From 8d8f823912da675ed233770416a82fc2a86c3d7a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: HuangHai <10402852@qq.com> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:02:59 +0800 Subject: [PATCH] 'commit' --- dsLightRag/Test/T1_WriteToPg.py | 7 +- dsLightRag/Test/book.txt | 3972 ------------------------------- 2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 3976 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 dsLightRag/Test/book.txt diff --git a/dsLightRag/Test/T1_WriteToPg.py b/dsLightRag/Test/T1_WriteToPg.py index 167db27e..c8eafd13 100644 --- a/dsLightRag/Test/T1_WriteToPg.py +++ b/dsLightRag/Test/T1_WriteToPg.py @@ -1,15 +1,14 @@ import asyncio import logging import os -import time -from lightrag import LightRAG, QueryParam -from lightrag.utils import EmbeddingFunc + +from lightrag import LightRAG from lightrag.kg.shared_storage import initialize_pipeline_status +from lightrag.utils import EmbeddingFunc from Config.Config import EMBED_DIM, EMBED_MAX_TOKEN_SIZE, LLM_MODEL_NAME from Util.LightRagUtil import embedding_func, llm_model_func - # 在程序开始时添加以下配置 logging.basicConfig( level=logging.INFO, # 设置日志级别为INFO diff --git a/dsLightRag/Test/book.txt b/dsLightRag/Test/book.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 71be20ed..00000000 --- a/dsLightRag/Test/book.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3972 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Christmas Carol - -This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online -at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, -you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located -before using this eBook. - -Title: A Christmas Carol - -Author: Charles Dickens - -Illustrator: Arthur Rackham - -Release date: December 24, 2007 [eBook #24022] - -Language: English - -Original publication: Philadelphia and New York: J. B. Lippincott Company,, 1915 - -Credits: Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online - Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** - - - - -Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - - - A CHRISTMAS CAROL - - [Illustration: _"How now?" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. - "What do you want with me?"_] - - - A CHRISTMAS CAROL - - [Illustration] - - BY - - CHARLES DICKENS - - [Illustration] - - ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR RACKHAM - - [Illustration] - - J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK - - FIRST PUBLISHED 1915 - - REPRINTED 1923, 1927, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1947, 1948, 1952, 1958, - 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973 - - ISBN: 0-397-00033-2 - - PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN - - - - - PREFACE - - I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book to raise the Ghost of an - Idea which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with - each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their house - pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. - - Their faithful Friend and Servant, - - C. D. - - _December, 1843._ - - - - - CHARACTERS - - Bob Cratchit, clerk to Ebenezer Scrooge. - Peter Cratchit, a son of the preceding. - Tim Cratchit ("Tiny Tim"), a cripple, youngest son of Bob Cratchit. - Mr. Fezziwig, a kind-hearted, jovial old merchant. - Fred, Scrooge's nephew. - Ghost of Christmas Past, a phantom showing things past. - Ghost of Christmas Present, a spirit of a kind, generous, - and hearty nature. - Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, an apparition showing the shadows - of things which yet may happen. - Ghost of Jacob Marley, a spectre of Scrooge's former partner in business. - Joe, a marine-store dealer and receiver of stolen goods. - Ebenezer Scrooge, a grasping, covetous old man, the surviving partner - of the firm of Scrooge and Marley. - Mr. Topper, a bachelor. - Dick Wilkins, a fellow apprentice of Scrooge's. - - Belle, a comely matron, an old sweetheart of Scrooge's. - Caroline, wife of one of Scrooge's debtors. - Mrs. Cratchit, wife of Bob Cratchit. - Belinda and Martha Cratchit, daughters of the preceding. - - Mrs. Dilber, a laundress. - Fan, the sister of Scrooge. - Mrs. Fezziwig, the worthy partner of Mr. Fezziwig. - - - - - CONTENTS - - STAVE ONE--MARLEY'S GHOST 3 - STAVE TWO--THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS 37 - STAVE THREE--THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS 69 - STAVE FOUR--THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS 111 - STAVE FIVE--THE END OF IT 137 - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - _IN COLOUR_ - - - "How now?" said Scrooge, caustic - and cold as ever. "What do you - want with me?" _Frontispiece_ - - Bob Cratchit went down a slide on - Cornhill, at the end of a lane of - boys, twenty times, in honour of - its being Christmas Eve 16 - - Nobody under the bed; nobody in - the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown, - which was hanging up - in a suspicious attitude against - the wall 20 - - The air was filled with phantoms, - wandering hither and thither in - restless haste and moaning as - they went 32 - - Then old Fezziwig stood out to - dance with Mrs. Fezziwig 54 - - A flushed and boisterous group 62 - - Laden with Christmas toys and - presents 64 - - The way he went after that plump - sister in the lace tucker! 100 - - "How are you?" said one. - "How are you?" returned the other. - "Well!" said the first. "Old - Scratch has got his own at last, - hey?" 114 - - "What do you call this?" said Joe. - "Bed-curtains!" "Ah!" returned - the woman, laughing.... - "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?" 120 - - "It's I, your uncle Scrooge. I have - come to dinner. Will you let - me in, Fred?" 144 - - "Now, I'll tell you what, my friend," - said Scrooge. "I am not going - to stand this sort of thing any - longer." 146 - -[Illustration] - -_IN BLACK AND WHITE_ - - - Tailpiece vi - Tailpiece to List of Coloured Illustrations x - Tailpiece to List of Black and White Illustrations xi - Heading to Stave One 3 - They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold 12 - On the wings of the wind 28-29 - Tailpiece to Stave One 34 - Heading to Stave Two 37 - He produced a decanter of curiously - light wine and a block of curiously heavy cake 50 - She left him, and they parted 60 - Tailpiece to Stave Two 65 - Heading to Stave Three 69 - There was nothing very cheerful in the climate 75 - He had been Tim's blood-horse all the way from church 84-85 - With the pudding 88 - Heading to Stave Four 111 - Heading to Stave Five 137 - Tailpiece to Stave Five 147 - -[Illustration] - - -STAVE ONE - - -[Illustration] - - - - -MARLEY'S GHOST - - -Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. -The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the -undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name -was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old -Marley was as dead as a door-nail. - -Mind! I don't mean to say that I know of my own knowledge, what there is -particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, -to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the -trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my -unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the country's done for. You -will, therefore, permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as -dead as a door-nail. - -Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? -Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge -was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole -residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge -was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event but that he was an -excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised -it with an undoubted bargain. - -The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started -from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly -understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to -relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's father died -before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his -taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, -than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning -out after dark in a breezy spot--say St. Paul's Churchyard, for -instance--literally to astonish his son's weak mind. - -Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There it stood, years -afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was -known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called -Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It -was all the same to him. - -Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a -squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old -sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out -generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. -The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, -shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin -lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime -was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his -own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the -dog-days, and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas. - -External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could -warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than -he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain -less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The -heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet could boast of the -advantage over him in only one respect. They often 'came down' -handsomely, and Scrooge never did. - -Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My -dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?' No beggars -implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was -o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to -such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to -know him; and, when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into -doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they -said, 'No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!' - -But what did Scrooge care? It was the very thing he liked. To edge his -way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep -its distance, was what the knowing ones call 'nuts' to Scrooge. - -Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year, on Christmas -Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, -biting weather; foggy withal; and he could hear the people in the court -outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, -and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The City -clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already--it had -not been light all day--and candles were flaring in the windows of the -neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The -fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense -without, that, although the court was of the narrowest, the houses -opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, -obscuring everything, one might have thought that nature lived hard by, -and was brewing on a large scale. - -The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, that he might keep his -eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, -was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire -was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't -replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so -surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that -it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his -white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which -effort, not being a man of strong imagination, he failed. - -'A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!' cried a cheerful voice. It was -the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this -was the first intimation he had of his approach. - -'Bah!' said Scrooge. 'Humbug!' - -He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this -nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and -handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. - -'Christmas a humbug, uncle!' said Scrooge's nephew. 'You don't mean -that, I am sure?' - -'I do,' said Scrooge. 'Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? -What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough.' - -'Come, then,' returned the nephew gaily. 'What right have you to be -dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough.' - -Scrooge, having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said, -'Bah!' again; and followed it up with 'Humbug!' - -'Don't be cross, uncle!' said the nephew. - -'What else can I be,' returned the uncle, 'when I live in such a world -of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's -Christmas-time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time -for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for -balancing your books, and having every item in 'em through a round dozen -of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,' said -Scrooge indignantly, 'every idiot who goes about with "Merry Christmas" -on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a -stake of holly through his heart. He should!' - -'Uncle!' pleaded the nephew. - -'Nephew!' returned the uncle sternly, 'keep Christmas in your own way, -and let me keep it in mine.' - -'Keep it!' repeated Scrooge's nephew. 'But you don't keep it.' - -'Let me leave it alone, then,' said Scrooge. 'Much good may it do you! -Much good it has ever done you!' - -'There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I -have not profited, I dare say,' returned the nephew; 'Christmas among -the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas-time, when -it has come round--apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and -origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that--as a good -time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know -of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one -consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people -below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and -not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, -uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I -believe that it _has_ done me good and _will_ do me good; and I say, God -bless it!' - -The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming immediately -sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the -last frail spark for ever. - -'Let me hear another sound from _you_,' said Scrooge, 'and you'll keep -your Christmas by losing your situation! You're quite a powerful -speaker, sir,' he added, turning to his nephew. 'I wonder you don't go -into Parliament.' - -'Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us to-morrow.' - -Scrooge said that he would see him----Yes, indeed he did. He went the -whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that -extremity first. - -'But why?' cried Scrooge's nephew. 'Why?' - -'Why did you get married?' said Scrooge. - -'Because I fell in love.' - -'Because you fell in love!' growled Scrooge, as if that were the only -one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. 'Good -afternoon!' - -'Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give -it as a reason for not coming now?' - -'Good afternoon,' said Scrooge. - -'I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be -friends?' - -'Good afternoon!' said Scrooge. - -'I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never -had any quarrel to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial -in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humour to the last. -So A Merry Christmas, uncle!' - -'Good afternoon,' said Scrooge. - -'And A Happy New Year!' - -'Good afternoon!' said Scrooge. - -His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. He -stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the -clerk, who, cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned -them cordially. - -'There's another fellow,' muttered Scrooge, who overheard him: 'my -clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking -about a merry Christmas. I'll retire to Bedlam.' - -This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people -in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with -their hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their -hands, and bowed to him. - -'Scrooge and Marley's, I believe,' said one of the gentlemen, referring -to his list. 'Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. -Marley?' - -'Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years,' Scrooge replied. 'He died -seven years ago, this very night.' - -'We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving -partner,' said the gentleman, presenting his credentials. - -[Illustration: THEY WERE PORTLY GENTLEMEN, PLEASANT TO BEHOLD] - -It certainly was; for they had been two kindred spirits. At the ominous -word 'liberality' Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the -credentials back. - -'At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,' said the gentleman, -taking up a pen, 'it is more than usually desirable that we should make -some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at -the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; -hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.' - -'Are there no prisons?' asked Scrooge. - -'Plenty of prisons,' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again. - -'And the Union workhouses?' demanded Scrooge. 'Are they still in -operation?' - -'They are. Still,' returned the gentleman, 'I wish I could say they were -not.' - -'The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?' said Scrooge. - -'Both very busy, sir.' - -'Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had -occurred to stop them in their useful course,' said Scrooge. 'I am very -glad to hear it.' - -'Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind -or body to the multitude,' returned the gentleman, 'a few of us are -endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and -means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all -others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I -put you down for?' - -'Nothing!' Scrooge replied. - -'You wish to be anonymous?' - -'I wish to be left alone,' said Scrooge. 'Since you ask me what I wish, -gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas, -and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the -establishments I have mentioned--they cost enough: and those who are -badly off must go there.' - -'Many can't go there; and many would rather die.' - -'If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, 'they had better do it, and -decrease the surplus population. Besides--excuse me--I don't know that.' - -'But you might know it,' observed the gentleman. - -'It's not my business,' Scrooge returned. 'It's enough for a man to -understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. -Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!' - -Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the -gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labours with an improved opinion -of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him. - -Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with -flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in -carriages, and conduct them on their way. The ancient tower of a church, -whose gruff old bell was always peeping slyly down at Scrooge out of a -Gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and -quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards, as if its -teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. The cold became -intense. In the main street, at the corner of the court, some labourers -were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, -round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their -hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug -being left in solitude, its overflowings suddenly congealed, and turned -to misanthropic ice. The brightness of the shops, where holly sprigs and -berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy -as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers' trades became a splendid joke: -a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that -such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. The Lord -Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his -fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household -should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on -the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, -stirred up to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and -the baby sallied out to buy the beef. - -Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good -St. Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such -weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he -would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, -gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, -stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol; -but, at the first sound of - - 'God bless you, merry gentleman, - May nothing you dismay!' - -Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled -in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog, and even more congenial -frost. - -At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With an -ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the -fact to the expectant clerk in the tank, who instantly snuffed his -candle out, and put on his hat. - -'You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?' said Scrooge. - -'If quite convenient, sir.' - -'It's not convenient,' said Scrooge, 'and it's not fair. If I was to -stop half-a-crown for it, you'd think yourself ill used, I'll be bound?' - -The clerk smiled faintly. - -'And yet,' said Scrooge, 'you don't think _me_ ill used when I pay a -day's wages for no work.' - -[Illustration: _Bob Cratchit went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end -of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas -Eve_] - -The clerk observed that it was only once a year. - -'A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of -December!' said Scrooge, buttoning his greatcoat to the chin. 'But I -suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next -morning.' - -The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. -The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends -of his white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no -greatcoat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, -twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to -Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blind man's-buff. - -Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and -having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening -with his banker's book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had -once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of -rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little -business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run -there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other -houses, and have forgotten the way out again. It was old enough now, and -dreary enough; for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms -being all let out as offices. The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, -who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. The fog and -frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed -as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the -threshold. - -Now, it is a fact that there was nothing at all particular about the -knocker on the door, except that it was very large. It is also a fact -that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence -in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy -about him as any man in the City of London, even including--which is a -bold word--the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be borne -in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley since his -last mention of his seven-years'-dead partner that afternoon. And then -let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, -having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its -undergoing any intermediate process of change--not a knocker, but -Marley's face. - -Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow, as the other objects -in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in -a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as -Marley used to look; with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly -forehead. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air; -and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless. -That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to -be in spite of the face, and beyond its control, rather than a part of -its own expression. - -As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. - -To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of -a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would -be untrue. But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished, turned -it sturdily, walked in, and lighted his candle. - -He _did_ pause, with a moment's irresolution, before he shut the door; -and he _did_ look cautiously behind it first, as if he half expected to -be terrified with the sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the -hall. But there was nothing on the back of the door, except the screws -and nuts that held the knocker on, so he said, 'Pooh, pooh!' and closed -it with a bang. - -The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above, -and every cask in the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a -separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be -frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, -and up the stairs: slowly, too: trimming his candle as he went. - -You may talk vaguely about driving a coach and six up a good old flight -of stairs, or through a bad young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say -you might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, -with the splinter-bar towards the wall, and the door towards the -balustrades: and done it easy. There was plenty of width for that, and -room to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a -locomotive hearse going on before him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen -gas-lamps out of the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well, so -you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge's dip. - -Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness is cheap, and -Scrooge liked it. But, before he shut his heavy door, he walked through -his rooms to see that all was right. He had just enough recollection of -the face to desire to do that. - -Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they should be. Nobody under -the table, nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and -basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his -head) upon the hob. Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody -in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude -against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two -fish baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and a poker. - -[Illustration: _Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in -his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against -the wall_] - -Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; double -locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus secured against -surprise, he took off his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, -and his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take his gruel. - -It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. He was -obliged to sit close to it, and brood over it, before he could extract -the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. The fireplace -was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all -round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. -There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters, Queens of Sheba, -Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like -feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in -butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; and yet that -face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophet's rod, -and swallowed up the whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at -first, with power to shape some picture on its surface from the -disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would have been a copy of -old Marley's head on every one. - -'Humbug!' said Scrooge; and walked across the room. - -After several turns he sat down again. As he threw his head back in the -chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that -hung in the room, and communicated, for some purpose now forgotten, with -a chamber in the highest storey of the building. It was with great -astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that, as he -looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in the -outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and -so did every bell in the house. - -This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an -hour. The bells ceased, as they had begun, together. They were succeeded -by a clanking noise deep down below as if some person were dragging a -heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's cellar. Scrooge then -remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as -dragging chains. - -The cellar door flew open with a booming sound, and then he heard the -noise much louder on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then -coming straight towards his door. - -'It's humbug still!' said Scrooge. 'I won't believe it.' - -His colour changed, though, when, without a pause, it came on through -the heavy door and passed into the room before his eyes. Upon its coming -in, the dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, 'I know him! Marley's -Ghost!' and fell again. - -The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, -tights, and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his -pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. The chain he -drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him like -a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, -keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. His -body was transparent: so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking -through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind. - -Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had -never believed it until now. - -No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through -and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling -influence of its death-cold eyes, and marked the very texture of the -folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not -observed before, he was still incredulous, and fought against his -senses. - -'How now!' said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever. 'What do you want -with me?' - -'Much!'--Marley's voice; no doubt about it. - -'Who are you?' - -'Ask me who I _was_.' - -'Who _were_ you, then?' said Scrooge, raising his voice. 'You're -particular, for a shade.' He was going to say '_to_ a shade,' but -substituted this, as more appropriate. - -'In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley.' - -'Can you--can you sit down?' asked Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him. - -'I can.' - -'Do it, then.' - -Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know whether a ghost so -transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair; and felt -that in the event of its being impossible, it might involve the -necessity of an embarrassing explanation. But the Ghost sat down on the -opposite side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it. - -'You don't believe in me,' observed the Ghost. - -'I don't,' said Scrooge. - -'What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your own -senses?' - -'I don't know,' said Scrooge. - -'Why do you doubt your senses?' - -'Because,' said Scrooge, 'a little thing affects them. A slight disorder -of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, -a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. -There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!' - -Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor did he feel in -his heart by any means waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be -smart, as a means of distracting his own attention, and keeping down his -terror; for the spectre's voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones. - -To sit staring at those fixed, glazed eyes in silence, for a moment, -would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him. There was something -very awful, too, in the spectre's being provided with an infernal -atmosphere of his own. Scrooge could not feel it himself, but this was -clearly the case; for though the Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its -hair, and skirts, and tassels were still agitated as by the hot vapour -from an oven. - -'You see this toothpick?' said Scrooge, returning quickly to the charge, -for the reason just assigned; and wishing, though it were only for a -second, to divert the vision's stony gaze from himself. - -'I do,' replied the Ghost. - -'You are not looking at it,' said Scrooge. - -'But I see it,' said the Ghost, 'notwithstanding.' - -'Well!' returned Scrooge, 'I have but to swallow this, and be for the -rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my own -creation. Humbug, I tell you: humbug!' - -At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook its chain with such -a dismal and appalling noise, that Scrooge held on tight to his chair, -to save himself from falling in a swoon. But how much greater was his -horror when the phantom, taking off the bandage round his head, as if it -were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its -breast! - -Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face. - -'Mercy!' he said. 'Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?' - -'Man of the worldly mind!' replied the Ghost, 'do you believe in me or -not?' - -'I do,' said Scrooge; 'I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and -why do they come to me?' - -'It is required of every man,' the Ghost returned, 'that the spirit -within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and -wide; and, if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do -so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world--oh, woe is -me!--and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, -and turned to happiness!' - -Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and wrung its -shadowy hands. - -'You are fettered,' said Scrooge, trembling. 'Tell me why?' - -'I wear the chain I forged in life,' replied the Ghost. 'I made it link -by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of -my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to _you_?' - -Scrooge trembled more and more. - -'Or would you know,' pursued the Ghost, 'the weight and length of the -strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as this -seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it since. It is a -ponderous chain!' - -Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding -himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable; but he -could see nothing. - -'Jacob!' he said imploringly. 'Old Jacob Marley, tell me more! Speak -comfort to me, Jacob!' - -'I have none to give,' the Ghost replied. 'It comes from other regions, -Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of -men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more is all -permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. -My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house--mark me;--in life my -spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; -and weary journeys lie before me!' - -It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thoughtful, to put his -hands in his breeches pockets. Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he -did so now, but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his knees. - -[Illustration: ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND] - -'You must have been very slow about it, Jacob,' Scrooge observed in a -business-like manner, though with humility and deference. - -'Slow!' the Ghost repeated. - -'Seven years dead,' mused Scrooge. 'And travelling all the time?' - -'The whole time,' said the Ghost. 'No rest, no peace. Incessant torture -of remorse.' - -'You travel fast?' said Scrooge. - -[Illustration] - -'On the wings of the wind,' replied the Ghost. - -'You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years,' -said Scrooge. - -The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and clanked its chain so -hideously in the dead silence of the night, that the Ward would have -been justified in indicting it for a nuisance. - -'Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed,' cried the phantom, 'not to know -that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth -must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is -all developed! Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in -its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too -short for its vast means of usefulness! Not to know that no space of -regret can make amends for one life's opportunities misused! Yet such -was I! Oh, such was I!' - -'But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' faltered Scrooge, -who now began to apply this to himself. - -'Business!' cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. 'Mankind was my -business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, -forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business. The dealings of my -trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my -business!' - -It held up its chain at arm's-length, as if that were the cause of all -its unavailing grief, and flung it heavily upon the ground again. - -'At this time of the rolling year,' the spectre said, 'I suffer most. -Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, -and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a -poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have -conducted _me_?' - -Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this -rate, and began to quake exceedingly. - -'Hear me!' cried the Ghost. 'My time is nearly gone.' - -'I will,' said Scrooge. 'But don't be hard upon me! Don't be flowery, -Jacob! Pray!' - -'How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you can see, I may -not tell. I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day.' - -It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered, and wiped the -perspiration from his brow. - -'That is no light part of my penance,' pursued the Ghost. 'I am here -to-night to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my -fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.' - -'You were always a good friend to me,' said Scrooge. 