wohnzimmer braun grau gestalten

preface stave i: marley's ghost marley was dead: to begin with.there is no doubt whatever about that. the register of his burial was signed bythe clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. scrooge signed it: and scrooge's name wasgood upon 'change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.old marley was as dead as a door-nail. mind! i don't mean to say that i know, of my ownknowledge, what there is particularly dead

about a door-nail. i might have been inclined, myself, toregard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. but the wisdom of our ancestors is in thesimile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the country's done for. you will therefore permit me to repeat,emphatically, that marley was as dead as a door-nail.scrooge knew he was dead? of course he did. how could it be otherwise?scrooge and he were partners for i don't

know how many years. scrooge was his sole executor, his soleadministrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, andsole mourner. and even scrooge was not so dreadfully cutup by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very dayof the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. the mention of marley's funeral brings meback to the point i started from. there is no doubt that marley was dead. this must be distinctly understood, ornothing wonderful can come of the story i

am going to relate. if we were not perfectly convinced thathamlet's father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable inhis taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-agedgentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot--say saint paul's churchyardfor instance-- literally to astonish his son's weak mind. scrooge never painted out old marley'sname. there it stood, years afterwards, above thewarehouse door: scrooge and marley.

the firm was known as scrooge and marley. sometimes people new to the business calledscrooge scrooge, and sometimes marley, but he answered to both names.it was all the same to him. oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at thegrind-stone, scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching,covetous, old sinner! hard and sharp as flint, from which nosteel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary asan oyster. the cold within him froze his old features,nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyesred, his thin lips blue; and spoke out

shrewdly in his grating voice. a frosty rime was on his head, and on hiseyebrows, and his wiry chin. he carried his own low temperature alwaysabout with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree atchristmas. external heat and cold had little influenceon scrooge. no warmth could warm, no wintry weatherchill him. no wind that blew was bitterer than he, nofalling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open toentreaty. foul weather didn't know where to have him.

the heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, andsleet, 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 tosay, with gladsome looks, "my dear scrooge, how are you?when will you come to see me?" no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle,no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his lifeinquired the way to such and such a place, of scrooge. even the blind men's dogs appeared to knowhim; and when they saw him coming on, would

tug their owners into doorways and upcourts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, "no eye at all is betterthan 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 oflife, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing onescall "nuts" to scrooge. once upon a time--of all the good days inthe year, on christmas eve--old scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. it was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggywithal: 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 pavementstones to warm them. the city clocks had only just gone three,but it was quite dark already-- it had not been light all day--and candles wereflaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon thepalpable brown air. the fog came pouring in at every chink andkeyhole, 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 wasbrewing on a large scale. the door of scrooge's counting-house wasopen 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 theclerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. but he couldn't replenish it, for scroogekept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with theshovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. wherefore the clerk put on his whitecomforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man ofa strong imagination, he failed. "a merry christmas, uncle!

god save you!" cried a cheerful voice.it was the voice of scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was thefirst intimation he had of his approach. "bah!" said scrooge, "humbug!" he had so heated himself with rapid walkingin the fog and frost, this nephew of scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; hisface was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. "christmas a humbug, uncle!" said scrooge'snephew. "you don't mean that, i am sure?""i do," said scrooge. "merry christmas!

what right have you to be merry?what reason have you to be merry? you're poor enough.""come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "what right have you to be dismal? what reason have you to be morose?you're rich enough." scrooge having no better answer ready onthe spur of the moment, said, "bah!" again; and followed it up with "humbug." "don't be cross, uncle!" said the nephew."what else can i be," returned the uncle, "when i live in such a world of fools asthis? merry christmas!

out upon merry christmas! what's christmas time to you but a time forpaying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not anhour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented deadagainst you? if i could work my will," said scroogeindignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'merry christmas' on his lips, shouldbe 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, "keepchristmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine." "keep it!" repeated scrooge's nephew."but you don't keep it." "let me leave it alone, then," saidscrooge. "much good may it do you! much good it has ever done you!""there are many things from which i might have derived good, by which i have notprofited, i dare say," returned the nephew. "christmas among the rest. but i am sure i have always thought ofchristmas time, when it has come round--

apart from the veneration due to its sacredname and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that--as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasanttime; the only time i know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and womenseem 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 neverput a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, i believe that it has done me good, andwill do me good; and i say, god bless it!"

the clerk in the tank involuntarilyapplauded. becoming immediately sensible of theimpropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark for ever. "let me hear another sound from you," saidscrooge, "and you'll keep your christmas by losing your situation!you're quite a powerful speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew. "i wonder you don't go into parliament.""don't be angry, uncle. come!dine with us to-morrow." scrooge said that he would see him--yes,indeed he did.

he went the whole length of the expression,and said that he would see him in that extremity first. "but why?" cried scrooge's nephew."why?" "why did you get married?" said scrooge."because i fell in love." "because you fell in love!" growledscrooge, as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merrychristmas. "good afternoon!" "nay, uncle, but you never came to see mebefore that happened. why give it as a reason for not comingnow?"

"good afternoon," said scrooge. "i want nothing from you; i ask nothing ofyou; why cannot we be friends?" "good afternoon," said scrooge."i am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. we have never had any quarrel, to which ihave been a party. but i have made the trial in homage tochristmas, and i'll keep my christmas humour to the last. so a merry christmas, uncle!""good afternoon!" said scrooge. "and a happy new year!""good afternoon!" said scrooge.

his nephew left the room without an angryword, notwithstanding. he stopped at the outer door to bestow thegreetings of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was, was warmer than scrooge;for he returned them cordially. "there's another fellow," muttered scrooge;who overheard him: "my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family,talking about a merry christmas. i'll retire to bedlam." this lunatic, in letting scrooge's nephewout, had let two other people in. they were portly gentlemen, pleasant tobehold, and now stood, with their hats off, in scrooge's office.

they had books and papers in their hands,and bowed to him. "scrooge and marley's, i believe," said oneof the gentlemen, referring to his list. "have i the pleasure of addressing mr.scrooge, or mr. marley?" "mr. marley has been dead these sevenyears," scrooge replied. "he died seven years ago, this very night." "we have no doubt his liberality is wellrepresented 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," scroogefrowned, 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 desirablethat we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffergreatly at the present time. many thousands are in want of commonnecessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." "are there no prisons?" asked scrooge."plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again."and the union workhouses?" demanded scrooge.

"are they still in operation?""they are. still," returned the gentleman, "i wish icould say they were not." "the treadmill and the poor law are in fullvigour, then?" said scrooge. "both very busy, sir." "oh! i was afraid, from what you said atfirst, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said scrooge."i'm very glad to hear it." "under the impression that they scarcelyfurnish christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "afew of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, andmeans of warmth.

we choose this time, because it is a time,of all others, when want is keenly felt, and abundance rejoices. what shall i put you down for?""nothing!" scrooge replied."you wish to be anonymous?" "i wish to be left alone," said scrooge. "since you ask me what i wish, gentlemen,that is my answer. i don't make merry myself at christmas andi can't afford to make idle people merry. i help to support the establishments i havementioned--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 thegentleman. "it's not my business," scrooge returned. "it's enough for a man to understand hisown business, and not to interfere with other people's.mine occupies me constantly. good afternoon, gentlemen!" seeing clearly that it would be useless topursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew.

scrooge resumed his labours with animproved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him. meanwhile the fog and darkness thickenedso, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to gobefore horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. the ancient tower of a church, whose gruffold bell was always peeping slily down at scrooge out of a gothic window in the wall,became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth werechattering in its frozen head up there.

the cold became intense. in the main street, at the corner of thecourt, some labourers were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire ina brazier, round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their hands and winking their eyes before theblaze in rapture. the water-plug being left in solitude, itsoverflowings sullenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice. the brightness of the shops where hollysprigs and berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddyas they passed.

poulterers' and grocers' trades became asplendid joke: a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believethat such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. the lord mayor, in the stronghold of themighty mansion house, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep christmasas a lord mayor's household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous monday forbeing drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow's pudding inhis garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.

foggier yet, and colder.piercing, searching, biting cold. if the good saint dunstan had but nippedthe evil spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using hisfamiliar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. the owner of one scant young nose, gnawedand mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at scrooge'skeyhole to regale him with a christmas carol: but at the first sound of "god bless you, merry gentleman!may nothing you dismay!" scrooge seized the ruler with such energyof action, that the singer fled in terror,

leaving the keyhole to the fog and evenmore congenial frost. at length the hour of shutting up thecounting-house arrived. with an ill-will scrooge dismounted fromhis stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the tank, whoinstantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat. "you'll want all day to-morrow, i suppose?"said scrooge. "if quite convenient, sir.""it's not convenient," said scrooge, "and it's not fair. if i was to stop half-a-crown for it, you'dthink yourself ill-used, i'll be bound?"

the clerk smiled faintly. "and yet," said scrooge, "you don't thinkme ill-used, when i pay a day's wages for no work."the clerk observed that it was only once a year. "a poor excuse for picking a man's pocketevery twenty-fifth of december!" said scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to thechin. "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, andthe clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for heboasted no great-coat), went down a slide on cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its beingchristmas eve, and then ran home to camden town as hard as he could pelt, to play atblindman's-buff. scrooge took his melancholy dinner in hisusual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the restof the evening with his banker's-book, went home to bed. he lived in chambers which had oncebelonged to his deceased partner.

they were a gloomy suite of rooms, in alowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that onecould scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses,and forgotten the way out again. it was old enough now, and dreary enough,for nobody lived in it but scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices. the yard was so dark that even scrooge, whoknew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. the fog and frost so hung about the blackold gateway of the house, that it seemed as

if the genius of the weather sat inmournful meditation on the threshold. now, it is a fact, that there was nothingat all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. it is also a fact, that scrooge had seenit, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that scroogehad as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of london, even including--which is a bold word--thecorporation, aldermen, and livery. let it also be borne in mind that scroogehad not bestowed one thought on marley, since his last mention of his seven years'dead partner that afternoon.

and then let any man explain to me, if hecan, how it happened that scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in theknocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change--not aknocker, but marley's face. marley's face. it was not in impenetrable shadow as theother objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobsterin a dark cellar. it was not angry or ferocious, but lookedat scrooge as marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostlyforehead. the hair was curiously stirred, as if bybreath or hot air; and, though the eyes

were wide open, they were perfectlymotionless. that, and its livid colour, made ithorrible; 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 thisphenomenon, it was a knocker again. to say that he was not startled, or thathis blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a strangerfrom infancy, would be untrue. but he put his hand upon the key he hadrelinquished, 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 halfexpected to be terrified with the sight of marley's pigtail sticking out into thehall. but there was nothing on the back of thedoor, except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on, so he said "pooh, pooh!"and closed it with a bang. the sound resounded through the house likethunder. every room above, and every cask in thewine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal of echoes of its own. scrooge was not a man to be frightened byechoes. he fastened the door, and walked across thehall, 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; buti mean to say you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall andthe door towards the balustrades: and done it easy. there was plenty of width for that, androom to spare; which is perhaps the reason why scrooge thought he saw a locomotivehearse going on before him in the gloom. half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of the streetwouldn't have lighted the entry too well,

so you may suppose that it was pretty darkwith scrooge's dip. up scrooge went, not caring a button forthat. darkness is cheap, and scrooge liked it. but before he shut his heavy door, hewalked 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 thesofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin ready; and the little saucepan ofgruel (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 againstthe 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, andlocked himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his custom. thus secured against surprise, he took offhis cravat; put on his dressing-gown and

slippers, and his nightcap; and sat downbefore the fire to take his gruel. it was a very low fire indeed; nothing onsuch a bitter night. he was obliged to sit close to it, andbrood over it, before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such ahandful of fuel. the fireplace was an old one, built by somedutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint dutch tiles, designed toillustrate the scriptures. there were cains and abels, pharaoh'sdaughters; queens of sheba, angelic messengers descending through the air onclouds like feather-beds, abrahams, belshazzars, apostles putting off to sea in

butter-boats, hundreds of figures toattract his thoughts; and yet that face of marley, seven years dead, came like theancient prophet's rod, and swallowed up the whole. if each smooth tile had been a blank atfirst, with power to shape some picture on its surface from the disjointed fragmentsof his thoughts, there would have been a copy of old marley's head on every one. "humbug!" said scrooge; and walked acrossthe room. after several turns, he sat down again. as he threw his head back in the chair, hisglance happened to rest upon a bell, a

disused bell, that hung in the room, andcommunicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest story of thebuilding. it was with great astonishment, and with astrange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. it swung so softly in the outset that itscarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house.this might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. the bells ceased as they had begun,together. they were succeeded by a clanking noise,deep down below; as if some person were

dragging a heavy chain over the casks inthe wine-merchant's cellar. scrooge then remembered to have heard thatghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains. the cellar-door flew open with a boomingsound, and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming upthe stairs; then coming straight towards his door. "it's humbug still!" said scrooge."i won't believe it." his colour changed though, when, without apause, it came on through the heavy door, and passed into the room before his eyes.

upon its coming in, the dying flame leapedup, as though it cried, "i know him; marley's ghost!" and fell again.the same face: the very same. marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat,tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. the chain he drew was clasped about hismiddle. it was long, and wound about him like atail; 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 hiscoat behind. scrooge had often heard it said that marleyhad no bowels, but he had never believed it until now.no, nor did he believe it even now. though he looked the phantom through andthrough, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence ofits death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had notobserved before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses."how now!" said scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.

"what do you want with me?""much!"--marley's voice, no doubt about it. "who are you?""ask me who i was." "who were you then?" said scrooge, raisinghis voice. "you're particular, for a shade."he was going to say "to a shade," but substituted this, as more appropriate. "in life i was your partner, jacob marley.""can you--can you sit down?" asked scrooge, looking doubtfully at him."i can." "do it, then." scrooge asked the question, because hedidn't know whether a ghost so transparent

might find himself in a condition to take achair; and felt that in the event of its being impossible, it might involve thenecessity of an embarrassing explanation. but the ghost sat down on the opposite sideof the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it. "you don't believe in me," observed theghost. "i don't," said scrooge."what evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?" "i don't know," said scrooge."why do you doubt your senses?" "because," said scrooge, "a little thingaffects them.

a slight disorder of the stomach makes themcheats. you may be an undigested bit of beef, ablot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. there's more of gravy than of grave aboutyou, whatever you are!" scrooge was not much in the habit ofcracking jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means waggish then. the truth is, that he tried to be smart, asa means of distracting his own attention, and keeping down his terror; for thespectre'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 thespectre's being provided with an infernal atmosphere of its own. scrooge could not feel it himself, but thiswas clearly the case; for though the ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair, andskirts, and tassels, were still agitated as by the hot vapour from an oven. "you see this toothpick?" said scrooge,returning quickly to the charge, for the reason just assigned; and wishing, thoughit were only for a second, to divert the

vision's stony gaze from himself. "i do," replied the ghost."you are not looking at it," said scrooge. "but i see it," said the ghost,"notwithstanding." "well!" returned scrooge, "i have but toswallow this, and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, allof my own creation. humbug, i tell you! humbug!" at this the spirit raised a frightful cry,and shook its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that scrooge held on tightto his chair, to save himself from falling in a swoon.

but how much greater was his horror, whenthe phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wearindoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast! scrooge fell upon his knees, and claspedhis hands before his face. "mercy!" he said."dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?" "man of the worldly mind!" replied theghost, "do you believe in me or not?" "i do," said scrooge."i must. but why do spirits walk the earth, and whydo they come to me?"

"it is required of every man," the ghostreturned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, andtravel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned todo 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, andturned to happiness!" again the spectre raised a cry, and shookits chain and wrung its shadowy hands. "you are fettered," said scrooge,trembling. "tell me why?" "i wear the chain i forged in life,"replied the ghost.

"i made it link by link, and yard by yard;i girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will i wore it. is its pattern strange to you?"scrooge trembled more and more. "or would you know," pursued the ghost,"the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? it was full as heavy and as long as this,seven christmas eves ago. you have laboured on it, since.it is a ponderous chain!" scrooge glanced about him on the floor, inthe expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathomsof iron cable: but he could see nothing.

"jacob," he said, imploringly. "old jacob marley, tell me more.speak comfort to me, jacob!" "i have none to give," the ghost replied. "it comes from other regions, ebenezerscrooge, 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 cannotlinger anywhere. my spirit never walked beyond our counting-house--mark me!--in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of ourmoney-changing hole; and weary journeys lie

before me!" it was a habit with scrooge, whenever hebecame thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets. pondering on what the ghost had said, hedid 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 anddeference. "slow!" the ghost repeated. "seven years dead," mused scrooge."and travelling all the time!"

"the whole time," said the ghost."no rest, no peace. incessant torture of remorse." "you travel fast?" said scrooge."on the wings of the wind," replied the ghost."you might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years," said scrooge. the ghost, on hearing this, set up anothercry, and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that theward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance. "oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,"cried the phantom, "not to know, that ages

of incessant labour by immortal creatures,for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptibleis all developed. not to know that any christian spiritworking kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortallife too short for its vast means of usefulness. not to know that no space of regret canmake amends for one life's opportunity misused!yet such was i! oh! such was i!" "but you were always a good man ofbusiness, jacob," faltered scrooge, who now

began to apply this to himself."business!" cried the ghost, wringing its hands again. "mankind was my business.the common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, andbenevolence, were, all, my business. the dealings of my trade were but a drop ofwater in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" it held up its chain at arm's length, as ifthat were the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the groundagain. "at this time of the rolling year," thespectre said, "i suffer most.

why did i walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed star which ledthe wise men to a poor abode! were there no poor homes to which its lightwould have conducted me!" scrooge was very much dismayed to hear thespectre going on at this rate, and began to quake exceedingly. "hear me!" cried the ghost."my time is nearly gone." "i will," said scrooge."but don't be hard upon me! don't be flowery, jacob! pray!""how it is that i appear before you in a

shape that you can see, i may not tell.i have sat invisible beside you many and many a day." it was not an agreeable idea.scrooge shivered, and wiped the perspiration from his brow."that is no light part of my penance," pursued the ghost. "i am here to-night to warn you, that youhave yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate.a chance and hope of my procuring, ebenezer." "you were always a good friend to me," saidscrooge.

"thank'ee!""you will be haunted," resumed the ghost, "by three spirits." scrooge's countenance fell almost as low asthe ghost's had done. "is that the chance and hope you mentioned,jacob?" he demanded, in a faltering voice. "it is." "i--i think i'd rather not," said scrooge."without their visits," said the ghost, "you cannot hope to shun the path i tread.expect the first to-morrow, when the bell tolls one." "couldn't i take 'em all at once, and haveit over, jacob?" hinted scrooge.

"expect the second on the next night at thesame hour. the third upon the next night when the laststroke of twelve has ceased to vibrate. look to see me no more; and look that, foryour own sake, you remember what has passed between us!" when it had said these words, the spectretook its wrapper from the table, and bound it round its head, as before. scrooge knew this, by the smart sound itsteeth made, when the jaws were brought together by the bandage. he ventured to raise his eyes again, andfound his supernatural visitor confronting

him in an erect attitude, with its chainwound 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 thespectre reached it, it was wide open. it beckoned scrooge to approach, which hedid. when they were within two paces of eachother, marley's ghost held up its hand, warning him to come no nearer. scrooge stopped. not so much in obedience, as in surpriseand fear: for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible of confused noises inthe air; incoherent sounds of lamentation

and regret; wailings inexpressiblysorrowful and self-accusatory. the spectre, after listening for a moment,joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night. scrooge followed to the window: desperatein his curiosity. he looked out. the air was filled with phantoms, wanderinghither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. every one of them wore chains like marley'sghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; nonewere free.

many had been personally known to scroogein their lives. he had been quite familiar with one oldghost, 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 door-step. the misery with them all was, clearly, thatthey sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power forever. whether these creatures faded into mist, ormist enshrouded them, he could not tell. but they and their spirit voices fadedtogether; and the night became as it had been when he walked home.

scrooge closed the window, and examined thedoor by which the ghost had entered. it was double-locked, as he had locked itwith his own hands, and the bolts were undisturbed. he tried to say "humbug!" but stopped atthe first syllable. and being, from the emotion he hadundergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the invisible world, or thedull conversation of the ghost, or the lateness of the hour, much in need of repose; went straight to bed, withoutundressing, and fell asleep upon the instant.

> stave ii: the first of the three spirits when scrooge awoke, it was so dark, thatlooking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from theopaque walls of his chamber. he was endeavouring to pierce the darknesswith his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a neighbouring church struck the fourquarters. so he listened for the hour. to his great astonishment the heavy bellwent on from six to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to twelve; thenstopped.

twelve! it was past two when he went to bed.the clock was wrong. an icicle must have got into the works.twelve! he touched the spring of his repeater, tocorrect this most preposterous clock. its rapid little pulse beat twelve: andstopped. "why, it isn't possible," said scrooge,"that i can have slept through a whole day and far into another night. it isn't possible that anything hashappened to the sun, and this is twelve at noon!"

the idea being an alarming one, hescrambled out of bed, and groped his way to the window. he was obliged to rub the frost off withthe sleeve of his dressing-gown before he could see anything; and could see verylittle then. all he could make out was, that it wasstill very foggy and extremely cold, and that there was no noise of people runningto and fro, and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been if night had beaten off bright day, and takenpossession of the world. this was a great relief, because "threedays 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 nodays to count by. scrooge went to bed again, and thought, andthought, and thought it over and over and over, and could make nothing of it. the more he thought, the more perplexed hewas; and the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he thought.marley's ghost bothered him exceedingly. every time he resolved within himself,after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew back again, like astrong spring released, to its first position, and presented the same problem to

be worked all through, "was it a dream ornot?" scrooge lay in this state until the chimehad gone three quarters more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the ghost hadwarned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one. he resolved to lie awake until the hour waspassed; and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to heaven, thiswas perhaps the wisest resolution in his power. the quarter was so long, that he was morethan once convinced he must have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock.at length it broke upon his listening ear.

"ding, dong!" "a quarter past," said scrooge, counting."ding, dong!" "half-past!" said scrooge."ding, dong!" "a quarter to it," said scrooge. "ding, dong!""the hour itself," said scrooge, triumphantly, "and nothing else!" he spoke before the hour bell sounded,which it now did with a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy one. light flashed up in the room upon theinstant, 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 thecurtains 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 toface 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 yourelbow. it was a strange figure--like a child: yetnot 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 diminishedto a child's proportions. its hair, which hung about its neck anddown its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it,and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. the arms were very long and muscular; thehands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength.its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. it wore a tunic of the purest white; andround its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful.

it held a branch of fresh green holly inits hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmedwith summer flowers. but the strangest thing about it was, thatfrom the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which allthis 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 atit with increasing steadiness, was not its strangest quality. for as its belt sparkled and glittered nowin one part and now in another, and what

was light one instant, at another time wasdark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twentylegs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of whichdissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein theymelted away. and in the very wonder of this, it would beitself again; distinct and clear as ever. "are you the spirit, sir, whose coming wasforetold to me?" asked scrooge. "i am!"the voice was soft and gentle. singularly low, as if instead of being soclose beside him, it were at a distance.

"who, and what are you?"scrooge demanded. "i am the ghost of christmas past." "long past?" inquired scrooge: observant ofits dwarfish stature. "no. your past." perhaps, scrooge could not have toldanybody why, if anybody could have asked him; but he had a special desire to see thespirit in his cap; and begged him to be covered. "what!" exclaimed the ghost, "would you sosoon put out, with worldly hands, the light i give?

is it not enough that you are one of thosewhose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years to wear itlow upon my brow!" scrooge reverently disclaimed all intentionto offend or any knowledge of having wilfully "bonneted" the spirit at anyperiod of his life. he then made bold to inquire what businessbrought him there. "your welfare!" said the ghost. scrooge expressed himself much obliged, butcould not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been moreconducive 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, andclasped him gently by the arm. "rise! and walk with me!" it would have been in vain for scrooge toplead that the weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; thatbed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing-gown, andnightcap; 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 madetowards the window, clasped his robe in supplication."i am a mortal," scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to fall." "bear but a touch of my hand there," saidthe spirit, laying it upon his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more than this!" as the words were spoken, they passedthrough 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 withit, for it was a clear, cold, winter day,

with snow upon the ground."good heaven!" said scrooge, clasping his hands together, as he looked about him. "i was bred in this place.i was a boy here!" the spirit gazed upon him mildly. its gentle touch, though it had been lightand instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man's sense of feeling. he was conscious of a thousand odoursfloating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, andjoys, and cares long, long, forgotten! "your lip is trembling," said the ghost.

"and what is that upon your cheek?"scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was a pimple; andbegged the ghost to lead him where he would. "you recollect the way?" inquired thespirit. "remember it!" cried scrooge with fervour;"i could walk it blindfold." "strange to have forgotten it for so manyyears!" observed the ghost. "let us go on." they walked along the road, scroogerecognising every gate, and post, and tree; until a little market-town appeared in thedistance, with its bridge, its church, and

winding river. some shaggy ponies now were seen trottingtowards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in country gigsand carts, driven by farmers. all these boys were in great spirits, andshouted to each other, until the broad fields were so full of merry music, thatthe crisp air laughed to hear it! "these are but shadows of the things thathave been," said the ghost. "they have no consciousness of us." the jocund travellers came on; and as theycame, scrooge knew and named them every one.why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to

see them! why did his cold eye glisten, and his heartleap up as they went past! why was he filled with gladness when heheard them give each other merry christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways,for their several homes! what was merry christmas to scrooge? out upon merry christmas!what good had it ever done to him? "the school is not quite deserted," saidthe ghost. "a solitary child, neglected by hisfriends, 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 littleweathercock-surmounted cupola, on the roof, and a bell hanging in it. it was a large house, but one of brokenfortunes; for the spacious offices were little used, their walls were damp andmossy, their windows broken, and their gates decayed. fowls clucked and strutted in the stables;and the coach-houses and sheds were over- run with grass. nor was it more retentive of its ancientstate, within; for entering the dreary

hall, and glancing through the open doorsof many rooms, they found them poorly furnished, cold, and vast. there was an earthy savour in the air, achilly bareness in the place, which associated itself somehow with too muchgetting up by candle-light, and not too much to eat. they went, the ghost and scrooge, acrossthe hall, to a door at the back of the house. it opened before them, and disclosed along, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms anddesks.

at one of these a lonely boy was readingnear a feeble fire; and scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poorforgotten self as he used to be. not a latent echo in the house, not asqueak and scuffle from the mice behind the panelling, not a drip from the half-thawedwater-spout in the dull yard behind, not a sigh among the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar, not the idle swinging ofan empty store-house door, no, not a clicking in the fire, but fell upon theheart of scrooge with a softening influence, and gave a freer passage to histears. the spirit touched him on the arm, andpointed to his younger self, intent upon

his reading. suddenly a man, in foreign garments:wonderfully real and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe stuckin his belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood. "why, it's ali baba!"scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. "it's dear old honest ali baba!yes, yes, i know! one christmas time, when yonder solitarychild was left here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that.poor boy! and valentine," said scrooge, "and his wildbrother, orson; there they go!

and what's his name, who was put down inhis drawers, asleep, at the gate of damascus; don't you see him! and the sultan's groom turned upside downby the genii; there he is upon his head! serve him right.i'm glad of it. what business had he to be married to theprincess!" to hear scrooge expending all theearnestness of his nature on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice betweenlaughing and crying; and to see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to his business friends inthe city, indeed.

"there's the parrot!" cried scrooge. "green body and yellow tail, with a thinglike a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is! poor robin crusoe, he called him, when hecame home again after sailing round the island.'poor robin crusoe, where have you been, robin crusoe?' the man thought he was dreaming, but hewasn't. it was the parrot, you know.there goes friday, running for his life to the little creek!

halloa!hoop! halloo!" then, with a rapidity of transition veryforeign to his usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, "poor boy!" andcried again. "i wish," scrooge muttered, putting hishand in his pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes with his cuff: "butit's too late now." "what is the matter?" asked the spirit. "nothing," said scrooge."nothing. there was a boy singing a christmas carolat my door last night.

i should like to have given him something:that's all." the ghost smiled thoughtfully, and wavedits hand: saying as it did so, "let us see another christmas!" scrooge's former self grew larger at thewords, and the room became a little darker and more dirty. the panels shrunk, the windows cracked;fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were showninstead; but how all this was brought about, scrooge knew no more than you do. he only knew that it was quite correct;that everything had happened so; that there

he was, alone again, when all the otherboys had gone home for the jolly holidays. he was not reading now, but walking up anddown despairingly. scrooge looked at the ghost, and with amournful shaking of his head, glanced anxiously towards the door. it opened; and a little girl, much youngerthan the boy, came darting in, and putting her arms about his neck, and often kissinghim, addressed him as her "dear, dear brother." "i have come to bring you home, dearbrother!" said the child, clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh."to bring you home, home, home!"

"home, little fan?" returned the boy. "yes!" said the child, brimful of glee."home, for good and all. home, for ever and ever.father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home's like heaven! he spoke so gently to me one dear nightwhen i was going to bed, that i was not afraid to ask him once more if you mightcome home; and he said yes, you should; and sent me in a coach to bring you. and you're to be a man!" said the child,opening her eyes, "and are never to come back here; but first, we're to be togetherall 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, andtried to touch his head; but being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoeto embrace him. then she began to drag him, in her childisheagerness, towards the door; and he, nothing loth to go, accompanied her. a terrible voice in the hall cried, "bringdown master scrooge's box, there!" and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster himself,who glared on master scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and threw him into

a dreadful state of mind by shaking handswith him. he then conveyed him and his sister intothe veriest old well of a shivering best- parlour that ever was seen, where the mapsupon the wall, and the celestial and terrestrial globes in the windows, werewaxy with cold. here he produced a decanter of curiouslylight wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments of thosedainties to the young people: at the same time, sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of "something" to the postboy, whoanswered that he thanked the gentleman, but if it was the same tap as he had tastedbefore, he had rather not.

master scrooge's trunk being by this timetied on to the top of the chaise, the children bade the schoolmaster good-byeright willingly; and getting into it, drove gaily down the garden-sweep: the quick wheels dashing the hoar-frost and snow fromoff the dark leaves of the evergreens like spray."always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered," said the ghost. "but she had a large heart!""so she had," cried scrooge. "you're right.i will not gainsay it, spirit. god forbid!"

"she died a woman," said the ghost, "andhad, as i think, children." "one child," scrooge returned."true," said the ghost. "your nephew!" scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; andanswered briefly, "yes." although they had but that moment left theschool behind them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowypassengers passed and repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and tumult of areal city were. it was made plain enough, by the dressingof 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 warehousedoor, and asked scrooge if he knew it. "know it!" said scrooge."was i apprenticed here!" they went in. at sight of an old gentleman in a welshwig, sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller he musthave knocked his head against the ceiling, scrooge cried in great excitement: "why, it's old fezziwig!bless his heart; it's fezziwig alive again!"

old fezziwig laid down his pen, and lookedup at the clock, which pointed to the hour of seven. he rubbed his hands; adjusted his capaciouswaistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence; andcalled out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice: "yo ho, there!ebenezer! dick!" scrooge's former self, now grown a youngman, came briskly in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice."dick wilkins, to be sure!" said scrooge to

the ghost. "bless me, yes.there he is. he was very much attached to me, was dick.poor dick! dear, dear!" "yo ho, my boys!" said fezziwig."no more work to-night. christmas eve, dick.christmas, ebenezer! let's have the shutters up," cried oldfezziwig, 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 theshutters--one, two, three--had 'em up in their places--four, five, six--barred 'emand pinned 'em--seven, eight, nine--and came back before you could have got totwelve, panting like race-horses. "hilli-ho!" cried old fezziwig, skippingdown from the high desk, with wonderful agility. "clear away, my lads, and let's have lotsof room here! hilli-ho, dick!chirrup, ebenezer!" clear away! there was nothing they wouldn't havecleared away, or couldn't have cleared

away, with old fezziwig looking on.it was done in a minute. every movable was packed off, as if it weredismissed from public life for evermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lampswere trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room, asyou would desire to see upon a winter's night. in came a fiddler with a music-book, andwent up to the lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fiftystomach-aches. in came mrs. fezziwig, one vast substantialsmile.

in came the three miss fezziwigs, beamingand lovable. in came the six young followers whosehearts they broke. in came all the young men and womenemployed in the business. in came the housemaid, with her cousin, thebaker. in came the cook, with her brother'sparticular friend, the milkman. in came the boy from over the way, who wassuspected of not having board enough from his master; trying to hide himself behindthe girl from next door but one, who was proved to have had her ears pulled by hermistress. in they all came, one after another; someshyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some

awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; inthey all came, anyhow and everyhow. away they all went, twenty couple at once;hands half round and back again the other way; down the middle and up again; roundand round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always turning up in the wrong place; new top couple startingoff again, as soon as they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom oneto help them! when this result was brought about, oldfezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance, cried out, "well done!" and thefiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially provided for thatpurpose.

but scorning rest, upon his reappearance,he instantly began again, though there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler hadbeen carried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man resolved to beathim out of sight, or perish. there were more dances, and there wereforfeits, and more dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there was agreat piece of cold roast, and there was a great piece of cold boiled, and there weremince-pies, and plenty of beer. but the great effect of the evening cameafter the roast and boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! the sort of man who knew his businessbetter than you or i could have told it

him!) struck up "sir roger de coverley."then old fezziwig stood out to dance with mrs. fezziwig. top couple, too; with a good stiff piece ofwork cut out for them; three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who werenot to be trifled with; people who would dance, and had no notion of walking. but if they had been twice as many--ah,four times--old fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would mrs. fezziwig.as to her, she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. if that's not high praise, tell me higher,and i'll use it.

a positive light appeared to issue fromfezziwig's calves. they shone in every part of the dance likemoons. you couldn't have predicted, at any giventime, what would have become of them next. and when old fezziwig and mrs. fezziwig hadgone all through the dance; advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow andcurtsey, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to your place; fezziwig "cut"-- cut so deftly, that he appeared to winkwith his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger.when the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up.

mr. and mrs. fezziwig took their stations,one on either side of the door, and shaking hands with every person individually as heor 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 thelads were left to their beds; which were under a counter in the back-shop. during the whole of this time, scrooge hadacted like a man out of his wits. his heart and soul were in the scene, andwith his former self. he corroborated everything, rememberedeverything, enjoyed everything, and

underwent the strangest agitation. it was not until now, when the bright facesof 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 itshead burnt very clear. "a small matter," said the ghost, "to makethese silly folks so full of gratitude." "small!" echoed scrooge. the spirit signed to him to listen to thetwo apprentices, who were pouring out their hearts in praise of fezziwig: and when hehad done so, said, "why! is it not?

he has spent but a few pounds of yourmortal money: three or four perhaps. is that so much that he deserves thispraise?" "it isn't that," said scrooge, heated bythe remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self."it isn't that, spirit. he has the power to render us happy orunhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. say that his power lies in words and looks;in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count 'em up:what then? the happiness he gives, is quite as greatas if it cost a fortune."

he felt the spirit's glance, and stopped."what is the matter?" asked the ghost. "nothing particular," said scrooge. "something, i think?" the ghost insisted."no," said scrooge, "no. i should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerkjust now. that's all." his former self turned down the lamps as hegave utterance to the wish; and scrooge and the ghost again stood side by side in theopen air. "my time grows short," observed the spirit. "quick!"this was not addressed to scrooge, or to

any one whom he could see, but it producedan immediate effect. for again scrooge saw himself. he was older now; a man in the prime oflife. his face had not the harsh and rigid linesof later years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice. there was an eager, greedy, restless motionin the eye, which showed the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of thegrowing tree would fall. he was not alone, but sat by the side of afair young girl in a mourning-dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkledin the light that shone out of the ghost of

christmas past. "it matters little," she said, softly."to you, very little. another idol has displaced me; and if itcan cheer and comfort you in time to come, as i would have tried to do, i have no justcause 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 aspoverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as thepursuit of wealth!"

"you fear the world too much," sheanswered, gently. "all your other hopes have merged into thehope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. i have seen your nobler aspirations falloff 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, whatthen? 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, wecould improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. you are changed.when it was made, you were another man." "i was a boy," he said impatiently."your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are," she returned. "i am.that which promised happiness when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery nowthat we are two. how often and how keenly i have thought ofthis, i will not say.

it is enough that i have thought of it, andcan 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," saidthe girl, looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; "tell me, would youseek me out and try to win me now?

ah, no!" he seemed to yield to the justice of thissupposition, in spite of himself. but he said with a struggle, "you thinknot." "i would gladly think otherwise if icould," she answered, "heaven knows! when i have learned a truth like this, iknow how strong and irresistible it must be. but if you were free to-day, to-morrow,yesterday, can even i believe that you would choose a dowerless girl--you who, inyour very confidence with her, weigh everything by gain: or, choosing her, if

for a moment you were false enough to yourone guiding principle to do so, do i not know that your repentance and regret wouldsurely follow? i do; and i release you. with a full heart, for the love of him youonce were." he was about to speak; but with her headturned from him, she resumed. "you may--the memory of what is past halfmakes me hope you will--have pain in this. a very, very brief time, and you willdismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which ithappened well that you awoke. may you be happy in the life you havechosen!"

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 observewhat happened next. they were in another scene and place; aroom, not very large or handsome, but full of comfort.

near to the winter fire sat a beautifulyoung 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 perfectlytumultuous, for there were more children there, than scrooge in his agitated stateof mind could count; and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty children conducting themselves likeone, but every child was conducting itself like forty. the consequences were uproarious beyondbelief; but no one seemed to care; on the

contrary, the mother and daughter laughedheartily, and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigandsmost ruthlessly. what would i not have given to be one ofthem! though i never could have been so rude, no,no! i wouldn't for the wealth of all the worldhave crushed that braided hair, and torn it down; and for the precious little shoe, iwouldn't have plucked it off, god bless my soul! to save my life. as to measuring her waist in sport, as theydid, bold young brood, i couldn't have done

it; i should have expected my arm to havegrown round it for a punishment, and never come straight again. and yet i should have dearly liked, i own,to have touched her lips; to have questioned her, that she might have openedthem; to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose waves of hair, an inch ofwhich would be a keepsake beyond price: in short, i should have liked, i do confess,to have had the lightest licence of a child, and yet to have been man enough toknow 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 wasborne towards it the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time to greet the father, who came home attended by a manladen with christmas toys and presents. then the shouting and the struggling, andthe onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter! the scaling him with chairs for ladders todive into his pockets, despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by hiscravat, hug him round his neck, pommel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressibleaffection! the shouts of wonder and delight with whichthe development of every package was

received! the terrible announcement that the baby hadbeen taken in the act of putting a doll's frying-pan into his mouth, and was morethan suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a woodenplatter! the immense relief of finding this a falsealarm! the joy, and gratitude, and ecstasy! they are all indescribable alike. it is enough that by degrees the childrenand their emotions got out of the parlour, and by one stair at a time, up to the topof the house; where they went to bed, and

so subsided. and now scrooge looked on more attentivelythan 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 asfull of promise, might have called him father, and been a spring-time in thehaggard winter of his life, his sight grew very dim indeed. "belle," said the husband, turning to hiswife 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 wasnot 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 blameme!" "remove me!"scrooge exclaimed, "i cannot bear it!" he turned upon the ghost, and seeing thatit looked upon him with a face, in which in some strange way there were fragments ofall 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 astruggle in which the ghost with no visible

resistance on its own part was undisturbedby any effort of its adversary, scrooge observed that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly connecting that withits influence over him, he seized the extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden actionpressed it down upon its head. the spirit dropped beneath it, so that theextinguisher covered its whole form; but though scrooge pressed it down with all hisforce, he could not hide the light: which streamed from under it, in an unbrokenflood upon the ground. he was conscious of being exhausted, andovercome by an irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own bedroom.

he gave the cap a parting squeeze, in whichhis hand relaxed; and had barely time to reel to bed, before he sank into a heavysleep. stave iii: the second of the three spirits awaking in the middle of a prodigiouslytough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, scrooge had nooccasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of one. he felt that he was restored toconsciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding aconference with the second messenger despatched to him through jacob marley'sintervention.

but finding that he turned uncomfortablycold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this new spectre would draw back,he put them every one aside with his own hands; and lying down again, established asharp look-out all round the bed. for he wished to challenge the spirit onthe moment of its appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise, and madenervous. gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, whoplume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to thetime-of-day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which

opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies atolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects. without venturing for scrooge quite ashardily as this, i don't mind calling on you to believe that he was ready for a goodbroad field of strange appearances, and that nothing between a baby and rhinoceroswould have astonished him very much. now, being prepared for almost anything, hewas not by any means prepared for nothing; and, consequently, when the bell struckone, and no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling. five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of anhour went by, yet nothing came.

all this time, he lay upon his bed, thevery core and centre of a blaze of ruddy light, which streamed upon it when theclock proclaimed the hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make outwhat it meant, or would be at; and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be atthat very moment an interesting case of spontaneous combustion, without having theconsolation of knowing it. at last, however, he began to think--as youor i would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the predicamentwho knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it

too--at last, i say, he began to think thatthe source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, fromwhence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. this idea taking full possession of hismind, he got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the door. the moment scrooge's hand was on the lock,a strange voice called him by his name, and bade him enter.he obeyed. it was his own room. there was no doubt about that.but it had undergone a surprising

transformation. the walls and ceiling were so hung withliving green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which, brightgleaming berries glistened. the crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, andivy 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 marley's, or for many and many a winter season gone. heaped up on the floor, to form a kind ofthrone, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry,

brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs,long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum- puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicyoranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth- cakes, and seething bowls of punch, thatmade the chamber dim with their delicious steam. in easy state upon this couch, there sat ajolly giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike plenty'shorn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on scrooge, as he came peeping roundthe door. "come in!" exclaimed the ghost."come in! and know me better, man!"

scrooge entered timidly, and hung his headbefore 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," saidthe spirit. "look upon me!"scrooge reverently did so. it was clothed in one simple green robe, ormantle, bordered with white fur. this garment hung so loosely on the figure,that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by anyartifice. its feet, observable beneath the amplefolds of the garment, were also bare; and

on its head it wore no other covering thana holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. its dark brown curls were long and free;free as its genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, itsunconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. girded round its middle was an antiquescabbard; 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 amvery young) my elder brothers born in these later years?" pursued the phantom. "i don't think i have," said scrooge."i am afraid i have not. have you had many brothers, spirit?""more than eighteen hundred," said the ghost. "a tremendous family to provide for!"muttered scrooge. the ghost of christmas present rose."spirit," said scrooge submissively, "conduct me where you will. i went forth last night on compulsion, andi learnt a lesson which is working now.

to-night, if you have aught to teach me,let me profit by it." "touch my robe!" scrooge did as he was told, and held itfast. 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 fromthe pavement in front of their dwellings,

and from the tops of their houses, whenceit was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting into artificial little snow-storms. the house fronts looked black enough, andthe windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs,and with the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of cartsand waggons; furrows that crossed and re- crossed each other hundreds of times wherethe great streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace in thethick yellow mud and icy water.

the sky was gloomy, and the shorteststreets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavierparticles descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in great britain had, by one consent, caught fire,and were blazing away to their dear hearts' content. there was nothing very cheerful in theclimate or the town, and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that theclearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse invain. for, the people who were shovelling away onthe housetops were jovial and full of glee;

calling out to one another from theparapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball--better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest-- laughingheartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong. the poulterers' shops were still half open,and the fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. there were great, round, pot-belliedbaskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lollingat the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence.

there were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed spanish onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like spanishfriars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-upmistletoe. there were pears and apples, clustered highin 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 offilberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among thewoods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep

through withered leaves; there were norfolk biffins, squat and swarthy, setting off theyellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicypersons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eatenafter dinner. the very gold and silver fish, set forthamong these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and stagnant-bloodedrace, appeared to know that there was something going on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and round their little worldin slow and passionless excitement. the grocers'! oh, the grocers'! nearlyclosed, with perhaps two shutters down, or

one; but through those gaps such glimpses! it was not alone that the scales descendingon the counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller parted company sobriskly, or that the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of tea and coffeewere so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, thealmonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits socaked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint andsubsequently bilious.

nor was it that the figs were moist andpulpy, or that the french plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly-decoratedboxes, or that everything was good to eat and in its christmas dress; but the customers were all so hurried and so eagerin the hopeful promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other at thedoor, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them, andcommitted hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best humour possible; while the grocerand his people were so frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which they

fastened their aprons behind might havebeen their own, worn outside for general inspection, and for christmas daws to peckat if they chose. but soon the steeples called good peopleall, to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in theirbest clothes, and with their gayest faces. and at the same time there emerged fromscores of bye-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, carryingtheir dinners to the bakers' shops. the sight of these poor revellers appearedto interest the spirit very much, for he stood with scrooge beside him in a baker'sdoorway, and taking off the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on theirdinners 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 hadjostled each other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their goodhumour was restored directly. for they said, it was a shame to quarrelupon christmas day. and so it was! god love it, so it was! in time the bells ceased, and the bakerswere shut up; and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners andthe progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker's

oven; where the pavement smoked as if itsstones were cooking too. "is there a peculiar flavour in what yousprinkle from your torch?" asked scrooge. "there is. my own.""would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?" asked scrooge."to any kindly given. to a poor one most." "why to a poor one most?" asked scrooge."because it needs it most." "spirit," said scrooge, after a moment'sthought, "i wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desireto 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 onlyday 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 theseventh 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 leastin that of your family," said scrooge.

"there are some upon this earth of yours,"returned the spirit, "who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion,pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if theyhad never lived. remember that, and charge their doings onthemselves, not us." scrooge promised that he would; and theywent on, invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town. it was a remarkable quality of the ghost(which scrooge had observed at the baker's), that notwithstanding his giganticsize, he could accommodate himself to any

place with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like asupernatural creature, as it was possible he could have done in any lofty hall. and perhaps it was the pleasure the goodspirit had in showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind, generous,hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor men, that led him straight to scrooge's clerk's; for there he went, andtook scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and on the threshold of the door the spiritsmiled, and stopped to bless bob cratchit's dwelling with the sprinkling of his torch.

think of that! bob had but fifteen "bob" a-week himself;he pocketed on saturdays but fifteen copies of his christian name; and yet the ghost ofchristmas present blessed his four-roomed house! then up rose mrs. cratchit, cratchit'swife, dressed out but poorly in a twice- turned gown, but brave in ribbons, whichare cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by belinda cratchit, second of herdaughters, also brave in ribbons; while master peter cratchit plunged a fork intothe saucepan of potatoes, and getting the

corners of his monstrous shirt collar (bob's private property, conferred upon hisson and heir in honour of the day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself sogallantly attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable parks. and now two smaller cratchits, boy andgirl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker's they had smelt thegoose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young cratchits danced aboutthe 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 thesaucepan-lid to be let out and peeled. "what has ever got your precious fatherthen?" said mrs. cratchit. "and your brother, tiny tim! and martha warn't as late last christmasday by half-an-hour?" "here's martha, mother!" said a girl,appearing as she spoke. "here's martha, mother!" cried the twoyoung cratchits. "hurrah!there's such a goose, martha!" "why, bless your heart alive, my dear, howlate you are!" said mrs. cratchit, kissing

her a dozen times, and taking off her shawland bonnet for her with officious zeal. "we'd a deal of work to finish up lastnight," replied the girl, "and had to clear away this morning, mother!""well! never mind so long as you are come," saidmrs. cratchit. "sit ye down before the fire, my dear, andhave a warm, lord bless ye!" "no, no! there's father coming," cried the two youngcratchits, who were everywhere at once. "hide, martha, hide!" so martha hid herself, and in came littlebob, 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 lookseasonable; 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 bobcratchit, looking round. "not coming," said mrs. cratchit. "not coming!" said bob, with a suddendeclension in his high spirits; for he had been tim's blood horse all the way fromchurch, 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 hearthe 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 daughterto his heart's content. "as good as gold," said bob, "and better. somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting byhimself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard.

he told me, coming home, that he hoped thepeople saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant tothem to remember upon christmas day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see." bob's voice was tremulous when he told themthis, and trembled more when he said that tiny tim was growing strong and hearty. his active little crutch was heard upon thefloor, and back came tiny tim before another word was spoken, escorted by hisbrother and sister to his stool before the fire; and while bob, turning up his cuffs-- as if, poor fellow, they were capable ofbeing made more shabby--compounded some hot

mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, andstirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer; master peter, and the two ubiquitous young cratchits went tofetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession. such a bustle ensued that you might havethought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swanwas a matter of course--and in truth it was something very like it in that house. mrs. cratchit made the gravy (readybeforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; master peter mashed the potatoes withincredible vigour; miss belinda sweetened

up the apple-sauce; martha dusted the hot plates; bob took tiny tim beside him in atiny corner at the table; the two young cratchits set chairs for everybody, notforgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goosebefore their turn came to be helped. at last the dishes were set on, and gracewas said. it was succeeded by a breathless pause, asmrs. cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in thebreast; but when she did, and when the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one

murmur of delight arose all round theboard, and even tiny tim, excited by the two young cratchits, beat on the table withthe handle of his knife, and feebly cried hurrah! there never was such a goose.bob said he didn't believe there ever was such a goose cooked. its tenderness and flavour, size andcheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. eked out by apple-sauce and mashedpotatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as mrs. cratchitsaid with great delight (surveying one

small atom of a bone upon the dish), theyhadn't ate it all at last! yet every one had had enough, and theyoungest cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! but now, the plates being changed by missbelinda, mrs. cratchit left the room alone- -too nervous to bear witnesses--to take thepudding 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 thewall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose--asupposition at which the two young

cratchits became livid! all sorts of horrors were supposed.hallo! a great deal of steam!the pudding was out of the copper. a smell like a washing-day! that was the cloth.a smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next door to each other, witha laundress's next door to that! that was the pudding! in half a minute mrs. cratchit entered--flushed, but smiling proudly--with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, sohard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-

quartern of ignited brandy, and bedightwith christmas holly stuck into the top. oh, a wonderful pudding! bob cratchit said, and calmly too, that heregarded it as the greatest success achieved by mrs. cratchit since theirmarriage. mrs. cratchit said that now the weight wasoff her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. everybody had something to say about it,but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family.it would have been flat heresy to do so. any cratchit would have blushed to hint atsuch a thing.

at last the dinner was all done, the clothwas cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up. the compound in the jug being tasted, andconsidered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a shovel-full ofchestnuts on the fire. then all the cratchit family drew round thehearth, in what bob cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and at bobcratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass. two tumblers, and a custard-cup without ahandle. these held the hot stuff from the jug,however, as well as golden goblets would

have done; and bob served it out withbeaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. then bob proposed:"a merry christmas to us all, my dears. god bless us!"which all the family re-echoed. "god bless us every one!" said tiny tim,the last of all. he sat very close to his father's side uponhis little stool. bob held his withered little hand in his,as if he loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that hemight be taken from him. "spirit," said scrooge, with an interest hehad 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 thefuture, none other of my race," returned the ghost, "will find him here.what then? if he be like to die, he had better do it,and decrease the surplus population."

scrooge hung his head to hear his own wordsquoted by the spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief. "man," said the ghost, "if man you be inheart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered what thesurplus is, and where it is. will you decide what men shall live, whatmen shall die? it may be, that in the sight of heaven, youare more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child. oh god! to hear the insect on the leafpronouncing 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 hisown name. "mr. scrooge!" said bob; "i'll give you mr.scrooge, the founder of the feast!" "the founder of the feast indeed!" criedmrs. cratchit, reddening. "i wish i had him here. i'd give him a piece of my mind to feastupon, 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, unfeelingman as mr. scrooge. you know he is, robert! nobody knows it better than you do, poorfellow!" "my dear," was bob's mild answer,"christmas day." "i'll drink his health for your sake andthe day's," said mrs. cratchit, "not for his.long life to him! a merry christmas and a happy new year! he'll be very merry and very happy, i haveno doubt!" the children drank the toast after her.it was the first of their proceedings which

had no heartiness. tiny tim drank it last of all, but hedidn't care twopence for it. scrooge was the ogre of the family. the mention of his name cast a dark shadowon the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes. after it had passed away, they were tentimes merrier than before, from the mere relief of scrooge the baleful being donewith. bob cratchit told them how he had asituation in his eye for master peter, which would bring in, if obtained, fullfive-and-sixpence weekly.

the two young cratchits laughedtremendously at the idea of peter's being a man of business; and peter himself lookedthoughtfully at the fire from between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular investments he should favourwhen he came into the receipt of that bewildering income. martha, who was a poor apprentice at amilliner's, then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours sheworked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passedat home.

also how she had seen a countess and a lordsome days before, and how the lord "was much about as tall as peter;" at whichpeter pulled up his collars so high that you couldn't have seen his head if you hadbeen there. all this time the chestnuts and the jugwent round and round; and by-and-bye they had a song, about a lost child travellingin the snow, from tiny tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it verywell indeed. there was nothing of high mark in this. they were not a handsome family; they werenot well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes werescanty; and peter might have known, and

very likely did, the inside of apawnbroker's. but, they were happy, grateful, pleasedwith one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and lookedhappier yet in the bright sprinklings of the spirit's torch at parting, scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on tinytim, until the last. by this time it was getting dark, andsnowing pretty heavily; and as scrooge and the spirit went along the streets, thebrightness of the roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of rooms,was wonderful. here, the flickering of the blaze showedpreparations for a cosy dinner, with hot

plates baking through and through beforethe fire, and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. there all the children of the house wererunning 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-blind of guests assembling; and there a group of handsome girls, all hooded andfur-booted, and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near neighbour's house; where, woe upon thesingle man who saw them enter--artful witches, well they knew it--in a glow!

but, if you had judged from the numbers ofpeople on their way to friendly gatherings, you might have thought that no one was athome to give them welcome when they got there, instead of every house expecting company, and piling up its fires half-chimney high. blessings on it, how the ghost exulted! how it bared its breadth of breast, andopened its capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring, with a generous hand, itsbright 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 theevening somewhere, laughed out loudly as the spirit passed, though little kenned the lamplighter that he had any company butchristmas! and now, without a word of warning from theghost, they stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stonewere cast about, as though it were the burial-place of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed, or would havedone so, but for the frost that held it prisoner; and nothing grew but moss andfurze, and coarse rank grass. down in the west the setting sun had left astreak of fiery red, which glared upon the

desolation for an instant, like a sulleneye, and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in the thick gloom of darkestnight. "what place is this?" asked scrooge. "a place where miners live, who labour inthe bowels of the earth," returned the spirit."but they know me. see!" a light shone from the window of a hut, andswiftly they advanced towards it. passing through the wall of mud and stone,they found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire.

an old, old man and woman, with theirchildren and their children's children, and another generation beyond that, all deckedout gaily in their holiday attire. the old man, in a voice that seldom roseabove the howling of the wind upon the barren waste, was singing them a christmassong--it had been a very old song when he was a boy--and from time to time they alljoined in the chorus. so surely as they raised their voices, theold man got quite blithe and loud; and so surely as they stopped, his vigour sankagain. the spirit did not tarry here, but badescrooge hold his robe, and passing on above the moor, sped--whither?not to sea?

to sea. to scrooge's horror, looking back, he sawthe last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them; and his ears weredeafened by the thundering of water, as it rolled and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it had worn, and fiercelytried 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 yearthrough, there stood a solitary lighthouse. great heaps of sea-weed clung to its base,and storm-birds --born of the wind one might suppose, as sea-weed of the water--rose and fell about it, like the waves they

skimmed. but even here, two men who watched thelight had made a fire, that through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out aray of brightness on the awful sea. joining their horny hands over the roughtable at which they sat, they wished each other merry christmas in their can of grog;and one of them: the elder, too, with his face all damaged and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old shipmight be: struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale in itself. again the ghost sped on, above the blackand 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 thewheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostlyfigures in their several stations; but every man among them hummed a christmas tune, or had a christmas thought, or spokebelow his breath to his companion of some bygone christmas day, with homeward hopesbelonging to it. and every man on board, waking or sleeping,good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in theyear; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he

cared for at a distance, and had known thatthey delighted to remember him. it was a great surprise to scrooge, whilelistening to the moaning of the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it was to moveon through the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as profound as death: it was a great surpriseto scrooge, while thus engaged, to hear a hearty laugh. it was a much greater surprise to scroogeto recognise it as his own nephew's and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleamingroom, with the spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at that same nephewwith approving affability!

"ha, ha!" laughed scrooge's nephew."ha, ha, ha!" if you should happen, by any unlikelychance, to know a man more blest in a laugh than scrooge's nephew, all i can say is, ishould like to know him too. introduce him to me, and i'll cultivate hisacquaintance. it is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustmentof things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in theworld so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. when scrooge's nephew laughed in this way:holding his sides, rolling his head, and twisting his face into the most extravagantcontortions: scrooge's niece, by marriage,

laughed as heartily as he. and their assembled friends being not a bitbehindhand, roared out lustily. "ha, ha!ha, ha, ha, ha!" "he said that christmas was a humbug, as ilive!" cried scrooge's nephew. "he believed it too!""more shame for him, fred!" said scrooge's niece, indignantly. bless those women; they never do anythingby halves. they are always in earnest.she was very pretty: exceedingly pretty. with a dimpled, surprised-looking, capitalface; a ripe little mouth, that seemed made

to be kissed--as no doubt it was; all kindsof good little dots about her chin, that melted into one another when she laughed; and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever sawin any little creature's head. altogether she was what you would havecalled 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 sopleasant as he might be. however, his offences carry their ownpunishment, and i have nothing to say against him.""i'm sure he is very rich, fred," hinted

scrooge's niece. "at least you always tell me so.""what of that, my dear!" said scrooge's nephew."his wealth is of no use to him. he don't do any good with it. he don't make himself comfortable with it.he hasn't the satisfaction of thinking--ha, ha, ha!--that he is ever going to benefitus with it." "i have no patience with him," observedscrooge's niece. scrooge's niece's sisters, and all theother ladies, expressed the same opinion. "oh, i have!" said scrooge's nephew.

"i am sorry for him; i couldn't be angrywith him if i tried. who suffers by his ill whims!himself, always. here, he takes it into his head to dislikeus, 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 gooddinner," interrupted scrooge's niece. everybody else said the same, and they mustbe allowed to have been competent judges, because they had just had dinner; and, withthe dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire, by lamplight. "well!i'm very glad to hear it," said scrooge's

nephew, "because i haven't great faith inthese young housekeepers. what do you say, topper?" topper had clearly got his eye upon one ofscrooge's niece's sisters, for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, whohad no right to express an opinion on the subject. whereat scrooge's niece's sister--the plumpone with the lace tucker: not the one with the roses--blushed."do go on, fred," said scrooge's niece, clapping her hands. "he never finishes what he begins to say!he is such a ridiculous fellow!"

scrooge's nephew revelled in another laugh,and as it was impossible to keep the infection off; though the plump sistertried hard to do it with aromatic vinegar; his example was unanimously followed. "i was only going to say," said scrooge'snephew, "that the consequence of his taking a dislike to us, and not making merry withus, is, as i think, that he loses some pleasant moments, which could do him noharm. i am sure he loses pleasanter companionsthan he can find in his own thoughts, either in his mouldy old office, or hisdusty chambers. i mean to give him the same chance everyyear, whether he likes it or not, for i

pity him. he may rail at christmas till he dies, buthe can't help thinking better of it--i defy him--if he finds me going there, in goodtemper, year after year, and saying uncle scrooge, how are you? if it only puts him in the vein to leavehis poor clerk fifty pounds, that's something; and i think i shook himyesterday." it was their turn to laugh now at thenotion of his shaking scrooge. but being thoroughly good-natured, and notmuch caring what they laughed at, so that they laughed at any rate, he encouragedthem in their merriment, and passed the

bottle joyously. after tea, they had some music. for they were a musical family, and knewwhat they were about, when they sung a glee or catch, i can assure you: especiallytopper, who could growl away in the bass like a good one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in theface over it. scrooge's niece played well upon the harp;and played among other tunes a simple little air (a mere nothing: you might learnto whistle it in two minutes), which had been familiar to the child who fetched

scrooge from the boarding-school, as he hadbeen reminded by the ghost of christmas past. when this strain of music sounded, all thethings that ghost had shown him, came upon his mind; he softened more and more; andthought that if he could have listened to it often, years ago, he might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for hisown happiness with his own hands, without resorting to the sexton's spade that buriedjacob marley. but they didn't devote the whole evening tomusic. after a while they played at forfeits; forit is good to be children sometimes, and

never better than at christmas, when itsmighty 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 topper was reallyblind than i believe he had eyes in his boots. my opinion is, that it was a done thingbetween him and scrooge's nephew; and that the ghost of christmas present knew it. the way he went after that plump sister inthe lace tucker, was an outrage on the credulity of human nature.

knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling overthe chairs, bumping against the piano, smothering himself among the curtains,wherever she went, there went he! he always knew where the plump sister was. he wouldn't catch anybody else. if you had fallen up against him (as someof them did), on purpose, he would have made a feint of endeavouring to seize you,which would have been an affront to your understanding, and would instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plumpsister. she often cried out that it wasn't fair;and it really was not.

but when at last, he caught her; when, inspite of all her silken rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, he got her intoa corner whence there was no escape; then his conduct was the most execrable. for his pretending not to know her; hispretending that it was necessary to touch her head-dress, and further to assurehimself of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her finger, and a certainchain 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 asnug corner, where the ghost and scrooge were close behind her. but she joined in the forfeits, and lovedher love to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet. likewise at the game of how, when, andwhere, she was very great, and to the secret joy of scrooge's nephew, beat hersisters hollow: though they were sharp girls too, as topper could have told you. there might have been twenty people there,young and old, but they all played, and so did scrooge; for wholly forgetting in theinterest he had in what was going on, that

his voice made no sound in their ears, he sometimes came out with his guess quiteloud, and very often guessed quite right, too; for the sharpest needle, bestwhitechapel, warranted not to cut in the eye, was not sharper than scrooge; blunt ashe took it in his head to be. the ghost was greatly pleased to find himin this mood, and looked upon him with such favour, that he begged like a boy to beallowed to stay until the guests departed. but this the spirit said could not be done. "here is a new game," said scrooge."one half hour, spirit, only one!" it was a game called yes and no, wherescrooge's nephew had to think of something,

and the rest must find out what; he onlyanswering to their questions yes or no, as the case was. the brisk fire of questioning to which hewas 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 livedin london, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show of, and wasn't ledby 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 abull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a

cat, or a bear. at every fresh question that was put tohim, 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 asimilar state, cried out: "i have found it out!i know what it is, fred! i know what it is!" "what is it?" cried fred."it's your uncle scro-o-o-o-oge!" which it certainly was.

admiration was the universal sentiment,though some objected that the reply to "is it a bear?" ought to have been "yes;"inasmuch as an answer in the negative was sufficient to have diverted their thoughts from mr. scrooge, supposing they had everhad any tendency that way. "he has given us plenty of merriment, i amsure," said fred, "and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. here is a glass of mulled wine ready to ourhand at the moment; and i say, 'uncle scrooge!'""well! uncle scrooge!" they cried.

"a merry christmas and a happy new year tothe old man, whatever he is!" said scrooge's nephew."he wouldn't take it from me, but may he have it, nevertheless. uncle scrooge!" uncle scrooge had imperceptibly become sogay 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 thebreath of the last word spoken by his nephew; and he and the spirit were againupon their travels.

much they saw, and far they went, and manyhomes they visited, but always with a happy end. the spirit stood beside sick beds, and theywere cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by struggling men, andthey were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and it was rich. in almshouse, hospital, and jail, inmisery's every refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not madefast the door, and barred the spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught scroogehis precepts. it was a long night, if it were only anight; but scrooge had his doubts of this,

because the christmas holidays appeared tobe condensed into the space of time they passed together. it was strange, too, that while scroogeremained unaltered in his outward form, the ghost grew older, clearly older. scrooge had observed this change, but neverspoke of it, until they left a children's twelfth night party, when, looking at thespirit as they stood together in an open place, he noticed that its hair was grey. "are spirits' lives so short?" askedscrooge. "my life upon this globe, is very brief,"replied the ghost.

"it ends to-night." "to-night!" cried scrooge."to-night at midnight. hark!the time is drawing near." the chimes were ringing the three quarterspast eleven at that moment. "forgive me if i am not justified in what iask," said scrooge, looking intently at the spirit's robe, "but i see somethingstrange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. is it a foot or a claw?""it might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the spirit's sorrowful reply."look here."

from the foldings of its robe, it broughttwo children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable.they knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment. "oh, man! look here.look, look, down here!" exclaimed the ghost.they were a boy and girl. yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish;but prostrate, too, in their humility. where graceful youth should have filledtheir features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelledhand, 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 ofhumanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, hasmonsters half so horrible and dread. scrooge started back, appalled. having them shown to him in this way, hetried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than beparties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. "spirit! are they yours?"scrooge could say no more. "they are man's," said the spirit, lookingdown upon them.

"and they cling to me, appealing from theirfathers. this boy is ignorance.this girl is want. beware them both, and all of their degree,but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow i see that written which is doom,unless the writing be erased. deny it!" cried the spirit, stretching outits 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 "are there no prisons?" said the spirit,turning on him for the last time with his

own words."are there no workhouses?" the bell struck twelve. scrooge looked about him for the ghost, andsaw it not. as the last stroke ceased to vibrate, heremembered the prediction of old jacob marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld asolemn phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him. stave iv: the last of the spirits the phantom slowly, gravely, silently,approached. when it came near him, scrooge bent downupon his knee; for in the very air through

which this spirit moved it seemed toscatter 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 saveone outstretched hand. but for this it would have been difficultto detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which itwas surrounded. he felt that it was tall and stately whenit 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 ofchristmas yet to come?" said scrooge.

the spirit answered not, but pointed onwardwith its hand. "you are about to show me shadows of thethings that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us," scroogepursued. "is that so, spirit?" the upper portion of the garment wascontracted 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 bythis 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 observinghis condition, and giving him time to recover.but scrooge was all the worse for this. it thrilled him with a vague uncertainhorror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intentlyfixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one greatheap of black. "ghost of the future!" he exclaimed, "ifear you more than any spectre i have seen. but as i know your purpose is to do megood, and as i hope to live to be another man from what i was, i am prepared to bearyou 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 isprecious time to me, i know. lead on, spirit!"the phantom moved away as it had come towards him. scrooge followed in the shadow of itsdress, which bore him up, he thought, and carried him along.

they scarcely seemed to enter the city; forthe 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 theirpockets, and conversed in groups, and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully with their great gold seals;and so forth, as scrooge had seen them often.the spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men. observing that the hand was pointed tothem, scrooge advanced to listen to their

talk. "no," said a great fat man with a monstrouschin, "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 snuffout 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 pendulousexcrescence on the end of his nose, that

shook like the gills of a turkey-cock. "i haven't heard," said the man with thelarge chin, yawning again. "left it to his company, perhaps.he hasn't left it to me. that's all i know." this pleasantry was received with a generallaugh. "it's likely to be a very cheap funeral,"said the same speaker; "for upon my life i don't know of anybody to go to it. suppose we make up a party and volunteer?""i don't mind going if a lunch is provided," observed the gentleman with theexcrescence on his nose.

"but i must be fed, if i make one." another laugh."well, i am the most disinterested among you, after all," said the first speaker,"for i never wear black gloves, and i never eat lunch. but i'll offer to go, if anybody else will.when i come to think of it, i'm not at all sure that i wasn't his most particularfriend; 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 theexplanation 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 wellin their esteem: in a business point of view, that is; strictly in a business pointof view. "how are you?" said one. "how are you?" returned the other."well!" said the first.

"old scratch has got his own at last, hey?""so i am told," returned the second. "cold, isn't it?" "seasonable for christmas time.you're not a skater, i suppose?" "no. no. something else to think of.good morning!" not another word. that was their meeting, their conversation,and their parting. scrooge was at first inclined to besurprised that the spirit should attach importance to conversations apparently sotrivial; but feeling assured that they must have some hidden purpose, he set himself toconsider what it was likely to be.

they could scarcely be supposed to have anybearing on the death of jacob, his old partner, for that was past, and thisghost's province was the future. nor could he think of any one immediatelyconnected with himself, to whom he could apply them. but nothing doubting that to whomsoeverthey applied they had some latent moral for his own improvement, he resolved totreasure up every word he heard, and everything he saw; and especially to observe the shadow of himself when itappeared. for he had an expectation that the conductof his future self would give him the clue

he missed, and would render the solution ofthese riddles easy. he looked about in that very place for hisown image; but another man stood in his accustomed corner, and though the clockpointed to his usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among the multitudes that poured in through theporch. it gave him little surprise, however; forhe had been revolving in his mind a change of life, and thought and hoped he saw hisnew-born resolutions carried out in this. quiet and dark, beside him stood thephantom, with its outstretched hand. when he roused himself from his thoughtfulquest, he fancied from the turn of the

hand, and its situation in reference tohimself, 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 anobscure part of the town, where scrooge had never penetrated before, although herecognised its situation, and its bad repute. the ways were foul and narrow; the shopsand houses wretched; the people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. alleys and archways, like so manycesspools, disgorged their offences of

smell, and dirt, and life, upon thestraggling streets; and the whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and misery. far in this den of infamous resort, therewas a low-browed, beetling shop, below a pent-house roof, where iron, old rags,bottles, bones, and greasy offal, were bought. upon the floor within, were piled up heapsof rusty keys, nails, chains, hinges, files, scales, weights, and refuse iron ofall kinds. secrets that few would like to scrutinisewere bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, andsepulchres of bones.

sitting in among the wares he dealt in, bya charcoal stove, made of old bricks, was a grey-haired rascal, nearly seventy years ofage; who had screened himself from the cold air without, by a frousy 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 thepresence of this man, just as a woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. but she had scarcely entered, when anotherwoman, similarly laden, came in too; and she was closely followed by a man in fadedblack, who was no less startled by the

sight of them, than they had been upon therecognition 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 alaugh. "let the charwoman alone to be the first!"cried she who had entered first. "let the laundress alone to be the second;and let the undertaker's man alone to be the third. look here, old joe, here's a chance!if we haven't all three met here without meaning it!" "you couldn't have met in a better place,"said old joe, removing his pipe from his

mouth."come into the parlour. you were made free of it long ago, youknow; and the other two an't strangers. stop till i shut the door of the shop.ah! how it skreeks! there an't such a rusty bit of metal in theplace as its own hinges, i believe; and i'm sure there's no such old bones here, asmine. ha, ha! we're all suitable to our calling, we'rewell matched. come into the parlour.come into the parlour." the parlour was the space behind the screenof rags.

the old man raked the fire together with anold stair-rod, and having trimmed his smoky lamp (for it was night), with the stem ofhis pipe, put it in his mouth again. while he did this, the woman who hadalready spoken threw her bundle on the floor, and sat down in a flaunting manneron a stool; crossing her elbows on her knees, and looking with a bold defiance atthe other two. "what odds then!what odds, mrs. dilber?" said the woman. "every person has a right to take care ofthemselves. he always did.""that's true, indeed!" said the laundress. "no man more so."

"why then, don't stand staring as if youwas afraid, woman; who's the wiser? we're not going to pick holes in eachother's coats, i suppose?" "no, indeed!" said mrs. dilber and the mantogether. "we should hope not.""very well, then!" cried the woman. "that's enough. who's the worse for the loss of a fewthings like these? not a dead man, i suppose.""no, indeed," said mrs. dilber, laughing. "if he wanted to keep 'em after he wasdead, a wicked old screw," pursued the woman, "why wasn't he natural in hislifetime?

if he had been, he'd have had somebody tolook after him when he was struck with death, instead of lying gasping out hislast 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 couldhave laid my hands on anything else. open that bundle, old joe, and let me knowthe value of it. speak out plain.i'm not afraid to be the first, nor afraid for them to see it.

we know pretty well that we were helpingourselves, before we met here, i believe. it's no sin.open the bundle, joe." but the gallantry of her friends would notallow of this; and the man in faded black, mounting the breach first, produced hisplunder. it was not extensive. a seal or two, a pencil-case, a pair ofsleeve-buttons, and a brooch of no great value, were all. they were severally examined and appraisedby 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 there was nothing more to come. "that's your account," said joe, "and iwouldn't give another sixpence, if i was to be boiled for not doing it.who's next?" mrs. dilber was next. sheets and towels, a little wearingapparel, two old-fashioned silver teaspoons, a pair of sugar-tongs, and a fewboots. her account was stated on the wall in thesame manner. "i always give too much to ladies.it's a weakness of mine, and that's the way i ruin myself," said old joe.

"that's your account.if you asked me for another penny, and made it an open question, i'd repent of being soliberal and knock off half-a-crown." "and now undo my bundle, joe," said thefirst woman. joe went down on his knees for the greaterconvenience of opening it, and having unfastened a great many knots, dragged outa large and heavy roll of some dark stuff. "what do you call this?" said joe. "bed-curtains!""ah!" returned the woman, laughing and leaning forward on her crossed arms."bed-curtains!" "you don't mean to say you took 'em down,rings and all, with him lying there?" said

joe."yes i do," replied the woman. "why not?" "you were born to make your fortune," saidjoe, "and you'll certainly do it." "i certainly shan't hold my hand, when ican get anything in it by reaching it out, for the sake of such a man as he was, ipromise you, joe," returned the woman coolly. "don't drop that oil upon the blankets,now." "his blankets?" asked joe."whose else's do you think?" replied the woman.

"he isn't likely to take cold without 'em,i dare say." "i hope he didn't die of anything catching?eh?" said old joe, stopping in his work, and looking up. "don't you be afraid of that," returned thewoman. "i an't so fond of his company that i'dloiter about him for such things, if he did. ah! you may look through that shirt tillyour eyes ache; but you won't find a hole in it, nor a threadbare place.it's the best he had, and a fine one too. they'd have wasted it, if it hadn't beenfor me."

"what do you call wasting of it?" asked oldjoe. "putting it on him to be buried in, to besure," replied the woman with a laugh. "somebody was fool enough to do it, but itook it off again. if calico an't good enough for such apurpose, 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 inhorror. as they sat grouped about their spoil, inthe scanty light afforded by the old man's lamp, he viewed them with a detestation anddisgust, which could hardly have been

greater, though they had been obscenedemons, marketing the corpse itself. "ha, ha!" laughed the same woman, when oldjoe, producing a flannel bag with money in it, told out their several gains upon theground. "this is the end of it, you see! he frightened every one away from him whenhe was alive, to profit us when he was dead!ha, ha, ha!" "spirit!" said scrooge, shuddering fromhead 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 hadchanged, and now he almost touched a bed: a bare, uncurtained bed: on which, beneath aragged sheet, there lay a something covered up, which, though it was dumb, announceditself in awful language. the room was very dark, too dark to beobserved with any accuracy, though scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secretimpulse, anxious to know what kind of room it was. a pale light, rising in the outer air, fellstraight 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 ofa finger upon scrooge's part, would have disclosed the face. he thought of it, felt how easy it would beto do, and longed to do it; but had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismissthe spectre at his side. oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful death, setup thine altar here, and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command: forthis is thy dominion! but of the loved, revered, and honouredhead, thou canst not turn one hair to thy

dread purposes, or make one feature odious. it is not that the hand is heavy and willfall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that thehand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and thepulse a man's. strike, shadow, strike!and see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal! no voice pronounced these words inscrooge'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 aman, a woman, or a child, to say that he was kind to me in this or that, and for thememory of one kind word i will be kind to him. a cat was tearing at the door, and therewas a sound of gnawing rats beneath the hearth-stone. what they wanted in the room of death, andwhy 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 itslesson, trust me. let us go!"still the ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to the head. "i understand you," scrooge returned, "andi 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, whofeels emotion caused by this man's death," said scrooge quite agonised, "show thatperson to me, spirit, i beseech you!" the phantom spread its dark robe before himfor a moment, like a wing; and withdrawing

it, revealed a room by daylight, where amother and her children were. she was expecting some one, and withanxious 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 ofthe children in their play. at length the long-expected knock washeard. she hurried to the door, and met herhusband; a man whose face was careworn and depressed, though he was young. there was a remarkable expression in itnow; a kind of serious delight of which he

felt ashamed, and which he struggled torepress. he sat down to the dinner that had beenhoarding for him by the fire; and when she asked him faintly what news (which was notuntil after a long silence), he appeared embarrassed how to answer. "is it good?" she said, "or bad?"--to helphim. "bad," he answered."we are quite ruined?" "no. there is hope yet, caroline." "if he relents," she said, amazed, "thereis! nothing is past hope, if such a miracle hashappened."

"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 inher soul to hear it, and she said so, with clasped hands. she prayed forgiveness the next moment, andwas sorry; but the first was the emotion of her heart. "what the half-drunken woman whom i toldyou of last night, said to me, when i tried to see him and obtain a week's delay; andwhat i thought was a mere excuse to avoid me; turns out to have been quite true.

he was not only very ill, but dying, then.""to whom will our debt be transferred?" "i don't know. but before that time we shall be ready withthe money; and even though we were not, it would be a bad fortune indeed to find somerciless a creditor in his successor. we may sleep to-night with light hearts,caroline!" yes.soften it as they would, their hearts were lighter. the children's faces, hushed and clusteredround to hear what they so little understood, were brighter; and it was ahappier house for this man's death!

the only emotion that the ghost could showhim, caused by the event, was one of pleasure. "let me see some tenderness connected witha death," said scrooge; "or that dark chamber, spirit, which we left just now,will be for ever present to me." the ghost conducted him through severalstreets familiar to his feet; and as they went along, scrooge looked here and thereto find himself, but nowhere was he to be seen. they entered poor bob cratchit's house; thedwelling he had visited before; and found the mother and the children seated roundthe fire.

quiet. very quiet.the noisy little cratchits were as still as statues in one corner, and sat looking upat peter, who had a book before him. the mother and her daughters were engagedin sewing. but surely they were very quiet!"'and he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.'" where had scrooge heard those words?he had not dreamed them. the boy must have read them out, as he andthe spirit crossed the threshold. why did he not go on?

the mother laid her work upon the table,and put her hand up to her face. "the colour hurts my eyes," she said.the colour? ah, poor tiny tim! "they're better now again," said cratchit'swife. "it makes them weak by candle-light; and iwouldn't show weak eyes to your father when he comes home, for the world. it must be near his time.""past it rather," peter answered, shutting up his book. "but i think he has walked a little slowerthan he used, these few last evenings,

mother."they were very quiet again. at last she said, and in a steady, cheerfulvoice, that only faltered once: "i have known him walk with--i have knownhim 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," sheresumed, intent upon her work, "and his father loved him so, that it was notrouble: no trouble. and there is your father at the door!"

she hurried out to meet him; and little bobin his comforter --he had need of it, poor fellow--came in. his tea was ready for him on the hob, andthey all tried who should help him to it most. then the two young cratchits got upon hisknees and laid, each child a little cheek, against his face, as if they said, "don'tmind it, father. don't be grieved!" bob was very cheerful with them, and spokepleasantly to all the family. he looked at the work upon the table, andpraised the industry and speed of mrs.

cratchit and the girls. they would be done long before sunday, hesaid. "sunday!you went to-day, then, robert?" said his wife. "yes, my dear," returned bob."i wish you could have gone. it would have done you good to see howgreen a place it is. but you'll see it often. i promised him that i would walk there on asunday. 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 perhapsthan they were. he left the room, and went up-stairs intothe room above, which was lighted cheerfully, and hung with christmas. there was a chair set close beside thechild, and there were signs of some one having been there, lately. poor bob sat down in it, and when he hadthought 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; thegirls and mother working still. bob told them of the extraordinary kindnessof mr. scrooge's nephew, whom he had scarcely seen but once, and who, meetinghim in the street that day, and seeing that he looked a little--"just a little down you know," said bob, inquired what had happenedto distress him. "on which," said bob, "for he is thepleasantest-spoken gentleman you ever heard, i told him. 'i am heartily sorry for it, mr. cratchit,'he said, 'and heartily sorry for your good

wife.'by the bye, how he ever knew that, i don't know." "knew what, my dear?""why, that you were a good wife," replied bob."everybody knows that!" said peter. "very well observed, my boy!" cried bob. "i hope they do.'heartily sorry,' he said, 'for your good 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 sakeof anything he might be able to do for us,

so much as for his kind way, that this wasquite delightful. it really seemed as if he had known ourtiny tim, and felt with us." "i'm sure he's a good soul!" said mrs.cratchit. "you would be surer of it, my dear,"returned bob, "if you saw and spoke to him. i shouldn't be at all surprised-- mark whati say!--if he got peter a better situation." "only hear that, peter," said mrs.cratchit. "and then," cried one of the girls, "peterwill be keeping company with some one, and setting up for himself."

