Christmas Bonus Episode: "A Christmas Carol"

Episode Transcript
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Jason Hovde (00:17):
Welcome to this very special holiday podcast
where we'll be presenting a freeaudiobook adaptation of Charles
Dickens' beloved classic AChristmas Carol.
This timeless tale ofredemption and the true meaning
of Christmas has been a holidaystaple for generations and we're
excited to bring it to you inthis unique and accessible

(00:39):
format.
To enable this podcast to bepresented in an uninterrupted
format, a gracious sponsor hasprovided support and I encourage
you to check out her work.
If you love stories thattransport you to another time
and place, check out JenelleHovde.
Masterful writer of biblicaland historical fiction, her

(01:01):
books bring ancient worlds tolife, immersing you in culture,
drama and triumphs of the past.
With a keen eye for detail anda deep understanding of the
human heart, janelle Huvdecrafts tales that inspire,
uplift and delight, and todaywe're excited to announce that
she's sponsoring this specialbonus episode of A Christmas

(01:21):
Carol.
Thanks for listening to thisbonus episode made possible by
Jenelle Hovde's support.
If you're enjoying this episode, be sure to check out her books
at jenellehovdeauthor.
com.
The link will be included inthe show notes of this podcast.
Be sure to sign up for hernewsletter.
If you do, you will receive afree ebook that will give you

(01:41):
the opportunity to enjoyJenelle's work, discover the
world of biblical and historicalfiction and get ready to be
transported.
Over the course of this podcast,you'll be transported to
Victorian England, where you'llmeet Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly

(02:05):
old man who has lost touch withthe joys of Christmas.
But with the help of threespirits the ghosts of Christmas
past, present and future Scroogewill embark on a journey of
self-discovery and redemptionthat will leave you in the
holiday spirit.
Whether you're a longtime fanof the book or new to the story,
we're confident that you'll becaptivated by the magic and

(02:28):
wonder of this holiday classic.
So grab a cup of hot cocoa,settle in by the fire and get
ready to be transported to aworld of holiday cheer and
festive fun.
It's the perfect way tocelebrate the holiday season,
and we're honored to be part ofyour holiday traditions.
Without further ado, let'sbegin our journey with Ebenezer

(02:52):
Scrooge and the spirits ofChristmas.
Happy listening and happyholidays.
A Christmas Carol by CharlesDickens, stave 1.

(03:16):
Marley's Ghost.
Marley was dead to begin with.
There is no doubt whateverabout that.
The register of his burial wassigned by the clergyman, the
clerk, the undertaker and thechief mourner.
Scrooge signed it, andScrooge's name was good upon

(03:36):
change, for anything he chose toput his hand to.
Old Marley was as dead as adoornail.
Mind I don't mean to say that Iknow of my own knowledge what
there is particularly dead abouta doornail.
I might have been inclinedmyself to regard the coffinail
as the deadest piece of ironmongry in the trade, but the

(03:59):
wisdom of our ancestors is inthe simile and my unhallowed
hands shall not disturb it orthe country's done for you.
Will therefore permit me torepeat 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 partnersfor I don't know how many years.

(04:21):
Scrooge was his sole executor,his sole administrator, his sole
assigned, his sole residuarylegatee, his sole friend and
sole mourner.
And even Scrooge was not sodreadfully cut up by the sad
event, but that he was anexcellent man of business on the
very day of the funeral andsolemnized it with an undoubted

(04:42):
bargain.
The mention of Marley's funeralbrings me back to the point I
started from.
There is no doubt that Marleywas dead.
This must be distinctlyunderstood, or nothing wonderful
can come of the story I amgoing to relate.
If we were not perfectlyconvinced that Hammett's father
died before the play began.

(05:02):
There would be nothing moreremarkable in his taking a
stroll at night and an easterlywind upon his own ramparts than
there would be in any othermiddle-aged gentleman rashly
turning out after dark in abreezy spot, say St Paul's
churchyard, for instance.
Marley, to astonish his son'sweak mind.
Scrooge never painted out oldMarley's name.

(05:24):
There it stood years afterwardsabove the warehouse door
Scrooge and Marley.
The firm was known as Scroogeand Marley.
Sometimes people knew to thebusiness called Scrooge, scrooge
and sometimes Marley, but heanswered to both names it was
all the same to him.
Oh.
But he was a tight-fisted handat the grindstone.

(05:46):
Scrooge, a squeezing, wrenching,grasping, scraping, clutching.
Covetous old sinner, hard andsharp as flint, from which no
steel had ever struck out.
Generous fire, secret andself-contained and solitary as
noister.
The cold within him froze, hisold features nipped, his pointed

(06:07):
nose shriveled, his cheekstiffened, his gait made his
eyes red, his thin lips blue andspoke out shrewdly in his
grating voice.
A frosty rhyme was on his headand on his eyebrows and his wiry
chin.
He carried his own lowtemperature always about with
him.
He iced his office in the dogdays and didn't thaw it one

(06:32):
degree at Christmas.
External heat and cold hadlittle influence on Scrooge.
No warmth could warm.
No wintry weather chill him.
No wind that blew was bittererthan he.
No falling snow was more intentupon its purpose.
No pelting rain.
Less open to entreaty, fallweather didn't know where to

(06:54):
have him.
The heaviest rain and snow andhail and sleet could boast of
the advantage over him in onlyone respect they often came down
handsomely and Scrooge neverdid.
Nobody ever stopped him in thestreet to say with gladsome
looks my dear Scrooge, how areyou?
When will you come and see me?

(07:15):
No beggars implored him tobestow a trifle.
No children asked him what itwas o'clock.
No man or woman ever once inall his life inquired the way to
such and such a place ofScrooge.
Even blind men's dogs appearedto know him, and when they saw
him coming on would tug theirowners into doorways and

(07:36):
upcourts and then would wagtheir tails as though to say no
eye at all is better than anevil eye, dark master.
But what did Scrooge care?
It was the very thing he likedTo edge his way along the
crowded paths of life.
Warning all human sympathy tokeep its distance was what the
knowing ones call nuts toScrooge.

(07:59):
Once upon a time of all the gooddays in the year, on Christmas
Eve, old Scrooge sat busy in hiscounting house.
It was cold, bleak, bitingweather, foggy with all, and he
could hear the people in thecourt outside go wheezing up and
down, beating their hands upontheir breasts and stamping their
feet upon the pavement stonesto warm them.

(08:21):
The city clocks had only justgone three, but it was quite
dark already.
It had not been light all dayand candles were flaring in the
windows of the neighboringoffices like ruddy smears upon
the palpable brown air.
The fog came pouring in atevery chink and keyhole and was
so dense.

(08:41):
Without that, although thecourt was of the narrowest, the
house's opposite were merephantoms To see the dingy cloud
come drooping down, obscuringeverything, one might have
thought that nature lived hardby and was brewing on a large
scale.
The door of Scrooge's countinghouse was open that he might
keep his eye upon his clerk who,in a dismal little cell beyond

(09:06):
a sort of tank, was copyingletters.
Scrooge had a very small fire,but the clerk's fire was so very
much smaller that it lookedlike one coal.
But he couldn't replenish it,for Scrooge kept the coal box in
his own room, and so surely asthe clerk came in with the
shovel, the master predictedthat it would be necessary for

(09:27):
them to part, wherefore theclerk put on his white comforter
and tried to warm himself atthe candle, in which effort, not
being a man of a strongimagination, he failed.
A merry Christmas, uncle, godsave you, cried a cheerful voice
.
It was the voice of Scrooge'snephew, who came upon him so

(09:47):
quickly that this was the firstintimation he had of his
approach.
Ah, said Scrooge Humbug.
He had so heated himself withrapid walking in the fog and
frost, this nephew of Scrooge's,that he was all in a glow, his
face was ruddy and handsome, hiseyes sparkled and his breath
smoked.
Again, christmas, humbug uncle,said Scrooge's nephew you don't

(10:11):
mean that, I'm sure I do, saidScrooge.
Merry Christmas, what righthave you to be merry?
What reason have you to bemerry?
You're poor enough.
Come then, return the nephewgaily.
What right have you to bedismal?
What reason have you to bemorose?
You're rich enough.
Scrooge, having no betteranswer ready on the spur of the

(10:34):
moment, said va again andfollowed it up with humbug,
don't be cross uncle, said thenephew.
What else can I be?
Return the uncle.
When I live in such a world offools as this, merry Christmas
Out upon merry Christmas, what'sChristmas time to you but a
time for paying bills withoutmoney, a time for winding

(10:57):
yourself a year older and not anhour richer, a time for
balancing your books and havingevery item in them, through a
round dozen of months, presenteddead against you?
If I could work my will, saidScrooge indignantly, every idiot
who goes about with merryChristmas on his lips should be
boiled with his own pudding andburied with a stake of holly

(11:19):
through his heart.
He should, uncle, pleaded thenephew.
Nephew returned the unclesternly Keep Christmas in your
own way and let me keep it inmine.
Keep it, repeated Scrooge'snephew, but you don't keep it,
let me leave it alone.
Then, said Scrooge, much goodmay it do you.
Much good has it ever done you?

(11:40):
There are many things fromwhich I might have derived good,
by which I have not profited, Idare say.
Returned the nephew, christmasamong the rest.
But I am sure I have alwaysthought of Christmas time, when
it has come around, apart fromthe veneration due to its sacred
name and origin, if anythingbelonging to it can be apart

(12:01):
from that as a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable,
pleasant time, the only time Iknow of in the long calendar of
the year when men and women seem, by one consent, to open their
shut-up hearts freely and tothink of other people below them
as if they really were fellowpassengers to the grave and not
another race of creatures boundon other journeys.

(12:23):
And therefore, uncle, though ithas never put a scrap of gold
or silver in my pocket, Ibelieve that it has done me good
and will do me good, and I sayGod bless it.
The clerk in the tankinvoluntarily applauded.
Becoming immediately sensibleof the impropriety, he poked the

(12:44):
fire and extinguished the lastfrail spark forever.
Let me hear another sound fromyou, said Scrooge, and you'll
keep your Christmas by losingyour situation.
You're quite a powerful speaker, sir, he added.
Turning to his nephew, I wonderyou don't go into Parliament,
don't be angry, uncle.
Come dine with us tomorrow.

(13:06):
Scrooge said that he would seehim.
Yes, indeed he did.
He went the whole length of theexpression and said that he
would see him in that extremityfirst.
But why, cried Scrooge's nephew, why?
Why did you get married, saidScrooge, because I fell in love,
because you fell in love,growled Scrooge, as if that were

(13:26):
the only one thing in the worldmore ridiculous than a merry
Christmas.
Good afternoon, nay, uncle.
But you never came to see mebefore that happened.
Why give it as a reason for notcoming now?
Good afternoon, said Scrooge.
I want nothing from you.
I ask nothing of you.
Why cannot we be friends?

(13:48):
I am sorry with all my heart tofind you so resolute.
We have never had any quarrelto which I have been a party,
but I have made the trial anhomage to Christmas and I'll
keep my Christmas humor to thelast.
So a merry Christmas, uncle.
Good afternoon, said Scrooge,and a happy new year.

(14:11):
His nephew left the room withoutan angry word not withstanding.
He stopped at the outer door tobestow the greetings of the
season on the clerk who, cold ashe was, was warmer than Scrooge
, for he returned them cordially.
There's another fellow,muttered Scrooge, who overheard
him, my clerk, with fifteenshowings a week and a wife and
family talking about a merryChristmas, all retired to bedlam

(14:33):
this lunatic, in lettingScrooge's nephew out, had let
two other people in.
They were portly gentlemen,pleasant to behold, and now
stood with their hats off inScrooge's office.
They had books and papers intheir hands and bowed to him.
Scrooge, in Marley's, I Believe, said one of the gentlemen
referring to his list.

(14:53):
Have I the pleasure ofaddressing Mr Scrooge or Mr
Marley?
Mr Marley has been dead theseseven years.
Scrooge replied.
He died seven years ago thisvery night.
We have no doubt his liberalityis well represented by his
surviving partner, said thegentleman presenting his
credentials.
It certainly was, for they hadbeen two kindred spirits.

(15:15):
At the ominous word liberality,scrooge frowned and shook his
head and handed the credentialsback.
At this festive season of theyear, mr Scrooge, said the
gentleman taking up a pen, it ismore than usually desirable
that we should make some slightprovision for the poor and
destitute who suffer greatly atthe present time.
Many thousands are in want ofcommon necessities.

(15:38):
Hundreds of thousands are inwant of common comfort.
Sir, are there no prisons?
Asked Scrooge.
Plenty of prisons, said thegentleman laying the pen down
again.
And the union workhousesdemanded Scrooge, are they still
in operation?
They are still, returned, thegentleman.
I wish I could say they werenot.
The treadmill and the poor laware in full vigor.

(16:01):
Then, said Scrooge, both verybusy, sir.
Oh, I was afraid from what yousaid at first that something had
occurred to stop them in theiruseful course, said Scrooge I'm
very glad to hear it, under theimpression that they scarcely
furnished Christian cheer ofmind or body to the multitude,
said the gentleman, a few of usare endeavoring to raise a fund

(16:23):
to buy the poor some meat anddrink and means of warmth.
We choose this time because itis a time of all others, when
want is keenly felt andabundance rejoices.
What shall I put you down for?
Nothing, scrooge replied.
You wish to be anonymous.
I wish to be left alone, saidScrooge.
Since you asked me what I wish,gentlemen, that is my answer.

(16:46):
I don't make merry myself atChristmas and I can't afford to
make idle people merry.
I help to support theestablishments I have mentioned.
They cost enough and those whoare badly off must go there.
Many can't go there and manywould rather die.
If they would rather die, saidScrooge, they had better do it
and decrease the surpluspopulation.

(17:07):
Besides, excuse me, I don'tknow that, but you might know it
, observed the gentleman.
It's not my business.
Scrooge returned.
It's enough for a man tounderstand his own business and
not to interfere with otherpeoples.
Mine occupies me constantly.
Good afternoon.
Gentlemen, seeing clearly thatit would be useless to pursue

(17:27):
their point, the gentlemanwithdrew.
Scrooge, resumed his labors withan improved opinion of himself
and in a more facetious temperthan was usual with him.
Meanwhile the fog and darknessthickened so that people ran
about with flaring links,offering their services to go
before horses and carriages andconduct them on their way.

(17:47):
The ancient tower of a churchwhose gruff old bell was always
peeping slyly down at Scroogeout of a gothic window in the
wall, became invisible andstruck the hours and quarters in
the clouds with tremulousvibrations afterwards, as if its
teeth were chattering in itsfrozen head.
Up there, the cold becameintense.

(18:07):
In the main street, at thecorner of the court, some labors
were repairing the gas pipesand had lighted a great fire in
a brazier round which a party ofragged men and boys were
gathered, warming their handsand winking their eyes before
the blaze and rapture, the waterplug being left in solitude,
its overflowing suddenlycongealed and turned into

(18:30):
misanthropic ice.
The brightness of the shopswhere holly sprigs and berries
crackled in the lamp heat of thewindows made pale faces ruddy
as they passed.
Pulturers and grocers tradesbecame a splendid joke, a
glorious pageant with which itwas next to impossible to
believe that such dullprinciples as bargain and sale

(18:51):
had anything to do with it.
The Lord Mayor, in thestronghold of the mighty mansion
house, gave orders to his fiftycooks and butlers to keep
Christmas as a Lord Mayor'shousehold should, and even the
little tailor, whom he had finedfive shillings on the previous
Monday for being drunk andbloodthirsty in the streets,
stirred up tomorrow's pudding inhis garret, while his lean wife

(19:12):
and the baby sallied out to buythe beef.
Foggy-er yet and colder,piercing, searching, biting cold
.
If the good Saint Dunstan hadbut nipped the evil spirit's
nose with a touch of suchweather as that, instead of
using his familiar weapons, thenindeed he would have roared to
lusty purpose.

