A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - Full Audiobook

[Music] A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens [Music] preface I have endeavored in this ghostly little book to raise the ghost of an idea which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves with each other with the season all with me may it haunt their house pleasantly and No one wished to lay it their faithful friend and servant Charles Dickens December 1843 Stave one Marley's ghost Mali was dead to begin with there is no doubt whatever about that the register of his burial was signed by the clergyman the clerk The Undertaker and the chief

mourner Scrooge signed it and Scrooge's name was Good upon change for anything he chose to put his hand to old Marley was as dead as a doornail mind I don't mean to say that I know of my own knowledge what there is particularly Dead about a door nail I might have been inclined myself to regard a coffin nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade but the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile and my unhallowed hands Shall Not Disturb it or the country is done For you will therefore permit me to

repeat emphatically that Mali was as dead as a doornail Scrooge knew he was dead of course he did how could it be otherwise Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years Scrooge was his sole executor his sole administrator his soul a sign his soul residuary legate his soul friend and soul mourner and even Scrooge was not so Dreadfully cut up by the sad event but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral and solemnized it with an undoubted bargain The Mention Of Marley's funeral brings

me back to the point I started from there is no doubt that Mali was dead this must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story I'm going to relate if we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's father died before the play Began there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night in an easterly wind upon his own ramparts then there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot zace and Paul's churchyard for instance literally to astonish his son's weak mind Scrooge

never painted out old Marley's name there it stood years afterwards above the warehouse door Scrooge and Marley The Firm was known as Scrooge and Marley sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge and sometimes Mali but he answered to both names it was all the same to him oh but he was a tight fisted hand at the grindstone Scrooge a squeezing wrenching grasping scraping clutching Covetous old sinner hard and sharp as Flint from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire Secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster the cold within him froze

his old features nipped his pointed nose shriveled his cheek stiffened his gate made his eyes red his thin lips blew and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice a frosty rhyme was on his head and on his eyebrows and his wiry chin he carried his own low temperature always about with him he iced his office in the dog days and didn't thaw it one Degree at Christmas external heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge no warmth could warm no wintry weather chill him no wind that blue was bitterer than he no falling snow was

more intent upon its purpose no pelting rain Less open to entreaty foul weather didn't know where to have him the heaviest rain and snow and hail and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect they often Came down handsomely and Scrooge never did nobody ever stopped him in the street to say with glad some looks my dear Scrooge how are you when will you come to see me no Beggars implored him to bestow a trifle no children asked him what it was a clock no man or woman ever once in all

his life inquired the way to such and such a place of Scrooge even the blind men's dogs appeared to Know him and when they saw him coming on would tug their owners into doorways and up courts and then would wag their tails as though they said no I at all is better than an evil eye dark master but what did Scrooge care it was the very thing he liked to Edge his way along the crowded Paths of Life warning all human sympathy to keep its distance was what the knowing ones call nuts to Scrooge Once

Upon a Time of all the good days in The year on Christmas Eve old Scrooge sat busy in his Counting house it was cold Bleak biting weather foggy with all and he could hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down beating their hands upon their breasts and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them the city clocks had only just gone through but it was quite dark already it had not been light all day and Candles were flaring in the windows of the neighboring offices like Ruddy smears upon the

palpable Brown air the fog came pouring in at every and Keyhole and was so dense without that although the court was of the narrowest the houses opposite were mere Phantoms to see the dingy Cloud come drooping down obscuring everything one might have thought that nature lived hard by and was brewing on a large scale The door of Scrooge's Counting house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk who in a dismal little cell Beyond a sort of tank was copying letters Scrooge had a very small fire but the Clark's fire was so

very much smaller that it looked like one coal but he couldn't replenish it the Scrooge kept the coal box in his own room and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter and tried to warm himself at the candle in which effort not being a man of strong imagination he failed a Merry Christmas Uncle God's savior cried a cheerful voice it was the voice of Scrooge's nephew Who Came Upon him so quickly that this

was the first intimation he had of his approach said Scrooge humbug he had so heated himself with rapid Walking in the fog and frost this nephew of Scrooge's that he was all in a glow his face was Ruddy and handsome his eyes sparkled and his breath smoked again Christmas a humbug uncle said Scrooge's nephew you don't mean that I am sure I do said Scrooge Merry Christmas what right of you to be merry what reason have you to be merry you're poor enough come then Returned the nephew gaily what right of you to be dismal

what reason of you to be morose you're rich enough Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment said again and followed it up with Hamburg don't be cross uncle said the nephew what else can I be returned the uncle when I live in such a World of fools as this Merry Christmas out upon Merry Christmas what's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money a time for finding yourself a year older and not an hour richer a time for balancing your books and having every item in them

through a round dozen of months presented dead against you if I could work my will said Scrooge indignantly every idiot who goes about with merry Christmas on his Lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of Holly through his heart he should uncle pleaded the nephew nephew returned the uncle sternly keep Christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mind keep it repeated Scrooge's nephew but you don't keep it Let me leave it alone then said Scrooge Madge good mayor do you much good it has ever done

you there are many things from which I might have derived good by which I have not profited I dare say return to nephew Christmas among the rest but I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time when it has come round apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin if anything Belonging to it can be apart from that as a good time a kind forgiving charitable Pleasant time the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seen by one consent to open their shut

up Hearts freely and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other Journeys and therefore Uncle though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my Pocket I believe that it has done me good and will do me good and I say God bless it the clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety he poked the fire and extinguished the last frail spark forever let me hear another sound from you said Scrooge and

you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation You're quite a powerful speaker sir he added turning to his nephew I wonder you don't go into Parliament don't be angry Uncle come dine with us tomorrow Scrooge said that he would see him yes indeed he did he went the whole length of the expression and said that he would see him in that extremity first but why cried Scrooge's nephew why why did you get married Said Scrooge because I fell in love because you fell in love growled Scrooge as if that were the only one thing in

the world more ridiculous than a Merry Christmas good afternoon nay uncle but you never came to see me before that happened why give it as a reason for not coming now good afternoon said Scrooge I want nothing from you I ask nothing of you Why Can't We Be Friends good afternoon said Scrooge I am sorry with all my heart to find you so resolute we have never had any quarrel to which I have been a party but I have made the trial in homage to Christmas and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last So

a Merry Christmas uncle good afternoon said Scrooge and a Happy New Year good afternoon said Scrooge his nephew left the room without an angry word notwithstanding he stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clock who cold as he was was warmer than Scrooge for he returned them cordially There's another fellow muttered Scrooge Who overheard him Mike Clark with 15 Shillings a week and a wife and family talking about a Merry Christmas I'll retire to bedlam this lunatic in letting Scrooge's nephew out had let two other people in they

were portly gentlemen Pleasant to behold and now stood with their hats off in Scrooge's office they had books and papers in their hands and bowed to him Scrooge and Marley is I believe Said one of the gentlemen referring to his list have I the pleasure of addressing Mr Scrooge or Mr Marley Mr Marley has been dead these seven years Scrooge replied he died seven years ago this very night we have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner said the gentleman presenting his Credentials it certainly was for they had been two Kindred

Spirits at the ominous word liberality Scrooge frowned and shook his head and handed the credentials back at this festive season of the year Mr Scrooge said the gentleman taking up a pen it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute who suffer Greatly at the present time many thousands are in want of common necessaries hundreds of thousands are in want of common Comfort sir are there no prisons asked Scrooge plenty of Prisons said the gentleman laying down the pen again and the Union workhouses demanded Scrooge are

they still in operation They are still returned the gentleman I wish I could say they were not the treadmill and the poor law are in full Vigor then said Scrooge both very busy sir oh I was afraid from what you said at first that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course said Scrooge I am very glad to hear it Under the impression that they scarcely furnished Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude returned the gentleman a few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat

and drink and means of warmth we choose this time because it is a time of all others when want is keenly felt an abundance rejoices and what shall I put you down for nothing Scrooge replied you wish to be anonymous I wish to be left alone said Scrooge since you asked me what I wish gentlemen that is my answer I don't make Mary myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry I hope to support the establishments I have mentioned they cost enough and those who are badly off must go there many

can't go there and many would Rather die if they would rather die said Scrooge they had better do it and decrease the Surplus population besides excuse me I don't know that but you might know it observed the gentleman it's not my business Scrooge returned it's enough for a man to understand his own business and not to interfere with Other people's mine occupies me constantly good afternoon gentlemen seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point the gentleman withdrew Scrooge resumed his labors with an improved opinion of himself and in a more facetious temper

than was usual with him meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so that people ran about with flaring Links proffering their services to go before horses in carriages and conduct them on their way the ancient Tower of a church whose Gruff Old Bell was always peeping slightly down at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall became invisible and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there the cold became intense In the main street at the corner of the Court

some laborers were repairing the gas pipes and had lighted a great fire in abrasia around which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture the water plug being left in solitude it's overflowing suddenly congealed and turned to misanthropic ice the brightness of the shops where Holly sprigs and berries crackled in the Lamppete of the windows made pale faces Ruddy as they passed polteros and Grocer's trades became a splendid joke a glorious pageant with which it was next to impossible to believe that such

dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do the Lord mayor in the stronghold of the mighty mansion house gave orders to his 50 cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a lord mayor's household should and even the little tailor whom he had Fined five Shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets stirred up tomorrow's pudding in his Garrett while his lean wife and the baby sullied out to buy the beef foggia yet and colder piercing searching biting cold if the goods and Dunstan had but nipped the evil spirit's

nose with a touch of such weather as that instead of using his familiar weapons then indeed he Would have roared to Lusty purpose the owner of one scant young knows gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs stooped down at Scrooge's Keyhole to Regale him with A Christmas Carol but at the first sound of God bless you Mary gentlemen May nothing you dismay Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in Terror leaving the keyhole to the fog And even more congenial Frost at length the

hour of shutting up the counting house arrived with an ill will Scrooge dismounted from his stool and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the tank who instantly snuffed his candle out and put on his hat you'll want all day tomorrow I suppose said Scrooge if quite convenient sir it's not convenient Said Scrooge and it's not fair if I wish to stop half a crown for it you'd think yourself ill used I'll be bound the clerk smiled faintly and yet said Scrooge you don't think me illused when I pay a day's wages for

no work the clerk observed that it was only once a year a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December Said Scrooge buttoning his great coat to the chin but I suppose you must have the whole day be here all the earlier next morning the clerk promised that he would and Scrooge walked out with a growl the office was closed in a twinkling and the clerk with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist for he boasted no great coat went down a slide on Corn Hill at the end

of a lane Of boys 20 times in honor of it being Christmas Eve and then ran home to Camden town as hard as he could Pelt to play at Blind Man's buff Scrooge took his Melancholy dinner in his usual Melancholy Tavern and having read all the newspapers and beguiled the rest of the evening with his Bankers book went home to bed he lived in Chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner they were a gloomy Suite of rooms in a Lowering pile of building up a yard where it had so little business to be

that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house playing at hide and seek with other houses and have forgotten a way out again it was old enough now and dreary enough for nobody lived in it but Scrooge the other rooms being all let out as offices the yard was so dark that even Scrooge Who Knew its every stone was feigned to Grope with his hands the fog and frost so hung about the black old Gateway of the house that it seemed as if the genius of the weather

sat in mournful meditation on the threshold now it is a fact that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door except that it was very large it is also a fact that Scrooge had seen it night and morning during his whole residence in that place Also that Scrooge had as little of what is called Fancy about him as any man in the city of London even including which is a bold word the corporation Alderman and livery let it also be born in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Mali

since his last mention of his seven years dead partner that afternoon and then let any man explain to me if he can how it happened that Scrooge having his key in the lock of the door saw in The knocker without its undergoing any intermediate process of change not a knocker but Marley's face Marley's face it was not an impenetrable Shadow as the other objects in the yard were but had a dismal light about it like a bad Lobster in a dark cellar it was not angry or ferocious but looked at Scrooge as Mali used to

look with ghostly spectacles turned up on its Ghostly forehead the hair was curiously stirred as if by breath or hot air and though the eyes were wide open they were perfectly Motionless that and its livid color made it horrible but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and Beyond its control rather than a part of its own expression as Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon it was a knocker again To say that he was not startled or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a

stranger from infancy would be untrue but he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished turned it sturdily walked in and lighted his candle he did pause with a moment's irresolution before he shut the door and he did look cautiously behind it first as if he half expected to be terrified with the sight of Marley's Pigtail sticking out into the Hall but there was nothing on the back of the door except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on so he said poo poo and closed it with a bang the sound resounded through

the house like thunder every room above and every Cask in the wine merchant Cellars below appeared to have a separate peel of Echoes of its own Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes he fastened the door and walked across the hall and up the stairs slowly too trimming his candle as he went you may talk vaguely about driving a coach and six up a good old flight of stairs or through a bad young Act of Parliament but I mean to say you might have got a hearse of that staircase and taken it