"get along with you!" retorted peter,grinning. "it's just as likely as not," said bob,"one of these days; though there's plenty of time for that, my dear. but however and whenever we part from oneanother, i am sure we shall none of us forget poor tiny tim--shall we--or thisfirst parting that there was among us?" "never, father!" cried they all. "and i know," said bob, "i know, my dears,that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was; although he was a little,little child; we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves, and forget poor tiny timin 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 daughterskissed him, the two young cratchits kissed him, and peter and himself shook hands.spirit of tiny tim, thy childish essence was from god! "spectre," said scrooge, "something informsme 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 conveyedhim, as before--though at a different time,

he thought: indeed, there seemed no orderin these latter visions, save that they were in the future--into the resorts ofbusiness men, but showed him not himself. indeed, the spirit did not stay foranything, but went straight on, as to the end just now desired, until besought byscrooge to tarry for a moment. "this court," said scrooge, "through whichwe hurry now, is where my place of occupation is, and has been for a length oftime. i see the house. let me behold what i shall be, in days tocome!" the spirit stopped; the hand was pointedelsewhere.

"the house is yonder," scrooge exclaimed. "why do you point away?"the inexorable finger underwent no change. scrooge hastened to the window of hisoffice, and looked in. it was an office still, but not his. the furniture was not the same, and thefigure in the chair was not himself. the phantom pointed as before. he joined it once again, and wondering whyand whither he had gone, accompanied it until they reached an iron gate.he paused to look round before entering. a churchyard.

here, then; the wretched man whose name hehad now to learn, lay underneath the ground.it was a worthy place. walled in by houses; overrun by grass andweeds, 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, andpointed down to one. he advanced towards it trembling. the phantom was exactly as it had been, buthe dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.

"before i draw nearer to that stone towhich you point," said scrooge, "answer me one question. are these the shadows of the things thatwill be, or are they shadows of things that may be, only?"still the ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood. "men's courses will foreshadow certainends, 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 hewent; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his ownname, ebenezer scrooge. "am i that man who lay upon the bed?" hecried, 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 itsrobe, "hear me! i am not the man i was. i will not be the man i must have been butfor 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 theground he fell before it: "your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. assure me that i yet may change theseshadows you have shown me, by an altered life!"the kind hand trembled. "i will honour christmas in my heart, andtry to keep it all the year. i will live in the past, the present, andthe future. the spirits of all three shall strivewithin me.

i will not shut out the lessons that theyteach. oh, tell me i may sponge away the writingon 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 analteration in the phantom's hood and dress. it shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled downinto a bedpost. stave v: 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 beforehim was his own, to make amends in! "i will live in the past, the present, andthe future!" scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out ofbed. "the spirits of all three shall strivewithin me. oh jacob marley!heaven, and the christmas time be praised for this! i say it on my knees, old jacob; on myknees!" he was so fluttered and so glowing with hisgood intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call.

he had been sobbing violently in hisconflict 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 andall. they are here--i am here--the shadows ofthe things that would have been, may be dispelled.they will be. i know they will!" his hands were busy with his garments allthis 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 laocoan of himself withhis stockings. "i am as light as a feather, i am as happyas an angel, i am as merry as a schoolboy. i am as giddy as a drunken man.a merry christmas to everybody! a happy new year to all the world. hallo here!whoop! hallo!"he had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing there: perfectly winded.

"there's the saucepan that the gruel wasin!" 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 ofchristmas present, sat! there's the window where i saw thewandering spirits! it's all right, it's all true, it allhappened. ha ha ha!" really, for a man who had been out ofpractice 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've been among thespirits. i don't know anything. i'm quite a baby.never mind. i don't care.i'd rather be a baby. hallo! whoop!hallo here!" he was checked in his transports by thechurches ringing out the lustiest peals he

had ever heard. clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell.bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash! oh, glorious, glorious!running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. no fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial,stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; golden sunlight; heavenly sky;sweet fresh air; merry bells. oh, glorious! glorious!"what's to-day!" cried scrooge, calling downward to a boy in sunday clothes, whoperhaps had loitered in to look about him.

"eh?" returned the boy, with all his mightof wonder. "what's to-day, my fine fellow?" saidscrooge. "to-day!" replied the boy. "why, christmas day.""it's christmas day!" said scrooge to himself."i haven't missed it. the spirits have done it all in one night. they can do anything they like.of course they can. of course they can.hallo, my fine fellow!" "hallo!" returned the boy.

"do you know the poulterer's, in the nextstreet but one, at the corner?" scrooge inquired."i should hope i did," replied the lad. "an intelligent boy!" said scrooge. "a remarkable boy!do you know whether they've sold the prize turkey that was hanging up there?--not thelittle prize turkey: the big one?" "what, the one as big as me?" returned theboy. "what a delightful boy!" said scrooge."it's a pleasure to talk to him. yes, my buck!" "it's hanging there now," replied the boy."is it?" said scrooge.

"go and buy it.""walk-er!" exclaimed the boy. "no, no," said scrooge, "i am in earnest. go and buy it, and tell 'em to bring ithere, that i may give them the direction where to take it.come back with the man, and i'll give you a shilling. come back with him in less than fiveminutes and i'll give you half-a-crown!" the boy was off like a shot.he must have had a steady hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half so fast. "i'll send it to bob cratchit's!" whisperedscrooge, rubbing his hands, and splitting

with a laugh."he sha'n't know who sends it. it's twice the size of tiny tim. joe miller never made such a joke assending it to bob's will be!" the hand in which he wrote the address wasnot a steady one, but write it he did, somehow, and went down-stairs to open thestreet door, ready for the coming of the poulterer's man. as he stood there, waiting his arrival, theknocker caught his eye. "i shall love it, as long as i live!" criedscrooge, patting it with his hand. "i scarcely ever looked at it before.

what an honest expression it has in itsface! it's a wonderful knocker!--here's theturkey! whoop!how are you! merry christmas!"it was a turkey! he never could have stood upon his legs,that bird. he would have snapped 'em short off in aminute, like sticks of sealing-wax. "why, it's impossible to carry that tocamden town," said scrooge. "you must have a cab." the chuckle with which he said this, andthe chuckle with which he paid for the

turkey, and the chuckle with which he paidfor the cab, and the chuckle with which he recompensed the boy, were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which he satdown breathless in his chair again, and chuckled till he cried. shaving was not an easy task, for his handcontinued to shake very much; and shaving requires attention, even when you don'tdance while you are at it. but if he had cut the end of his nose off,he would have put a piece of sticking- plaister 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 hishands behind him, scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. he looked so irresistibly pleasant, in aword, that three or four good-humoured fellows said, "good morning, sir!a merry christmas to you!" and scrooge said often afterwards, that ofall the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears. he had not gone far, when coming on towardshim he beheld the portly gentleman, who had walked into his counting-house the daybefore, and said, "scrooge and marley's, i

believe?" it sent a pang across his heart to thinkhow this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he knew what path laystraight before him, and he took it. "my dear sir," said scrooge, quickening hispace, 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 bepleasant 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 ifhis breath were taken away. "my dear mr. scrooge, are you serious?""if you please," said scrooge. "not a farthing less. a great many back-payments are included init, i assure you. will you do me that favour?""my dear sir," said the other, shaking hands with him. "i don't know what to say to such munifi--""don't say anything, please," retorted

scrooge."come and see me. will you come and see me?" "i will!" cried the old gentleman.and it was clear he meant to do it. "thank'ee," said scrooge."i am much obliged to you. i thank you fifty times. bless you!" he went to church, and walked about thestreets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head,and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the

windows, and found that everything couldyield him pleasure. he had never dreamed that any walk--thatanything--could give him so much happiness. in the afternoon he turned his stepstowards his nephew's house. he passed the door a dozen times, before hehad the courage to go up and knock. but he made a dash, and did it: "is your master at home, my dear?" saidscrooge to the girl. nice girl!very. "yes, sir." "where is he, my love?" said scrooge."he's in the dining-room, sir, along with

mistress.i'll show you up-stairs, if you please." "thank'ee. he knows me," said scrooge, with his handalready 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 wasspread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on suchpoints, 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, onany account. "why bless my soul!" cried fred, "who'sthat?" "it's i.your uncle scrooge. i have come to dinner. will you let me in, fred?"let him in! it is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off.he was at home in five minutes. nothing could be heartier.

his niece looked just the same.so did topper when he came. so did the plump sister when she came.so did every one when they came. wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderfulunanimity, won-der-ful happiness! but he was early at the office nextmorning. oh, he was early there. if he could only be there first, and catchbob cratchit coming late! that was the thing he had set his heartupon. and he did it; yes, he did! the clock struck nine.no bob.

a quarter past.no bob. he was full eighteen minutes and a halfbehind his time. scrooge sat with his door wide open, thathe 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; drivingaway with his pen, as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock. "hallo!" growled scrooge, in his accustomedvoice, as near as he could feign it. "what do you mean by coming here at thistime of day?" "i am very sorry, sir," said bob.

"i am behind my time.""you are?" repeated scrooge. "yes.i think you are. step this way, sir, if you please." "it's only once a year, sir," pleaded bob,appearing from the tank. "it shall not be repeated.i was making rather merry yesterday, sir." "now, i'll tell you what, my friend," saidscrooge, "i am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. and therefore," he continued, leaping fromhis stool, and giving bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into thetank again; "and therefore i am about to

raise your salary!" bob trembled, and got a little nearer tothe ruler. he had a momentary idea of knocking scroogedown with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and astrait-waistcoat. "a merry christmas, bob!" said scrooge,with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back."a merrier christmas, bob, my good fellow, than i have given you, for many a year! i'll raise your salary, and endeavour toassist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon,over a christmas bowl of smoking bishop,

bob! make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, bob cratchit!"scrooge was better than his word. he did it all, and infinitely more; and totiny tim, who did not die, he was a second father. he became as good a friend, as good amaster, 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 alterationin him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to knowthat nothing ever happened on this globe,

for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; andknowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well thatthey should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractiveforms. his own heart laughed: and that was quiteenough for him. he had no further intercourse with spirits,but lived upon the total abstinence principle, ever afterwards; and it wasalways said of him, that he knew how to keep christmas well, if any man alivepossessed the knowledge. may that be truly said of us, and all ofus!

and so, as tiny tim observed, god bless us,every one!

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