(19:32):
The owner of one scant youngnose nod and mumbled by the
hungry cold, as bones are nod bydogs, stooped down at Scrooge's
keyhole to regale him with aChristmas carol.
But at the first sound of Godbless you, mary.
Gentlemen, may nothing youdismay.
Scrooge seized the ruler withsuch energy of action that the

(19:55):
singer fled in terror, leavingthe keyhole to the fog and even
more congenial frost.
At length, the hour of shuttingup the counting house arrived
With an ill will.
Scrooge dismounted from hisstool and tacitly admitted the
fact to the expectant clerk inthe tank, who instantly snuffed
his candle out and put on hishat.
You want all day tomorrow, Isuppose, said Scrooge, if quite

(20:20):
convenient, sir.
It's not convenient, saidScrooge, and it's not fair.
If I was to stop half a crownfor it, you'd think yourself
ill-used.
I'll be bound.
The clerk smiled faintly andyet said Scrooge, you don't
think of me ill-used when I paya day's wages for no work.
The clerk observed that it wasonly once a year.

(20:40):
A poor excuse for picking aman's pocket every 25th of
December, said Scrooge,buttoning his great coat to the
chin.
But I suppose you must have thewhole day Be here all the
earlier the next morning.
The clerk promised that hewould, and Scrooge walked out
with a growl.
The office was closed and atwinkling and the clerk, with
the long ends of his whitecomforter dangling below his

(21:02):
waist for he boasted no greatcoat went down a slide on
Cornhill at the end of a lane ofboys twenty times in honor of
it being Christmas Eve, and thenran home to Camden Town as hard
as he could pelt to play atBeinman's Buff.
Scrooge took his melancholydinner in his usual melancholy
tavern and, having read all thenewspapers and beguiled the rest

(21:23):
of the evening with hisbanker's book, went home to bed.
He lived in chambers which hadonce belonged to his deceased
partner.
There were a gloomy suite ofrooms in a lowering pile of
building up a yard where it hadso little business to be that
one could scarcely help fancyingit must have run there when it
was a young house, playing athide and seek with other houses

(21:45):
and forgotten the way out again.
It was old enough now anddreary enough for nobody lived
in it but Scrooge, the otherrooms being all let out as
offices.
Thank you very much for yourtime.
The yard was so dark that evenScrooge, who knew it's every
stone, was feigned to grope withhis hands.
The fog and frost so hung aboutthe black old gateway of the

(22:06):
house that it seemed as if thegenius of the weather sat in
mournful meditation on thethreshold.
Now it is a fact that there wasnothing at all particular about
the knocker on the door, exceptthat it was very large.
It is also a fact that Scroogehad seen it night and morning
during his whole residence inthat place.

(22:26):
Also that Scrooge had as littleof what is called fancy about
him as any man in the city ofLondon, even including which is
a bold word the corporationalderman and livery.
Let it also be borne in mindthat Scrooge had not bestowed
one thought on Marley since hislast mention of his seven years
dead partner that afternoon.

(22:47):
And then let any man explain tome, if he can, how it happened
that Scrooge, having his key inthe lock of the door, saw in the
knocker without its undergoingany intermediate process of
change.
Not a knocker, but Marley's face.
Marley's face.
It was not an impenetrableshadow as the other objects in

(23:10):
the yard were, but had a dismallight 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 ghostlyspectacles turned up on its
ghostly forehead.
The hair was curiously stirred,as if by breath or hot air, and
though the eyes were wide open,they were perfectly motionless.

(23:33):
That and its livid color madeit horrible.
But its horror seemed to be inspite of the face and beyond its
control, rather than part ofits own expression.
As Scrooge looked fixedly atthis phenomenon, it was a
knocker again To say that he wasnot startled or that his blood
was not conscious of a terriblesensation to which it had been a

(23:56):
stranger from infancy, would beuntrue.
But he had put his hand upon thekey he had relinquished, turned
it sturdily, walked in andlighted his candle.
He did pause with a moment'sirresolution before he shut the
door, and he did look cautiouslybehind it first, as if he half
expected to be terrified withthe sight of Marley's big tail

(24:18):
sticking out into the hall.
But there was nothing on theback of the door except the
screws and nuts that held theknocker on.
So he said pooh, pooh andclosed it with a bang.
The sound resounded through thehouse like thunder.
Every room above and every caskin the wine merchant's cellars
below appeared to have aseparate peel of echoes of its

(24:40):
own.
Scrooge was not a man to befrightened by echoes.
He fastened the door and walkedacross the hall and up the
stairs slowly too, trimming hiscandle as he went.
You may talk vaguely aboutdriving a coach and six up a
good old flight of stairs orthrough a bad young act of
parliament, but I mean to saythat you might have got a hearse

(25:03):
up that staircase and taken itbroad-wise with the splinter bar
towards the wall and the doortowards the balustrades, and
done it easily.
There was plenty of width forthat and room to spare, which is
perhaps the reason why Scroogethought he saw a locomotive
hearse going on before him inthe gloom.
Half a dozen gas lamps out ofthe street wouldn't have lighted

(25:26):
the entry too well, so you maysuppose that it was pretty dark
with Scrooge's dip Up.
Scrooge went not carrying abutton for that.
Darkness is cheap and Scroogeliked it.
But before he shut his heavydoor he walked through his rooms
to see that all was right.
He had just enough recollectionof the face to desire to do

(25:48):
that.
Sitting room, bedroom, lumberroom, all as they should be.
Nobody under the table, nobodyunder the sofa, a small fire in
the grate, a spoon and basinready and the little saucepan of
gruel.
Scrooge had a cold in his headupon the hob.
Nobody under the bed, nobody inthe closet, nobody in the

(26:08):
dressing gown which was hangingup in a suspicious attitude
against the wall.
Lumber room as usual old fireguard, old shoes, two fish
baskets, washing stand on threelegs and a poker.
Quite satisfied, he closed hisdoor and locked himself in,
double locked himself in, whichwas not his custom.
Thus secured.

(26:29):
Against surprise, he took offhis cravat, put on his dressing
gown and slippers and hisnightcap 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 toit and brood over it before he
could extract the leastsensation of warmth from such a

(26:49):
handful of fuel.
The fireplace was an old one,built by some Dutch merchant
long ago and paved all roundwith quaint Dutch tiles designed
to illustrate the scriptures.
There were canes and ables,pharaohs' daughters, queens of
Sheba, angelic messengersdescending through the air on
clouds like featherbeds,abraham's Belshazzars, apostles

(27:12):
putting off to sea 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 andswallowed up the whole.
If each smooth tile had beenblank at first, with power to
shape some picture on itssurface from the disjointed
fragments of his thoughts, therewould have been a copy of old

(27:34):
Marley's head on every one.
Humbug said Scrooge and walkedacross the room.
After several turns he sat downagain.
As he threw his head back inthe chair, his glance happened
to rest upon a bell, a disusedbell that hung in the room and
communicated, for some purposenow forgotten, with a chamber in

(27:55):
the highest story of thebuilding.
It was with great astonishmentand with a strange, inexplicable
dread that, as he looked, hesaw this bell begin to swing.
It swung so softly in theoutset that it scarcely made a
sound, but soon it rang outloudly, and so did every bell in
the house.
This must have lasted half aminute or a minute, but it

(28:19):
seemed an hour.
The bells ceased as they hadbegun together.
They were succeeded by aclanking noise deep down below,
as if some person were dragginga heavy chain over the casks in
the wine merchant's cellar.
Scrooge then remembered to haveheard that ghosts in haunted
houses were described asdragging chains.

(28:41):
The cellar door flew open witha booming sound, and then he
heard the noise much louder onthe floors below, then coming up
the stairs, then comingstraight towards his door.
It's humbug still said Scrooge,I won't believe it.
His color changed, though, when, without a pause, it came on

(29:02):
through the heavy door andpassed into the room before his
eyes.
Upon its coming end, the dyingflame leaped up as though it
cried I know him, marley's ghostand fell again.
The same face, the very same.
Finally, in his pigtail, usualwaistcoat, tights and boots, the

(29:22):
tassels on the ladder bristlinglike his pigtail and his coat
skirts and the hair upon hishead.
The chain he drew was claspedabout the middle.
It was long and wound about himlike a tail, and it was made
for Scrooge observed it closelyof cash boxes, keys, padlocks,
ledgers, deeds and heavy purseswrought in steel.

(29:44):
His body was transparent sothat Scrooge, observing him and
looking through his waistcoat,could see the two buttons on his
coat behind.
Scrooge had often heard it saidthat Marley had no bowels, but
he had never believed it untilnow.
No, nor did he believe it evennow, though he looked the

(30:05):
phantom through and through andsaw it standing before him,
though he felt the chillinginfluence of its death, cold
eyes and marked the very textureof the folded kerchief bound
about its head and chin, whichwrapper he had not observed
before.
He was still incredulous andfought against his senses.
How now?

(30:26):
Said Scrooge, caustic and coldas ever.
What do you want with me?
Much, marley's voice, no doubtabout it.
Who are you?
Ask me who I was?
Who were you?
Then said Scrooge, raising hisvoice You're particular for a
shade, he was going to say to ashade, but substituted this as

(30:49):
more appropriate In life.
I was your partner, jacobMarley.
Can you sit down, asked Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him.
I can Do it.
Then Scrooge asked the questionbecause he didn't know whether a
ghost so transparent might findhimself in a condition to take
a chair and felt that, in theevent of its being impossible,

(31:11):
it might involve the necessityof an embarrassing explanation.
But the ghost sat down on theopposite side of the fireplace
as if he were quite used to it.
You don't believe in me,observed the ghost.
I don't, said Scrooge.
What evidence would you have ofmy reality beyond that of your
senses?
I don't know, said Scrooge.

(31:32):
Why do you doubt your senses,scrooge?
Said Scrooge, it's a littlething that affects them.
A slight disorder of thestomach makes them cheats.
You may be an undigested bit ofbeef, a blot of mustard, a
crumb of cheese, a fragment ofan underdone potato.
There's more of gravy than ofgrave about you, whatever you

(31:53):
are.
Scrooge was not much in thehabit of cracking jokes, nor did
he feel in his heart by anymeans waggish then.
The truth is that he tried tobe smart as a means of
distracting his own attentionand keeping down his terror, for
the specter's voice disturbedthe very marrow in his bones.
To sit staring at those fixed,glazed eyes in silence for a

(32:16):
moment would play.
Scrooge felt the very deucewith him.
There was something very awfultoo in the specters being
provided with an infernalatmosphere of its own.
Scrooge could not feel ithimself, but this was clearly
the case, for though the ghostsat perfectly motionless, its
hair and skirts and tassels werestill agitated as by the hot

(32:40):
vapor from an oven.
You see this toothpick, saidScrooge, returning quickly from
the charge for the reason justassigned and wishing, though it
were only for a second, todivert the vision's stony gaze
from himself.
I do, replied the ghost.
You are not looking at it, saidScrooge.
But I see it, said the ghost.
Notwithstanding.

(33:00):
Well, returned Scrooge, I havebut to swallow this and be for
the rest of my days persecutedby a legion of goblins, all of
my own creation.
Humbug, I tell you, humbug.
At this.
The spirit raised a frightfulcry and shook its chain with
such a dismal and appallingnoise that Scrooge held on tight

(33:21):
to his chair to save himselffrom falling in a swoon.
But how much greater was hishorror when the phantom taking
off the bandage round its headas if it were too warm to wear
indoors, its lower jaw droppeddown upon its breast.
Scrooge fell upon his knees andclasped his hands before his
face.

(33:42):
Mercy, he said, dreadfulapparition.
Why do you trouble me, man ofthis worldly mind, replied the
ghost.
Do you believe in me or not?
I do, said Scrooge.
I must.
But why do spirits walk theearth and why do they come to me
?
It is required of every man,the ghost returned, that the

(34:03):
spirit within him should walkabroad, among his fellow man and
travel far and wide.
And if that spirit goes notforth in life, it is condemned
to do so.
After death, it is doomed towander through the world oh, woe
is me and witness what itcannot share but might have
shared on earth, and turn tohappiness.

(34:25):
Again, the specter raised a cryand shook its chain and rung its
shadowy hands.
You are fettered, said Scrooge,trembling.
Tell me why I wear the chain Iforged in life, replied the
ghost.
I made it, link by link andyard by yard.
I girded it on of my own freewill and of my own free will I

(34:48):
wore it.
Is its pattern strange to you?
Scrooge trembled more and more,or, would you know, pursued the
ghost, the weight and length ofthe strong coil you bear
yourself.
It was full, as heavy and aslong as this.
Seven Christmas eaves ago.
You have labored on it since.
It is a ponderous chain.

(35:10):
Scrooge glanced about him on thefloor in the expectation of
finding himself surrounded bysome fifty or sixty fathoms of
iron cable.
But he could see nothing, jacob, he said imploringly.
Old Jacob Marley, tell me more,speak comfort to me, jacob.
I have none to give.
The ghost replied.
It comes from other regions,ebenezer Scrooge, and is

(35:34):
conveyed by other ministers toother kinds of men.
Nor can I tell you what I would.
A very little more is allpermitted to me.
I cannot rest, I cannot stay, Icannot linger anywhere.
My spirit never walked beyondour counting house.
Mark me In life.
My spirit never roved beyondthe narrow limits of our

(35:56):
money-changing whole and wearyjourneys lie before me.
It was a habit with Scrooge,whenever he became thoughtful,
to put his hands in his breechespockets, wondering on what the
ghost had said.
He did so now, but withoutlifting up his eyes or getting
off his knees.
You must have been very slowabout it, jacob.

(36:16):
Scrooge observed in abusiness-like manner, though
with humility and deference.
Slow, the ghost repeated sevenyears, dead, music, scrooge and
traveling all the time, thewhole time, said the ghost.
No rest, no peace, incessanttorture of remorse.
You travel fast, said Scrooge.

(36:36):
On the wings of the wind,replied the ghost.
You might have got over a greatquantity of ground in seven
years, said Scrooge.
The ghost, on hearing this, setup another cry and clanked its
chain so hideously in the deadsilence of the night that the
ward would have been justifiedin indicting it for a nuisance.
Oh, captive, bound anddouble-ironed, cried the phantom

(37:00):
.
Not to know that ages ofincessant labor by immortal
creatures for this earth mustpass into eternity before the
good of which it is susceptibleis all developed.
Not to know that any Christianspirit working kindly in its
little sphere, whatever it mightbe, will find its mortal life
too short for its vast means ofusefulness.

(37:22):
Not to know that no space ofregret can make amends for one's
life opportunities misused.
Yet such was I.
Oh, such was I.
But you were always a good manof business.
Jacob faltered Scrooge, who nowbegan to apply this to himself
Business, cried the ghost,ringing its hands again.
Mankind was my business.

(37:45):
The common welfare was mybusiness.
Charity, mercy, forbearance andbenevolence were all my
business.
The dealings of my trade werebut a drop of water in the
comprehensive ocean of mybusiness.
It held up its chain at arm'slength as if it were the cause

(38:05):
of all its unavailing grief, andflung it heavily upon the
ground.
Again, at this time of therolling year, the specter said I
suffer most.
Why did I walk through crowdsof fellow beings with my eyes
turned down and never raisedthem to that blessed star which
led the wise men to a poor abode?

(38:25):
Were there no poor homes towhich its light would have
conducted me?
Scrooge was very much dismayedto hear the specter going on at
this rate and began to quakeexceedingly.
Hear me, said the ghost.
My time is nearly gone.
I will, said Scrooge, but don'tbe hard upon me, don't be
flowery.
Jacob, pray how it is that Iappear before you in a shape

(38:48):
that you can see.
I may not tell.
I have sat invisible beside youmany and many a day.
It was not an agreeable idea.
Scrooge shivered and wiped theperspiration from his brow.
That is no light.
Part of my penance to pursuethe ghost.
I am here tonight to warn youthat you have yet a chance and

(39:08):
hope of escaping my fate, achance and hope of my procuring.
Ebenezer, you were always agood friend to me, said Scrooge.
Thank you, you will be haunted,resumed the ghost, by three
spirits.
Scrooge's countenance fellalmost as low as the ghosts had
done.
Is that the chance and hope youmentioned Jacob, he demanded in
a faltering voice.

(39:29):
It is.
I think I'd rather not, saidScrooge, without their visit,
said the ghost.
You cannot hope to shun thepath I tread.
Expect the first one tomorrow,when the bell tolls.
One Couldn't I take them all atonce and have it over, jacob,
hinted Scrooge.
Expect the second on the nextnight at the same hour.

(39:49):
The third upon the next nightwhen the last stroke of twelve
has ceased to vibrate.
Look to see me no more and lookthat, for your own sake, you
remember what has passed betweenus.
When it had said these words,the specter took its wrapper
from the table and bound itround its head as before.
Scrooge knew this by the smartsound its teeth made when the

(40:12):
jaws were brought together bythe bandage.
He ventured to raise his eyesagain and found his supernatural
visitor confronting him in anerect attitude, with its chain
wound over and about its arm.
The apparition walked backwardfrom him and at every step it
took the window raised itself alittle, so that when the specter

(40:32):
reached it it was wide open.
It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did.
When they were within two pacesof each other, marley's ghost
held up its hand, warning him tocome no nearer.
Scrooge stopped, not so much inobedience as in surprise and
fear, for on the raising of thehand he became sensible of
confused noises in the air,incoherent sounds of lamentation

(40:56):
and regret, wailings,inexpressibly sorrowful and
self-accusatory.
The specter, after listeningfor a moment, joined in the
mournful dirge and floated outupon the bleak, dark night.
Scrooge followed to the window,desperate in his curiosity.
He looked out.
The air was filled withphantoms, wandering hither and

(41:19):
thither in restless haste andmoaning as they went.
Every one of them wore chains,like Marley's ghost, some few.
They might be guilty.
Governments were linkedtogether, none were free.
Many had been personally knownto Scrooge in their lives.
He had been quite familiar withone old ghost in a white
waistcoat with a monstrous ironsafe attached to its ankle, who

(41:43):
cried piteously at being unableto assist a wretched woman with
an infant whom it saw below upona doorstep.
The misery with them all wasclearly that they sought to
interfere for good in humanmatters and had lost the power
forever.
Whether these creatures fadedinto mist or mist enshrouded

(42:04):
them, he could not tell.
But they and their spiritvoices faded together and the
night became as it had been.
When he walked home, scroogeclosed the window and examined
the door by which the ghost hadentered.
It was double-locked, as he hadlocked it with his own hands,
and the bolts were undisturbed.
He tried to say humbug, butstopped at the first syllable

(42:28):
and, being from the emotion hehad undergone, or the fatigues
of the day, or his glimpse ofthe invisible world, or the dull
conversation of the ghost, orthe lateness of the hour, much
in need of repose, went straightto bed without undressing and
fell asleep upon the instant.
Stayv II, the FIRST OF THETHREE SPIRITS.

(43:06):
When Scrooge awoke, it was sodark that, looking out of bed,
he could scarcely distinguishthe transparent window from the
opaque walls of his chamber.
He was endeavouring to piercethe darkness with his ferret
eyes when the chimes of aneighboring church struck the
four quarters.
So he listened for the hour, tohis great astonishment.

(43:28):
The heavy bell went on from sixto seven and from seven to
eight, and regularly up totwelve, then stopped.
Twelve it was past two when hewent to bed.
The clock must be wrong.
An icicle must have got intothe works.
Twelve he touched the spring ofhis repeater to correct this

(43:50):
preposterous clock.
Its rapid little pulse.
Beat twelve and stopped.
Why?
It isn't possible, said Scrooge, that I can have slept through
a whole day and far into anothernight.
It isn't possible that anythinghas happened to the sun, and
this is twelve at noon.
The idea being an alarming one,he scrambled out of bed and

(44:12):
groped his way to the window.
He was obliged to rub the frostoff with a sleeve of his
dressing gown before he couldsee anything, and could see very
little.
Then All he could make out wasthat it was still very foggy and
extremely cold and that therewas no noise of people running
to and fro and making quite astir, as there unquestionably

(44:32):
would have been if night hadbeaten off bright day and taken
possession of the world.
This was a great relief becausethree days after sight of this,
first of exchange paid to MrEbenezer, scrooge or his order
and so forth would have become amere United States security if
there were no days to count by,scrooge went to bed again and

(44:54):
thought and thought and thoughtit over and over and over, and
could make nothing of it.
The more he thought, the moreperplexed he was, and the more
he endeavored not to think, themore he thought.
Marley's ghost bothered himexceedingly.
Every time he resolved withinhimself, after mature inquiry,
that it was all a dream.
His mind flew back again like astrong spring, released to its

(45:18):
first position and presented thesame problem to be worked all
through.
Was it a dream or not?
Scrooge lay in this state untilthe chime had gone three
quarters more when he rememberedon a sudden that the ghost had
warned him of a visitation.
When the bell told one, heresolved to lie awake until the
hour was passed, and consideringthat he could no more go to

(45:41):
sleep than go to heaven, thiswas perhaps the wisest
resolution in his power.
The quarter was so long that hewas more than once convinced he
must have sunk into a doseunconsciously and missed the
clock At length.
It broke upon his listening ear.
Ding dong.
A quarter passed, said Scrooge.
Counting Ding dong.

(46:03):
Half passed, said Scrooge Dingdong.
A quarter to it, said ScroogeDing dong.
The hour itself, said Scroogetriumphantly and nothing else.
He spoke before the hour bellsounded, which it now did, with
a deep, dull, hollow melancholy.
One light flashed up in theroom upon the instant and the

(46:26):
curtains of his bed were drawn.
The curtains of his bed weredrawn aside, I tell you by hand,
not the curtains at his feetnor the curtains at his back,
but those to which his face wasaddressed.
The curtains of his bed weredrawn aside and Scrooge,
starting up into a half-recombedattitude, found himself face to

(46:48):
face with the unearthly visitorwho drew them as close to it as
I am now to you, and I amstanding at the spirit at your
elbow.
It was a strange figure, like achild, yet not so like a child
as like an old man, viewedthrough some supernatural medium
which gave him the appearanceof having receded from the view

(47:10):
and being diminished to achild's proportions.
Its hair, which hung about itsneck and down its back, was
white, as if with age, and yetthe face had not a wrinkle in it
and the tenderest bloom was onthe skin.
The arms were very long andmuscular, the hands the same, as
if its hold were of uncommonstrength.
His legs and feet, mostdelicately formed, were, like

(47:34):
those upper members, bare.
It wore a tunic of the purestwhite, and round its waist was
bound a lustrous belt, the sheenof which was beautiful.
It held a branch of fresh greenholly in its hand and, in
singular contradiction of thatwinter emblem, had its dress

(47:54):
trimmed with summer flowers.
But the strangest thing aboutit was that from the crown of
its head there is strung abright, clear jet of light by
which all this was visible andwhich was doubtless the occasion
of its using, in its dullermoments, a great extinguisher
for a cap, which it now heldunder its arm.

(48:15):
Even this, though, when Scroogelooked at it with increasing
steadiness, was not itsstrangest quality, for as its
belt sparkled and glittered, nowin one part and now in another,
and what was light one instant,at another time was dark, so
the figure itself fluctuated inits distinctness, being now a

(48:35):
thing with one arm, now with oneleg, now with twenty legs, now
a pair of legs without a head,now a head without a body, of
which dissolving parts nooutline would be visible in the
dense gloom wherein they meltedaway, and in the very wonder of
this, it would be itself again,distinct and clear as ever.

(48:57):
Are you the spirit, sir, whosecoming was foretold to me, asked
Scrooge I am.
The voice was soft and gentle,singularly low, as if, instead
of being so close beside him, itwas at a distance.
Oh and what are you, scrooge,demanded.
I am the ghost of Christmaspast.

(49:17):
Long past, inquired Scrooge,observant of its dwarfish
stature.
No, your past.
Perhaps Scrooge could not havetold anybody why, if anybody
could have asked him.
But he had a special desire tosee the spirit in his cap and
begged him to be covered.
What, exclaimed the ghost,would you so soon put out with

(49:41):
worldly hands the light I give?
Is it not enough that you wereone of those whose passions made
this cap and forced me, throughwhole trains of years, to wear
it low upon my brow?
Scrooge reverently disclaimedall intention to offend or any
knowledge of having willfullybonneted the spirit at any

(50:03):
period of his life.
He then made bold to inquire.
What business brought him there?
Your welfare, said the ghost.
Scrooge expressed himself muchobliged, but could not help
thinking that a night ofunbroken rest would have been
more conducive to that end.
The spirit must have heard himthinking, for it said
immediately your reclamation,then take heed.

(50:25):
It put out its strong hand asit spoke and clasped him gently
by the arm, rise and walk withme.
It would have been in vain forScrooge to plead that the
weather and the hour were notadapted to pedestrian purposes,
that bed was warm and athermometer a long way below
freezing, that he was clad, butlightly, in his slippers,

(50:47):
dressing gown and nightcap, andthat he had a cold upon him at
the time, the grasp, thoughgentle as a woman's hand, was
not to be resisted.
He rose but, finding that thespirit, made towards the window,
clasped his robe insupplication.
I am immortal, scrooge,murmonstrated and liable to fall

(51:10):
.
Bear but a touch of my handthere, said the spirit, laying
it upon his heart, and you shallbe upheld in more than this.
As the words were spoken, theypassed through the wall and
stood upon an open country roadwith fields on either hand.
The city had entirely vanished.
Not a vestige of it was to beseen.

(51:30):
The darkness and the mist hadvanished with it, for it was a
clear, cold winter day with snowupon the ground.
Good Heaven, said Scrooge,clasping his hands together as
he looked about him.
I was bred in this place.
I was a boy here.
The spirit gazed upon him mildly.
Its gentle touch, though it hadbeen light and instantaneous

(51:53):
appeared still present to theold man's sense of feeling.
He was conscious of a thousandodors floating in the air, each
one connected with a thousandthoughts and hopes and joys and
cares, long, long forgotten.
Your lip is trembling, said theghost.
And what is that upon yourcheek?
Scrooge muttered with anunusual catching in his voice

(52:16):
that it was a pimple, and beggedthe ghost to lead him where he
would.
You recollect the way, inquiredthe spirit.
Remember it, cried Scrooge,with fervor.
I could walk it blindfold.
Strange to have forgotten itfor so many years, observed the
ghost.
Let us go on.
They walked along the road,scrooge, recognizing every gate

(52:36):
and post and tree, until alittle market town appeared in
the distance, with its bridge,its church and winding river.
Some shaggy ponies were nowseen trotting toward them, with
boys upon their backs who calledto other boys in country gigs
and carts driven by farmers.
These boys were in greatspirits and shouted to each
other until the broad fieldswere so full of merry music that

(52:59):
the crisp air laughed to hearit.
These are but shadows of thethings that have been said.
The ghost, they have noconsciousness of us.
The jockened travelers came onand as they came.
Scrooge knew and named themevery one.
Why was he rejoiced beyond allbounds to see them?
Why did his cold eye glistenand his heart leap up as they

(53:21):
went past?
Why was he filled with gladnesswhen he heard them give each
other merry Christmas as theyparted at crossroads and byways
for their several homes?
What was merry Christmas?
To Scrooge out upon merryChristmas?
What good had it ever done tohim?
The school is not quitedeserted, said the ghost.

(53:41):
A solitary child, neglected byhis friends, is left there still
.
Scrooge said he knew it and hesobbed.
They left the high road by awell-remembered lane and soon
approached a mansion of dull redbrick with a little weathercock
surmounted cupola on the roofand a bell hanging in it.

(54:02):
It was a large house, but oneof broken fortunes, for the
spacious offices were littleused, their walls were damp and
mossy, their windows broken andtheir gates decayed.
Fowls clucked and strutted inthe stables and the coach houses
and sheds were overrun withgrass.
Or was it more retentive of itsancient state within?

(54:24):
For entering the dreary halland glancing through the open
doors of many rooms, they foundthem poorly furnished, cold and
vast.
There was an earthy savor inthe air, a chilly bareness in
the place, which associateditself somehow with too much
getting up by candlelight andnot too much to eat.

(54:44):
They went, the ghost and Scrooge, across the hall to a door at
the back of the house.
They'd opened before them anddisclosed a long, bare,
melancholy room made bearerstill by lines of plain deal
forms and desks.
At one of these, a lonely boywas reading near a feeble fire,
and Scrooge sat down upon a formand wept to see his poor,

(55:07):
forgotten self as he used to be.
Not a latent echo in the house,not a squeak and shuffle from
the mice behind the paneling.
Not a drip from thehalf-thought waterspout in the
dull yard behind.
Not a sigh among the leaflessboughs of one despondent poplar.
Not the idle swinging of anempty storehouse door.

(55:27):
No, not the clicking in thefire, but fell upon the heart of
Scrooge with a softeninginfluence and gave a freer
passage to his tears.
The spirit touched him on thearm and pointed to his younger
self, intent upon his reading.
Suddenly, a man in foreigngarments, wonderfully real and

(55:48):
distinct to look at, stoodoutside the window with an axe
stuck in his belt and leading bythe bridal and ass laden with
wood.
Why it's Alibaba.
Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasyit's dear old, honest Alibaba.
Yes, yes, I know one Christmastime when Yonder's solitary
child was left here all alone,he did come for the first time,

(56:11):
just like that poor boy.
And Valentine said Scrooge andhis wild brother Orson, there
they go and watch his name, whowas put down in his drawers,
asleep at the gates of Damascus,don't you see him?
And the sultans' groom, turnedupside down by the jenai there
he is upon his head, serves himright.
I'm glad of it.

(56:32):
What business had he to bemarried to the princess?
To hear Scrooge expending allthe earnestness of his nature on
such subjects in a mostextraordinary voice, between
laughing and crying, and to seehis heightened and excited face
would have been a surprise tohis business friends in the city
.
Indeed, there's the parrot,cried Scrooge, green body and

(56:54):
yellow tail, with a thing likelettuce growing up out of the
top of his head.
There he is, poor Robin Crusoe.
He called him when he came homeagain after sailing round the
island.
Poor Robin Crusoe, where haveyou been, robin Crusoe?
The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't.
It was the parrot.
You know.
There goes Friday, running forhis life to the little creek.

(57:16):
Hello, loop, hello.
Then, with a rapidity oftransition very foreign to his
usual character, he said in pityfor his former self, poor boy,
and cried again, I wish, scrooge, muttered, putting his hand in
his pocket and looking about himafter drying his eyes with his
cuff.
But it's too late now.

(57:38):
What does the matter ask thespirit?
Nothing, said Scrooge, nothing.
There was a boy singing aChristmas carol at my door last
night.
I should like to have given himsomething, that's all.
The ghost smiled thoughtfullyand waved its hand, saying as it
did so let us see anotherChristmas.

(57:58):
Scrooge's former self grewlarger at the words and the room
became a little darker and moredirty.
The panels shrunk, the windowscracked, fragments of plaster
fell out of the ceiling and thenaked laths were shown instead.
But how all this was broughtabout, scrooge knew no more than
you do.
He only knew that it was quitecorrect that everything had

(58:20):
happened so that there he wasalone again when all the other
boys had gone home for the jollyholidays.
He was not reading now, butwalking up and down despairingly
.
Scrooge looked at the ghost and,with a mournful shaking of his
head, glanced anxiously towardthe door.
It opened and a little girlmuch younger than the boy, came

(58:41):
darting in and putting her armsaround his neck and often
kissing him, addressed him asher dear, dear brother.
I have come to bring you home,dear brother, said the child,
clapping her tiny hands andbending down to laugh.
To bring you home, home, home,home, little fan, returned the
boy.
Yes, said the child brimful ofglee.

(59:03):
Home for good and all home,forever and ever.
Father is so much kinder thanhe used to be that homes like
heaven.
He spoke so gently to me onedear night when I was going to
bed that I was not afraid to askhim once more if you might come
home.
And he said, yes, you should,and sent me and a coach to bring
you.
And you're to be a man, saidthe child, opening her eyes, and

(59:26):
are never to come back here,but first were to be together
all the Christmas long and havethe merriest time in all the
world.
You are quite a woman, littlefan, exclaimed the boy.
She clapped her hands andlaughed and tried to touch his
head but, being too little,laughed again and stood on
tiptoe to embrace him.
Then she began to drag him inher childish eagerness toward

(59:50):
the door and he, nothing left togo, accompanied her.
A terrible voice in the hallcried bring down Master
Scrooge's box.
There, and in the hall thereappeared the schoolmaster
himself, who glared on MasterScrooge with a ferocious
condescension and threw him intoa dreadful state of mind by

(01:00:10):
shaking hands with him.
He then conveyed him and hissister into the various old well
of a shivering best parlor thatever was seen, where the maps
upon the wall and the celestialand terrestrial globes in the
windows were waxy with cold.
Here he produced a decanter ofcuriously light wine and a block
of curiously heavy cake andadministered installments of

(01:00:32):
these dainties to the youngpeople, at the same time sending
out a meager servant to offer aglass of something to the
postboy, who answered that hethanked the gentleman, but if it
was the same tap he had tastedbefore, he had rather not.
Master Scrooge's trunk being bythis time tied onto the top of
the chase.
The children bade theschoolmaster goodbye, right

(01:00:53):
willingly, and, getting into it,drove gaily down the garden
sweep, the quick wheels dashingthe whorefrost and snow from off
the dark leaves of theevergrain's like spray, always a
delicate creature whom a breathmight have withered, said the
ghost, but she had a large heart, so she had, cried Scrooge,
you're right, I will not gain,say it spirit, god forbid.

(01:01:15):
She died a woman, said theghost, and had, as I think,
children.
One child Scrooge returned true, said the ghost, your nephew.
Scrooge seemed uneasy in hismind and answered briefly yes,
although they had, but thatmoment left the school behind
them.
They were now in the busythoroughfares of a city where

(01:01:38):
shadowy passengers passed andrepast, where shadowy carts and
coaches battled for the way andall the strife and tumult of a
real city were.
It was made plain enough by thedressing of the shops that here
too it was Christmas time again, but it was evening and the
streets were lighted up.
The ghost stopped at a certainwarehouse door and asked Scrooge

(01:02:00):
if he knew it.
Know it, said Scrooge.
Was I apprenticed here?
They went in At sight of an oldgentleman in a Welsh wig
sitting behind such a high deskthat if he had been two inches
taller he must have knocked hishead against the ceiling.
Scrooge cried out in greatexcitement why, it's old

(01:02:21):
Fezzywig?
Bless his heart.
It's Fezzywig, alive again.
Old Fezzywig laid down his penand looked up at the clock which
pointed to the hour of seven.
He rubbed his hands, adjustedhis capacious waistcoat and
laughed all over himself, fromhis shoes to his organ of
benevolence, and called out in acomfortable, oily, rich, jovial

(01:02:43):
, fat voice Yo ho, there,ebenezer, dick Scrooge's former
self, now grown a young man,came briskly in, accompanied by
his fellow apprentice, dickWilkins.
To be sure, said Scrooge to theghost, bless me.
Yes, there he is.
He was very much attached to me, was Dick?
Poor Dick, dear, dear.

(01:03:05):
Yo ho, my boys said, fezzywig,no more work tonight.
Christmas Eve, dick, christmas,ebenezer, let's have the
shutters up, cried Old Fezzywigwith a sharp clap of his hands,
before a man can say JackRobinson, you wouldn't believe
how these two fellows went at it.
They charged into the streetwith the shutters, one, two,

(01:03:26):
three, had them up in theirplaces, four, five, six, barred
them and pinned them Seven,eight, nine, and came back
before you have got to twelvepanting-like racehorses.
Hilly ho, cried Old Fezzywig,skipping down from the high desk
with wonderful agility.
Clear away, my lads, and let'shave lots of room here.
Hilly ho, dick, cheer up,ebenezer, clear away.

(01:03:49):
There was nothing they wouldn'thave cleared away or couldn't
have cleared away, with OldFezzywig looking on.
It was done in a minute.
Every movable was packed off asif it were dismissed from
public life forever.
The floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel
was heaped upon the fire and thewarehouse was as snug and warm
and dry and bright a ballroom asyou would desire to see upon a

(01:04:12):
winter's night.
In came a fiddler with a musicbook and went up to the lofty
desk and made an orchestra of itand tuned like fifty stomach
aches.
In came Mrs Fezzywig, one vast,substantial smile.
In came the three MissFezzywigs, beaming and lovable.
In came the six young followerswhose hearts they broke.
In came all the young men andwomen employed in the business.

(01:04:34):
In came the housemaid and hercousin, the baker.
In came the cook and herbrother's particular friend, the
milkman.
In came the boy from over theway who was suspected of not
having bored enough from hismaster trying to hide himself
behind the girl from next door,but one who was proved to have
had her ears pulled by hermistress.
In they all came, one afteranother, some shyly, some boldly

(01:04:59):
, some gracefully, someawkwardly, some pushing, some
pulling In.
They all came anyhow andeveryhow Away.
They all went, twenty, coupleat once, hands half round and
back again the other way, downthe middle and up again, round
and round in various stages ofaffectionate grouping Old top
couple, always turning up in thewrong place.

(01:05:20):
New top couples starting offagain as soon as they got there.
All top couples at last, andnot a bottom one to help them.
When this result was broughtabout, old Fezzywig, clapping
his hands to stop the dance,cried out.
He was stunned and the fiddlerplunged his hot face into a pot
of porter especially providedfor that purpose.

(01:05:40):
But scorning rest upon hisreappearance he instantly began
again, though there were nodancers yet, as if the other
fiddler had been carried homeexhausted on a shutter, and he
were a brand new man resolved tobeat him out of sight or perish
.
There were more dances andthere were forfeits, and more
dances, and there was cake andthere was negus and there was a

(01:06:02):
great piece of cold roast andthere was a great piece of cold
boiled and there were mince piesand plenty of beer.
But the great effect of theevening came after the roast and
the boiled, when the fiddler,an artful dog, mined, that sort
of man who knew his businessbetter than you or I could have
told it to him, struck up SirRoger de Coverley.

(01:06:23):
Then old Fezzywig stood out todance with Mrs Fezzywig.
Hot couple too, with a good,stiff piece of work cut out for
them.
Three or four and twenty pairof partners, people who would
not to be trifled with, peoplewho would dance and had no
notion of walking.
But if they had been twice asmany, ah, four times old
Fezzywig would have been a matchfor them, and so would Mrs

(01:06:47):
Fezzywig.
As to her, she was worthy to behis partner, in every sense of
the term.
If that's not high praise, tellme higher and I'll use it.
A positive light appeared toissue from Fezzywig's calves.
They shone in every part of thedance like moons.
You couldn't have predicted atany given time what would have
become of them next.
And when old Fezzywig and MrsFezzywig had gone all through

(01:07:10):
the dance, advance and retireboth hands to your partner, bow
and curtsy, corkscrew, threadthe needle and back again to
your place.
Fezzywig cut Cut so deftly thathe appeared to wink with his
legs and came upon his feetagain without a stagger.
When the clock struck eleven,this domestic ball broke up.
Mr and Mrs Fezzywig took theirstations, one on either side of

(01:07:33):
the door and, shaking hands withevery person individually as he
or she went out, wished him orher a merry Christmas, when
everybody had retired but thetwo apprentices.
They did the same to them, andthus the cheerful voices died
away and the lads were left totheir beds, which were under a
counter in the back shop.
During the whole of this time,scrooge had acted like a man out

(01:07:56):
of his wits.
His heart and soul were in thescene and with his former self
he corroborated everything,remembered everything, enjoyed
everything and underwent thestrangest agitation.
It was not until now, when thebright faces of his former self
and Dick were turned from them,that he remembered the ghost and
became conscious that it waslooking full upon him while the

(01:08:20):
light upon its head burnt.
Very dear, a small matter, saidthe ghost, to make these silly
folks so full of gratitude.
Small, echoed Scrooge.
The spirit signaled to him tolisten to the two apprentices
who were pouring out theirhearts in praise of Fezzywig and
when he had done so, said whyIs it not?
He has spent but a few poundsof your mortal money, three or

(01:08:43):
four perhaps.
Is that so much that hedeserves this praise?
It isn't that, said Scrooge,heated by this remark and
speaking unconsciously like hisformer, not his latter, self.
It isn't that spirit he has thepower to render us happy or
unhappy, to make our servicelight or burdensome, a pleasure

(01:09:04):
or a toil, say that his powerlies in words and looks in
things so slight andinsignificant that it is
impossible to add and count themup.
But then the happiness he givesis quite as great as if it cost
a fortune.
He felt the spirit's glance andstopped.
What is the matter, asked theghost.

(01:09:24):
Nothing particular, saidScrooge Something.
I think the ghost insisted no,said Scrooge no.
I should like to be able to saya word or two to my clerk just
now.
That's all.
His former self turned down thelamps as he gave utterance to
the wish and Scrooge and theghost again stood side by side

(01:09:44):
in the open air.
My time grows short, observedthe spirit quick.
This was not addressed toScrooge or to anyone whom he
could see, but it produced animmediate effect, for again
Scrooge saw himself.
He was older now, a man in theprime of his life.
His face had not the harsh andrigid lines of later years, but

(01:10:05):
it had begun to wear the signsof care and avarice.
There was an eager, greedy,restless motion in the eye which
showed the passion that hadtaken root and where the shadow
of the growing tree would fall.
He was not alone, but sat bythe side of a very young girl in
a morning dress, in whose eyesthere were tears which sparkled

(01:10:25):
in the light that shone out atthe ghost of Christmas past.
It matters little, she saidsoftly to you very little.
Another idol has displaced me,and if it can cheer and comfort
you in time to come, as I wouldhave tried to do, I have no just
cause to grieve.
What idol has to place to you?
He rejoined A golden one.

(01:10:46):
This is the even-handed dealingof the world, he said.
There is nothing on which it isso hard as poverty, and there
is nothing it professes tocondemn with such severity as
the pursuit of wealth.
You fear the world too much,she answered gently.
All your other hopes havemerged into the hope of being
beyond the chance of its sordidreproach.

(01:11:06):
I have seen your nobleraspirations fall off one by one,
until the master passion gainengrosses you, have I not?
What then?
He retorted?
Even if I have grown so muchwiser, what then?
I am not changed toward you?
She shook her head, am I?
Our contract is an old one.

(01:11:28):
It was made when we were bothpoor and content to be so Until,
in good season, we couldimprove our worldly fortune by
our patient industry.
You are changed.
When it was made, you wereanother man.
I was a boy, he saidimpatiently.
Your own feeling tells you thatyou were not what you are.
She returned I am.

(01:11:48):
That which promised happinesswhen we were one in heart is
fraught with misery now that weare two.
How often and how keenly I havethought of this.
I will not say it is enoughthat I have thought of it and
can release you.
Have I ever sought release Inwords?
No, never.
What then?
In a changed nature, in analtered spirit, in another

(01:12:12):
atmosphere of life, another hopeas its great end, in everything
that made my love of any worthor value in your sight?
If this had never been betweenus, said the girl, looking
mildly but with steadiness uponhim, tell me, would you seek me
out and try to win me now?
Ah, no.
He seemed to yield to thejustice of this supposition in

(01:12:34):
spite of himself.
And he said with a struggle youthink not.
I would gladly think otherwiseif I could.
She answered Heaven knows.
When I have learned a truthlike this, I know how strong and
irresistible it must be.
But if you were free today,tomorrow, yesterday, can even I
believe that you would choose adourless girl, you who, in your

(01:12:57):
very confidence with her, weigheverything by gain, or choosing
her.
If for a moment you were falseenough to your one guiding
principle to do so, do I notknow that your repentance and
regret would surely follow?
I do, and I release you with afull heart and the love of him
you once were.

(01:13:18):
He was about to speak, but withher head turned from him, she
resumed.
You may the memory of what hispast half makes me hope you will
have pain in this A very, verybrief time and you will dismiss
the recollection of it gladly asan unprofitable dream from
which it happened well that youawoke.
May you be happy in the lifethat you have chosen.

(01:13:40):
She left him and they parted.
Spirit said Scrooge, show me nomore.
Conduct me home.
Why do you delight to tortureme?
One shadow more exclaimed.
The ghost no more, cried.
Scrooge, no more, I don't wishto see it, show me no more.
But the relentless ghostpinioned him in both his arms

(01:14:02):
and forced him to observe whathappened next.
They were in another scene inplace, a room not very large or
handsome, but full of comfort.
Near to the winter fire sat abeautiful young girl, so like
the last, that Scrooge believedit was the same, until he saw
her now, a comely matron sittingopposite her daughter.

(01:14:24):
The noise in this room wasperfectly tumultuous, for there
were more children there thanScrooge and his agitated state
of mind could count, and unlikethe celebrated herd in the poem,
they were not forty childrenconducting themselves like one,
but every child was conductingitself like forty.
The consequences wereuproarious beyond belief, but no

(01:14:46):
one seemed to care.
On the contrary, the mother anddaughter laughed heartily and
enjoyed it very much, and thelatter, soon beginning to mingle
in the sports, got pillaged bythe young brigands most
ruthlessly.
What would I not have given tobe one of them, though I never
could have been so rude.
No, no, I wouldn't, for all thewealth of the world, have

(01:15:08):
crushed that braided hair andtorn it down, and for the
precious little shoe I wouldn'thave plucked it off.
God bless my soul to save mylife.
As to measuring her waist insport as they did, bold young
brood, I couldn't have done it.
I should have expected my armto have grown round it for a
punishment and never comestraight again.
And yet I should have dearlyliked I owned to have touched

(01:15:32):
her lips, to have questioned herthat she might have opened them
, to have looked upon the lashesof her downcast eyes and never
raised a blush, to have letloose waves of hair, an inch of
which would have been a keepsakebeyond price.
In short, I should have liked,I do confess, to have the
lightest license of a child andyet to have been man enough to

(01:15:53):
know its value.
But now a knocking at the doorwas heard and such a rush
immediately ensued that she,with laughing face and plundered
dress, was born towards it, thecenter of a flushed and
boisterous group, just in timeto greet the father who came
home, attended by a man ladenwith Christmas toys and presents
.
Then the shouting and thestruggling and the onslaught

(01:16:16):
that was made on the defenselessporter, the scaling him with
chairs for ladders to dive intohis pockets, to spoil him of his
brown paper parcels, hold ontight by his cravat, cug him
around his neck, pommel his backand kick his legs in
irrepressible affection.
The shouts of wonder anddelight with which the
development of every package wasreceived.

(01:16:38):
The terrible announcement thatthe baby had been taken, in the
act of putting a doll's fryingpan into his mouth and was more
than suspected of havingswallowed a fictitious turkey
glued on a wooden powder.
The immense relief of findingthis a false alarm, the joy, the
gratitude, the ecstasy, theyare all indescribable alike.

(01:16:58):
It is enough that, by degrees,the children and their emotions
got out of the parlor, and byone stare at a time, up to the
top of the house where they wentto bed and so subsided.
And now Scrooge looked on moreattentively than ever when the
master of the house, having hisdaughter leaning finally on him,
sat down with her and hermother at his own fireside.

(01:17:21):
And when he thought that suchanother creature, quite as
graceful and full of promise,might have called him father and
been a springtime in thehaggard winter of his life, his
sight grew very dim indeed.
Bell, said the husband, turningto his wife with a smile.
I saw an old friend of yoursthis afternoon.
Who was it Guess?

(01:17:42):
How can I Tut?
I don't know?
She added in the same breath,laughing as he laughed, mr
Scrooge, mr Scrooge it was.
I passed his office window andas it was not shut up and he had
a candle inside, I couldscarcely help seeing him.
His partner lies upon the pointof death, I hear.
And there he sat alone, quitealone in the world.

(01:18:06):
I believe Spirit, said Scroogein a broken voice, removed me
from this place.
I told you these were shadowsof the things that have been
said, the ghost, that they arewhat they are.
Do not blame me, remove me.
Scrooge exclaimed I cannot bearit.
He turned upon the ghost and,seeing that it looked upon him
with a face in which, in somestrange way, there were

(01:18:29):
fragments of all the faces ithad shown him, wrestled with it.
Leave me, take me back, hauntme no longer In the struggle if
that can be called a struggle inwhich the ghost, with no
visible resistance on its ownpart, was undisturbed by any
effort of its adversary.
Scrooge observed that its lightwas burning high and bright,

(01:18:51):
and dimly connecting that withits influence over him.
He seized the extinguisher capand, by a sudden action, pressed
it down upon his head.
The spirit dropped beneath itso that the extinguisher covered
its whole form, but thoseScrooge pressed it down with all
his force.
He could not hide the lightwhich streamed from under it in

(01:19:13):
an unbroken flood upon theground.
He was conscious of beingexhausted and overcome by an
irresistible drowsiness.
And further, of being in hisown bedroom, he gave the cap a
parting squeeze in which hishand relaxed and had barely time
to reel to bed before he sankinto a heavy sleep.

(01:19:46):
Stave 3, the Second of the ThreeSpirits, awakening in the
middle of a prodigiously toughsnore and sitting up in bed to
get his thoughts together,scrooge had no occasion to be
told that the bell was againupon the stroke of one.
He felt that he was restored toconsciousness in the right nick
of time for the especialpurpose of holding a conference

(01:20:08):
with the second messengerdispatched to him through Jacob
Marley's intervention.
But, finding that he turneduncomfortably cold when he began
to wonder which of his curtainsthis new specter would draw
back, he put them every oneaside with his own hands and,
lying down again established asharp lookout all around the bed
, for he wished to challenge thespirit on the moment of its

(01:20:31):
appearance and did not wish tobe taken by surprise and made
nervous.
Gentlemen of the free and easysort, who plume themselves on
being acquainted with a move ortwo and being usually equal to
the time of day, expressed thewide range of their capacity for
adventure by observing thatthey are good for anything from
pitch and toss to manslaughter,between which opposite extremes,

(01:20:54):
no doubt, there lies atolerably wide and comprehensive
range of subjects.
Without venturing for Scroogequite as heartily as this, I
don't mind calling on you tobelieve that he was ready for a
good broad field of strangeappearances and that nothing
between a baby and rhinoceroswould have astonished him very

(01:21:14):
much.
Now, being prepared for almostanything, he was not by any
means prepared for nothing andconsequently, when the bell
struck one and no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent
fit of trembling.
Five minutes, ten minutes, aquarter of an hour went by, yet
nothing came.
All this time, he lay upon hisbed, the very core and center of

(01:21:39):
a blaze of ruddy light whichstreamed upon it when the clock
proclaimed the hour and which,being only light, was more
alarming than a dozen ghosts, ashe was powerless to make out
what it meant or would be at,and was sometimes apprehensive
that he might be, at that verymoment, an interesting case of
spontaneous combustion, withouthaving the consolation of

(01:22:02):
knowing it.
At last, however, he began tothink as you or I would have
thought at first, for it isalways the person not in the
predicament who knows what oughtto have been done in it and
would unquestionably have doneit too.
At last, I say, he began tothink that the source and secret
of this ghostly light might bein the adjoining room.

(01:22:25):
From whence, on further tracingit, it seemed to shine, this
idea taking full possession ofhis mind.
He got up softly and shuffled inhis slippers to the door.
The moment Scrooge's hand wason the lock, a strange voice
called him by his name and badehim enter.
He obeyed it was his own room,there was no doubt about that.

(01:22:46):
But it had undergone asurprising transformation.
The walls and ceiling were sohung with living green that it
looked a perfect grove, fromevery part of which bright,
gleaming berries glistened.
The crisp leaves of holly,mistletoe and ivy reflected back
the light, as if so many littlemirrors had been scattered

(01:23:08):
there.
And such a mighty blaze wentroaring up the chimney as that
dull petrification of a hearthhad never known in Scrooge's
time or Marley's, or for manyand many a winter season gone.
Heaped up on the floor to form akind of throne were turkeys,
geese game, poultry, prawn,great joints of meat, sucking

(01:23:31):
pigs, long wreaths of sausages,mince pies, plum puddings,
barrels of oysters, red hotchestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples
, juicy oranges, luscious pears,immense twelfth cakes and
seething bowls of punch thatmade the chamber dim with their
delicious steam.
In easy state.

(01:23:51):
Upon this couch there sat ajolly giant, glorious to see,
who bore a glowing torch, inshape not unlike Plenty's horn,
and held it up high up to shedits light on Scrooge as he came
peeping round the door.
Come in, exclaimed the ghost.
Come in and know me better, man.

(01:24:12):
Scrooge entered timidly and hunghis head before this spirit.
He was not the dogged Scroogehe had been, and though the
spirit's eyes were clear andkind, he did not like to meet
them.
I am the ghost of Christmaspresent, said the spirit.
Look upon me.
Scrooge reverently did so.
It was clothed in one simplegreen robe or mantle, bordered

(01:24:35):
with white fur.
This garment hung so loosely onthe figure that its capacious
breast was bare, as ifdisdaining to be warded or
concealed by any artifice.
Its feet, observable beneaththe ample folds of the garment,
were also bare, and on its headit wore no other covering than a
holly wreath, set here andthere with shining icicles.

(01:24:58):
Its dark brown curls were longand free, free as its genial
face, its sparkling eye, itsopen hand, its cheery voice, its
unconstrained demeanor and itsjoyful air.
Girded round its middle was anantique scabbard, but no sword
was in it and the ancient sheathwas eaten up with rust.

(01:25:21):
You have never seen the like ofme before", exclaimed the spirit
.
Never, scrooge made answer toit.
"have never walked forth withthe younger members of my family
, meaning, for I am very youngmy elder brothers born in these
later years pursued the phantom.
I don't think I have", saidScrooge.
I am afraid I have not.

(01:25:42):
Have you had many brothers,spirit?
More than eighteen hundred",said the ghost.
A tremendous family to providefor, muttered Scrooge.
The ghost of Christmas presentrose Spirit, said Scrooge,
submissively, conduct me whereyou will.
I went forth last night oncompulsion and I learned a

(01:26:02):
lesson which is working nowTonight.
If you have ought to teach me,let me profit by it.
Touch my robe".
Scrooge did as he was told andheld it fast.
Holly, mistletoe, redberries,ivy turkeys, geese, game,
poultry, brawn meat, pigs,sausages, oysters, pies,

(01:26:24):
puddings, fruit and punch allvanished instantly.
So did the room, the fire, theruddy glow, the hour of night,
and they stood in the citystreets on Christmas morning
when, for the weather was severe, the people made a rough but
brisk and not unpleasant kind ofmusic in scraping the snow from

(01:26:44):
the pavement in front of theirdwellings and from the tops of
their houses, whence it was maddelight to the boys to see it
come, plumping down into theroad below and splitting into
artificial little snowstorms.
The house fronts looked blackenough and the windows blacker,
contrasting with the smoothwhite sheet of snow upon the
roofs and with the dirtier snowupon the ground, which last

(01:27:07):
deposit had been plowed up indeep furrows by the heavy wheels
of carts and wagons, furrowsthat crossed and recrossed each
other hundreds of times.
Were the great streets branchedoff and made intricate channels
hard to trace in the thickyellow mud and icy water?
The sky was gloomy and theshortest streets were choked up
with a dingy mist, half thawed,half frozen, whose heavier

(01:27:30):
particles descended in a showerof sooty atoms, as if all the
chimneys in Great Britain had,by one consent, cut fire and
were blazing away to their dearheart's content.
There was nothing very cheerfulin the climate or the town, and
yet there was an air ofcheerfulness abroad that the
clearest summer air andbrightest summer sun might have

(01:27:51):
endeavored to diffuse in vain,for the people who were
shoveling away on the housetopswere jovial and full of glee,
calling out to one another fromthe parapets and now and then
exchanging a facetious snowballbetter-natured missile far than
many a wordy jest laughingheartily if it went right and

(01:28:12):
not less heartily if it wentwrong.
The polterers' shops were stillhalf open and the fruiterers
were radiant in their glory.
There were great, round,potbellied baskets of chestnuts
shaped like the waistcoats ofjolly old gentlemen, lolling at
the doors and tumbling out intothe street in their apoplectic
opulence.
There were ruddy, brown-faced,broad-growthed Spanish onions,

(01:28:36):
shining in the fattiness oftheir growth like Spanish friars
and winking from their shelvesin wanton slioness at the girls
as they went by and glanceddemurly at the hung-up mistletoe
.
There were pears and applesclustered high in blooming
pyramids.
There were bunches of grapesmade in the shopkeeper's
benevolence to dangle fromconspicuous hooks that people's

(01:28:59):
mouths might water gratis asthey passed.
There were piles of filberts,mossy and brown, recalling in
their fragrance ancient walksamong the woods and pleasant
shufflings, ankle-deep throughwithered leaves.
There were Norfolk biffens,squat and swarthy, setting off
the yellow of the oranges andthe lemons and, in the great

(01:29:20):
compactness of their juicypersons urgently entreating and
beseeching to be carried home inpaper bags and eaten.
After dinner, the very gold andsilver fish set forth among
these choice fruits in a bowl,though members of a dull and
stagnant-blooded race appearedto know that there was something
going on, and two of fish wentgasping round and round their

(01:29:44):
little world in slow andpassionless excitement.
The grocers, oh the grocers,nearly closed, with perhaps two
shutters down, or one, butthrough those gaps, such
glimpses.
It was not alone that thescales descending on the counter
made a merry sound, or that thetwine and roller parted company

(01:30:05):
so briskly, or that thecanisters were rattled up and
down like juggling tricks, oreven that the blended scents of
tea and coffee were so gratefulto the nose, or even that the
raisins were so plentiful andrare and almonds so extremely
white, the sticks of cinnamon solong and straight, the other
spices so delicious, the candiedfruit so caked and spotted with

(01:30:29):
molten sugar as to make thecoldest lookers on feel faint
and subsequently billy-ous.
Nor was it that the figs weremoist and pulpy, or that the
French plums blushed in modesttartness from their highly
decorated boxes, or thateverything was good to eat and
in its Christmas dress.
But the customers were all sohurried and so eager in the

(01:30:52):
hopeful promise of the day thatthey tumbled up against each
other at the door, crashingtheir wicker baskets wildly and
left their purchases upon thecounter and came running back to
fetch them and committedhundreds of the like mistakes in
the best humor possible, whilethe grocer and his people were
so frank and fresh that thepolished hearts with which they
fastened their aprons behindmight have been their own, worn

(01:31:15):
outside for general inspectionand for Christmas Dazz to peck
at if they chose.
But soon the steeples calledgood people all to church and
chapel.
In a way, they came flockingthrough the streets in their
best clothes and with theirhappiest faces, and at the same
time there emerged from scoresof by-street lanes and nameless

(01:31:36):
turnings innumerable peoplecarrying their dinners to the
baker's shops.
The sight of these poorrevelers appeared to interest
the spirit very much, for hestood with scrooge beside him in
the baker's doorway and takingoff the covers as their bearers
passed, sprinkled incense ontheir dinners from his torch it
was a very uncommon kind oftorch, for once or twice, when

(01:31:58):
there were angry words betweensome dinner carriers who had
jostled each other, he shed afew drops of water on them from
it and their good humor wasrestored directly, for they said
it was a shame to quarrel uponChristmas Day.
And so it was, god love it.
So it was In time.
The bells ceased and the bakerswere shut up, and there was a

(01:32:21):
genuine shadowing forth of allthese dinners and the progress
of their cooking in the thawedblotch of wet above the baker's
oven, where the pavement smokedas if its stones were cooking
too.
Is there a peculiar flavor inwhat you sprinkle from your
torch?
Asked scrooge?
There is my own.

(01:32:41):
Would it apply to any kind ofdinner on this day?
Asked scrooge To any kindlygiven To a poor one most.
Why?
To a poor one most?
Asked scrooge Because it needsit most, spirit, said scrooge.
After a moment's thought, Iwonder you, of all the beings in
the many worlds about us,should desire to cramp these

(01:33:04):
people's opportunities ofinnocent enjoyment?
I cried the spirit.
You would deprive them of theirmeans of dining every seventh
day, often the only day on whichthey can be said to dine at all
, said scrooge, wouldn't you, Icried the spirit, you seek to
close these places on theseventh day, said scrooge.
And it comes to the same thing.

(01:33:26):
I seek, exclaimed the spirit.
Forgive me if I am wrong.
It has been done in your name,or at least in that of your
family, said scrooge.
There are some upon this earthof yours, returned the spirit
who lay claim to know us and whodo their deeds of passion,
pride, ill will, hatred, envy,bigotry and selfishness in our

(01:33:48):
name who are as strange to usand all our kith and kin as if
they had never lived.
Remember that and charge theirdoings on themselves, not us.
Scrooge promised that he would,and they went on, invisible as
they had been before, into thesuburbs of the town.
It was a remarkable quality ofthe ghost which scrooge had

(01:34:11):
observed at the bakers that, notwithstanding his gigantic size,
he could accommodate himself toany place with ease and that he
stood beneath a low roof quiteas gracefully and like a
supernatural creature as it waspossible he could have done in
any lofty hall.
And perhaps it was the pleasurethe good spirit had in showing

(01:34:31):
off this power of his, or elseit was his own kind, generous,
hearty nature and his sympathywith all poor men that led him
straight to Scrooge's clerks.
For there he went and tookScrooge with him holding to his
robe, and on the threshold ofthe door the spirit smiled and
stopped to bless Bob Cratchit'sdwelling with the sprinkling of

(01:34:52):
his torch.
Think of that Bob had butfifteen Bob a week.
Himself he pocketed onSaturdays, but fifteen copies of
his Christian name.
And yet the ghost of Christmaspresent blessed his four-rimmed
house.
Then up rose Mrs Cratchit,cratchit's wife, dressed out,
but poorly, in a twice-turnedgown, but brave in ribbons which

(01:35:15):
are cheap and make a goodlyshow for six pence.
And she laid the cloth,assisted by Belinda Cratchit,
second of her daughters, alsobrave in ribbons, while Master
Pete Cratchit plunged a forkinto the saucepan of potatoes
and getting the corners of hismonstrous shirt collar, which
was Bob's private property,conferred upon his son and heir

(01:35:36):
in honor of the day, into hismouth, rejoiced to find himself
so gallantly attired and yearnedto show his linen in the
fashionable parks.
And now two smaller Cratchits,boy and girl, came tearing in,
screaming that outside thebakers they had smelt the goose
and known it for their own.
And basking in luxuriousthoughts of sage and onion,

(01:35:58):
these young Cratchits dancedabout the table and exalted
Master Peter Cratchit to theskies while he, not proud,
although his collars nearlychoked him, blew the fire until
the slow potatoes bubbling upknocked loudly at the saucepan
lid to be let out and peeledwhat has ever got your precious
father.

(01:36:18):
Then said Mrs Cratchit, and yourbrother, tiny Tim, and Martha
weren't as late last ChristmasDay by half an hour.
Here's Martha, mother, said agirl appearing as she spoke.
Here's Martha, mother, criedthe two young Cratchits.
Hurrah, there's such a goose,martha, why, bless your heart
alive, my dear, how late you are, said Mrs Cratchit, kissing

(01:36:39):
hera dozen times and taking offher shawl and bonnet for her
with a vicious zeal.
We'd a great deal of work tofinish up last night, replied
the girl, and had to clear awaythis morning, mother.
Well, never mind, so long asyou are come, said Mrs Cratchit.
Sit ye down by the fire, mydear, and have a warm Lord.
Bless ye.
No, no, there's father coming,cried the two young Cratchits

(01:37:03):
who were everywhere at once.
Hide, martha, hide.
So Martha hid herself and incame Bob the father, with at
least three feet of comfort andcare, exclusive of the fringe,
hanging down before him and histhreadbare clothes darned up and
brushed to look seasonable andtiny Tim upon his shoulder.
Alas for tiny Tim, he bore alittle crutch and had his limbs

(01:37:27):
supported by an iron frame.
Why, where's our Martha?
Cried Bob Cratchit lookinground, not coming, said Mrs
Cratchit.
Not coming, said Bob, with asudden declension of his high
spirits, for he had been Tim'sblood horse all the way from
church and had come home rampantNot coming upon Christmas Day.

