl@0: stool. Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he sl@0: loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and sl@0: dreaded that he might be taken from him. sl@0: sl@0: "Spirit," said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt sl@0: before, "tell me if Tiny Tim will live." sl@0: sl@0: "I see a vacant seat," replied the Ghost, "in the poor sl@0: chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully sl@0: preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, sl@0: the child will die." sl@0: sl@0: "No, no," said Scrooge. "Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he sl@0: will be spared." sl@0: sl@0: "If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none sl@0: other of my race," returned the Ghost, "will find him here. sl@0: What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and sl@0: decrease the surplus population." sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by sl@0: the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. sl@0: sl@0: "Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not sl@0: adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered sl@0: What the surplus is, and Where it is. Will you decide what sl@0: men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that in the sl@0: sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live sl@0: than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God! to hear sl@0: the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life sl@0: among his hungry brothers in the dust!" sl@0: sl@0: Scrooge bent before the Ghost's rebuke, and trembling cast sl@0: his eyes upon the ground. But he raised them speedily, on sl@0: hearing his own name. sl@0: sl@0: "Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the sl@0: Founder of the Feast!" sl@0: sl@0: "The Founder of the Feast indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit, sl@0: reddening. "I wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece sl@0: of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good sl@0: appetite for it." sl@0: sl@0: "My dear," said Bob, "the children! Christmas Day." sl@0: sl@0: "It should be Christmas Day, I am sure," said she, "on sl@0: which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, sl@0: unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! sl@0: Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow!" sl@0: sl@0: "My dear," was Bob's mild answer, "Christmas Day." sl@0: sl@0: "I'll drink his health for your sake and the Day's," said sl@0: Mrs. Cratchit, "not for his. Long life to him! A merry sl@0: Christmas and a happy new year! He'll be very merry and sl@0: very happy, I have no doubt!" sl@0: sl@0: The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of sl@0: their proceedings which had no heartiness. Tiny Tim drank sl@0: it last of all, but he didn't care twopence for it. Scrooge sl@0: was the Ogre of the family. The mention of his name cast sl@0: a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full sl@0: five minutes. sl@0: sl@0: After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than sl@0: before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done sl@0: with. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his sl@0: eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full sl@0: five-and-sixpence weekly. The two young Cratchits laughed sl@0: tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man of business; sl@0: and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from sl@0: between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular sl@0: investments he should favour when he came into the receipt sl@0: of that bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor sl@0: apprentice at a milliner's, then told them what kind of work sl@0: she had to do, and how many hours she worked at a stretch, sl@0: and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for a sl@0: good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at sl@0: home. Also how she had seen a countess and a lord some sl@0: days before, and how the lord "was much about as tall as sl@0: Peter;" at which Peter pulled up his collars so high that you sl@0: couldn't have seen his head if you had been there. All this sl@0: time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and sl@0: by-and-bye they had a song, about a lost child travelling in sl@0: the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, sl@0: and sang it very well indeed. sl@0: sl@0: There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not sl@0: a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes sl@0: were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty; sl@0: and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside sl@0: of a pawnbroker's. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased sl@0: with one another, and contented with the time; and when sl@0: they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings sl@0: of the Spirit's torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon sl@0: them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last. sl@0: sl@0: By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty sl@0: heavily; and as Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets, sl@0: the brightness of the roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and sl@0: all sorts of rooms, was wonderful. Here, the flickering of sl@0: the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot sl@0: plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep sl@0: red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. sl@0: There all the children of the house were running out sl@0: into the snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, sl@0: uncles, aunts, and be the first to greet them. Here, again, sl@0: were shadows on the window-blind of guests assembling; and sl@0: there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted, sl@0: and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near sl@0: neighbour's house; where, woe upon the single man who saw sl@0: them enter--artful witches, well they knew it--in a glow! sl@0: sl@0: But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on sl@0: their way to friendly gatherings, you might have thought sl@0: that no one was at home to give them welcome when they sl@0: got there, instead of every house expecting company, and sl@0: piling up its fires half-chimney high. Blessings on it, how sl@0: the Ghost exulted! How it bared its breadth of breast, and sl@0: opened its capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring, with sl@0: a generous hand, its bright and harmless mirth on everything sl@0: within its reach! The very lamplighter, who ran on before, sl@0: dotting the dusky street with specks of light, and who was sl@0: dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out loudly sl@0: as the Spirit passed, though little kenned the lamplighter sl@0: that he had any company but Christmas! sl@0: sl@0: And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they sl@0: stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses sl@0: of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place sl@0: of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed, sl@0: or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner; sl@0: and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse rank grass. sl@0: Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery sl@0: red, which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a sl@0: sullen eye, and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in sl@0: the thick gloom of darkest night. sl@0: sl@0: "What place is this?" asked Scrooge. sl@0: sl@0: "A place where Miners live, who labour in the bowels of sl@0: the earth," returned the Spirit. "But they know me. See!" sl@0: sl@0: A light shone from the window of a hut, and swiftly they sl@0: advanced towards it. Passing through the wall of mud and sl@0: stone, they found a cheerful company assembled round a sl@0: glowing fire. An old, old man and woman, with their sl@0: children and their children's children, and another generation sl@0: beyond that, all decked out gaily in their holiday attire. sl@0: The old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the howling sl@0: of the wind upon the barren waste, was singing them a sl@0: Christmas song--it had been a very old song when he was a sl@0: boy--and from time to time they all joined in the chorus. sl@0: So surely as they raised their voices, the old man got quite sl@0: blithe and loud; and so surely as they stopped, his vigour sl@0: sank again. sl@0: sl@0: The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his sl@0: robe, and passing on above the moor, sped--whither? Not sl@0: to sea? To sea. To Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw sl@0: the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them; sl@0: and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it sl@0: rolled and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it sl@0: had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth.