A Christmas Carol

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A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
IN
PROSE.
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yrT'
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Lcndmr ChaprnMn.
HaZL 1S6, StranJ,
IN PROSE.
6if|O0t
Storg of (l^risttnas.
CHARLES DICKENS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN LEECH.
LONDON:
CHAPMAN & HALL,

-UUOOCXLIll.
186,
STRAND,
LONDON
liRADnilRV
AND KVANS, PRIVTKBS, WHITRKftrAHS.
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.

it
May
haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish

it.
to lay
Their faithful Friend and Servant,

C. D.
December,
1843.
CONTENTS.
STAVE
MARLEY'S GHOST
I.
PAOF 1
STAVE
II.
. .
THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS
39
STAVE
III.
THE SECOND OF THE THREE
SPIRITS
...
74
STAVE
THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS
IV.
121
STAVE
THE END OF
IT
V.
152
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
STAVE ONE.
MARLEY'S GHOST.
Marley was
dead
to begin with.
There
is
no
his
doubt whatever about that.

burial
The
register of
was signed by the clergyman, the
clerk, the
undertaker, and the chief mourner.

it
:
Scrooge signed
for
and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change,

to.
anything he chose to put his hand
Old Marley
was
as dead as a door-nail.
!
Mind
I don't
mean
to say that I
know, of
my
own knowledge, what

about a door-nail.
I
there
is
particularly
dead
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
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
shall not disturb
it,
hands
or the Country
's
done
for.
You
will therefore permit
me
to repeat,
emphati-
cally, that
Marley was as dead as a door- nail.
Scrooge
know he was dead

it
Of
course he did.
How
was
sole
could
be otherwise
Scrooge and he were

years.
partners for I don't

his solo
know how many
Scrooge
executor, his sole administrator, his

his sole
assign,
residuary
legatee,
his
sole
friend,
and
sole
mourner.
And
even Scrooge was

event, but that
not so dreadfully cut

lie
up by the sad
was an
excellent
man
of business on the very

it
day
of the funeral,
and solemnised
with an undoubted
bargain.
The mention
to
of Marley's funeral brings
me back
no doubt
the
point I started from.
There
is
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
per-
fectly convinced that
Hamlet's Father died before
the play
began, there would be nothing more rein
markable
easterly
his
taking
stroll
at
night,
in
an
wind, upon his
own
ramparts, than there
MARLEY
would be
in
GHOST.
any other middle-aged gentleman rashly
turning out after dark in a breezy spot

Paul's Churchyard
his son's
for instance
say
Saint
literally to astonish
weak mind.
out Old Marley's name.
Scrooge never painted
There
it
stood, years afterwards, above the

:
ware-
house door
Scrooge and Marley.
The firm was
known
new
to
as Scrooge
and Marley.
called
Sometimes people
the business
Scrooge Scrooge, and
sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names.

It
was
all
the same to him.

tight-fisted
Oh
But he was a
!
hand
at
the
grindstone, Scrooge
a squeezing, wrenching, grasp!
ing, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner
Hard
and sharp as
flint,
from which no
fire
;
steel
had ever
struck out generous
secret,
and
self-contained,
and
froze
solitary
his
as
an oyster.
The
cold within
him
old
features,
nipped
his
pointed nose,
;
shrivelled his
cheek, stiffened
;
his gait
made
his
eyes red, his thin lips blue

in
and spoke out shrewdly

frosty rime
his grating voice.
was on
his
head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.
He
b2
4
carried his
hira
;
CIinrSTMAS CAROL.
own low temperature always about with

office in
he iced his
it
the dog-days
and
didn't
thaw
one degree at Christmas.

heat and cold
External
Scrooge.
had
little
influence on
No warmth
chill
could
warm,
nor
wintry
bitterer
its
weather
him.
No wind
that blew
was
than he, no falling snow was more intent upon

purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.
Foul
weather didn't
know where
to
have him.
The
could
heaviest rain, and snow% and hail,
and
sleet,
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
trifle,
me?
"
No
beggars
implored him to bestow a
no children asked
or
him what
once in
all
it
was
o'clock,
no
man
woman
to
ever
his life inquired the
way
such and
such a place, of Scrooge. appeared to
Even
the blindmen's dogs
know him
would tug
and when they saw him

owners into doorways
coming
on,
their
MARLEYS
and up courts
though they
evil eye,
;
GHOST.
tails
5
as
and then would wag their

" no eye at
"
!
said,
all is better
than an
dark master
But what did Scrooge

thing he liked.
care
It
was the very
To edge
his
way
along the crowded

to keep
call
paths of
its
life,
warning
all
human sympathy
the
distance,
was what
knowing ones
"nuts"
to Scrooge.
Once upon a time

year, on Christmas
his
of all the
good days
in the
Eve
It
old
was
:
Scrooge sat busy in

cold,
counting-house.
:
bleak,
biting
weather
foggy
withal
and he could hear the
people in the court outside go wheezing
up and
down, beating
stamping their
their
feet
hands upon their breasts, and
upon the pavement-stones
to
warm
three,
them.
The
city clocks
had only just gone

:
but
it
was quite dark already

day
:
it
had not
been light
all
and candles were
flaring in the
like
windows
of the
neighbouring
offices,
air.
ruddy
smears upon the palpable brown
The
fog
came
pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so

dense without, that although the court was of the
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
narrowest, the houses opposite were mere pliantoms.
To
see
the Jingy cloud
come drooping down, ob-
scuring 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

in a dismal little cell
eye upon his clerk,

a sort of tank,
who
was
fire,
beyond,
copying
letters.
Scrooge had a very small

fire
but the clerk's

it
was
so very
much
smaller that
looked like one coal.

for
But he
couldn't replenish
it,
Scrooge kept the coal-box in his
own room
and
so surely as the clerk
came
it
in with the shovel,
the master predicted that

for
would be necessary
his
them
to part.
Wherefore the clerk put on
white comforter, and tried to

candle
;
warm
himself at the
in
which
effort,
not being a
man
of a
strong imagination, he failed.
"
merry Christmas, uncle

It
God
save you
"
!
cried a cheerful voice.
was the
so
voice of Scrooge's
nephew,
who came upon him

first
quickly that this
was the
intimation he had of his approach.
marley's ghost.
" Bah
!
7
"
!
" said Scrooge,

so
"
Humbug
He
had
heated
himself with rapid
walking
in the fog
and
frost, this
nephew
his
of Scrooge's, that
he was
all
in a
glow
face
was ruddy and

smoked
handsome
again.
his eyes sparkled,
and
his breath
" Christmas a humbug, uncle
"
said Scrooge's
nephew.
"
I
"
You
said
don't
mean
that, I
am
sure."
do,"
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. "

right
What
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,

followed
it
said,
" Bah
!"
again
and
up with " Humbug."

cross, uncle," said the
" Don't be "
nephew.
the
uncle,
?
What
else
can I
in such
!
be
"
returned
" when I
live
a world of fools as this
Merry Christmas
Out upon merry Christmas

to
What's Christmas time
you but a time
for
pay-
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
ing bills without
money
a time for finding yourself a time for
a year older, and not an hour richer;
balancing your books and having every item in 'em
through a round dozen of months presented dead

against
you
If I
could
work
idiot
my
who
will,"
said
Scrooge, indignantly, " every
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
nephew.
" Uncle
"
" pleaded the

"
!
Nephew
in
returned the uncle, sternly,

let
" keep
it
Christmas
mine."
"
your own way, and
me
keep
in
Keep
it
"
!
repeated Scrooge's
it."
nephew.
" But
you don't keep

" Let
me
leave
it
alone,
then,"
!
said
Scrooge.
it
"
Much good may

"
!
it
do you
Much good
has
ever done you
" There are

derived good,
many
things from which I might have

I
by which
have not profited,

:
I dare
say," returned the

rest.
nephew
" Christmas among the
But
am
sure I have always thought of Christ-
MARLEY
mas time, when
veneration
it
GHOST.
has come round

sacred
it
apart
from the
origin, if
due
to its
name and
anything belonging to
a good time
:
can be apart from that
as
a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant
time
of
the only time I
know
of, in
the long calendar
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
uncle,
bound on other journeys.

it
And
therefore,
sil-
though
has never put a scrap of gold or

I believe that
;
ver in
my pocket,
it
has done
me
it
!
good,
"
and will do me good
and
I say,
God
bless
The
clerk in the
tank involuntarily applauded
becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety,

he poked the
spark for ever.
fire,
and extinguished the
last frail
" Let
me
hear another sound

'11
from you "
said
Scrooge, " and you
keep your Christmas by losing

a powerful speaker,
your
sir,"
situation.
You're quite
he added, turning to his nephew.

into Parliament."
"
wonder
you don't go
10
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
" Don't be angry, uncle.
Come
Dine with us
to-morrow."
Scrooge said that he would see
him yes,
him
indeed
he
did.
He went
the
whole length of the exsee
pression,
and said that he would

first.
in that
extremity
" But "
why ?"
cried Scrooge's
nephew.
"
Why ?"
Why
did you get married

I fell in love."
fell
?" said
Scrooge.
" Because
" Because you

if
in love !"
growled Scrooge, as
that were the only one thing in the world
more
after-
ridiculous than a
merry Christmas.
" Good
noon
!"
" Nay, uncle, but you never came to see

that happened.
me before
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
marley's ghost.
I
11
trial in
have been a party.

to Christmas,
to
But
and
I I
have made the

'11
homage
keep
my
Christmas
humour
uncle!"
the
last.
So
Merry Christmas,
"
Good
afternoon
I"
said Scrooge.
!"
"
"
And
Happy New Year

!"
Good
afternoon
left
said Scrooge.
His nephew
the room without an angry word,
notwithstanding.
He
stopped at the outer door to

clerk,
;
bestow the greetings of the season on the

cold as he was,
who,
he
was warmer than Scrooge
for
returned them cordially.
"There's another
overheard him
a- week,
:
fellow," muttered Scrooge;

clerk,
who
"
my
with
fifteen
shillings
and a wife and family, talking about a merry

I
'11
Christmas.
retire to
Bedlam."
This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had

let
two other people
in.
They were portly
gentle-
men, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their

hats
oflF,
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
12
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
list.
gentlemen, referring to his
"
Have
I the pleasure
?" of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marloy
" 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 repre-
sented
by
his surviving partner," said the gentleman,
presenting his credentials.

It certainly
spirits.
was
for
they had been two kindred
At
the ominous
word "
head,
liberality,"
Scrooge
frowned,
and
shook his
and
handed the
credentials back.
" At this
festive season of the year,
Mr. Scrooge,"
it
said the gentleman, taking
up
a pen, "
is
more
than usually desirable that

slight
we should make some

and
destitute,
provision for the Poor
who
suffer greatly at the present time.
Many
;
thousands
arc
in
want of common
necessaries
hundreds of
thousands are in want of " Are there no prisons
common
comforts, sir."
asked Scrooge.
" Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying
down
the pen again.
marley's ghost.
13
Scrooge.
"And the Union workhouses?" demanded

" Are they " They
still
in operation?"
Still,"
are.
returned the gentleman, " I
wish
I could say tliey
were not."
" The Treadmill and the Poor

vigour, then ?"
said Scrooge.
sir."
Law
are in full
" Both very busy,

"
Oh
was
afraid,
from what you said
at first, in their
that something had occurred to stop

useful course," said Scrooge.
them
" 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

drink, and
buy
the Poor some meat and
means of warmth.
is
We
choose this time,
because
it
a time, of
all others,
when Want
is
keenly
felt,
and Abundance
rejoices.
What
shall I
put you down for ?"

" Nothing "
1"
Scrooge replied.
to be
You
I
wish
anonymous
?"
"
wish to be
left
alone," said Scrooge.
" Since
14
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
I
you ask me wliat

answer.
I
wish, gentlemen, that
is
my
don't
make merry myself make

idle
at Christmas,
I
and
help
can't afford to
people merry.
to
:
support
the establishments I
have men-
tioned
they cost
enough
and
those
who
are
badly off must go there."

"
die."
Many
can't
go there
and many would rather
" If they would rather
die," said Scrooge,
" they
had better do
Besides
it,
and decrease the surplus population.
excuse me I don't know that."

know it," observed
the gentleman.
" But you might " It

's
not
my
business," Scrooge returned.

to understand his
" It's
enough
for a
man
own
business,
and not
occupies
to
interfere
with other
people's.
Mine
gentle-
me
constantly.
Good
afternoon,
men !"
Seeing clearly that
it
would be
useless to pursue
their point, the gentlemen
withdrew.
Scrooge re-
sumed
himself,
his labours
with an improved opinion of
and in a more facetious temper than was
usual with him.
marley's ghost.
15
so,
Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened
that
people ran about with flaring links, proffering their

services to
go before horses in carriages, and conduct
them on
their
way.
bell
The
ancient tower of a church,

slily
whose gruff old
was always peeping
down
at Scrooge out of a gothic
window
in the wall, bein
came
invisible,
and struck the hours and quarters
the clouds, witli 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
brazier,
lighted
a great
fire
in
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
congealed,
left in solitude, its
overflowings sullenly
ice.
and turned
to
misanthropic
The
brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries
crackled in the lamp-heat of the windows,

pale faces ruddy as they passed.
grocers' trades
made
and
Poulterers'
:
became a splendid joke

it
a glorious
pageant, with which
was next
to impossible to
16
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
believe that such dull principles as bargain
and
sale
hud anything to do.
The Lord Mayor,
in
the strong-
hold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his

fifty
cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord
I\layor's
household should
and even the
little tailor,
whom
he had fined five shillings on the previous

for being
Monday
drunk and blood-thirsty
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

ing cold.
If the
Piercing, searching, bit-
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

bled
nose,
gnawed and mum-
by the hungry
cold as bones are
gnawed by
him
dogs, stooped
down at
Scrooge's keyhole to regale

:
with a Christmas carol

"
but at the
first
sound of
God
bless
May
nothing you dismay
you mcrrv gentleman "

!
Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action,
'
marley"'s ghost.
17
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
and
ill-will
Scrooge dismounted
from his
stool,
tacitly admitted the fact to the
expectant clerk in the Tank,

his candle out,
who
instantly snuffed
and put on his hat.

all
"
You '11 want
day to-morrow,
I suppose
said Scrooge.
" If quite convenient.
Sir."
"
not
It's not convenient," said Scrooge,

fair.
"and
it,
it's
If I
was
ill
to stop half-a-crown for

I'll
you'd
think yourself
used,
be bound
"
?
The
"
clerk smiled faintly.

yet," said Scrooge,
And
" you don't think me

for
ill-used,
when
pay a day's wages

it
no work."
The
"
clerk observed that
was only once a year.

maifs pocket every
A poor
excuse for picking a
twenty-fifth of
December
" said Scrooge, buttoning
his great-coat to the chin.
" But
I suppose
all
you
must have the whole day.

next morning
"
!
Be
here
the earlier
18
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
The
clerk promised that he
would
office
and Scrooge
walked out with a growl.
The
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
hill,
down
a slide on Corn-
at the
end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in

its
honour of
being Christmas-eve, and then ran

as hard as he could pelt, to
home
to
Camden Town
play at blindman's-buff.
Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual
melancholy tavern
and having read
all
the news-
papers, 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

partner.
his deceased
They were a gloomy
suite of rooms, in a
it
lowering pile of building up a yard, where

so
little
had
business to be, that

it
one
could scarcely
it
help
fancying
must have run there when

at hide-and-seek
was a young house, playing
with
other houses, and have forgotten the

It
way
out again.
for
was
old enough now,

lived in
it
and dreary enough,
nobody
but Scrooge, the other rooms being
marley's ghost.
all let
19
so
out as
offices.
The yard was

its
dark that
even Scrooge,
who knew
every stone, was fain to

fog and frost so
grope with his hands.
The
hung
it
about the black old gateway of the house, that
seemed as
if
the
Genius of the Weather sat
in
mournful meditation on the threshold.
Now,
it
is
fact,
that there
was nothing
at all
particular about the knocker on the door, except that

it
was very
it
large.
It
is
also a fact, that Scrooge
had seen
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
is
in
the City of London, even including
which
a bold
word
it
the
corporation, aldermen, and livery.
Let
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.
let
And
then
any man explain
to
me,
if
he can,
how it happened
that Scrooge, having his
key
in the lock of the door,

its
saw
in the knocker,
without
undergoing any
in-
termediate process of change
not a knocker, but
Marley 's
face.
c 2
20
Alarley's face.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
It
was not
in the
in impenetrable
shadow
liad a
as the other objects
yard were, but
dismal light about

cellar.
it,
like a
bad lobster
in a
dark
It
was not angry
or ferocious, but looked at

:
Scrooge as Marley used to look

tacles turned
with ghostly spec-
up upon
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
face
its
but
its
horror seemed to be, in spite of the

its
and beyond
control, rather
than a part of
own
expression.
it
As
Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon,

again.
was a knocker
To say
that he
was not
startled, or that his
blood
it
was not conscious of a
terrible sensation to
which
had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue.
But he put
his
hand upon the key he had

it
relin-
quished, turned
his candle.
sturdily,
walked
in,
and lighted
He
did pause, with a moment's irresolution, before

;
he shut the door
and he did look cautiously behind
; :
marley's ghost.
it first,
21
terrified
as
if
he half-expected to be
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.
house
like
The sound resounded

thunder.
through the
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
man
to be frightened
by
echoes.
hall,
He
fastened the
stairs
door, and
walked across the

:
and up the
slowly too
trimming his candle as he went.

talk vaguely about driving a coach -and-
You may
six
up a good
old flight of stairs, or through a

;
bad
young Act of Parliament
but I mean to say you

staircase,
might have got a hearse up that

it
and taken
broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall,

:
and the door towards the balustrades

easy.
and done
it
There was plenty of width
for that,
and room
Scrooge
to spare;
which
is
perhaps the reason
why
thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before
him
in the
gloom
Half a dozen gas -lamps out of
22
tlio street
A CHRISTMAS CAUOr..
wouldn't have lighted the entry too well,

it
80
you may suppose that
was pretty dark with
Scrooge's dip.
Up
he
Scrooge went, not caring a button for that

is
darkness
shut
cheap, and Scrooge liked
it.
But
before
his
his
heavy door, he walked through
rooms
to see that all
was
right.
He
had just enough
recollection of the face to desire to
do that.
All
as
Sitting-room,
bed-room, lumber-room.
they should be.
Nobody under
a small
fire in
the table, nobody

;
under the sofa

basin
the grate
spoon and
of
ready
and
a
the
in
;
little
saucepan
gruel
(Scrooge had
cold
his head)
upon the hob.

;
Nobody under
body
the bed
nobody
in the closet
no-
in his dressing-gown,
which was hanging up
in a suspicious attitude against the wall.
Lumbershoes,
room
as
usual.
Old
fire-guard,
old
two
fish-baskets,
washing-stand on three
legs,
and a
poker.
Quite
himself in
satisfied,
;
he closed his door, and locked

in,
double-locked himself
which was not
his custom.
Thus secured against
surprise, he took
marley's ghost.
off his cravat
;
23
slip-
put on his dressing-gown and

sat
pers,
fire
and his night-cap; and
down
before the
to take his gruel.
It
was a very low
fire
indeed
nothing on such
sit
a bitter night.
He was
it,
obliged to
close to
it,
and brood over

sensation
before he could extract the least

of fuel.
of
warmth from such a handful

was an
old one, built
all
The
fire-place
by some Dutch
merchant long ago, and paved
round with quaint
Dutch
tiles,
designed to illustrate the Scriptures.

;
There were Cains and Abels
Pharaoh's daughters,
Queens
of
Sheba,
air
Angelic messengers descending
through the
on clouds like feather-beds, Abraoff to
hams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting

butter-boats,
sea in
his
hundreds of
figures,
to
attract
thoughts
dead,
and yet that

like
face of Marley, seven years
came
the
ancient
Prophet's rod,
tile
and
swallowed up the whole.

been a blank at
picture
first,
If each smooth
had
with power to shape some
on
its surface from the disjointed fragments
of his thoughts, there
would have been a copy
of
old Marley's head on every one.
24
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
"Humbug!"
the room.
said Scrooge;
and walked across
After several turns, he sat
down
again.
As he
hap-
threw
his
head back in the

bell,
chair, his glance

bell,
pened to rest upon a

in the
a disused
that
hung
room, and communicated for some purpose
now
forgotten with a
It
chamber
in the highest story
of the building.
was with great astonishment,
and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he

looked, he
saw
this bell begin to swing.

it
It
swung
;
so softly in the outset that
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.

clanking noise, deep
They were succeeded by a

;
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,
,_.y^la>^^^J) S-^c^d^y.
Londm
C/wfTman,
Jt~
-H11ILIS6, Strand,
mauley's ghost.
25
and then he heard the noise much louder, on the

floors
below
then
coming up the
his door.
stairs
then
coming straight towards

"It's humbug
believe
it."
still!" said Scrooge.
"I
won't
His colour changed

pause,
it
though, when,
without
door,
came on through the heavy
and
its
it
passed into the room before his eyes.
Upon
coming
cried " I
in,
the dying flame leaped up, as though

!
know him
face
:
Marley's Ghost
the very same.
tights,
!"
and
fell
again.
in his
The same
pig-tail,
Marley
usual
waistcoat,
and boots;
the
tassels
on the
latter bristling, like his pigtail,
and
his coat-skirts,
and the hair upon
his head.
his
The
It
chain he drew
was clasped about
middle.
;
was
it
long,
and wound about him
like a tail
and
was made
(for Scrooge observed it
closely) of cash-
boxes,
keys,
padlocks,
ledgers, deeds,
and heavy
purses wrought in steel.
His body was transparent and looking through

his coat
so that Scrooge, observing him,

his waistcoat, could see the
two buttons on
behind.
-ij
CIIIUSTMAS CAROL.
it
Scrooge had often heard
said that
it
Marley had
until
no bowels, but he had never believed
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 ob;
served 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 "
IMarley's voice,
"
?
no doubt about
it.
Who
Who
"
are
you
" Ask me who

"
tcere
I was."
? "
you then
said Scrooge, raising his
voice.
You 're
to
particular
for
a shade."
He was
going to say "
a shade," but substituted this, as
more appropriate.
" In
life
was your partner, Jacob Marley."
" Can you
can you
sit
down
"
asked Scrooge,
looking doubtfully at him.
"
marley's ghost.
" "
I can."
27
Do
it
then."
Scrooge asked
the
question,
because
he didn't
know whether
a ghost
so transparent
;
might
and
felt
find
himself in a condition to take a chair

in the event of its being impossible,
it
that
might involve
the necessity of an embarrassing explanation.
But
fire-
the ghost sat

place, as
if
down on
the opposite side of the

it.
he were quite used to
" " "
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

them.
cheats.
little
thing afiects
slight disorder of the
stomach makes them
You may
be an undigested bit of beef, a
blot of mustard, a
crumb of
There's
cheese, a fragment of
an underdone potato.
more of gravy than

you are
!
of grave about you, whatever
Scrooge was not
much
in the habit of cracking
28
A CHRISTMAS CAROr,.
feel, in
jokes, nor did he
his heart,
is,
by any means
waggish then.
The truth
that he tried to be
smart, as a means of distracting his
own
the
attention,
spectre's
and keeping down his terror;

voice disturbed the
for
very marrow
at
in his bones.
To
sit,
staring
those
fixed,
glazed eyes, in
felt,
silence for a
moment, would play, Scrooge
the
very deuce with him.
There was something very
awful, too, in the spectre's being provided with an

infernal atmosphere of its
feel
it
own.
Scrooge could not

;
himself,
but this was clearly the case

its
for
though the Ghost sat perfectly motionless,
hair,
and
skirts,
and
tassels,
were
still
agitated as
by the
hot vapour from an oven.
"
You
see this toothpick
? "
said Scrooge, returnfor

it
ing quickly to
assigned
;
the charge,
the
reason
just
for a
and wishing, though
were only
second, to divert the vision's stony gaze from
himself.
" I do," replied the Ghost. "
You are
I
not looking at
see
it,"
it,"
said Scrooge.
"But
standing."
said
the
Ghost,
"notwith-
marley''s ghost.
29
" I have but to
" Well "
returned Scrooge.
swallow
secuted
creation.
this,
and be
legion
for the rest of
my
of
!
days per-
by a
of goblins,
all
my own
"
Humbug,
I tell
you
humbug
At
its
this,
the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook

noise,
chain with such a dismal and appalling
that
Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save
himself from falling in a swoon.

greater
off the
But how much

phantom taking
if it
was
his horror,
when
its
the
bandage round
head, as
were too
warm
upon
to
its
wear in-doors,
breast
fell
its
lower jaw dropped down
Scrooge
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 "

I
me
or not ?"
do," said Scrooge.
" I must.
But why do
?"
spirits
walk the earth, and

is
why do they come to me
"
It
required of every man," the Ghost returned,

spirit
"that the
within him
should walk
abroad
30
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
his fellow-men,
among
if
and travel
far
and wide
is
and
that spirit goes not forth in
life, it
condemned
to
do so after death. It
is
doomed
!
to
wander through
it
the world
oh,
woe
is
me
and witness what
can-
not share, but might have shared on earth,

to happiness
!"
and turned
Again the spectre raised a

chain, and
cry,
and shook
its
wrung
its
shadowy hands.
Scrooge, trembling. " Tell
"
You are fettered," said

?"
me why
" I wear the chain I forged in

Ghost.
I girded
life,"
replied the
" I made
it
it
link
by
link,
and yard by yard; and of
on of
my own
Is
its
free will,
my own
free will I
wore
it.
pattern strange to you ?"
Scrooge trembled more and more.
" Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, " the

weight and length of the strong
self
?
coil
you bear your-
It
was
full as
heavy and
as long as this, seven

it,
Christmas Eves ago.

since.
You
have laboured on
!"
It
is
a ponderous chain
Scrooge glanced about him on the
floor, in
the
expectation of finding himself surrounded
by some
MA.RLEYS GHOST.
fifty or sixty
31
fathoms of iron cable
but he could see
nothing.
" Jacob,"
Marley,
tell
he
said,
imploringly.
" Old
Jacob
me
more.
Speak comfort
to me, Jacob."
" I have none to give," the Ghost replied.
" It
is
comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and
conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men.
Nor can
more,
is
I tell
all
you what
I would.
very
little
permitted to me.
I cannot rest, I can-
not stay, I cannot linger anywhere.
My
spirit
never walked beyond our
counting-house
mark
weary
me
in life
my spirit
before
never roved beyond the narrow

;
limits
of our
lie
money-changing hole
and
journeys
It
me
!"
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

his knees.
lifting
up
his eyes, or getting off
"
You must
have been very slow about
it,
Jacob,"
Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though
with humility and deference.
32
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
" Slow!" the Ghost repeated.
" Seven years dead," mused Scrooge.

travelling all the time
"
?
"
And
" The whole time," said the Ghost.

peace.
"
No
rest,
no
Incessant torture of remorse."

fast?" said Scrooge.
" " "
You travel
On
the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost.
You might have
got over a great quantity of
ground
in seven years," said Scrooge.

this,
The Ghost, on hearing

and clanked
its
set
up another
cry,
chain so hideously in the dead silence
of the night, that the

fied in indicting it for
Ward would
a nuisance.
have been justi-
"
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
ceptible
is
it is
sus-
all
developed.
Not
to
know
that any
sphere,
life
Christian spirit working kindly in
its little
whatever
it
may
be, will find its
mortal
too
short for its vast
means
of usefulness.
Not
for
to
know
life's
that no space of regret can
make amends
one
"
"
MARLEY
opportunities
GHOST.
I
!
33
misused
Yet such was
Oh
such was
" But you were always a good

Jacob," faultered Scrooge,
this to himself.
man
of business, to apply
who now began
" Business
again.
"
cried the Ghost, wringing its hands
" Mankind was
my
;
business.
The common
welfare
ance,
was
my
business
charity, mercy, forbearall,
and benevolence, were,
my
!
business.
The
in the
dealings of
my trade
were but a drop of water
comprehensive ocean of
It held
my business
up
its
chain at arm's length, as if that were

its
the cause of
all
unavailing grief, and flung
it
heavily upon the ground again.
"At
said,
this time
of the rolling year," the spectre
" I suffer most.
Why
did I walk
through
crowds of fellow-beings with
my
eyes turned down,
and never
the
raise
them
to that blessed Star

?
which led
Wise Men
to
to a poor abode
its light
Were
there no poor
homes
which
would have conducted me!"

to hear the to
Scrooge was
very
much dismayed
spectre going on at this rate,
and began
quake
exceedingly.
"
34
" Hear
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
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
I
in a shape
sat in-
that you can see, I

visible beside
may
not
tell.
have
you many and many a day."

idea.
It
was not an agreeable
Scrooge shivered,
and wiped the perspiration from his brow.

" That
the Ghost.
is
no light part of
my
penance," pursued
"
am
here to-night to
warn you, that
you have yet a chance and hope of escaping
my
fate.
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 faultering voice.
" It
is."
"
I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge.
marley's ghost.
35
"Without
their
visits,"
said
the Ghost,
"you
cannot hope to shun the path I tread.

first
Expect the
to-morrow, when the bell

all
tolls
One."
" Couldn't I take 'em
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

to vibrate.
for
when the Look
last
stroke of
Twelve has ceased

and look
to see
me
no more;
that,
your own sake,

"
!
you remember what has passed between us
When
it
had said these words, the spectre took

table,
its
wrapper from the

as before.
its
and bound
this,
it
round
its
head,
soiHid
Scrooge
knew
by the smart
teeth
made, when the jaws were brought together
by the bandage.
again,
He
ventured to raise his eyes
and found
his supernatural visitor confronting

its
him
i-n
an erect attitude, with

its
chain
wound
over
and about
arm.
;
The apparition walked backward from him

at every step
it
and
took, the
window
raised itself a
it, it
little,
so that It
when
the spectre reached
was wide open.

did.
beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he
D 2
36
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
they were within two paces of each other,
its
When
Marley's Ghost held up
hand, warning him to
come no
nearer.
Scrooge stopped.
in obedience, as in surprise
Not
for
so
much
and
fear
on the raising of the hand, he became sensible of

air
; ;
confused noises in the
incoherent sounds of
lamentation and regret
wailings inexpressibly sor-
rowful and
self- accusatory.
The
spectre, after listen;
ing for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge

floated out
and
upon the bleak, dark
night.
:
Scrooge followed to the

curiosity.
window
desperate in his
He
looked out.
filled
The
air
was
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
lives.
been personally
known
to Scrooge in their
He
had been quite familiar with one old
ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron

safe
attached to
its
ancle,
who
cried piteously at
being unable to assist a wretched
woman with an
MARLEY
infant,
GHOST.
door-step.
37
whom
it
saw below, upon a

all
The
misery with them
was, clearly, that they sought
to interfere, for good, in
human
matters, and had lost
the power for ever.
~:.V-^-X.r.';W<~.-
88
A CHRISTMAS CAKOL.
Wliether these creatures faded into mist, or mist
enshrouded them, he could not

their spirit
tell.
But they and

and the night
voices faded together;
became as
it
had been when he walked home.

the
Scrooge closed the window, and examined
door by
which the Ghost had entered.

it
It
was
double-locked, as he had locked
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
AVorld, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the

lateness of the hour,
much
in
need of repose
went
asleep
straight
to
bed, without undressing, and
fell
upon the
instant.
STAVE TWO.
THE FIRST OF THE THREE
"When Scrooge awoke,
it
SPIRITS.
was
so dark, that look-
ing out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the
transparent
window from
the opaque walls of his
chamber.
He was
endeavouring to pierce the darkeyes,
ness with his ferret
when
the chimes of
neighbouring church struck the four quarters.
So
he listened for the hour.
To
his great astonishment the
heavy
bell
went on and
!
from six to seven,

regularly
It
and from seven

;
to eight,
up
to twelve
then stopped.
to bed.
Twelve
was past two when he went
The
clock
was wrong.
works.
An
icicle
must
have got
into
the
Twelve
He
touched the spring of his repeater, to correct
"
40
this
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. most preposterous clock.

;
Its rapid little pulse
beat twelve
and stopped.
possible," said Scrooge,
"
Why,
it isn't
" that
can have
slept
through a whole day and

It isn't possible that
is
far into
another night.
anything has
!
happened to the sun, and this
twelve at noon
Tlie 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

All he could
and
out
could see very
little
still
then.
make
was, that
it
was
very foggy and extremely cold,
and that there

fro,
was no noise of people running to and

stir,
and making a great

if
as there unquestionably
would have been
night had beaten off bright day,
and taken possession of the world.

great
relief,
This was a
because " three days after sight of this

to
First of
his
Exchange pay
and so
forth,
Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or
order,"
would have become a mere

if
United
States'
security
there were
no days
to
count by.
Scrooge went to bed again,
and thought, and

thought, and thought
it
SPIRITS.
41
over and over and over,

of
it.
and could make nothing
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 wîthin himself, after mature inquiry, that

it
was
all
a dream, his mind flew back

its
again, like a strong spring released, to

tion,
all
first
posi-
and presented the same problem

it
to be
worked
through, " "Was
a dream
or not ?"
Scrooge lay in this state
tintil
the
cliimes
had
gone three quarters more, when he remembered, on

a sudden, that the Ghost had warned him of a
tation
visilie
when
the bell tolled one.
He
;
resolved to
awake
until the
hour was past
and, considering
that he
could no
this
more go
to
sleep
than go to
resolution in
Heaven,
was perhaps the wisest
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

ear.
clock.
At
length
it
broke upon his listening
"
42
" Ding, (long "
A CHRISTMAS CAKOL.
!"
quarter past," said Scrooge, counting.

!"
" Ding, (long
" Half past
!"
said Scrooge.
!"
" Ding, dong "
quarter to
it,"
said Scrooge.
"Ding, dong
!"
"The hour
" and nothing
itself,"
said
Scrooge,
triumphantly,
else
He
now
spoke before the hour bell sounded, which
it
did with a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy Oke.
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-recum-
bent attitude, found himself face to face with the

unearthly visitor
who drew them

and I
as close to
it
as I
am now
to you,
am
standing in the spirit at
your elbow.

It
like
SPIRITS.
43
was a strange
figure
like a child
yet not so
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
hair,
diminished
to
child's
its
proportions.
Its
its
which hung about
neck and down

age
;
back,
face
was white
as
if
with
in
it,
and yet the

the
tenderest
had not a wrinkle

skin.
and
bloom was on the

and muscular
;
The arms were very long

if
its
the hands the same, as
hold
feet,
were of uncommon strength.
Its legs
like
and
most
delicately
formed,
It
its
were,
those
upper
members,
bare.
wore a tunic of the purest

waist was bound a lustrous
white; and round

belt,
the sheen of which
was
beautiful.
in its
It
held and,
a
in
branch of fresh green holly

singular contradiction of
its
hand;
that
wintry emblem,
flowers.
had
the
dress
trimmed with summer

it
But
the
strangest thing about

its
v/as,
that
from
crown of
light,
head there sprung a bright clear

all this
jet of
by which
the
was
of
visible
its
and which was

in its
doubtless
occasion
using,
duller
44
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
for a cap,
moments, a great extinguisher
which
it
now
held under
this,
its
arm.
Even
though,
when Scrooge looked

was not
and
its
at
it
with
increasing steadiness,
strangest quality.
For
as its belt sparkled
glittered
now
in one
part and
instant,
itself
now
in another,
and what was
light one
at another time
its
was dark,
:
so the
figure
fluctuated in
distinctness
being
leg,
now
thing with one arm,
now with
one
now with
twenty
legs,
now
a pair of legs without a head,

:
now
a head without a body
of
which dissolving
in
parts,
no outline would be
visible
the
in the
;
dense
gloom wherein they melted away.
And
very
wonder
and
of this,
it
would be
itself
again
distinct
clear as ever.
Spirit,
sir,
" Are you the

foretold to
whose coming was
me ?
"
"
asked Scrooge.
" I
am
The
voice
was
soft
and
gentle.
Singularly low,
it
as if instead of being so close beside him,
were at
a distance.
"
Who, and what
are
you
" Scrooge
demanded.

" I
SPIRITS.
45
am
the Ghost of Christmas Past."

?
" Long past

its
"
inquired Scrooge
observant of
dwarfish stature.
" No.
Your
past."
Perhaps, Scrooge could not have told anybody-
why,
had a
if
anybody could have asked him

desire to see the Spirit
to in
but he
his cap
special
and begged him
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
it
force
me
through whole
trains of years to
wear
low upon
my brow!"
all
Scrooge
offend, or
reverently
disclaimed
intention
to
any knowledge of having wilfully " bonany period of

his
life.
neted"
the Spirit at
He
then
made bold
there.
to inquire
what business brought
him
" 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
"
"
46
Spirit
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
must have heard

:
him thinking,
for it said
immediately
"
It
Your reclamation,
put out
gentlj'
!
then.
Take heed
it
its
strong hand as
spoke, and clasped
him
by the arm.
" Rise
It
and walk with
me
!"
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

freezing
;
thermometer a long
way below
that he
was
clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing-gown, and
nightcap
time.
and that he had a cold upon him

grasp, though gentle as a
at that
The
woman's hand,
was not
to be resisted.
He
rose
but finding that

its
the Spirit
made towards
the window, clasped
robe in supplication.
" I
am
a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, " and
liable to fall."
" Bear but a touch of

Spirit, laying it
my
hand there"
said the
upon his heart, " and you shall be

!
upheld in more than this
As
the words were spoken, they passed through

the wall, and
SPIKITS.
47
stood upon an open
country road,
with
fields
on either hand.
The
of
it
city
had
to
entirely
vanished.
Not a
vestige
was
be seen.
it,
The darkness and

it
the mist had vanished with
for
was a
clear, cold,
winter day, with snow upon the
ground.
"Good Heaven!"
said
Scrooge,
clasping
his
hands together, as he looked about him.

bred in this place.
I
"
was
was
boy here
I"
The
Spirit gazed
it
upon him mildly.

light
Its gentle
touch, though
had been
and instantaneous,
appeared
ing.
still
present to the old man's sense of feel-
He was
air,
conscious of a thousand odours floating
in
the
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.

recollect the
"
You
way
?" inquired the Spirit.
48
" Remember
" I could walk
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
it !"
cried
Scrooge
with
fervour
it
blindfold."
it
" Strange to have forgotten

observed the Ghost.
for so
many
years!"
" Let us go on."

;
They walked along the road

every gate, and post, and tree
;
Scrooge recognising
until a little
its
marketits
town appeared
in
the distance, with
bridge,
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

full
broad
fields
were so
of merry music, that the

it.
crisp air laughed to hear
" These are but shadows of the things that have

been," said the Ghost.
of us."
" They have no consciousness
The jocund
Scrooge
travellers
came on ; and
as they came,
knew and named them

all
every one.
see
Why
!
was he rejoiced beyond
bounds to
them
"Why
did his cold eye glisten, and his heart leap up as
they went past
"Why was he
filled
with gladness
SPIRITS.
49
when he heard them
give each other
Merry Christ-
mas, as they parted at cross-roads and-bye ways, for

their several
homes
"What was merry Christmas

!
to Scrooge
Out upon merry Christmas

ever done to him?
is
AVhat
good had
it
" The school "
not quite deserted," said the Ghost,

neglected
solitary
still."
child,
by
his friends,
is left
there
Scrooge said he
knew
it.
And
he sobbed.
They
lane,
left -the
high-road,
by a well remembered
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
for the
large house, but one of broken
fortunes;
spacious offices were
little
used, their
walls were
their
damp and mossy,

gates decayed.
stables
;
their
windows broken, and
Fowls clucked and
strutted in the
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,
vast.
they found them poorly furnished, cold,
and
50
There
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
was an earthy savour
in the air,
a chilly
bareness in the place, which associated
itself
some-
how with
not too
too
much
to eat.
getting
up by
candle-light,
and
much
They went, the Ghost and

hall, to a
Scrooge, across the

It
door at the back of the house.
opened
before them,
and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy

still
room, made barer
by
lines of plain deal
forms
and desks.
At one
fire
;
of these a lonely
boy was reading
near a feeble
and Scrooge
sat
down upon
form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he
had used
to be.
Not
scuffle
a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and
from the mice behind the panneling, 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

fire,
in the
but
fell
upon the heart of Scrooge with softening

freer passage to his tears.
influence,
and gave a
The
Spirit touched
self,
him on the arm, and pointed

upon
his reading.
to his younger
intent
Sud-

denly a man, in foreign garments
:
SPIRITS.
51
wonderfully real
and
distinct to look at
stood outside the window,

belt,
with an axe stuck in his

laden with
and leading an
ass
wood by the
it 's
bridle.
!"
"
Why,
Ali Baba
's
Scrooge exclaimed in
ecstacy.
yes, I
" It
!
dear old honest Ali
Baba
Yes,
know
One Christmas time, when yonder

was
left
solitary child
here
all
alone, he did come,
for the first time, just like that.
Poor boy
his
And
Valentine,"
said Scrooge, "

!
and
wild brother,
his
Orson; there they go
And what 's
name, who
was put down
in his drawers, asleep, at the
Gate of
Damascus
don't
you
see
him
And
the Sultan's
;
Groom
he
of
is
turned upside-down by the Genii

his
there
upon
head
Serve him right.
I'm glad
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.
E 2
!:
52
" There
's
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
the Parrot
tail,
!"
cried Scrooge.
" Green
body and yellow
with a thing like a lettuce

his
growing out of the top of

Poor Robin Crusoe, he
head
there he
is
called him,
when he came
island.
'
home again
after
sailing
round the
Poor
Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin Crusoe?'
The man thought he was dreaming, but he

It
wasn't.
was the Parrot, you know.

life
!"
There goes Friday,

creek
!
running for his
to the little
Halloa
Hoop
Halloo
Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to

his usual character, he
self,
said, in pity for
his former
" 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.
at
There
door last
was a boy singing a Christmas Carol

night.
I should like to
my
have given him something
that
's all."
The Ghost smiled
thoughtfully,
and waved
its

hand
:
SPIRITS.
53
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
pannels shrunk, the windows cracked ; fragments of

plaster
fell
out of the ceiling, and the naked laths

;
were shown instead

about, Scrooge
but
how
all this
was brought
do.
knew no more than you

was
;
He
only
knew
that
it
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
down
not reading now, but walking up and
despairingly.
Scrooge looked at the Ghost,

his head, glanced
and with a mournful shaking of

anxiously towards the door.
It
opened
and a
little girl,
much younger than
the boy, came darting

his neck, and
in,
and putting her arms about
often kissing him, addressed
him
as
her " Dear, dear brother."
"
have come to bring you home, dear brother
!"
said the child, clapping her tiny hands,
and bend-
54
ing
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
down
"
!
to laugh.
"
To
bring you home, home,
home
"
Home,
little
Fan
" returned the boy.
" Yes
for
is
!" said
the child, brimful of glee.
" Home,
Father
good and
all.
Home,
for ever
and
ever.
so
much kinder than he

Heaven
!
used to be, that
home 's
one dear
like
He
spoke so gently to
me
night
afraid
when
to
;
was going
to bed, that I
if
was not
ask him once more
you might come

;
home
in
and he said Yes, you should

you.
and sent
me
a coach to bring
And
you're to be a
man!"
said the child, opening her eyes,
"and
are
never to come back here;

together
riest
all
but
first,
we're to be
the Christmas long, and have the merall
time in
the world."
"
You
are quite a
woman,
little
Fan
!"
exclaimed
the boy.
She clapped her hands and laughed, and

touch his head
;
tried to
but being too

to
little,
laughed again,
and stood on tiptoe

to drag
embrace him.
Then she began
him, in her childish eagerness, towards the

he, nothing loth to go,
door
and
accompanied
her.
SPIRITS.
55
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

hands with him.
sister into
state of
mind by shaking
He
then conveyed him and his
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 pro-
duced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a block

of curiously heavy cake,
and administered
to the
instal:
ments of those dainties

the same
young people
at to
time, sending out

of " something
a meagre servant
" to
offer a glass
the postboy,
who
if it
answered that he thanked the gentleman, but
was the same tap

rather not.
as he
had tasted
before,
he had
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
"
56
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
oflP
and snow from

like spray.
the dark leaves of the evergreens
" Always a might
delicate
creature,
whom
a breath
liave withered," said the Ghost.

!
" But she
had a large heart
" So she had,"

I will not gainsay
cried
it.
Scrooge.
" You 're

forbid
right.
Spirit.
God
"
!
" 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."
left
Although they had but that moment

school behind them, they were
the
now
in
the busy
thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers
passed and repassed
where shadowy
all
carts
strife
and
coaches battled for the way, and
the
and
tumult of a real city were.

enough, by the
too
ing,
it
It
was made
shops, that
plain
dressing
of the
;
here
was Christmas time again

streets
but
it
was even-
and the
were lighted up.
THE FIRST OF THE THREE The Ghost stopped

and asked Scrooge
"
if
SPIRITS.
57
at a certain
warehouse door,
he
knew
it.
Know
!
it
"
said Scrooge.
"
Was
I appren-
ticed here
"
They went
in.
At
sight of an old gentleman in
a Welch wig, sitting behind such a high desk, that

if
he had been two inches taller he must

his
have
knocked
head against the
ceiling,
Scrooge cried
in great excitement
"
it 's
Why,
it 's
old Fezziwig
"
!
Bless
his heart
Fezziwig alive again

laid
Old Fezziwig
at the clock,
down
his pen,
to the
and looked up
hour of seven.
which pointed
;
He
rubbed his hands

;
adjusted his capacious waist-
coat
laughed
all
over himself, from his shoes to

;
his organ of benevolence
and
called out in a
:
com-
fortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice
"
Yo
ho, there
Ebenezer
self,
Dick
"
!
Scrooge's former
now grown
a young man,
came briskly
in,
accompanied by his fellow- 'prentice.

!
" Dick Wilkins, to be sure
"
said
Scrooge to
is.
the Ghost,
" Bless me, yes.
There he
He

58
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
to
was very much attached

Dick
"
!
me, was Dick.
Poor
Dear, dear
ho,
"
!
Yo
my
Let
boys
" said Fezziwig.
"
No
more
work
to-night.
!
Christmas Eve, Dick.

's
Christmas,
Ebenezer
have the shutters up," cried old
Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, " before

a
man
can say, Jack Robinson
"
!
You
went
at
wouldn't
it
!
believe
how
those
two
fellows
They charged
into
the
street
with
the shutters
places
one, two, three
had 'em
up
in their
four, five, six
barred 'em and pinned 'em

before
seven, eight, nine
and came back
you could
have got to twelve, panting like race-horses. " Hilli-ho

!
" cried
old Fezziwig, skipping

agility.
down
from the high desk, with wonderful
" 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.
minute.
It
was done
off,
in
Every movable was packed

life
as
;
if it
were dismissed from public
for
evermore
the

floor
SPIRITS.
59
was swept and watered, the lamps were trimfuel
med,
was heaped upon the
fire
and the ware-
house 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
and
to the lofty desk,
and made an orchestra of

stomach-aches.
it,
tuned
like
fifty
In
came
Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile.
In came In
the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and loveable.
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

milkman.
In came
brother's particular friend, the
the boy from over the way,
who was
suspected of
;
not having board enough from his master

to hide himself behind the girl
trying
from next door but
one,
who was proved
to
have had her ears pulled by

all
her Mistress.
In they
came, one after another
some shyly, some
boldly,
some
gracefully,
;
some
all
awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling
in
they
60
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
came, anyhow and everyhow.
Away
they
all
went,
twenty couple at once, hands half round and back

again the other
again
;
way
down
the middle
and up
round and round

;
in various stages of affec-
tionate grouping
in the
old top couple always turning
up
wrong place ; new top couple

;
starting off again,

last,
as soon as they got there
all
top couples at
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, "

fiddler
Well done
"
and the
plunged his hot face into a pot of porter,
especially provided for that purpose.

rest
But scorning
began
upon
his
reappearance,
he
instantly
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

Roast, and there
there
was a
great
piece
of Cold
was a great
piece of Cold Boiled,

beer.
and there were mince-pies, and plenty of
But

the
great
eflfect
SPIRITS.
61
the
of the
evening
came
after
Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog,
mind
The
sort of
I
man who knew

could have told
it
his
business
!)
better than
you or
him
struck
up " Sir Roger de Coverley."
Then
old Fezziwig
stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig.

too
;
Top couple
for
with a good
;
stiff
piece of
work cut out
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
times
:
if
they had been twice as many: ah, four
old Fezziwig
would have been a match

Fezziwig.
for
them, and so would Mrs.

she
As
to her^
was worthy
to be his partner in every sense of

's
the term.
If that
not high praise,
tell
me
higher,
and
'11
use
it.
positive light appeared to issue
from Fezziwig's
calves.
They shone
in every part
n't
of the dance like moons.

dicted, at
You
could
have preof 'em
any given time, what would become
next.
And when
all
old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig

;
had gone
through the dance
advance and
retire,
hold hands with your partner;
bow and
curtsey;
G2
corkscrew
;
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
thread-thc-needle,
and back again

so deftly, that
to
your place
Fezziwig " cut"
cut
legs,
he
appeared to wink with his
and came upon
his feet again without a stagger.
When
broke up.
the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball
Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took
their stations,
one on either side the door, and shaking hands with
every person individually as he or she went out,
wished him or her a Merry Christmas.
When everythey did
body had
retired but the

;
two
'prentices,
the same to them
and thus the cheerful voices died

left
away, and the lads were

were under a counter
to their beds
which
in the back-shop.
During the whole

like a
of this time, Scrooge
had acted
man
out of his wits.
His heart and soul

his former
self.
were
in the scene,
and with
He
corroborated
everything,
remembered
everything,
enjoyed everything,
agitation.
faces
and underwent the strangest

until
It his
was not
former
now, when the bright
of
self
and
Dick were turned
from them, that he remembered the Ghost, and
became conscious that
it
was looking
full
upon

him,
clear,
SPIRITS.
63
while the light upon
its
head
burnt very
"
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 ap-
prentices,
who were pouring

:
out their hearts in praise

so, said,
of Fezziwig
and when he had done

Is
it
"
Why
not
He
has spent but a few

:
pounds
perhaps.
praise ?"
of
your mortal money
three
or
four,
Is that so
much
that he
deserves this
"It
is n't
that,"
said
Scrooge,
heated by the
remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former,

not his
latter,
self.
"
It
is n't
that,
Spirit.
;
He
to
has the power to render us happy or unhappy
make
a
toil.
our service light or burdensome
a pleasure or
Say that
his
power
lies in
words and looks

it is
in things so slight
sible to
and
insignificant that
:
impos-
add and count 'em up

is
what then ?
if it
The
cost a
happiness he gives,
fortune."
quite as great as
64
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
He
"
felt
the Spirit's glance, and stopped.

ia
What
the matter ?" asked the Ghost.
" Nothing particular," said Scrooge. " Something,

I
think?" the Ghost

I
insisted.
" No," said Scrooge, " No.

able to say a
should like to be
clerk just
word
or
two
to
my
now
That
's all."
His former
self
turned
;
down
the lamps as he gave
utterance to the wish
and Scrooge and the Ghost

open
air.
again stood side
by
side in the
"
My
time grows short," observed the Spirit.

!"
" Quick
This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one
whom
effect.
he could
see,
but
it
produced an immediate
himself.
life.
For again Scrooge saw
He was
His
;
older
now
man
in the
prime of
face
bad not the harsh and rigid

it
lines of later years
but
had begun
to
wear the signs of care and

restless
avarice.
in the root,
There was an eager, greedy,

eye,
motion
which showed the passion that had taken

tree
and where the shadow of the growing

faU.
would
SPIRITS.
65
He was
young
were
not alone, but sat
by the
:
side of a fair
girl in
a mourning-dress
in
whose eyes there
tears,
which sparkled
in the light that shone
out of the Ghost of Christmas Past.
" It matters very

it
little,"
she said, softly.
"
To
;
you,
little.
Another
idol has displaced
me
and
if
can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I

to do, I have
would have tried
no just cause to grieve."
" "What Idol has displaced you?" he rejoined.
"
golden one."
is
"This
he
said.
the even-handed dealing of the world!"

is
" There
;
nothing on which
is
it
is
so
hard
as poverty
and there
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

its
the hope of being beyond the chance of

reproach.
off
sordid
fall
have seen your nobler aspirations

the master-passion,
one by one, until
Gam,
engrosses you.
Have
I not ?"
"What
grown
so
then?" he retorted.
wiser,
"Even
?
if
have
much
what then
am not changed
towards you."
G6
A CHRISTMAS CAKOL,
She shook her head.
"Am
"
I?"
contract
is
Our
an old one.
It
was made when

so,
we were both poor and
content to be
until, in
good season, we could improve our worldly fortune
by our
it
patient industry.
You
are changed.
man.''
When
was made, you were another

" I
was a boy," he
said impatiently.
"
Your own
feeling tells
you that you were not

"
I
what you
are," she returned.
am.
That which
is
promised happiness when

fraught with misery
often
we were
that
one in heart,
are two.
now
I
we
How
and
and how keenly

It
is
have thought of
I have
this, I will
it,
not say.
enough that
thought of
can release you."

"
Have
I ever sought release?"
" In words.
No.
?"
Never."
"In
what, then
" In a changed nature
in
;
an altered
another
spirit
in
its
another atmosphere of
great end.
life
Hope
as
In everything that
in
made
my
love of
any
worth or value
your
sight.
girl,
If this had
never
been between us," said the
looking mildly, but
THE FIRST OP THE THREE
SPIRITS.
67
with steadiness, upon him; "tell me, would you

seek
me
out and try to win
me now
Ah, no
this
!"
He
seemed to yield to the justice of
sup-
position, in spite of himself.
But he
said,
with a
struggle, "
You
think not."
if
"
would gladly think otherwise
I could,"
she
answered, " Heaven
knows
"When / have learned a

strong and irresistible
free to-day,
Truth
it
like this, I
be.
know how
if
must
But
you were
to-mor-
row, 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,
to
if for
moment you were
false
so,
enough
your one guiding principle to do

that your repentance and regret
?
do I not
know
follow
would surely
do
and
I release you.
With
full
heart, for the love of
him you once were."

;
He was
"
about to speak
but Avith her head turned
from him, she resumed.
You may tlie memory
of
what
is
past half
this.
makes me hope you will have pain

very, very brief time, and
lection of
it,
in
you
will dismiss the recol-
gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from
f2
68
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
it
which
happened well that you awoke.

life
May
you
be happy in the
you have chosen
!"
She
left
him
!"
and they parted.

"
" Spirit
said Scrooge,
show me no more
do
Conduct
torture
me
home.
Why
!"
you delight
to
me?"
exclaimed the Ghost.
" One shadow more "
No more
it.
!"
cried Scrooge.
"
No
!"
more.
J.
don't
wish to see
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

full
a room,
not very large or handsome, but
of comfort.
girl, so
Near
to the winter fire sat a beautiful

it
young
like the last that Scrooge believed

until
was the same,
he saw her,
now
a comely matron, sitting
opposite her daughter.
The
noise in this
room was
perfectly tumultuous, for there were

there,
more children
state of
than Scrooge
;
in
his agitated
mind
could count
and, unlike the celebrated herd in the
poem, they were not forty children conducting themselves like one,
like forty.
but every child was conducting
itself
The consequences were uproarious beyond

belief
;
SPIRITS.
69
but no one seemed to care
on the contrary,
the
mother
it
and
daughter laughed heartily,

;
and
enjoyed
very
much
and the
latter,
soon begin-
ning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the
young brigands most
ruthlessly.
!
"What would I not

I never could
have given to be one of them

have been so rude, no, no
of
all
!
Though
would
n't for
the wealth
the world have crushed that braided hair, and

it
torn
down ; and
for
the precious
it off,
little
shoe,
would n't have plucked

save
God
bless
my
soul
to
my
life.
As
to
measuring her waist
in sport,
n't
as they did,
bold young brood, I could
have have
done
it
I should
it
have expected
my arm
to
grown round
straight again.
I
for a
punishment, and never come
And
yet I should have dearly liked,

lips
;
own,
to
have touched her
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

hair,
to
have
let
loose
waves of
an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond

:
price
to
in short, I should
have
liked, I
do confess,
child,
have had the lightest licence of a
and
yet been
man enough to know
its
value.
70
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
But now a knocking
at the door
was heard, and
such a rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and plundered dress was borno 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 Then the shouting and the
slaught that was
struggling,
presents.
and the on!
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 the neck,
pommel
affection
his back,
!
and kick
of
his legs in irrepressible
The shouts
wonder and delight with

re-
which the development of every package was

ceived
liad
!
The
terrible
announcement that the baby

doll's
been taken in the act of putting a

into his
frying-
pan
mouth, and was more than suspected of

fictitious
having swallowed a
turkey,
glued on a
wooden
platter
!
The immense
relief of finding this
a false alarm
The
joy, and gratitude,

It
is
and ecstacy
They by
are all indescribable alike.
enough that
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
so subsided.
;
SPIRITS.
to bed,
71
where they went
and
And now
ever,
Scrooge looked on more attentively than

the master
of the
when
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

in the
him
father,
and been a spring-time

life,
haggard winter of his
his sight
grew very dim indeed.

tlie
" Belle," said
husband, turning to bis 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. Scrooge."
" Mr.
" Mr. Scrooge

and as
it
it
was.
I passed his office
window;
inside,
lies
was not shut up, and he had a candle
I could scarcely help seeing him.
His partner
;
upon the point of death,

alone.
I hear
and there he
do believe."
sat
Quite alone
in the world, I
"
"
72
" Spirit
!
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
"
said Scrooge in a broken voice, "
remove
me from
"
this place."
I told
you these were shadows of the things that

" That they are what
have been," said the Ghost.

they are, do not blame
me
" Remove me
bear
"
it
!
"
Scrooge exclaimed.
" I cannot
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

it.
all
the faces
it
had shown him, wrestled with

" Leave me
!
Take me back.
Haunt me no
longer
In the struggle,
if
that can be called a struggle in

visible resistance
its
which the Ghost with no
on
its
own
part was undisturbed
by any effort of
adver-
sary, Scrooge observed that its light
was burning
its
high and bright
and dimly connecting that with
influence over him, he seized the extinguisher-cap,
and
by a sudden
action pressed
it
down upon
it,
its
head.
The
Spirit
dropped beneath
its
so that the extin-
guisher covered
pressed
it
whole form
but though Scrooge

he could not hide
down with
all his force,

the light: which streamed
SPIRITS.
73
in
from
under
it,
an
unbroken flood upon
tlie
ground.
He was
conscious of being exhausted, and overirresistible
come by an
being in his
drowsiness
and, further, of
own bedroom. He gave
the cap a part;
ing squeeze, in which his hand relaxed
and had
barely time to reel to bed, before he sank into a
heavy
sleep.
STAVE THREE.
SPIRITS.
Awaking
snore,
in the middle of a prodigiously tough

sitting
and
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.

that he
He
felt
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

spectre
his curtains this
new
would draw back, he put them every one
aside with his
own hands
and lying down again,

all
established
a sharp
look-out
round the bed.

on the moment
For he wished
to challenge the Spirit

of
its
SPIRITS.
75
appearance, and did not wish to be taken
by
surprise and
made
nervous.
sort,
Gentlemen of the free-and-easy
who plume
or two,
themselves on being acquainted with a
move
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

to
pitch-and-toss
manslaughter;
between which
lies
opposite extremes, no doubt, there
a tolerably
wide and comprehensive range of
subjects.
With-
out venturing for Scrooge quite as hardily as this,

I don't
mind
calling
on you to believe that he was

field of
ready for a good broad
strange appearances,
and that nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros
would have astonished him very much.
Now,
not
being prepared for almost anything, he was

for
by any means prepared
nothing
and, con-
sequently,
when
the Bell struck One, and no shape

fit
appeared, he was taken with a violent

bling.
of trem-
Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an

All this time,
hour went by, yet nothing came.
he lay upon his bed, the very core and centre of
7(J
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
bl;izc
of
ruddy
light,
which streamed upon

;
it
wlien
tlie
clock proclaimed the hour
and whicli
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 appre-
hensive that he might be at that very
moment an
interesting case of spontaneous combustion, without
having the consolation of knowing

however, he began to think
it.
At
or I
last,
as
you
would
have thought at
first;
for it is
always the person

to
not in the predicament
who knows what ought
have been done
in
it,
and would unquestionably

last,
have
done
it
too
at
say,
he began to
this
think that the

light
source and secret of
ghostly
might be
in the adjoining
it, it
room
from whence,
This idea
on further tracing
taking
full
seemed to
shine.
possession of his mind, he got
up
softly
and
shuffled in his slippers to the door.
The moment
Scrooge's
hand was on the

his
lock, a
strange voice called

enter.
him by
name, and bade him
He
obeyed.
It
was
his
own room. There was no doubt
about
,iyi^^^cîZ^^ yO'^d^^^^^zy /C^jy^^^^L-
Londsrb: Chapman- - BiiS, 1S6, Strand,

.

that.
SPIRITS.
77
trans-
But
it
had undergone a surprising

ceiling
formation.
living
The walls and

it
were
so
hung with
green, that
looked a perfect grove, from
every part of which, bright gleaming berries glistened.

reflected
The
crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe,

light, as if so
;
and ivy
mirrors
back the
many
little
had been scattered there
and such a mighty blaze

as that dull petrifacin Scrooge's time,
went roaring up the chimney,

tion of a hearth
had never known
or Marley's, or for
many and many
a winter season
gone.
Heaped up upon
the floor, to form a kind of
throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn,
great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of

sausages,
oysters,
mince-pies,
plum- puddings,
barrels
of
red-hot
chesnuts,
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
glowing torch,
it
in
shape not unlike

its
Plenty's horn, and held

light
up, high up, to shed
on Scrooge, as he came peeping round the door.
/8
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
"
Come
in
!"
"
Come
in
and know me
better,
man
!"
Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before

this Spirit.
He was
its
not the dogged Scrooge he had

eyes were clear and kind, he
been; and though
did not like to meet them.
"
am
the Ghost of Christmas Present," said the
Spirit.
" Look upon
me
!"
so.
Scrooge reverently did

simple deep green robe,
It
was clothed
in
one
or mantle, bordered with
white
figure,
fur.
This garment hung so loosely on the

its
that
capacious breast was bare, as
if
disdaining to be warded or concealed

Its feet, observable
by any
artifice.
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
long and free
eye,
its
icicles.
Its
dark brown curls were
free as its genial face, its sparkling

its
open hand,
cheery voice,
air.
its
unconstrained
its
demeanour, and
its
joyful
Girded round
middle was an antique scabbard; but no sword was

in
it,
and the ancient sheath was eaten up with
rust.

"
SPIRITS.
79
before!"
You
have never seen the like of
me
exclaimed the Spirit.
" Never," Scrooge made answer
to
it.
" Have never walked forth with the younger
members
young)
of
my
family
meaning
(for I
am
very
my elder
brothers born in these later years ?"
pursued the Phantom.

" I don't think I have," said Scrooge.
afraid I have not.
" I
am
Have you had many
brothers,
Spirit?"
" More than eighteen hundred," said the Ghost.
"
tremendous family to provide for!" muttered
Scrooge.
The Ghost
" Spirit,"
of Christmas Present rose.

said Scrooge
will.
submissively,
" conduct on
me where you
went forth
last night
is
compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which
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.
80
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
pigs, sausages, oysters,
all
game, poultry, brawn, meat,

pies,
puddings,
fruit,
and puncli,
tire,
vanished in-
stantly.
So did the room, the
the ruddy glow,
the hour of night, and they stood in the city streets
on Christmas morning, where

severe) the people
(for the
weather was
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
delight
the tops of their houses: whence

to the
it
was mad
boys to see
it
come plumping down
into the
road below, and splitting into artificial

storms.
little
snow-
The house
windows
sheet of
fronts looked black enough,
and the
blacker, contrasting with the smooth white
snow upon the

;
roofs,
and with the

last deposit
dirtier
snow upon the ground
which
had been
ploughed up in deep farrows by the heavy wheels

of carts and
waggons
furrows that crossed and re-
crossed each other hundreds of times where the great

streets
branched
trace, in
off;
and made
intricate channels,
hard to
water.
the thick yellow
mud
and
icy
The sky was gloomy, and the
shortest

streets
SPIRITS.
81
were
choked up with a dingy mist, half

frozen,
thawed half
whose heavier
particles
if all
de-
scended in a shower of sooty atoms, as
the
chimneys in Great Britain had,

caught
fire,
hy one
consent,
and were blazing
away
to their dear
hearts' content.
There was nothing very cheerful

town, and yet was there an
air
in the climate or the
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

house-tops were jovial and
full of glee;
calling out
to one another from the parapets,
and now and then
exchanging a facetious
missile
far
if it
snowball
a
than
many
right,
better-natured laughing wordy

jest
less heartily if it
heartily
went
and not
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
chesnuts, shaped like
the waistcoats of jolly old
gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out

into the street in their apoplectic opulence.
There
82
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
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
glanceel
at the girls as they
went by, and

There
demurely at the hung-up
mistletoe.
in
were pears and apples, clustered high
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,

cient
recalling, in their fragrance, an-
walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings

leaves
;
ankle deep through withered
there
were
Norfolk
Biffins,
squab and swarthy, setting
off the
yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great
compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating
and beseeching to be carried home

eaten after dinner.
set forth
in
paper bags and

fish,
The very gold and silver
among
these choice fruits in a bowl, though
members
peared to
of a dull and stagnant-blooded race, ap-
know
that there
was something going
on
and, to a fish, went gasping round and round

their little world
in
SPIRITS.
83
slow and passionless excite-
ment.
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
merry-
the scales descending on the counter
made a
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 cinna-
mon 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

bilious.
feel
faint
and subsequently
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
in its
was good
to eat
and
all
Christmas dress
but the customers were
so hurried
and
so eager in the hopeful promise of the
day, that they tumbled
up
against each other at the
g2
84
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left

their purchases
upon
tlie
counter, and
came running
back to fetch
thcni,
and committed liundrods 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 Christto
mas daws
peck at
if
they chose.
But soon the
steeples called
good people
all,
to
church and chapel, and away they came, flocking
through the
their gayest
streets in their best clothes,

faces.
and with
And
at
the same time there
emerged from scores of bye

less
streets, lanes,
and nametheir
turnings,
innumerable
people,
carrying
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. torch,
for
And
it
was a very uncommon kind
of
once or twice
when
there
were angry
SPIRITS.
85
words between some dinner-carriers who
liad jostled
with each other, he shed a few drops of water on
them from
directly.
it,
and
their
good humour was restored
For they
said, it
was a shame
so
it
to quarrel
upon Christmas Day.

it,
And
was
God
love
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;

as if its stones
where the pavement smoked

cooking too.
were
" Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle
from your torch
"
asked Scrooge.
" There
" "Would
is.
My
own."
it
apply to any kind of dinner on this
day
"
asked Scrooge.
" To any kindly given. "
To
?
a poor one most."

"
Why
to a
it
poor one most

needs
it
asked Scrooge.
" Because
most."
" Spirit," said Scrooge, after a moment's thought,
"
wonder you,
of all the beings in the
many
worlds
86
about U9,
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
should desire
to
cramp these
people's
opportunities of innocent enjoyment."
" "
" cried
the Spirit.
deprive them
of their
You would
means of
dining every seventh day, often the only day on
which they can be said

" Wouldn't you
"
?
to dine at all," said Scrooge.
" "
" cried
the Spirit.
You
seek to close these places on the Seventh
Day ? "
thing.'*
said Scrooge.
"
And
it
comes
to the
same
" / seek
"
!
exclaimed the
if I
Spirit.
" Forgive
me
am
wrong.
It has been
done in
your name, or at
Scrooge.
least in that of
your family," said
"There are some upon

the Spirit, "
their deeds
this earth of yours," returned
who
lay claim to
know
us,
and who do
of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy,
bigotry, and selfishness in our
name
who
if
are as
strange to us and
all
our kith and kin, as

that,
they had
their
never lived.
Remember
and charge
doings on themselves, not us."

Scrooge promised that he would
on,
invisible, as
;
SPIRITS.
87
and they went

into
they had been before,

It
the
suburbs of the town.

of the
was a remarkable quality

at the
Ghost (which Scrooge had observed
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
had
his
perhaps
it
was the pleasure the good

power
of his, or else
Spirit
it
in
showing
kind,
off this
was
own
generous, hearty
all
nature,
and his
sympathy with
poor men, that led him straight

;
to Scrooge's clerk's
for
there he went, and took

;
Scrooge with him, holding to his robe
and on the
threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped

to bless
Bob
Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings
of his torch.
Think
of that
;
Bob had but
fifteen
" Bob
but
" a- week himself
he pocketed on Saturdays
fifteen copies of his Christian
name
and yet the
Ghost of Christmas Present blessed his four-roomed

house
88
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
Then up
rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed
out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in

ribbons,
for
which arc cheap and make a goodly show

;
sixpence
and she
laid
tlie
cloth,
assisted
by
also
Belinda
Cratchit,
second
of
her daughters,
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 iu honour of the day) into his find himself so gallantly attired,
mouth, rejoiced
to
and yearned to show
his linen in the fashionable Parks.
And now two

tearing
in,
smaller Cratchits,
boy and
girl,
came
screaming that outside the baker's they had smelt

the goose, and
in
known
it
for their
own
and basking
these
luxurious
thoughts
of
sage-and-onion,
table,
young Cratchits danced about the

Master Peter Cratchit to the
proud,
and exalted
skies,
while he (not
although
fire,
his
collars
nearly choked
him)
blew the
until the slow potatoes bubbling up,

at the saucepan-lid to
knocked loudly
peeled.
be
let
out and
"
"

"
said
SPIRITS.
89
What
has ever got your precious father then,"
Mrs. Cratchit.
"
And
your brother, Tiny Tim
And Martha
half-an-hour
''
!
warn't as late last Christmas

"
" said
Day by
Here's Martha, mother
girl,
appearing
as she spoke.
" Here's Martha, mother

Cratchits.
" cried
the two young

goose,
dear,
"Hurrah! There's smc^ a

bless
Martha!"
"
Why,
!
your heart
alive,
my
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, "

ing,
and had to clear away
this
morn-
mother
!
" Well
Never mind
so long as
you are come,"

before
said Mrs. Cratchit.
" Sit ye
down
the
fire,
my
dear,
and have a warm, Lord
bless
ye
"No
young
no!
There's father coming," cried the two
Cratchits,
who were everywhere

"
!
at
once.
" Hide Martha, hide
So Martha hid
herself,
and
in
came
little
Bob, the
90
father,
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
with at least three
feet of
comforter exclusive
of the fringe, hanging
down
up
before
him
and
his
thread-bare clothes darned

seasonable
for
;
and brushed, to look

his shoulder.
and Tiny Tim upon

little
Alas
his
Tiny Tim, he bore a
crutch,
!
and had
limbs supported by an iron frame
" Why, where

looking round.
's
our Martha
" cried
Bob
Cratchit
" Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit. " Not coming

sion in
!
" said
Bob, with a sudden declenfor
his high
all
spirits;
he had been Tim's
blood horse
the
way from
church, and had come
home rampant.
"Not coming upon
Christmas
Day
"
!
Martha
were only
didn't like to see

in
him
disappointed, if
it
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

in the copper.
little
pudding singing
"
And how
when
did
Tim behave ? " asked Mrs.

Bob on
his credulity
Cratchit,
she had rallied

and Bob had hugged
content.
his
SPIRITS.
91
daughter to his heart's
"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

he was a
the people
cripple,
saw him
it
in the church, because
and
might be pleasant to them to remem-
ber upon Christmas Day,
who made lame
beggars
walk and blind men
see."
Bob's voice was tremulous

this,
when he
told
them
and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim

hearty.
was growing strong and

His
active little crutch
was heard upon the
floor,
and back came Tiny Tim before another word was

spoken, escorted
by
;
his brother
and
sister to
his
stool beside the fire

cuffs
and while Bob, turning up
his
as
if,
poor fellow, they were capable of being
made more shabby

in a
compounded some hot mixture

stirred it
;
jug with gin and lemons, and

it
round
and round and put
on the hob to simmer
Master
Peter and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went
92
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
with which they soon returned in
to fetch the goose,
high procession.
Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought

a goose the rarest of
all
birds
a feathered
phenome:
non, to which a black
swan was a matter
of course
it
and in truth
house.
it
was something very
like
in that
Mrs. Cratchit
made
the gravy (ready before;
hand
in a little
saucepan) hissing hot
Master Peter
;
mashed the potatoes with

Belinda
incredible vigour
Miss
sweetened up
;
the
apple-sauce
Martha
beside
dusted the hot plates
Bob took Tiny Tim

;
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.
said.
At
It
last
the dishes were set on,
and grace was
was succeeded by a breathless pause,
as Mrs,
Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife,
prepared to plunge
did,
it
in the breast
but when she

stuffing
and when the long expected gush of
issued forth, one
murmur
of delight arose all
round

SPIRITS.
93
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.

didn't believe there ever
Its tenderness
Bob
said
he
was such
size
a goose cooked.
and flavour,
and cheapness, were
the themes of universal admiration.
Eked out by
it
the apple-sauce and mashed potatoes,

cient dinner for the
was a
suffi-
whole family
indeed, as Mrs.
Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small
atom of a bone upon the

at last
!
dish), they hadn't ate
it all
Yet every one had had enough, and

were steeped
!
tlie
youngest Cratchits in particular,

sage
in
and onion to the eyebrows
But now,
the
plates being changed

left
by
Jliss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit
the
room alone
too nervous
to bear witnesses
it in.
to take the
pudding up, and bring

it
Suppose
it
should not be done enough

!
Suppose
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
: !
94
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
livid
!
became
posed.
All
sorts
of
horrors
were sup-
Hallo
great deal of steam
The pudding
was out
of the copper.
cloth.
smell like a washing-day

like
That was the
A smell
to
an eating-house,
with a
and a pastry cook's next door

laundress's
to each other,
!
next
door
that
That
was the
pudding.
In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered with the pudding,
flushed, but smiling proudly:

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

calmly too, that he regarded
achieved
Bob
Cratchit said, and
it
as the greatest success
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

it
to say
about
it,
but nobody said or thought
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.
"
SPIRITS.
95
At
last the
dinner
was
all
done, the cloth

fire
was
up.
cleared, the
hearth swept, and the

in the
made
The compound
jug being tasted and consi-
dered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the

table,
and a shovel-full of chesnuts on the

all
fire.
Then
in
the Cratchit family drew round the hearth,

called a circle,
what Bob Cratchit

;
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 chesnuts

sputtered and crackled noisily.
on the
fire
Then
Bob proposed
"
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.
96
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
and wished
to
as if he loved the child,

his side,
keep him by
and dreaded that he might be taken from him.

Scrooge,
"
Spirit," said
felt before,
with an interest he had

if
never
"
tell
me
Tiny Tim
will live."
" I see a vacant scat/' replied the Ghost, " in the
poor chimney corner,
and a crutch without an

If these
owner, carefully preserved.

unaltered
shadows remain
by the Future, the
child will die."
" No, no," said Scrooge.

say he will be spared."
" If
these
"
Oh
no,
kind Spirit
shadows
remain
unaltered
by
the
Future, none other of
my
race," returned the Ghost,
" will
jGInd
him
here.
What
it,
then
If he be like
to die, he
had better do
and decrease the surplus
population."
Scrooge hung
his
head to hear his
own
wôrds
quoted by the
Spirit,
and was overcome with peni-
tence and grief.
" Man," said the Ghost,

heart, not
"
if
man you
be in
adamant, forbear that wicked cant until

surplus
is,
you have discovered "What the
and
live.
Where
it is.
Will you decide what men shall
"

what men
of Heaven,
live
SPIRITS.
97
shall die
It
may
be, that in the sight

less fit to
you are more worthless and
than millions like this poor man's child.

!
Oh
God
to hear
the Insect on the leaf pronouncing

life
on the too much

the dust
!
among
his
hungry brothers
in
Scrooge
bent before
the
Ghost's
rebuke,
and
trembling cast his eyes upon the ground.

raised
But he
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.
"
wish
had him
here.
I 'd
give
him a
piece of
my
mind
to feast upon,
for it."
;
and
hope he'd have a good appetite

"
My
dear," said Bob, " the children
Christmas
Day."
" It should be Christmas Day, I
she,
am
sure," said
"on which one
drinks the health of such an
odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling
man
as
Mr. Scrooge.
it
You know
he
is,
Robert
Nobody knows
better
than you do, poor fellow
!"
98
"
CHRISTMAS CAROL.
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.

to
Long
life
him
!
A
!"
merry Christmas and a happy new
year
He'll be very merry and very happy, I have
no doubt
The
the
children drank the toast after her.
It
was
first
of their proceedings which had no heartiit.
ness in
Tiny Tim drank

twopence
for
it.
it
last of all,
but he
didn't care
Scrooge was the Ogre

of his
of the family.
The mention
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

Peter,
a situation in his eye for

in, if
Master
which would bring
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 thought-

fully at the fire
SPIRITS.
collars, as
if
99
he
from between his
were deliberating what particular

should favour
investments he
the receipt
of
when he came
into
that bewildering income.
Martha,
who was
a poor
apprentice at a milliner's, then told

of
them what kind
work she had
to
do,
and how many hours she

to lie a-bed
worked
at a stretch,
and how she meant

for a
to-morrow morning
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
at
the lord " was
much about
as tall as Peter;"
which Peter pulled up his

his
collars so
if
high that
you couldn't have seen

there.
head
you had been
All this time the chesnuts and the jug went

;
round and round

about a
and bye and bye they had a song,

snow, from Tiny
lost child travelling in the
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
2h
100
A CHRISTMAS
CAROL.
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

it
last.
By
this time
;
was
getting dark, and snowing
pretty heavily
and as Scrooge and the Spirit went

fires
along the streets, the brightness of the roaring

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

curtains, ready
to be
all
fire,
and deep red
drawn, to shut out cold and

the children of the house were
darkness.
There,
running out into the snow to meet their married

sisters,
first
brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and be the
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
;
SPIRITS.
101
where,
wo upon
the single
:
man who saw them

they
enter
!
artful
witches
well
knew
it
in a
glow
But
if you
had judged from the numbers of people

to friendly gatherings,
on their
way
you might have
thought that no one was at home to give them
welcome when they got
there, instead of every

its
house
half-
expecting company, and pihng up
fires
chimney
exulted
!
high.
Blessings
it
on
it,
how
the Ghost
How
bared
its
breadth of breast, and
opened
ing,
its
capacious palm, and floated on, outpourits
with a generous hand,
bright and harmless reach

!
mirth on everything within

lamplighter,
street
its
The very
who
ran on before, dotting the dusky

light,
with specks of
and who was dressed
to
spend the evening somewhere, laughed out loudly as

the Spirit passed
lighter that he
:
though
little
kenned the lamp-
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

about, as though
it
cast
;
were the burial-place of giants
102
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
itself
so,
and water spread
wheresoever
it
listed
or
would have done

prisoner
coarse,
;
but for the
frost tliat held it
and nothing grew but moss and
furze,
and
rank grass.
left
Down
in the
west the setting
sun had
a streak of fiery red, which glared upon
the desolation for an instant, like a sullen eye, and
frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was

thick gloom of darkest night.
lost
in the
" "What place "
is
this ?"
asked Scrooge.
place where Miners live,
who
the
labour in the
Spirit.
bowels of the earth," returned

they
" But
know me.
light
See
!"
shone from the
window
it.
of a hut, and
swiftly they advanced towards
Passing through
the wall of
mud
and
stone,
they found a cheerful

fire.
company assembled round

old
a glowing
An
and
old,
man and woman, with
their children
their
children's children,
that, all
and another generation beyond

attire.
decked out gaily in their holiday

in a voice that
The
old
man,
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
SPIRITS.
103
all
he was a boy; and from time to time they

joined in the chorus.
voices, the old
So surely as they raised their

got quite blithe and loud
;
man
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,

;
frightful range of rocks, behind
them
and
his ears
it
were deafened by the thundering of water, as

rolled,
and roared, and raged among the dreadful

it
caverns
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
bom
of the
wind one
rose
might suppose,
fell
as sea-weed of the
water
and
about
it,
like the
waves they skimmed.

light
But even
had made a
here,
fire,
two men who watched the
that through the loophole in the
104
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on the
awful
sea.
Joining their
horny hands over the

they wished each other
;
rough table at which they
sat,
Merry Christmas
them
:
in their can of grog

all
and one of
the elder, too, with his face
damaged and
scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an

old sliip miglit be
like a
:
struck up a sturdy song that was
Gale
in itself.
Again the Gliost sped

heaving sea
on, above the black
and
on, onuntil,
any
beside the
being far away, as he
told Scrooge, from
shore, they lighted
on a ship.
They stood
helmsman
at the wheel, the
look-out in the bow, the ofl&cers
who had
the watch
;
dark, ghostly figures in their several stations
but
every
or
man among them hummed
a Christmas tune,
had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his
breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas
Day, with homeward hopes belonging

every
to
it.
And
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
"
SPIRITS.
105
that
those he cared for at a distance, and had
known
they delighted to remember him.

It
was a great
surprise to Scrooge, while listening
to the
moaning of the wind, and thinking what a

it
solemn thing
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
it
greater surprise to Scrooge
to recognise
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

1
affability
" Ha, ha
ha, ha
If
!
"
laughed Scrooge's nephew.
" Ha,
you should happen, by any unlikely chance,

a
to
know
man more
all
blest in a
is,
laugh than Scrooge's
nephew,
I can say
I should like to
'11
know
him
too.
Introduce him to me, and I
cultivate
his acquaintance.
It
is
fair,
even-handed,
is
noble adjustment of
things, that while there
infection in disease
and
"
: :
lOG
sorrow, there
tibly
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
is
nothing in the world so

as
irresis-
contagious
Scrooge's
laughter
and
good-humour.
in
When
nephew laughed
head,
this
yra,Y
holding his sides, rolling his

his
and twisting
face
into
the
most extravagant contortions

as
heartily
Scrooge's niece,
as he.
by marriage, laughed
And
their
assembled friends being not a bit

lustily.
behindhand, roared out,
" Ha, ha
Ha,
ha, ha,
ha
"He
live
!
said that Christmas

cried Scrooge's
was a humbug,
"
as
I
it
"
"
nephew.
He
believed
too
" More shame

niece, indignantly.
for him,
Fred
"
said
;
Scrooge's
Bless those
halves.
women
are
they never
do anything
earnest.
by
They
always
in
She was very pretty
exceedingly pretty.
With
a ripe
a dimpled, surprised-looking, capital face;

little
m outh,
it
that seemed
;
made
to be kissed
little
as
no
doubt
was
all
kinds of good
dots about
her chin, that melted into one another
when
she
laughed
and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw

in
SPIRITS.
107
any
little
creature's
head.
Altogether she was
what you would have

but satisfactory,
too.
called provoking,
you know
Oh, perfectly
satisfactory
"
He 's
comical old fellow,"

's
said
Scrooge's
nephew, " that

he might be.
the truth
and not
so pleasant as
However,
his offences carry their
own
punishment, and I have nothing to say against him."

" I 'm sure he
niece.
is
very
rich,
Fred," hinted Scrooge's

tell
" At
least
you always
dear
!
me
so."
"
What of that, my
is
" said Scrooge's
nephew.
" His wealth good with

with
it. it.
of no use to him.
He
don't do
any
He
don't
make
himself comfortable
He
has n't the satisfaction of thinking
ha, ha, ha!

it."
that
he
is
ever going to
benefit
Us with
" I have no patience with him/' observed Scrooge's

niece.
Scrooge's niece's
sisters,
and
all
the other
ladies, expressed the
same opinion.
said
" Oh,
have
!"
Scrooge's
nephew.
" I
am
if
sorry for
him
I could n't
be angry with him

ill
I tried.
Who
suffers
by
his
it
whims?
his
Himhead to
self,
always.
Here, he takes
into
"
108
dislike us,
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
and ho 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

fire,
table,
were
clustered round the
by
lamplight.
it,"
" Well
nephew,
these
am
very glad to hear
said Scrooge's
faith
''
because I
have
n't
any great
in
young
?
housekeepers.
What
do you
say,
Topper
Topper had
clearly got
sisters,
his
eye
upon one
of
Scrooge's niece's
for
he
answered that a
bachelor
was a wretched
outcast,
who had no
Whereat
right to express an opinion on the subject.
Scrooge's
lace tucker
niece's sister
:
the
plump one with the
not the one with the roses
!"
bluslied.
"
Do
go on, Fred," said Scrooge's

"
is
niece, clapping
her hands.
to say
!
He
never finishes what he
begins
He
such a ridiculous fellow

Scrooge's
as it
SPIRITS.
109
nephew
revelled in another laugh,

to
and
was impossible
keep the infection hard to do

it
off;
though
the
plump
;
sister tried
with aromatic
vinegar
his
example was unanimously followed.

to say," said Scrooge's
"
was only going
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.
am
sure he loses pleasanter
com-
panions than he can find in his

either in his
bers.
own
thoughts,
mouldy
old
office,
or his dusty
cham-
mean
to give
him
it
the same chance every

or not, for I pity him.
year,
whether he likes
rail at
He may
Christmas
it
till
he
dies,
but he can't
help thinking better of
I defy
him
if
he finds
me
going there, in good temper, year after year,
and saying Uncle Scrooge,

only puts
fifty
how
are
you
If
it
him
in the vein to leave his poor clerk

;
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-
110
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
naturcd, and not

at, so
much
caring
what they laughed
that they laughed at any rate, he encouraged

in their
them
merriment, and
passed
the bottle,
joyously.
After
tea,
they had some music.
For they were

they were about,
a musical family, and
knew what
when they sung a Glee

especially Topper,
or Catch, I can assure
you
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

niece
it.
Scrooge's
played well upon the

other tunes a simple
harp
and played
(a mere noin
among
thing
:
little air
it
you might learn
to whistle
two mi-
nutes),
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
his
that Ghost had
shown him, came upon

;
mind
if
he softened more and more he could have listened to
and thought that

often,
it
years ago, he
life
might have cultivated the kindnesses of

his
for
own
happiness with his
own
hands, without

resorting to the sexton's spade
SPIRITS.
Ill
that buried Jacob
Marley.
But they didn't devote the

music.
it is
whole evening to
forfeits
;
After a while they played at
for
good to be children sometimes, and never better

its
than at Christmas, when

a child himself.
blindman's buff.
mighty Founder was

first
Stop
There was
there
game
at
I
Of course
was.
And
no more believe
believe he
Topper was
really blind than
I
is,
had eyes
in his boots.
My
opinion
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

Knocking down the
credulity
fire-irons,
of
human
nature.
tumbling over the chairs, bumping up

piano,
against the
curtains,
smothering
himself
among
the
wherever she went, there went he.
He
always
knew where
the
plump
If
sister
was.
He would n't
up against
there
;
catch anybody
else.
you had
fallen
him, as some of them did, and stood
he
would have made a
feint
of endeavouring
to seize
112
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
affront
to
you, which would have been an
your
understanding
in
and would instantly have
sidled off
the direction of the

it
plump
;
sister.
it
She often
cried out that
was
n't fair
and
;
really
was
not.
But when
all
at last,
he caught her
when,
in spite of
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
that
his pretending not to

it
know her
his pretending
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
it,
No
doubt
she told him her opinion of
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 a large
buff party, but was
made comfortable with
chair and a footstool, in a snug corner,
where the
her.
Ghost and Scrooge were

she joined in the
forfeits,
all
close
behind
But
and loved her love to

of the
admiration
with
the letters
alphabet.

Likewise at the game of
SPIRITS.
113
How, When, and
"Where,
she was very great, and to the secret joy of Scrooge's
nephew, beat her

sharp girls too,
sisters
hollow
though they were
as
Topper could have told you.
There might have been twenty people there, young
and
for,
old,
but
tliey all played,
and so did Scrooge
wholly forgetting in the interest he had in what

on, that his voice
was going
ears,
made no sound
in their
he sometimes came out with his guess quite
loud,
and very
often guessed
right, too;
for the
sharpest needle, best Whitechapel, warranted not to

cut in the eye,
as he took
it
was not sharper than Scrooge

head to
be.
blunt
in his
The Ghost was

this
greatly pleased to find
him
in
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
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
114
the rest
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
must
find out wliat
lie
only answering to
case was.
their questions
yes or no as
tlic
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,

streets,
and walked about the
and wasn't made a

live
show
of,
and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't
in a menagerie,
and was never
killed in a market,
and was not a horse, or an

bull,
ass, or
a cow, or
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

to
tickled, that
he was
obliged
last the
get
up
off
the
sofa
and stamp.
At
plump
sister, falling into
a similar state, cried
out
" I have found

I
it
out
know what
it is,
Fred
know what
"
it is !"
What
It's
is it
?" cried Fred.

!"
"
your TJncle Scro-o-o-o-oge
SPIRITS.
115
Which
it
certainly was.
Admiration was the
universal sentiment, though some objected that the
reply to
" Is
it
bear?"
ought to have been

in the negative
" Yes
;"
inasmuch as an answer
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

Fred, " and
it
am
sure," said
would be ungrateful not

glass of mulled
;
to drink his health.
Here is a
wine
ready to our hand at the moment

Scrooge
!'"
and I say
'
Uncle
" Well
"
the
Uncle Scrooge
!"
they cried.
Merry Christmas and a happy

man, whatever he is!"
New
Year
to
old
said
Scrooge's
nephew.
he have
it,
"He
wouldn't take
it
from me, but

!"
may
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

I
116
of the last
CHRISTMAS CAROL.
his
word spoken by upon
nephew
and he and
the Spirit were again
their travels.
Much
they saw, and far they went, and

visited,
many
end.
homes they
but always with a happy
The
Spirit stood beside sick beds,

;
and they were
clieerful
on foreign lands, and they were close at

struggling men, and they were patient in
home
by
their greater
hope; by poverty, and

jail,
it
was
rich.
In almshouse, hospital, and

refuge,
in misery's every
where vain man
in his little brief authority
had not made

out,
fast the door,
and barred the
Spirit
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
it,
had observed
until
this
change, but never spoke of
they
left
a children's Twelfth Night party,
when, looking at the Spirit as they stood together
THE SECOND OP THE THREE

in
SPIRITS.
its
117
an
open place, he noticed that
hair
was
gray.
" Are
spirits' lives so short ?"

life
asked Scrooge.
"
My
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
am
not justified in what I ask,"
said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe,
" but
I see something strange,
and not belonging

skirts.
to
yourself, protruding
from your
Is
it
a foot
or a claw
!"
"
it/'
It
might be a claw,
Spirit's
for the flesh there is
upon
was the
sorrowful reply.
its
" Look
it
here."
From
children
able.
;
the foldings of
robe,
brought two
wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserknelt

its
They
down
at its feet,
and clung upon
the outside of
garment.
" Oh,
Man
look here.
Look, look, down here
!''
118
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
girl.
They were a boy and

ragged, scowling,
their humility.
Yellow, meagre,
too,
wolfish
but prostrate,
in
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
in
change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity,

all
any grade, through
the mysteries of wonderful
creation, has
monsters half so horrible and dread.
Scrooge started back, appalled.
Having them
shown
were
to
him
in this
way, he
tried to say they
fine children,
but the words choked themselves,

lie
rather
than be parties to a
of such
enormous
magnitude.
" Spirit
more.
!
are they yours
"
Scrooge could say no
" They are Man's," said the
Spirit, looking
down
upon them.
their fathers.
"
And
they cling to me, appealing from

is
This boy
Ignorance.
all of
This
girl is
Want.
Beware them both, and

all
their degree,
but most of
beware
this boy, for
on his brow I

see that written
SPIRITS.
119
which
it
!
is
Doom, unless the
writing be
erased.
its
it
Deny
" cried the Spirit, stretching out

city.
hand towards the

ye
!
" Slander those
who
tell
Admit
worse
!
it
for
your factious purposes, and

bide the end
"
!
make
it
And
120
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge.
?
"Have
" 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

like
solemn Phantom, draped
and hooded, coming,

towards him.
a mist along the ground,
STAVE FOUR.
THE LAST OF THE The Phantom
proached.
slowly,
it
SPIRITS.
silently,
gravely,
ap-
When
came near him, Scrooge bent

;
down upon
which
his knee
for in the
it
very air through
this Spirit
moved
seemed to scatter gloom
and mystery.
It
was shrouded
its
in a deep black garment^

its face, its
which
concealed
of
it
head,
form, and
left
nothing
visible
it
save one outstretched hand.

difficult to
it
But
for
this
would have been
detach
its figure
from the night, and separate
from the darkness by
which
it
was surrounded.
that
it
He
felt
was
tall
its
and
stately
when
it
came
filled
beside him, and that
mysterious presence
him with a solemn
dread.
He knew
no more, for
the Spirit neither spoke nor moved.
122
"
I
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
am
in the presence of the

?
Ghost of Christmas
Yet To Come
"
said Scrooge.
The
with
Spirit
answered not,
but pointed onward
its
hand.
are
"
You
about to show
me shadows
of the
things
tliat
have not happened, but will happen in

Scrooge pursued.
the time before us,"

so,
" Is that
Spirit?"
The upper portion
of the
garment was contracted
for an instant in its folds, as if the Spirit clined

its
had
in-
head.
That was the
only answer he
received.
Although well used
to ghostly
company by
this
time, Scrooge feared the silent shape so

his legs trembled beneath him,
much
that
and he found that he

to follow
it.
could hardly stand
when he prepared
moment,
The
Spirit paused a
as observing his con-
dition,
and giving him time to recover.

all
But Scrooge was

thrilled
the worse
for
this.
It
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
THE LAST OF THE

Stretched his
SPIRITS.
123
own
to the utmost, could see nothing
but a spectral hand and one great heap of black.
"Ghost
of the Future!" he
I
exclaimed, " I fear

seen.
you more than any Spectre
have
But, as I
know your purpose
is
to do
me
good, and as I hope

I
to live to be another
man
from what I was,

it
am
prepared to bear you company, and do

thankful heart.
It
"Will
with a
you not speak
to
me
?"
gave him no reply.
The hand was pointed
straight before them.
"Lead on!"
night
I
is
said Scrooge.
fast,
"Lead on!
The
waning
and
it is
precious time to me,
know.
Lead
on, Spirit
!"
The Phantom moved away

wards him.
dress,
as
it
had come
toits
Scrooge followed in the shadow of
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

its
it
encompass them of
own
;
act.
But
there they
were, in the heart of
on 'Change, amongst the
merchants
who
hurried
up and down, and chinked
124
the
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
money
in
their
pockets,
and
conversed
in
groups, and
looked at their watches,
and
trifled
thoughtfully with their great

forth, as
gold seals; and so
Scrooge had seen them often.
The
Spirit stopped beside one little
knot of busi-
ness men.
Observing that the hand was pointed to
them, Scrooge advanced to listen to their talk.
" No,"
chin,
said a great fat
man with
about
it,
a monstrous
"
I don't
know much
dead."
either
way.
only
know
he
's
"
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
first,
he
'd
never die."
"
God knows,"
said the
with a yawn.
"
What
has he done with his
money
?''
asked a
red-faced gentleman with a pendulous
excrescence
gills
on the end of his nose, that shook like the

turkey-cock.
of a
" I haven't heard," said the

chin,
man with
it
the large
yawning
again.
"Left
to his
Company,
"
THE LAST OF THE

perhaps.
SPIRITS.
125
's
He
hasn't left
it
to
me.
Tliat
all
know.''
This pleasantry was received with a general laugh.
" It
's
likely to
;
be a very cheap funeral," said the
same speaker
" for upon

it.
my
life
I don't
know
of
anybody to go to
and volunteer
?
Suppose we make up a party
" 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

after all," said the first
disinterested
among you,
wear
offer
speaker, "
for I never
black gloves, and I never eat lunch.

to go, if
But
I
'11
anybody
'm not
else will.
When
come
to think
of
it,
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
" !
126
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
Scrooge listened
pointed to two persons meeting.
again, thinking that the explanation
might
lie
here.
He knew
men
these men, also, perfectly.

:
They were
of business
very wealthy, and of great ima point always of standing
portance.
He had made
:
well in their esteem

that
''
in a business point of view,
is
strictly in a business point of view.
How
are are
!
you you
"
''
said one.
"
How
returned the other.

first.
" Well
his
"
said the
" Old Scratch has got
own
at last,
hey
"
?
" So I
isn't it
?
am
told," returned the second.
" Cold,
" Seasonable for Christmas time.

skaiter, I
You 're
not a
suppose
"
?
" No.
No.
Something
else to
think
of.
Good
morning
Not another word.

their conversation,
That was
their
meeting,
and their parting.

first inclined
Scrooge was at
to be surprised that
the Spirit should attach importance to conversations
apparently so trivial
but feeling assured that they
THE LAST OF THE
SPIRITS.
127
must have some hidden purpose, he

consider
set himself to
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 improve-
ment, he resolved to treasure

heard,
up every word he
;
and everything he saw
and especially to
observe the shadow of himself
when
it
appeared.
his
For he had an expectation that the conduct of

future
self
v>70uld
give
him the
clue
he missed,
riddles
and would render the solution of these

easy.
He
image
looked about in that very place for his

;
own
but another
man
stood in his accustomed
corner,
and though the clock pointed to his usual

for
time of day
of
being there, he saw no likeness

the multitudes that
It
himself
among
poured in
surprise,
through the Porch.
gave him
little
128
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
for he
life,
however;
had been revolving
in his
mind
a change of
his
and thought and hoped he saw

in this.
new-born resolutions carried out
Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom,
with
self
its
outstretched hand.
When
he roused him-
from his thoughtful quest,

its
he fancied from
the turn of the hand, and

to himself, that the
situation in reference
Unseen Eyes were looking

feel
at
him
cold.
keenly.
It
made him shudder, and
very
They
left
the
busy
scene,
and went
into
an
obscure part of the town, where Scrooge had never

penetrated
ation,
before, although he recognised its situits
and
bad repute.
The ways were

;
foul
tlie
and narrow
the shops and houses wretched
people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly.
Alleys
and archways, like so

their oflFences of smell,
many
and
cesspools,
disgorged
dirt,
and
life,
upon the
straggling streets;
and the whole quarter reeked
with crime, with
filth,
and misery.
resort, there
Far
in this
den of infamous
was a
roof,
low-browed, beetling shop, below a pent-house
THE LAST OF THE

where
offal,
SPIRITS.
129
iron,
old rags,
bottles,
bones,
and greasy
were bought.
Upon
the floor within, were

nails, chains, binges,
all
piled
files,
up heaps of rusty keys,

scales,
weights, and refuse iron of
kinds.
Secrets that few
would
like to scrutinise
were bred
and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses

of corrupted
in
fat,
and sepulchres of bones.

in,
Sitting
among
the
wares he dealt
by a charcoalrascal,
stove,
made
of old bricks,
was a gray-haired
nearly seventy years of age;

self
who had
screened himcurline
;
from the
cold air without,
by a frousy
hung upon a
taining of miscellaneous tatters,
and smoked his pipe in

retirement.
all
the
luxury of calm
Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence

of this
man, just
as a
woman
with a heavy bundle

scarcely entered,
slunk into the shop.
But she had
when another woman,
similarly laden,
came
in too
and she was closely followed by a

black,
man
in faded
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 astonish-
"
130
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
ment, in which the old

joined them, they
all
man with
the
pipe liad
three burst into a laugh.

!
" Let the charwoman alone to be the

cried she
first
who had
entered
first.
" Let the launlet
dress alone to be the second

taker's
and
the underhere, old
man
alone to be the third.

!
Look
all
Joe, here's a chance
If
"
we
haven't
three met here
without meaning
"
it
You
couldn't have
met
in a better place," said

his
old .Joe,
removing his pipe from
mouth,
" Come
long
into the parlour.
You were made

and the other two
free of it
ago,
you know
till
an't strangers.
Stop
it
I shut the door of the shop.

!
Ah
How
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

into the parlour.
matclied.
parlour."
Come
Come
into the
The parlour was the space behind the

rags.
screen of
The
old
man
raked the
fire
together with
an old stair-rod, and having trimmed his
smoky
"
THE LAST OP THE

lamp
put
it
SPIRITS.
131
(for
it
was
night), with the stem of his pipe,

again.
in his
mouth
While he did
this,
the
woman who had

floor
;
already
spoken threw her hundle on the

in
and
sat
down
a flaunting manner on a stool
crossing her
elbows on her knees,
and
looking with
a bold
defiance at the other two.
"What
said the
odds then
What
odds, Mrs. Dilber?"
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
the wiser
?
if
you was
afraid,
woman
who 's
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

enough.
cried the
woman.
" That
's
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-
K 2
132
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
to
"If he wanted
keep 'em
after he
was dead, a
wicked old screw," pursued the woman, "

he natural in his lifetime
?
why
wasn't
'd
If he
after
had been, he
lie
have had somebody to look
him when
was
struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his

last there, alone
by
himself.''
" It
's
the truest
word that ever was spoke,"

's
said
Mrs. Dilber.
'
" It
a judgment on him."
heavier judgment," replied
wish
it
was a
" and
little
it
the
woman
should have been, you
may
depend upon
thing
else.
it, if
I could
have laid
my
hands on any-
Open
that bundle, old Joe, and let

it.
me
know
the value of
Speak out
plain.
'm not
it.
afraid to be the
first,
nor afraid for them to see
We
knew
pretty well that
we were
I
helping
It
's
oursin.
selves, before
we met
here,
believe.
no
Open
the bundle, Joe."

of her friends
in
But the gallantry

this;
would not allow
of
and the
first,
man
faded black, mounting the

his
breach
produced
seal or
plunder.
It
was not
extensive.
two, a pencil-case, a pair of

value,
sleeve-buttons,
and a brooch of no great
were
THE LAST OF THE

all.
SPIRITS.
133
They were
old Joe,
severally
examined and appraised
by
who chalked
the sums he was disposed

wall,
to give for each,

into a total
upon the
and added them up
when he found
that there
was nothing
more
to come.
" That 's your account," said Joe, " and I wouldn't
give another sixpence,
if
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.
It
's
" I always give too

ness of mine,
said old Joe.
much
to ladies.
a weak-
and that's the way

" That
's
I ruin myself,"
your account.
it
If
you asked
me
I 'd
for another penny,
and made
liberal,
an open question,
oflF
repent of being so
and knock
half-a-
crown."
"
And now undo my
bundle, Joe," said the
first
woman.
Joe went
down on
it,
his knees for the greater con-
venience of opening
and having unfastened a great
134
A CHRISTMAS CABOL.
knots, dragged out a large and lieavy roll of
stuff.
many
some dark
"What
curtains
!"
do you
call
this?"
said
Joe.
"Bed-
"
Ah
!"
returned
the
woman,
crossed
laughing
arms.
and
leaning
curtains
forward on
!''
her
" Bed-
"
You
don't
all,
mean
to
say you took 'em down,
rings and
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
'11
certainly do
it."
"
I certainly shan't bold

it
my
it
band,
when
I can
get anything in
by reaching
was,
I
out, for the sake of
such a
the
man as He
promise you, Joe," returned

oil
woman
coolly.
" Don't drop that
upon the
blankets, now."
" His blankets ?" asked Joe. "
Whose
"
else's
do
you
likely
think ?"
replied
the
woman.
He
isn't
to take cold
without
'em, I dare say."
" I hope he didn't die of anything
catching
THE LAST OF THE
SPIRITS.
135
work, and
Eh
"
said
old
Joe,
stopping in his
looking up.
" Don't you be afraid
of that,"
returned the
that I 'd
woman.
loiter
" I an't so fond of his
company
if
about him for such things,

look through that
he did.
till
Ah
You may
ache
;
shirt
it,
your eyes
but you won't find a hole in

It
's
nor a thread-
bare place.
the best he had, and a fine one too.

it,
They
"
'd
have wasted
do you
it
if it
hadn't been for me."

it ?"
What
call
wasting of
asked old Joe.

to be sure,"
" Putting
replied the
fool
on him to be buried
with a laugh.
but I took
it
in,
woman
to
" Somebody was
enough
do
it,
oS again.
it
If calico
an't
good enough
for
such a purpose,
It
's
isn't
good
enough
body.
for anything.
quite as becoming to the
He
can't look uglier than he did in that one."
Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. they sat grouped about their
light afforded
spoil,
As
in the
scanty
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.
136
" Ha, ha
!"
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
laughed the same woman, wlien old
Joe, producing a flannel hag with
money
in
it,
told
is
out their several gains upon the ground.

the end of
it,
" This
you
sec
He frightened
every one
away
from him when ho was
alive, to profit
us
when he
was dead
Ha,
!"
ha, ha
!"
" Spirit
foot.
said Scrooge, shuddering
from head to
"I
see, I see.
The
case of this
unhappy man
might be
my
own.
My
is
life
tends that way, now.

!"
Merciful Heaven,
what
this
He
recoiled in terror, for the scene

:
had changed,
and now he almost touched a bed

tained bed
:
a bare, uncursheet, there

it
on which, beneath a ragged
lay a something covered up, which, though
was
dumb, announced
itself in
awful language.
The room was very
dark, too dark to be observed

it
with any accuracy, though Scrooge glanced round

in obedience to a secret impulse, anxious to
know
what kind of room

the outer
air, fell
it
was.
pale light, rising in

;
straight
upon the bed
and on
it,
plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared

for,
was the body
of this
man.
THE LAST OF THE
SPIRITS.
137
Its steady
Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom.
hand was pointed
to the head.
The
cover was so
it,
carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of
the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part, would
have disclosed the

easy
it
face.
He
thought of
it, felt
how
would be
to do,
and longed to do
veil
it
but had
no more power to withdraw the

the spectre at his side.
than to dismiss
Oh
altar
cold, cold, rigid, dreadful
Death,
set
up
thine
here,
and dress
it
with such terrors as thou

for this
is
hast at thy
command
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.
fall
It is not that the
hand
it is
is
heavy and will
down when
still
;
released
not
that the heart and pulse are
but that the hand

the
heart
WAS
open, generous, and true

;
brave,
Strike,
warm, and tender

Shadow,
strike
!
and the pulse a man's.

see his
And
good deeds springing

life
from the wound, to sow the world with

mortal
!
im-
No
voice pronounced these
words
in
Scrooge's
138
cars,
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
ami yet he heard them when he looked upon
the bed.
He tliought,
if tliis
man
could be raised up
now, what would be

rice,
his foremost
?
thoughts
Ava-
hard dealing, griping cares

!
They have brought
him- to a rich end, truly
He
lay, in the
dark empty house, with not a man,
a woman, or a child, to say he was kind to

this or that,
I
me
in
and
for the
memory
of one kind
word
will be kind to him.
cat
was tearing
at the
door, and there
was a sound
of
gnawing
rats beneath
the hearth-stone.
death, and
What
they wanted in the
room
of
why
they were so restless and disturbed,
Scrooge did not dare to think.
" Spirit
Jeaviug
it,
"
he said, " this
is
a fearful place.
trust
In
I
"
shall not leave its lesson,
me.
Let us go
Still
the Ghost pointed with an
unmoved
finger
to the head.
" I understand you," Scrooge returned, " and I
would do
Spirit.
it, if
I could.
But
have not the power,
have not the power."
Again
it
seemed to look upon him.
"
THE LAST OF THE

" If there
is
SPIRITS.
139
any person
in the
town,
who
feels
emotion caused by this man's death," said Scrooge

quite agonized, "
show that person
to
me,
Spirit, I
beseech you
The phantom spread

a moment, like a wing
a room
;
its
dark robe before him for

it,
and withdrawing
revealed
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

tried,
glanced at the clock
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

to
was heard.
She hurried
the door, and met her husband; a
man whose
face
was care-worn
and
depressed,
though he was young.

pression in
it
There was a remarkable ex-
now
a kind of serious delight of which
he
felt
ashamed, and which he struggled to repress.

sat
He
for
down
to the dinner that

fire
;
had been hoarding

faintly
him by the
and when she asked him
140
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
after
what news (which was not until

ho appeared embarrassed
a long silence),
how
to answer.
?
" Is
it
good," she said, " or bad
"
to help him.
" Bad," he answered. "
We are
quite ruined
is
"
?
" No. " If he
There
hope
she
yet, Caroline."
said,
if
relents,"
is
amazed, " there

such a
miracle
is
Nothing
past
hope,
has
happened."
"
is
He
is
past relenting," said her husband.
"
He
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

first
moment, and was sorry ; but the

heart.
was the emotion of her
"
What
the half-drunken
woman whom
I told
you
of last night, said to
me, when
;
I tried to see
I thought
him
was
and obtain a week's delay

a mere excuse to avoid
quite true.
then."
and what
me
turns out to have been

ill,
He was
not only very
but dying,
THE LAST OF THE

"
SPIRITS.
"
?
141
To whom
I
will our debt
be transferred
"
don't
know.
But
;
before that time
we
shall
be ready with the money

not,
it
and even though we were

to find so
sleep
would be bad fortune indeed
merciless a creditor in his successor.
We may
"
to-night with light hearts, Caroline
Yes.
lighter.
Soften
it
as they would, their hearts were
The
children's faces,
hushed and clustered

little
round to hear what they so

brighter;
understood, were
for
and
!
it
was a happier house
this
man's death
could
The only emotion
that the Ghost
show him, caused by the
event,
was one
of
pleasure.
" Let
death,"
Spirit,
me
said
see
some tenderness connected with a

;
Scrooge
left
" or
just
that
dark chamber,
will be for ever
which we
now,
present to me."
The Ghost conducted him through

familiar to his feet
;
several streets
and
as they
went along, Scrooge
looked here and there to find himself, but nowhere
was he
house
;
to be seen.
They
entered poor
Bob
Cratchit's
;
the
dwelling
he had visited before
and
"
142
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
tlic
found the mother and

the
fire.
children seated round
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.
in
The mother
But
and her daughters were engaged

surely they were very quiet
''
'
sewing.
And He
took a child, and set him in the midst
of them.'
Where had Scrooge heard

not dreamed them.
out,
those words
He had
The boy must have read them

crossed
as he and
the Spirit
?
the threshold.
Why
did he not go on
laid her
The mother
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

" It makes them weak by wouldn't show
candle-light
;
wife.
I
and
weak
eyes to your father
when he
his
comes home,
time."
for the
world
It
must be near
THE LAST OF THE

" Past
it
SPIRITS.
143
rather," Peter answered, shutting

I think
up
his
book.
"
But
he has walked a
last evenings,
little
slower
than he used, these few
mother."
last she said,
They were very

and
once
quiet again.
At
in a steady cheerful voice, that only faultered
" I have
known him walk with
have known
him walk with Tiny Tim upon

fast indeed."
his
shoulder, very
"
And And
so have I," cried Peter. so have

I !"
" Often."
"
all.
exclaimed another.
So had
" But he was very light to carry," she resumed,

intent
upon her work, " and
his father loved
him
there
so, that it
is
was no
trouble
!
no trouble.
And
your father
at the door
"
She hurried out

his comforter
in.
to
meet him
and
little
Bob
in
he had need of
was ready
for
it,
poor fellow
came
most.
His
all
tea
him on the hob, and

it
they
tried
who
should help him to
Then the two young Cratchits got upon

and
laid,
his knees
each child a
little
cheek, against his face,
"
"
"
144
as
if
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
they
!
said,
" Don't
mind
it,
father.
Don't be
grieved
Bob was very
cheerful with
them, and spoke

at the
pleasantly to all the family.
He looked
work
upon the
of Mrs.
table,
and praised the industry and speed
Cratchit
and the
girls.
They would be
done long before Sunday he

" Sunday
1
said.
You went
to-day then,
Robert
said his wife.
" Yes,
my
dear," returned
It
Bob.
" I wish you

to
it
could have gone.

see
would have done you good

it
is.
how
green
a place
But
you'll see
often.
I promised
him that
would walk there on

!
a Sunday.
My
!
little,
little
child
"
cried
Bob.
My
He
little
child
all
broke down
at once.
it,
He
couldn't help
it.
If
he could have helped
he and his child
would have been farther apart perhaps than they

were.
He
left
the room, and went up stairs into the

lighted
cheerfully,
room above, which was hung with Christmas.
and
There was a chair
set close
THE LAST OF THE
SPIRITS.
145
beside the child, and there were signs of
some one
having been there,

it,
lately.
Poor Bob
little
sat
down
in
and when he had thought a
and composed
himself, he kissed the little face.

to wliat
He was reconciled
had happened, and went down again quite
happy.
They drew about the

and mother working
fire,
and talked
told
the girls
of the
still.
Bob
them
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
little
down you know"

to distress
is
said Bob, enquired
what had happened

said
him.
"
On
which,"
Bob,
" for he
the
I
pleasantest-spoken
told him.
'
gentleman
you ever heard,

it,
am
heartily sorry for

for
Mr.
Cratchit,'
wife.'
he
said,
'
and heartily sorry
your good
I don't
By
"
the bye,
how he
ever
knew
t/iat,
know."
Knew
what,
my
dear?"
" Wliy, that you were a good wife," replied Bob.
" Everybody knows that
I"
said Peter.
" Very well observed,
my
boy!"
cried
Bob.
"I
146
hope they do.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
*
Heartily sorry,' he said,

to
'
'
for
your
good
wife.
If I can be of service
you
in
any
way,* he said, giving

live.
me
his card,
that's where I
wasn't," cried
Pray come
to me.'
Now,
it
Bob, " for the sake of anything he might be able to

do
for U3, so
much
as for his
It really
felt
kind way, that this
was
quite delightful.
seemed as
if
he had
known our Tiny Tim, and
with us."
"I'm
chit.
sure he's a good soul!" said Mrs. Crat-
"
You would
if
be surer of
it,
my
dear," returned
I shouldn't
Bob, "
be at
you saw and spoke
to him.
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 " It

's
" retorted Peter, grinning.
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
"
THE LAST OF THE

from one another, I
forget poor
SPIRITS.
147
am
sure
we
shall
none of us
Tiny Tim
shall
we
"
?
or this first part-
ing that there
was among us
!
" Never, father
" cried
they
all.
" And I know," said Bob, "

that
know,
my
dears,
when we
;
recollect
how
patient
and how mild

child
;
he was
although he was a
little, little
we
shall not quarrel easily
among
ourselves,
and forget
poor Tiny
Tim
in doing it."
!
" No, never, father

"I
"
they
all
cried again.
am
1
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.

childish essence
Spirit of
Tiny Tim, thy
was from God
" Spectre," said Scrooge, " something informs me

that our parting
moment
is
at hand.
know
that
it,
but I
know
not how.
Tell
"
?
me what man
was
whom we saw lying

The Ghost
him,
as
dead
of Christmas
Yet To Come conveyed

at
before though
a different
time,
he
L 2

148
thought
:
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
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
a
desired, until besought
by Scrooge
to tarry for
moment.
" This court," said Scrooge, " through which
we
and
hurry now,
lias
is
where
my
place of occupation
is,
been for a length of time.
I see the house.
Let
me
behold what I shall be, in days to come."

Spirit stopped
;
The
where.
the hand
was pointed
else-
" The
house
is
yonder,"
"
?
Scrooge
exclaimed.
"
Why
do you point away

finger
The inexorable
underwent no change.
Scrooge hastened to the

looked
in.
window
of his office,
his.
and
It
was an
office still,
but not
The
furniture
was not the same, and the

himself.
figure in the
chair
before.
was not
The Phantom pointed
as
He
joined
it
once again, and wondering
why
and
THE LAST OF THE

whither he had gone,
reached an iron gate.
before entering.
SPIRITS.
until
149
they
accompanied
it
He
paused to look round
churchyard.
Here,
then, the wretched
man
whose name he had now

the ground.
It
to learn, lay underneath

place.
was a worthy
Walled
in
by
houses
overrun by grass and weeds, the growth of

not
fat
life
;
vegetation's death,
choked up with too

repleted
appetite.
much burying
worthy place
!
with
The
Spirit stood
among
the graves, and pointed

it
down
to One.
He
advanced towards
as
it
trembling.
The Phantom was exactly

dreaded that he saw
shape.
had been, but he

in its
new meaning
solemn
" Before I draw nearer to that stone to which
you
point," said Scrooge,
" answer me one question.
Are
these the shadows of the things that Will be,
or are they shadows of
the things
that
May
be,
only
"
?
Still
the Ghost pointed

it
downward
to
the grave
by which
stood.
150
A CHRISTMAS CAROL,
will foreshadow certain ends, to
in,
"Men's courses
which,
Scrooge.
if
persevered
they
must
lead,"
said
" But
if
the courses be departed from,
the ends will change.
Say
it
is
thus with what
you show me!"
The
Spirit
was immovable
it,
as ever.
Scrooge crept towards
trembling as he went
and following the
finger, read
upon the stone of the
neglected grave his
own name, Ebenezer Scrooge.
"Am
cried,
/ that man who lay upon the bed?" he

his knees.
upon
The
finger pointed
from the grave to him, and
back again.
" No, Spirit
!
Oh
was
no, no !"
there.
The
finger
still
"Spirit!"
he
I I
cried, tight
clutching at
I was.
its
robe,
" hear be the

course.
me
am
not the
man
I will not
inter-
man
must have been but

if
for this
Why show me this,

first
am
past
all
hope ?"
For the
" Good
time the hand appeared to shake.
Spirit,"
fell
he pursued, as down upon the

it
:
ground he
before
" Your nature intercedes
c_^^^<^=j2^^^^7/S^:$^J::^^,^^2:^ ^.
Lcniaru:
Chapmjm.
Sail,
IS6, Strand.
"
THE LAST OP THE

for
SPIRITS.
151
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
to
my
heart,
and try
keep
it all
the year.
I will live in the Past, the
Present, and the Future.

shall
The
Spirits
of all Three
strive
within me.
I will not
shut out the

I
lessons that they teach.
Oh,
tell
me
may
sponge
away the writing on
this stone
"
!
In his agony, he caught the spectral hand.

sought to
treaty,
free itself,
It
but he was strong in his enit.
and detained
The
Spirit, stronger yet,
repulsed him.
Holding up
his
hands
in
one
last
prayer to have
his fate reversed,
he saw an alteration in the PhanIt
tom's hood and dress.
shrunk, collapsed, and
dwindled down into a bedpost.
"
STAVE
FIVE.
THE END OF
Yes! and
was
his
IT.
the bedpost
was
his
own. own.
The bed
Best and
his
own, the room was

all,
his
happiest of
to
the
in
Time
!
before
him was
own,
make amends
" 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
old Jacob
praised for this

;
I say
it
on
my
knees,
on
my
knees
He was
intentions,
so fluttered
and
so
glowing with his good
that
his
broken voice would scarcely
answer to his
in his conflict
call.
He
had been sobbing violently

Spirit,
with the
and
his face
was wet
with
tears.
"
"
THE END OF
"
IT.
153
They
are not torn down," cried Scrooge, folding
one of his bed-curtains in his arms, " they are not

torn down, rings and here
:
all.
They
are here:
am
the shadows of the things that would have
been,
may
!
be dispelled.
They
will be.
know
they will
His hands were busy with

time
:
his
garments
all
this
turning them inside out, putting them on
upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making
them
parties to every kind of extravagance.

to
" I don't know what
do "
cried
;
Scrooge,
laughing and crying in the same breath
and making
a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings. " I
am
I
as light as a feather, I as
am
as
happy
I
as an angel, as giddy
to every-
am
merry as a school-boy.
am
as a
drunken man.
!
merry Christmas
body
here!
happy
New
Year
to all the world.
Hallo
Whoop! Hallo!"
frisked into the sitting-room,
:
He had
now
and was
standing there
's
perfectly winded.
" There
the saucepan that the gruel

starting off again,
was
in
cried Scrooge,
and going round
"
"
154
the fire-place.
CHRISTMAS CAROL.
's
" There
the door,
!
by which the
Ghost of Jacob Marley entered
There 's the corner

sat
!
where the Ghost of Christmas Present,

the
There
's
window where
saw the wandering

it
Spirits!
It's all right, it's all true,
all
happened.
Ha
ha ha
Really, for a
for so
man who had been

it
out of practice
many
years,
was a splendid laugh, a most

father of a long, long, line
illustrious laugh.
The
of brilliant laughs " I don't
know what day

" I don't
I
of the
month
it is
said Scrooge.
know how know
long I've been

anything.
among the
Spirits.
don't
I'm
I 'd
!"
quite a baby.
Never mind.
Hallo
!
I don't care.
!
rather be a baby.
Whoop
Hallo here
He was
checked in his transports by the churches
ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard.
Clash, clang,
ding,
hammer,
ding, dong, bell.

!
Bell, dong,
hammer,
!
clang, clash
Oh,
glorious,
glo-
rious
Running
to the
window, he opened
fog,
it,
and put
out his head.
No
no mist
clear, bright, jovial,
"
THE END OF
stirring, cold
;
IT.
155
dance
cold, piping for the blood to

;
to
Golden sunlight
;
Heavenly sky
glorious.
sweet fresh
air
merry
bells.
Oh,
?
Glorious
" What's to-day
" cried Scrooge, calling
down-
ward
to a
boy
in
Sunday
clothes,
who perhaps had
loitered in to look about him.
"Eh?"
of wonder.
returned the boy, with
all
his
might
"
What
's
to-day,
!
my
fine fellow ? " said Scrooge.
" To-day " replied the boy.
"
Why, Christ-
mas Day."
" It
's
Christmas
Day
it.
!"
said Scrooge to himself.

Spirits
" I haven't missed

all
The
have done
it
in one
night.
They can do anything they
like.
Of
course they can.

fine fellow
!
!
Of
course they can.
Hallo,
my
"
" Hallo
" returned the boy.
Do you know
the
Poulterer's,
?
in
the
next
street
but one, at the corner
"
Scrooge inquired.
lad.
" I should hope I did," replied the "
An
intelligent
!
boy
"
!
said Scrooge.
"
re've
markable boy
Do you know
whether they
156
sold the prize
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
Turkey that was hanging up there

prize
Not
tlie little
Turkey
the big one
"
?
" What, the one as big as

boy.
*'
me
? "
returned the
"What a delightful boy
" said Scrooge.
" It
's
a pleasure to talk to him.
Yes,
my
buck
!"
" It " Is
"
's
hanging there now," replied the boy.

" said Scrooge.
!
it ?
"
Go and buy
it."
Walk-EU
"
exclaimed the boy.
" No, no," said Scrooge, " I
am
it
in
earnest.
Go
may
and buy
give
it,
and
tell
'em to bring
here, that I
it.
them the direction where

'11
to take
Come back Come

'11
with the man, and I
give you a shilling.
back with him
in
less
!
than five minutes, and I

"
give you half-a- crown
The boy was
off
like a shot. at
He must
who
could
have
had a steady hand
a
fast.
trigger
have
got a shot off half so
"I
'11
send
it
to
Bob
Cratchit's
"
whispered
a
Scrooge, rubbing his
hands, and splitting with
laugh.
"He
sha'n't
know who
Tim.
sends
it.
It's
twice the size of Tiny
Joe
Miller
never
"
THE END OF
IT.
157
it
made such
be
!
a joke
as
sending
to
Bob's will
The hand
in
which he wrote the address was not a

it
steady one, but write
he did, somehow, and went

street door,
down
stairs to
open the
ready for the

stood there,
coming of the
poulterer's
man.
As he
waiting his arrival, the knocker caught his eye.
" I shall love

patting
at
its
it it
it,
as long as I live
!"
cried Scrooge,
with his hand.
" I scarcely ever looked

it
before.
!
What
's
an honest expression
has in
face
It
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

said this,
cab."
The chuckle with which he
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
168
A CHRISTMAS CAKOL.
only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which he

sat
till
down
breathless in his chair again, and chuckled
he cried.
for his
Shaving was not an easy task,

tinued to shake very
attention, even
at
it.
hand con-
much
and shaving requires
when you
don't dance while
you are
off,
But
if
he had cut the end of his nose
he
it,
would have put a

and been quite
piece of sticking-plaister over
satisfied.
all in
He
dressed himself "
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.
in a
said,
He looked
so irresistibly pleasant,
word, that three or four good-humoured fellows
" Good morning,
sir
merry Christmas
to
you
all
!"
And
Scrooge said often afterwards, that of
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

THE END OF
into his
IT.
159
counting-house the day before and said,

I believe ?"
" Scrooge and Marley's,
It sent a
pang
across his heart to think
how
this old
;
gentleman
would look upon him when they met
but he
knew
it.
what path
"
lay straight before him, and he took

sir," said
My
dear
Scrooge, quickening his pace,

his hands.
and taking the old gentleman by both

''
How do
you do
hope you succeeded yesterday.
It
was very kind
of you.
merry Christmas
to
you, sir!"
" Mr. Scrooge
?"
" Yes," said Scrooge.

fear
it
" That
is
my
name, and I
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 gone.

serious
'-
"
My
dear Mr. Scrooge, are you
V
you
please," said Scrooge.
If
" Not a farthing

are included in
"
?
less.
it,
A
My
great
many back-payments
Will you do
I assure you.
me
that favour
"
dear
sir,"
said the other,
shaking hands
"
160
with him.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
" I don't
know what
to say to such
munifi
"
''
" Don't say anything, please," retorted Scrooge,
Come and
"
I will
!
see
me.
Will you come and see

gentleman.
me ?
it
" cried the old
And
was
clear he
meant
to
do
it.
" Thank
to you.
'ee," said
Scrooge.
'
am much
Bless you
obliged
"
!
thank you
to church,
fifty times.
He went
and walked about the

to
streets,
and watched the people hurrying
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

give
walk
that
anything
could
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
dash, and did
it
up and knock.
But he made a
" Is your master at home,

to the girl.
my
dear? " said Scrooge
Nice
girl
Very.
THE END OF
" Yes,
sir."
is
IT.
161
" Where
"
I
'11
he,
my
love ?" said Scrooge.

sir,
He 's
in the
dining-room,
stairs, if
along with mistress.
show you up
'ee.
you
please."
" Thank
his
He knows
me," said Scrooge, with

lock.
hand already on the dining-room

in here,
" I
'11
go
my
it
dear."
He
turned
gently,
and
sidled his face in, at the table

;
round
the door.
They were looking

in
(which
was spread out
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
started
!
alive,
how
his
niece
by marriage
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.
!
"
that
Why
"
?
bless
my
soul
"
cried
Fred, " who's
" It 's
dinner.
I.
Your
uncle Scrooge.
let
I
"
?
have come to
Will you
!
me
in,
Fred
Let him in
It is a
mercy he
didn't shake his
162
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
off.
arm
lie
was
at
home
in five minutes.
Nothing
could be heartier.
His niece looked just the same.

So did the plump
So did Topper when he came.

sister,
when
she came.
So did every one wlien they
came.
ful
Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonder-
unanimity, won-der-ful happiness!

early at the office next morning.
If he could
But he was
he was
first,
Oh
early there.
only be there
late
!
and catch Bob Cratchit coming

set his heart
!
That
was the thing he had
upon.
And
nine.
he did
it
yes he did
The
clock struck
No
full
Bob.
quarter past.
No
Bob.
He
was
time.
eighteen minutes and a half, behind his
Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that
he might see him come into the Tank.
His hat was

comforter too.
driving
off,
before he opened the door
his
He was
on his
stool
in
a jiffy;
away with
his pen, as if
he were trying to
overtake nine o'clock.
" Hallo
"
growled Scrooge,
it.
in
his
accustomed
do you
voice as near as he could feign
"
What
day
"
?
mean by coming here
at this time of
"
THE END OF
" I
IT.
163
" I
am
very sorry,
sir," said
Bob.
am
behind
my
"
time."
You
are.
are
"
repeated Scrooge.
if
" Yes.
I think
you
Step this way,
you
please,"
" It's only once a year,

pearing from the Tank.
I
sir,"
pleaded Bob, ap-
" It shall not be repeated.

sir."
was making rather merry yesterday,

" Now,
I
'11
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

in the waistcoat that
Bob such
a dig
he staggered back into the

I
Tank again
your salary
!
" and therefore
am
about to raise
Bob
trembled, and got a
little
nearer to the ruler.
He
had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge

it
;
down with
holding him
and
calling to the
people in the court for help and a strait- waistcoat. "
merry Christmas, Bob
" said Scrooge,
with
an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he

clapped him on the back.
"
merrier Christmas,
164
A fllRISTMAS CAROL.
Bob,
my
good fellow, than

!
have given you,
for
many
a year
'11
raise
your salary, and endeavour

will discuss
to assist
your struggling family, and we
your
affairs this
very afternoon, over a Christmas

!
bowl of smoking bishop, Bob
THE END OF
IT.
65
Make up
before
the
fires,
and buy another

i,
coal-scuttle
"
!
you dot another
Bob
Cratchit
Scrooge was better than his word.

all,
He
did
it
and
die,
infinitely
more
and to Tiny Tim, who did
NOT
he was a second father.
He
became
as
good
a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as
the good
city,
old city
or
knew, or any other good old

world.
town,
borough, in the good old
Some
but he
people laughed to see the alteration in him,

let
them laugh, and
little
heeded them
tliat
for
he was wise enough to
know
nothing ever
happened on
this globe, for good,

fill
at
which some
people did not have their

outset
;
of laughter in the
and knowing that such as these would be

it
blind
anyway, he thought
wrinkle
in
:
quite as well that they

in
should
the
up
less
their eyes
grins,
as
have
malady
attractive
forms.
His own
for
heart
laughed
and that was quite enough
him.
He
had no further intercourse with
Spirits,
but
166
lived
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
upon the Total Abstinence

;
Principle, ever after-
wards
and
it
was always
said of him, that he
knew how
to keep Christmas well, if
any man
alive
possessed the knowledge.

of us,
May
And
that be truly said
and
all
of us
so, as
Tiny Tim ob-
served,
God
Bless Us, Every
One
THE END.
LO.VDOM
BRAPBLRY AND EVANS,
rRI.VTERS, WHITEKRIARS.
WORKS OF MR. CHARLES

Kos.
I. to
DICKENS.
is.
XIII.,
to he
completed in Tiventy Monthly Numbers, price
each,
THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF
MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT.
ILLUSTRATED BY
" PHIZ."
In two volumes, post Svo, price One Guinea,
AMERICAN NOTES
FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION.
jFourtf) ffimtlon.
In one vulume, price
I3s. cloih,
BARNABY RUDGE;
A
TALE OF THE RIOTS OF 'EIGHTY.

aaitl) gctitntp-tiBfjt Illusfrations,
BY
G.
CATTERMOLE AND
H. K.
BROWNE.
In one volume, price
I3s. cloth,
THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP.

WITH
StBents-jFtbE Illustrations,
BY
G.
CATTERMOLE AND
H. K.
BROWNE.
WORKS OF
MR. CHARLES DICKENS.
In one volume Bvo, price
II.
is. clvth,
SKETCHES BY
sa
"
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flflKtion.
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In one volume Svu, price U.
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WITH
FORTV-THRER ILLUSTRATIONS BY
" PHIZ.'
In three volumes, post Svo, price
25s. cloth,
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WITH
FORTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.
In one volume
8vo, price
11. Is.
cloth,
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY.
WITH
FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS,
BY'
"PHIZ"
PK 40D( SMC
.Al
lU4Ja
Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870. in A Christmas carol prose; being a ghost AKY-7708 (awsk)
:
if %,

A Christmas Carol

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A Christmas Carol

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&})ait ^torg of dLffxi^tmuS.

HaZL 1S6, StranJ,

CHAPMAN & HALL,

AND KVANS, PRIVTKBS, WHITRKftrAHS.

book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not

with each other, with the season, or with me.

haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish

Their faithful Friend and Servant,

THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS

THE SECOND OF THE THREE

doubt whatever about that.

was signed by the clergyman, the

undertaker, and the chief mourner.

and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change,

anything he chose to put his hand

own knowledge, what

might have been

myself, to regard a coffin -nail as the deadest piece

But the wisdom

will therefore permit

Marley was as dead as a door- nail.

know he was dead

Scrooge and he were

partners for I don't

know how many

executor, his sole administrator, his

even Scrooge was

not so dreadfully cut

of business on the very

of Marley's funeral brings

point I started from.

Marley was dead.

This must be distinctly

understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the

fectly convinced that

Hamlet's Father died before

began, there would be nothing more rein

wind, upon his

ramparts, than there

any other middle-aged gentleman rashly

turning out after dark in a breezy spot

Scrooge never painted

stood, years afterwards, above the

Scrooge and Marley.

The firm was

Scrooge Scrooge, and

sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names.

the same to him.

a squeezing, wrenching, grasp!

ing, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner

struck out generous

eyes red, his thin lips blue

and spoke out shrewdly

his grating voice.

head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.

own low temperature always about with

one degree at Christmas.

than he, no falling snow was more intent upon

heaviest rain, and snow% and hail,

boast of the advantage over