A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org read by Helen Sayers Stave one Marley’s ghost Marley was dead to begin with there is no doubt whatever about that the register of his burial was signed by the clergyman the clerk The Undertaker and the chief mourner Scrooge signed it and Scrooge’s name was good upon change for anything he chose to put his hand to Old Marley was as dead as a doornail mind I don’t mean to say that I know of my own knowledge what there is particularly Dead about a doornail I might have been inclined myself to regard a coffin nail as the deadest piece of iron mongery in the trade but the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile and my unhallowed hand Shall Not Disturb it or the country’s done for you will therefore permit me to repeat emphatically that Marley was as dead as a doornail Scrooge knew he was dead of course he did how could it be otherwise Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years Scrooge was his sole executor his sole administrator his soul assigned his soul residuary legatee his soul friend and soul mourner and even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut off by the sad event but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral and solemnized it with an undoubted Bergen The Mention Of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from there is no doubt that Marley was dead this must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come up the story I am going to relate if we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s father died before the play began there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night in an easterly wind upon his own ramparts then there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot say Saint Paul’s churchyard for instance literally to astonish his son’s weak mind Scrooge never painted out old Marley’s name there it stood years afterwards above the warehouse door Scrooge and Marley The Firm was known as Scrooge and Marley sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge and sometimes merly but he answered to both names it was all the same to him oh but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone Scrooge a squeezing wrenching grasping scraping clutching carveda Soul sinner heard and sharp as Flint from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster the cold within him froze his old features nipped his point at nose shriveled his cheek stiffened his gait made his eyes red his thin lips blew and spoke out truly in his grading voice a frosty rhyme was on his head and on his eyebrows and his wiry chin he carried his own low temperature always about with him he iced his office in the dog days and didn’t thought one degree at Christmas external heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge no warmth could warm no wintry weather chill him no wind that blew was bitterer than he no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose no pelting rain Less open to entreaty foul weather didn’t know where to have him the heaviest rain and snow and hail and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect they often came down handsomely and Scrooge never did nobody ever stopped him in the street to say with glad some looks my dear Scrooge how are you when will you come to see me no Beggars implored him to bestow a trifle no children asked him what it was o’clock no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place of Scrooge even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him and when they saw him coming on would tug their owners into doorways and up courts and then would wag their tails as though they said no I at all is better than an evil eye dark master but what did Scrooge care it was the very thing he liked to Edge his way along the crowded Paths of Life warning all human sympathy to keep its distance was what the knowing ones called nuts to Scrooge Once Upon a Time of all the good days in the air on Christmas Eve all Scrooge sat busy in his Counting house it was cold Bleak biting weather foggy with all and he could hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down beating their hands upon their breasts and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them City clocks had only just gone three but it was quite dark already it had not been light all day and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighboring offices like Ruddy smears upon the palpable Brown ear the fog came pouring in at every [ __ ] and Keyhole and was so dense without that although the court was of the narrowest The house’s opposite were mere Phantoms to see the dingy Cloud come drooping down obscuring everything one might have thought that nature lived hard by and was brewing on large scale the door up Scrooge’s Counting house was open that he might keep his eye up on his clerk who in a dismal little cell Beyond a sort of tank was copying letters Scrooge had a very small fire but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal but he couldn’t replenish it for Scrooge kept the coal box in his own room and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter and tried to warm himself at the candle in which effort not being a man of a strong imagination he failed a Merry Christmas Uncle God save you cried a cheerful voice it was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew Who Came Upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach ba said Scrooge humbug he had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost this nephew of Scrooge’s that he was all in a glow his face was Ruddy and handsome his eyes sparkled and his breath smoked again Christmas a humbug uncle said Scrooge’s nephew you don’t mean that I am sure I do said Scrooge Merry Christmas what right have you to be Mary what reason have you to be Mary you’re poor enough come then return the nephew gaily what right have you to be dismal what reason have you to be morose you’re rich enough Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment said ba again and followed up with humbug don’t be cross uncle said the nephew what else can I be returned the uncle when I live in such a world of fools as this Merry Christmas out upon Merry Christmas what’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money a time for finding yourself a year older but not an hour richer a time for balancing your books and having every item in them through a round dozen of months presented dead against you if I could work my will said Scrooge indignantly every idiot who goes about with merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of Holly through his heart he should Uncle pleaded the nephew nephew returned the uncle sternly keep Christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mind keep it repeat it Scrooge’s nephew but you don’t keep it let me leave it alone then said Scrooge much good may it do you much good it has ever done you there are many things from which I might have derived good by which I have not profited I dare say return the nephew Christmas among the rest but I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time when it has come round apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin if anything belonging to it can be apart from that as a good time a kind forgiving charitable Pleasant time the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shuttle Parts freely and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other Journeys and therefore Uncle though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket I believe that it has done me good and will do me good and I say God bless it the clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety he poked the fire and extinguished the last frail spark forever let me hear another sound from you said Scrooge and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation you’re quite a powerful speaker sir he had it turning to his nephew I wonder you don’t go into Parliament don’t be angry Uncle come dine with us tomorrow Scrooge said that he would see him yes indeed he did he went the whole length of the expression and said that he would see him in that extremity first but why cried Scrooge’s nephew why why did you get married said Scrooge because I fell in love because you fell in love growl Scrooge as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a Merry Christmas good afternoon nay uncle but you never came to see me before that happened why give it as a reason for not coming now good afternoon said Scrooge I want nothing from you I ask nothing of you why cannot We Be Friends good afternoon said Scrooge I am sorry with all my heart to find you so Resolute we have never had any quarrel to which I have been a party but I have made the trial in homage to Christmas and I’ll keep my Christmas humor to the last so a Merry Christmas Uncle good afternoon said Scrooge and a Happy New Year good afternoon said Scrooge his nephew left the room without an angry word notwithstanding he stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk who cold as he was was warmer than Scrooge for who returned them cordially there is another fellow muttered screw to overheard him my clerk with 15 Shillings a week and a wife and family talking about a Merry Christmas all retired of bedlam this lunatic in letting Scrooge’s nephew out had let two other people in they were portly gentlemen Pleasant to behold and now stood with their hats off in Scrooge’s office they had booked some papers in their hands and vowed to him Scrooge and Marley’s I believe said one of the gentlemen referring to his list have I had the pleasure of addressing Mr Scrooge or Mr Marley Mr Marley has been dead these seven years Scrooge replied he died seven years ago this very night we have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner said the gentleman presenting his credentials it certainly was for they had been two Kindred Spirits at the ominous word liberality screwed frowned and shook his head and handed the credentials back at this festive season of the year Mr Scrooge said the gentleman taking off a pen it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute who suffer greatly at the present time many thousands are in want of common necessaries hundreds of thousands are a want of common Comfort sir are there no prisons asked Scrooge plenty of Prisons said the gentleman laying down the pen again and the union workhouses demanded Scrooge are they still in operation they are still return the gentleman I wish I could say they were not the treadmill and the poor law are in full Vigor then said Scrooge both very busy sir oh I was afraid from what you said at first that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course said Scrooge I’m very glad to hear it under the impression that they scarcely furnished Christian chair of mind or body to the multitude return the gentleman a few of us are endeavoring to raise fund to buy the poor some meet and drink and means of warmth we choose this time because it is a time of all others when want is keenly felt and abundance rejoices what shall I put you down for nothing Scrooge replied you wish to be anonymous I wish to be left alone said Scrooge since you asked me what I wish gentlemen that is my answer I don’t make Mary myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people marry I hope to support the establishments I have mentioned they cost enough and those who are badly off must go there many can’t go there and many would rather die if they would rather die said Scrooge they had better do it and decrease the Surplus population besides excuse me I don’t know that but you might know it observe the gentleman it’s not my business Scrooge returned it’s enough for a man to understand his own business and not to interfere with other peoples mine occupies me constantly good afternoon gentlemen seeing clearly that would be useless to pursue their point the gentleman withdrew Scrooge resumed his labors with an improved opinion of himself and in a more fastidious temper than was usual with him meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so that people ran about with flaring links proffering their services to go before horses and carriages and conduct them on their way the ancient Tower of a church whose gruffal Bell was always peeping slightly down its Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall became invisible and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there the cold became intense in the main street at the corner of the Court some laborers were repairing the gas pipes and had lighted a great fire in abrasure around which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered warming their hands and winking their eyes before the Blaze and Rapture the water plug being left in solitude its overflowing sullenly congealed and turned to misanthropic ice the brightness of the shops were Holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp heat of the windows made pale faces Ruddy as they passed pultures and Grocers trades became a splendid joke a glorious pageant with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do the Lord mayor and the stronghold of the mighty mansion house gave orders to his 50 cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as the Lord mayor’s household should and even the little tailor whom he had fined five Shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets stirred up tomorrow’s putting in his Garrett while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef foggier yet and colder piercings searching biting cold if the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the evil spirit’s nose with a touch of such weather as that instead of using his familiar weapons then indeed he would have roared to Lusty purpose the owner of one scant young knows nod and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are not by dogs stoop down at Scrooge’s Keyhole to Regale him with A Christmas Carol but at the first sound of God bless you Merry Gentlemen May nothing you dismay Scrooge sees the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled and Terror leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial Frost at length the hour of shutting up the counting house arrived with an ill will Scrooge dismounted from his stool and tacitly admitted the fact of the expectant clerk in the