broad wise with the Splinter bar towards The wall and the door towards the balustrades and done it easy there was plenty of width for that and room to spare which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before him in the Gloom half a dozen gas lamps out of the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge's dip up Scrooge went not carrying a button For that darkness is cheap and Scrooge liked it but before he shut his heavy

door he walked through his rooms to see that all was right he had just enough recollection of the face to desire to do that sitting room bedroom Lumber room all as they should be nobody under the table nobody under the sofa a small fire in the great spoon and Basin ready and the little saucepan of gruel Scrooge had a cold in his head upon the hob nobody under the bed nobody in the closet nobody in his dressing gown which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall Lumber room as usual old Fire Guard

old shoes two fish baskets washing stand on three legs and a poker quite satisfied he closed his door and locked himself in double locked himself in which was not His custom thus secured against surprise he took off his cravat put on his dressing gown and slippers and his night cap and sat down before the fire to take his gruel it was a very low fire indeed nothing on such a bitter night he was obliged to sit close to it and brood over it before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful

of fuel the fireplace was an old one built by Some Dutch Merchant long ago and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles designed to illustrate the scriptures there were canes and Abels Pharaoh's daughters Queens of Sheba Angelic Messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather beds Abrahams belshazzars Apostles putting off to Sea in butterboats hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts and yet that face of Mali seven years dead came like the ancient prophet's rod And swallowed up the hole if each smooth tile had been a blank at first with power to shape some

picture on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts there would have been a copy of old Marley's head on everyone handbag said Scrooge and walked across the room after several turns he sat down again as he threw his head back in the chair his glance happened to rest upon a bell A disused bell that hung in the room and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest story of the building it was with great astonishment and with a strange inexplicable dread that as he looked he saw this Bell begin

to swing it swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound but soon it rang out loudly and so did every Bell in the house This might have lasted half a minute or a minute but it seemed an hour the Bell ceased as they had begun together they were succeeded by a clanking noise deep down below as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant cellar Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains The Cellar Door flew open

with a booming sound and then he heard the noise much louder on the floors below then coming up the stairs then coming straight towards his door it's humbug still said Scrooge I won't believe it his color changed though when without a pause it came on through the heavy door and passed into the room before his eyes upon its coming in the dying flame Leaped up as though it cried I know him Marley's ghost and fell again the same face the very same Mali in his pigtail usual waistcoat tights and Boots the tassels on the latter

bristling like his pigtail and his coat skirts and the hair upon his head the chain he drew was clasped about his middle it was long and wound about him like a tail and it was made for Scrooge Observed it closely of cash boxes Keys padlocks ledgers deeds and heavy purses wrought in Steel his body was transparent so that Scrooge observing him and looking through his waistcoat could see the two buttons on his coat behind Scrooge had often heard it said that Mali had no bowels but he had never believed it until now nor did he

believe it even now though he looked the Phantom through and Through and saw it standing before him that we felt the chilling influence of its death cold eyes and marked the very texture of the folded kachief bound about its head and Chin which rapper he had not observed before he was still incredulous and fought against his senses how now said Scrooge caustic and cold as ever what do you want with me much Mali's voice no doubt about it who are you ask me who I was who were you then said Scrooge raising his voice your

particular for a shade he was going to say to a shade but substituted this as more appropriate in life I was your partner Jacob Marley can you can you sit down Asked Scrooge looking doubtfully at him I can do it then Scrooge asked the question because he didn't know whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair and felt that in the event of its being impossible it might involve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation but the ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace as if he

were Quite used to it you don't believe in me observed the ghost I don't said Scrooge what evidence would you have of My reality beyond that of your own senses I don't know said Scrooge why do you doubt your senses because said Scrooge A little thing affects them a slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheat you may be an undigested bit of beef a blood of mustard a crumb of cheese a fragment of an underdone potato there's more of gravy than of grave about you whatever you are Scrooge was not much in the habit

of cracking jokes nor did he feel in his heart by any means waggish then the truth is that he tried to be smart as a means of distracting his own Attention and keeping down his Terror for The specter's Voice Disturbed The Very marrow in his bones to sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence for a moment would play Scrooge felt the very Deuce with him there was something very awful too in the specters being provided with an infernal atmosphere of his own Scrooge could not feel it himself but this was clearly the case

for though the ghost sat perfectly Motionless its hair and skirts and tassels were still agitated as by the hot vapor from an oven you see this toothpick said Scrooge returning quickly to the charge for the reason just assigned and wishing though it were only for a second to divert the vision Stoney gaze from himself I do replied the ghost you are not looking at it Said Scrooge but I see it said the ghost notwithstanding well return Scrooge I have had to swallow this and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of

goblins all of my own creation Hamburg I tell you humbug at this the spirit raised a frightful cry and shook its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise that Scrooge Held on tight to his chair to save himself from falling in a swoon but how much greater was his horror when the Phantom taking off the bandage round his head as if it were too warm to wear indoors its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast Scrooge fell upon his knees and clasped his hands before his face Mercy he said Dreadful Apparition why do you

trouble me Man of the worldly mind replied the ghost do you believe in me or not I do said Scrooge I must but why do spirits walk the earth and why do they come to me it is required of every man the ghost returned let the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men and travel far and wide and if that Spirit goes not forth in life it is Condemned to do so after death it is doomed to wander through the world oh woe is me and witness what it cannot share but might

have shared on Earth and turned to happiness again the Specter raised a cry and shook its chain and rung its shadowy hands you are vetted said Scrooge trembling tell me why I wear the chain I forged in life replied the ghost I made it link by link and yard by yard I girded it on of my own free will and of my own free will I wore it is it pattern strange to you Scrooge trembled more and more or would you know pursued the ghost the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself

it was full as heavy and as long as this seven Christmas Eve's ago you have labored on it since it is a ponderous chain Scrooge glanced about him on the floor In the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some 50 or 60 fathoms of iron cable but he could see nothing Jacob he said imploringly oh Jacob Marley tell me more speak Comfort to me Jacob I have none to give the ghost replied it comes from other regions Ebenezer Scrooge and is conveyed by other Ministers to other kinds of men nor can I tell you what

I would a very little more is all permitted to me I cannot rest I cannot stay I cannot linger anywhere my spirit never walked beyond our Counting house Mark me in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole and weary Journeys lie before me it was a habit with Scrooge whenever he became thoughtful to put his hands in His breach's pockets pondering on what the ghost had said he did so now but without lifting up his eyes or getting off his knees you must have been very slow about it Jacob

Scrooge observed in a business-like manner though with humility and deference slow the ghost repeated seven years dead mused Scrooge and traveling all the time The whole time said the ghost No Rest no peace incessant torture of remorse you travel fast said Scrooge on the wings of the Wind replied the ghost you might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years said Scrooge the ghost on hearing this set up another cry and clanked its chain so hideously In the Dead Silence of the night that the ward would have been justified in indicting it

for a nuisance oh captive bound and double ironed cried the Phantom not to know that ages of incessant labor by Immortal creatures for this Earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed not to know that any Christian Spirit working kindly in its little sphere whatever it may be will find its Mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunities misused yet such was I no such was I but you were always a

good man of business Jacob faulted Scrooge Who now began to apply this to himself business cried the ghost wringing its hands again Mankind was my business the common welfare was my business charity Mercy forbearance and benevolence were all my business the dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business it held up its chain at arm's length as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief and flung it heavily upon the ground again at this time of the Rolling year The Specter said I suffer most

why did I walk through crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down and never raised them to that blessed star which led the wise men to a poor abode were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the Specter going on at this rate and began to Quake exceedingly hear me Cried the ghost my time is nearly gone I will said Scrooge but don't be hard upon me don't be flowery Jacob pray how it is that I appear before you in a shape that

you can see I may not tell I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day it was not an agreeable idea Scrooge shivered and wiped the Perspiration from his brow that is no light part of my penance pursued the ghost I am here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate a chance and hope of my procuring Ebenezer you are always a good friend to me said Scrooge thank you you will be haunted resumed the ghost By three spirits Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as

the ghosts had done is that the chance and hope you mentioned Jacob he demanded in a faltering voice it is I I think I'd rather not said Scrooge without their visits said the ghost you cannot hope to shun the path I tread Expect the first Tomorrow When the Bell Tolls one couldn't I take them all at once and have it over Jacob hinted Scrooge expect the second on the next night at the same hour the third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to vibrate look to see me no more

and look that for your own sake You'll remember what has passed between us when it had said these words the Specter took its wrapper from the table and bounded round its head as before Scrooge knew this by the smart sound its teeth made when the Jaws were brought together by the bandage he ventured to raise his eyes again and found his Supernatural visitor confronting him in an erect attitude with its chain wound over and about its Arm The Apparition walked backward from him and at every step it took the window raised itself a little so

that when the Specter reached it it was wide open it beckoned Scrooge to approach which he did when they were within two paces of each other Marley's ghost held up its hand warning him to come no nearer Scrooge stopped not so much in obedience as in Surprise And fear four on the raising of the hand he became sensible of confused noises in the air incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory the Specter after listening for a moment joined in the mournful dirge and floated out upon a bleak Dark Night Scrooge followed

to the window desperate in his curiosity he looked out The air was filled with Phantoms wandering hither and thither in Restless haste and moaning as they went every one of them wore chains like Marley's ghost some few they might be guilty governments were linked together none were free many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives he had been quite familiar with one old ghost in a white waistcoat with a monstrous iron safe attached to its Ankle who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant whom it saw below

Upon A doorstep the misery with the mole was clearly that they sought to interfere for good in human matters and had lost the power forever whether these creatures faded into mist or missed enshrouded them he could not tell but they and their Spirit voices faded Together and the night became as it had been when he walked home Scrooge closed the window and examined the door by which the ghost had entered it was double locked as he had locked it with his own hands and the bolts were undisturbed he tried to say Hamburg but stopped at

the first syllable and being from the emotions he had undergone all the fatigues of the day or His glimpse of the invisible world or the dull conversation of the ghost or the lateness of the hour much in need of repose went straight to bed without undressing and fell asleep upon the instant Stave 2 the first of the three spirits when Scrooge awoke it was so dark that looking out of bed he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber He was endeavoring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes when

the Chimes of a neighboring Church struck the four quarters so he listened for the hour to his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from six to seven and from seven to eight and regularly up to twelve then stopped twelve it was past two when he went to bed the clock was wrong An icicle must have got into the works 12. he touched the spring of his repeater to correct this most Preposterous clock its rapid little pulse beat 12 and stopped bye it isn't possible said Scrooge and that I kind of slept through a whole

day and far into another night it is impossible that anything has happened to the Sun and this is 12 at noon The idea being an alarming one he scrambled out of bed and groped his way to the window he was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing gown before he could see anything and could see very little then all he could make out was that it was still very foggy and extremely cold and that there was no noise of people running to and fro and making a great stir as their

unquestionably would have Been if Knight had beaten off bright day and taken possession of the world this was a great relief because three days after sight of this first of exchange pay to Mr Ebenezer Scrooge or his order and so forth would have become a mere United States security if there were no days to count by Scrooge went to bed again and thought and thought and thought it over and over and could make nothing of it the more he thought the more perplexed He was and the more he endeavored not to think the more he

thought mali's ghost bothered him exceedingly every time he resolved within himself after mature inquiry that it was all a dream his mind flew back again like a strong spring released to its first position and presented the same problem to be worked all through was it a dream or not Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters more when He remembered on a sudden that the ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell told one he resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed and considering that he could no

more go to sleep than go to heaven this was perhaps the wisest resolution in his power the quarter was so long that he was more than once convinced he must have sunk into a doze unconsciously and missed the clock At length it broke upon his listening ear ding dong a quarter past said Scrooge Counting ding dong half past said Scrooge ding dong accorded to it said Scrooge ding dong The hour itself said Scrooge triumphantly and nothing else he spoke before the hour Bell sounded which it now did with a deep dull Hollow Melancholy one light

flashed up in the room upon the instant and the curtains of his bed were drawn the curtains of his bed were drawn aside I tell you by a hand Not the curtains at his feet nor the curtains at his back but those to which his face was addressed the curtains of his bed were drawn aside and Scrooge starting up into a half recumbent attitude found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them as close to it as I am now to you and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow It

was a strange figure like a child yet not so like a child as like an old man viewed through some Supernatural medium which gave him the appearance of having receded from The View and being diminished to a child's proportions its hair which hung about its neck and down its back was white as if with age and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it and the tenderist bloom was on the skin the arms were very long and muscular the hands the same as if it's hold were Of uncommon strength its legs and feet most

delicately formed were like those upper members bear it wore a tunic of the purest white and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt the sheen of which was beautiful it held a branch of fresh green Holly in its hand and in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem had its dress trimmed with summer flowers but the strangest thing about it was that from the crown of its head there Sprang a bright clear jet of Light by which all of this was visible and which was doubtless the occasion of its using in its duller moments a

great extinguisher for a cap which it now held under its arm even this though when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness was not its strangest quality for as its belt sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another and what was light one instant at another Time was dark so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness being now a thing with one arm now with one leg now with 20 legs now a pair of legs without a head now a head without a body of which dissolving Parts no outline would be visible

in the dense Gloom wherein they melted away and in the very Wonder of this it would be itself again distinct and clear as ever Are you the spirit sir whose coming was foretold to me asked Scrooge I am the voice was soft and gentle singularly low as if instead of being so close behind him it were at a distance who and what are you Scrooge demanded I am the Ghost of Christmas Past long past inquired Scrooge observant of its Dwarfish stature no your past perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why if anybody could have

asked him but he had a special desire to see the spirit in his cap and begged him to be covered what exclaimed the ghost would you soon put out with worldly Hands the light I give is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap and force me through whole trains of years to where it low upon my brow Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any knowledge of having willfully bonneted the spirit at any period of his life he then made bold to inquire what business brought him there

your welfare Said the ghost Scrooge expressed himself much obliged but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end the spirit must have heard him thinking for it said immediately your Reclamation then take heed it put out its strong hand as it spoke and clasped him gently by the arm rise and walk with me It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes that bed was warm and the thermometer a long way below freezing

that he was clad but lightly in his slippers dressing gown and nightcap and that he had a cold upon him at that time the grasp though gentle as a woman's hand was not to be resisted he rose but finding that the spirit made towards The window clasped its robe in supplication I am immortal Scrooge remonstrated and liable to fall bear butter Touch of my hand there said the spirit laying it upon his heart and you shall be upheld in more than this as the words were spoken they passed through the wall and stood upon an