(01:37:48):
Martha didn't like to see himdisappointed if it were only a
joke, so she came outprematurely from behind the
closet door and ran into hisarms while the two young
Cratchits hustled tiny Tim andbore him off into the wash house
that he might hear the puddingssinging in the copper.
And how did little Tim behave,asked Mrs Cratchit, when she had

(01:38:10):
rallied Bob on his credulityand Bob had hugged his daughter
to his heart's content.
As good as gold, said Bob, andbetter.
Somehow he gets thoughtful,sitting by himself so much and
thinks the strangest things youever heard.
He told me coming home that hehoped the people saw him in the
church because he was a crippleand it might be pleasant to them

(01:38:31):
to remember upon Christmas Daywho made lame beggars walk and
blind men see.
Bob's voice was tremulous whenhe told them this and trembled
more when he said that tiny Timwas growing strong and hearty.
His act of little Cratchit washeard upon the floor and back
came tiny Tim before anotherword was spoken, escorted by his

(01:38:53):
brother and sister to his stoolbefore 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 into
a jug with gin and lemons andstirred it round and round and
put it on the hob to simmer.
Master Peter and the twoubiquitous young Cratchits went

(01:39:15):
to fetch the goose with whichthey soon returned in high
procession.
Such a bustle ensued, you mighthave thought.
A goose, the rarest of allbirds, a feathered phenomenon to
which a black swan was a matterof course, and in truth it was
something very like it in thathouse.
Mrs Cratchit made the gravyready beforehand in a little

(01:39:35):
saucepan, hissing hot, masterPeter mashed the potatoes with
incredible vigor.
Miss Belinda sweetened up theapplesauce, martha dusted the
hot plates.
Bob took tiny Tim beside him ina tiny corner at the table.
The two young Cratchits setchairs for everybody, not
forgetting themselves, andmounting guard upon their posts,

(01:39:57):
crammed spoons into theirmouths lest they should shriek
for goose before their turn cameto be helped.
At last the dishes were set onand Grace was said.
It was succeeded by abreathless pause as Mrs Cratchit
, looking slowly all along thecarving knife, prepared to
plunge it in the breast.
And when she did, and when thelong expected gush of stuffing

(01:40:21):
issued forth, one murmur ofdelight arose all round the
board.
And even tiny Tim, excited bythe two young Cratchits, beat on
the table with the handle ofhis knife and feebly cried
Hurrah, there never was such agoose.
Bob said he didn't believethere ever was such a goose

(01:40:41):
cooked.
Its tenderness and flavor, sizeand cheapness were the themes
of universal admiration.
Eeked out by applesauce andmashed potatoes, it was a
sufficient dinner for the wholefamily, made, as Mrs Cratchit
said, with great delightsurveying one small atom of a
bone left upon a dish theyhadn't ate at all.

(01:41:03):
At last, yet, every one had hadenough, and the youngest
Cratchits in particular weresteeped in sage and onion to the
eyebrows.
But now, the plates beingchanged by Miss Belinda, mrs
Cratchit left the room alone,too nervous to bear witness, to
take the pudding up and bring itin.
Suppose it should not be doneenough, suppose it should break

(01:41:25):
and turning out, supposesomebody should have gotten over
the wall of the backyard andstolen it while they were merry
with the goose, a supposition atwhich the two young Cratchits
became livid.
All sorts of horrors weresupposed.
Hello, a great deal of steam.
The pudding was out of thecopper.
A smell like the washing day.

(01:41:47):
That was the cloth.
A smell like an eating houseand a pastry cook's next door to
each other with a laundressnext door to that.
That was the pudding.
In half a minute Mrs Cratchitentered, flushed but smiling
proudly with the pudding like aspeckled cannonball, so hard and
firm, blazing in half of half aquarter of ignited brandy and

(01:42:09):
bedite, with Christmas hollystuck into the top.
Oh, what a wonderful pudding.
Bob Cratchit said, and calmlytoo, that he regarded it as the
greatest success achieved by MrsCratchit since their marriage.
Mrs Cratchit said that now theweight was off her mind.
She would confess she had hadher doubts about the quantity of

(01:42:31):
flour.
Everybody had something to sayabout it, but nobody said or
thought it was at all a smallpudding for a large family.
It would have been flat heresyto do so.
Any Cratchit would have blushedto hint at such a thing.
At last the dinner was all done.
The cloth was cleared, thehearth swept and the fire made
up the compound in the jug beingtasted and considered perfect.

(01:42:55):
Apples and oranges were putupon the table and a shovel full
of chestnuts on the fire.
Then all the Cratchit familydrew around the hearth in what
Bob Cratchit called a circle,meaning half a one, and at Bob
Cratchit's elbow stood thefamily display of glass, two
tumblers and a custard cupwithout a handle.
These held the hot stuff fromthe jug, however, as well as

(01:43:18):
golden goblets would have done,and Bob served it out with
beaming looks while thechestnuts on the fire sputtered
and cracked noisily.
Then Bob proposed A merryChristmas to us all, my dears
God bless us, which all thefamily re-echoed.
God bless us.
Everyone said Tiny Tim, the lastof all.

(01:43:40):
He sat very close to hisfather's side upon his little
stool.
Bob held his withered littlehand in his as if he loved the
child and wished to keep him byhis side and dreaded that he
might be taken from him.
Spirit, said Scrooge, with aninterest he had never felt
before.
Tell me if Tiny Tim will live.

(01:44:00):
I see a vacant seat, repliedthe ghost in the poor chimney
corner and a crutch without anowner, carefully preserved.
If these shadows remainunaltered by the future, the
child will die.
No, no, said Scrooge, oh no.
Kind spirit say he will bespared If these shadows remain

(01:44:22):
unaltered by the future.
None other of my race returned.
The ghost will find him here.
What then?
If he be like to die, he hadbetter do it and decrease the
surplus population.
Scrooge hung his head to hearhis own words quoted by the
spirit and was overcome withpenitence and grief.

(01:44:43):
Man, said the ghost, if, man,you be in heart not adamant,
forbear that wicked cat untilyou have discovered what the
surplus is and where it is, willyou decide what men shall live,
what men shall die.
It may be that in the sight ofheaven you are more worthless

(01:45:03):
and less fit to live thanmillions like this poor man's
child.
Oh God till hear the insect onthe leaf pronouncing on the too
much life among his hungrybrothers in the dust, scrooge
bent before the ghost's rebukeand, trembling, cast his eyes
upon the ground, but he raisedthem speedily on hearing his own

(01:45:24):
name.
Mr Scrooge said Bob, I'll giveyou, 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 mindto feast upon and I hope he'd
have a good appetite for it.
My dear, said Bob, the children.

(01:45:45):
Christmas day it should beChristmas day, I am sure, said
she, on which one drinks thehealth of such an odious, stingy
, hard, unfeeling man as MrScrooge.
You know he is Robert.
Nobody knows it better than youdo.
Poor fellow my dear, was Bob'smild answer.
Merry Christmas day All.

(01:46:07):
Drink his health for your sakeand the days, said Mrs Cratchit,
not for his Long life.
To him a merry Christmas and ahappy New Year.
He'll be very merry and veryhappy, I have no doubt the
children drank the toast afterher.
It was the first of theirproceedings which had no
hardiness.
Tiny Tim drank it last of all,but he didn't care too pence for

(01:46:29):
it.
Scrooge was the ogre of thefamily.
The mention of his name cast adark shadow on the party, which
was not dispelled for full fiveminutes After it had passed away
.
They were ten times merrierthan before from the mere relief
of Scrooge.
The Baleful being done with.
Bob Cratchit told them how hehad a situation in his eye for

(01:46:51):
Master Peter which would bringin, if obtained, full, five and
six pence weekly.
The two young Cratchits laughedtremendously at the idea of
Peter's being a man of business,and Peter himself looked
thoughtfully at the fire frombetween his collars, as if he
were deliberating whatparticular investments he should
favor.
When he came into the receiptof that bewildering income,

(01:47:15):
martha, who was a poorapprentice at a milliner's, then
told them what kind of work shehad to do and how many hours
she worked at a stretch, and howshe meant to lie a bed tomorrow
morning for a good long resttomorrow being a holiday she
passed at home.
Also how she had seen acountess and a lord some days
before, and how the lord wasmuch about as tall as Peter, at

(01:47:38):
which Peter pulled up hiscollars so high that you
couldn't have seen his head ifyou had been there.
All this time.
The chestnuts and the jug wentround and round, and by and by
they had a song about a lostchild traveling in the snow from
Tiny Tim, who had a plaintivelittle voice and sang it very
well indeed.
There was nothing of high markin this.

(01:48:01):
They were not a handsome family, they were not well dressed,
their shoes were far from beingwaterproof, their clothes were
scanty and Peter might haveknown, and very likely did, the
inside of a pawnbrokers.
But they were happy, grateful,pleased with one another and
contented with the time and whenthey faded and looked happier

(01:48:22):
yet in the bright sprinklings ofthe spirit's torch at parting.
Scrooge had his eye upon them,and especially on Tiny Tim,
until the last.
By this time it was getting darkand snowing pretty heavily, and
as Scrooge and the spirit wentalong the streets, the
brightness of the roaring firesand kitchens, parlors and all
sorts of rooms was wonderful.

(01:48:44):
Here the flickering of theblaze showed preparations for a
cozy dinner with hot platesbaking through and through
before the fire and deep redcurtains ready to be drawn to
shut out cold and darkness.
There all the children of thehouse were running out into the
snow to meet their marriedsisters, brothers, cousins,
uncles, aunts, and be the firstto greet them.

(01:49:06):
Here again were shadows on thewindow, blind of guests'
assembling, and there a group ofhandsome girls, all hooded and
fur booted and all chattering atonce, tripped lightly off to
some near neighbor's house where, woe upon the single man who
saw them enter artful witches.
Well, they knew it in a glow.
But if you had judged from thenumbers of people on their way

(01:49:29):
to friendly gatherings, youmight have thought that no one
was at home to give them welcomewhen they got there, instead of
every house expecting companyand piling up its fires.
Half chimney high Stands on it.
How the ghost exalted.
How it bared its breadth ofbreast and opened its capacious
palm and floated on, outpouringwith a generous hand its bright

(01:49:52):
and harmless mirth on everythingwithin its reach.
The very lamp-lighter who ranon before dotting the dusky
street with specks of light, andwho was dressed to spend the
evening somewhere, laughed outloudly as the spirit passed,
though little can thelamp-lighter that he had any
company but Christmas.
And now, without a word ofwarning from the ghost, they

(01:50:14):
stood upon a bleak and desertmoor where monstrous masses of
rude stone were cast about asthough it were the burial place
of giants, and water spreaditself wheresoever it listed or
would have done so but for thefrost that held its prisoner,
and nothing grew but moss andfurs and coarse-ranked grass.

(01:50:34):
Down in the west, the settingsun had left a streak of fiery
red which glared upon thedesolation for an instant like a
sullen eye and frowning lower,lower, lower, yet was lost in
the thick gloom of darkest night.
"'what place is this' askedScrooge.
"'a place where miners live wholabor in the bowels of the

(01:50:57):
earth', returned the spirit.
"'but they know me, see' Alight shone from the window of a
hut and swiftly they advancedtowards it, going through the
wall of mud and stone, theyfound a cheerful company
assembled round a glowing fire,an old old man and woman with
their children and theirchildren's children and another

(01:51:18):
generation beyond that, alldecked out brightly in their
holiday attire.
The old man, in a voice thatseldom rose above the howling of
the wind upon the barren waste,was singing them a Christmas
song.
It had been a very old songwhen he was a boy, and from time
to time they all joined in thechorus.
So surely as they raised theirvoices the old man got quite

(01:51:43):
blithe and loud, and so surelyas they stopped his vigor sank
again.
The spirit did not tarry here,but Bade Scrooge hold his robe
and, passing on above the moor,sped wither not to see, to see,
to Scrooge's horror.
Looking back, he saw the lastof the land, a frightful range
of rocks behind them, and hisears were deafened by the

(01:52:06):
thundering of water as it rolledand roared and raged among the
dreadful caverns it had worn andfiercely tried to undermine the
earth Built upon a dismal reefof sunken rocks, some league or
so from shore, on which thewaters chafed and dashed the
wild year through.
There stood a solitarylighthouse, great heaps of

(01:52:29):
seaweed clung to its base andstorm birds born of the wind,
one might suppose, as seaweed ofthe water rose and fell about
it like the waves they skimmed.
But even here, two men whowatched the light had made a
fire that, through the loopholeand the thick stone wall, shed
out a ray of brightness on theawful sea.

(01:52:51):
Joining their hands over therough table at which they sat,
they wished each other MerryChristmas in their can of grog,
and one of them, the elder twowith his face, all damaged and
scarred with hard weather as thefigurehead of an old ship might
be, struck up a sturdy songthat was like a gale in itself.

(01:53:12):
Again, the ghosts sped on abovethe black and heaving sea, on on
, until being far away, as hetold Scrooge, from any shore.
They lighted on a ship.
They stood outside, thehelmsman at the wheel, the
lookout in the bow, the officerswho had the watch, dark,
ghostly figures in their severalstations, but every man among

(01:53:34):
them hummed a Christmas tune orhad a Christmas thought, or
spoke below his breath to hiscompanion of some bygone
Christmas day with homeworkhopes belonging to it, and every
man on board waking or sleeping, good or bad had had a kinder
word for another on that daythan on any other day in the
year and had shared to someextent in its festivities and

(01:53:58):
had remembered those he caredfor at a distance and had known
that they delighted to rememberhim.
It was a great surprise toScrooge while listening to the
moaning of the wind and thinkingwhat a solemn thing it was to
move on through the lonelydarkness over an unknown abyss
whose depths were secrets asprofound as death.

(01:54:18):
It was a great surprise toScrooge, while thus engaged, to
hear a hearty laugh.
It was a much greater surpriseto Scrooge to recognize it as
his own nephews and to findhimself in a bright, dry,
gleaming room with the spiritstanding smiling by his side and
looking at that same nephewwith approving affability.
Ha-ha, laughed Scrooge's nephew, ha-ha-ha.

(01:54:41):
If you should happen, by anyunlikely chance, to know a man
more blessed in a laugh thanScrooge's nephew, all I can say
is I should like to know him too.
Introduce him to me and I'llcultivate his acquaintance.
It is a fair, even-handed,noble adjustment of things that,
while there is infection anddisease and sorrow, there is

(01:55:03):
nothing in the world soirresistibly contagious as
laughter and good humor.
When Scrooge's nephew laughed inthis way, holding his sides,
rolling his head and twistinghis face into the most
extravagant contortions,scrooge's niece, by marriage,
laughed as heartily as he, andtheir assembled friends, being
not a bit behind hand, roaredout Ha-ha, ha-ha-ha.

(01:55:26):
He said that Christmas was ahumbug as I live, cried
Scrooge's nephew.
He believed it too.
Or shame for him.
Fred, said Scrooge's nieceindignantly.
Bless those women.
They never do anything byhalves, they are always in
earnest.
She was very pretty,exceedingly pretty, with a

(01:55:49):
dimpled, surprised-lookingcapital face, a ripe little
mouth that seemed made to bekissed, as no doubt it was all
kinds of good little dots abouther chin that melted into one
another when she laughed, andthe sunniest pair of eyes you
ever saw in any littlecreature's head.
All together she was what youwould have called provoking, you

(01:56:11):
know, but satisfactory too, oh,perfectly satisfactory.
He's a comical old fellow, saidScrooge's nephew.
That's the truth, and not sopleasant as he might be, however
, his offenses carry their ownpunishment and I have nothing to
say against him.
I'm sure he's very rich, fred,hinted Scrooge's niece.

(01:56:31):
At least you always tell me.
So what of that, my dear, saidScrooge's nephew?
His wealth is of no use to him.
He doesn't do any good with it.
He don't make himselfcomfortable with it.
He hasn't the satisfaction ofthinking, ha-ha-ha, that he's
ever going to benefit us with it.
I have no patience with him,observed Scrooge's niece,

(01:56:52):
scrooge's niece's sisters andall the other ladies expressed
the same opinion.
Oh, I have said Scrooge'snephew, I am sorry for him.
I couldn't be angry with him ifI tried.
Who suffers by his ill whims?
Himself?
Always here, he takes it intohis head to dislike us and he
won't come and dine with us.
What's the consequence?