'Thankee!' - -'You will be haunted,' resumed the Ghost, 'by Three Spirits.' - -Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the Ghost's had done. - -'Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?' he demanded in a -faltering voice. - -'It is.' - -'I--I think I'd rather not,' said Scrooge. - -'Without their visits,' said the Ghost, 'you cannot hope to shun the -path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow when the bell tolls One.' - -'Couldn't I take 'em all at once, and have it over, Jacob?' hinted -Scrooge. - -'Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third, upon -the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. -Look to see me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you remember -what has passed between us!' - -When it had said these words, the spectre took its wrapper from the -table, and bound it round its head as before. Scrooge knew this by the -smart sound its teeth made when the jaws were brought together by the -bandage. He ventured to raise his eyes again, and found his supernatural -visitor confronting him in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over -and about its arm. - -[Illustration: _The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and -thither in restless haste and moaning as they went_] - -The apparition walked backward from him; and, at every step it took, the -window raised itself a little, so that, when the spectre reached it, it -was wide open. It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. When they -were within two paces of each other, Marley's Ghost held up its hand, -warning him to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped. - -Not so much in obedience as in surprise and fear; for, on the raising of -the hand, he became sensible of confused noises in the air; incoherent -sounds of lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and -self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in -the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night. - -Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. He looked -out. - -The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in -restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains -like Marley's Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were -linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to -Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost in -a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who -cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an -infant, whom it saw below upon a doorstep. The misery with them all was -clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and -had lost the power for ever. - -Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist enshrouded them, he -could not tell. But they and their spirit voices faded together; and -the night became as it had been when he walked home. - -Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had -entered. It was double locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, -and the bolts were undisturbed. He tried to say 'Humbug!' but stopped at -the first syllable. And being, from the emotions he had undergone, or -the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or the -dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the hour, much in -need of repose, went straight to bed without undressing, and fell asleep -upon the instant. - -[Illustration] - - -STAVE TWO - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS - - -When Scrooge awoke it was so dark, that, looking out of bed, he could -scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his -chamber. He was endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret -eyes, when the chimes of a neighbouring church struck the four quarters. -So he listened for the hour. - -To his great astonishment, the heavy bell went on from six to seven, and -from seven to eight, and regularly up to twelve; then stopped. Twelve! -It was past two when he went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must -have got into the works. Twelve! - -He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most preposterous -clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve, and stopped. - -'Why, it isn't possible,' said Scrooge, 'that I can have slept through a -whole day and far into another night. It isn't possible that anything -has happened to the sun, and this is twelve at noon!' - -The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed, and groped his -way to the window. He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve -of his dressing-gown before he could see anything; and could see very -little then. All he could make out was, that it was still very foggy and -extremely cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and -fro, and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been if -night had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the world. This -was a great relief, because 'Three days after sight of this First of -Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order,' and so forth, would -have become a mere United States security if there were no days to count -by. - -Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought it over -and over, and could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more -perplexed he was; and, the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he -thought. - -Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within -himself, after mature inquiry that it was all a dream, his mind flew -back again, like a strong spring released, to its first position, and -presented the same problem to be worked all through, 'Was it a dream or -not?' - -Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three-quarters more, -when he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned him of a -visitation when the bell tolled one. He resolved to lie awake until the -hour was passed; and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than -go to heaven, this was, perhaps, the wisest resolution in his power. - -The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he must -have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock. At length it -broke upon his listening ear. - -'Ding, dong!' - -'A quarter past,' said Scrooge, counting. - -'Ding, dong!' - -'Half past,' said Scrooge. - -'Ding, dong!' - -'A quarter to it.' said Scrooge. - -'Ding, dong!' - -'The hour itself,' said Scrooge triumphantly, 'and nothing else!' - -He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, -dull, hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the -instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn. - -The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not -the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to -which his face was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; -and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself -face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as -I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. - -It was a strange figure--like a child; yet not so like a child as like -an old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the -appearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a -child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its -back, was white, as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in -it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and -muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. -Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper -members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist -was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a -branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular contradiction -of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But -the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there -sprang a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and -which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a -great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. - -Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, -was _not_ its strangest quality. For, as its belt sparkled and -glittered, now in one part and now in another, and what was light one -instant at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its -distinctness; being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with -twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a -body: of which dissolving parts no outline would be visible in the dense -gloom wherein they melted away. And, in the very wonder of this, it -would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever. - -'Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?' asked -Scrooge. - -'I am!' - -The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if, instead of being -so close behind him, it were at a distance. - -'Who and what are you?' Scrooge demanded. - -'I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.' - -'Long Past?' inquired Scrooge, observant of its dwarfish stature. - -'No. Your past.' - -Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have -asked him; but he had a special desire to see the Spirit in his cap, -and begged him to be covered. - -'What!' exclaimed the Ghost, 'would you so soon put out, with worldly -hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those -whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years -to wear it low upon my brow?' - -Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any knowledge -of having wilfully 'bonneted' the Spirit at any period of his life. He -then made bold to inquire what business brought him there. - -'Your welfare!' said the Ghost. - -Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that -a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The -Spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately-- - -'Your reclamation, then. Take heed!' - -It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him gently by the -arm. - -'Rise! and walk with me!' - -It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the -hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that bed was warm, and the -thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly in -his slippers, dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon -him at that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was not -to be resisted. He rose; but, finding that the Spirit made towards the -window, clasped its robe in supplication. - -'I am a mortal,' Scrooge remonstrated, 'and liable to fall.' - -'Bear but a touch of my hand _there_,' said the Spirit, laying it upon -his heart, 'and you shall be upheld in more than this!' - -As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood upon -an open country road, with fields on either hand. The city had entirely -vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The darkness and the mist -had vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with snow -upon the ground. - -'Good Heaven!' said Scrooge, clasping his hands together, as he looked -about him. 'I was bred in this place. I was a boy here!' - -The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch, though it had been -light and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man's sense -of feeling. He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, -each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and -cares long, long forgotten! - -'Your lip is trembling,' said the Ghost. 'And what is that upon your -cheek?' - -Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was a -pimple; and begged the Ghost to lead him where he would. - -'You recollect the way?' inquired the Spirit. - -'Remember it!' cried Scrooge with fervour; 'I could walk it blindfold.' - -'Strange to have forgotten it for so many years!' observed the Ghost. -'Let us go on.' - -They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every gate, and post, -and tree, until a little market-town appeared in the distance, with its -bridge, its church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen -trotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other -boys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were -in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields were -so full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it. - -'These are but shadows of the things that have been,' said the Ghost. -'They have no consciousness of us.' - -The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge knew and named -them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them? Why -did his cold eye glisten, and his heart leap up as they went past? Why -was he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry -Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and by-ways for their several -homes? What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! -What good had it ever done to him? - -'The school is not quite deserted,' said the Ghost. 'A solitary child, -neglected by his friends, is left there still.' - -Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed. - -They left the high-road by a well-remembered lane and soon approached a -mansion of dull red brick, with a little weather-cock surmounted cupola -on the roof, and a bell hanging in it. It was a large house, but one of -broken fortunes; for the spacious offices were little used, their walls -were damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their gates decayed. -Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables; and the coach-houses and -sheds were overrun with grass. Nor was it more retentive of its ancient -state within; for, entering the dreary hall, and glancing through the -open doors of many rooms, they found them poorly furnished, cold, and -vast. There was an earthy savour in the air, a chilly bareness in the -place, which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by -candle light and not too much to eat. - -They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the back -of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, -melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and -desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and -Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as -he had used to be. - -Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle from the mice -behind the panelling, not a drip from the half-thawed waterspout in the -dull yard behind, not a sigh among the leafless boughs of one despondent -poplar, not the idle swinging of an empty storehouse door, no, not a -clicking in the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with softening -influence, and gave a freer passage to his tears. - -The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his younger self, -intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man in foreign garments, wonderfully -real and distinct to look at, stood outside the window, with an axe -stuck in his belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood. - -'Why, it's Ali Baba!' Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. 'It's dear old -honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know. One Christmas-time, when yonder -solitary child was left here all alone, he _did_ come, for the first -time, just like that. Poor boy! And Valentine,' said Scrooge, 'and his -wild brother, Orson; there they go! And what's his name, who was put -down in his drawers, asleep, at the gate of Damascus; don't you see him? -And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the Genii; there he is upon -his head! Serve him right! I'm glad of it. What business had he to be -married to the Princess?' - -To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such -subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; and -to see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to -his business friends in the City, indeed. - -'There's the Parrot!' cried Scrooge. 'Green body and yellow tail, with a -thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is! -Poor Robin Crusoe he called him, when he came home again after sailing -round the island. "Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin -Crusoe?" The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't. It was the -Parrot, you know. There goes Friday, running for his life to the little -creek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!' - -Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character, -he said, in pity for his former self, 'Poor boy!' and cried again. - -'I wish,' Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking -about him, after drying his eyes with his cuff; 'but it's too late now.' - -'What is the matter?' asked the Spirit. - -'Nothing,' said Scrooge. 'Nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas -carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: -that's all.' - -The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand, saying as it did so, -'Let us see another Christmas!' - -Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the room became a -little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked; -fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were -shown instead; but how all this was brought about Scrooge knew no more -than you do. He only knew that it was quite correct; that everything had -happened so; that there he was, alone again, when all the other boys had -gone home for the jolly holidays. - -He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly. Scrooge -looked at the Ghost, and, with a mournful shaking of his head, glanced -anxiously towards the door. - -It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting -in, and, putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing him, -addressed him as her 'dear, dear brother.' - -'I have come to bring you home, dear brother!' said the child, clapping -her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh. 'To bring you home, home, -home!' - -'Home, little Fan?' returned the boy. - -'Yes!' said the child, brimful of glee. 'Home for good and all. Home for -ever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home's -like heaven! He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to -bed, that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home; -and he said Yes, you should; and sent me in a coach to bring you. And -you're to be a man!' said the child, opening her eyes; 'and are never to -come back here; but first we're to be together all the Christmas long, -and have the merriest time in all the world.' - -'You are quite a woman, little Fan!' exclaimed the boy. - -She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his head; but, -being too little laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace him. Then -she began to drag him, in her childish eagerness, towards the door; and -he, nothing loath to go, accompanied her. - -A terrible voice in the hall cried, 'Bring down Master Scrooge's box, -there!' and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared on -Master Scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and threw him into a -dreadful state of mind by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed him -and his sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best parlour -that ever was seen, where the maps upon the wall, and the celestial and -terrestrial globes in the windows, were waxy with cold. Here he produced -a decanter of curiously light wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake, -and administered instalments of those dainties to the young people; at -the same time sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of -'something' to the postboy, who answered that he thanked the gentleman, -but, if it was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had rather not. -Master Scrooge's trunk being by this time tied on to the top of the -chaise, the children bade the schoolmaster good-bye right willingly; -and, getting into it, drove gaily down the garden sweep; the quick -wheels dashing the hoar-frost and snow from off the dark leaves of the -evergreens like spray. - -[Illustration: HE PRODUCED A DECANTER OF CURIOUSLY LIGHT WINE, AND A -BLOCK OF CURIOUSLY HEAVY CAKE] - -'Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered,' said -the Ghost. 'But she had a large heart!' - -'So she had,' cried Scrooge. 'You're right. I will not gainsay it, -Spirit. God forbid!' - -'She died a woman,' said the Ghost, 'and had, as I think, children.' - -'One child,' Scrooge returned. - -'True,' said the Ghost. 'Your nephew!' - -Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind, and answered briefly, 'Yes.' - -Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, they were -now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers passed -and re-passed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and -all the strife and tumult of a real city were. It was made plain enough, -by the dressing of the shops, that here, too, it was Christmas-time -again; but it was evening, and the streets were lighted up. - -The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge if he -knew it. - -'Know it!' said Scrooge. 'Was I apprenticed here?' - -They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig, sitting -behind such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller, he must -have knocked his head against the ceiling, Scrooge cried in great -excitement-- - -'Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it's Fezziwig alive again!' - -Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, which -pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; adjusted his -capacious waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his -organ of benevolence; and called out, in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, -jovial voice-- - -'Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!' - -Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly in, -accompanied by his fellow-'prentice. - -'Dick Wilkins, to be sure!' said Scrooge to the Ghost. 'Bless me, yes. -There he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, -dear!' - -'Yo ho, my boys!' said Fezziwig. 'No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, -Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up,' cried old -Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, 'before a man can say Jack -Robinson!' - -You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it! They charged into -the street with the shutters--one, two, three--had 'em up in their -places--four, five, six--barred 'em and pinned 'em--seven, eight, -nine--and came back before you could have got to twelve, panting like -racehorses. - -'Hilli-ho!' cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk with -wonderful agility. 'Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room -here! Hilli-ho, Dick! Chirrup, Ebenezer!' - -Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or -couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in -a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from -public life for evermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps -were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as -snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room as you would desire to -see upon a winter's night. - -In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and -made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In came -Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss -Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose -hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the -business. In came the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. In came the -cook with her brother's particular friend the milkman. In came the boy -from over the way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his -master; trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, -who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all -came, one after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some -awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all came, any how and -every how. Away they all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round -and back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round and -round in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always -turning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off again as soon -as they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help -them! When this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his -hands to stop the dance, cried out, 'Well done!' and the fiddler plunged -his hot face into a pot of porter, especially provided for that purpose. -But, scorning rest upon his reappearance, he instantly began again, -though there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been -carried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man -resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish. - -[Illustration: _Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. -Fezziwig_] - -There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and -there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold -Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were -mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came -after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The -sort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told -it him!) struck up 'Sir Roger de Coverley.' Then old Fezziwig stood -out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff -piece of work cut out for them; three or four and twenty pair of -partners; people who were not to be trifled with; people who would -dance, and had no notion of walking. - -But if they had been twice as many--ah! four times--old Fezziwig would -have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to _her_, she -was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. If that's not -high praise, tell me higher, and I'll use it. A positive light appeared -to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part of the dance -like moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any given time, what would -become of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone -all through the dance; advance and retire, both hands to your partner, -bow and curtsy, cork-screw, thread-the-needle, and back again to your -place: Fezziwig 'cut'--cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with his -legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger. - -When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. Mr. and Mrs. -Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side the door, and, shaking -hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him -or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two -'prentices, they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died -away, and the lads were left to their beds; which were under a counter -in the back-shop. - -During the whole of this time Scrooge had acted like a man out of his -wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former self. He -corroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and -underwent the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when the bright -faces of his former self and Dick were turned from them, that he -remembered the Ghost, and became conscious that it was looking full upon -him, while the light upon its head burnt very clear. - -'A small matter,' said the Ghost, 'to make these silly folks so full of -gratitude.' - -'Small!' echoed Scrooge. - -The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were -pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig; and when he had done so, -said: - -'Why! Is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: -three or four, perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?' - -'It isn't that,' said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking -unconsciously like his former, not his latter self. 'It isn't that, -Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our -service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power -lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it -is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives -is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.' - -He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped. - -'What is the matter?' asked the Ghost. - -'Nothing particular,' said Scrooge. - -'Something, I think?' the Ghost insisted. - -'No,' said Scrooge, 'no. I should like to be able to say a word or two -to my clerk just now. That's all.' - -His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance to the wish; -and Scrooge and the Ghost again stood side by side in the open air. - -'My time grows short,' observed the Spirit. 'Quick!' - -This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he could see, but -it produced an immediate effect. For again Scrooge saw himself. He was -older now; a man in the prime of life. His face had not the harsh and -rigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care -and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, -which showed the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of -the growing tree would fall. - -He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning -dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in the light that -shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past. - -'It matters little,' she said softly. 'To you, very little. Another idol -has displaced me; and, if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come -as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.' - -'What Idol has displaced you?' he rejoined. - -'A golden one.' - -'This is the even-handed dealing of the world!' he said. 'There is -nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it -professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!' - -'You fear the world too much,' she answered gently. 'All your other -hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid -reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until -the master passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?' - -'What then?' he retorted. 'Even if I have grown so much wiser, what -then? I am not changed towards you.' - -She shook her head. - -'Am I?' - -'Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor, and -content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly -fortune by our patient industry. You _are_ changed. When it was made you -were another man.' - -'I was a boy,' he said impatiently. - -'Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are,' she -returned. 'I am. That which promised happiness when we were one in heart -is fraught with misery now that we are two. How often and how keenly I -have thought of this I will not say. It is enough that I _have_ thought -of it, and can release you.' - -'Have I ever sought release?' - -'In words. No. Never.' - -'In what, then?' - -'In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of -life; another Hope as its great end. In everything that made my love of -any worth or value in your sight. If this had never been between us,' -said the girl, looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; 'tell me, -would you seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!' - -He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition in spite of -himself. But he said, with a struggle, 'You think not.' - -'I would gladly think otherwise if I could,' she answered. 'Heaven -knows! When _I_ have learned a Truth like this, I know how strong and -irresistible it must be. But if you were free to-day, to-morrow, -yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless -girl--you who, in your very confidence with her, weigh everything by -Gain: or, choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your -one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repentance and -regret would surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart, -for the love of him you once were.' - -[Illustration: SHE LEFT HIM, AND THEY PARTED] - -He was about to speak; but, with her head turned from him, she resumed: - -'You may--the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will--have -pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the -recollection of it gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it -happened well that you awoke. May you be happy in the life you have -chosen!' - -She left him, and they parted. - -'Spirit!' said Scrooge, 'show me no more! Conduct me home. Why do you -delight to torture me?' - -'One shadow more!' exclaimed the Ghost. - -'No more!' cried Scrooge. 'No more! I don't wish to see it. Show me no -more!' - -But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and forced him -to observe what happened next. - -They were in another scene and place; a room, not very large or -handsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful -young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same, -until he saw _her_, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter. -The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more -children there than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count; -and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty -children conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting -itself like forty. The consequences were uproarious beyond belief; but -no one seemed to care; on the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed -heartily, and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to -mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most -ruthlessly. What would I not have given to be one of them! Though I -never could have been so rude, no, no! I wouldn't for the wealth of all -the world have crushed that braided hair, and torn it down; and for the -precious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul! -to save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did, bold -young brood, I couldn't have done it; I should have expected my arm to -have grown round it for a punishment, and never come straight again. And -yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have -questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked upon the -lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose -waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price: in -short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest -license of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value. - -[Illustration: _A flushed and boisterous group_] - -But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a rush immediately -ensued that she, with laughing face and plundered dress, was borne -towards it the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time to -greet the father, who came home attended by a man laden with Christmas -toys and presents. Then the shouting and the struggling, and the -onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter! The scaling him, with -chairs for ladders, to dive into his pockets, despoil him of -brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round his -neck, pummel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! The -shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package -was received! The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in -the act of putting a doll's frying pan into his mouth, and was more than -suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden -platter! The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy, and -gratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike. It is enough -that, by degrees, the children and their emotions got out of the -parlour, and, by one stair at a time, up to the top of the house, where -they went to bed, and so subsided. - -And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, when the master of -the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her -and her mother at his own fireside; and when he thought that such -another creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might have -called him father, and been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his -life, his sight grew very dim indeed. - -'Belle,' said the husband, turning to his wife with a smile, 'I saw an -old friend of yours this afternoon.' - -'Who was it?' - -'Guess!' - -'How can I? Tut, don't I know?' she added in the same breath, laughing -as he laughed. 'Mr. Scrooge.' - -'Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office window; and as it was not shut -up, and he had a candle inside, I could scarcely help seeing him. His -partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. -Quite alone in the world, I do believe.' - -'Spirit!' said Scrooge in a broken voice, 'remove me from this place.' - -'I told you these were shadows of the things that have been,' said the -Ghost. 'That they are what they are do not blame me!' - -'Remove me!' Scrooge exclaimed, 'I cannot bear it!' - -He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon him with a -face, in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces -it had shown him, wrestled with it. - -'Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer!' - -In the struggle, if that can be called a struggle in which the Ghost -with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort -of its adversary, Scrooge observed that its light was burning high and -bright; and dimly connecting that with its influence over him, he seized -the extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its -head. - -[Illustration: _Laden with Christmas toys and presents_] - -The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its -whole form; but though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he -could not hide the light, which streamed from under it, in an unbroken -flood upon the ground. - -He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an irresistible -drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own bedroom. He gave the cap a -parting squeeze, in which his hand relaxed; and had barely time to reel -to bed, before he sank into a heavy sleep. - -[Illustration] - - -STAVE THREE - - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS - - -Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in -bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told -that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. He felt that he was -restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial -purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger despatched to -him through Jacob Marley's intervention. But finding that he turned -uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this -new spectre would draw back, he put them every one aside with his own -hands, and, lying down again, established a sharp look-out all round the -bed. For he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its -appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous. - -Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves on being -acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time of -day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing -that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; -between which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide -and comprehensive range of subjects. Without venturing for Scrooge quite -as hardily as this, I don't mind calling on you to believe that he was -ready for a good broad field of strange appearances, and that nothing -between a baby and a rhinoceros would have astonished him very much. - -Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means -prepared for nothing; and consequently, when the bell struck One, and no -shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling. Five -minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet nothing came. -All this time he lay upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze -of ruddy light, which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the -hour; and which, being only light, was more alarming than a dozen -ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant, or would be at; -and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that very moment an -interesting case of spontaneous combustion, without having the -consolation of knowing it. At last, however, he began to think--as you -or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the -predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would -unquestionably have done it too--at last, I say, he began to think that -the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining -room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea -taking full possession of his mind, he got up softly, and shuffled in -his slippers to the door. - -The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock a strange voice called him by -his name, and bade him enter. He obeyed. - -It was his own room. There was no doubt about that. But it had undergone -a surprising transformation. The walls and ceiling were so hung with -living green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which -bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, -and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been -scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney as -that dull 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 of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, -brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, -mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, -cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense -twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim -with their delicious steam. In easy state upon this couch there sat a -jolly Giant, glorious to see; who bore a glowing torch, in shape not -unlike Plenty's horn, and held it up, high up, to shed its light on -Scrooge as he came peeping round the door. - -'Come in!' exclaimed the Ghost. 'Come in! and know me better, man!' - -Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before this Spirit. He was -not the dogged Scrooge he had been; and though the Spirit's eyes were -clear and kind, he did not like to meet them. - -'I am the Ghost of Christmas Present,' said the Spirit. 'Look upon me!' - -Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple deep green robe, -or mantle, bordered with white fur. This garment hung so loosely on the -figure, that its capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be -warded or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the -ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no -other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining -icicles. Its dark-brown curls were long and free; free as its genial -face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its -unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was -an antique scabbard: but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was -eaten up with rust. - -'You have never seen the like of me before!' exclaimed the Spirit. - -'Never,' Scrooge made answer to it. - -'Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family; meaning -(for I am very young) my elder brothers born in these later years?' -pursued the Phantom. - -'I don't think I have,' said Scrooge. 'I am afraid I have not. Have you -had many brothers, Spirit?' - -'More than eighteen hundred,' said the Ghost. - -'A tremendous family to provide for,' muttered Scrooge. - -The Ghost of Christmas Present rose. - -'Spirit,' said Scrooge submissively, 'conduct me where you will. I went -forth last night on compulsion, and I learned a lesson which is working -now. To-night if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.' - -'Touch my robe!' - -Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. - -Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, poultry, -brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, fruit, and punch, -all vanished instantly. So did the room, the fire, the ruddy glow, the -hour of night, and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning, -where (for the weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk -and not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the pavement -in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses, whence -it was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the -road below, and splitting into artificial little snowstorms. - -The house-fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, -contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with -the dirtier snow upon the ground; which last deposit had been ploughed -up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and waggons: furrows -that crossed and recrossed each other hundreds of times where the great -streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace in the -thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest -streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, -whose heavier particles descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all -the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were -blazing away to their dear heart's content. There was nothing very -cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of -cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer -sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain. - -[Illustration: THERE WAS NOTHING VERY CHEERFUL IN THE CLIMATE] - -For the people who were shovelling away on the house-tops were jovial -and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now -and then exchanging a facetious snowball--better-natured missile far -than many a wordy jest--laughing heartily if it went right, and not less -heartily if it went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open, -and the fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were great, -round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of -jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the -street in their apoplectic opulence: There were ruddy, brown-faced, -broad-girthed Spanish onions, shining in the fatness of their growth -like Spanish friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at -the girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up -mistletoe. There were pears and apples clustered high in blooming -pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers' -benevolence, to dangle from conspicuous hooks that people's mouths might -water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and -brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and -pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were -Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the -oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy -persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper -bags and eaten after dinner. The very gold and silver fish, set forth -among these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and -stagnant-blooded race, appeared to know that there was something going -on; and, to a fish, went gasping round and round their little world in -slow and passionless excitement. - -The Grocers'! oh, the Grocers'! nearly closed, with perhaps two shutters -down, or one; but through those gaps such glimpses! It was not alone -that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that -the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters -were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended -scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the -raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the -sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, -the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the -coldest lookers-on feel faint, and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that -the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in -modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that everything -was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but the customers were all -so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they -tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets -wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running -back to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the -best humour possible; while the grocer and his people were so frank and -fresh, that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons -behind might have been their own, worn outside for general inspection, -and for Christmas daws to peck at if they chose. - -But soon the steeples called good people all to church and chapel, and -away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes and -with their gayest faces. And at the same time there emerged, from scores -of by-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, -carrying their dinners to the bakers' shops. The sight of these poor -revellers appeared to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with -Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and, taking off the covers as -their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch. -And it was a very uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice, when there -were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each -other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their -good-humour was restored directly. For they said, it was a shame to -quarrel upon Christmas Day. And so it was! God love it, so it was! - -In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was -a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners, and the progress of their -cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker's oven, where the -pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. - -'Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your torch?' -asked Scrooge. - -'There is. My own.' - -'Would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day?' asked Scrooge. - -'To any kindly given. To a poor one most.' - -'Why to a poor one most?' asked Scrooge. - -'Because it needs it most.' - -'Spirit!' said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, 'I wonder you, of all -the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these -people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment. - -'I!' cried the Spirit. - -'You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day, -often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all,' said -Scrooge; 'wouldn't you?' - -'I!' cried the Spirit. - -'You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day,' said Scrooge. 'And -it comes to the same thing.' - -'I seek!' exclaimed the Spirit. - -'Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least in -that of your family,' said Scrooge. - -'There are some upon this earth of yours,' returned the Spirit, 'who -lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, -ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as -strange to us, and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. -Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.' - -Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, invisible, as they had -been before, into the suburbs of the town. It was a remarkable quality -of the Ghost (which Scrooge had observed at the baker's), that -notwithstanding his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any -place with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as -gracefully and like a supernatural creature as it was possible he could -have done in any lofty hall. - -And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in showing off this -power of his, or else it was his own kind, generous, hearty nature, and -his sympathy with all poor men, that led him straight to Scrooge's -clerk's; for there he went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his -robe; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped to -bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings of his torch. Think -of that! Bob had but fifteen 'Bob' a week himself; he pocketed on -Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost of -Christmas Present blessed his four-roomed house! - -Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in a -twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap, and make a -goodly show for sixpence; and she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda -Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master -Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and getting -the corners of his monstrous shirt-collar (Bob's private property, -conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the day,) into his mouth, -rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to show his -linen in the fashionable Parks. And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and -girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker's they had smelt -the goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious thoughts -of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about the table, and -exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he (not proud, -although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the slow -potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out -and peeled. - -'What has ever got your precious father, then?' said Mrs. Cratchit. 'And -your brother, Tiny Tim? And Martha warn't as late last Christmas Day by -half an hour!' - -'Here's Martha, mother!' said a girl, appearing as she spoke. - -'Here's Martha, mother!' cried the two young Cratchits. 'Hurrah! There's -_such_ a goose, Martha!' - -'Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are!' said Mrs. -Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet -for her with officious zeal. - -'We'd a deal of work to finish up last night,' replied the girl, 'and -had to clear away this morning, mother!' - -'Well! never mind so long as you are come,' said Mrs. Cratchit. 'Sit ye -down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!' - -'No, no! There's father coming,' cried the two young Cratchits, who were -everywhere at once. 'Hide, Martha, hide!' - -So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at least -three feet of comforter, exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before -him, and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed to look -seasonable, and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a -little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame! - -'Why, where's our Martha?' cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. - -'Not coming,' said Mrs. Cratchit. - -'Not coming!' said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits; -for he had been Tim's blood-horse all the way from church, and had come -home rampant. 'Not coming upon Christmas Day!' - -Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke; so -she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his -arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off -into the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the -copper. - -'And how did little Tim behave?' asked Mrs. Cratchit when she had -rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his -heart's content. - -'As good as gold,' said Bob, 'and better. Somehow, he gets thoughtful, -sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever -heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the -church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to -remember upon Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk and blind men -see.' - -Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when -he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. - -His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny -Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and -sister to his stool beside the fire; and while Bob, turning up his -cuffs--as if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more -shabby--compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and -stirred it round and round, and put it on the hob to simmer, Master -Peter and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, -with which they soon returned in high procession. - -[Illustration] - -Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of -all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of -course--and, in truth, it was something very like it in that house. Mrs. -Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing -hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss -Belinda sweetened up the apple sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob -took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young -Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and, -mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest -they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At -last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a -breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the -carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, -and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of -delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two -young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife and -feebly cried Hurrah! - -[Illustration: HE HAD BEEN TIM'S BLOOD-HORSE ALL THE WAY FROM CHURCH] - -There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe there ever was -such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, -were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple sauce and -mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; -indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small -atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at last! Yet every -one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits, in particular, were -steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being -changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone--too nervous -to bear witnesses--to take the pudding up, and bring it in. - -Suppose it should not be done enough! Suppose it should break in turning -out! Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back-yard and -stolen it, while they were merry with the goose--a supposition at which -the two young Cratchits became livid! All sorts of horrors were -supposed. - -Hallo! A great deal of steam! The pudding was out of the copper. A smell -like a washing-day! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and -a pastry-cook's next door to each other, with a laundress's next door to -that! That was the pudding! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit -entered--flushed, but smiling proudly--with the pudding, like a speckled -cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of -ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. - -Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he -regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since -their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that, now the weight was off her -mind, she would confess she had her doubts about the quantity of flour. -Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it -was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat -heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a -thing. - -[Illustration: WITH THE PUDDING] - -At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth -swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted and -considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a -shovel full of chestnuts on the fire. Then all the Cratchit family -drew round the hearth in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half -a one; and at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass. -Two tumblers and a custard cup without a handle. - -These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden -goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while -the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. Then Bob -proposed: - -'A merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us!' - -Which all the family re-echoed. - -'God bless us every one!' said Tiny Tim, the last of all. - -He sat very close to his father's side, upon his little stool. Bob held -his withered little hand to his, as if he loved the child, and wished to -keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him. - -'Spirit,' said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, 'tell -me if Tiny Tim will live.' - -'I see a vacant seat,' replied the Ghost, 'in the poor chimney corner, -and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows -remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.' - -'No, no,' said Scrooge. 'Oh no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared.' - -'If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future none other of my race,' -returned the Ghost, 'will find him here. What then? If he be like to -die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.' - -Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and -was overcome with penitence and grief. - -'Man,' said the Ghost, 'if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear -that wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus is, and -where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It -may be that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit -to live than millions like this poor man's child. O God! to hear the -insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry -brothers in the dust!' - -Scrooge bent before the Ghost's rebuke, and, trembling, cast his eyes -upon the ground. But he raised them speedily on hearing his own name. - -'Mr. Scrooge!' said Bob. 'I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the -Feast!' - -'The Founder of the Feast, indeed!' cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. 'I -wish I had him here. I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and -I hope he'd have a good appetite for it.' - -'My dear,' said Bob, 'the children! Christmas Day.' - -'It should be Christmas Day, I am sure,' said she, 'on which one drinks -the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. -Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it better than you do, -poor fellow!' - -'My dear!' was Bob's mild answer. 'Christmas Day.' - -'I'll drink his health for your sake and the Day's,' said Mrs. Cratchit, -'not for his. Long life to him! A merry Christmas and a happy New Year! -He'll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!' - -The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their -proceedings which had no heartiness in it. Tiny Tim drank it last of -all, but he didn't care twopence for it. Scrooge was the Ogre of the -family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which -was not dispelled for full five minutes. - -After it had passed away they were ten times merrier than before, from -the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Bob Cratchit -told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, which -would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly. The two -young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man -of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from -between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular -investments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that -bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliner's, -then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she -worked at a stretch and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for -a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Also how -she had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord -'was much about as tall as Peter'; at which Peter pulled up his collar -so high that you couldn't have seen his head if you had been there. All -this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and by-and-by -they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny -Tim, who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed. - -There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family; -they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being waterproof; -their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely -did, the inside of a pawnbroker's. But they were happy, grateful, -pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they -faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit's -torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny -Tim, until the last. - -By this time it was getting dark, and snowing pretty heavily; and as -Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets, the brightness of the -roaring fires in kitchens, parlours, and all sorts of rooms was -wonderful. Here, the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a -cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the fire, -and deep red curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. -There, all the children of the house were running out into the snow to -meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and be the -first to greet them. Here, again, were shadows on the window-blinds of -guests assembling; and there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and -fur-booted, and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near -neighbour's house; where, woe upon the single man who saw them -enter--artful witches, well they knew it--in a glow! - -But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on their way to -friendly gatherings, you might have thought that no one was at home to -give them welcome when they got there, instead of every house expecting -company, and piling up its fires half-chimney high. Blessings on it, how -the Ghost exulted! How it bared its breadth of breast, and opened its -capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring with a generous hand its -bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach! The very -lamplighter, who ran on before, dotting the dusky street with specks of -light, and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out -loudly as the Spirit passed, though little kenned the lamplighter that -he had any company but Christmas. - -And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they stood upon a -bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast -about, as though it were the burial-place of giants; and water spread -itself wheresoever it listed; or would have done so, but for the frost -that held it prisoner; and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse, -rank grass. Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery -red, which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a sullen eye, -and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in the thick gloom of -darkest night. - -'What place is this?' asked Scrooge. - -'A place where miners live, who labour in the bowels of the earth,' -returned the Spirit. 'But they know me. See!' - -A light shone from the window of a hut, and swiftly they advanced -towards it. Passing through the wall of mud and stone, they found a -cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire. An old, old man and -woman, with their children and their children's children, and another -generation beyond that, all decked out gaily in their holiday attire. -The old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the howling of the wind -upon the barren waste, was singing them a Christmas song; it had been a -very old song when he was a boy; and from time to time they all joined -in the chorus. So surely as they raised their voices, the old man got -quite blithe and loud; and so surely as they stopped, his vigour sank -again. - -The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his robe, and, -passing on above the moor, sped whither? Not to sea? To sea. To -Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw the last of the land, a frightful -range of rocks, behind them; and his ears were deafened by the -thundering of water, as it rolled and roared, and raged among the -dreadful caverns it had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth. - -Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, -on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there -stood a solitary lighthouse. Great heaps of seaweed clung to its base, -and storm-birds--born of the wind, one might suppose, as seaweed of the -water--rose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed. - -But, even here, two men who watched the light had made a fire, that -through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of -brightness on the awful sea. Joining their horny hands over the rough -table at which they sat, they wished each other Merry Christmas in their -can of grog; and one of them--the elder too, with his face all damaged -and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship might -be--struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale in itself. - -Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea--on, on--until -being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a -ship. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the -bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their -several stations; but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or -had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of -some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. And -every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder -word for one another on that day than on any day in the year; and had -shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he -cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to remember -him. - -It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the moaning of -the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the -lonely darkness over an unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as -profound as death: it was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus -engaged, to hear a hearty laugh. It was a much greater surprise to -Scrooge to recognise it as his own nephew's and to find himself in a -bright, dry, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his -side, and looking at that same nephew with approving affability! - -'Ha, ha!' laughed Scrooge's nephew. 'Ha, ha, ha!' - -If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blessed -in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is, I should like to -know him too. Introduce him to me, and I'll cultivate his acquaintance. - -It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there -is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so -irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. When Scrooge's -nephew laughed in this way--holding his sides, rolling his head, and -twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions--Scrooge's -niece, by marriage, laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled -friends, being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily. - -'Ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha!' - -'He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live!' cried Scrooge's -nephew. 'He believed it, too!' - -'More shame for him, Fred!' said Scrooge's niece indignantly. Bless -those women! they never do anything by halves. They are always in -earnest. - -She was very pretty; exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled, -surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth, that seemed made -to be kissed--as no doubt it was; all kinds of good little dots about -her chin, that melted into one another when she laughed; and the -sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature's head. -Altogether she was what you would have called provoking, you know; but -satisfactory, too. Oh, perfectly satisfactory! - -'He's a comical old fellow,' said Scrooge's nephew, 'that's the truth; -and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their -own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him.' - -'I'm sure he is very rich, Fred,' hinted Scrooge's niece. 'At least, you -always tell _me_ so.' - -'What of that, my dear?' said Scrooge's nephew. 'His wealth is of no use -to him. He don't do any good with it. He don't make himself comfortable -with it. He hasn't the satisfaction of thinking--ha, ha, ha!--that he is -ever going to benefit Us with it.' - -'I have no patience with him,' observed Scrooge's niece. Scrooge's -niece's sisters, and all the other ladies, expressed the same opinion. - -'Oh, I have!' said Scrooge's nephew. 'I am sorry for him; I couldn't be -angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims? Himself always. -Here he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won't come and dine -with us. What's the consequence? He don't lose much of a dinner.' - -'Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner,' interrupted Scrooge's -niece. Everybody else said the same, and they must be allowed to have -been competent judges, because they had just had dinner; and with the -dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire, by lamplight. - -'Well! I am very glad to hear it,' said Scrooge's nephew, 'because I -haven't any great faith in these young housekeepers. What do _you_ say, -Topper?' - -Topper had clearly got his eye upon one of Scrooge's niece's sisters, -for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, who had no right -to express an opinion on the subject. Whereat Scrooge's niece's -sister--the plump one with the lace tucker: not the one with the -roses--blushed. - -'Do go on, Fred,' said Scrooge's niece, clapping her hands. 'He never -finishes what he begins to say! He is such a ridiculous fellow!' - -Scrooge's nephew revelled in another laugh, and as it was impossible to -keep the infection off, though the plump sister tried hard to do it with -aromatic vinegar, his example was unanimously followed. - -'I was only going to say,' said Scrooge's nephew, 'that the consequence -of his taking a dislike to us, and not making merry with us, is, as I -think, that he loses some pleasant moments, which could do him no harm. -I am sure he loses pleasanter companions than he can find in his own -thoughts, either in his mouldy old office or his dusty chambers. I mean -to give him the same chance every year, whether he likes it or not, for -I pity him. He may rail at Christmas till he dies, but he can't help -thinking better of it--I defy him--if he finds me going there, in good -temper, year after year, and saying, "Uncle Scrooge, how are you?" If it -only put him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, _that's_ -something; and I think I shook him yesterday.' - -It was their turn to laugh now, at the notion of his shaking Scrooge. -But being thoroughly good-natured, and not much caring what they laughed -at, so that they laughed at any rate, he encouraged them in their -merriment, and passed the bottle, joyously. - -After tea they had some music. For they were a musical family, and knew -what they were about when they sung a Glee or Catch, I can assure you: -especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good one, and -never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over -it. Scrooge's niece played well upon the harp; and played, among other -tunes, a simple little air (a mere nothing: you might learn to whistle -it in two minutes) which had been familiar to the child who fetched -Scrooge from the boarding-school, as he had been reminded by the Ghost -of Christmas Past. When this strain of music sounded, all the things -that Ghost had shown him came upon his mind; he softened more and more; -and thought that if he could have listened to it often, years ago, he -might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his own happiness with -his own hands, without resorting to the sexton's spade that buried Jacob -Marley. - -[Illustration: _The way he went after that plump sister in the lace -tucker!_] - -But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After a while they -played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes, and never -better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. -Stop! There was first a game at blind man's-buff. Of course there was. -And I no more believe Topper was really blind than I believe he had eyes -in his boots. My opinion is, that it was a done thing between him and -Scrooge's nephew; and that the Ghost of Christmas Present knew it. The -way he went after that plump sister in the lace tucker was an outrage on -the credulity of human nature. Knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling -over the chairs, bumping up against the piano, smothering himself -amongst the curtains, wherever she went, there went he! He always knew -where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch anybody else. If you had -fallen up against him (as some of them did) on purpose, he would have -made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would have been an -affront to your understanding, and would instantly have sidled off in -the direction of the plump sister. She often cried out that it wasn't -fair; and it really was not. But when, at last, he caught her; when, in -spite of all her silken rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, -he got her into a corner whence there was no escape; then his conduct -was the most execrable. For his pretending not to know her; his -pretending that it was necessary to touch her head-dress, and further to -assure himself of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her -finger, and a certain chain about her neck; was vile, monstrous! No -doubt she told him her opinion of it when, another blind man being in -office, they were so very confidential together behind the curtains. - -Scrooge's niece was not one of the blind man's-buff party, but was made -comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in a snug corner where -the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her. But she joined in the -forfeits, and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the -alphabet. Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where, she was very -great, and, to the secret joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat her sisters -hollow; though they were sharp girls too, as Topper could have told you. -There might have been twenty people there, young and old, but they all -played, and so did Scrooge; for wholly forgetting, in the interest he -had in what was going on, that his voice made no sound in their ears, he -sometimes came out with his guess quite loud, and very often guessed -right, too; for the sharpest needle, best Whitechapel, warranted not to -cut in the eye, was not sharper than Scrooge, blunt as he took it in -his head to be. - -The Ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood, and looked upon -him with such favour that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay -until the guests departed. But this the Spirit said could not be done. - -'Here is a new game,' said Scrooge. 'One half-hour, Spirit, only one!' - -It was a game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew had to think of -something, and the rest must find out what, he only answering to their -questions yes or no, as the case was. The brisk fire of questioning to -which he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an -animal, a live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an -animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes and -lived in London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a show -of, and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie, and was -never killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a -bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every -fresh question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar -of laughter; and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to -get up off the sofa and stamp. At last the plump sister, falling into a -similar state, cried out: - -'I have found it out! I know what it is, Fred! I know what it is!' - -'What is it?' cried Fred. - -'It's your uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge.' - -Which it certainly was. Admiration was the universal sentiment, though -some objected that the reply to 'Is it a bear?' ought to have been -'Yes'; inasmuch as an answer in the negative was sufficient to have -diverted their thoughts from Mr. Scrooge, supposing they had ever had -any tendency that way. - -'He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure,' said Fred, 'and it -would be ungrateful not to drink his health. Here is a glass of mulled -wine ready to our hand at the moment; and I say, "Uncle Scrooge!"' - -'Well! Uncle Scrooge!' they cried. - -'A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to the old man, whatever he is!' -said Scrooge's nephew. 'He wouldn't take it from me, but may he have it, -nevertheless. Uncle Scrooge!' - -Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that -he would have pledged the unconscious company in return, and thanked -them in an inaudible speech, if the Ghost had given him time. But the -whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his -nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels. - -Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but -always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they -were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by -struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, -and it was rich. In almshouse, hospital, and gaol, in misery's every -refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast -the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing and taught -Scrooge his precepts. - -It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had his doubts -of this, because the Christmas holidays appeared to be condensed into -the space of time they passed together. It was strange, too, that, while -Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older, -clearly older. Scrooge had observed this change, but never spoke of it -until they left a children's Twelfth-Night party, when, looking at the -Spirit as they stood together in an open place, he noticed that its hair -was grey. - -'Are spirits' lives so short?' asked Scrooge. - -'My life upon this globe is very brief,' replied the Ghost. 'It ends -to-night.' - -'To-night!' cried Scrooge. - -'To-night at midnight. Hark! The time is drawing near.' - -The chimes were ringing the three-quarters past eleven at that moment. - -'Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,' said Scrooge, looking -intently at the Spirit's robe, 'but I see something strange, and not -belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a -claw?' - -'It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,' was the Spirit's -sorrowful reply. 'Look here!' - -From the foldings of its robe it brought two children, wretched, abject, -frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung -upon the outside of its garment. - -'O Man! look here! Look, look down here!' exclaimed the Ghost. - -They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish, but -prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have -filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a -stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched and twisted -them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat -enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no -degradation, no perversion of humanity in any grade, through all the -mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and -dread. - -Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he -tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, -rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. - -'Spirit! are they yours?' Scrooge could say no more. - -'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. 'And they -cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This -girl is Want. Beware of them both, and all of their degree, but most of -all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, -unless the writing be erased. Deny it!' cried the Spirit, stretching out -his hand towards the city. 'Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for -your factious purposes, and make it worse! And bide the end!' - -'Have they no refuge or resource?' cried Scrooge. - -'Are there no prisons?' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last -time with his own words. 'Are there no workhouses?' - -The bell struck Twelve. - -Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. As the last -stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob -Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and -hooded, coming like a mist along the ground towards him. - - -STAVE FOUR - - - - -THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS - - -The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came near him, -Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this -Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. - -It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its -face, its form, and left nothing of it visible, save one outstretched -hand. But for this, it would have been difficult to detach its figure -from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was -surrounded. - -He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him, and that -its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. He knew no more, -for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved. - -'I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?' said -Scrooge. - -The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand. - -'You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, -but will happen in the time before us,' Scrooge pursued. 'Is that so, -Spirit?' - -The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an instant in its -folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head. That was the only answer -he received. - -Although well used to ghostly company by this time, Scrooge feared the -silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found -that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it. The Spirit -paused a moment, as observing his condition, and giving him time to -recover. - -But Scrooge was all the worse for this. It thrilled him with a vague, -uncertain horror to know that, behind the dusky shroud, there were -ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his -own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great -heap of black. - -'Ghost of the Future!' he exclaimed, 'I fear you more than any spectre -I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope -to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear your -company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?' - -It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them. - -'Lead on!' said Scrooge. 'Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is -precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!' - -The Phantom moved away as it had come towards him. Scrooge followed in -the shadow of its dress, which bore him up, he thought, and carried him -along. - -They scarcely seemed to enter the City; for the City rather seemed to -spring up about them, and encompass them of its own act. But there they -were in the heart of it; on 'Change, amongst the merchants, who hurried -up and down, and chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in -groups, and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully with their -great gold seals, and so forth, as Scrooge had seen them often. - -The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men. Observing -that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge advanced to listen to their -talk. - -'No,' said a great fat man with a monstrous chin, 'I don't know much -about it either way. I only know he's dead.' - -'When did he die?' inquired another. - -'Last night, I believe.' - -'Why, what was the matter with him?' asked a third, taking a vast -quantity of snuff out of a very large snuff-box. 'I thought he'd never -die.' - -'God knows,' said the first, with a yawn. - -'What has he done with his money?' asked a red-faced gentleman with a -pendulous excrescence on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills -of a turkey-cock. - -'I haven't heard,' said the man with the large chin, yawning again. -'Left it to his company, perhaps. He hasn't left it to _me_. That's all -I know.' - -This pleasantry was received with a general laugh. - -'It's likely to be a very cheap funeral,' said the same speaker; 'for, -upon my life, I don't know of anybody to go to it. Suppose we make up a -party, and volunteer?' - -'I don't mind going if a lunch is provided,' observed the gentleman with -the excrescence on his nose. 'But I must be fed if I make one.' - -Another laugh. - -[Illustration: - - _"How are you?" said one. - "How are you?" returned the other. - "Well!" said the first. "Old Scratch has got his own at last, hey?"_ - -] - -'Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all,' said the first -speaker, 'for I never wear black gloves, and I never eat lunch. But I'll -offer to go if anybody else will. When I come to think of it, I'm not -at all sure that I wasn't his most particular friend; for we used to -stop and speak whenever we met. Bye, bye!' - -Speakers and listeners strolled away, and mixed with other groups. -Scrooge knew the men, and looked towards the Spirit for an explanation. - -The phantom glided on into a street. Its finger pointed to two persons -meeting. Scrooge listened again, thinking that the explanation might lie -here. - -He knew these men, also, perfectly. They were men of business: very -wealthy, and of great importance. He had made a point always of standing -well in their esteem in a business point of view, that is; strictly in a -business point of view. - -'How are you?' said one. - -'How are you?' returned the other. - -'Well!' said the first, 'old Scratch has got his own at last, hey?' - -'So I am told,' returned the second. 'Cold, isn't it?' - -'Seasonable for Christmas-time. You are not a skater, I suppose?' - -'No, no. Something else to think of. Good-morning!' - -Not another word. That was their meeting, their conversation, and their -parting. - -Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the Spirit should -attach importance to conversations apparently so trivial; but feeling -assured that they must have some hidden purpose, he set himself to -consider what it was likely to be. They could scarcely be supposed to -have any bearing on the death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was -Past, and this Ghost's province was the Future. Nor could he think of -any one immediately connected with himself to whom he could apply them. -But nothing doubting that, to whomsoever they applied, they had some -latent moral for his own improvement, he resolved to treasure up every -word he heard, and everything he saw; and especially to observe the -shadow of himself when it appeared. For he had an expectation that the -conduct of his future self would give him the clue he missed, and would -render the solution of these riddles easy. - -He looked about in that very place for his own image, but another man -stood in his accustomed corner; and though the clock pointed to his -usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among -the multitudes that poured in through the Porch. It gave him little -surprise, however; for he had been revolving in his mind a change of -life, and thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried out -in this. - -Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its outstretched -hand. When he roused himself from his thoughtful quest, he fancied, -from the turn of the hand, and its situation in reference to himself, -that the Unseen Eyes were looking at him keenly. It made him shudder, -and feel very cold. - -They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, -where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he recognised its -situation and its bad repute. The ways were foul and narrow; the shop -and houses wretched; the people half naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. -Alleys and archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offences of -smell and dirt, and life upon the straggling streets; and the whole -quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and misery. - -Far in this den of infamous resort, there was a low-browed, beetling -shop, below a penthouse roof, where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and -greasy offal were bought. Upon the floor within were piled up heaps of -rusty keys, nails, chains, hinges, files, scales, weights, and refuse -iron of all kinds. Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred -and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and -sepulchres of bones. Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a -charcoal stove made of old bricks, was a grey-haired rascal, nearly -seventy years of age, who had screened himself from the cold air without -by a frouzy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters hung upon a line and -smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement. - -Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as a -woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely -entered, when another woman, similarly laden, came in too; and she was -closely followed by a man in faded black, who was no less startled by -the sight of them than they had been upon the recognition of each other. -After a short period of blank astonishment, in which the old man with -the pipe had joined them, they all three burst into a laugh. - -'Let the charwoman alone to be the first!' cried she who had entered -first. 'Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the -undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here's a -chance! If we haven't all three met here without meaning it!' - -'You couldn't have met in a better place,' said old Joe, removing his -pipe from his mouth. 'Come into the parlour. You were made free of it -long ago, you know; and the other two an't strangers. Stop till I shut -the door of the shop. Ah! how it skreeks! There an't such a rusty bit of -metal in the place as its own hinges, I believe; and I'm sure there's no -such old bones here as mine. Ha! ha! We're all suitable to our calling, -we're well matched. Come into the parlour. Come into the parlour.' - -The parlour was the space behind the screen of rags. The old man raked -the fire together with an old stair-rod, and having trimmed his smoky -lamp (for it was night) with the stem of his pipe, put it into his mouth -again. - -While he did this, the woman who had already spoken threw her bundle on -the floor, and sat down in a flaunting manner on a stool, crossing her -elbows on her knees, and looking with a bold defiance at the other two. - -'What odds, then? What odds, Mrs. Dilber?' said the woman. 'Every person -has a right to take care of themselves. _He_ always did!' - -'That's true, indeed!' said the laundress. 'No man more so.' - -'Why, then, don't stand staring as if you was afraid, woman! Who's the -wiser? We're not going to pick holes in each other's coats, I suppose?' - -'No, indeed!' said Mrs. Dilber and the man together. 'We should hope -not.' - -'Very well then!' cried the woman. 'That's enough. Who's the worse for -the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose?' - -'No, indeed,' said Mrs. Dilber, laughing. - -'If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a wicked old screw,' -pursued the woman, 'why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had -been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with -Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself.' - -'It's the truest word that ever was spoke,' said Mrs. Dilber. 'It's a -judgment on him.' - -'I wish it was a little heavier judgment,' replied the woman: 'and it -should have been, you may depend upon it, if I could have laid my hands -on anything else. Open that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value -of it. Speak out plain. I'm not afraid to be the first, nor afraid for -them to see it. We knew pretty well that we were helping ourselves -before we met here, I believe. It's no sin. Open the bundle, Joe.' - -But the gallantry of her friends would not allow of this; and the man in -faded black, mounting the breach first, produced _his_ plunder. It was -not extensive. A seal or two, a pencil-case, a pair of sleeve-buttons, -and a brooch of no great value, were all. They were severally examined -and appraised by old Joe, who chalked the sums he was disposed to give -for each upon the wall, and added them up into a total when he found -that there was nothing more to come. - -'That's your account,' said Joe, 'and I wouldn't give another sixpence, -if I was to be boiled for not doing it. Who's next?' - - -[Illustration: _"What do you call this?" said Joe. "Bed-curtains."_] - -Mrs. Dilber was next. Sheets and towels, a little wearing apparel, two -old fashioned silver teaspoons, a pair of sugar-tongs, and a few -boots. Her account was stated on the wall in the same manner. - -'I always give too much to ladies. It's a weakness of mine, and that's -the way I ruin myself,' said old Joe. 'That's your account. If you asked -me for another penny, and made it an open question, I'd repent of being -so liberal, and knock off half-a-crown.' - -'And now undo _my_ bundle, Joe,' said the first woman. - -Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening it, -and, having unfastened a great many knots, dragged out a large heavy -roll of some dark stuff. - -'What do you call this?' said Joe. 'Bed-curtains?' - -'Ah!' returned the woman, laughing and leaning forward on her crossed -arms. 'Bed-curtains!' - -'You don't mean to say you took 'em down, rings and all, with him lying -there?' said Joe. - -'Yes, I do,' replied the woman. 'Why not?' - -'You were born to make your fortune,' said Joe, 'and you'll certainly do -it.' - -'I certainly shan't hold my hand, when I can get anything in it by -reaching it out, for the sake of such a man as he was, I promise you, -Joe,' returned the woman coolly. 'Don't drop that oil upon the blankets, -now.' - -'His blankets?' asked Joe. - -'Whose else's do you think?' replied the woman. 'He isn't likely to take -cold without 'em, I dare say.' - -'I hope he didn't die of anything catching? Eh?' said old Joe, stopping -in his work, and looking up. - -'Don't you be afraid of that,' returned the woman. 'I an't so fond of -his company that I'd loiter about him for such things, if he did. Ah! -you may look through that shirt till your eyes ache, but you won't find -a hole in it, nor a threadbare place. It's the best he had, and a fine -one too. They'd have wasted it, if it hadn't been for me.' - -'What do you call wasting of it?' asked old Joe. - -'Putting it on him to be buried in, to be sure,' replied the woman, with -a laugh. 'Somebody was fool enough to do it, but I took it off again. If -calico an't good enough for such a purpose, it isn't good enough for -anything. It's quite as becoming to the body. He can't look uglier than -he did in that one.' - -Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. As they sat grouped about -their spoil, in the scanty light afforded by the old man's lamp, he -viewed them with a detestation and disgust which could hardly have been -greater, though they had been obscene demons marketing the corpse -itself. - -'Ha, ha!' laughed the same woman when old Joe producing a flannel bag -with money in it, told out their several gains upon the ground. 'This -is the end of it, you see! He frightened every one away from him when he -was alive, to profit us when he was dead! Ha, ha, ha!' - -'Spirit!' said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot. 'I see, I see. The -case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way now. -Merciful heaven, what is this?' - -He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now he almost -touched a bed--a bare, uncurtained bed--on which, beneath a ragged -sheet, there lay a something covered up, which, though it was dumb, -announced itself in awful language. - -The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any accuracy, -though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse, -anxious to know what kind of room it was. A pale light, rising in the -outer air, fell straight upon the bed; and on it, plundered and bereft, -unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man. - -Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom. Its steady hand was pointed to the -head. The cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of -it, the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part, would have disclosed the -face. He thought of it, felt how easy it would be to do, and longed to -do it; but he had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the -spectre at his side. - -Oh, cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here, and -dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command; for this is thy -dominion! But of the loved, revered, and honoured head thou canst not -turn one hair to thy dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is -not that the hand is heavy, and will fall down when released; it is not -that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, -generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender, and the pulse a -man's. Strike, Shadow, strike! And see his good deeds springing from the -wound, to sow the world with life immortal! - -No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge's ears, and yet he heard them -when he looked upon the bed. He thought, if this man could be raised up -now, what would be his foremost thoughts? Avarice, hard dealing, griping -cares? They have brought him to a rich end, truly! - -He lay in the dark, empty house, with not a man, a woman, or a child to -say he was kind to me in this or that, and for the memory of one kind -word I will be kind to him. A cat was tearing at the door, and there was -a sound of gnawing rats beneath the hearthstone. What _they_ wanted in -the room of death, and why they were so restless and disturbed, Scrooge -did not dare to think. - -'Spirit!' he said, 'this is a fearful place. In leaving it, I shall not -leave its lesson, trust me. Let us go!' - -Still the Ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to the head. - -'I understand you,' Scrooge returned, 'and I would do it if I could. But -I have not the power, Spirit. I have not the power.' - -Again it seemed to look upon him. - -'If there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by this -man's death,' said Scrooge, quite agonised, 'show that person to me, -Spirit, I beseech you!' - -The Phantom spread its dark robe before him for a moment, like a wing; -and, withdrawing it, revealed a room by daylight, where a mother and her -children were. - -She was expecting some one, and with anxious eagerness; for she walked -up and down the room, started at every sound, looked out from the -window, glanced at the clock, tried, but in vain, to work with her -needle, and could hardly bear the voices of her children in their play. - -At length the long-expected knock was heard. She hurried to the door, -and met her husband; a man whose face was careworn and depressed, though -he was young. There was a remarkable expression in it now, a kind of -serious delight of which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled to -repress. - -He sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for him by the fire, -and when she asked him faintly what news (which was not until after a -long silence), he appeared embarrassed how to answer. - -'Is it good,' she said, 'or bad?' to help him. - -'Bad,' he answered. - -'We are quite ruined?' - -'No. There is hope yet, Caroline.' - -'If _he_ relents,' she said, amazed, 'there is! Nothing is past hope, if -such a miracle has happened.' - -'He is past relenting,' said her husband. 'He is dead.' - -She was a mild and patient creature, if her face spoke truth; but she -was thankful in her soul to hear it, and she said so with clasped hands. -She prayed forgiveness the next moment, and was sorry; but the first was -the emotion of her heart. - -'What the half-drunken woman, whom I told you of last night, said to me -when I tried to see him and obtain a week's delay--and what I thought -was a mere excuse to avoid me--turns out to have been quite true. He was -not only very ill, but dying, then.' - -'To whom will our debt be transferred?' - -'I don't know. But, before that time, we shall be ready with the money; -and even though we were not, it would be bad fortune indeed to find so -merciless a creditor in his successor. We may sleep to-night with light -hearts, Caroline!' - -Yes. Soften it as they would, their hearts were lighter. The children's -faces, hushed and clustered round to hear what they so little -understood, were brighter; and it was a happier house for this man's -death! The only emotion that the Ghost could show him, caused by the -event, was one of pleasure. - -'Let me see some tenderness connected with a death,' said Scrooge; 'or -that dark chamber, Spirit, which we left just now, will be for ever -present to me.' - -The Ghost conducted him through several streets familiar to his feet; -and as they went along, Scrooge looked here and there to find himself, -but nowhere was he to be seen. They entered poor Bob Cratchit's house; -the dwelling he had visited before; and found the mother and the -children seated round the fire. - -Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues -in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a book before him. -The mother and her daughters were engaged in sewing. But surely they -were very quiet! - -'"And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them."' - -Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not dreamed them. The boy -must have read them out as he and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why -did he not go on? - -The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand up to her -face. - -'The colour hurts my eyes,' she said. - -The colour? Ah, poor Tiny Tim! - -'They're better now again,' said Cratchit's wife. 'It makes them weak by -candle-light; and I wouldn't show weak eyes to your father when he comes -home for the world. It must be near his time.' - -'Past it rather,' Peter answered, shutting up his book. 'But I think he -has walked a little slower than he used, these few last evenings, -mother.' - -They were very quiet again. At last she said, and in a steady, cheerful -voice, that only faltered once: - -'I have known him walk with--I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon -his shoulder very fast indeed.' - -'And so have I,' cried Peter. 'Often.' - -'And so have I,' exclaimed another. So had all. - -'But he was very light to carry,' she resumed, intent upon her work, -'and his father loved him so, that it was no trouble, no trouble. And -there is your father at the door!' - -She hurried out to meet him; and little Bob in his comforter--he had -need of it, poor fellow--came in. His tea was ready for him on the hob, -and they all tried who should help him to it most. Then the two young -Cratchits got upon his knees, and laid, each child, a little cheek -against his face, as if they said, 'Don't mind it, father. Don't be -grieved!' - -Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to all the family. -He looked at the work upon the table, and praised the industry and speed -of Mrs. Cratchit and the girls. They would be done long before Sunday, -he said. - -'Sunday! You went to-day, then, Robert?' said his wife. - -'Yes, my dear,' returned Bob. 'I wish you could have gone. It would have -done you good to see how green a place it is. But you'll see it often. I -promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little -child!' cried Bob. 'My little child!' - -He broke down all at once. He couldn't help it. If he could have helped -it, he and his child would have been farther apart, perhaps, than they -were. - -He left the room, and went upstairs into the room above, which was -lighted cheerfully, and hung with Christmas. There was a chair set close -beside the child, and there were signs of some one having been there -lately. Poor Bob sat down in it, and when he had thought a little and -composed himself, he kissed the little face. He was reconciled to what -had happened, and went down again quite happy. - -They drew about the fire, and talked, the girls and mother working -still. Bob told them of the extraordinary kindness of Mr. Scrooge's -nephew, whom he had scarcely seen but once, and who, meeting him in the -street that day, and seeing that he looked a little--'just a little -down, you know,' said Bob, inquired what had happened to distress him. -'On which,' said Bob, 'for he is the pleasantest-spoken gentleman you -ever heard, I told him. "I am heartily sorry for it, Mr. Cratchit," he -said, "and heartily sorry for your good wife." By-the-bye, how he ever -knew _that_ I don't know.' - -'Knew what, my dear?' - -'Why, that you were a good wife,' replied Bob. - -'Everybody knows that,' said Peter. - -'Very well observed, my boy!' cried Bob. 