Open Country Road with fields on either hand the city had entirely vanished not a Vestige of it was to be seen the darkness and the Mist had vanished with it for it was a clear cold winter day with snow upon the ground good heaven said Scrooge clasping his hands together as he looked about him I was bred in this place I was a boy here the spirit gazed upon Him mildly it's gentle touch though it had been light and instantaneous appeared still Present to the old man's sense of feeling he was conscious of a thousand

odors floating in the air each one connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and joys and cares long long forgotten your lip is trembling said the ghost and what is that upon your cheek Scrooge muttered with an unusual catching in his voice but it was a pimple And he begged the ghost to lead him where he would he'll recollect the way inquired the spirit remember it cried Scrooge with further I could walk it blindfold strange to have forgotten it for so many years observed the ghost let us go on they walked along the road Scrooge

Recognizing every gate and post and tree until a little market Town appeared in the distance with its Bridge its church and winding River some Shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their backs who called to other boys in country gigs and carts driven by farmers all these boys were in great spirits and shouted to each other until the broad Fields were so full of Merry music that the crisp air laughed to hear it These are but Shadows of the things that have been said the ghost they have no consciousness of us

The jockand Travelers came on and as they came Scrooge knew and named them everyone why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them why did his cold eye glisten and his heart leap up as they went past why was he filled with gladness when he Heard them give each other merry Christmas as they parted at Crossroads and byways for their several homes what was Merry Christmas to Scrooge out upon Merry Christmas what good had it ever done to him the school is not quite deserted said the ghost a solitary child neglected by his friends

is left there still Scrooge said he knew it and he sobbed They left the high road by a well-remembered lane and soon approached a mansion of dull red brick with a little weather Cox a mounted cupola on the top and a bell hanging in it it was a large house but one of broken fortunes for the spacious offices were little used their walls were damp and mossy their Windows broken and their Gates decayed fouls clucked and strutted in the stables and the coach horses and sheds Were overrun with grass nor was it more retentive of

its ancient state within for entering the dreary Hall and glancing through the open doors of many rooms they found them poorly furnished cold and vast there was an earthy Saver in the air a chilly bareness in the place which Associated itself somehow with too much getting up by candlelight and not too much to eat They went The Ghost and Scrooge across the hall to a door at the back of the house it opened before them and disclosed a long bare Melancholy room made Bearer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks at one of

these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire and Scrooge sat down upon a form and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used to be Not a latent echo in the house not a squeak can scuffle from the mice behind the paneling not a drip from the half thawed waterspout in the dull yard behind not a sigh among the leafless bows of one despondent Poplar not the idle swinging of an empty Storehouse door no not a clicking in the fire but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with softening influence and

gave a Freer passage to his tears The spirit touched him on the arm and pointed to his younger self intent upon his reading suddenly a man in foreign garments wonderfully real and distinct to look at stood outside the window with an ax stuck in his belt and leading by the Bridle an ass Laden with wood why it's Alibaba Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy it's dear old honest Alibaba yes yes I know one Christmas time when Yonder solitary Child was left here all alone he did come for the first time just like that poor boy and Valentine

said Scrooge and his wild brother Orson there they go and what's his name who was put down in his drawers Asleep At the Gate of Damascus oh don't you see him and the Sultan's groom turned upside down by the genie and there he is upon his head serve him right I'm glad of it what business had he to be married to the princess to hear Scrooge expending all the Earnestness of his nature on such subjects in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying and to see his heightened and excited face would have been a

surprise to his business friends in the city indeed there's the parrot cried Scrooge green buddy and Yellow Tail with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head oh there he is poor robin Crusoe he called him when he came home again after sailing round The island poor robin Crusoe Where Have You Been robin Crusoe the man thought he was dreaming but he wasn't it was the parrot you know there goes Friday running for his life to the Little Creek hello hoop hello then with a rapidity of transition very foreign to

his usual character he said in pity for his former self poor boy and cried again I wish Screwed muttered putting his hand in his pocket and looking about him after drying his eyes with his cuff but it's too late now what is the matter ask the spirit nothing said Scrooge nothing there was a boy singing A Christmas Carol at my door last night I should like to have given him Something that's all the ghost smiled thoughtfully and waved its hand saying as it did so let us see another Christmas Scrooge's former self grew larger at

the words and the room became a little darker and more dirty the panels Shrunk the windows cracked fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling and the naked lards were shown instead But how all this was brought about Scrooge knew no more than you do he only knew that it was quite correct that everything had happened so there he was alone again when all the other boys had gone home for the Jolly holidays he was not reading now but walking up and down despairingly Scrooge looked at The Ghost and with a mournful shaking of his

head glanced anxiously towards the door It opened and a little girl much younger than the boy came darting in and putting her arms about his neck and often kissing him addressed him as her dear dear brother I have come to bring you home dear brother said the child clapping her tiny hands and bending down to laugh to bring you home home home little fan returned the boy Yes said the child brim full of Glee home for good and all home forever and ever so much Kinder than he used to be that homes like heaven he

spoke so gently to me one day and night when I was going to bed that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home and he said yes you should and sent me in a coach to bring you and you're to be a man Said the child opening her eyes and a never to come back here but first we're to be together all the Christmas long and have the merriest time in all the world you are quite a woman little fan exclaimed the boy she clapped her hands and laughed and

tried to touch his head but being too little laughed again and stood on tiptoe to embrace him then she began to drag him in her Childish eagerness towards the door and he nothing loathed to go accompanied her a terrible voice in the hall cried bring down Master Scrooge's box there and in the hall appeared the school Master himself who glared on Master Scrooge with a ferocious condescension and threw him into a dreadful State of Mind by shaking hands with him he then conveyed him and his sister into the various old well of a shivering best

Parlor that ever was seen where the maps upon the wall and the celestial and terrestrial globes in the windows were waxy with cold here he produced a decanter of curiously Light wine and a block of curiously heavy cake and administered installments of those dainties to the young people at the same time sending out a meager servant to offer a glass of something to the post-boy who answered that he thanked the gentleman but if it was the Same tap as he had tasted before he had rather not must a scrooge his trunk being by this time

tied onto the top of the shares the children bad the school Master goodbye write willingly and getting into it drove gayly down the garden sweep the quick Wheels dashing the horfrost and snow from off the dark leaves of the Evergreens like spray always a delicate creature whom a breath might have withered Said the ghost but she had a large heart so she had cried Scrooge you're right I will not gain Sayed Spirit God forbid she died a woman said the ghost and had as I think children one child Scrooge returned true Said the ghost your

nephew Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind and answered briefly yes although they had but that moment left the school behind them they were now in the busy thorough Affairs of a city where shadowy passengers passed and repast where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way and all the strife and tumult of a real city were It was made plain Enough by the dressing of the shops that here too it was Christmas time again but it was evening and the streets were lighted up the ghost stopped at a certain Warehouse door and asked Scrooge if

he knew it no it said Scrooge was I apprenticed here they went in at sight of an Old Gentleman in a Welsh Wig sitting behind such a high desk that if he had been two inches taller he must have knocked his head against the ceiling Scrooge cried in great excitement my it's old fuzzy wig bless his heart it's fuzzy wig alive again old fuzzy wig laid down his pen and looked up at the clock which pointed to the hour of seven he rubbed his hands adjusted his capacious waistcoat laughed all over Himself from his shoes

to his organ of benevolence and called out in a comfortably oily Rich fat jovial voice Yoho there Ebenezer dick Scrooge's for myself now grown to a young man came briskly in accompanied by his fellow Apprentice Wilkins to be sure said Scrooge to the ghost bless me yes there he is he was very much attached to me was Dick poor dick dear dear Yoho my boys said fizzy wig no more work tonight Christmas Eve dick Christmas Eve Ebenezer let's have the shutters up cried old fuzzy wig with a sharp clap of his hands before a man

can say Jack Robinson you wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it they charged into the street with the shutters one two three had em up in their places four five six bardham and pindom 789 and came back before you could have got to twelve panting like racehorses hilly ho cried old fuzzy wig skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility clear away my Lads and let's have lots of room here hilly hoe dick cheer up Ebenezer clear away there was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away or couldn't have cleared away with old

fuzzy wig looking on it Was done in a minute every movable was packed off as if it were dismissed from public life forever the floor was swept and watered the lamps were trimmed fuel was heaped upon the fire and the warehouse was a snug and warm and dry and bright to Ballroom as you would desire to see upon a Winter's Night in came a fiddler with a music book and went up to the lofty desk and made an orchestra of it and tuned like 50 Stomach aches in came Mrs fizzywig one vast substantial smile in

came the three Miss fuzzy wigs beaming and lovable in came the six young followers whose Hearts they broke in came all the young men and women employed in the business in came the housemaid with her cousin the baker in came the cook with her brother's particular friend the milkman in came the boy from Over the way who Was suspected of not having bored enough from his master trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress in they all came one after

another some shyly some boldly some gracefully some awkwardly some pushing some pulling in they all came any how and every how away they all went 20 couple at once hands half round and back again the other way down the middle and up again Round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping old top couple always turning up in the wrong place new top couple starting off again as soon as they got there all top couples at last and not a bottom one to help them when this result was brought about old fezzy wig clapping his

hands to stop the dance cried out well done and the Fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of Porter especially provided for that purpose But scorning rest upon his reappearance he instantly began again though there were no dancers yet as if the other Fiddler had been carried home exhausted on a shutter and he were a brand new man resolved to beat him out of sight or perish there were more dances and there were more forfeits and more dances and there was cake and there was negus and there was a great piece of cold roast

and there was a great piece of Cold boiled and there were mince pies and plenty of beer but the great effect of the evening came after the roast and boiled when the Fiddler an Artful dog mind the sort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told it him struck up Sir Roger to coverly then old fuzzy wig stood out to dance with Mrs fezzy wig top couple too with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them three or four and twenty pair of Partners people who were not

to be trifled with people who would dance and had no notion of walking but if they had been twice as many ah four times old fuzzy wig would have been a match for them and so would Mrs fezzy wig as to her she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term if that's not High Praise tell me higher and I'll use it a positive light appeared to issue from Fezzy wig's calves they Shone in every part of the dance like moons you couldn't have predicted at any given time what would become

of them next and when old fuzzy wig and Mrs fezzywig had gone all through the dance advance and retire both hands to your partner bow and curtsy Corkscrew thread the needle and back again to your place fezzy wig cut cut so deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs and came upon his feet Again without a stagger when the Clock Struck 11 this domestic ball broke up Mr and Mrs fezzywig took their stations one on either side the door and shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went out wished him or

her a Merry Christmas when everybody had retired but the two prentices they did the same to them and thus the cheerful voices died away and the lads were left to their beds which Were under a counter in the back shop during the whole of this time Scrooge had acted like a man out of his wit his heart and soul were in the scene and with his former self he corroborated everything remembered everything enjoyed everything and underwent the strangest agitation it was not until now when the bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned

from them that he remembered The Ghost and became conscious that it was Looking full upon him while the light upon its head burnt very clear a small matter said the ghost to make these silly folks so full of gratitude small echoed Scrooge the spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices who were pouring out their hearts in Praise of fezzy wig and when he had done so said Why is it not he has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money three or four perhaps is that so much that he deserves this

praise it isn't that said Scrooge heated by the remark and speaking unconsciously like his former not his latter self it isn't that spirit He has the power to render us happy or unhappy to make our service light top burdensome a pleasure or a toil say that his power lies in words and looks in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them up but then the happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune he felt the spirits glance and stopped what is the matter ask the

ghost Nothing particular said Scrooge something I think the ghost insisted no said Scrooge no I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now that's all his former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance to the wish And Scrooge and the ghost again stood side by side in the open air my time grows short observed the spirit quick this was not addressed to Scrooge or to anyone whom he could see but it produced an immediate effect for again Scrooge saw himself he was older now a man

in the prime of life his face had not the harsh and rigid Lines of later years but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice there was an eager greedy Restless Motion in the eye which showed the passion that had taken root and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall he was not alone but Sat by the side of a fair young girl in a morning dress in whose eyes there were tears which sparkled in the light that Shone now to the Ghost of Christmas Past it matters little she said

Softly to you very little another Idol has displaced me and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come as I would have tried to do I have no just cause to grieve what Idol has displaced you he rejoined a golden one this is the even-handed dealing of the World he said there is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth you fear the world too much she answered gently all your other hopes have merged into the

hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach I have seen your Noble aspirations fall off one by one until the master passion Gain engrosses you have I not what then he retorted even if I have grown so much wiser what then I am not changed towards you she shook her head am I our contract is an old one it was made when we were both poor and content to be so until in good season we could improve Our worldly Fortune by our patient industry you are changed when it was made you were another

man I was a boy he said impatiently your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are she returned I am that which promised happiness when we were one in Hearts is fraught with Misery now that we are too how often and how keenly I have thought of this I will not say it is enough that I have thought of it and can release you have I ever sought release in words no never in what then in a changed nature in an altered spirit in another atmosphere of life Another hope as its great

end in everything that made my love of any Worth or value in your sight if this had never been between us said the girl looking mildly but with steadiness upon him tell me would you seek me out and try to win me now ah no he seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition in spite of himself But he said with a struggle you think not I would gladly think otherwise if I could she answered heaven knows when I have learned a truth like this I know how strong and irresistible it must be but

if you were free today tomorrow yesterday can even I believe that you would choose a dourless girl you who in your very confidence with her Weigh everything by gain or choosing her if for a moment you are false enough to your one guiding principle to do so do I not know that your repentance and regret would surely follow I do and I release you with a full heart For the Love of him you once were he was about to speak but with her head turned from him she resumed you may the memory of what is

past half makes me Hope you will have pain in this a very very brief time and you will dismiss the recollection of it gladly as an unprofitable dream from which it happened well that you awoke may you be happy in the life you have chosen she left him and they parted spirit Said Scrooge show me no more conduct me home why do you Delight to torture me one Shadow more exclaimed the ghost no more cried Scrooge no more I don't wish to see it show me no more but the Relentless ghost pinioned him in both

his arms and forced him to observe what happened next they were in another scene and place a room not very large or handsome but Full of comfort near to the winter fire set a beautiful young girl so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same until he saw her now a comely matron sitting opposite her daughter the noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous for there were more children there than Scrooge in his agitated State of Mind could count And unlike the celebrated herd in the poem they were not 40 children conducting themselves

like one but every child was conducting itself like 40. the consequences were uproarious beyond belief but no one seemed to care on the contrary the mother and daughter laughed heartily and enjoyed it very much and the latter soon beginning to mingle in the sports got pillaged by the young Brigands most ruthlessly what would I not have given to be one of them though I never could have been so rude no no I wouldn't for the wealth of all the world have crushed that braided hair and torn it down and for the precious little shoe I

wouldn't have plucked it off God bless my soul to save my life as to measuring her waist in sport as they did bold young brood I couldn't Have done it I should have expected my arm to have grown rounded for a punishment and never come straight again and yet I should have dearly liked I own to have touched her lips to have questioned her that she might have opened them to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes and never raised a blush to have let loose waves of hair an inch of which would

be a Keepsake Beyond price In short I should have liked I do confess to have had the lightest license of a child and yet to have been man enough to know its value but now a knocking at the door was heard and such a rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and plundered dress was born towards it in the center of a flushed and boisterous group just in time to greet the father who came home attended by a man Laden with Christmas toys and presents Then the shouting and the struggling and the onslaught that

was made on the defenseless Porter the scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his pockets to spoil him of brown paper Parcels Hold On Tight by his cravat hug him round his neck Pummel his back and kick his legs in irrepressible affection the shouts of Wonder and Delight with which the development of every package was received the terrible announcement that the baby Had been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying pan into his mouth and was more than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey glued on a wooden platter the immense

relief of finding this a false alarm the joy and gratitude and ecstasy they are all Indescribable alike it is enough that by degrees the children and their emotions got out of the Parlor and by one stare at a time up To the top of the house where they went to bed and so subsided and now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever when the Master of the House having his daughter leaning fondly on him sat down with her and her mother at his own Fireside and when he thought that such another creature quite as graceful

and as full of Promise might have called him father and been a springtime in the Haggard winter of his life His sight grew very dim indeed Belle said the husband turning to his wife with a smile I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon who was it guess How can I Tut don't I know she added in the same breath laughing as he laughed Mr Scrooge Mr Scrooge it was I passed his office window and as it was not shut up and he had a candle inside I could scarcely help seeing him his partner

lies upon the point of death I hear and there he sat alone quite alone in the world I do believe spirit said Scrooge in a broken voice remove me from this place I told you these were Shadows of the things that have been Said the ghost that they are what they are do not blame me remove me Scrooge exclaimed I cannot bear it he turned upon the ghost and seeing that it looked upon him with a face in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces it had shown him wrestled with

it leave me take me back haunt me no longer in the struggle if that can be called a Struggle in which the ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary Scrooge observed that its light was burning high and bright and dimly connecting that with its influence over him he seized the extinguisher cap and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head the spirit dropped beneath it so that the extinguisher covered its whole form But those Scrooge pressed it down with all his Force he could

not hide the light which streamed from under it in an unbroken flood upon the ground he was conscious of being exhausted and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness and further of being in his own bedroom he gave the cap a parting squeeze in which his hand relaxed and had barely timed to reel to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep Stave 3. the second of the three spirits awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the Bell

was again upon the stroke of one he felt that he was restored to Consciousness in the right nick of time for the a special purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger dispatched to him through Jacob Marley's Intervention but finding that he turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this new Specter would draw back he put them every one aside with his own hands and lying down again established a sharp Lookout around the bed for he wished to challenge the spirit on the moment of its appearance and did not

wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous Gentlemen of the free and easy sort who plume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two and being usually equal to the time of day Express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch and toss to manslaughter between which opposite extremes no doubt their lies are tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects without venturing for Scrooge quite as Hardly as this I don't mind calling on you to believe that he was ready for a good broad

field of strange appearances and that nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros would have astonished him very much now being prepared for almost anything he was not by any means prepared for nothing and consequently when the bell struck one and no shape appeared he was taken with a violent fit of trembling Five minutes ten minutes a quarter of an hour went by yet nothing came all this time he lay upon his bed the very core and center of a blaze of Ruddy light which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour and which being

only light was more alarming than a dozen ghosts as he was powerless to make out what it meant or would be at and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that Very moment an interesting case of spontaneous combustion without having the consolation of knowing it at last however he began to think as you or I would have thought at first for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it and would unquestionably have done it too at last I say he began to think that

the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the Adjoining room from went on further tracing it it seemed to shine this idea taking full possession of his mind he got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the door the moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock a strange voice called him by his name and bad him enter he obeyed it was his own room there was no doubt about that but it had undergone a surprising Transformation the walls and ceiling were so hung with living green that it looked a perfect Grove

from every part of which bright gleaming berries glistened the crisp leaves of Holly mistletoe and Ivy reflected back the light as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there and such a mighty Blaze went roaring up the chimney as that dull petrification Of a hearth had never known in Scrooge's time or mali's or for many and many a winter season gone heaped up on the floor to form a kind of Throne where turkeys geese game poultry Brawn great joints of meat sucking pigs long wreaths of sausages mint pies Plum puddings barrels of oysters red

hot chestnuts Cherry cheeked apples juicy oranges luscious pears immense 12th cakes and seething bowls of punch that made the chamber dim with their Delicious Steam in Easy State upon this couch there sat a jolly giant glorious to see Who Bore a glowing torch in shape not unlike plenty's horn and held it up high up to shed its light on Scrooge as he came peeping round the door come in exclaimed the ghost come in and know me better man Scrooge entered timidly and hung his head before this spirit He was not the dogged Scrooge he had

been and though the spirit's eyes were clear and kind he did not like to meet them I am the Ghost of Christmas present said the spirit look upon me Scrooge reverently did so it was clothed in one simple deep green robe or mantle ordered with white fur this garment hung so loosely on the figure that its capacious breast was Bare as if disdaining to be warded or Concealed by any artifice its feet observable beneath the ample folds of the Garment were also bare and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath

set here and there with shining icicles it's dark brown curls were long and free is its genial face its sparkling eye its open hand its cheery voice its unconstrained demeanor and its joyful air girded round its middle was an antique Scabbard but no sword was in it and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust you have never seen the like of me before exclaimed the spirit never Scrooge made answer to it have never walked forth with the younger members of my family meaning for I am very young my Elder brothers born in these later

years pursued the Phantom I don't think I have said Scrooge I am afraid I have not have you had many brothers spirit more than 1800. said the ghost a tremendous family to provide for muttered Scrooge the Ghost of Christmas present Rose spirit said Scrooge submissively conduct me where you will I went forth last night on compulsion and I learned a Lesson which is working now tonight if you have ought to teach me let me profit by it touch my robe Scrooge did as he was told and held it fast Holly mistletoe red berries Ivy turkeys

geese game poultry Brawn meat pigs sausages oysters pies puddings fruit and punch all vanished instantly so did the room the fire the Ruddy glow the hour of night And they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning where for the weather was severe the people made a rough but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music in scraping the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings and from the tops of their houses when Sid was mad Delight to the boys to see it come Plumping down into the road below and splitting into artificial little

snowstorms the house fronts looked black enough And the windows blacker contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs and with the dirtiest snow upon the ground which last deposit had been plowed up in deep furrows by The Heavy Wheels of carts and wagons furrows that crossed and re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great streets branched off and made intricate channels hard to trace in the thick yellow mud and icy water The sky was gloomy and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy Mist half thawed half Frozen whose heavier

particles descended in a shower of atoms as if all the Chimneys in Great Britain had by one consent caught fire and were blazing away to their dear Hearts content there was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad but the clearest summer air and brightest Summer Sun might have endeavored to diffuse in vain for the people who were shoveling away on the housetops were jovial and full of Glee calling out to one another from parapets and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball better natured missile

farther than many a wordy jest laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong the pultural shops were still half open And the fruitaras were radiant in their Glory there were great round pot bellied baskets of chestnuts shaped like the waistcoats of Jolly Old gentlemen lolling at the doors and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence they were Ruddy brown-faced broad-girth Spanish onions shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish friars and winking from their shelves in wanton Slyness at the girls as they went by and glanced

demurely at the hung up mistletoe there were pears and apples clustered high in Blooming pyramids there were Bunches of grapes made in the shopkeepers benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks that people's mouths might water Gratis as they passed there were piles of filberts Mossy and brown recalling in their fragrance ancient walks among the woods and Pleasant shufflings anchored deep through withered leaves there were Norfolk biffins squab and swarthy setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons and in the great compactness of their juicy persons urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper

bags and eaten after dinner the very gold and silver fish set forth among these Choice fruits in a bowl though members of a dull and stagnant Blooded race appeared to know that there was something going on and to a fish went gasping round and round their little world in slow and passionless excitement the Grocers oh the grossers nearly closed with perhaps two shutters down or one but through those gaps such glimpses it was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound or that the twine and roller parted company so briskly

or that the Canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks or even that the Blended sense of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare the almonds so extremely white the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight the other spices so delicious the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest Lookers on feel faint and subsequently bilious nor was it that the figs were moist and Plumpy or that the French plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly

decorated boxes all that everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress but the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day that they tumbled up against each other at the door crashing their wicker baskets wildly and left their purchases upon the counter and came running back to fetch them and committed Hundreds of the like mistakes in the best humor possible while the grosser and his people were so Frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own worn

outside for General inspection and for Christmas doors to Peck at if they chose but soon the Steeples called good people all to church and chapel and away they came flocking through the streets in their best clothes and with their gayest Faces and at the same time they're emerged from scores of by streets lanes and nameless turnings innumerable people carrying their dinners to the baker's shops the site of these poor revelers appeared to interest the spirit very much for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway and taking off the covers as their bearers

passed sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch And it was a very uncommon kind of torch for once or twice when there were Angry Words between some dinner carriers who would jostled each other he shed a few drops of water on them from it and their Good Humor was restored directly for they said it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day and so it was God love it so it was in time the Bell ceased and the Bakers were shut up and yet there was a genial shadowing Forth of all these dinners and

the progress of their cooking in the thawed blotch of wet above each Baker's oven where the pavement smoked as if its Stones were cooking too is there a peculiar flavor in what you sprinkle from your torch asked Scrooge there is my own would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day asked Scrooge To any kindly given to a poor one most why to a poor one most Scrooge because it needs it most spirit said Scrooge after a moment's thought I wonder you of all the beings in the many worlds about us should desire

to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment I cried the spirit You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all said Scrooge wouldn't you I cried the spirit you seek to close these places on the seventh day said Scrooge and it comes to the same thing I seek exclaimed the spirit forgive me if I am wrong it has been done in your name or at least in that of your family said Scrooge there are some upon this Earth of

yours return to Spirit who lay claim to know us and who do their deeds of passion Pride ill will hatred Envy bigotry unselfishness in our name who are estranged to us and all our kith and kin As if they had never lived remember that and charge their doings on themselves not us Scrooge promised that he would and they went on invisible as they had been before into the suburbs of the town it was a remarkable quality of the ghost which Scrooge had observed at the Bakers but notwithstanding his gigantic size he could accommodate himself to

any place with ease and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like a Supernatural creature as it was possible he could have done in any lofty Hall and perhaps it was the pleasure the good spirit had in showing off this power of His or else it was his own kind generous hearty nature and his sympathy with all poor men that led him straight to Scrooge his Clerks for there he went and took Scrooge with him holding to his robe and on the threshold of the door the spirit smiled and stopped to

bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings of his torch think of that Bob had but 15 Bob a week himself he pocketed on Saturdays but 15 copies of his Christian name and yet the Ghost of Christmas present blessed his four-roomed house then upros Mrs Cratchit cratchit's wife dressed out but poorly in a twice turned gown but Brave in ribbons which are cheap and make a goodly show for Sixpence and she laid the cloth assisted by Belinda Cratchit second of her daughters also Brave in ribbons while master Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of

potatoes and getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar Bob's private property conferred upon his son and Heir in honor of the day into his mouth rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired and yearned to show his Linen in the fashionable parks And now two smaller cratchets boy and girl came tearing in screaming that outside the Bakers they had smelt the goose and no need for their own and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion these young cratchits danced about the table and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies while he not proud although

his collars nearly choked him blew the fire until the slow potatoes bubbling up knocked loudly at the saucepan lid to be let out and peeled What has ever got your precious father then said Mrs Cratchit and your brother Tiny Tim and Martha want as late last Christmas Day by half an hour here's Martha mother said a girl appearing as she spoke here's Martha mother cried the two young cratchits hurray there's such a goose Martha why bless your heart alive my dear how late you are Said Mrs Cratchit kissing her a dozen times and taking off

her shawl and Bonnet for her with a vicious zeal we need a deal of work to finish up last night replied the girl and had to clear away this morning mother well never mind so long as you are come said Mrs Cratchit sit ye down before the fire my dear and have a warm LOL bless you no no there's father coming Cried the two young cratchits who were everywhere at once hide Martha hide so Martha hid herself and in came little Bob the father with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of The Fringe hanging

down before him and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed to look seasonable and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder alas for Tiny Tim he bore a little crutch and had his limbs supported by an iron frame Why where's our Martha cried Bob Cratchit looking round not coming said Mrs Cratchit not coming said Bob with a sudden declension in his High Spirits for he had been Tim's Blood Horse all the way from church and had come home rampant not coming upon Christmas Day Martha didn't like to see him disappointed if it were only in joke so

She came out prematurely from behind the closet door and ran into his arms while the two young cratchits hustled Tiny Tim and bore him off into the Wash House that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper and how did Little Tim behave asked Mrs Cratchit when she had rallied Bob on his credulity and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart's content as good as gold said Bob I'm better somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much and thinks the strangest things you ever heard he told me coming home that he hoped

the people saw him in the church because he was a and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day who made lame Beggars walk and blind men see Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this and trembled more when he said That Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty his active little crutch was heard upon the floor and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken escorted by his brother and sister to his stool beside the fire and while Bob turning up his cuffs as if poor fellow they were capable

of being made more shabby compounded some hop mixture in a jug with gin and lemons and stirred it round and round and put it on The hob to simmer Master Peter and the two ubiquitous young cratchits went to fetch the goose with which they soon returned in high procession such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds a feathered phenomenon to which a Black Swan was a matter of course and in truth it was something very like it in that house Mrs Cratchit made the gravy ready beforehand in

a little saucepan hissing Hot Master Peter mashed the potatoes with Incredible vigor Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple sauce Martha dusted the hot plate Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table the two young cratchits set chairs for everybody not forgetting themselves and mounting guard upon their posts crammed spoons into their mouths lest they should shriek for goose before their Turn came to be helped at last the dishes were set on and Grace was said it was succeeded by a breathless pause as Mrs Cratchit looking slowly all along the carving

knife prepared to plunge it in the breast but when she did and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued Forth One murmur of delight arose all round the board an even Tiny Tim excited by the two young cratchits beat on the table with the handle of his knife and Feebly cried hurray there never was such a goose Bob said he didn't believe there ever was such a goose cooked its tenderness and flavor size and cheapness were the themes of universal admiration eked out by apple sauce and mashed potatoes it was a sufficient dinner for the

whole family indeed as Mrs Cratchit said with great Delight surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish they hadn't ate it All at last yet everyone had had enough and the youngest cratchits in particular were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows but now the plates being changed by Miss Belinda Mrs Cratchit left the room alone too nervous to Bear witnesses to take the pudding up and bring it in suppose it should not be done enough suppose it should break in turning out suppose somebody should have got over The wall of the

backyard and stolen it while they were merry with the goose a supposition at which the two young cratchits became livid all sorts of Horrors were supposed hello a great deal of steam the pudding was out of the copper a smell like a washing day that was the cloth smell like an eating house and a pastry Cook's next door to each other with a lawn dresses next door to that That was the pudding in half a minute Mrs Cratchit entered flushed but smiling proudly with the pudding like a speckled Cannonball so hard and firm blazing in

half of half a quarter of ignited Brandy and bedites with Christmas holly stuck into the top oh a wonderful pudding Bob Cratchit said and calmly too that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs Cratchit since their marriage Mrs Cratchit said that now the weight Was off her mind she would confess she had her doubts about the quantity of flour everybody had something to say about it but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family it would have been flat heresy to do so Benny Cratchit would

have blushed to hint at such a thing at last the dinner was all done the cloth was cleared the Hearth swept and the fire made up The compound in the jug being tasted and considered perfect apples and oranges were put upon the table and a shovel full of chestnuts on the Fire then all the Cratchit family Drew round the Hearth in what Bob Cratchit called a circle meaning half a one and Bob cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass two tumblers and a Custard Cup without a handle these held the hot stuff from The

Jug however as well as golden goblets would Have done and Bob served it out with beaming looks while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily then Bob proposed a Merry Christmas to us all my dears God bless us which all the family re-echoed God bless us everyone said Tiny Tim the last of all he sat very close to his father's side upon his little stool Bob held his withered little hand to his As if he loved the child and wished to keep him by his side and dreaded that he might be taken from

him spirit said Scrooge with an interest he had never felt before tell me if Tiny Tim will live I see a vacant seat replied the ghost in the poor Chimney Corner and a crutch without an owner carefully preserved If these Shadows remain unaltered by the future the child will die no no said Scrooge oh no kind Spirit say he will be spared if these Shadows remain unaltered by the future none other of my race returned the ghost we'll find him here what then if he be liked to die he had better do it and decrease

the Surplus population Scrooge hung his head to hear his own Words quoted by the spirit and was overcome with penitence and grief man said the ghost if man you be in heart not adamant for bear that Wicked can't until you have discovered what the Surplus is and where it is will you decide what men shall live what men shall die it may be that in the sight of Heaven you are more worthless and less fit to live than Millions like this poor man's Child oh God to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the

too much life among his hungry Brothers in the dust Scrooge bent before the ghost's rebuke and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground but he raised them speedily on hearing his own name Mr Scrooge said Bob I'll give you Mr Scrooge the founder of The feast the founder of the feast indeed cried Mrs Cratchit reddening I wish I had Emir I'd give him a piece of my mind to Feast upon and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it my dear said Bob the children Christmas Day it should be Christmas Day I am sure

said she on which one drinks the health of such an odious stingy hard unfeeling Man as Mr Scrooge you know he is Robert nobody knows it better than you do poor fellow my dear was Bob's mild answer Christmas Day I'll drink his health for your sake and the days said Mrs Cratchit not for his long life to him a merry Christmas and a happy New Year he'll be very merry and very happy I Have no doubt the children drank the toast after her it was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness in it

Tiny Tim drank it last of all but he didn't care tuppence for it Scrooge was the ogre of the family the mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party which was not dispelled for full five minutes after it had passed away they were ten times merrier than before from the mere Relief of Scrooge the baleful being done with Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his eye for master Peter which would bring in if obtained full five and six months weekly the two young cratchets laughed tremendously at the idea

of Peters being a man of business and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars as if he were deliberating what particular Investments He should favor when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income Martha who was a poor Apprentice at a milliness then told them what kind of work she had to do and how many hours she worked at a stretch and how she meant to lie a bed tomorrow morning for a good long rest tomorrow being a holiday she passed at home also how she had seen a countess and

a lord some days before and how the Lord was much about as tall as Peter At which Peter pulled up his collar so high that you couldn't have seen his head if you had been there all this time the chestnuts and The Jug went round and round and by and by they had a song about a Lost Child traveling in the snow from Tiny Tim who had a plaintive little voice and sang it very well indeed there was nothing of High Mark in this they were not a handsome family they were not well dressed their

shoes were Far from being waterproof their clothes were scanty and Peter might have known and very likely did the inside of a Pawnbrokers but they were happy grateful pleased with one another and contented with the time and when they faded and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the spirit's torch at parting Scrooge had his eye upon them and especially on Tiny Tim until the last By this time it was getting dark and snowing pretty heavily and a scrooge and the spirit went along the streets the brightness of the Roaring fires in kitchens parlors

and all sorts of rooms was wonderful here the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cozy dinner with hot plates baking through and through before the fire and deep red curtains ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness there all the children of the house were Running out into the snow to meet their married sisters Brothers cousins uncles aunts and be the first to greet them here again were Shadows on the window blinds of guests assembling and there a group of handsome girls all hooded and fur booted and all chattering at once

tripped lightly off to some near neighbor's house where woe upon the single man who saw them enter Artful witches well they knew it in a glow but if you were judged from the numbers Of people on their way to Friendly Gatherings you might have thought that no one was at home to give them welcome when they got there instead of every house expecting company and piling up its fires half chimney High blessings on it how the ghost exalted how it beared its breadth of breast and opened its capacious palm and floated on outpouring with a

generous hand it bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach The very Lamplighter who ran on before dotting the Dusky street with Specks of light and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere laughed out loudly as the spirit passed though little Ken The Lamplighter that he had any company but Christmas and now without a word of warning from the ghost they stood upon a bleak and desert Moor where monstrous masses of rude Stone were cast about as though it were the burial place of Giants and Water spread itself wheresoever it listed or would

have done so but for the frost that held it prisoner and nothing grew but moss and Furs and coarse rank grass down in the west the Setting Sun had left a streak of fiery red which glared upon the Desolation for an instant like a sullen eye and frowning lower lower yet was lost in the thick Gloom of Darkest Night what place is this Ah Scrooge a place where miners live who labor in the bowels of the Earth returned the spirit but they know me see a light Shone from the window of a Hut and swiftly

they Advanced towards it passing through the wall of mud and stone they found a cheerful company assembled around a glowing fire an old old man and woman with their children and their children's children and Another generation beyond that all decked out gayly in their holiday attire the old man in a voice that seldom Rose above the howling of the wind upon the barren waste was singing them a Christmas song it had been a very old song when he was a boy and from time to time they all joined in the chorus so surely as they

raised their voices the old man got quite blithe and loud and so surely as they stopped his Vigor sank again The spirit did not tarry here but bad Scrooge hold his robe and passing on above the Moor sped with her not to see to see to Scrooge's horror looking back he saw the last of the land a frightful range of rocks behind them and his ears were deafened by the Thundering of water as it rolled and roared and raged among the Dreadful Caverns it had worn and fiercely tried to undermine the Earth Built upon a

dismal Reef of sunken rocks some League or so from shore on which the waters chafed and dashed the wild year through there stood a solitary lighthouse great heaps of seaweed clung to its base and storm Birds born of the wind one might suppose as seaweed of the water Rose and fell about it like the waves they skimmed but even here two men who watched the light had made a fire that through the Loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on the awful sea joining their horny hands over the rough table

at which they sat they wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog and one of them the Elder too with his face all damaged and scarred with hard weather as the figurehead of an Old Ship might be struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale in itself again the ghost sped on above the black and heaving sea on On until being far away as he told Scrooge from any shore they lighted on a ship they Stood Beside the Helmsman at the wheel the lookout in the bow the officers who had the

watch dark ghostly figures in their several stations but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune or had a Christmas thought or spoke below his breath To His companion of some bygone Christmas day With Homeward hopes belonging to it and every man on board waking or sleeping good or bad had had a Kinder word for one another on that day than On Any Day in the year and it shared to some extent in its festivities and had remembered those he cared for at a distance and had known that they delighted to remember him it was

a great surprise to Scrooge while listening to the moaning of the wind and thinking what a solemn thing it was to Move on through the lonely Darkness over an unknown Abyss whose depths were Secrets as profound as death it was a great surprise to Scrooge while thus engaged to hear a hearty laugh it was a much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognize it as his own nephews and to find himself in a bright dry gleaming room with the spirit standing smiling by his side and looking at that same nephew with a proving affability Haha laughed

Scrooge's nephew if you should happen by any unlikely chance to know a man more blessed in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew all I can say is I should like to know him too introduce him to me and I'll cultivate his acquaintance it is a fair even-handed Noble adjustment to things that while there is infection in disease and sorrow there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor When Scrooge's nephew laughed in this way holding his sides rolling his head and twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions Scrooge's niece by

marriage laughed as heartily as he and their assembled friends being not a bit behind hand roared out lustily [Laughter] he said that Christmas was a humbug as I live cried Scrooge's nephew he believed it too More shame for him Fred said Scrooge's niece indignantly bless those women they never do anything by halves they are always in earnest she was very pretty exceedingly pretty with a dimpled surprised looking Capital face a ripe little mouth that seemed made to be kissed as no doubt it was all kinds of good little dots about her chin that melted into

one another when she laughed and the sunniest pair of Eyes you ever saw in any little creature's head altogether she was what he would have called provoking you know but satisfactory too oh perfectly satisfactory he's a comical old fellow said Scrooge's nephew that's the truth and not so pleasant as he might be however his offenses carry their own punishment and I have nothing to say against him I'm sure he is very rich Fred Hinted Scrooge's niece at least you always tell me so what of that my dear said Scrooge's nephew his wealth is of no

use to him he don't do any good with it he don't make himself comfortable with it he hasn't the satisfaction of thinking that he is ever going to benefit us with it I have no patience with him observed Scrooge's niece Scrooge's Nieces sisters and all the other ladies expressed the same opinion oh I have said Scrooge's nephew I'm sorry for him I couldn't be angry with him if I tried who suffers by his ill whims himself always here he takes it into his head to dislike us and he won't come and dine with us what's

the consequence he don't lose much of a dinner indeed I think he loses a very good dinner Interrupted Scrooge's niece everybody else said the same and they must be allowed to have been competent judges because they had just had dinner and with the dessert upon the table were clustered round the fire by Lamplight well I am very glad to hear it said Scrooge's nephew because I haven't any great faith in these young housekeepers what do you say topper topper had clearly got his eye upon one of Scrooge's niece's sisters for he Answered that a bachelor

was a wretched Outcast who had no right to express an opinion on the subject where at Scrooge's niece's sister the plump one with the lace Tucker not the one with the Roses blushed do go on Fred said Scrooge's niece clapping her hands he never finishes what he begins to say he's such a ridiculous fellow Scrooge's nephew reveled in another laugh and as it was impossible to keep The infection off though the plump sister tried hard to do it with aromatic vinegar his example was unanimously followed I was only going to say said Scrooge's nephew that

the consequence of his taking a dislike to us and not making merry with us is as I think that he loses some pleasant moments which could do him no harm I am sure he loses pleasanter companions than he can find in his own thoughts Either in his moldy old office or his Dusty Chambers I mean to give him the same chance every year whether he likes it or not for I pity him he may rail at Christmas till he dies but he can't help thinking better of it I defy him if he finds me going

there in good temper year after year and saying Uncle Scrooge how are you if it only put him in the vein to leave his poor Clark 50 pounds that's Something and I think I shook him yesterday it was their turn to laugh now at the notion of his shaking Scrooge but being thoroughly good-natured and not much caring what they laughed at so that they laughed at any rate he encouraged them in their merriment and passed the bottle joyously after tea they had some music for they were a musical family and knew what they were about

when they sung a Glee or Catch I can assure you especially toppa who could growl away in the base like a good one and never swell the large veins in his forehead or get red in the face over it Scrooge's niece played well upon the harp and played among other Tunes a simple little air I mean nothing you might learn to whistle it in two minutes which had been familiar to the child who fetched Scrooge from the boarding school as he had been reminded by the Ghost of Christmas Past when this strain of Music sounded

all the things that ghost had shown him came upon his mind he softened more and more and thought that if he could have listened to it often years ago he might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his own happiness with his own hands without resorting to the Sextant Spade that buried Jacob Marley but they didn't devote the whole evening To music after a while they played at forfeit for it is good to be children sometimes and never better than at Christmas when its Mighty founder was a child himself stop there was first a game

at Blind Man's buff of course there was and I no more believe toppo was really blind then I believe he had eyes in his boots my opinion is that it was a done thing between him and Scrooge's nephew and that the Ghost of Christmas present knew It the way he went after that plump sister in the laced Tucker was an outrage on the credulity of human nature knocking down the fire irons tumbling over the chairs bumping up against the piano smothering himself amongst the curtains wherever she went there went he he always knew where the

plump sister was he wouldn't catch anybody else if you had fallen up against him as some of them did on purpose he would have made a faint of endeavoring to seize you Which would have been an affront to your understanding and would instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister she often cried out that it wasn't fair and it really was not but when at last he caught her when in spite of all her silken rustlings and her rapid flutterings past him he got her into a corner whence there was no Escape

then his conduct was the most excurable for his pretending not to know Her his pretending that it was necessary to touch her headdress and further to assure himself of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her finger and a certain chain about her neck was vile monstrous no doubt she told him her opinion of it when another blind man being in office they were so very confidential together behind the curtains Scrooge's niece was not one of the Blind Man's buff party but was made Comfortable with a large chair and a footstool in a snug

corner where the ghost and Scrooge were close behind her but she joined in the forfeits and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet likewise at the game of how when and where she was very great and to the secret Joy of Scrooge's nephew beat her sister's Hollow though they were sharp girls too as topper could have told you there might have been 20 people there Young and old but they all played and so did Scrooge for Holy forgetting in the interest he had in what was going on but his voice

made no sound in their ears he sometimes came out with his guess quite loud and very often guessed right too for the sharpest needle best White Chapel warranted not to cut in the eye was not sharper than Scrooge blunt as he took it in his head to be the ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood and looked upon him With such favor that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay until the guests Departed but this the spirit said could not be done here is a new game said Scrooge one

half-hour Spirit only won it was a game called yes and no where Scrooge's nephew had to think of something and the rest must find out what he only answering to their Questions yes or no as the case was the brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal a live animal rather a disagreeable animal a Savage animal an animal that growled and grunted sometimes and talked sometimes and lived in London and walked about the streets and wasn't made a show-off and wasn't led by anybody and

didn't live in a menagerie and was never killed in a market and was not a horse or an ass or A cow or a bull or a tiger or a dog or a pig or a cat or a bear at every fresh question that was put to him this nephew burst into a fresh Roar of laughter and was so inexpressibly tickled that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and Stamp at last the plump sister falling into a similar State cried out I have found it I know what it is Fred I know

what it is what is it cried Fred It's your Uncle Scrooge which it certainly was admiration was the universal sentiment though some objected that the reply to is it a bear ought to have been yes been as much as an answer in the negative was sufficient to have diverted their thoughts from Mr Scrooge supposing they had ever had any tendency that way he has given us plenty of merriment I am sure Said Fred and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the

moment and I say Uncle Scrooge well Uncle Scrooge they cried a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man whatever he is said Scrooge's nephew he wouldn't take it from me but he may have it nevertheless Uncle Scrooge Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return and thanked them in an inaudible speech if the ghost had given him time but the whole scene passed off in the breadth of the last word spoken by his nephew and he and the spirit

were again upon their travels much they saw and far they went and many homes they visited But always with a happy end the spirit Stood Beside sick beds and they were cheerful on foreign lands and they were closer at home by struggling men and they were patient in their Greater Hope by poverty and it was rich in arm's house hospital and jail in miseries every Refuge where vain man in his little brief Authority had not made fast the door and barred the spirit out He left his Blessing and taught Scrooge his precepts it was a

long night if it were only a night but Scrooge had his doubts of this because the Christmas holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time they passed together it was strange too that while Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form the ghost Grew Older clearly older Scrooge had observed this change but Never spoke of it until they left a children's 12th night party when looking at the Spirit as they stood together in an open place he noticed that its hair was Gray our Spirits lives so short asked Scrooge my life upon this globe

is very brief replied the ghost It Ends Tonight cried Scrooge tonight at midnight Hark the time is Drawing Near the Chimes were ringing the three-quarters past 11 at that moment forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask said Scrooge looking intently at the spirit's robe but I see something strange and not belonging to yourself protruding from your skirts is it a foot or a claw it might be a claw for the flesh there is upon it was the spirit sorrowful Reply look here from the foldings of its robe it brought two children

wretched abject frightful hideous miserable they knelt down at its feet and clung upon the outside of its garment oh man look here look look down here exclaimed the ghost they were a boy and girl yellow meager ragged scowling wolfish but prostrate too in their humility Where graceful youth should have filled their features out and had touched them with its freshest tints a stale and shriveled hand like that of age had pinched and twisted them and pulled them into shreds Where Angels might have sat enthroned devils lurked and glared out menacing no change no degradation no

perversion of humanity in any grade through all the mysteries of wonderful creation as monsters half so horrible and Dread Scrooge started back appalled having them shown to him in this way he tried to say they were fine children but the words choked themselves rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude spirit are they yours Scrooge could say no more they are mans said the spirit looking down upon them and they cling to me appealing from Their fathers this boy is ignorance this girl is want beware of them both and all of their

degree but most of all beware this boy for on his brow I see that written which is Doom unless the writing be erased deny it cried the spirit stretching out his hand towards the city slander those who tell it ye admit it for your factious purposes and make it Worse and bide the end have they no refuge or resource cried Scrooge are there no prisons said the spirit turning on him for the last time with his own words are there no work houses the Bell struck 12. Scrooge looked about him for The Ghost and saw

it not as the last stroke ceased to vibrate he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley and lifting up his eyes beheld a solemn Phantom draped and hooded coming like a Mist along the ground towards him Stave 4. the last of the spirits the Phantom slowly Gravely silently approached when it came near him Scrooge bent down upon his knee for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter Gloom and mystery it was shrouded in a deep black garment which concealed its head its face its form and left nothing of it

visible save one outstretched hand but for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded he felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him and that its Mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread he knew no more for the spirit neither spoke nor moved I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come said Scrooge the spirit answered not but pointed onward with its hand you are about to show me Shadows of the

things that have not happened but will happen in the time before us Scrooge pursued is that so spirit the upper portion of the Garment was contracted for an instant in its folds as if the spirit had inclined its head that was the only answer he received although well used to ghostly Company by this time Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him and he found that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it The spirit paused a moment as observing his condition and giving him time to recover but

Scrooge was all the worse for this it thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror to know that behind the Dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him while he though he stretched his own to the utmost could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black ghost of the future He exclaimed I fear you more than any Specter I have seen but as I know your purpose is to do me good and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was I am prepared to Bear your

company and do it with a thankful heart will you not speak to me it gave him no reply the hand was pointed straight before them Lead on said Scrooge lead on the night is waning fast and it is precious time to me I know lead on spirit the Phantom moved away as it had come towards him Scrooge followed in the shadow of its dress which bore him up he thought and carried him along they scarcely seemed to enter the city For the city rather seemed to spring up about them and Encompass them of its own

Act but there they were in the heart of it on change amongst the merchants who hurried up and down and chinked the money in their pockets and conversed in groups and looked at their watches and trifled thoughtfully with their great gold seals and so forth a scrooge had seen them often the spirit stopped beside one little Knot of businessmen observing that the hand was pointed to them Scrooge Advanced to listen to their talk no said a great fat man with a monstrous chin I don't know much about it either way I only know he's dead

when did he die inquired another last night I believe why what was the matter with him Asked a third taking a vast quantity of snuff out of a very large snuff box I thought he'd never die God knows said the First with a yawn what has he done with his money asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous expressants on the end of his nose that shook like the gills of a turkey I haven't heard said the man with the large chin yawning again Lifted to his company perhaps he hasn't left it to me that's all

I know this pleasantry was received with a general laugh it's likely to be a very cheap funeral said the same speaker for upon my life I don't know of anybody to go to it suppose we make up a party and volunteer I don't mind going your lunch is provided observe the gentleman with the Expressions on his nose but I must be fed if I make one another laugh well I am the most disinterested among you after all said the first speaker for I never wear black gloves when I never eat lunch but I'll offer to

go if anybody else will when I come to think of it I'm not at all sure that I wasn't his most particular friend for we used to stop and speak whenever we met Bye bye speakers and listeners strolled away and mixed with other groups Scrooge knew the men and looked towards the spirit for an explanation the Phantom glided on into a street its finger pointed to two persons meeting Scrooge listened again thinking that the explanation might lie here he knew these men also perfectly they were men of business very wealthy and of great importance He

had made a point always of standing well in their esteem in a business point of view that is strictly in a business point of view how are you said one how are you returned the other well said the first Old Scratch has got his own at last hey so I am told returned the second cold isn't it seasonable for Christmas time you are Not a skater I suppose no no something else to think of good morning not another word that was their meeting their conversation and their parting Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised

that the spirit should attach importance to conversations apparently so trivial but feeling assured that they must have some hidden purpose he set himself to Consider what it was likely to be could scarcely be supposed to have any bearing on the death of Jacob his old partner for that was passed and this ghost's Province was the future nor could he think of anyone immediately connected with himself to whom he could apply them but nothing doubting that to whomsoever they applied they had some latent moral for his own Improvement he resolved to treasure up every word he

heard and Everything he saw and especially to observe the shadow of himself when it appeared for he had an expectation that the conduct of his future self would give him the clue he missed and would render the solution of these riddles easy he looked about in that very place for his own image but another man stood in his accustomed corner and though the clock pointed to his usual time of day for being there he saw no likeness of Himself among the multitudes that poured in through the porch it gave him little surprise however for he

had been revolving in his mind a change of life and thought and hoped he saw his newborn resolutions carried out in this quiet and dark beside him stood the Phantom with its outstretched hand when he roused himself from his thoughtful Quest he fancied from the turn of the hand and its situation in Reference to himself that the Unseen eyes were looking at him keenly it made him shudder and feel very cold they left the busy scene and went into an obscure part of the town where Scrooge had never penetrated before although he recognized its situation

and its bad repute the ways were foul and narrow the shop and houses wretched the people half naked drunken slipshard ugly Alleys and archways like so many cesspools disgorged their offenses of smell and dirt and life upon the straggling Street and the whole quarter reaped with crime with filth and misery far in this den of Infamous Resort there was a low browed beetling shop below a penthouse roof where iron old rags bottles bones and greasy awful were bought upon the floor within were piled up heaps of Rusty Keys Nails chains hinges Files scales weights and

refuse iron of all kinds secrets that few would like to scrutinize were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly Rags masses of corrupted fat and sepulchers are bones sitting in among the Wares he dealt in by a charcoal stove made of old bricks was a gray-haired rascal nearly 70 years of age who had screened himself from the cold air without by a frowsy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters hung upon a line and smoked his pipe in all the Luxury of calm retirement Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man just as a woman

with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop but she had scarcely entered when another woman similarly Laden came in too and she was closely followed by a man in faded black who was no less startled by the sight of them than they had been upon the recognition of each other after a short period of blank Astonishment in which the old man with the pipe had joined them they all three burst into a laugh let the child woman alone to be the first cried she who had entered first let the lawn dress alone to be the

second and let the Undertaker's man alone to be the third look here old Joe here's a chance if we haven't all three met here without meaning it You couldn't have met in a better place said old Joe removing his pipe from his mouth coming to The Parlor you were made free of it long ago you know and the other two ain't strangers stop till I shut the door of the shop oh how it squeaks there ain't such a rusty bit of metal in the place as its own hinges I believe and I'm sure there's no

such old bones here as mine we're all suitable to our calling we're Well matched coming to The Parlor come into the Parlor The Parlor was the space behind the screen of rags the old man raked the fire together with an old stair rod and having trimmed his Smoky lamp for it was night with the stem of his pipe put it into his mouth again while he did this the woman who had already spoken through her bundle on the floor and sat down in a flaunting manner on a stool Crossing her elbows on her Knees and

looking with a bold Defiance at the other two what odds then what odds Mrs dilba said the woman every person has a right to take care of themselves he always did that's true indeed said the laundress no man more so why then don't stand staring as if you was afraid woman who's the wiser we're not going to pick holes in each other's coats I suppose no indeed said Mrs dilber and the man Together we should hope not very well then cried the woman that's enough who's the worst for the loss of a few things like

these not a dead man I suppose no indeed said Mrs dilba laughing if he wanted to keep him after he was dead a wicked old screw pursued the woman why wasn't he natural in his lifetime if he had been he'd have had Somebody to look after him when he was struck with death instead of lying gar spin out his last there alone by himself it's the truest word that ever was spoke said Mrs dilber it's a judgment on him I wish it was a little heavier judgment replied the woman and it should have been you

may depend upon it if I could have laid my hands on anything else open that bundle old Joe and let me know the value of it speak out plain I'm not Afraid to be the first nor afraid for them to see it we knew pretty well that we were helping ourselves before we met here I believe it's no sin open the bundle Joe but the gallantry of her friends would not allow of this and the man in faded black mounting the breach first produced his plunder it was not extensive a seal or two a pencil

case a pair of sleeve buttons an a brooch of no Great Value were all They were severally examined and appraised by old Joe who chalked the sums he was disposed to give for each upon the wall and added them up into a total when he found that there was nothing more to come that's your account said Joe and I wouldn't give another Sixpence if I was to be boiled for not doing it who's next Mrs dilbo was next sheets and towels a little wearing Apparel two old-fashioned silver teaspoons a pair of sugar tongs and a

few boots her account was stated on the wall in the same manner I always give too much to ladies it's a weakness of mine and that's the way I ruined myself said Old Joe that's your account if you asked me for another Penny and made it an open question I'd repent of being so liberal And knock off half a crown and now undo my bundle Joe said the first woman Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening it and having unfastened a great many knots dragged out a large heavy roll of

some dark stuff what you call this said Joe bed curtains ah returned the woman laughing and leaning Forward on her crossed arms bed curtains you don't mean to say you took him down rings and all with him lying there said Joe yes I do replied the woman why not you were born to make your fortune said Joe and you'll certainly do it I certainly shan't hold my hand when I can get anything in it by reaching it Out for the sake of such a man as he was I promise you Joe returned the woman coolly

don't drop that oil upon the blankets now these blankets asked Joe who else's do you think replied the woman he isn't likely to take cold without her my dare say I hope he didn't die of anything catching eh said old Joe stopping in his work and Looking up don't you be afraid of that returned the woman I ain't so fond of his company that I'd loiter about him for such things if he did how you may look through that shirt till your eyes ache but you won't find a hole in it nor a threadbare place

it's the bestie ad and a fine one too they'd have wasted it if it hadn't been for me what do you call wasting of it I stole Joe Putting it on him to be buried in to be sure replied the woman with a laugh somebody was full enough to do it but I took it off again if Calico ain't good enough for such a purpose it isn't good enough for anything it's quite as becoming to the body he can't look uglier than he did in that one Scrooge listened to this dialogue in Horror as they

sat grouped about their spoil in the scanty light tofforded by the old man's lamp he viewed them with a detestation and disgust which could hardly have been greater though they had been obscene demons marketing the corpse itself laughed the same woman when old Joe producing a flannel bag with money in it told out their several gains upon the ground This is the end of it you see he frightened everyone away from him when he was alive to profit us when he was dead said Scrooge shuddering from head to foot I see I see the case

of this unhappy man might be my own my life tends that way now merciful heaven what is this he recoiled in Terror for the scene had changed and now he almost touched a bed A bear uncurtened bed on which beneath a ragged sheet they layer something covered up which though it was dumb announced itself in awful language the room was very dark too dark to be observed with any accuracy though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse anxious to know what kind of room it was a pale light rising in the outer

air fell straight upon the bed and on it plundered and bereft unwatched unwept Uncared for was the body of this man Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom its Steady Hand was pointed to the Head the cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of it the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part would have disclosed the face he thought of it felt how easy it would be to do and long to do it but he had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the Specter at his side Oh cold cold rigid Dreadful

death set up by an altar here and dress it with such Terrors as thou Hast at thy command for this is thy Dominion but of the loved revered and honored head thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread purposes or make one feature odious it is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released it is not that the heart and pulse are still but that the hand was open generous and True the heart Brave warm and tender and the pulse a man's strike Shadow strike and see his Good Deed springing

from the wound to sow the world with life immortal no voice pronounced these words in Scrooge's ears and yet he heard them when he looked upon the bed he thought if this man could be raised up now what would be his foremost thoughts Avarice hard dealing griping cares they have brought him to a rich end truly he lay in the dark empty house with not a man a woman or a child to say he was kind to me in this or that and for the memory of one kind word I will be kind to him

a cat was tearing at the door and there was a sound of annoying rats beneath the Hearthstone what they wanted in the room of death And why they were so restless and Disturbed Scrooge did not dare to think spirit he said this is a fearful place in leaving it I shall not leave its lesson trust me let us go still the ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to the Head I understand you Scrooge returned and I would do it if I Could but I have not the power spirit I have not the power again it

seemed to look upon him if there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by this man's death said Scrooge quite agonized show that person to me spirit I beseech you the Phantom spread its dark robe before him for a moment like a wing and withdrawing it revealed a room by daylight where a mother and her children were She was expecting someone and with anxious eagerness for she walked up and down the room started at every sound looked out from the window glanced at the clock tried but in vain to work with her

needle and could hardly bear the voices of her children in their play at length the long-expected knock Was Heard she hurried to the door and met her husband a man whose face was care worn and depressed though he was young There was a remarkable expression in it now a kind of serious Delight of which he felt ashamed and which he struggled to repress he sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for him by the fire and when she asked him frankly what news which was not until after a long silence he appeared embarrassed

how to answer is it good she said or bad To help him bad he answered we are quite ruined no there is hope yet Caroline if he relents she said amazed there is nothing is past hope if such a miracle has happened he is past relenting said her husband he is dead she was a mild and patient Creature if Her face spoke truth but she was thankful in her soul to hear it and she said so with clasped hands she prayed forgiveness the next moment and was sorry but the first was the emotion of her

heart what the half-drunken woman whom I told you of last night said to me when I tried to see him and obtain a week's delay and what I thought was a mere excuse to avoid me turns out to have been quite true He was not only very ill but dying then to whom will our debt be transferred I don't know but before that time we should be ready with the money and even though we were not it would be bad fortune indeed to find some merciless a creditor in his successor we may sleep tonight with

light Hearts Caroline yes soften it as they would their hearts were lighter The children's faces hushed and clustered round to hear what they so little understood were brighter and it was a happier house for this man's death the only emotion that the ghost could show him caused by the event was one of pleasure let me see some tenderness connected with a death said Scrooge or that dark chamber Spirit which we left just now will be forever present to me The ghost conducted him through several streets familiar to his feet and as they went along Scrooge

looked here and there to find himself but nowhere was he to be seen they entered poor Bob cratchit's house the dwelling he had visited before and found the mother and the children seated round the fire quiet very quiet the noisy little cratchits were as still As statues in one corner and sat looking up at Peter who had a book before him the mother and her daughters were engaged in sewing but surely they were very quiet and he took a child and set him in the midst of them where it screwed heard those words he had

not dreamed them the boy must have read them out as he and the spirit crossed the threshold why did he not go on The mother laid her work upon the table and put a hand up to her face the color hurts my eyes she said the color ah poor Tiny Tim they're better now again said cratchit's wife it makes them weak by candlelight and I wouldn't show weak eyes to your father when he comes home for the world it must be near his time Past it rather Peter answered shutting up his book but I think

he's walked a little slower than he used these few last evenings mother they were very quiet again at last she said and in a steady cheerful voice that only faltered once I've known him walk with I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder very fast indeed and so have I Cried Peter often and so have I exclaimed another so had all but he was very light to carry she resumed intent upon her work and his father loved him so that it was no trouble no trouble and there is your father at the

door she hurried out to meet him and little Bob in his comforter he had need of it Poor fellow came in his tea was ready for him on the hob and they all tried who should help him to it most then the two young cratchits got upon his knees and laid each child a little cheek against his face as if they said don't mind it father don't be grieved Bob was very cheerful with them and spoke pleasantly to all the family he looked at the work upon the table and Praised the industry and speed of

Mrs Cratchit and the girls they would be done long before Sunday he said Sunday you went today then Robert said his wife yes my dear returned Bob I wish you could have gone who would have done you good to see how green a place it is but you'll see it often I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday my little little child cried Bob my little child he broke down all at once he couldn't help it if he could have helped it he and his child would have been farther apart perhaps than

they were he left the room and went upstairs into the room above which was lighted Cheerfully and hung with Christmas there was a chair set close beside the child and there were signs of someone having been there lately poor Bob sat down in it and when he had thought a little and composed himself he kissed the little face he was reconciled to what had happened and went down again quite happy they drew about the fire and talked the girls and mother working still Bob told them of the extraordinary Kindness of Mr Scrooge's nephew whom he

had scarcely seen but once and who meeting him in the street that day and seeing that he looked a little just a little down you know said Bob inquired what had happened to distress him on which said Bob for he is the pleasantest spoken gentleman you ever heard I told him I am heartily sorry for it Mr Cratchit He said and heartily sorry for your good wife by the by how he ever knew that I don't know what my dear why that you were a good wife replied Bob everybody knows that said Peter very well

observed my boy cried Bob I hope they do partly sorry he said for your good wife If I can be of service to you in any way he said giving me his card that's where I live pray come to me now it wasn't cried Bob for the sake of anything he might be able to do for us so much as for his kind way that this was quite delightful it really seemed as if he had known our Tiny Tim and felt with us I'm sure he's a good soul said Mrs Cratchit you would be sure

of it my dear Returned Bob if you saw her and spoke to him I shouldn't be at all surprised Mark what I say if he got Peter a better situation only hear that Peter said Mrs Cratchit and then cried one of the girls Peter will be keeping company with someone and setting up for himself get along with you retorted Peter grinning It's just as likely as not said Bob one of these days though there's plenty of time for that my dear but however and whenever we part from one another I'm sure we shall none of

us forget poor Tiny Tim shall we all this first parting that there was Among Us never father cried they all and I know said Bob I know my dears but when we Recollect our patient and how mild he was although he was a little little child we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves and forget poor Tiny Tim in doing it no never father they all cried again I am very happy said little Bob I am very happy Mrs Cratchit kissed him his daughters kissed him The two young cratchits kissed him and Peter and himself shook

hands Spirit of Tiny Tim thy childish Essence was from God specter said Scrooge something informs me that our parting moment is at hand I know it but I know not how tell me what man that was whom we saw lying dead the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come Conveyed him as before though at a different time he thought indeed there seemed no order in these latter Visions save that they were in the future into the resorts of businessmen but showed him not himself indeed the spirit did not stay for anything but went straight on as

to the end just now desired until besought by Scrooge to tarry for a moment this court Said Scrooge through which we hurry now is where my place of occupation is and has been for a length of time I see the house let me behold what I shall be in days to come the spirit stopped the hand was pointed elsewhere the house is Yonder Scrooge exclaimed why do you point away the inexorable finger underwent no change Scrooge hastened to the window of his office and looked in it was an office still but not his the furniture

was not the same and the figure in the chair was not himself the Phantom pointed as before he joined it once again and wondering why and wither he had gone accompanied it until they reached an iron gate he paused to look round before entering a churchyard Here then The Wretched Man whose name he had now to learn lay underneath the ground it was a worthy Place walled in by houses overrun by grass and weeds the growth of vegetation's death not life choked up with too much burying fat with repleted appetite a worthy place the spirit

stood among the graves and pointed down to one he Advanced towards it trembling The Phantom was exactly as it had been but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point said Scrooge and to me one question are these the Shadows of the things that will be or are they Shadows of the things that may be only still the ghost pointed downward to the Grave by which it stood men's courses will foreshadow certain ends to which if persevered in they must lead said

Scrooge but if the courses be departed from the ends will change say it is thus with what you show me the spirit was immovable as ever Scrooge crept towards it trembling as he went and following the finger red upon the Stone of the neglected grave his own name Ebenezer Scrooge am I that man who lay upon the bed he cried upon his knees the finger pointed from the grave to him and Back Again no Spirit oh no no the finger still was there spirit he cried tight clutching at its robe Hear me I am not

the man I was I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse why show me this if I am past all hope For the First Time The Hand appeared to shake good spirit he pursued as down upon the ground he fell before it your nature intercedes for me and pities me assure me that I yet may change these Shadows you have shown me by an altered Life the kind hand trembled I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year I will live in the past

the present and the future the spirits of all three shall strive within me I will not shut out the lessons that they teach oh tell me I may sponge away the writing on this Stone in his Agony he caught the spectral hand it sought to free itself but he was strong in his entreaty and detained it The spirit stronger yet repulsed him holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress it shrunk collapsed and dwindled down into a bedpost Stave five the

end of it yes and the bedpost was his own the bed was his own the room was his own Best and happiest of all the time before him was his own to make amends in I will live in the past the present and the future Scrooge repeated as he scrambled out of bed the spirits of all three shall strive within me oh Jacob Marley Heaven and the Christmas time be praised for this I Seated on my knees oh Jacob on my knees he was so fluttered and so glowing with His good intentions that his Broken

Voice would scarcely answer to his call he had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the spirit and his face was wet with tears they are not torn down cried Scrooge folding one of his bed curtains in his arms they are not torn down rings and all they are here I am here the Shadows of the things that would have been may be dispelled they will be I know they will His hands were busy with his garments all this time turning them inside out putting them on upside down tearing them mislaying them making them parties

to every kind of extravagance I don't know what to do cried Scrooge laughing and crying in the same breath and making a perfect layakawan of himself with his stockings am as light as a feather I am as happy as an angel I am as many as a Schoolboy I am as giddy as a drunken man a Merry Christmas to everybody a Happy New Year to all the world hello there whoop hello he had frisked into the sitting room and was now standing there perfectly winded there's the saucepan that the gruel was in cried Scrooge starting

off again and going round the fireplace there's the door by which the ghost of Jacob Marley entered there's the corner where the Ghost of Christmas present sat there's the window where I saw the wandering Spirits it's all true it's all true it all happened oh really for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh a most illustrious laugh the father of a long long line of brilliant laughs I don't know what day of the month it is said Scrooge I don't know how long I have been

among the spirits I don't know anything I'm quite a baby never mind I don't care I'd rather be a baby hello Whoop hello here he was checked in his transport by the churches ringing out the lustiest peels he had ever heard clash Clash Hammer ding dong bell dong ding Hammer clash Clash oh glorious glorious running to the window he opened it and put out his head no fog no mist clear bright jovial stirring cold cold piping for the blood to dance to Golden sunlight Heavenly Sky Sweet fresh air Mary bells oh glorious glorious what's today

cried Scrooge calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes who perhaps had loited in to look about him a returned the boy with all his might of wonder words today my fine fellow said Scrooge today Replied the boy Christmas Day it's Christmas Day said Scrooge to himself I haven't missed it the spirits have done it all in one night or they can do anything they like of course they can of course they can hello my fine fellow return the boy do you know the Porter is in the next street but one at the corner Scrooge

inquired I should hope I did replied the lad an intelligent boy said Scrooge a remarkable boy do you know whether they've sold the prized turkey that was hanging up there not the little price turkey the big one the one as big as me returned the boy what a delightful boy said Scrooge it's a pleasure to talk to him yeah it's my back it's hanging there now Replied the boy is it said Scrooge go and buy it Walker exclaimed the boy no no said Scrooge hey I mean Earnest go and buy it and tell him to

bring it here that I may give them the directions where to take it come back with the man and I'll give you a shilling come back with him in less Than five minutes and I'll give you half a crown the boy was off like a shot he must have had a steady hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half as fast I'll send it to Bob Cratchit whispered Scrooge rubbing his hands and splitting with a laugh he should know who sends it it's twice the size of Tiny Tim Joe Miller never

made such a joker sending it to Bob's will be the hand in which he wrote the address Was not a steady one but write it he did somehow and went downstairs to open the street door ready for the coming of the pulterers man as he stood there waiting his arrival the knocker caught his eye I shall love it as long as I live cried Scrooge patting it with his hand a scarcely ever looked at it before what an honest expression it has in its face it's a wonderful knocker here's the turkey hello whoop how are

You Merry Christmas it was a turkey he could never have stood upon his legs that bird he would have snapped him short off in a minute like sticks of ceiling wax why it's impossible to carry that to Camden town said Scrooge you must have a cab the chuckle with which he said this and the chuckle with which he paid for the turkey and the chuckle with which he Paid for the cab and the chuckle with which he recompends the boy were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which he sat down breathless in his

chair again and chuckled till he cried shaving was not an easy task for his hand continued to shake very much and shaving requires attention even when you don't dance while you're at it but if he had cut the end of his nose off he would have put a piece of sticking plaster over it and been quite satisfied He dressed himself all in his best and at last got out into the streets the people were by this time pouring forth as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas present and walking with his hands behind

him Scrooge regarded everyone with a delighted smile he looked so irresistibly pleasant in a word that three or four good-humored fellows said good morning sir a Merry Christmas to you And Scrooge said often afterwards that of all the blight sounds he had ever heard those were the blightest in his ears he had not gone far when coming on towards him he beheld the portly gentleman who had walked into his Counting house the day before and said Scrooge and Marley's I believe it sent a Pang across his heart to think how this Old Gentleman would look

upon him when they met But he knew what path lay straight before him and he took it my dear sir said Scrooge quickening his pace and taking the Old Gentleman by both his hands how do you do I hope you succeeded yesterday it was very kind of you a Merry Christmas to you sir Mr Scrooge yes said Scrooge that is my name and I fear It may not be pleasant to you allow me to ask your pardon and will you have the goodness here Scrooge whispered in his ear Lord bless me cried the gentleman as

if his breath were taken away My Dear Mr Scrooge are you serious if you please said Scrooge not a farthingless a great many back payments are included in it I assure you will you do me that favor My dear sir said the other shaking hands with him I don't know what to say to such munific don't say anything please retorted Scrooge come and see me will you come and see me I will cried the Old Gentleman and it was clear he meant to do it thank you said Scrooge I am much obliged to you I

thank you 50 times bless you He went to church and walked about the streets and watched the people hurrying to and fro and patted the children on the head and questioned Beggars and looked down into the kitchens of houses and up to the windows and found that everything could yield him pleasure he had never dreamed that any walk that anything could give him so much happiness in the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's house He passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and knock but he made

a dash and did it is your master at home my dear said Scrooge to the girl nice girl very yes sir where is he my love said Scrooge he's in the dining room sir along with mistress I'll show you upstairs if you please thank you he knows me Said Scrooge with his hand already on the dining room lock I'll go in here my dear he turned it gently and sidled his face in round the door they were looking at the table which was spread out in great array for these young housekeepers are always nervous on

such points and like to see that everything is right Fred said Scrooge Dear Heart alive how his niece by marriage started Scrooge had forgotten for the moment about her sitting in the corner with the footstool or he wouldn't have done it on any account why bless my soul cried Fred who's that your Uncle Scrooge I have come to dinner will you let me in Fred let him in it is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off he was at home in five minutes nothing could be heartier his Niece looked just the same so did

topper when he came so did the plump sister when she came so did everyone when they came wonderful party wonderful games wonderful unanimity wonderful happiness but he was early at the office next morning oh he was early there if he could only be there first and catch Bob Cratchit coming late that was the thing he had set his heart upon and he did it yes he did the Clock Struck nine no Bob A quarter past no Bob he was full 18 minutes and a half behind his time Scrooge sat with his door wide open that

he might see him come into the tank his hat was off before he opened the door his comforter too he was on his stool in a jiffy driving away with his pen as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock hello growled Scrooge in his accustomed voice as near as he could feign it What do you mean by coming here at this time of day I'm very sorry sir said Bob I am behind my time you are repeated Scrooge yes I think you are step this way sir if you please it's only once a year

sir pleaded Bob appearing from the tank he shall not be repeated I was making rather merry yesterday sir now I'll tell you what my friend Said Scrooge I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer and therefore he continued leaping from his stool and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the tank again and therefore I am about to raise your salary Bob trembled and got a little nearer to the ruler he had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it holding him and calling to

the people in the court for help and a straight waistcoat a Merry Christmas Bob said Scrooge with an earnestness that could not be mistaken as he clapped him on the back a merry a Christmas Bob my good fellow than I have given you for many a year I'll raise your salary and Endeavor to assist your struggling family and we will discuss your Affairs this Very afternoon over a Christmas bowl of smoking Bishop Bob make up the fires and buy another coal scuttle before you dot another eye Bob Cratchit Scrooge was better than his word he

did it all and infinitely more and to Tiny Tim who did not die he was a second father he became as good a friend as good a master and as good a man as the good old city knew or any other good old city Town or Borough in the good old world some people laughed to see the alteration in him but he let them laugh and little heeded them for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe for good but which some people did not have their fill of laughter in

the outset and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins as have the malady in less Attractive forms his own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him he had no further intercourse with spirits but lived upon the total abstinence principle ever afterwards and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge may that be truly said of us and all of us and so as Tiny Tim

observed God bless us everyone thank you for listening to A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens if you have enjoyed this audiobook please consider subscribing and leaving a like to help in the making of future audiobooks