(01:57:14):
He don't lose much of a dinner.
Indeed, I think he loses a verygood dinner, interrupted
Scrooge's niece.
Everyone else said the same, andthey must be allowed to have
been competent judges, becausethey had just had dinner and,
with the dessert upon the table,were clustered around the fire
by lamp light.
Well, I'm very glad to hear it,said Scrooge's nephew, because

(01:57:36):
I haven't great faith in theseyoung housekeepers.
What do you say, topper?
Topper had clearly got his eyeupon one of Scrooge's niece's
sisters, for he answered that abachelor was a wretched outcast
who had no right to express anopinion on the subject.
Where, at Scrooge's niece'ssister, the plump one with the
lace tucker, not the one withthe roses blushed.

(01:57:58):
Do go on, fred, said Scrooge'sniece, clapping her hands.
He never finishes what hebegins to say.
He's such a ridiculous.
Fellow Scrooge's nephew reveledin another laugh, and as it was
impossible to keep the infectionoff, though, the plump sister
tried hard to do it witharomatic vinegar, his example
was unanimously followed.

(01:58:18):
I was only going to say, saidScrooge's nephew, that the
consequence of his taking adislike to us and not making
merry with us is, as I think,that he loses some pleasant
moments which could do him noharm.
I'm sure he loses pleasantercompanions than he can find in
his own thoughts, either in hismoldy old office or his dusty

(01:58:40):
chambers.
I mean to give him that samechance every year, whether he
likes it or not, for I pity him.
I rail at Christmas till hedies, but he can't help thinking
better of it.
I defy him If he finds me goingthere in good temper year after
year and saying Uncle Scrooge,how are you If it only puts him
in the vein to leave his poorclerk fifty pounds?

(01:59:02):
That's something, and I think Ishook him yesterday.
It was their turn to laugh nowat the notion of his shaking
Scrooge, but being thoroughlygood-natured and not caring much
of what they laughed at, sothat they laughed at any rate he
encouraged them in theirmerry-ment and they passed the
bottle joyously.
After tea they had some music,for they were a musical family

(01:59:25):
and knew what they were aboutwhen they sung aglee or catch, I
can assure you, especiallytopper, who could growl away in
a bass like a good one and neverswell the veins in his forehead
or get red in the face over it.
Scrooge's niece played wellupon the harp and played, among
other tunes, a simple littleprayer, a mere nothing.
You might learn to whistle itin two minutes, which had been

(01:59:48):
familiar to the child whofetched Scrooge from the
boarding school as he had beenreminded by the ghost of
Christmas past.
When this strain of musicsounded, all the things that
ghost had shown him came uponhis mind.
He softened more and more andthought that if he could have
listened to it often years agohe might have cultivated the

(02:00:08):
kindnesses of life for his ownhappiness with his own hands,
without resorting to the spade.
That varied Jacob Marley.
But they didn't devote thewhole evening to music.
After a while they played atfour fits, where it is good to
be children sometimes, and neverbetter than at Christmas, when
its mighty founder was a childhimself.

(02:00:28):
Stop, there was first a game atBlind Man's Buff.
Of course there was, and I nomore believe Topper was really
blind than I believe he had eyesin his boots.
My opinion is that it was donething between him and Scrooge's
nephew, and that the ghost ofChristmas present knew it.
The way he went after the plumpsister in the lace tucker was an

(02:00:50):
outrage on the credulity ofhuman nature Knocking down the
fire irons, tumbling over thechairs, bumping against the
piano, smothering himself amongthe curtains.
Wherever she went, there wenthe.
He always knew where the plumpsister was.
He wouldn't catch anyone else.
If you had fallen up againsthim, as some of them did on

(02:01:11):
purpose, he would have made afaint of endeavoring to seize
you, which would have been anaffront to your understanding,
and would instantly have cycledoff in the direction of the
plump sister.
She often cried out that itwasn't fair, and it really was
not.
But when at last he caught her,when, in spite of all her
silken rustlings and her rapidfluttering past him, he got her

(02:01:33):
into a corner, whence there wasno escape, then his conduct was
the most excruble, for hispretending not to know her, his
pretending that it was necessaryto touch her headdress and
further to assure himself of heridentity by pressing a certain
ring upon her finger and acertain chain about her neck,
was vile, monstrous.
No doubt she told him heropinion of it when, another

(02:01:57):
blind man being in office, theywere so very confidential
together behind the curtains.
Scrooge's niece was not one ofthe blind man's buff party but
was made comfortable with alarge chair and a footstool in a
snug corner where the ghost andScrooge were close behind her.
But she joined in the forfeitsand loved her love to admiration
with all the letters of thealphabet.

(02:02:18):
Likewise, at the game of how,when and where, she was very
great and, to the secret joy ofScrooge's nephew, beat her
sister's hollow, though theywere sharp girls too, as Topper
could have told you.
There might have been twentypeople there, young and old, but
they all played, and so didScrooge, for, wholly forgetting,
in the interest he had in whatwas going on, that his voice

(02:02:40):
made no sound in their ears.
He sometimes came out with hisguests quite loud and very often
guest quite right too, for thesharpest needle best white
chapel warranted not to cut inthe eye was not sharper than
Scrooge, blunt as he took it inhis head to be.
The ghost was greatly pleasedto find him in this mood and

(02:03:01):
looked upon him with such favorthat he begged, like a boy, to
be allowed to stay until theguest departed.
But this, the spirit said,could not be done.
Here's a new game, said Scrooge.
One half hour, spirit only one.
It was a game called yes and no, where Scrooge's nephew had to
think of something and the restmust find out what.
He only answering theirquestions yes or no, as the case

(02:03:23):
was.
The brisk fire of questioningto which he was exposed elicited
from him that he was thinkingof an animal, a live animal,
another, a disagreeable animal,a savage animal, an animal that
growled and grunted sometimesand talked sometimes and lived
in London and walked about thestreets and wasn't made a show
of and wasn't led by anyone anddidn't live in a menagerie and

(02:03:47):
was never killed in a market andwas not a horse or a donkey or
a cow or a bull or a tiger or adog or a pig or a cat or a bear.
Had every fresh question thatwas put to him.
This nephew burst into a freshroar of laughter and was so
inexpressibly tickled that hewas obliged to get up off the

(02:04:08):
sofa and stamp.
At last.
The plump sister, falling intoa similar state, cried out I
have found out what it is.
I know what it is, fred.
I know what it is.
What is it?
Cried Fred.
It's your uncle Scrooge, whichit certainly was.
Question was the universalsentiment, though some objected

(02:04:29):
that the reply to is it a bearought to have been yes, in as
much as an answer to thenegative was sufficient to have
diverted their thoughts for MrScrooge, supposing they ever had
any tendency that way.
He has given us plenty ofmerriment, I am sure, said Fred,
and it would be ungrateful notto drink his health.
Here is a glass of Muld wineready to our hand at the moment,

(02:04:52):
and I say Uncle Scrooge.
Well, uncle Scrooge, they crieda 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 in perceptiblybecome so happy and light of

(02:05:12):
heart that he would have pledgedthe unconscious company in
return and thanked them in anunaudible speech, if the ghost
had given him time, for thewhole scene passed off in a
breath of the last word spokenby his nephew, and he and the
spirit were again upon theirtravels.
Much they saw and far they went, and many homes they visited,

(02:05:33):
but always with a happy end.
The spirit stood beside sickbeds and they were cheerful on
foreign lands and they wereclose at home by struggling men
and they were patient in theirgreater hope by poverty.
And it was rich In AlmshouseHospital, in jail, in Misery's,
every Refuge where vain man inhis little brief authority had

(02:05:54):
not made fast the door andbarred the spirit out.
He left his blessing and taughtScrooge his precepts.
It was a long night, if it wereonly a night.
But Scrooge had his doubts ofthis because the Christmas
holidays appeared to becondensed into the space of time
they passed together.
It was strange too that whileScrooge remained unaltered in

(02:06:15):
his outward form, the ghost grewolder, clearly older.
Scrooge had observed thischange but never spoke of it
until they left a children'stwelfth night party.
When, looking at the spirit asthey stood together in an open
place, he noticed that its hairwas gray.
Our spirit's lives so short,asked Scrooge.
My life upon this globe is verybrief, replied the ghost.

(02:06:39):
It ends tonight.
Tonight, said Scrooge.
Tonight, at midnight hark, thetime is drawing near.
The chimes were ringing thethree quarters past eleven at
that moment.
Forgive me if I am notjustified in what I ask, said
Scrooge, looking intently at thespirit's robe.
But I see something strange andnot belonging to yourself

(02:07:02):
protruding from your skirts.
Is it a foot or a claw?
It might be a claw, for all theflesh that is upon it, was the
spirit's sorrowful reply.
Look here.
From the foldings of its robe itbrought two children, wretched,
abject, frightful, hideous,miserable.
They knelt down at its feet andclung upon the outside of its

(02:07:24):
garment.
Oh man, look here, look, lookdown here, exclaimed the ghost.
They were a boy and girl,yellow, meager, ragged, scowling
wolfish, but prostrate too intheir humility.
Where graceful youth shouldhave filled their features out
and touched them with itsfreshest tints, a stale and

(02:07:46):
triveled hand, like that of age,had pinched and twisted them
and pulled them into shreds.
Where angels might have satenthroned, devils lurked and
glared out, menacing.
No change, no degradation, noperversion of humanity in any
grade.
Through all the mysteries ofwonderful creation has monsters
half so horrible and dread.

(02:08:08):
Scrooge started back, appalledHaving them shown to him in this
way.
He tried to say they were finechildren, but the words choked
themselves.
Rather than be parties to a lieof such enormous magnitude,
spirit, are they yours?
Scrooge could say no more.
They are man's, said the spirit, looking down upon them, and

(02:08:29):
they cling to me, appealing fromtheir fathers.
This boy is ignorance, thisgirl is want.
Beware them both and all oftheir degree, but most of all
beware this boy, for on his browI see that written which is
doom unless the writing beerased.
Deny it, cried the spirit,stretching out its hand towards

(02:08:50):
the city.
Slander those who tell it Eadmit it for your own facetious
purposes and make it worse andbide the end.
Have they no refuge or resource, cried Scrooge.
Are there no prisons, said thespirit, turning on him for the
last time with his own words.
Are there no workhouses?
The bell struck twelve.

(02:09:12):
Scrooge looked about him forthe ghost and saw it not.
As the last stroke ceased tovibrate, he remembered the
prediction of old Jacob Marleyand, lifting up his eyes, beheld
a solemn phantom, draped andhooded, coming like a mist along
the ground towards him.
Live for the last of thespirits.

(02:09:49):
The phantom slowly, gravely,silently, approached.
When it came near him, scroogebent down upon his knee, for in
the very air through which thisspirit moved, it seemed to
scatter gloom and misery.
It was shrouded in a deep blackgarment which concealed its
head, its face, its form, andleft nothing of it visible, save

(02:10:12):
one outstretched hand.
But for this it would have beendifficult to detach its figure
from the night and separate itfrom the darkness by which it
was surrounded.
He felt that it was tall andstately when it came beside him
and that its mysterious presencefilled him with solemn dread.
He knew no more, for the spiritneither spoke nor moved.

(02:10:34):
I am in the presence of theghost of Christmas yet to come,
said Scrooge.
The spirit answered not, butpointed onward with its hand.
You are about to show meshadows of things that have not
happened but will happen in thetime before us.
Scrooge pursued Is that so,spirit?
The upper portion of thegarment was contracted for an

(02:10:57):
instant in its folds, as if thespirit had inclined its head.
That was the only answer hereceived.
Although well used to ghostlycompany by this time, scrooge
feared the silent shape so muchthat his legs trembled beneath
him and he found that he couldhardly stand.
When he prepared to follow it,the spirit paused a moment as

(02:11:17):
observing his condition andgiving him time to recover.
But Scrooge was all the worsefor this.
It thrilled him with a vague,uncertain horror to know that
behind the dusky shroud therewere ghostly eyes intently fixed
upon him while he, though hestretched his own to the outmost
, could see nothing but aspectral hand and one great heap

(02:11:39):
of black Ghost of the future.
He exclaimed I fear you morethan any specter I have seen,
but as I know your purpose is todo me good and, as I hope, to
live to be another man from whatI was, I am prepared to bear
you company and do it with athankful heart.
Will you not speak to me?
It gave him no reply.

(02:12:01):
The hand was pointed straightbefore them.
Lead on, said Scrooge, lead on.
The night is waning fast and itis precious time to me.
I know.
Lead on spirit.
The phantom moved away as ithad come towards him.
Scrooge followed in the shadowof its dress, which bore him up.
He thought and carried himalong.

(02:12:22):
They scarcely seemed to enterthe city, for the city seemed
rather to spring up about themand encompass them of its own
act.
But there they were, in theheart of it, on change, amongst
the merchants who hurried up anddown and chinked the money in
their pockets and conversed ingroups and looked at their
watches and trifled thoughtfullywith their great gold seals and

(02:12:44):
so forth, as Scrooge had seenthem often.
The spirit stopped beside onelittle knot of businessmen,
observing that the hand waspointed to them.
Scrooge advanced to listen totheir talk.
No, said a great fat man with amonstrous chin.
I don't know much about iteither way, I only know he's
dead.
When did he die?

(02:13:05):
Inquired another Last night, Ibelieve.
Why?
What was the matter with him?
Asked a third, taking a vastquantity of snuff out of a very
large snuff box.
I thought he'd never die, godknows, said the first with a
yawn.
What has he done with his money?
Asked a red-faced gentlemanwith a pendulous excrements at

(02:13:27):
the end of his nose that shooklike the gills of a turkey cock.
I haven't heard, said the manwith 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 receivedwith a general laugh.
It's likely to be very cheapfuneral, said the same speaker,

(02:13:47):
for upon my life.
I don't know of anybody to goto it.
Suppose we make up a party andvolunteer.
I don't mind going if a lunchis provided, observed the
gentleman with the excrements onhis nose.
But I must be fed if I make oneanother laugh.
Well, I am the mostdisinterested among you, after
all, said the first speaker, forI never wear black gloves and I

(02:14:10):
never eat lunch.
But I'll offer to go if anybodyelse will.
When I come to think of it, I'mnot at all sure that I wasn't
his most particular friend, forwe used to stop and speak
whenever we met.
Bye-bye Speakers and listenersstrolled away and mixed with
other groups.
Scrooge knew the men and lookedtowards the spirit for an

(02:14:32):
explanation.
The phantom glided on into astreet.
Its finger pointed to twopersons meeting.
Scrooge listened again,thinking that the explanation
might lie here.
He knew these men alsoperfectly.
They were men of business, verywealthy and of great importance
.
He had made a point always ofstanding well in their esteem.

(02:14:52):
In a business point of view,that is, strictly in a business
point of view.
How are you, said one, how areyou returned the other?
Well said, the first Oldscratch has got his own at last.
Hey, so, I am told, returnedthe second Cold.
Isn't it Seasonable for aChristmas time?
You're not a skater, I suppose?

