CHARLES DICKENS'S MTIlTl Mlm O . BOSTON : Sc SHICF'.A.'KD, Publishers. 1876. SPENCER'S UNIVERSAL STAGE. A Collection of COMEDIES, DRAMAS, and FARCES, adapted to either Public or Private Performance. Containing a full description of all the necessary Stage Business. PRICE, 15 CENTS EA.CS. o Plays exchanged. Lost in London. A Drama in Three Acts. 6 Mhle, 4 Female char-, acters. Nicholas Flam. A Comedy in Two Acts. By J. B. Bucketone. 5 Male, 3 Female characters. The Welsh Girl. A Comedy in One Act. By Mrs. Planche. 3 Male, 2 Female characters. John Wopps. A Farce in One Act. ' ~1. Suter. By W. E. characters. 4 Male, 2 Ft- male The Turkish Bath. A Farce in One Act. By Montague Williams and F. C. Burnand. 6 Male, 1 Fe- male character. The Two Puddifoots. A Frce in One Act. By J. M. Morton. 3 Mule, 3 Female characters. Old Honesty. A Comic Drama in Two Acts. By J. M. Morton. 5 Male, 2 Female characters. Two Gentlemen in a Fix. A Farce in One Act. By W. E. Suter. 2 Male characters. Smashington Goit. A Farce in One Act. By T. J . Williams. 5 Male, 3 Female characters. Two Heads Better thanOne. A Farce in One Act. By Lenox Home. 4 Male, 1 Female character. John Dobbs. A Farce in One Act. By J. M. Morton. 5 Male, 2 Female characters. The Daughter of the Regi- ment. A Drama in Two Acts. By Edward Fitzball. Male, 2 Female characters. Aunt Charlotte's Maid. A Farce in One Act. By J. M. Morton. 3 Male, 3 Female "characters. Brother Bill and Me. A Farce in One Act. By W. E. Suter. 4 Male, 3 Female characters. Done on Both Sides. A Farce in On- Act. By J. M. Morton. Male, 2 Female characters. T>undncketty's Picnic. A Farce in One Act. By T. J. Williams. 6 Male, 3 Female characters. I've -written to Browne. A Farce in One Act. By T. J. Williams. 4 Male, 3 Female characters. Lending a Hand. A Farce in One ( Act. By G. A. A'Becket. 3 Male, 2 Female characters. My Precious Betsy. A Farce in One Act By J. M. Morton. 4 Male, 4 Femuli characters. MyTurnlVext. A Farce in One Act. By T. J. Williams. 4 Male, 3 Fe- male chii.r. -ters. Nine Point < of the Law. A Com- edy in One Act. By Tom Taylor. 4 Male, 3 Female characters. The Phantom Breakfast. A Farce in One Act. By Charles Sel- by. 3 Male, 2 Female characters. Dandelions Dodges. A Farce in One Act. By T. J. Williams. 4 Male, 2 Female characters. A Slice of Luck. A Farce in One Act. i?y J. M. Morton. 4 Male, 2 Female characters. Always Intended. A Comedy in One Act. By Hqmce Wigan. 3 Male, 3 Female chaWcters. A Bull in a China Shop. A Com- edy in Two Acts. By Charles Mat- thews. 6 Male, 4 Female characters. Another Glass. A Drama in One Act. By Thomas Mqrton. 6 Male, 3 Female characters. Bowled Out, A Farce in One Act. By H. T. Craven. 4 Male, 3 Female characters. Cousin Tom. A Commedietta in One Act. By George Roberts. 3 Male, 2 Female characters. Starah's Young Man. A Farce in One Act. By W. E. Suter. 3 Male, 3 Female characters. Hit Him, He has IVo Friends. A Farce in One Act. By E. Yates and N. H. Harrington. 7 Male, 3 Female characters. The Christening. A Farce in One let. By J. B. Buckstone. 5 Male, o Female characters. A Race for a Widow. A Farce in One Act. By Thomas J. Wil- liams. 5 Male, 4 Female characters. Tour Life's in Danger. A Farce in One Act. By J. M. Morton. 3 Male, 3 Female characters. True unto Death. A Drama in Two Acts. By J. Sheridan Knowleg. 6 Male, 2 Female characters. s 1 x. BY CHARLES DICKENS. AS CONDENSED BY HIMSELF, FOR HIS READINGS. BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD. NEW YORK: CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM. 1877. GAD'S HILL, HICHAM BY ROCHESTER, KBNT Tenth October, 1867. The edition bearing the imprint of MESSRS. TICKNOR AND FIELDS is the only ccrrect and authorized edition of my READINGS. CHARLES DICKENS. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by TICKNOR AND FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts UXJVEKSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co., CAMBRIDGE. A CHRISTMAS CAROL. IN FOUR STAVES. STAVE ONE. MAKLET'S GHOST. MAELEY was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The regis- ter of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Scrooge knew he was dead ? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise ? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole adminis- trator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, his sole mourner. Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name, however. There it yet stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door, Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called 4 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley. He answered to both names. It was all the same to him. Oh ! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, was Scrooge ! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sin- ner! External heat and cold had little influence on him. No warmth could warm, no cold could chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its pur- pose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather did n't know where to have him. The heaviest rain and snow and hail and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one re- spect, they often " came down " handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, " My dear Scrooge, how are you ? When will you come to see me ? " No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blindmen's dogs appeared to know him ; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts ; and then would wag their tails as though they said, " No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master ! " But what did Scrooge care ! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 5 crowded paths of life, warning all human sym- pathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge. Once upon a time of all the good days in the year, upon a Christmas eve old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting, foggy weather ; and the city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark al- ready. The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who, in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he could n't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room ; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle ; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed. " A merry Christmas, uncle ! God save you ! " cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation Scrooge had of his approach. " Bah ! " said Scrooge ; " humbug ! " " Christmas a humbug, uncle ! You don't mean that, I am sure ? " 6 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. " I do. Out upon merry Christmas ! What 'a Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money ; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer ; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you ? If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with ' Merry. Christmas ' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly ^irough his heart. He should ! " " Uncle ! " " Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine." " Keep it! But you don't keep it." " Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you ! Much good it has ever done you ! " " There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, apart from the venera- tion due to its sacred origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that, as a good time ; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time ; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow- travellers to the grave, and not another race of creatures b