'I hope they do. "Heartily -sorry," he said, "for your good wife. If I can be of service to you in -any way," he said, giving me his card, "that's where I live. Pray come -to me." Now, it wasn't,' cried Bob, 'for the sake of anything he might -be able to do for us, so much as for his kind way, that this was quite -delightful. It really seemed as if he had known our Tiny Tim, and felt -with us.' - -'I'm sure he's a good soul!' said Mrs. Cratchit. - -'You would be sure of it, my dear,' returned Bob, 'if you saw and spoke -to him. I shouldn't be at all surprised--mark what I say!--if he got -Peter a better situation.' - -'Only hear that, Peter,' said Mrs. Cratchit. - -'And then,' cried one of the girls, 'Peter will be keeping company with -some one, and setting up for himself.' - -'Get along with you!' retorted Peter, grinning. - -'It's just as likely as not,' said Bob, 'one of these days; though -there's plenty of time for that, my dear. But, however and whenever we -part from one another, I am sure we shall none of us forget poor Tiny -Tim--shall we--or this first parting that there was among us?' - -'Never, father!' cried they all. - -'And I know,' said Bob, 'I know, my dears, that when we recollect how -patient and how mild he was; although he was a little, little child; we -shall not quarrel easily among ourselves, and forget poor Tiny Tim in -doing it.' - -'No, never, father!' they all cried again. - -'I am very happy,' said little Bob, 'I am very happy!' - -Mrs. Cratchit kissed him, his daughters kissed him, the two young -Cratchits kissed him, and Peter and himself shook hands. Spirit of Tiny -Tim, thy childish essence was from God! - -'Spectre,' said Scrooge, 'something informs me that our parting moment -is at hand. I know it but I know not how. Tell me what man that was whom -we saw lying dead?' - -The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come conveyed him, as before--though at a -different time, he thought: indeed there seemed no order in these latter -visions, save that they were in the Future--into the resorts of business -men, but showed him not himself. Indeed, the Spirit did not stay for -anything, but went straight on, as to the end just now desired, until -besought by Scrooge to tarry for a moment. - -'This court,' said Scrooge, 'through which we hurry now, is where my -place of occupation is, and has been for a length of time. I see the -house. Let me behold what I shall be in days to come.' - -The Spirit stopped; the hand was pointed elsewhere. - -'The house is yonder,' Scrooge exclaimed. 'Why do you point away?' - -The inexorable finger underwent no change. - -Scrooge hastened to the window of his office, and looked in. It was an -office still, but not his. The furniture was not the same, and the -figure in the chair was not himself. The Phantom pointed as before. - -He joined it once again, and, wondering why and whither he had gone, -accompanied it until they reached an iron gate. He paused to look round -before entering. - -A churchyard. Here, then, the wretched man, whose name he had now to -learn, lay underneath the ground. It was a worthy place. Walled in by -houses; overrun by grass and weeds, the growth of vegetation's death, -not life; choked up with too much burying; fat with repleted appetite. A -worthy place! - -The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. He advanced -towards it trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he -dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape. - -'Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,' said Scrooge, -'answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will -be, or are they shadows of the things that May be only?' - -Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood. - -'Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, -they must lead,' said Scrooge. 'But if the courses be departed from, the -ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!' - -The Spirit was immovable as ever. - -Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and, following the -finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, -EBENEZER SCROOGE. - -'Am I that man who lay upon the bed?' he cried upon his knees. - -The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again. - -'No, Spirit! Oh no, no!' - -The finger still was there. - -'Spirit!' he cried, tight clutching at its robe, 'hear me! I am not the -man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this -intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?' - -For the first time the hand appeared to shake. - -'Good Spirit,' he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it, -'your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may -change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life?' - -The kind hand trembled. - -'I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I -will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all -Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they -teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!' - -In his agony he caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but -he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit stronger yet, -repulsed him. - -Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw -an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and -dwindled down into a bedpost. - - -STAVE FIVE - - -[Illustration] - - - - -THE END OF IT - - -Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his -own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make -amends in! - -'I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!' Scrooge repeated -as he scrambled out of bed. 'The Spirits of all Three shall strive -within me. O Jacob Marley! Heaven and the Christmas Time be praised for -this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob; on my knees!' - -He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his -broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing -violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with -tears. - -'They are not torn down,' cried Scrooge, folding one of his bed-curtains -in his arms, 'They are not torn down, rings and all. They are here--I am -here--the shadows of the things that would have been may be dispelled. -They will be. I know they will!' - -His hands were busy with his garments all this time: turning them inside -out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making -them parties to every kind of extravagance. - -'I don't know what to do!' cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the -same breath, and making a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings. -'I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as -a 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 was in!' cried Scrooge, starting -off again, and going round the fireplace. 'There's the door by which the -Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There's the corner where the Ghost of -Christmas Present sat! There's the window where I saw the wandering -Spirits! It's all right, it's all true, it all happened. Ha, ha, ha!' - -Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was -a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long -line of brilliant laughs! - -'I don't know what day of the month it is,' said Scrooge. 'I don't know -how long I have been among the Spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite -a baby. Never mind. I don't care. I'd rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop! -Hallo here!' - -He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the -lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clash, hammer; ding, dong, -bell! Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clash, clash! Oh, glorious, glorious! - -Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no -mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood -to dance to; golden sunlight; heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry -bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious! - -'What's to-day?' cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday -clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. - -'EH?' returned the boy with all his might of wonder. - -'What's to-day, my fine fellow?' said Scrooge. - -'To-day!' replied the boy. 'Why, CHRISTMAS DAY.' - -'It's Christmas Day!' said Scrooge to himself. 'I haven't missed it. The -Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. -Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow!' - -'Hallo!' returned the boy. - -'Do you know the poulterer's in the next street but one, at the corner?' -Scrooge inquired. - -'I should hope I did,' replied the lad. - -'An intelligent boy!' said Scrooge. 'A remarkable boy! Do you know -whether they've sold the prize turkey that was hanging up there?--Not -the little prize turkey: the big one?' - -'What! the one as big as me?' returned the boy. - -'What a delightful boy!' said Scrooge. 'It's a pleasure to talk to him. -Yes, my buck!' - -'It's hanging there now,' replied the boy. - -'Is it?' said Scrooge. 'Go and buy it.' - -'Walk-ER!' exclaimed the boy. - -'No, no,' said Scrooge. 'I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell 'em to -bring it here, that I may give them the directions where to take it. -Come back with the man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him -in less than five minutes, and I'll give you half-a-crown!' - -The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady hand at a trigger -who could have got a shot off half as fast. - -'I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's,' whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, -and splitting with a laugh. 'He shan't know who sends it. It's twice the -size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to -Bob's will be!' - -The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one; but write -it he did, somehow, and went downstairs to open the street-door, ready -for the coming of the poulterer's man. As he stood there, waiting his -arrival, the knocker caught his eye. - -'I shall love it as long as I live!' cried Scrooge, patting it with his -hand. 'I scarcely ever looked at it before. What an honest expression it -has in its face! It's a wonderful knocker!--Here's the turkey. Hallo! -Whoop! How are you! Merry Christmas!' - -It _was_ a turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. -He would have snapped 'em short off in a minute, like sticks of -sealing-wax. - -'Why, it's impossible to carry that to Camden Town,' said Scrooge. 'You -must have a cab.' - -The chuckle with which he said this, and the chuckle with which he paid -for the turkey, and the chuckle with which he paid for the cab, and the -chuckle with which he recompensed the boy, were only to be exceeded by -the chuckle with which he sat down breathless in his chair again, and -chuckled till he cried. - -Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued to shake very much; -and shaving requires attention, even when you don't dance while you are -at it. But if he had cut the end of his nose off, he would have put a -piece of sticking-plaster over it, and been quite satisfied. - -He dressed himself 'all in his best,' and at last got out into the -streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them -with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and, walking with his hands behind -him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so -irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured -fellows said, 'Good-morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!' And Scrooge -said often afterwards that, of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, -those were the blithest in his ears. - -He had not gone far when, coming on towards him, he beheld the portly -gentleman who had walked into his counting-house the day before, and -said, 'Scrooge and Marley's, I believe?' It sent a pang across his heart -to think how this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but -he knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it. - -'My dear sir,' said Scrooge, quickening his pace, and taking the old -gentleman by both his hands, 'how do you do? I hope you succeeded -yesterday. It was very kind of you. A merry Christmas to you, sir!' - -'Mr. Scrooge?' - -'Yes,' said Scrooge. 'That is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant -to you. Allow me to ask your pardon. And will you have the goodness----' -Here Scrooge whispered in his ear. - -'Lord bless me!' cried the gentleman, as if his breath were taken away. -'My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?' - -'If you please,' said Scrooge. 'Not a farthing less. A great many -back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that -favour?' - -'My dear sir,' said the other, shaking hands with him, 'I don't know -what to say to such munifi----' - -'Don't say anything, please,' retorted Scrooge. 'Come and see me. Will -you come and see me?' - -'I will!' cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he meant to do it. - -'Thankee,' said Scrooge. 'I am much obliged to you. I thank you fifty -times. Bless you!' - -He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people -hurrying to and fro, and patted the children on the head, and questioned -beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the -windows; and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had -never dreamed that any walk--that anything--could give him so much -happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's -house. - -He passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and -knock. But he made a dash and did it. - -'Is your master at home, my dear?' said Scrooge to the girl. 'Nice girl! -Very.' - -'Yes, sir.' - -'Where is he, my love?' said Scrooge. - -'He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress. I'll show you -upstairs, if you please.' - -'Thankee. He knows me,' said Scrooge, with his hand already on the -dining-room lock. 'I'll go in here, my dear.' - -He turned it gently, and sidled his face in round the door. They were -looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these -young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see -that everything is right. - -'Fred!' said Scrooge. - -Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started! Scrooge had -forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting in the corner with the -footstool, or he wouldn't have done it on any account. - -'Why, bless my soul!' cried Fred, 'who's that?' - -[Illustration: _"It's I, your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will -you let me in, Fred?"_] - -'It's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, -Fred?' - -Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in -five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. -So did Topper when _he_ came. So did the plump sister when _she_ came. -So did every one when _they_ came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, -wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness! - -But he was early at the office next morning. Oh, he was early there! If -he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That -was the thing he had set his heart upon. - -And he did it; yes, he did! The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter -past. No Bob. He was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. -Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the -tank. - -His hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on -his stool in a jiffy, driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to -overtake nine o'clock. - -'Hallo!' growled Scrooge in his accustomed voice as near as he could -feign it. 'What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?' - -'I am very sorry, sir,' said Bob. 'I _am_ behind my time.' - -'You are!' repeated Scrooge. 'Yes, I think you are. Step this way, sir, -if you please.' - -'It's only once a year, sir,' pleaded Bob, appearing from the tank. 'It -shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir.' - -'Now, I'll tell you what, my friend,' said Scrooge. 'I am not going to -stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore,' he continued, -leaping from his stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that -he staggered back into the tank again--'and therefore I am about to -raise your salary!' - -Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. He had a momentary -idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and calling to the -people in the court for help and a strait-waistcoat. - -'A merry Christmas, Bob!' said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could -not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. 'A merrier Christmas, -Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise -your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will -discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of -smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires and buy another coal-scuttle -before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!' - -[Illustration: _"Now, I'll tell you what, my friend," said Scrooge. "I -am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer."_] - -Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; -and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as -good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old -City knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old -world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them -laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that -nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did -not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as -these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they -should wrinkle up their eyes in grins as have the malady in less -attractive forms. His own heart laughed, and that was quite enough for -him. - -He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the -Total-Abstinence Principle ever afterwards; and it was always said of -him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed -the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as -Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! - -[Illustration] - -+---------------------------------------------------------------+ -|Transcriber's note: The Contents were added by the transcriber.| -+---------------------------------------------------------------+ - - - - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** - - - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following -the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use -of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for -copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very -easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation -of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project -Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may -do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected -by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark -license, especially commercial redistribution. - - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE - -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person -or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. - -1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the -Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country other than the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work -on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the -phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most - other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions - whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms - of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online - at www.gutenberg.org. If you - are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws - of the country where you are located before using this eBook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project -Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg™ License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format -other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain -Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works -provided that: - - • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation.” - - • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ - works. - - • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - - • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. - - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of -the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set -forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right -of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ - -Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. - -Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. - -The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, -Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up -to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website -and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread -public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state -visit www.gutenberg.org/donate. - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate. - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our website which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org. - -This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - -