From: Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 16:54:35 +0000 (+0530) Subject: hw7: starting materials X-Git-Url: https://git.rkrishnan.org/%5B/%5D%20/file/URI:LIT:krugkidfnzsc4/@@named=/simplejson/cyclelanguage?a=commitdiff_plain;h=e21bad4664f79a9c21ea18f8632021f9076fff29;p=yorgey.git hw7: starting materials --- diff --git a/hw7/07-folds-monoids.pdf b/hw7/07-folds-monoids.pdf new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7caf60 Binary files /dev/null and b/hw7/07-folds-monoids.pdf differ diff --git a/hw7/Buffer.hs b/hw7/Buffer.hs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6eb55af --- /dev/null +++ b/hw7/Buffer.hs @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +module Buffer where + +-- Type class for data structures that can represent the text buffer +-- of an editor. + +class Buffer b where + + -- | Convert a buffer to a String. + toString :: b -> String + + -- | Create a buffer from a String. + fromString :: String -> b + + -- | Extract the nth line (0-indexed) from a buffer. Return Nothing + -- for out-of-bounds indices. + line :: Int -> b -> Maybe String + + -- | @replaceLine n ln buf@ returns a modified version of @buf@, + -- with the @n@th line replaced by @ln@. If the index is + -- out-of-bounds, the buffer should be returned unmodified. + replaceLine :: Int -> String -> b -> b + + -- | Compute the number of lines in the buffer. + numLines :: b -> Int + + -- | Compute the value of the buffer, i.e. the amount someone would + -- be paid for publishing the contents of the buffer. + value :: b -> Int diff --git a/hw7/Editor.hs b/hw7/Editor.hs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f35414 --- /dev/null +++ b/hw7/Editor.hs @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@ +{-# LANGUAGE GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving + , ScopedTypeVariables + #-} +module Editor where + +import System.IO + +import Buffer + +import Control.Exception +import Control.Monad.State + +import Control.Applicative +import Control.Arrow (first, second) + +import Data.Char +import Data.List + +-- Editor commands + +data Command = View + | Edit + | Load String + | Line Int + | Next + | Prev + | Quit + | Help + | Noop + deriving (Eq, Show, Read) + +commands :: [String] +commands = map show [View, Edit, Next, Prev, Quit] + +-- Editor monad + +newtype Editor b a = Editor (StateT (b,Int) IO a) + deriving (Functor, Monad, MonadIO, MonadState (b,Int)) + +runEditor :: Buffer b => Editor b a -> b -> IO a +runEditor (Editor e) b = evalStateT e (b,0) + +getCurLine :: Editor b Int +getCurLine = gets snd + +setCurLine :: Int -> Editor b () +setCurLine = modify . second . const + +onBuffer :: (b -> a) -> Editor b a +onBuffer f = gets (f . fst) + +getBuffer :: Editor b b +getBuffer = onBuffer id + +modBuffer :: (b -> b) -> Editor b () +modBuffer = modify . first + +io :: MonadIO m => IO a -> m a +io = liftIO + +-- Utility functions + +readMay :: Read a => String -> Maybe a +readMay s = case reads s of + [(r,_)] -> Just r + _ -> Nothing + +-- Main editor loop + +editor :: Buffer b => Editor b () +editor = io (hSetBuffering stdout NoBuffering) >> loop + where loop = do prompt + cmd <- getCommand + when (cmd /= Quit) (doCommand cmd >> loop) + +prompt :: Buffer b => Editor b () +prompt = do + s <- onBuffer value + io $ putStr (show s ++ "> ") + +getCommand :: Editor b Command +getCommand = io $ readCom <$> getLine + where + readCom "" = Noop + readCom inp@(c:cs) | isDigit c = maybe Noop Line (readMay inp) + | toUpper c == 'L' = Load (unwords $ words cs) + | c == '?' = Help + | otherwise = maybe Noop read $ + find ((== toUpper c) . head) commands + +doCommand :: Buffer b => Command -> Editor b () +doCommand View = do + cur <- getCurLine + let ls = [(cur - 2) .. (cur + 2)] + ss <- mapM (\l -> onBuffer $ line l) ls + zipWithM_ (showL cur) ls ss + where + showL _ _ Nothing = return () + showL l n (Just s) = io $ putStrLn (m ++ show n ++ ": " ++ s) + where m | n == l = "*" + | otherwise = " " + +doCommand Edit = do + l <- getCurLine + io $ putStr $ "Replace line " ++ show l ++ ": " + new <- io getLine + modBuffer $ replaceLine l new + +doCommand (Load filename) = do + mstr <- io $ handle (\(_ :: IOException) -> + putStrLn "File not found." >> return Nothing + ) $ do + h <- openFile filename ReadMode + hSetEncoding h utf8 + Just <$> hGetContents h + maybe (return ()) (modBuffer . const . fromString) mstr + +doCommand (Line n) = modCurLine (const n) >> doCommand View + +doCommand Next = modCurLine (+1) >> doCommand View +doCommand Prev = modCurLine (subtract 1) >> doCommand View + +doCommand Quit = return () -- do nothing, main loop notices this and quits + +doCommand Help = io . putStr . unlines $ + [ "v --- view the current location in the document" + , "n --- move to the next line" + , "p --- move to the previous line" + , "l --- load a file into the editor" + , "e --- edit the current line" + , "q --- quit" + , "? --- show this list of commands" + ] + +doCommand Noop = return () + +inBuffer :: Buffer b => Int -> Editor b Bool +inBuffer n = do + nl <- onBuffer numLines + return (n >= 0 && n < nl) + +modCurLine :: Buffer b => (Int -> Int) -> Editor b () +modCurLine f = do + l <- getCurLine + nl <- onBuffer numLines + setCurLine . max 0 . min (nl - 1) $ f l diff --git a/hw7/Sized.hs b/hw7/Sized.hs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9214b76 --- /dev/null +++ b/hw7/Sized.hs @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +{-# LANGUAGE GeneralizedNewtypeDeriving, FlexibleInstances #-} +module Sized where + +import Data.Monoid + +newtype Size = Size Int + deriving (Eq, Ord, Show, Num) + +getSize :: Size -> Int +getSize (Size i) = i + +class Sized a where + size :: a -> Size + +instance Sized Size where + size = id + +-- This instance means that things like +-- (Foo, Size) +-- (Foo, (Bar, Size)) +-- ... +-- are all instances of Sized. +instance Sized b => Sized (a,b) where + size = size . snd + +instance Monoid Size where + mempty = Size 0 + mappend = (+) diff --git a/hw7/StringBufEditor.hs b/hw7/StringBufEditor.hs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e40cc5e --- /dev/null +++ b/hw7/StringBufEditor.hs @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +module Main where + +import StringBuffer +import Editor + +main = runEditor editor $ unlines + [ "This buffer is for notes you don't want to save, and for" + , "evaluation of steam valve coefficients." + , "To load a different file, type the character L followed" + , "by the name of the file." + ] diff --git a/hw7/StringBuffer.hs b/hw7/StringBuffer.hs new file mode 100644 index 0000000..138ef3f --- /dev/null +++ b/hw7/StringBuffer.hs @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +{-# LANGUAGE FlexibleInstances, TypeSynonymInstances #-} +module StringBuffer where + +import Data.Monoid + +import Buffer + +instance Buffer String where + toString = id + fromString = id + line n b = safeIndex n (lines b) + replaceLine n l b = unlines . uncurry replaceLine' . splitAt n . lines $ b + where replaceLine' pre [] = pre + replaceLine' pre (_:ls) = pre ++ l:ls + numLines = length . lines + value = length . words + +safeIndex :: Int -> [a] -> Maybe a +safeIndex n _ | n < 0 = Nothing +safeIndex _ [] = Nothing +safeIndex 0 (x:_) = Just x +safeIndex n (_:xs) = safeIndex (n-1) xs \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/hw7/carol.txt b/hw7/carol.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3477e8a --- /dev/null +++ b/hw7/carol.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4236 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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.net + + +Title: A Christmas Carol + A Ghost Story of Christmas + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Release Date: August 11, 2004 [EBook #46] + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** + + + + +Produced by Jose Menendez + + + + +A CHRISTMAS CAROL + +IN PROSE +BEING +A Ghost Story of Christmas + +by Charles Dickens + + + +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 houses +pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. + +Their faithful Friend and Servant, + C. D. +December, 1843. + + + +CONTENTS + +Stave I: Marley's Ghost +Stave II: The First of the Three Spirits +Stave III: The Second of the Three Spirits +Stave IV: The Last of the Spirits +Stave V: The End of It + + + +STAVE I: MARLEY'S GHOST + +MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt +whatever about that. The register of his burial was +signed 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 Saint 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 grind-stone, +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 a 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, but +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. + +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'm 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 slily down +at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became +invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the +clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if +its teeth 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 sullenly 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 Saint 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." + +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 great-coat to the chin. "But I suppose you must +have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next +morning." + +The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge +walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a +twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his +white comforter dangling below his waist (for he +boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on 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 blindman'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 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. + +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 story of the +building. It was with great astonishment, and with +a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he +saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in +the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it +rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. + +This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, +but it seemed an hour. The 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 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 its 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 its 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 fellowmen, 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. + +"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. + +"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 opportunity +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. "Thank'ee!" + +"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. + +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 door-step. 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 emotion 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. + + +STAVE II: 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 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 sprung 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 beside him, it were at a distance. + +"Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded. + +"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." + +"Long Past?" inquired Scrooge: observant 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 his 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 bye-ways, for +their several homes! What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? +Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done +to him? + +"The school is not quite deserted," 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 +weathercock-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 over-run 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 +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 water-spout in the dull yard behind, not a sigh among +the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar, not the idle +swinging of an empty store-house door, no, not a clicking in +the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with a 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 loth 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. + +"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 repassed; 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 race-horses. + +"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, anyhow and everyhow. Away they all went, +twenty couple at once; hands half round and back again +the other way; down the middle and up again; 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. + +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 have 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 +curtsey, corkscrew, 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 +of 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." + +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 licence +of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its +value. + +But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a +rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and +plundered dress was 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, pommel 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. + +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. + + +STAVE III: 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 +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 +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 learnt +a lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught +to teach me, let me profit by it." + +"Touch my robe!" + +Scrooge did as he was told, and held 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 snow-storms. + +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 re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great +streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to trace +in the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy, +and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, +half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended +in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great +Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away +to their dear hearts' content. There was nothing very cheerful +in 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. + +For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops +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, squat 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 bye-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 sprinkling of his +torch. Think of that! Bob had but fifteen "Bob" a-week +himself; he pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his +Christian name; and yet the Ghost 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 before 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. + +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! + +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 pastrycook'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 +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. + +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 in 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. Oh God! to hear +the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life +among his hungry brothers in the dust!" + +Scrooge bent before the Ghost's rebuke, and trembling cast +his eyes upon the ground. But he raised them speedily, on +hearing his own name. + +"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the +Founder of the Feast!" + +"The Founder of the Feast indeed!" cried Mrs. Cratchit, +reddening. "I wish I had 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. 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 collars 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-bye 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 water-proof; 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-blind 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 sea-weed clung to its base, and storm-birds +--born of the wind one might suppose, as sea-weed of the +water--rose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed. + +But even here, two men who watched 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 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 blest 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'm very glad to hear it," said Scrooge's nephew, +"because I haven't 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 +puts 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. + +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 against the piano, +smothering himself among the curtains, wherever she went, +there went he! He always knew where the plump sister was. +He wouldn't catch anybody else. If you had fallen up +against him (as 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 quite 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 jail, 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. + +"Oh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!" exclaimed +the Ghost. + +They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, +wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where +graceful youth should have 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 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 +its 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 IV: 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 you 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. + +"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're not a skater, I +suppose?" + +"No. No. Something else to think of. Good morning!" + +Not another word. That was their meeting, their +conversation, and their parting. + +Scrooge was at first inclined to 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 shops 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 pent-house 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 frousy curtaining of miscellaneous +tatters, hung upon a line; and smoked his pipe in all the luxury +of calm retirement. + +Scrooge and the Phantom came into 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 in 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 know 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 there was nothing more to come. + +"That's your account," said Joe, "and I wouldn't give +another sixpence, if I was to be boiled for not doing it. +Who's next?" + +Mrs. 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 and heavy roll of some dark stuff. + +"What do you call this?" said Joe. "Bed-curtains!" + +"Ah!" returned the woman, laughing and leaning forward +on her crossed arms. "Bed-curtains!" + +"You don't mean to say you took 'em down, rings and +all, with him lying there?" said Joe. + +"Yes I do," replied the woman. "Why not?" + +"You were born to make your fortune," 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 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 that 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 hearth-stone. 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 the 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 +a 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 up-stairs 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 surer 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 +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 V: THE END OF IT + +YES! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, +the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time +before him was his own, to make amends in! + +"I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" +Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. "The Spirits +of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! +Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! I 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 Laocoön 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've 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, clang, +hammer; ding, dong, bell. Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, +clash! Oh, glorious, glorious! + +Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his +head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; +cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; +Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! +Glorious! + +"What's to-day!" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a +boy in Sunday clothes, 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 +direction 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 so fast. + +"I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's!" whispered Scrooge, +rubbing his hands, and splitting with a laugh. "He sha'n't +know who sends it. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe +Miller never made such a joke 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 down-stairs 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-plaister over it, and been quite satisfied. + +He dressed himself "all in his best," and at last got out +into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, +as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present; +and walking with 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. + +"Thank'ee," 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 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 up-stairs, if you please." + +"Thank'ee. 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?" + +"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!" + + +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! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CHRISTMAS CAROL *** + +***** This file should be named 46-8.txt or 46-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/4/46/ + +Produced by Jose Menendez + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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