tank who instantly snuffed his candle out and put on his hat you will want all day tomorrow I suppose said Scrooge if quite convenient sir it’s not convenient said Scrooge and it’s not fair if I was to stop half a crown for it you’d think yourself feel used I’ll be bound the clerk smiled faintly and yet said Scrooge you don’t think meal used when I pay a day’s wages for no work clerk observed that it was only once a year a poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th of December said Scrooge buttoning his great coat to the chin but I suppose you must have the whole day be here all the earlier next morning the clerk promised that he would and Scrooge walked out with a growl the office was closed in the twinkling and the clerk with the long ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist for he boasted no great coat went down a slide on Corn Hill at the end of Lane of boys 20 times in honor of its being Christmas Eve and then ran home to Camden town as hard as he could Pelt to play at Blind Man’s buff Scrooge took his Melancholy dinner in his usual Melancholy Tavern and having read all the newspapers and beguiled the rest of the evening with his Bankers book went home to bed he lived in Chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner they were a gloomy Suite of rooms in a lowering pile of building up a yard where it had so little business to be that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house playing at hide and seek with other houses and forgotten the way out again it was old enough now and dreary enough for nobody lived in it but Scrooge the other rooms being all let out as offices the yard was so dark that even Scrooge Who Knew its every stone was feigned grope with his hands the fog and frost so hung about the black hole Gateway of the house that it seemed as if the genius of the weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold now it is a fact that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door except that it was very large it is also a fact that Scrooge had seen it night and morning during his whole residence in that place also that Scrooge had as little of what is called Fancy about him as any man in the city of London even including which is a bold word the corporation Alderman and livery let it also be born in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley since his last mention of his seven years dead partner that afternoon and then let any man explain to me if he can how it happened that Scrooge having his key in the lock of the door saw in the knocker without its undergoing any intermediate process of change not an awkward but Marley’s face Marley’s face it was not in impenetrable Shadow as the other objects in the Arab were but had a dismal light about it like a bad Lobster in a dark Cellar it was not angry or ferocious but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead the hair was curiously stirred as if by breath or hot air and though the eyes were wide open they were perfectly emotionless that and its livid color made it horrible but its Horrors seemed to be in spite of the face and Beyond its control rather than a part of its own expression as Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon it was a knocker again to say that he was not startled or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy would be untrue but he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished turned it sturdly walked in and lighted his candle he did pause with a moment’s air resolution before he shut the door and he did look cautiously behind at first as if he half expected to be terrified with the sight of Marley’s pigtails 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 poo poo and closed it with a bang the sound resounded through the house like thunder every room above and every Cask in the wine merchant sellers below appeared to have a separate peel of Echoes of its own Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by Echoes he fastened the door and walked across the hall and up the stairs slowly too trimming his candle as he went you may talk vaguely about driving a coach and six of a good old flight of steers or through a bad young Act of parliament but I mean to say you might have got a hearse up that staircase and taken it broadwise with the Splinter bar towards the wall and the door towards the balustrades and done it easy there was plenty of widths for that and room to spear which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a locomotive Hearst going on before him in the Gloom half a dozen gas slams out of the street wouldn’t have light at the entry too well so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge’s dip up Scrooge went not carrying a button for that darkness is cheap and Scrooge liked it but before he shut his heavy door he walked through his rooms to see that all was right he had just enough recollection of the face to desire to do that sitting room bedroom Lumber room all as they should be nobody under the table nobody under the sofa a small fire in the great spoon and Basin ready and a little saucepan of gruel Scrooge had a cold in his head upon the hob nobody under the bed nobody in the closet nobody in his dressing gown which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall Lumber room as usual old Fire Guard old shoes two fish baskets washing stand on three legs and a poker quite satisfied he closed his door and locked himself in double locked himself in which was not his custom thus secured against surprise he took off his Corvette put on his dressing gown and slippers and his night cap and sat down before the fire to take his gruel it was a very low fire indeed nothing on such a bitter night he was obliged to sit close to it and brood over it before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel the fireplace was an old one built by some Dutch Merchant long ago and paved all around with quaint Dutch tiles designed to illustrate the scriptures there were canes and Abels Pharaoh’s daughters Queens of Sheba Angelic Messengers descending through the air on clouds like featherbeds Abrahams belshazzares Apostles putting off to see in butterboats hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts and yet that face of Marley seven years dead came like the ancient prophet’s rod and swallowed up the hole if each smooth tile had been a blank at first with power to shape some picture on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts there would have been a copy of old Marley’s head on everyone humbug said Scrooge and walked across the room after several turns he sat down again as he threw his head back in the chair his glance happened to rest upon a bell a disused bell that hung in the room and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest story of the building it was with great astonishment and with a strange inexplicable dread that as he looked he saw this Bell begin to swing it swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound but soon it rang out loudly and so did every Bell in the house this might have lasted half a minute or a minute but it seemed an hour the Bell ceased as they had begun together they were succeeded by a clanking noise deep down below as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant cellar Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains the Cellar Door flew open with a booming sound and then he heard the noise much louder on the floors below then coming up the stairs then coming straight towards his door its humbug still said Scrooge I won’t believe it it’s color changed though when without a pause it came on through the heavy door and passed into the room before his eyes upon it’s coming in the dying flame leaped up as though it cried I know him Marley’s ghost and fell again the same face the very same Marley and his pigtail usual waistcoat tights and Boots the tassels on the ladder bristling like his pigtail and his coat skirts and the hair up on his head the chain he drew was clasped about his middle it was long and wound about him like a tail and it was made for Scrooge observed it closely of cash boxes Keys padlocks ledgers deeds and heavy purses rot in Steel his body was transparent so that Scrooge observing him and looking through his waistcoat could see the two buttons on his coat behind Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels but he had never believed it until now no nor did he believe it even now though he looked the Phantom through and through and saw it standing before him though he felt the chilling influence of its death cold eyes and marked the very texture of the folded kirschev bound about its head and Chin which rapper he had not observed before he was still incredulous and fought against his senses how now said Scrooge costing and cold as ever what do you want with me much Marley’s voice no doubt about it who are you ask me who I was who were you then said Scrooge raising his voice your particular for a shade he was going to say to a shade but substituted this as more appropriate in life I was your partner Jacob Marley can you can you sit down ask Scrooge looking doubtfully at him I can do it then Scrooge asked the question because he didn’t know whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in a condition to take a cheer and felt that in the event of it being impossible it might involve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation but the ghosts sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace as if he were quite used to it you don’t believe in me observe the ghost I don’t said Scrooge what evidence would you have of My reality beyond that of your senses I don’t know said Scrooge why do you doubt your senses because said Scrooge a little thing affects them a slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats you may be an undigested bit of beef a blot of mustard a crumb of cheese a fragment of an underdone potato there’s more of gravy than a grave about you whatever you are Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes nor did he feel in his heart by any means waggish thin the truth is that he tried to be smart as a means of distracting his own attention and keeping down his Terror for inspector’s voice Disturbed The Very marrow in his bones to sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence for a moment would play Scrooge felt the very Deuce with him there was something very awful too in the specters being provided with an infernal atmosphere of its own Scrooge could not feel it himself but this was clearly the case for though the ghost sat perfectly motionless its hair and skirts and tassels were still agitated as by the hot vapor from an oven you see this toothpick said screwed returning quickly to the charge for the reason just assigned and wishing though it were only for a second to divert the vision’s Stony gaze from himself I do replied the ghost you are not looking at it said Scrooge but I see it said the ghost notwithstanding well returned Scrooge I have but to swallow this and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins all of my own creation humbug I tell you humbug at this the spirit raised a frightful cry and shook its chains with such a dismal and appalling noise that Scrooge held on tight to his chair to save himself from falling in a swoon but how much greater was his horror when the Phantom taking off the bandage round its head as if it were too warm to wear indoors its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast Scrooge fell upon his knees and clasped his hands before his face Mercy he said Dreadful Apparition why do you trouble me man of the worldly mind replied the ghost do you believe in me or not I do said Scrooge I must but why do spirits walk the earth and why do they come to me it is required of every man the ghost return that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men and travel fair and wide and if that Spirit goes not forth in life it is condemned to do so after death it is doomed to wander through the world oh woe was me and witness what it cannot share but might have shared on Earth and turned to happiness again the Specter raised cry and shook its chains and rugged shadowy hands you are fettered said Scrooge trembling tell me why I wear the chain I forged in life replied the ghost I made it linked by Lincoln yard by yard I girded it on of my own free will and of my own free will I Ward is pattern strange to you Scrooge trembled more and more or would you know pursued the ghost the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself it was full as heavy and as long as this seven Christmas Eve’s ago you have labored on it since it is a ponderous chain Scrooge glanced about him on the floor in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some 50 or 60 fathoms of iron cable but he could see nothing Jacob he said imploringly old Jacob Marley tell me more speak Comfort to me Jacob I have none to give the ghost replied it comes from other regions Ebenezer Scrooge and is conveyed by other ministers to other kinds of men nor can I tell you what I would a very little more is all permitted to me I cannot rest I cannot stay I cannot linger anywhere my spirit never walked beyond our accounting house Mark me in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing whole and weary Journeys lie before me it was a habit with Scrooge whenever he became thoughtful to put his hands in his breeches pockets pondering on what the ghost had said he did so now but without lifting up his eyes or getting off his knees you must have been very slow about it Jacob’s Scrooge observed in a business-like manner though with humility and deference slow the ghost repeated seven years dead mused Scrooge and traveling all the time the whole time said the ghost No Rest no peace incessant torture of remorse you travel fast said Scrooge on the wings of the wind replied the ghost you might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years since Groot the ghost on hearing this set up another cry and clanked this chain so hideously in the Dead Silence of the night that the ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance oh captive bound and doubled iron cried the Phantom 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 usefulness not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one’s life’s opportunities misused yet such was I oh such was I but you were always a good man of business Jacob faltered Scrooge Who now began to apply this to himself business cried the ghost ringing its hands again mankind was my business the common welfare was my business charity Mercy forbearance and benevolence were all my business the dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business it held up its chain at arm’s length as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief and flung it heavily upon the ground again at this time of the Rolling year the Specter said I suffer most why did I walk through crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down and never raised them to that blessed star which led the wise men to a poor abode were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the Specter going on at this rate and began to Quake exceedingly hear me cried the ghost my time is nearly gone I will sit Scrooge but don’t be hard up on me don’t be flowery Jacob pray how is it that I appear before you in a shape that you can see I may not tell I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day it was not an agreeable idea Scrooge shivered and wiped the perspiration from his brow that is no light part of my Penance pursued the ghost I am here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate a chance and hope of my procuring Ebenezer you were always a good friend to me said Scrooge thank you you will be haunted resume the ghost by three spirits Scrooge’s countenance fell almost as low as the ghosts had done is that the chance and hope you mentioned Jacob he demanded in a faltering voice it is I I think I’d rather not said Scrooge without their visits said the ghost you cannot hope to shun the path I tread expect the first tomorrow when the bell told one couldn’t I take them all at once and have it over Jacob hinted Scrooge expect the second on the next night at the same hour the third upon the next night when the last stroke of 12 has ceased to vibrate look to see me no more and look that for your own sake you remember what has passed between us when it had said these words the Specter took its wrapper from the table and bound it round its head as before Scrooge knew this by the smart sound it’s teeth made when the Jaws were brought together by the bandage he ventured to raise his eyes again and found his Supernatural visitor confronting him in an erect attitude with its chain wound over and about its arm The Apparition walked backward from him and at every step it took the window raised itself a little so that when the Specter reached it it was wide open beckoned Scrooge to approach which he did when they were within two paces of each other Marley’s ghost held up its hand warning him to come known error Scrooge stopped not so much in obedience as in Surprise and fear for on the raising of the hand he became sensible of confused noises in the air incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret whaling’s inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory the Specter after listening for a moment joined in the mournful dirge and floated out upon the Bleak Dark Night Scrooge followed to the window desperate in his curiosity he looked out the era was filled with Phantoms wandering hither and thither in Restless taste and moaning as they went every one of them wore chains like Marley’s ghost some few they might be guilty governments were linked together none were free many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives he had been quite familiar with one old ghost in a white waistcoat with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant whom it saw below Upon A doorstep the misery with them all was clearly that they sought to interfere for good in human matters and had lost the power forever whether these creatures faded into mist or missed and shrouded them he could not tell but they in their Spirit voices faded together and the night became as it had been when he walked home Scrooge closed the window and examined the door by which the ghost had entered it was double locked as he had locked it with his own hands and the bolts were undisturbed he tried to say humbug but stopped at the first syllable and being from the emotion he had undergone or the fatigues of the day or his glimpse of the invisible world or the dull conversation of the ghost or the lateness of the hour much in need of repose went straight to bed without undressing and fell asleep upon the instant end of Stave one Section 3 of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Helen Sears Stave 3 the second of the three spirits awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the Bell was again upon the stroke of one he felt that he was restored to Consciousness in the right nick of time for the special purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger dispatched to him through Jacob Marley’s intervention but finding that he turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this new Specter would draw back he put them everyone aside with his own hands and lying down again established a sharp Lookout all around the bed for he wished to challenge the spirit on the moment of its appearance and did not wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous Gentlemen of the free and easy sort who plume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two and being usually equal to the time of day Express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch and toss to manslaughter between which opposite extremes no doubt their lies that tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects without venturing for Scrooge quite as hardly as this I don’t mind calling on you to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of strange appearances and that nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros would have astonished him very much now being prepared for almost anything he was not by any means prepared for nothing and consequently when the bell struck one and no shape appeared he was taken with a violent fit of trembling 5 minutes 10 minutes a quarter of an hour went by yet nothing came all this time he lay up on his bed the very corn center of a blaze of Ruddy light which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour and which being only light was more alarming than a dozen ghosts as he was powerless to make out what it meant or would be at and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that very moment an interesting case of spontaneous combustion without having the consolation of knowing it at last however he began to think as you or I would have thought at first for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it and would unquestionably have done it too at last I say he began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room from wince on further tracing it it seemed to shine this idea taking full possession of his mind he got up softly and shuffled any slippers to the door the moment Scrooge’s hand was on the lock a strange voice called him by his name and bait him Enter he obeyed it was his own room there was no doubt about that but it had undergone a surprising transformation the walls and ceiling were so hung with living green that it looked a perfect Grove from every part of which bright gleaming berries glistened the crisp leaves of Holly mistletoe and Ivy reflected back the light as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there and such a mighty Blaze went roaring up the chimney as that dull petrification of a hearth had never known in Scrooge’s time or mariles or for many and many a winter season gone heaped up on the floor to form a kind of Throne where turkeys geese game poultry Brawn great joints of meat sucking pigs long wreaths of sausages mince pies Plum puddings barrels of oysters red hot chestnuts Cherry cheeked apples juicy oranges luscious pears immense 12th cakes and seething bowls of punch that made the chamber dim with their delicious Steam in Easy stayed up on this couch there’s had a jolly giant glorious to see Who Bore a glowing torch in shape not on like plenty’s horn and held it up high up to shed its light on Scrooge as he came peeping round the door come in exclaim the ghost come in and know me better man Scrooge entered timidly and hung his head before this Spirit he was not the dog at Scrooge he had been and though the spirit’s eyes were clear and kind he did not like to meet them I am the Ghost of Christmas present said the spirit look upon me Scrooge reverently did so it was clothed in one simple green robe or mantle bordered with white fur this garment hung so loosely on the figure that its capacious breast was beer as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice its feet observed beneath the ample folds of the Garment were also bare and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath set here and there with shining icicles its dark brown curls were long and free free as its genial face its sparkling eye its open hand its cheery voice it’s unconstrained demeanor and it’s joyful ear gird it round its middle was an antique Scabbard but no sword was in it and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust you have never seen the like of me before exclaimed the spirit never Scrooge made answer to it have you never walked forth with the younger members of my family meaning for I am very young my Elder brothers born in these later years pursued the Phantom I don’t think I have said Scrooge I’m afraid I have not have you had many brother’s spirit more than 1800 said the ghost a tremendous family to provide for muttered Scrooge the Ghost of Christmas present Rose spirit said Scrooge submissively conduct me where you will I went forth last night on compulsion and I learned a lesson which is working now tonight if you have ought to teach me let me profit by it touch my robe Scrooge did as he was told and held it fast Holly mistletoe redberries Ivy turkeys geese game poultry Brawn meat pigs sausages oysters pies puddings fruit and punch all vanished instantly so did the room the fire the Ruddy glow the hour of night and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning where for the weather was severe the people made a rough but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music in scraping the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings and from the tops of their houses whence it was mad Delight to the boys to see it come Plumping down into the road below and splitting into artificial little snowstorms the house fronts looked black enough and the windows blacker contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs and with the dirtier snow upon the ground which last deposit had been plowed up in deep furrows by The Heavy Wheels of carts and wagons furrows that crossed and re-crossed each other hundreds of times where the great streets branched off and made intricate channels hard to trace in the thick yellow mud and icy water the sky was gloomy and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy Mist half thawed half Frozen whose heavier particles descended in a shower of City atoms as if all the Chimneys in Great Britain had by one consent caught fire and were blazing away to their dear Hearts content there was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town and yet was there an ear of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest Summer Sun might have endeavored to diffuse in vain for the people who were shoveling away on the housetops were jovial and politically calling out to one another from the parapets and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball better-natured missile fire than many a wordy jest laughing hardly if it went right and not less hardly if it went wrong the poultiverse shops were still half open and the fruiters were radiant in their Glory there were great round pot belly baskets of chestnuts shaped like the waistcoats of Jolly Old gentlemen lawing at the doors and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence there were Ruddy brown-faced broad girth Spanish onions shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish friars and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by and glanced merely at the hung up mistletoe there were piers and apples clustered high in Blooming pyramids there were Bunches of grapes made in the shopkeeper’s benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks that people’s mouths might water Gratis as they passed there were piles of filberts Mossy and brown recalling in their fragrance ancient blocks among the woods and pleasant shuffling’s ankle deep through withered leaves there were Norfolk biffins Squat and swarthy setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons and in the great compactness of their juicy persons urgently in treating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner the very gold and silver fish set forth among these Choice fruits in a bowl though members of a dull and stagnant blooded race appeared to know that there was something going on and two of fish went gasping round and round their little world in slow and passionless excitement the Grocers owe the Grocers nearly closed with perhaps two shutters down or one but through those gaps such glimpses it was not alone that the scales descending on the the counter made a merry sound or that the twinum roller part of company so briskly or that the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks or even that the Blended sense of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare the almonds so extremely white the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight the other spice is so delicious the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest Lookers on feel faint and subsequently bilious nor was it that the figs were moist and pulpy or that the French plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly decorated boxes or that everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress but the customers were also hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day that they tumbled up against each other at the door crashing their wicker baskets wildly and left their purchases upon the counter and came running back to fetch them and committed hundreds of the like mistakes in the best humor possible while the grocer and his people were so Frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own worn outside for General inspection and for Christmas dosed packet if they chose but soon the Steeples called good people all to church and chapel and the way they came flocking through the streets in their best clothes and with their gazed faces and at the same time they’re emerged from scores of by streets lanes and nameless turnings innumerable people carrying their dinners to the baker shops sight of these poor revelers appeared to interest the spirit very much for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a baker’s doorway and taking off the covers as their bearers passed sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch and it was a very uncommon kind of torch for once or twice when there were Angry Words between some dinner carriers who had jostled each other he shed a few drops of water on them from it and their Good Humor was restored directly for they said it was a shamed quarrel up on Christmas Day and so it was God love it so it was in time the bells ceased and the Bakers were shut up and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners and the progress of their cooking in the thawed blotch of wet above each Baker’s oven where the pavement smoked as if its Stones were cooking too is there a peculiar flavor in what you sprinkle from your torch asked Scrooge there is my own would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day asked Scrooge to any kindly given to a poor one most why to a poor one most asked Scrooge because it needs it most spirit said Scrooge after a moment’s thought I wonder you of all the beings in the many worlds about us should desire to cramp these people’s opportunities of innocent enjoyment I cried the spirit you would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all said Scrooge wouldn’t you I cried the spirit you seek to close these places on the seventh day said Scrooge and it comes to the same thing I seek exclaim the spirit forgive me if I am wrong it has been done in your name or at least in that of your family said Scrooge there are some up on this Earth of yours return the spirit who lay claim to know us and who do their deeds of passion Pride ill will hatred Envy bigotry and selfishness in our name who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin as if they had never lived remember that and charge their doings on themselves not us Scrooge promised that he would and they went on invisible as they had been before into the suburbs of the Town it was a remarkable quality of the ghost which Scrooge had observed at the bakers that notwithstanding his gigantic size he could accommodate himself to any place with ease and that he stood benevil overov quite as gracefully and like a supernatural creature as it was possible he could have done in any lofty Hall and perhaps it was the pleasure the good spirit had in showing off this power of His or else it was his own kind generous hearty nature and his sympathy with all poor men that led him straight to Scrooge’s clerks for there he went and took Scrooge with him holding to his robe and on the threshold of the door the spirit smiled and stopped to bless Bob cratchit’s dwelling with the sprinkling of his torch think of that Bob had but 15 Bob a week himself he pocketed on Saturdays but 15 copies of his Christian name and yet the Ghost of Christmas present blessed his four-roomed house then up Rose Mrs Cratchit cratchit’s wife dressed out but poorly in a twice turned gown but Brave in ribbons which are cheap and make a goodly show for Sixpence and she laid the cloth assisted by Belinda Cratchit second of her daughters also Brave in ribbons while master Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes and getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar Bob’s private property conferred upon his son and Heir in honor of the day into his mouth Rejoice to find himself so gallantly attired and yearned to show his Linen in the fashionable parks and now two smaller cratchets boy and girl came tearing in screaming that outside the Bakers they had smelt the goose and known it for their own and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion these young cratchets 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 warned this late last Christmas Day by half an hour here’s Martha mother said a girl a pairing as she spoke here’s Martha mother cried the two young cratchets hurray there’s such a goose Martha why bless your heart alive my dear how late you are said Mrs Cratchit kissing her a dozen times and taking off her shawl and Bonnet for her with official zeal we’d a dealer 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 Darren have a warm Lord bless you no no there’s father coming cried the two young cratchits who were everywhere at once hide Martha hide so Martha hit herself and in came little Bob the father with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of The Fringe hanging down before him and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed to look seasonable and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder alas for Tiny Tim he bore a little crutch and had his limbs supported by an iron frame why where’s our Martha surprise Bob Cratchit looking round not coming said Mrs Cratchit not coming said Bob with a sudden declension in his High Spirits for he had been Tim’s Blood Horse all the way from church and had come home rampant not coming upon Christmas Day Martha didn’t like to see him disappointed if it were only in joke so she came out prematurely from behind the closet door and ran into his arms while the two young crutches hustle Tiny Tim and bore him off into the Wash House that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper and how did Little Tim behave asked Mrs Cratchit when she had rallied Bob on his credulity and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content as good as gold said Bob and better somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much and thinks the strangest things you ever heard he told me coming home that he hoped the people saw him in the church because he was a [ __ ] 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 him this and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty his active little crutch was heard upon the floor and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken escorted by his brother and sister to his stool before the fire and while Bob turning up his cuffs as if poor fellow they were capable of being made more shabby compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons and stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer Master Peter and the two ubiquitous young cratchets went to fetch the goose with which they soon returned in high procession such a bustling suit that you might have thought of goose the rarest of all birds a feathered phenomenon to which a Black Swan was a matter of course and in truth it was something very like it in that house Mrs Cratchit made the gravy ready beforehand in a little saucepan hissing hot Master Peter mashed the potatoes with Incredible vigor Miss Belinda sweetened up the applesauce Martha dusted the hot plates Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in the tiny corner at the table the two young cratchets set cheers for everybody not forgetting themselves a mounting guard upon their posts crammed spoons into their mouths lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped at last the dishes were set on and Grace was said it was succeeded by a breathless pause as Mrs Cratchit looking slowly all along the carving knife prepared to plunge it in the breast but when she did and when the long expected gush of stuffing issue Forth One murmur of delight arose all around the board and even Tiny Tim excited by the two young crafteds beat on the table with the handle of his knife and thiebly cried hurray 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 applesauce and mashed potatoes it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family indeed as Mrs Cratchit said with great Delight surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish they hadn’t ate it all at last yet everyone had had enough and the youngest cratchets in particular were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows but now the plates being changed by Miss Belinda Mrs Cratchit left the room alone too nervous to Bear witnesses to take the pudding up and bring it in suppose it should not be done enough suppose it should break in turning out suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the backyard and stolen it while they were married with the goose a supposition at which the two young cratchets became livid all sorts of Horrors were supposed hello 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 Cooks next door to each other with laundresses next door to that that was the pudding in half a minute Mrs crash had entered flushed but smiling proudly with the pudding like a speckled Cannonball so hard and firm blazing in half of a half a quarter of ignited Brandy and bedite with Christmas holly stuck into the top oh wonderful pudding Bob Cratchit said and calmly too that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs Cratchit since their marriage Mrs Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour everybody had something to say about it but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family it would have been flat heresy to do so any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing at last the dinner was all done the cloth was cleared the Hearth swept and the fire made up the compound in the jug being tasted and considered perfect apples and oranges were put upon the table and a shovel full of chestnuts on the Fire then all the Cratchit family Drew round the Hearth in what Bob Cratchit called a circle meaning half of one and at Bob cratch’s elbow stood the family display of glass two tumblers and a Custard Cup without a handle these held the hot stuff from The Jug however as well as golden goblets would have done and Bob served it out with beaming looks while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily then Bob proposed a Merry Christmas to us all my dears God bless us which all the family re-echoed God bless us everyone said Tiny Tim the last of all he sat very close to his father’s side upon his little stool Bob held his withered little hand in his as if he loved the child and wished to keep him by his side and dreaded that he might be taken from him spirit said Scrooge with an interest he had never felt before tell me if Tiny Tim will live I see a vacant seat replied the ghost in the poor Chimney Corner and a crutch without an owner carefully preserved if these Shadows remain unaltered by the future the child will die no no said Scrooge oh no kind Spirit say he will be spirit if these Shadows remain unaltered by the future none other of my race return the ghost will find him here what then if he be like to die he had better do it and decrease the Surplus population Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the spirit and was overcome with penitence and grief man said the ghost if man you be in heart not adamant for bear that Wicked Kent until you have discovered what the Surplus is and where it is will you decide what men shall live what men shall die it may be that in the sight of Heaven you are more worthless and less fit to live than Millions like this poor man’s child oh God to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry Brothers in the dust Scrooge bent before the ghosts rebuke and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground but he raised them speedily on hearing his own name Mr Scrooge said Bob I give you Mr Scrooge the founder of the feast the founder of the feast indeed cried Mrs Cratchit reddening I wish I had him here I’d give him a piece of my mind to Feast upon and I hope he’d have a good appetite for it my dear said Bob the children Christmas Day it should be Christmas Day I’m sure said she on which one drinks the health of such an odious stingy hard-on feeling man as Mr Scrooge you know he is Robert nobody knows it better than you do poor fellow my dear was Bob’s mild answer Christmas day I’ll drink his health for your sake and the days said Mrs Cratchit not for his long life to him a merry Christmas and a happy New Year he’ll be very merry and very happy I have no doubt the children drank the toast after her it was the first of their proceedings which had no hardiness Tiny Tim drank it last of all but he didn’t care two pence for it Scrooge was the ogre of the family the mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party which was not dispelled for full of five minutes after it had passed away they were 10 times merrier than before from the mere relief of Scrooge with baleful being done with Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his eye for master Peter which would bring in if obtained full five and six pence weekly the two young cratchets laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter’s being a man of business and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars as if he were deliberating what particular Investments he should favor when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income Martha who was a poor Apprentice at a Milner’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 a bed tomorrow morning for a good long rest tomorrow being a holiday she passed at home also how she had seen a countess and a lord some days before and how the Lord was much about as tall as Peter at which Peter pulled up his collar so high that you couldn’t have seen his head if you’d been there all this time the chestnuts and the job went round and round and by and by they had a song about a Lost Child traveling in the snow from Tiny Tim who had a plaintiff little voice and sang it very well indeed there was nothing of High Mark in this they were not a handsome family they were not well dressed their shoes were far from being waterproof their clothes were scanty and Peter might have known and very likely did the inside of a pawn brokers 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 party Scrooge had his eye up on them and especially untiny Tim until the last by this time it was getting dark and snowing pretty heavily and as Scrooge and the spirit went along the streets the brightness of the Roaring fires and kitchens parlors and all sorts of rooms was wonderful here the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cozy dinner with hot plates baking through and through before the fire and deep red curtains ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness they are all the children of the house were running out into the snow to meet their married sisters Brothers cousins uncles aunts and be the first to greet them here again were Shadows on the window blind of guests assembling and there are a group of handsome girls all hooded and furbooted and all chattering at once tripped lightly off to some near neighbor’s house where woe upon the single man who saw them enter earthful witches well they knew it in a glow but if you had judged from the numbers of people on their way to Friendly Gatherings you might have thought that no one was at home to give them welcome when they got there instead of every house expecting company and piling up its fires half chimney High bless things on it how the ghost exalted how it beared its breath of breast and opened its capacious palm and floated on outpouring with a generous hand its bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach the very Lamplighter who ran on before dotting the Dusky street with Specks of light and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere laughed out loudly as the spirit passed though little canned The Lamplighter that he had any company but Christmas and now without a word of warning from the ghost they stood upon a bleak and desert Moor where monstrous masses of rude Stone were cast about as though it were the burial place of Giants and water spread itself wheresoever it listed or would have done so but for the frost that held a prisoner and nothing grew but moths and Furs and coarse Frank grass down in the west the Setting Sun had left a streak of fiery red which glared upon the Desolation for an instant like a sullen eye and frowning lower lower lower yet was lost in the thick Gloom of Darkest Night what places this asked Scrooge a place where miners live who labor in the bowels of the earth return the spirit but they know me see a light Shone from the window of a Hut and swiftly they Advanced towards it passing through the wall of modern Stone they found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire an old old man and woman with their children and their children’s children and another generation beyond that all decked out gaily in their holiday attire the old man in a voice that seldom Rose above the howling of the wind upon the barren waste was singing them a Christmas song it had been a very old song when he was a boy and from time to time they all joined in the course so surely as they raised their voices the old man got quite blight and loud and so surely as they stopped his Vigor sank again the spirit did not tarry hair but bade Scrooge hold his robe and passing on above the Moor sped with her not to see to see to Scrooge his horror looking back he saw the last of the land a frightful range of rocks behind them and his ears were deafened by the Thundering of water as it rolled and roared and raged among the Dreadful Caverns it had worn and fiercely tried to undermine the Earth built upon a dismal Reef of sunkum rocks some League or so from shore on which the waters chafed and dashed the wild year through there stood a solitary lighthouse great heaps of seaweed clung to its base and stormbirds born of the wind one might suppose as seaweed of the water Rose and fell about it like the waves they skimmed but even here two men who watched the light had made a fire that threw the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on the awful sea joining their horny hands over the gruff table at which they sat they wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of Grog and one of them the Elder too with his face all damaged and scarred with hard weather as the figurehead of an Old Ship might be struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale in itself again the ghost spit on above the black and heaving sea on on until being far away as he told Scrooge from any shore they light it on a ship they Stood Beside the Helmsman at the wheel the lookout in the bow the officers who had the watch dark ghostly figures in their several stations but every man among them hummed a Christmas tune or had Christmas thought or spoke below his breath To His companion of some bygone Christmas day with Homeward hopes belonging to it and every man on board waking or sleeping good or bad had had a Kinder word for another on that day than On Any Day in the year and had cheered to some extent in its festivities and had remembered those he cared for at a distance and had known that they delighted to remember him it was a great surprise to Scrooge while listening to the moaning of the wind and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the lonely Darkness over an unknown Abyss whose depths were Secrets as profound as death it was a great surprise to Scrooge while thus engaged to hear a hearty laugh it was a much greater surprised Scrooge to recognize it as his own nephews 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 a proving affability left Scrooge’s nephew if you should happen by any unlikely chance to know a man more blessed in a laugh than Scrooge’s nephew all I can say is I should like to know him too introduce him to me and I’ll cultivate his acquaintance it is a fair even-handed Noble adjustment of things that while there is infection in disease and sorrow there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor when Scrooge’s nephew laughed in this way holding his sides rolling his head and twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions Scrooge’s niece by marriage laughed as heartily as he and their assembled friends being not a bit behind hand wore it out lustly [Laughter] Christmas was a humbug as I live cried Scrooge’s nephew he believed it too more shame for him Fred said Scrooge’s niece indignantly bless those women they never do anything by haves they are always an earnest she was very pretty exceedingly pretty with a dimpled surprised looking Capital face a ripe little mouth that seemed made to be kissed as no doubt it was all kinds of good little dots about her chin that melted into one another when she laughed and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature’s head all together she was what you would have called provoking you know but satisfactory too oh perfectly satisfactory he’s a comical old fellow said Scrooge’s nephew that’s the truth and not so pleasant as he might be however his offenses carry their own punishment and I have nothing to say against him I’m sure he’s very rich Fred hinted Scrooge’s niece at least you always tell me so what of that my dear said Scrooge’s nephew his wealth is of no use to him he don’t do any good with it he don’t make himself comfortable with it he hasn’t the satisfaction of thinking that he is ever going to benefit us with it I have no patience with him observed Scrooge’s niece Scrooge’s nieces sisters and all the other ladies expressed the same opinion oh I have said Scrooge’s nephew I am sorry for him I couldn’t be angry with him if I tried who suffers by his ill whims himself always here he takes it into his head to dislike us and he won’t come and dine with us what’s the consequence he don’t lose much of a dinner indeed I think he loses a very good dinner interrupted Scrooge’s niece everybody else said the same and they must be allowed to have been competent judges because they had just had dinner and with the dessert upon the table were clustered round the fire by Lamplight well I’m very glad to hear it said Scrooge’s nephew because I haven’t great faith in these young housekeepers what do you say topper topper had clearly got his eye up on one of Scrooge’s nieces sisters for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched Outcast who had no right to express an opinion on the subject we’re at Scrooge’s niece’s sister the plump woman with lace Tucker not the one with the Roses flushed dookawan Fred said Scrooge’s niece clapping her hands he never finishes what he begins to say he is such a ridiculous fellow Scrooge’s nephew reveled in another laugh and as it was impossible to keep the infection off though the plum sister tried hard to do it with aromatic vinegar his example was unanimously followed I was only going to say said Scrooge’s nephew that the consequence of he’s taking a dislike to us and not making Mary with us is as I think that he loses some pleasant moments which could do him no her I am sure he loses pleasanter companions than he can find in his own thoughts either in these moldy old office or his Dusty Chambers I mean to give them the same chance every year whether he likes it or not for I pity him he may rail at Christmas till he dies but he can’t help thinking better of it I defy him if he finds me going there in good temper year after year and saying Uncle Scrooge how are you if it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk 50 pounds that’s something and I think I shook him yesterday it was their turn to laugh now at the notion of his shaking Scrooge but being thoroughly good-natured and not much caring what they laughed at so that they laughed at any rate he encouraged them in their merriment and passed the bottle joyously after tea they had some music for they were a musical family and knew what they were about when they sung a Glee or catch I can assure you especially topper who could growl away in the base like a good one and never swell the large veins in his forehead or get red in the face over it Scrooge’s niece played well upon the harp and played among other Tunes a simple little Heir a mere nothing you might learn to whistle it in two minutes which had been familiar to the child who fetched Scrooge from the boarding school as he had been reminded by the Ghost of Christmas Past when this strain of Music sounded all the things that ghost had shown him came upon his mind he softened more and more and thought that if he could have listened to it often years ago he might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his own happiness with his own hands without resorting to the sexton Spade that buried Jacob Marley but they didn’t devote the whole evening to music after a while they played at forfeits for it is good to be children sometimes and never better than at Christmas when its Mighty founder was a child himself stop there was first a game at Blind Man’s buff of course there was and I no more believe topper was really blind then I believe he had eyes in his boots my opinion is that it was a done thing between him and Scrooge’s nephew and that the Ghost of Christmas present knew it the way he went after that plump sister in the lace Tucker was an outrage on the credulity of human nature knocking down the fire irons tumbling over the chairs bumping against the pianos smothering himself among the curtains wherever she went there went he he always knew where the plump’s sister was he wouldn’t catch anybody else if you had fallen up against him as some of them did on purpose he would have made a faint of endeavoring to seize you which would have been an affron to your understanding and would instantly have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister she often cried out that it wasn’t fear and it really was not but when at last he caught her when in spite of all her silken rustlings and her rapid flutterings past him he got her into a corner whence there was no Escape then his conduct was the most execrable for his pretending not to know her he’s pretending that it was necessary to touch her headdress and further to ensure himself of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her finger and a certain chain about her neck was vile monstrous no doubt she told him her opinion of it when another blind man being in office they were so very confidential together behind the curtains Scrooge’s niece was not one of the Blind Man’s buff party but was made comfortable with the large chair and a footstool in a snug corner where the ghost and Scrooge were close behind her but she joined in the forfeits and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet likewise at the game of how when and where she was very great and to the secret Joy of Scrooge’s nephew beat her sister’s Hollow though they were sharp girls too as topper could have told you there might have been 20 people there young and old but they all played and so did Scrooge for Holy forgetting in the interest he had and what was going on that his voice made no sound in their ears he sometimes came out with his guess quite loud and very often guessed quite right too for the sharpest needle best White Chapel warned it not to cut in the eye was not sharper than Scrooge blunt as he took it in his head to be the ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood and looked upon him with such favor that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay until the guest departed but this the spirit said could not be done here is a new game set Scrooge one half hour Spirit only one it was a game called yes and no where Scrooge’s nephew had to think of something and the rest must find out what he only answering to their questions yes or no as the case was the brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal a live animal rather a disagreeable animal a Savage animal an animal that growled and grunted sometimes and talks sometimes and lived in London and walked about the streets and wasn’t made a show of and wasn’t led by anybody and didn’t live in a menagerie and was never killed in America and was not a horse or an ass or a cow or a bull or a tiger or a dog or a pig or a cat or a bear at every fresh question that was put to him this nephew burst into a fresh Roar of laughter and was so inexpressibly tickled that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp at last the plump’s sister falling into a similar State cried out I have found it out I know what it is Fred I know what it is what is it cried Fred it’s your Uncle Scrooge which it certainly was admiration was the universal sentiment though some objected that the reply to is it a beer ought to have been yes inasmuch as an answer in the negative was sufficient to have diverted their thoughts from Mr Scrooge supposing they had ever had any tendency that way he has given us plenty of merriment I’m sure Said Fred and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment and I say Uncle Scrooge well Uncle Scrooge they cried a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man whatever he is said Scrooge’s nephew he wouldn’t take it from me but may he have it nevertheless Uncle Scrooge Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay in light of heart that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return and thanked them in an inaudible speech if the ghost had given him time but the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his nephew and he and the spirit were again upon their travels much they saw and far they went and many homes they visited but always with a happy end the spirit Stood Beside sick beds and they were cheerful on foreign lands and they were close at home by struggling men and they were patient in their Greater Hope by poverty and it was rich in alms houses hospital and jail in misery’s every Refuge where vain man in his little brief Authority had not made fast the door and burned the spirit out he left his Blessing and taught Scrooge’s precepts it was a long night if it were only a night but Scrooge had his doubts of this because the Christmas holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time they passed together it was strange too that while Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form the ghost Grew Older clearly older Scrooge had observed this change but never spoke of it until they left a children’s 12th night party when looking at the Spirit as they stood together in an open place he noticed that it’s here was gray our Spirits lives so short-assed Scrooge my life upon this globe is very brief replied the ghost It Ends Tonight Tonight cried Scrooge tonight at midnight hark the time is Drawing Near the Chimes were ringing the three quarters past 11 at that moment forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask said Scrooge looking intently at the spirit’s robe but I see something strange and not belonging to yourself protruding from your skirts is it a foot or a claw it might be a claw for the flesh there is upon it was the spirit’s sorrowful Reply look here from the foldings of its robe it brought two children wretched abject frightful hideous miserable they knelt down at its feet and clung up on the outside of its garment oh man look here look look down here exclaim the ghost they were a boy and a girl yellow meager ragged scowling wolfish but prostate 2 in their humility where graceful youth should have filled their features out and touched them with its freshest tints a stale and shriveled hand like that of age had pinched and twisted them and pulled them into shreds Where Angels might have set enthroned devils lurked and glared out menacing no change no degradation no perversion of humanity in any grade through all the mysteries of wonderful creation has monsters have so horrible and Dread Scrooge started back appalled having them shown to him in this way he tried to say they were fine children but the words choked themselves rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude Barrett are they yours Scrooge could say no more they are man’s said the spirits looking down upon them and they cling to me appealing from their fathers this boy is ignorance this girl is want beware them both and all of their degree but most of all beware this boy for on his brow I see that written which is Doom unless the writing be erased deny it cried the spirit stretching out its hand towards the city Slanders those who tell ye admit it for your factions purposes and make it worse and bide the end have they no refuge or resource cried Scrooge are there no prisons said the spirit turning on him for the last time with his own words are there no work houses the Bell struck twelve Scrooge looked about him for The Ghost and saw it not as the last stroke ceased to vibrate he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley and lifting up his eyes beheld a solemn Phantom draped and hooded coming like a Mist along the ground towards him end of Stave 3.

section 4 of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens this sleeper Fox recording is in the public domain read by Helen Sears Stave 4 the last of the spirits the Phantom slowly Gravely silently approached when it came near him Scrooge bent down upon his knee for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter Gloom and mystery it was shrouded in a deep black garment which concealed its head its face its form and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand but for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded he felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread he knew no more for the spirit neither spoke nor moved I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come said Scrooge the spirit answered not but pointed onward with its hand you are about to show me Shadows of the things that have not happened but will happen in the time before us Scrooge pursued is that so spirit the other portion of the Garment was contracted for an instant in its folds as if the spirit had inclined its head that was the only answer he received although well used to ghostly Company by this time Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him and he found that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it the spirit paused a moment as observing his condition and giving him time to recover but Scrooge was all the worst for this thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror to know that behind the Dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him while he though he stretched his own to the utmost could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black ghost of the future he exclaimed I fear you more than any Specter I have seen but as I know your purpose is to do me good and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was I am prepared to Bear you company and do it with a thankful heart will you not speak to me it gave him no reply the hand was pointed straight before them lead on said Scrooge lead on the night is waning fast and it is precious time to me I know lead on spirit the Phantom moved away as it had come towards him Scrooge followed in the shadow of its dress which bore him up he thought and carried him along they scarcely seemed to enter the city for the city rather seemed to spring up about them and Encompass them of its own Act but there they were in the heart of it on change amongst the merchants who hurried up and down and chinked the money in their pockets and conversed in groups and looked at their watches and trifled thoughtfully with their great gold seals and so forth as Scrooge had seen them often the spirit stopped beside one little knot of businessmen observing that the hand was pointed to them Scrooge Advanced to listen to their talk no said a great fat man with a monstrous chin I don’t know much about it either way I only know he’s dead when did he die and quiet another last night I believe why what was the matter with him asked a third taking a vast quantity of snuff out of a very large snuff box I thought he’d never die God knows said the First with Eon what has he done with his money asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous expressants on the end of his nose that shook like the gills of a turkey [ __ ] I have it heard said the man with the large chin yawning again left it to his company perhaps he hasn’t left it to me that’s all I know this pleasantry was received with a general laugh it’s likely to be a very cheap funeral said the same speaker for up on my life I don’t know of anybody to go to it suppose we make up a party and volunteer I don’t mind going into lunches provided observe the gentleman with the Expressions on his nose but I must be fit if I make one another laugh well I am the most disinterested among you after all said the first speaker for I never wear black gloves and I never eat lunch but I’ll offer to go if anybody else will when I come to think of it I’m not at all sure that I wasn’t his most particular friend for we used to stop and speak whenever we met bye bye speakers and listeners strolled away and mixed with other groups Scrooge knew them in and looked towards the spirit for an explanation the Phantom glided on into a street its finger pointed to two persons meeting Scrooge listened again thinking that the explanation might lie here he knew these men also perfectly they were men of business very wealthy and of great importance he had made a point always upstanding well in their esteem in a business point of view that is strictly in a business point of view how are you said one how are you return the other well said the first all scratch has got his own at last hey so I am told return the second cold isn’t it seasonable for Christmas time you’re not a skater I suppose no no something else to think of good morning not another word that was their meeting their conversation and their parting Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the spirit should attach importance to conversations apparently so trivial but feeling assured that they must have some hidden purpose he set himself to consider what it was likely to be they could scarcely be supposed to have any bearing on the death of Jacob his old partner for that was passed and this ghost’s Province was the future nor could he think of anyone immediately connected with himself to whom he could apply them but nothing doubting that to whomsoever they applied they had some latent moral for his own Improvement he resolved a treasure of every word he heard and everything he saw and especially to observe the shadow of himself when it appeared for he had an expectation that the conduct of his future self would give him the clue he missed and would render the solution of these riddles easy he looked about in that very place for his own image but another man stood in his accustomed corner and though the clock pointed to his usual time of day for being there he saw no likeness of himself among the multitudes that poured in through the porch it gave him little surprise however for he had been revolving in his mind a change of life and thought and hoped he saw his newborn resolutions carried out in this quiet and dark beside him stood the Phantom with his outstretched hand when he roused himself from his thoughtful Quest he fancied from the turn of the hand and its situation in reference to himself that the Unseen eyes were looking at him keenly it made him shudder and feel very cold they left the busy scene and went into an obscure part of the town where a scrooge had never penetrated before although he recognized its situation and its bad repute the ways were foul and narrow the shops and houses wretched the people half naked drunken slip shot ugly alleys and archways like so many cesspools disgorged their offenses of smell and dirt and life upon the straggling streets and the whole quarter reeked with crime with filth and misery far in this den of Infamous Resort there was a low browd beat link shop below a penthouse roof where iron old rags bottles bones and greasy awful were brought up on the floor with him were piled up heaps of Rusty Keys Nails chains hinges files scales weights and refuse iron of all kinds secrets that few would like to scrutinize were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly Rags masses of corrupted fat and sepulchers of Bones sitting in among the Wares he dealt in by a charcoal stove made of old bricks was a gray-haired rascal nearly 70 years of age who had screened himself from the cold air without by a frowsy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters hung upon a line and smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man just as a woman with a heavy bundle sunk into the shop but she had scarcely entered when another woman similarly Laden came in too and she was closely followed by a man in faded black who was no less startled by the sight of them then they had been upon the recognition of each other after a short period of blank astonishment in which the old man with the pipe had joined them they all three burst into a laugh let the Char woman alone to be the first cry Chi who had entered first let the launders alone to be the second and let the Undertaker’s man alone to be the third look Harold Joe here’s a chance if we haven’t all three met here without meaning it you couldn’t have met in a better place at Old Joe removing his pipe from his mouth come into the Parlor you were made free of it long ago you know and the other two ain’t strangers stop till I shut the door of the shop oh how it streaks there ain’t such a rusty bit of metal in the place has its own hinges I believe and I’m sure there’s no such old bones here as mine we’re all suitable to our calling we’re a well-matched come into the Parlor come into the Parlor The Parlor was the space behind the screen of regs the old man raked the fire together with an old stair rod and having trimmed his Smoky lamp for it was night with the stem of his pipe put it in his mouth again while he did this the woman who had already spoken through her bundle on the floor and sat down in a flaunting manner on a stool Crossing her elbows on her knees and looking with bold Defiance at the other two what odds then what odds Mrs dilber said the woman every person has a right to take care of themselves he always did that’s true indeed said the laundress no man more so why then don’t stand steering as if you was afraid woman who’s the wiser we’re not going to pick holes in each other’s coats I suppose no indeed said Mrs Dilbert and the man together we should hope not very well then cried the woman that’s enough who’s the worst for the loss of a few things like these not a dead man I suppose no indeed said Mrs still we’re laughing if he wanted to keep him after he was dead a wicked old screw pursued the woman why wasn’t he natural in his lifetime if he had been he’d have had somebody look after him when he was struck with death instead of lying gasping out his last there alone by himself it’s the truest word that ever was spoke said Mrs Dilbert it’s a judgment on him I wish it was a little heavier judgment replied the woman and it should have been you may depend upon it if I could have laid my hands on anything else open that bundle old Joe and let me know the value of it speak out plain I’m not afraid to be the first nor afraid for them to see it we know pretty well that we were helping ourselves before we met here I believe it’s no sin open the bundle Joe but the gallantry of her friends would not allow of this and the man in faded black mounting the breech first produced his plunder it was not extensive a seal or two a pencil case a pair of sleeve buttons and a brooch of no Great Value were all they were severally examined and appraised by old Joe who chalked the sums he was disposed to give for each upon the wall and added them up into a total when he found there was nothing more to come that’s your account said Joe and I wouldn’t give another six pence if I was to be boiled for not doing it who’s next Mrs dilber was next sheets and towels a little wearing apparel two old-fashioned silver teaspoons a pair of sugar tongs and a few boots her account was stated on the wall in the same manner I always give too much to ladies it’s a weakness of mine and that’s the way I ruin myself said old Joe that’s your account if you asked me for another Penny and made an open question I’d repent of being so liberal and knock off half a crown and now undo my bundle Joe said the first woman Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening it and having unfastened a great many knots dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff what do you call this Sergio bed curtains ah return the woman laughing and leaning forward on her crossed arms bed curtains you don’t mean to say you took him down rings and all with him lying there said Joe yes I do replied the woman why not you were born to make your fortune said Joe and you’ll certainly do it I certainly Sean told my hand when I can get anything in it by reaching it out for the sake of such a man as he was I promise you Joe return the woman Cooley don’t drop that oil upon the blankets now his blankets asked Joe whose else do you think replied the woman he isn’t likely to take cold without him I dear say I hope you didn’t die of anything catching a settle Joe stopping in his work and looking up don’t you be afraid of that return the woman I ain’t so fond of his company that I Deloitte or about him for such things if he did ah you may look through that shirt till your eyes ache but you won’t find a hole in it nor a thread bear place it’s the best he had and a fine one too they’d have wasted it if it hadn’t been for me what do you call wasting of it stole Joe replied the woman with a laugh somebody was full enough to do it but I took it off again if Calico ain’t good enough for such purpose it isn’t good enough for anything it’s quite as becoming to the body he can’t look uglier than he did in that one Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror as they sack grouped about their spoil in the scanty light afforded by the old man’s lamp he viewed them with a detestation and disgust which could hardly have been greater though they had been obscene demons marketing the corpse itself laughed the same woman when old Joe producing a flannel bag with money in it told out their several gains upon the ground this is the end of it you see he frightened everyone away from him when he was alive to profit us when he was dead spirit said screwed shuddering from head to foot I see I see the case of this unhappy man might be my own my life tends that way now merciful Heaven what is this he recoiled in Terror for the scene had changed and now he almost touched a bed a beer on curtain bed on which beneath a ragged sheath there lays something covered up which though it was dumb announced itself in awful language the room was very dark too dark to be observed with any accuracy though Scrooge glanced rounded in obedience to a secret impulse anxious to know what kind of room it was a pale light rising in the outer ear fell straight up on the bed and on it plundered and bereft unwatched unwept uncared for was the body of this man Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom its Steady Hand was pointed to the Head the cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of it the motion of a finger up on Scrooge’s part would have disclosed the face he thought of it felt how easy it would be to do and long to do it but had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the Specter at his side oh cold cold rigid Dreadful death set up thine altar here and dress it with such tears as thou Hast at thy command for this is thy Dominion put up the loved revered and honored head thou canst not turn one here to thy dread purposes or make one feature odious it is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released it is not that the heart and pulse are still but that the hand was open generous and true the heart Brave warm and tender and the pulse of mans strike Shadow strike and see his Good Deeds springing from the wound to sow the world with life immortal no voice pronounced these words and Scrooge’s ears and yet he heard them when he looked upon the bed he thought if this man could be raised up now what would be his foremost thoughts avarice hard dealing griping cares they have brought him to a rich end truly he lay in the dark empty house with not a man a woman or a child to say that he was kind to me and this or that and for the memory of one kind word I will be kind to him a cat was tearing at the door and there was a sound of gnawing rats beneath the Hearthstone what they wanted in the room of death and why they were so restless and Disturbed Scrooge did not dare to think Spirit he said this is a fearful place in leaving it I shall not leave its lesson trust me let us go still the ghost pointed with an arm moved finger to the Head I understand you Scrooge returned and I would do it if I could but I have not the power spirit I have not the power again it seemed to look upon him if there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by this man’s death said Scrooge quite agonized show that person to me spirit I beseech you the Phantom spread its dark road before him for a moment like a wing and withdrawing it revealed of room by daylight where a mother and her children were she was expecting someone and with anxious eagerness for she walked up and down the room started at every sound looked out from the window glanced at the clock tried but in vain to work with her needle and could hardly bear the voices of the children in their play at length the long-expected knock was heard she hurried to the door and met her husband a man whose face was care-worn and depressed though he was young there was a remarkable expression in it now a kind of serious Delight of which he felt ashamed and which he struggled to repress he sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for him by the fire and when she asked him faintly what news which was not until after a long silence he appeared embarrassed how to answer is it good she said or bad to help him bad he answered we are quite ruined no there is hope yet Caroline is he relents she said amazed there is nothing is past hope if such a miracle has happened he is past relenting said her husband he is dead she was a mild impatient Creature if her face spoke truth but she was thankful in her soul to hear it and she said so with clasped hands she prayed forgiveness the next moment and was sorry but the first was the emotion of her heart what the half drunken woman whom I told you of last night said to me when I tried to see him and obtain a week’s delay and what I thought was a mere excuse to avoid me turns out to have been quite true he was not only very ill but dying then to whom will our Deputy transferred I don’t know but before that time we shall be ready with the money and even though we were not it would be a bad fortune indeed to find so merciless a creditor and his successor we may sleep tonight with light Hearts Caroline yes soften it as they would their hearts were lighter the children’s faces hushed and clustered round to hear what they so little understood were brighter and it was happier house for this man’s death the only emotion that the ghost could show him caused by the event was one of pleasure let me see some tenderness connected with a death said Scrooge or that dark chamber Spirit which we left just now will be forever present to me the ghost conducted him through several streets familiar to his feet and as they went along Scrooge looked here and there to find himself but nowhere was he to be seen they entered poor Bob cratchit’s house the dwelling he had visited before and found the mother and the children seat around the fire quiet very quiet the noisy little cratchets were as still as statues in one corner and sat looking up at Peter who had a book before him the mother and her daughters were engaged in sewing but surely they were very quiet and he took a child and set him in the midst of them where had Scrooge heard those words he had not dreamed them the boy must have read them out as he and the spare Across 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 said cratchit’s wife it makes them weak by candlelight and I wouldn’t show weak eyes to your father when he comes home for the world it must be near his time past it rather Peter answered shutting up his book but I think he has walked a little slower than he used these last few evenings mother they were very quiet again at last she said and in a steady cheerful voice that only faltered once I have known him walk with I have known him walked with Tiny Tim up on his shoulder very fast indeed and so have I cried Peter often and so have I exclaimed another so had all but he was very late to Carrie she resumed intent upon her work and his father loved him so that it was no trouble no trouble and there is your father at the door she hurried out to meet him and little Bob and his comforter he had need of it poor fellow came in his tea was ready for him on the hob and they all tried who should help him to it most then the two young cratchets got upon his knees and laid each child a little cheek against his face as if they said don’t mind it father don’t be grieved Bob was very cheerful with them and spoke pleasantly to all the family he looked at the work upon the table and praised the industry and speed of Mrs scratchett and the girls they would be done long before Sunday he said Sunday you went today then Robert said his wife yes my dear returned Bob I wish you could have gone it would have done you good to see how green a place it is but you’ll see it often I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday my little little child cried Bob my little child he broke down all at once he couldn’t help it if he could have helped it he and his child would have been further apart perhaps than they were he left the room and went upstairs into the room above which was lighted cheerfully and hung with Christmas there was a chair set close beside the child and there were signs of someone having been there lately poor Bob sat down in it and when he had thought a little and composed himself he kissed the little face he was reconciled to what had happened and went down again quite happy they drew about the fire and talked the girls and mother working still Bob told them of the extraordinary kindness of Mr Scrooge’s nephew whom he had scarcely seen but once and who meeting him in the street that day and seeing that he looked a little just a little down you know said Bob inquired what had happened to distress him on which said Bob for he is the pleasant spoken gentleman you ever heard I told him I am hardly sorry for it Mr Cratchit he said and heartily sorry for your good wife by the by how he ever knew that I don’t know knew what my dear why that you were a good wife replied Bob everybody knows that said Peter very well observed my boys cried Bob I hope they do heartly sorry he said for your good wife if I can be of any service to you in any way he said giving me his card that’s where I live pray come to me now it wasn’t cried Bob for the sake of anything he might be able to do for us so much is for His Kind way that this was quite delightful it really seemed as if he had known our Tiny Tim and felt with us I’m sure he’s a good Soul said Mrs Cratchit you would be sure of it my dear returned Bob if you saw and spoke to him I shouldn’t be at all surprised Mark what I say if he got Peter a better situation only hear that Peter said Mrs Cratchit and then cried one of the girls Peter will be keeping company with someone and setting up for himself get along with you retorted Peter grinning it’s just as likely as not said Bob one of these days though there’s plenty of time for that my dear but however and whenever we part from one another I am sure we show none of us forget poor Tiny Tim shall we or this first parting that there was Among Us never father cried they all and I know said Bob I know my dears that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was although he was a little little child we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves and forget poor Tiny Tim in doing it no never father they all cried again I am very happy said little Bob I am very happy Mrs Cratchit kissed him his daughters kissed him the two young crotchets kissed him and Peter and himself shook hands Spirit of Tiny Tim thy childish Essence was from God Specter said Scrooge something informs me that our parting moment is at hand I know it but I know not how tell me what man that was whom we saw a lying dead the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come conveyed him as before though at a different time he thought indeed there seemed no order in these latter Visions save that they were in the future into the resorts of businessmen but showed him not himself indeed the spirit did not stay for anything but went straight on as to the end just now desired until besought by Scrooge to Terry for a moment this court said Scrooge through which we hurry now is where my place of occupation is and has been for a length of time I see the house let me behold what I shall be in days to come the spirit stopped the hand was pointed elsewhere the house is Yonder Scrooge exclaimed why do you point away the inexorable finger underwent no change Scrooge hastened to the window of his office and looked in it was an office still but not his the furniture was not the same and the figure in the chair was not himself the Phantom pointed as before he joined it once again and wondering why and whether he had gone accompanied it until they reached an iron gate he paused to look round before entering a churchyard here then The Wretched Man whose name he had now to learn lay underneath the ground it was a worthy Place walled in by houses overrun by grass and weeds the growth of vegetation’s death not life choked up with too much burying fat with repleted appetite a worthy place Spirit stood among the graves and pointed down to one he Advanced towards it trembling the Phantom was exactly as it had been but he dreaded that he saw a new meaning in his solemn shape before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point said Scrooge answer me one question are these the Shadows of the things that will be or are they Shadows of things that may be only still the ghosts pointed downward to the Grave by which it stood men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends to which if persevered in they must lead said Scrooge but if the courses be departed from the ends will change say it is thus with what you show me Spirit was immovable as ever Scrooge crept towards it trembling as he went and following the finger right upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name Ebenezer Scrooge am I that man who lay upon the bed he cried upon his knees the finger pointed from the grave to him and back again no Spirit oh no no the finger still was there Spirit he cried tight clutching at its robe hear me I am not the man I was I will not be the man I must have been before this intercourse why show me this if I am past all hope For the First Time The Hand appeared to shake good spirit he pursued as down upon the ground he fell before it your nature intercedes for me and pitys me assure me that I yet may change these Shadows you have shown me by an altered life the kind hand trembled I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the air I will live in the past the present and the future the spirits of all three shall strive within me I will not shut out the lessons that they teach oh tell me I may sponge away the writing on this Stone in his Agony he caught the spectral hand it sought to free itself but he was strong and he’s entreaty and detained it the spirit stronger yet repulsed him holding up his hands in the last prayer to have his fate reversed he saw an alteration in the Phantom’s hood and dress it shrunk collapsed and dwindled down into a bedpost end of section four Section 5 of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens this LibriVox recording is in the public domain read by Helen Sayers Stave 5 the end of it yes and the bedpost was his own the bed was his own the room was his own best and happiest of all the time before him was his own to make amends in I will live in the past the present and the future Scrooge repeated as he scrambled out of bed the spirits of all three shall strive Within Me O Jacob Marley Heaven and the Christmas time be praised for this I say it on my knees old Jacob on my knees he was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions that his Broken Voice would scarcely answer to his call he had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the spirit and his face was wet with tears they are not torn down cried Scrooge folding one of his bit curtains in his arms they are not torn down rings at all they are here I am here the Shadows of the things that would have been may be dispelled they will be I know they will his hands were busy with his garments all this time turning them inside out putting them on upside down tearing them mislaying them making them parties to every kind of extravagance I don’t know what to do cried Scrooge laughing and crying in the same breath and making a perfect lackawan of himself with his stockings I am as light as a feather I am as happy as an angel I am as merry as a school boy I am as giddy as a drunken man a Merry Christmas to everybody a Happy New Year to all the world hello here hello he had frisked into the sitting room and was now standing there perfectly winded there’s the saucepan that the girl was in cried Scrooge starting off again and going around the fireplace there’s the door by which the ghost of Jacob Marley entered there’s the corner where the Ghost of Christmas present set there’s the window where I saw the wandering Spirits it’s all right it’s all true it all happened really for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh a most illustrious laugh the father of a long long line of brilliant laughs I don’t know what day of the month it is said Scrooge I don’t know how long I’ve been among the spirits I don’t know anything I’m quite a baby never mind I don’t care I’d rather be a baby hello whoop hello here he was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peels he had ever heard Clash clang Hammer ding dong bell dong ding Hammer clang Clash o glorious glorious running to the window he opened it and put out his head no fog no mist clear bright jovial stirring cold cold piping for the blood to dance to Golden sunlight Heavenly Sky Sweet fresh air Mary bells oh glorious glorious what’s today cried Scrooge calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes who perhaps said loitered in to look about him return the boy with Ollie’s might of wonder what’s today my fine fellow said Scrooge today replied the boy why Christmas day it’s Christmas Day said Scrooge to himself I haven’t missed it Spirits have done it all in one night they can do anything they like of course they can of course they can hello my fine fellow hello return the boy do you know the poulters in the next street but one at the corner Scrooge inquired I should hope I did replied the lad an intelligent boy said screwed a remarkable boy do you know whether they’ve sold the prize turkey that was hanging up there not the little prize turkey the big one what the one as big as me returned the boy what a delightful boy said Scrooge it’s a pleasure to talk to him yes my book it’s hanging there now replied the boy is it said Scrooge go and buy it Walker exclaimed the boy no no said Scrooge I am an Earnest go and buy it and tell him to bring it here that I may give them the direction where to take it come back with the man and I’ll give you a shilling come back with him in less than five minutes and I’ll give you half a crown the boy was off like a shot he must have had a steady hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half so fast I’ll send it to Bob cratchit’s whispered Scrooge rubbing his hands and splitting with a laugh he shot no who sends it it’s twice the size of Tiny Tim Cho Miller never made such a joke ascending it to Bob’s will be the hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one but right as he did somehow and went downstairs to open the street door ready for the coming of the pultura’s man as he stood there awaiting his arrival the knocker caught his eye I shall love it as long as I live cried Scrooge patting it with his hand I scarcely ever looked at it before what an honest expression it has in its face it’s a wonderful knocker here’s the turkey hello whoop how are you Merry Christmas it was a turkey he never could have stood upon his legs that bird he would have snacked him short off in a minute like sticks of ceiling wax why it’s impossible to carry that Camden Town said Scrooge you must have a cab the chuckle with which he said this and the chuckle with which he paid for the turkey and the chuckle with which he paid for the cab and the chuckle with which he recompense the boy were only two would be exceeded by the chuckle with which he sat down breathless in his chair again and chuckled till he cried shaving was not an easy task for his hand continued to shake very much and shaving requires attention even when you don’t dance while you are at it but if he had caught the end of his nose off he would have put a piece of sticking plaster over it and been quite satisfied he dressed himself all in his best and at last got out into the streets the people were by this time pouring forth as he had seen them with ghosts of Christmas present and walking with his hands behind him Scrooge regarded everyone with a delighted smile he looked so irresistibly 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 blight sounds he had ever heard those were the blackest in his ears he had not gone for her when coming on towards him he beheld the portly gentleman who had walked into his Counting house the day before and said Scrooge and Marlies I believe it sent a Peng across his heart to think how this Old Gentleman would look upon him when they met but he knew our pathway straight before him and he took it my dear sir said screwed quickening his pace and taking the Old Gentleman by both his hands how do you do I hope you succeeded yesterday it was very kind of you a Merry Christmas to you sir Mr Scrooge yes said Scrooge that is my name and I fear it may not be pleasant to you allow me to ask your pardon and will you have the goodness here Scrooge whispered in his ear Lord bless me cried the gentleman as if his breath were taken away My Dear Mr Scrooge are you serious if you please set Scrooge not farthingless a great many back payments are included in it I assure you will you do me that favor my dear sir said the other shaking hands with him I don’t know what to say to such munifa don’t say anything please retorted Scrooge come and see me will you come and see me I will cry the Old Gentleman and it was clear he meant to do it thank you said Scrooge I am much obliged to you I thank you 50 times bless you he went to church and walked about the streets and watched the people hurrying to and fro and patted children on the head and questioned Beggars and looked down into the kitchens of houses and up to the windows and found that everything could yield him pleasure he had never dreamed that any walk that anything could give him so much happiness in the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew’s house he passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and knock but he made a dash and did it is your master at home my dear said Scrooge to the girl nice girl very yes sir where is he my love said Scrooge he’s in the dining room sir along with mistress I’ll show you upstairs if you please thank you he knows me sits Scrooge with his hand already on the dining room lock I’ll go in Here My Dear he turned it gently and sidled his face in round the door they were looking at the table which was spread out in great array for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points and like to see that everything is right Fred said Scrooge Dear Heart alive how his niece by marriage started Scrooge had forgotten for the moment about her sitting in the corner with the footstool or he wouldn’t have done it on any account why bless my soul cried Fred who’s that it’s I your Uncle Scrooge I have come to dinner will you let me in Fred let him in it is a mercy he didn’t shake his arm off he was at home in five minutes nothing could be hardier his niece looked just the same so did topper when he came so did the plump sister when she came so did everyone when they came wonderful party wonderful games wonderful unanimity wonderful happiness but he was early at the office next morning oh he was early there if he could only be there first and catch Bob Cratchit coming late that was the thing he had set his heart upon and he did it yes he did the Clock Struck nine no Bob a quarter past no Bob he was full 18 minutes and a half behind his time Scrooge set with his door wide open that he might see him come into the tank his hat was off before he opened the door his comforter too he was on his stool in a jiffy driving away with his pen as if he were trying to overtake nine o’clock hello growl Scrooge in his accustomed voice as near as he could fainted what do you mean by coming here at this time of day I am very sorry sir said Bob I am behind my time you are repeated Scrooge yes I think you are step this way sir if you please it’s only once a year sir plead a bob appearing from the tank it shall not be repeated I was making rather merry yesterday sir now I’ll tell you what my friend said Scrooge I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer and therefore he continued leaping from his stool and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the tank again and therefore I’m about to raise your salary Bob trembled and got a little narrower to the ruler he had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it holding him and calling to the people in the court for help and a straight waistcoat a Merry Christmas Bob said Scrooge with an earnestness that could not be mistaken as he clapped him on the back a merrier Christmas Bob my good fellow that I have given you for many a year I’ll raise your salary and Endeavor to assist your struggling family and we will discuss your Affairs this very afternoon over a Christmas bowl of smoking Bishop Bob make up the fires and buy another Kohl’s Scuttle before you dot another eye 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 the second father he became as good a friend as good a master and as good a man as the good old city knew or any other good old city town or Borough in the good old world some people laughed to see the alteration in him but he let them laugh and little heeded them for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe for good at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes and grins as have the malady and less attractive forms his own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him he had no further intercourse with spirits but lived upon the total abstinence principle ever afterwards and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge may that be truly said of us and all of us and so as Tiny Tim observed God bless us everyone end of Stave five end of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens thank you

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