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<rmd on other journeys. And there-
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 7 
 
 lore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold 
 or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done 
 me good, and will do me good ; and I say, God 
 bless it ! " 
 
 The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. 
 
 "Let me hear another sound from you," said 
 Scrooge, " and you '11 keep your Christmas by 
 losing your situation ! You 're quite a powerful 
 speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew. 
 " I wonder you don't go into Parliament." 
 
 " Don't be angry, uncle. Come ! Dine with us 
 to-morrow." 
 
 Scrooge said that he would see him yes, in- 
 deed he did. He went the whole length of the 
 expression, and said that he would see him in 
 that extremity first. 
 
 " But why ? " cried Scrooge's nephew. " Why ? " 
 
 " Why did you get married ? " 
 
 " Because I fell in love." 
 
 " Because you fell in love ! " growled Scrooge, 
 as if that were the only one thing in the world 
 mqre ridiculous than a merry Christmas. " Good 
 afternoon! " 
 
 " Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me be- 
 fore that happened. Why give it as a reason for 
 not coming now ? " 
 
 " Good afternoon " 
 
 " I want nothing from you ; I ask nothing of 
 you ; why cannot we be friends ? " 
 
 " Gcod afternoon."
 
 8 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 " I ain sorry, with all my heart, to find you so 
 resolute. We have never had .any quarrel, to 
 which I have been a party. But I have made the 
 trial in homage to Christmas, and I '11 keep my 
 Christmas humor to the last. So A Merry Christ- 
 mas, uncle!" 
 
 " Good afternoon ! " 
 
 " And A Happy New- Year ! " 
 
 " Good afternoon ! " 
 
 His nephew left the room without an an- 
 gry word, notwithstanding. The clerk, in letting 
 Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in. 
 They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, 
 and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge's 
 office. They had books and papers in their hands, 
 and bowed to him. 
 
 " Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one 
 of the gentlemen, referring to his list. " Have I 
 the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. 
 Marley?" 
 
 " Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years. 
 He died seven years ago, this very night." 
 
 " At this festive season of theyear, Mr. Scrooge," 
 said the gentleman, taking up a pen, " it is more 
 than usually desirable that we should make some 
 slight provision for the poor and destitute, who 
 suifer greatly at the present time. Many thousands 
 are in want of common necessaries ; hundreds of 
 thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." 
 
 " Arc there no prisons ? "
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 9 
 
 " Plenty of prisons. But under the impression 
 that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind 
 or body to the unoffending 1 multitude, a few of us 
 are endeavoring 1 to raise a fund to buy the poor 
 some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We 
 choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, 
 when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices 
 What shall I put you down for ? " 
 
 " Nothing ! " 
 
 " You wish to be anonymous ? " 
 
 " I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me 
 what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't 
 make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford 
 to make idle people merry. I help to support the 
 prisons and the workhouses, they cost enough, 
 and those who are badly off must go there." 
 
 " Many can't go there ; and many would rather 
 die." 
 
 " If they would rather die, they had better do it. 
 and decrease the surplus population." 
 
 At length the hour of shutting. up the counting 
 house arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge, dismount- 
 ing from his stool, tacitly admitted the fact to the 
 expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed 
 his candle out, and put on his hat. 
 
 " You '11 want all day to-morrow, I suppose ? " 
 
 " If quite convenient, sir." 
 
 " It 's not convenient, and it 's not fair. If 1 
 was to stop half a crown for it, you ; d think yourself 
 mightily ill-used, I '11 be bound ? " 
 1*
 
 10 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " And yet you don't think me ill-used, when I 
 pay a day's wages for no work." 
 
 " It's only once a year, sir." 
 
 " A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket 
 every twenty-fifth of December ! But I suppose 
 you must have the whole day. Be here all the 
 earlier next morning." 
 
 The clerk promised that he would ; and Scrooge 
 walked out with a growl. The office was closed in 
 a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of 
 his white comforter dangling below his waist (for 
 he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide, at 
 the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honor 
 of its being Christmas eve, and then ran home as 
 hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman's-buff. 
 
 Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual 
 melancholy tavern ; and having read all the 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 his deceased 
 partner. They were a gloomy ?uite of rooms, in a 
 lowering pile of building up a yard. The building 
 was old enough now, and dreary enough ; for no- 
 body lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being 
 all let out as offices. 
 
 Now it is a fact, that there was nothing at all 
 particular about the knocker on the door of this 
 house, except that it was very large ; also, that 
 Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 11 
 
 whole residence in that place ; also, that Scrooge 
 had as little of what is called fancy about him as 
 any man in the city of London. And yet Scrooge, 
 having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the 
 knocker, without its undergoing any intermedi- 
 ate process of change, not a knocker, but Marley's 
 face. 
 
 Marley's face, with a dismal light about it, like 
 a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry or 
 ferocious, but it looked at Scrooge as Marley used 
 to look, with ghostly spectacles turned up upon 
 its ghostly forehead. 
 
 As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, 
 it was a knocker again. He said, " Pooh, pooh ! " 
 and closed the door with a bang. 
 
 The sound resounded through the house like 
 thunder. Every room above, and every cask in 
 the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to 
 have a separate peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge 
 was not a man to be frightened by echoes. He 
 fastened the do6r, and walked across the hall, and 
 tip the stairs. Slowly too, trimming his candle as 
 he went. 
 
 Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for its 
 being very dark. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge 
 liked it. But before he Bhut his heavy door, he 
 walked through his rooms to see that all was right. 
 He had just enough recollection of the face to de- 
 sire to do that. 
 
 Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room, all as they
 
 12 A CHBISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 should be. Nobody under the table, nobody un- 
 der the sofa ; a small fire in the grate ; spoon 
 and basin ready ; and the little saucepan of gruel 
 (Scrooge had a cold in his head) upon the hob. 
 Nobody under the bed ; nobody in the closet ; .no- 
 body in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up 
 in a suspicious attitude against the wall. Lum- 
 ber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two 
 fish-baskets, washing-stand on three legs, and u 
 poker. 
 
 Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked 
 himself in ; double-locked himself in, which was not 
 his custom. Thus secured against surprise, he 
 took off his cravat, put on his dressing-gown and 
 slippers and his nightcap, and sat down before the 
 very low fire to take his gruel. 
 
 As he threw his head back in the chair, his 
 glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, 
 that hung in the room, and communicated, for some 
 purpose now forgotten, with a chamber in the 
 highest story of the building. It was with great 
 astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable 
 dread, that, as he looked, he saw this bell begin to 
 swing. Soon it rang out loudly, and so did every 
 bell in the house. 
 
 This was succeeded by a clanking noise, deep 
 down below, as if some person were dragging a 
 heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's 
 cellar. 
 
 Then he heard the noise much louder, on the
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 13 
 
 floors below ; then coming up the stairs ; then 
 coming straight towards his door. 
 
 It came on through the heavy door, and a spectre 
 passed into the room before his eyes. And upon 
 its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as though 
 it cried, " I know him ! Marley's ghost ! " 
 
 The same face, the very same. Marley in his 
 pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights, and boots. His 
 body was transparent ; so that Scrooge, observing 
 him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see 
 the two buttons on his coat behind. 
 
 Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had 
 no bowels, but he had never believed it until now. 
 
 No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he 
 looked the phantom through and through, and saw 
 it standing before him, though he felt the chilling 
 influence of its death-cold eyes, and noticed the 
 very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its 
 head and chin, he was still incredulous. 
 
 " How now ! " said Scrooge, caustic and cold as 
 ever. " What do you want with me ? " 
 
 " Much ! " Marley's voice, no doubt about it 
 
 " Who are you ? " 
 
 " Ask me who I was." 
 
 " Who were you then ? " 
 
 "In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." 
 
 " Can you can you sit down ? " 
 
 "I can." 
 
 " Do it, then." 
 
 Scrooge asked the question, because he did n't
 
 14 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 know whether a ghost so transparent might find 
 himself in a condition to take a chair ; and felt that, 
 in the event of its being impossible, it might in- 
 volve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation. 
 But the ghost sat down on the opposite side of the 
 fireplace, as if he were quite used to it. 
 
 " You don't believe in me." 
 
 "I don't." 
 
 " What evidence would you have of my reality 
 beyond that of your senses ? " 
 
 '-' I don't know." 
 
 " Why do you doubt your senses ? " 
 
 " Because a little thing affects them. A slight 
 disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You 
 may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mus- 
 tard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an under- 
 done potato. There 's more of gravy than of grave 
 about you, whatever you are ! " 
 
 Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking 
 jokes, nor did he feel in his heart by any means wag- 
 gish then. The truth is, that he tried to be smart, as 
 a means of distracting his own attention, and keep- 
 ing down his horror. 
 
 But how much greater was his horror when, the 
 phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as 
 if it were too warm to wear in-doors, its lower jaw 
 dropped down upon its breast ! 
 
 " Mercy ! Dreadful apparition, why do you 
 trouble me ? Whj do spirits walk the earth, and 
 why do they come to me ? "
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 15 
 
 " It is required of every man, that the spirit 
 within him should walk abroad among his fellow- 
 men, and travel far and wide ; and if that spirit 
 goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after 
 death. I cannot tell you all I would. A very little 
 more is permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot 
 B^ay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never 
 walked beyond our counting-house mark me ! 
 in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow 
 limits of our money-changing hole ; and weary jour- 
 neys lie before me ! " 
 
 " Seven years dead. And travelling all the 
 time ? You travel fast ? " 
 
 " On the wings of the wind." 
 
 " You might have got over a great quantity of 
 ground in seven years." 
 
 " blind man, blind man ! not to know that ages 
 of incessant labor by immortal creatures for this 
 earth must pass into eternity before the good of 
 which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to 
 know that any Christian spirit working kindly in 
 its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its 
 mortal life too short for its vast means of useful- 
 ness. Not to know that no space of regret can 
 make amends for one life's opportunities misused ! 
 Yet I was like this man ; I once was like this 
 man! " 
 
 " But you were always a good man of business, 
 Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply 
 this to himself.
 
 16 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its 
 hands again. " Mankind was my business. The 
 common welfare was my business : charity, mercy, 
 forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. 
 The dealings of my trade were but a drop of 
 water in the comprehensive ocean of my busi- 
 ness !" 
 
 Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the 
 spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake 
 exceedingly. 
 
 " Hear me ! My time is nearly gone." 
 
 " I will. But don't be hard upon me ! Don't 
 be flowery, Jacob ! . Pray ! " 
 
 " I am here to-night to warn you that you have 
 yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A 
 chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer." 
 
 " You were always a good friend to me. 
 Thank'ee ! " 
 
 " You will be haunted by Three Spirits." 
 
 " Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, 
 Jacob ? I I think I 'd rather not." 
 
 " Without their visits, you cannot hope to shun 
 the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow night, 
 when the bell tolls One. Expect the second on 
 the next night at the same hour. The third, upon 
 the next night, when the last stroke of Twelve has 
 ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more ; and 
 look that, for your own sake, you remember what 
 has passed between us !." 
 
 It walked backward from him ; and at every
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 17 
 
 step it took, the window raised itself a little, so 
 that, when the apparition reached it, it was wide 
 open. 
 
 Scrooge closed the window, and examined the 
 door by which the Ghost had entered. It was 
 double-locked, as he had locked it with his own 
 hands, and the bolts were undisturbed. Scrooge 
 tried to say, " Humbug ! " but stopped at the first 
 syllable. And being, from the emotion he had 
 undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his 
 glimpse of the invisible world, or the dull con- 
 versation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the hour, 
 much in need of repose, he went straight to bed, 
 without undressing, and fell asleep on the instant.
 
 18 A CHRISTMAS CABOL. 
 
 STAVE TWO. 
 
 THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS. 
 
 WHEN Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that, 
 looking out of bed, he could scarcely dis- 
 tinguish the transparent window from the opaque 
 walls of his chamber, until suddenly the church 
 clock tolled a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy ONE. 
 Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, 
 and the curtains of his bed were drawn aside by 
 a strange figure, like a child: yet not so like 
 a child as like an old man, viewed through some 
 supernatural medium, which gave him the ap- 
 pearance of having receded from the view, and 
 being diminished to a child's proportions. Its 
 hair, which hung about its neck and down its 
 back, was white as if with age ; and yet the face 
 had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom 
 was on the skin. It held a branch of fresh green 
 holly in its hand : and, in singular contradiction 
 of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with 
 summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it 
 was, that from the crown of its head there sprung 
 a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was 
 visible ; and which was doubtless the occasion of 
 its using, in its duller moments, a great extin- 
 guisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 19 
 
 "Are you the Spirit, air, whose coming was 
 foretold to me ?" 
 
 " I am ! " 
 
 " Who and what are you ? " 
 
 "I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." 
 
 "Long past?" 
 
 " No. Your past. The things that you will 
 see with me are shadows of the things that have 
 been ; they will have no consciousness of us." 
 
 Scrooge then made bold to inquire what busi- 
 ness brought him there. 
 
 " Your welfare. Rise, and walk with me ! " 
 
 It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead 
 that the weather and the hour were not adapted to 
 pedestrian purposes ; that bed was warm, and the 
 thermometer a long way below freezing ; that he 
 was clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing-gown, 
 and nightcap ; and that he had a cold upon him at 
 that time. The grasp, though gentle as a wo- 
 man's hand, was not to be resisted. He rose ; but 
 finding that the Spirit made towards the window, 
 clasped its robe in supplication. 
 
 " I am a mortal, and liable to fall." 
 
 " Bear but a touch of my hand there," said the 
 Spirit, laying it upon his heart, " and you shall be 
 upheld in more than this ! " 
 
 As the words were spoken, they passed through 
 the wall, and stood in the busy thoroughfares of 
 a city. It was made plain enough by the dress- 
 ing of the shops that here, too, it was Christmas 
 time.
 
 20 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, 
 and asked Scrooge if he knew it. 
 
 " Know it I Was I apprenticed here ! " 
 
 They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in 
 a Welsh wig, sitting behind such a high desk that, 
 if he had been two inches taller, he must have 
 knocked his head against the ceiling, Scrooge 
 cried in great excitement : " Why, it 's old Fez- 
 ziwig ! Bless his heart, it 's Fezziwig, alive 
 again ! " 
 
 Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up 
 at the clock, which pointed to the hour of seven. 
 He rubbed his hands ; adjusted his capacious 
 waistcoat ; laughed all over himself, from his shoes 
 to his organ of benevolence ; and called out in a 
 comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice : " Yo ho, 
 there ! Ebenezer ! Dick ! " 
 
 A living and moving picture of Scrooge's former 
 self, a young man, came briskly in, accompanied 
 by his fellow-prentice. 
 
 " Dick Wilkins, to be sure ! " said Scrooge to 
 the Ghost. " My old fellow-prentice, bless me, 
 yes. There he is. He was very much attached 
 to me, was Dick. Poor Dick ! Dear, dear ! " 
 
 " To ho, my boys! " said Fezziwig. " No more 
 work to-night. Christmas eve, Dick. Christmas, 
 Ebenezer ! Let 'B have the shutters up, before a 
 man can say Jack Kobinson ! Clear away, my 
 lads, and let 's have lots of room here ! " 
 
 Clear away ! There was nothing they would n't
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 23 
 
 have cleared away, or could n't have cleared 
 away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was 
 done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, 
 as if it were dismissed from public life forever- 
 more ; the floor was swept and watered, the 
 lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the 
 fire ; and the warehouse was as snug and warm 
 and dry and bright a ball-room as you would desire 
 to see upon a winter's night. 
 
 In carne a fiddler with a music-book, and went 
 up to the lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, 
 and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In came Mrs. 
 Pezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the 
 three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. In 
 came the six young followers whose hearts they 
 broke. In came all the young men and women em- 
 ployed in the business. In came the housemaid, with 
 her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with her 
 brother's particular friend the milkman. In they 
 all came one after another ; some shyly, some 
 boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some 
 pushing, some pulling ; in they all came, anyhow 
 and everyhow. Away they all went, twenty couple 
 at once ; hands half round and back again the other 
 way ; down the middle and up again ; round and 
 round in various stages of affectionate grouping ; 
 old top couple always turning up in the wrong 
 place ; new top couple starting off again, as soon 
 as they got there ; all top couples at last, and not 
 a bottom one to help them. When this result was
 
 22 
 
 brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands 
 to stop the dance, cried out, " Well done!" and 
 the fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of por- 
 ter especially provided for that purpose. 
 
 There were more dances, and there were forfeits, 
 and more dances, and there was cake, and there 
 was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold 
 Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, 
 and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer. 
 But the great effect of the evening came after the 
 Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler struck up " Sir 
 Roger de Coverley." Then old Fezziwig stood out 
 to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple, too ; 
 with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them ; 
 three or four and twenty pair of partners ; people 
 who were not to be trifled with ; people who would 
 dance, and had no notion of walking. 
 
 But if they had been twice as many, four times, 
 
 old Fezziwig would have been a match for them 
 and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to her, she was 
 worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term 
 A positive light appeared to issue from Fezziwig'u 
 calves. They shone in every part of the dance 
 You could n't have predicted, at any given time, 
 what would become of 'em next. And when old 
 Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through 
 the dance, advance and retire, turn your partner, 
 bow and courtesy, corkscrew, thread the needle, 
 and back again to your place, Fezziwig " cut," 
 
 cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with 
 his legs.
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 23 
 
 When the clock struck eleven this domestic ball 
 broke up. Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their sta- 
 tions, one on either side the door, and, shaking 
 hands with every person individually as he or she 
 went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas. 
 When everybody had retired but the two 'prentices, 
 they did the same to them ; and thus the cheerful 
 voices died away, and the lads were left-to their 
 beds, which were under a counter in the back shop. 
 
 " A small matter," said the Ghost, " to make 
 these silly folks so full of gratitude. He has 
 spent but a few pounds of your mortal money, 
 three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he 
 deserves this praise ? " 
 
 "It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the 
 remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, 
 not his latter self, " it isn't that, Spirit. He has 
 the power to render us happy or unhappy ; to make 
 our service light or burdensome ; a pleasure or a 
 toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks ; 
 in things so slight and insignificant that it is im- 
 possible to add and count 'em up : what then ? The 
 happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a 
 fortune." 
 
 He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " 
 
 " Nothing particular." 
 
 " Something, I think ? " 
 
 " No, no. I should like to be able to say a word 
 or two to my clerk just now. That 's all."
 
 24 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 " My time grows short,"' observed the Spirit. 
 "Quick!" 
 
 This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any 
 one whom he could see, but it produced an imme- 
 diate effect. For again he saw himself. lie was 
 older now ; a man in the- prime of life. 
 
 He was not alone, but sat by the side of" a fair 
 young girl in a black dress, in whose eyes there 
 were tears. 
 
 " It matters little," she said softly to Scrooge's 
 Dormer self. "To you, very little. Another idol 
 LSS displaced me ; and if it can comfort you in time 
 to tome, as I would have tried to do, I have no 
 just cause to grieve!" 
 
 " WL^t Idol has displaced you ? " 
 
 " A golden one. You fear the world too much. 
 I have seen your nobler inspirations fall off one by 
 one, until ^he caster-passion, Gain, engrosses you. 
 Have I not ? " 
 
 " What then ? Even if I have grown so much 
 wiser, what then ? I am not changed towards 
 you. Have I ever sought release from our en- 
 gagement ? " 
 
 " In words, no. Never." 
 
 " In what, then ? " 
 
 " In a changed nature ; in an altered spirit; in 
 another atmosphere of life ; another Hope as its 
 great end. If you were free to-day, to-morrow, 
 yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose 
 a dowerless girl ; or, choosing her, do I not know
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 25 
 
 that your repentance and regret would surely 
 follow ? I do ; and I release you. With a full heart, 
 for the love of him you once were." 
 
 "Spirit! remove me from this place." 
 
 " I told you these were shadows of the things 
 that have been," said the Ghost. " That they are 
 what they are, do not blame me ! " 
 
 " Remove me ! " Scrooge exclaimed. " I can- 
 not bear it ! Leave me ! Take, me back. Haunt 
 me no longer ! " 
 
 As he struggled with the Spirit he was conscious 
 of being exhausted, and overcome by an irresistible 
 drowsiness ; and, further, of being in his own bed- 
 room. He had barely time to reel to bed before he 
 sank into a heavy sleep.
 
 26 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 STAVE THREE. 
 
 THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS. 
 
 SCROOGE awoke in his own bedroom. There 
 was no doubt about that. But it and his own 
 adjoining sitting-ro.om, into which he shuffled in his 
 slippers, attracted by a great light there, had under- 
 gone a surprising transformation. The walls and 
 ceiling were so hung with living green, that it 
 looked a perfect grove. The leaves of holly, 
 mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the light, as if so 
 many little mirrors had been scattered there ; and 
 such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney 
 as that petrifaction of a hearth had never known in 
 Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many and many 
 a winter season gone. Heaped upon the floor, to 
 form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, 
 brawn, great joints of meat, sucking pigs, long 
 wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, 
 barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry- 
 cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, 
 immense twelfth-cakes, and great bowls of punch. 
 In easy state upon this couch there sat a Giant 
 glorious to see : who bore a glowing torch, in 
 shape not unlike Plenty's horn, and who raised 
 it high to shed its light on Scrooge, as he camo 
 peeping round the door.
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 27 
 
 " Gome in, come in ! and know me better, man! 
 I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon 
 me ! You have never seen the like of me before ! " 
 
 "Never." 
 
 " Have never walked forth with the younger 
 members of my family ; meaning (for I am very 
 young) my elder brothers born in these latei 
 years ? " pursued the Phantom. 
 
 " I don't think I have, I am afraid I have not 
 Have you had many brothers, Spirit ? " 
 
 " More than eighteen hundred." 
 
 " A tremendous family to provide for! Spirit, 
 conduct me where you will. I went forth last 
 night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which 
 is working now. To-night, if you have aught to 
 teach me, let me pi-ofit by it." 
 
 " Touch my robe ! " 
 
 Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. 
 
 The room and its contents all vanished instantly, 
 and they stood in the city streets upon a snowy 
 Christmas morning. 
 
 Scrooge and the Ghost passed on, invisible, 
 straight to Scrooge's clerk's ; and on the thresh- 
 old of the do<x the Spirit smiled, and stopped to 
 bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings 
 of-his torch. Think of that ! Bob had but fifteen 
 " Bob" a week himself; he pocketed on Saturdays 
 but fifteen copies of his Christian name ; and yet 
 the Ghost of Christmas Present blessed his four- 
 roomed house !
 
 28 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 Then np rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's \\ife, 
 dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but 
 brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make a 
 goodly show for sixpence ; and she laid the cloth, 
 assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her daugh- 
 ters, also brave in ribbons ; while Master Peter 
 Cratchit plunged a foi'k into the saucepan of pota- 
 toes, and, getting the corners of his monstrous 
 shirt-collar (Bob's private property, conferred upon 
 his son and heir in honor of the day) into his mouth, 
 rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and 
 yearned to show his linen in the fashionable Parks. 
 And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl 
 came tearing in, screaming that outside the ba- 
 ker's they had smelt the goose, and known it 
 for their own ; and, basking in luxurious thoughts 
 of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced 
 about the table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit 
 to the skies, while he (not proud, although his 
 collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the 
 slow potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the 
 saucepan-lid to be let out and peeled. 
 
 " What has ever got your precious father 
 then ? " said Mrs. Cratchit. " And your brother 
 Tiny Tim ! And Martha warn't as late last 
 Christmas day by half an hour ! " 
 
 " Here 's Martha, mother ! " said a girl, appear- 
 ing as she spoke. 
 
 " Here 's Martha, mother ! " cried the two youvig 
 Cratchits. " Hurrah ! There 's such a goose, Mat 
 thai"
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 29 
 
 "Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how 
 late you are ! " said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a 
 dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet 
 for her. 
 
 " We 'd a deal of work to finish up last night," 
 replied the girl, " and had to clear away this 
 morning, mother ! " 
 
 . " Well ! Never mind so long as you are come," 
 said Mrs. Cratchit. " Sit ye down before the 
 fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye ! " 
 
 "No, no! There's father coming," cried the 
 two young Cratchits, who were everywhere at 
 once. " Hide, Martha, hide ! " 
 
 So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, 
 the father, with at least three feet of comforter, ex- 
 clusive of the fringe, hanging down before him ; 
 and his threadbare clothes darned up arid brushed, 
 to look seasonable ; and Tiny Tim upon his shoul- 
 der. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, 
 and had his limbs supported by an iron frame ! 
 
 " Why, where 's our Martha ? " cried Bob Cratch- 
 it, looking round. 
 
 " Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit. 
 
 " Not coming ! " said Bob, with a sudden de- 
 clension in his high spirits ; for he had been 
 Tim's blood-horse all the way from church, and 
 had come home rampant, " not coming upon 
 Christmas day ! " 
 
 Martha did n't like to see him disappointed, if 
 it were only in joke ; so she came out prematurely
 
 30 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 from behind the closet door, and ran into hia 
 arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny 
 Tim, and bore him off into the wash-house, that he 
 might hear the pudding singing in the copper. 
 
 " And how did little Tim behave ? " asked Mrs. 
 Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his cre- 
 dulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to hia 
 heart's content. 
 
 " As good as gold," said Bob, " and better. 
 Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself 
 so much, and thinks the strangest things you 
 ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he 
 hoped the people saw him in the church, because 
 he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them 
 to remember, upon Christmas day, who made lame 
 beggars walk and blind men see." 
 
 Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them 
 this, and trembled more when he said that Tiny 
 Tim was growing strong and hearty. 
 
 His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, 
 and back came Tiny Tim before another word was 
 spoken, escorted by his brother and sister to his 
 stool beside the fire ; and while Bob, turning up 
 his cuffs, as if, poor fellow, they were capable 
 of being made more shabby, compounded some 
 hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and 
 stirred it round and round and put it on the hob 
 to simmer, Master Peter and the two ubiquitous 
 young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with 
 which they soon returned in high procession.
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 81 
 
 Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready before- 
 hand in a little saucepan) hissing hot ; Master 
 Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor ; 
 Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce ; Mar- 
 tha dusted the hot plates ; Bob took Tiny Tim 
 beside him in a tiny corner at the table ; the two 
 young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not 
 forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upou 
 their posts, crammed spoons into their moutlis, 
 lest they should shriek for goose before their turn 
 came to be helped. At last the dishes were set 
 on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a 
 breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly 
 all along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge 
 it in the breast ; but when she did, and when 
 the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, 
 one murmur of delight arose all round the board, 
 and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young 
 Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his 
 knife, and feebly cried, Hurrah ! 
 
 There never was such a goose. Bob said he 
 didn't believe there ever was such a goose cooked. 
 Its tenderness and flavor, size and cheapness, were 
 the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by 
 apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a suffi- 
 cient dinner for the whole family ; indeed, as 
 Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying 
 one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they 
 had n't ate it all at last ! Yet every one had had 
 enough, and the young'est Cratchits in particular
 
 32 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows ! 
 But now, the plates being changed by Miss Be- 
 linda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone, too ner- 
 vous to bear witnesses, to take the pudding up, 
 and bring it in. 
 
 Suppose it should not be done enough ! Sup- 
 pose it should break in turning out ! Suppose 
 somebody should have got over the wall of the 
 back yard, and stolen it, while they were merry 
 with the goose, a supposition at which the two 
 young Cratchits became livid ! All sorts of hor- 
 rors were supposed. 
 
 Hallo ! A great deal of steam ! The pudding 
 was out of the copper. A smell like a washing- 
 day ! That was the cloth. A smell like an eating- 
 house and a pastry-cook's next door to each other, 
 with a laundress's next door to that ! That was 
 the pudding ! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit en- 
 tered, flushed but smiling proudly, with the 
 pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and 
 firm, blazing in half of half a quartern of ignited 
 brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck 
 into the top. 
 
 0, a wonderful pudding ! Bob Cratchit said, 
 and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest 
 success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their 
 marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight 
 was off her mind, she would confess she had had 
 her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody 
 had something to say about it, but nobody said 01
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 33 
 
 thought it was at all a small pudding for a largo 
 family. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint 
 at such a thing. 
 
 At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was 
 cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up. 
 The compound in the jug being tasted, and con- 
 sidered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon 
 the table, and a shovelful of chestnuts on the fire. 
 
 Then all the Cratchit family drew round the 
 nearth, in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, 
 and at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family dis- 
 play of glass, two tumblers, and a custard-cup 
 without a handle. 
 
 These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, 
 as well as golden goblets would have done ; and 
 Bob served it out with beaming looks, while the 
 chestnuts on the fire sputtered and crackled noisily. 
 Then Bob proposed : 
 
 " A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God 
 bless us ! " 
 
 Which all the family re-echoed. 
 
 " God bless us every one ! " said Tiny Tim, the 
 last of all. 
 
 He sat very close to his father's side, upon his 
 little stool. Bob held his withered little hand in 
 his, as if he loved the child, and wished to keep 
 him by his side, and dreaded that he might be 
 taken from him. 
 
 Scrooge raised his head speedily, on hearing his 
 own name. 
 
 3
 
 34 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 "Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; "I'll give you 
 Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast ! " 
 
 " The Founder of the Feast indeed ! " cried Mrs. 
 Cratchit, reddening. " I wish I had him here. 
 I 'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, 
 and I hope he 'd have a good appetite for it." 
 
 " My dear," said Bob, " the children ! Christ- 
 mas day." 
 
 " It should be Christmas day, I am sure," said 
 she, " on which one drinks the health of such an 
 odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. 
 You know he is, Robert ! Nobody knows it better 
 than you do, poor fellow ! " 
 
 " My dear," was Bob's mild answer, " Christ-- 
 mas day." 
 
 " I '11 drink his health for your sake and the 
 day's," said Mrs. Cratchit, " not for his. Long 
 life to him ! A merry Christmas and a happy 
 New Year ! He '11 be very merry and very happy, 
 I have no doubt ! " 
 
 The children drank the toast after her. It was 
 the first of their proceedings which had no hearti- 
 ness in it. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he 
 did n't care twopence for it. Scrooge was the 
 Ogie of the family. The mention of his name cast 
 a dark shadow on the party, which was not dis- 
 pelled 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
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 35 
 
 them how he had a situation in his eye for Mas- 
 ter Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, 
 full five and sixpence weekly. The two young 
 Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of 
 Peter's being a man of business ; and Peter him- 
 self looked thoughtfully at the fire from be- 
 tween his collars, as if he were deliberating what 
 particular investments he should favor when he 
 came into the receipt of that bewildering income. 
 Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milli- 
 ner's, then told them what kind of work she had 
 to do, and how many hours she worked at a 
 stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow 
 morning for a good long rest ; to-morrow being 
 holiday she passed at home. Also how she 
 had seen a countess and a lord some days be- 
 fore, and how the lord " was much about as 
 tall as Peter " ; at which Peter pulled up his col- 
 lars so high that you could n't have seen his head 
 if you had been there. All this time the chest- 
 nuts and the jug went round and round ; and by 
 and by they had a song, about a lost child trav- 
 elling in the snow, from Tiny Tim, who had a 
 plaintive little voice, and sang it very well in- 
 deed. 
 
 There was nothing of high mark in this. They 
 were not a handsome family ; they were not well 
 dressed : their shoes were far from being water- 
 proof ; their clothes were scanty ; and Peter might 
 have known, and very likely did, the inside of apawn-
 
 36 A CHRISTMAS CAROL*. 
 
 broker'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 es- 
 pecially on Tiny Tirn, until the lust. 
 
 It was a great surprise to Scrooge, as this scene 
 vanished, to hear a hearty laugh. It was a much 
 greater surprise to Scrooge to recognize it as his 
 own nephew's, and to find himself in a bright, dry, 
 gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling 
 by his side, and looking at that same nephew. 
 
 It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of 
 things, that while there is infection in disease and 
 sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly 
 contagious as laughter and good-humor. When 
 Scrooge's nephew laughed, Scrooge's niece by 
 marriage laughed as -heartily as he. And their 
 assembled friends, being not a bit behindhand, 
 laughed out lustily. 
 
 " He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I 
 live ! " cred Scrooge's nephew. " He believed it 
 too!" 
 
 "More shame for him, Fred!" said Scrooge's 
 nieoe, indignantly. Bless those women ! they 
 never do anything by halves. They are alwaya 
 in earnest. 
 
 She was very pretty : exceedingly pretty. With 
 a dimpled, surprised-looking, capital face ; a ripo 
 rnouth that seemed made to bo kissed, as
 
 A CHEISTMAS CABOL. 37 
 
 no doubt it was ; all kinds of good little dots 
 about her chin, that melted into one another 
 when she laughed ; and the sunniest pair of eyes 
 you ever saw in any little creature's head. Alto- 
 gether she was what you would have called pro- 
 voking, but satisfactory, too. 0, perfectly satis- 
 factory. 
 
 " He 's a comical old fellow," said Scrooge's 
 nephew, " that 's the truth ; arid not so pleasant 
 as he might be. 'However, his offences carry 
 their own punishment, and I have nothing to say 
 against him. Who suffers by his ill whims ? 
 Himself, always. Here he takes it into his head 
 to dislike us, and he won't come and dine with 
 us. What 's the consequence ? He don't lose 
 much of a dinner." 
 
 " Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner," 
 interrupted Scrooge's niece. Everybody else said 
 the same, and they must be allowed to have been 
 competent judges, because they had just had 
 dinner ; and, with the dessert upon the table, were 
 clustered round the fire, by lamplight. 
 
 '' Well, I am very glad to hear it," said 
 Scrooge's nephew, "because I have -n't any great 
 faith- in these young housekeepers. What do you 
 say, Topper ? " 
 
 Topper clearly had his eye on one of Scrooge's 
 niece's sisters, for he answered that a bachelor 
 was a wretched outcast, who had no right to 
 express au opinion on the subject. Whereat
 
 38 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 Scrooge's niece's sister the plump one with 
 the lace tucker ; not the one with the roses 
 blushed. 
 
 After tea they had some music. For they 
 were a musical family, and knew what they were 
 about, when they sung a Glee or Catch, I can as- 
 sure you, especial^ Topper, who could growl 
 away in the bass like a good one, and never swell 
 the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the 
 face over it. 
 
 But they did n't devote the whole evening to 
 music. After a while they played at forfeits ; for 
 it is good to be children sometimes, and never 
 better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder 
 was a child himself. There was first a game at 
 blind-man's-buff though. And I no more believe 
 Topper was really blinded than I believe he had 
 eyes in his boots. Because the way in which he 
 went after that plump sister in the lace tucker was 
 an outrage on the credulity of human nature. 
 Knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling over the 
 chairs, bumping up against the piano, smothering 
 himself among the curtains, wherever she went 
 there went he ! He always knew where the plump 
 sister was. lie would n't catch anybody else. If 
 you had fallen up against him, as some of them did, 
 and stood there, he would have made a feint of en- 
 deavoring to seize you, which would have been an 
 affront to your understanding, and would instantly 
 have sidled off' in the direction of the plump sister.
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 39 
 
 " Here is a new game," said Scrooge. " One 
 half-hour, Spirit, only one ! " 
 
 It was a Game called Yes and No, where 
 Scrooge's nephew had to think of something, and 
 the rest must find out what ; he only answering to 
 their questions yes or no, as the case was. The 
 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 some- 
 times, and talked sometimes, and lived in London, 
 and walked about the streets, and wasn't made a 
 show of, and was n't led by anybody, and did n't 
 live in a menagerie, and was never killed in a 
 market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, 
 or a bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or 
 a bear. At every new question put to him, this 
 nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter ; and 
 was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged 
 to get up off the sofa and stamp. At last the 
 plump sister cried out : 
 
 " I have found it out ! I know what it is, Fred ! 
 I know what it is ! " 
 
 " What is it ? " cried Fred. 
 
 " It ; B your uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge ! " 
 
 Which it certainly was. Admiration was the 
 universal sentiment, though some objected that the 
 reply to "Is it. a bear?" ought to have been 
 " Yes." 
 
 Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay
 
 40 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 and light of heart, that he would have drank to 
 the unconscious company in an inaudible speech 
 But the whole scene passed off in the breath of 
 the last word spoken by his nephew ; and he and 
 the Spirit were again upon their travels. 
 
 Much they saw, and far they went, and many 
 homes they visited, but always with a happy end. 
 The Spirit stood beside sick-beds, and they were 
 cheerful ; on foreign lands, and they were close at 
 home ; by struggling men, and they were patient 
 in their greater hope ; by poverty, and it was rich. 
 In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in misery's every 
 refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority 
 had not made fast the door, and barred the Spirit 
 out, he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his 
 precepts. Suddenly, as they stood together in 
 an open place, the bell struck twelve. 
 
 Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and 
 saw it no more. As the last stroke ceased to 
 vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob 
 Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a Holemn 
 Phantom, draped and hooded, coming like a mibt 
 along the ground towards him.
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 41 
 
 STAVE FOUR. 
 
 THE LAST OP THE SPIRITS. 
 
 THE Phantom slowly, gravely, silently ap- 
 proached. When it came near him, Scrooge 
 bent down upon his knee ; for in the air through 
 which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom 
 and mystery. 
 
 It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which 
 concealed its head, its face, its form, and left 
 nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. 
 He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke 
 nor moved. 
 
 " I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas 
 Yet To Come ? Ghost of the Future ! I fear you 
 more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know 
 your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to 
 live to be another man from what I was, I am 
 prepared to bear you company, and do it with a 
 thankful heart. Will you not speak to me ? " 
 
 It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed 
 straight before them. 
 
 "Lead on! Lead on! The night is waning 
 fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead 
 on, Spirit!" 
 
 They scarcely seemed to enter the city ; for the 
 city rather seemed to spring up about them. But
 
 42 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 there they were in the heart of it ; on 'Change, 
 amongst the merchants. 
 
 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/' said a great fat man with a monstrous 
 chin, "I don't know much ab'out it either way. I 
 only know he 's dead." 
 
 " When did he die ?" inquired another. 
 
 " Last night, I believe." 
 
 " Why, what was the matter with him ? I 
 thought he 'd never die." 
 
 " God knows," said the first, with a yawn. 
 
 " What has he done with his money ? " asked a 
 red-faced gentleman. 
 
 " I have n't heard," said the man with the large 
 chin. " Company, perhaps. He has n't left it to 
 me. That 's all I know. By, by!" 
 
 Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that 
 the Spirit should attach importance to conversa- 
 tion apparently so trivial ; but feeling assured 
 that it must have some hidden purpose, he set 
 himself to consider what it was likely to be. It 
 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. 
 
 He looked about in that very place for his own 
 image ; but another man stood in his accustomed 
 corner, and though the clock pointed to his usual 
 time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 43 
 
 himself among the multitudes that poured in 
 through the Porch. It gave him little surprise, 
 however ; for he had been revolving in his mind a 
 change of life, and he thought and hoped he saw 
 his new-born resolutions carried out in this. 
 
 They left this busy scene, and went into an ob- 
 scure part of the town, to a low shop where iron, 
 old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal were 
 bought. A gray-haired rascal, of great age, sat 
 smoking his pipe. 
 
 Scrooge and the Phantom came into the pres- 
 ence of this man, just as a woman with a heavy 
 bundle slunk into the shop. But she had scarcely 
 entered, when another woman, similarly laden, 
 came in too ; and she was closely followed by a 
 man in faded black. After a short period of blank 
 astonishment, in which the old man with the pipe 
 had joined them, they all three burst into a laugh. 
 
 " Let the charwoman alone to be the first 1 " 
 cried she who had entered first. " Let the laun- 
 dress alone to be the second ; and let the under- 
 taker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old 
 Joe, here's a chance! If we haven't all three 
 met here without meaning it!" 
 
 " You could n't have met in a better place. You 
 were made free of it long ago, you know ; and the 
 other two ain't strangers. What have you got to 
 sell ? What have you got to sell ? " 
 
 " Half a minute's patience, Joe, and you shall 
 eee."
 
 44 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 " What odds then ! What odds, Mrs. Dilber ? " 
 said the woman. " Every person has a right to 
 take care of themselves. He always did ! Who 's 
 the worse for the loss of a few things like these ? 
 Not a dead man, I suppose." 
 
 Mrs. Dilber, whose manner was remarkable for 
 general propitiation, said, " No, indeed, ma'am." 
 
 " If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a 
 wicked old screw, why was n't he natural in his life- 
 time ? If he had been, he 'd have had somebody to 
 look after him when he was struck with Death, in- 
 stead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by 
 himself." 
 
 " It 's the truest word that ever was spoke, it 's 
 a judgment on him." 
 
 " I wish it was a little heavier judgment, and it 
 should have been, you may depend upon it, if I 
 could have laid my hands on anything else. Open 
 that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value of 
 it. Speak out plain. I 'm not afraid to be the first, 
 nor afraid for them to see it." 
 
 Joe went down on his knees for the greater 
 convenience of opening the bundle, and dragged 
 out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff. 
 
 " What do you call this ? Bed-curtains ! " 
 
 " Ah ! Bed-curtains ! Don't drop that oil upon 
 the blankets, now." 
 
 " His blankets ? " 
 
 " Whose else's do you think ? He is n't likely 
 to take cold without 'em, I dare say. Ah ! You
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 45 
 
 may look through that shirt till your eyes ache ; 
 but you won't find a hole in it, nor a threadbare 
 place. It 's the best he had, and a fine one too. 
 They 'd have wasted it by dressing him up in it, 
 if it had n't been for me." 
 
 Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror 
 
 " Spirit ! I see, I see. The case of this unhappy 
 man might be my own. My life tends that way, 
 now. Merciful Heaven, what is this ! " 
 
 The scene had changed, and now he almost 
 touched a bare, uncurtained bed. A pale light, 
 rising in the outer air, fell straight upon this bed ; 
 and on it, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was 
 the body of this plundered'.unknown man. 
 
 " Spirit, let me see some tenderness connected 
 with a death, or this dark chamber, Spirit, will bb 
 forever present to me." 
 
 The Ghost conducted him to poor Bob Cratchit's 
 house, : the dwelling he had visited before, and 
 found the mother and the children seated round the 
 fire. 
 
 Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits 
 were as still as statues in one corner, and sat look- 
 ing up at Peter, who had a book before him. The 
 mother and her daughters were engaged in needle- 
 work. But surely they were very quiet ! 
 
 " ' And he took a child, and set him in the midst 
 of them.'" 
 
 Where had Scrooge heard those words ? .He had 
 not dreamed them. The boy must have read them
 
 46 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 out, as he and the Spirit crossed the threshold. 
 Why did he not go on ? 
 
 The mother laid her work upon the table, and 
 put her hand up to her face. 
 
 " The color hurts my eyes," she said. 
 
 The color ? Ah, poor Tiny Tim ! 
 
 " They 're better now again. It makes them 
 weak by candle-light ; and I would n't show weak 
 eyes to your father when he comes home, for the 
 world. It must be near his time." 
 
 " Past it rather," Peter answered, shutting up 
 his book. " But I think he has walked a little 
 slower than he used, these few last evenings, 
 mother." * 
 
 " I have known him walk with I have known 
 him walk with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder, very 
 fast indeed." 
 
 " And so have I," cried Peter. " Often." 
 
 " And so have I," exclaimed another. S0 had all. 
 
 " But he was very light to carry, and his father 
 loved him so, that it was no trouble, no trouble. 
 And there is your father at the door! " 
 
 She huried out to meet him ; and little Bob in 
 his comforter he had need of it, poor fellow 
 came in. His tea was ready for him on the hob, 
 and they all tried who should help him to it most. 
 Then thft two young Cratchits got upon his knees 
 and laid, each cWd, a little cbee^ against his face, 
 as if they paid, " IKr.'t -vibd it, fotb^r Poe't be 
 grieved ! "
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 47 
 
 Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke 
 pleasantly to all the family. He looked at the 
 work upon the table, nd praised the industry and 
 speed of Mrs. Cratchit and the girls. They would 
 be done long before Sunday, he said. 
 
 " Sunday ! You went to-day, then, Robert? " 
 
 " Yes, rny dear," returned Bob. " I wish you 
 could have gone. It would have done you good to 
 see how green a place it is. But you '11 see it 
 often. I promised him that I would walk there on 
 a Sunday. My little, little child ! My little 
 child ! " 
 
 He broke down all at once. He could n't help it. 
 If he could have helped it, he and his child would 
 have been farther apart, perhaps, than they were. 
 
 " Spectre," said Scrooge, " something informs 
 me that our parting moment is at hand. I know 
 it, but I know not how. Tell me what man that 
 was, with the covered face, whom we saw lying 
 dead ? " 
 
 The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come conveyed 
 him to a dismal, wretched, ruinous churchyard. 
 
 The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed 
 down to One. 
 
 " Before I draw nearer to that stone to which 
 you point, 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 dowriwawl to the grave 
 by which it stood.
 
 48 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 " Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to 
 which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if 
 the courses be departed fromf the ends will change. 
 Say it is thus with what you show me ! " 
 
 The Spirit was immovable as ever. 
 
 Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went ; 
 .and, following the finger, read upon the stone of 
 the neglected grave his own name, EBENEZER 
 SCROOGE. 
 
 "Am /that man who lay upon the bed? No, 
 Spirit ! no, no ! Spirit ! hear me ! I am not 
 the man I was. I will not be the man I must 
 have been but for this intercourse. Why show me 
 this, if I am past all hope ? Assure me *hat I 
 yet may change these shadows you have shown 
 me by an altered life." 
 
 For the first time the kind hand faltered. 
 
 " I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to 
 keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the 
 Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all three 
 shall strive within me. I will not shut out the les- 
 sons that they teach. 0, tell me I may sponge 
 away the writing on this stone ! " 
 
 Holding up his hands in one last prayer to have 
 his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phan- 
 tom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and 
 dwindled down into a bedpost. 
 
 Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The bed 
 was his own, the room was his own. Best 
 and happiest of all, the Time before him was his 
 own, to make amends in !
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 49 
 
 He was checked in his transports by the 
 churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever 
 heard. 
 
 Running to the window, he opened it, and put 
 out his head. No fog, no mist, no night ; clear, 
 bright, stirring, golden day. 
 
 " What 's to-day ? " cried Scrooge, calling 
 downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who per- 
 haps had loitered in to look about him. 
 
 "En?" 
 
 " What 's to-day, my fine fellow ? " 
 
 " To-day ! Why, CHRISTMAS DAY." 
 
 " It 's Christmas day ! I have n't missed it. 
 Hallo, my fine fellow ! " 
 
 " Hallo ! " 
 
 " Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street 
 but one, at the corner ? " 
 
 " I should hope I did." 
 
 "An intelligent boy! A remarkable boy! Do 
 you know whether they ; ve sold the prize Turkey 
 that was hanging up there ? Not the little prize 
 Turkey, the big one ? " 
 
 " What, the one as big as me ? " 
 
 " What a delightful boy ! It's a pleasure to talk 
 to him. Yes, my buck ! " 
 
 " It 's hanging there now." 
 
 " Is it ? Go and buy it." 
 
 " Walk-ER ! " exclaimed the boy. 
 
 " No, no, I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and 
 tell 'em to bring it here, that T may give them the 
 3 D
 
 60 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 direction where to take it. Come back with the 
 man, and I '11 give you a shilling. Come back with 
 him in less than five minutes, and I '11 give you 
 half a crown ! " 
 
 The boy was off like a shot. 
 
 " I '11 send it to Bob Cratchit's ! He shaVt 
 know who sends it. It's twice the size of Tiny 
 Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as 
 sending it to Bob's will be!" 
 
 The hand in which he wrote the address was not 
 a steady one ; but write it he did, somehow, and 
 went down stairs to open the street door, ready 
 for the coming of the poulterer's man. 
 
 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. 
 
 Scrooge dressed himself " all in his best," and at 
 last got out into the streets. The people were by 
 this time pouring forth, as he had seen them with 
 the Ghost of Christmas Present ; and, walking with 
 his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every 
 one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresist- 
 ibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good- 
 humored fellows said, "Good morning, sir! A 
 merry Christmas to you ! " And Scrooge said 
 often afterwards, that, of all the blithe sounds he 
 had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears. 
 
 In the afternoon, he turned his steps towards his 
 nephew's house.
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 51 
 
 He passed the door a dozen times, before he had 
 the courage to go up and knock. But he made a 
 dash, and did it. 
 
 " Is your master at home, my dear ? " said 
 Scrooge to the girl. Nice girl ! Very. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " Where is he, my love ? " 
 
 " He 's in the dining-room, sir, along with mis 
 tress." 
 
 "He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand 
 already on the dining-room lock. " I ; 11 go in 
 here, my dear." 
 
 "Fred!" 
 
 " Why, bless my soul ! " cried Fred, " who 's 
 that ? " 
 
 " It 's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to 
 dinner. Will you let me in, Fred ? " 
 
 Let him in ! It is a mercy he did n't shake his 
 arm off. He was at home in five minutes. Noth- 
 ing could be heartier. His niece looked just the 
 same. So did Topper when he came. So did the 
 plump sister, when she came. So did every one 
 when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful 
 games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happi- 
 ness! 
 
 But he was early at the office next morning. 
 0, he was early there. If he could only be there 
 first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late ! That 
 was the thing he had set his heart upon. 
 
 And he did it. The clock struck nine. No Bob
 
 52 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 
 
 A quarter past. No Bob. Bob was full eighteen 
 minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat 
 with his door wide open, that he might see him 
 come into the Tank. 
 
 Bob's hat was off, before he opened the door ; 
 his comforter too. He was on his stool in a jiffy ; 
 driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to 
 overtake nine o'clock. 
 
 " Hallo ! " growled Scrooge, in his accustomed 
 voice, as near as he could feign it. " What do you 
 mean by coming here at this time of day ? " 
 
 "I am very sorry, sir. I am behind my time." 
 
 "You are? Yes. I think you are. Step this 
 way, if you please." 
 
 " It 's only once a year, sir. It shall not be re- 
 peated. I was making rather merry yesterday, 
 sir." 
 
 " Now, I '11 tell you what, my friend. I am 
 not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. 
 And therefore," Scrooge continued, leaping from 
 his stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waist- 
 coat that he staggered back into the Tank again, 
 " and therefore I am about to raise your salary ! " 
 
 Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the 
 ruler. 
 
 " A merry Christmas, Bob! " said Scrooge, with 
 an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he 
 clapped him on the back. " A merrier Christmas, 
 Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for 
 many a year ! I '11 raise your salary, and en-
 
 A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 53 
 
 deavor to assist your struggling family, aud we 
 will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over 
 a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob ! Make 
 up the fires, and buy a second coal-scuttle before 
 you dot another i, Bob Cratchit ! " 
 
 Scrooge was better than his word. He did it 
 all, and infinitely more ; and to Tiny Tim, who did 
 NOT die, he was a second father. He became as 
 good a friend, as good a master, and as good a 
 man as the good old city knew, or any other good 
 old city, town, or borough in the good old world. 
 Some people laughed to see the alteration in him ; 
 but his own heart laughed, and that was quite 
 enough for him. 
 
 He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but 
 lived in that respect upon the Total-Abstinence 
 Principle ever afterwards ; and it was always said 
 of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, 
 if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May 
 that be truly said of us, and all of us ! And so, as 
 Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One !
 
 UCSB LIBRARY
 
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