(02:15:12):
No, no, something else to thinkof?
Good morning, not another word.
That was their meeting, theirconversation and their parting.
Scrooge was at first inclined tobe surprised that the spirit
should attach importance toconversations apparently so
trivial, but feeling assuredthat they must have some hidden
purpose, he set himself toconsider what it was likely to

(02:15:35):
be.
They could scarcely be supposedto have any bearing on the
death of Jacob, his old partner,for that was past and this
ghost's province was the future.
Nor could he think of anyoneimmediately connected with
himself to whom he could applythem, but nothing doubting that,
to whomsoever they applied,they had some latent moral.
For his own improvement, heresolved to treasure up every

(02:15:58):
word he heard and everything hesaw, and especially to observe
the shadow of himself when itappeared, for he had an
expectation that the conduct ofhis future self would give him
the clue he missed and wouldrender the solution of these
riddles easily.
He looked about in that veryplace for his own image, but

(02:16:18):
another man stood in hisaccustomed corner, and though
the clock pointed to his usualtime of day for being there.
He saw no likeness of himselfamong the multitudes that poured
in through the porch.
It gave him little surprise,however, for he had been
revolving in his mind a changeof life and thought and hoped he
saw his newborn resolutionscarried out in this Quiet and

(02:16:40):
dark.
Beside him stood the phantomwith its outstretched hand.
When he roused himself from histhoughtful quest, he fancied
from the turn of the hand andits situation and reference to
himself that the unseen eyeswere looking at him keenly.
It made him shudder and feelvery cold.
They left the busy scene andwent into an obscure part of the

(02:17:00):
town where Scrooge had neverpenetrated before, although he
recognized its situation and itsbad repute.
The ways were foul and narrow,the shops and houses wretched,
the people half naked, drunken,slip-shot ugly Allies in
archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offenses of

(02:17:22):
smell and dirt and life upon thestraggling streets, and the
whole quarter reeked with crime,with filth and misery.
Far in this den of infamousresort, there was a low-browed
beatling shop below a penthouseroof where iron, old rags,
bottles, bones and greasy ovalwere bought.
Upon the floor within werepiled up heaps of rusty keys,

(02:17:46):
nails, chains, hinges, files,scales, weights and refuse iron
of all kinds.
Secrets that few would like toscrutinize were bred and hidden
in mountains of unseemly bags,masses of corrupted fat and
sepulchres of bones.
Sitting in among the wares hedealt in by a charcoal stove

(02:18:06):
made of bricks was a gray-hairedrascal, nearly 70 years of age,
who had screened himself fromthe cold air without by a frowsy
curting of miscellaneoustatters, hung upon a line and he
smoked his pipe in all theluxury of calm retirement
Scrooge.
And the phantom came into thepresence of this man just as a

(02:18:27):
woman with a heavy bundle slunkinto the shop.
But she had scarcely enteredwhen another woman, similarly
laden, came in too, and she wasclosely followed by a man in
faded black who was no lessstartled by the sight of them
than they had been upon therecognition of each other.
After a short period of blankastonishment, in which the old

(02:18:48):
man with the pipe had joinedthem, they all three burst into
a laugh.
Let the charwoman alone be thefirst, cried she who had entered
first.
Let the laundress alone be thesecond and let the undertaker's
man alone be the third.
Look here, old Joe.
Here's a chance.
If we haven't all three heremet without meeting it.
You couldn't have met in abetter place, said old Joe,

(02:19:09):
removing his pipe from his mouth.
Come into the parlor.
You were made free of it longago, you know.
And the other two ain'tstrangers.
Stop till I shut the door ofthe shop.
Ah, how it screeks.
There ain't such a rusty bit ofmetal in the place as its own
hinges, I believe, and I'm surethere's no such old bones here

(02:19:29):
as mine.
Haha, we're all suitable to ourcalling.
We're well matched.
The parlor was a space behindthe screen of rags.
The old man raked the firetogether with an old sterrod and
, having trimmed his smoky lampfor it was night with the stem
of his pipe, put it in his mouthagain.

(02:19:50):
While he did this, the womanwho had already spoken threw her
bundle on the floor and satdown in a flaunting manner on a
stool, crossing her elbows onher knees and looking with a
bold defiance at the other two.
What odds, then?
What odds, mrs Dilberg, saidthe woman.
Every person has a right totake care of themselves.

(02:20:11):
He always did.
That's true, indeed, said thelaundress.
No man more so.
Why then Don't stand staring asif you were afraid, woman.
Who's the wiser?
We're not going to pick holesin each other's coats.
I suppose no, indeed, said MrsDilberg and the man together.
We should hope not.
Very well then, cried the woman.
That's enough.

(02:20:32):
Who's the worse for a loss of afew things like these?
Not a dead man?
I suppose no, indeed, said MrsDilberg, laughing, if he wanted
to keep him after he was dead.
A wicked old screw, pursued thewoman.
Why wasn't he unnatural in hislifetime?
If he had been, he would havehad someone to look after him
when he was struck with death,instead of lying gasping out his

(02:20:54):
last there alone by himself.
It's the truest word that everwas.
Spoke, said Mrs Dilberg.
It's a judgment on him.
I wish it was a little heavierjudgment, replied the woman.
And it should have been.
You may depend upon it if Icould have laid my hands on
anything else.
Open that bundle, old Joe, andlet me know the value of it.

(02:21:15):
Speak out plain.
I am not afraid to be the first, nor afraid for them to see it.
We know pretty well that wewere helping ourselves before we
met here.
I believe it's no sin.
Open the bundle, joe, but thegallant-reaver friends would not
allow of this.
And the man in faded blackmounting.
The breach first produced hisplunder.

(02:21:35):
It was not extensive A seal ortwo, a pencil case, a pair of
sleeve buttons and a brooch ofno great value were all.
They were severally examinedand appraised by old Joe, who
chalked the sums he was disposedto give for each upon the wall
and added them up into a totalwhen he found there was nothing
more to come.
That's your account, said Joe,and I wouldn't give another six

(02:21:58):
pence if I was to be boiled fornot doing it.
Who's next?
Mrs Dilberg was next.
Sheets and towels, alittle-wearing apparel, two
old-fashioned silver teaspoons,a pair of sugar tongs and a few
boots.
Her account was stated on thewall in the same manner I always
give too much to ladies.
It's a weakness of mine andthat's the way I ruin myself,

(02:22:21):
said old Joe.
That's your account.
If you asked me for anotherpenny and made it an open
question, I'd repent of being soliberal and knock off half a
crown and now undo my bundle,joe, said the first woman.
Joe went down on his knees forthe greater convenience of
opening it and, havingunfastened a great many knots,
dragged out a large and heavyroll of some dark stuff.

(02:22:43):
What do you call this?
Said Joe.
Bed curtains, ah, returned thewoman, laughing and leaning
toward on her crossed arms.
Bed curtains, you don't mean tosay you took him down rings in
awe with him lying there, saidJoe.
Yes, I do, replied the woman.
Why not?
You were born to make yourfortune, said Joe, and you'll

(02:23:04):
certainly do it.
I certainly shan't hold my handwhen I can get anything in it
by reaching it out for the sakeof a man as he was.
I promise you, joe, said thewoman coolly, don't drop that
oil upon the blankets now Hisblankets, asked Joe.
Who else do you think, repliedthe woman, he isn't likely to

(02:23:24):
take cold without him, I daresayI hope he didn't die of
anything catching.
Eh, said old Joe, stopping inhis work and looking up.
Don't you be afraid of that?
Returned the woman.
I ain't so fond of his companythat I'd loiter about him for
such things if he did.
Ah, you may look through thatshirt till your eyes ache, but

(02:23:44):
you won't find a hole in it, nora threadbare place.
It's the best he had, and afine one too.
They'd have wasted it if ithadn't been for me.
What do you call wasting of it,asked old Joe, putting it on
him to be buried in, to be sure,replied the woman with a laugh.
He was fool enough to do it,but I took it off again.
If Calico ain't good enough forsuch a purpose, it isn't good

(02:24:07):
enough for anything.
It's quite as becoming to thebody.
He can't look uglier than hedid in that.
One Scrooge listened to thisdialogue in horror.
As they sat grouped about theirspoil in the scanty light
afforded by the old man's lab,he viewed them with a
detestation and disgust whichcould hardly have been greater,

(02:24:28):
though they had been obscenedemons marketing the corpse
itself.
Ha-ha, laughed the same womanwhen 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 awayfrom him when he was alive, to
profit us when he was dead.
Ha-ha-ha Spirit, said Scrooge,shuddering from head to foot.

(02:24:51):
I see, I see.
The case of this unhappy manmight be my own.
My life tends that way.
Now, merciful heaven, what isthis?
He recoiled in terror, for thescene had changed, and now he
almost touched a bed, a bare,uncurtained bed, on which,
beneath a ragged sheet, therelay a something covered up which

(02:25:13):
, though it was dumb, announceditself in awful language.
The room was very dark, toodark to be observed with any
accuracy, Though Scrooge glancedround it in obedience to the
secret impulse, anxious to knowwhat kind of room it was.
A pale light rising in theouter air fell straight upon the
bed and on it, plundered andbereft, unwatched, unswept,

(02:25:37):
uncared for, was the body ofthis man.
Scrooge glanced towards thephantom.
Its steady hand was pointed tothe head.
The cover was so carelesslyadjusted that the slightest
raising of it, the motion of afinger upon Scrooge's part,
would have disclosed the face.
He thought of it, felt how easyit would be to do and longed to

(02:25:59):
do it, but he had no more powerto withdraw the veil than to
dismiss the specter at his side.
O cold, cold, rigid, dreadfuldeath, set up thine altar here
and dress it with such terrorsas thou hast at thy command, for
this is thy dominion.
But of the loved, revered andhonored head, thou canst not

(02:26:23):
turn one hair to thy dreadpurposes or make one feature
odious.
It is not that the hand isheavy and will fall down when
raised.
It is not that the heart andpulse are still, but that the
hand was open, generous and true, the heart brave, warm and
tender and the pulse of man'sLike shadow strike and see his

(02:26:46):
good deeds springing from thewound to sow the world with life
and mortal.
No voice pronounced these wordsin Scrooge's ears, and yet he
heard them.
When he looked upon the bed, hethought if this man could be
raised up now, what would be hisforemost thoughts?
Averus, hard-dealing, gripingcares.
They have brought him to a richend, truly.

(02:27:09):
He lay in the dark, empty housewith not a man, a woman or a
child to say that he was kind tome in this or that, and for the
memory of one kind word, I willbe kind to him.
A cat was tearing at the doorand there was a sound of gnawing
rats beneath the hearthstone.
What they wanted in the room ofdeath and why they were so

(02:27:33):
restless and disturbed.
Scrooge did not dare to think.
Spirit, he said, this is afearful place.
In leaving it, I shall notleave its lesson.
Trust me, let us go Still.
The ghost pointed with anunmoved finger to the head.
I understand you, scroogereturned, and I would do it if I
could, but I have not the power, spirit, I have not the power.

(02:27:56):
Again, it seemed to look uponhim.
If there is any person in thetown who feels emotion caused by
this man's death, said Scrooge,quite agonized, show that
person to me, spirit, I beseechyou.
The phantom spread its dark robebefore him for a moment, like a
wing, and withdrawing itrevealed a room by daylight,

(02:28:16):
where a mother and her childrenwere.
She was expecting someone, andwith anxious eagerness, for she
walked up and down the room,started at every sound, looked
out from the window, glanced atthe clock, tried, but in vain,
to work with her needle andcould hardly bear the voices of
the children in their play.
At length, the long-expectedknock was heard.

(02:28:38):
She hurried to the door and mether husband, a man whose face
was care-worn and depressed.
Though he was young, there wasa remarkable expression in it
now, a kind of serious delightof which he felt ashamed and
which he struggled to repress.
He sat down to the dinner thathad been hoarding for him by the
fire, and when she asked himfaintly what news which was not

(02:29:02):
until after a long silence heappeared embarrassed.
How to answer?
Is it good, she said, or bad?
To help him.
Bad, he answered we are quiteruined.
No, there is hope yet, caroline, if he relents, she said,
amazed, there is Nothing is pasthope if such a miracle has

(02:29:23):
happened.
He's past relenting, said herhusband.
He is dead.
She was a mild and patientcreature if her face spoke truth
, but she was thankful in hersoul to hear it and she said so
with clasped hands.
She prayed forgiveness the nextmoment and was sorry, but the
first was the emotion of herheart.
What the half-drunken womanwhom I told you of last night

(02:29:45):
said to me when I tried to seehim and obtain a week's delay,
and what I thought was a mereexcuse to avoid me, turns out to
have been quite true he was notonly very ill but dying.
Then To whom will I debt betransferred?
I don't know.
But before that time we shallbe ready with the money.
And even though we were not, itwould be a bad fortune indeed

(02:30:07):
to find so mercilessly acreditor in his successor.
We may sleep tonight with lighthearts, caroline.
Yes, softened as they would.
Their hearts were lighter, thechildren's faces hushed and
clustered round to hear whatthey so little understood were
brighter, and it was a happierhouse for this man's death.
The only emotion that the ghostcould show him, caused by the

(02:30:31):
event was one of pleasure.
Let me see some tendernessconnected with a death, said
Scrooge, or that dark chamberspirit which we left just now,
will forever be present to me.
The ghost conducted him throughseveral streets familiar to his
feet and as they went along,scrooge looked here and there to
find himself, but nowhere washe to be seen.

(02:30:54):
They entered poor Bob Cratchit'shouse, the dwelling he had
visited before, and found themother and the children seated
round the fire, quiet, veryquiet.
The noisy little Cratchits werestill as statues in one corner
and sat looking up at Peter whohad a book before him.
The mother and her daughterswere engaged in sewing, but

(02:31:17):
surely they were very quiet, andhe took a child and set him in
the midst of them.
Where had Scrooge heard thesewords?
He had not dreamed them.
The boy must have read them outas he and the spirit crossed
the threshold.
Why did he not go on?
The mother laid her work on thetable and put her hand up to her

(02:31:37):
face.
The color hurts my eyes, shesaid.
The color, ah, poor tiny Tim.
They're better now again, saidCratchit's wife.
It makes them weak bycandlelight.
And I wouldn't show weak eyesto your father when he comes
home for the world it must benear his time Past it rather.
Peter answered shutting up hisbook.

(02:31:59):
But I think he has walked alittle slower than he used these
few.
Last evening's mother they werevery quiet again At last she
said in a steady, cheerful voicethat only faltered once.
I have known him to walk withtiny Tim upon his shoulder very
fast indeed, and so have I cried, peter, often, and so have I

(02:32:23):
exclaimed another so had all.
But he was very light to carry.
She resumed, intent upon herwork, and his father loved him
so that it was no trouble.
No trouble, and there is yourfather at the door.
She hurried out to meet him andlittle Bob in his comforter.
He had need of it.
Poor fellow came in, his tea wasready for him on the hob and

(02:32:47):
they all tried.
Who should help him to it themost?
Then the two young Cratchitsgot upon his knees and laid each
child a little cheek againsthis face, as if they said don't
mind it, father, don't begrieved.
Bob was very cheerful with himand spoke pleasantly to all the
family.
He looked at the work upon thetable and praised the industry

(02:33:08):
and speed of Mrs Cratchit andthe girls.
They would be done long beforeSunday.
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 tosee how green the place is.
But you'll see it often.
I promised that I would walkthere on a Sunday.
My little child, my littlechild cried Bob, my little child

(02:33:32):
.
He broke down all at once.
He couldn't help it.
If he could have helped it, heand his child would have been
further apart perhaps than theywere.
He left the room and wentupstairs into the room above,
which was lighted cheerfully andhung with Christmas.
There was a chair set closebeside the child and there were
signs of someone having beenthere lately.

(02:33:54):
Poor Bob sat down in it andwhen he had thought a little and
composed himself he kissed thelittle face.
He was reconciled to what hadhappened and went down again
quite happy.
They drew about the fire andtalked, the girls and mother
working still.
Bob told them of theextraordinary kindness of Mr
Scrooge's nephew, whom he hadscarcely seen but once and who,

(02:34:18):
meeting him in the street thatday and seeing that he looked a
little, just a little, down, youknow, said Bob, and inquired
what had happened to distresshim On which, said Bob, for he
is the pleasantest spokengentleman you ever heard.
I told him I am heartily sorryfor it, mr Cratchit.
He said and heartily sorry foryour good wife, by the by how he

(02:34:41):
ever knew that I don't know.
Knew what my dear, why that youwere a good wife, replied Bob.
Everybody knows that, saidPeter.
Very well observed my boy,cried Bob, I hope they do.
Heartily sorry, he said, foryour good wife, if I can be of
service to you in any way.
He said, giving me his card.

(02:35:01):
That's where I live.
Pray, come to me Now.
It wasn't, cried Bob, for thesake of anything he might be
able to do for us, so much asfor his kind way that this was
quite delightful.
It really seemed as if he hadknown our tiny Tim and felt with
us.
I'm sure he's a good soul, saidMrs Cratchit, you would be sure

(02:35:23):
of it.
My dear returned Bob, if yousaw and spoke to him, I
shouldn't be at all surprised.
Mark what I say if he got Petera better situation.
Only hear that Peter, said MrsCratchit, and then cried one of
the girls, peter will be keepingcompany with someone and
setting up for himself.
Get along with you, retortedPeter grinning.

(02:35:45):
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 weshall part for one another, I am
sure we shall none of us forgetpoor tiny Tim, shall we, or
this first parting that therewas among us.
Never, father, cried they all.
And I know, said Bob, I know,my dears, that when we recollect

(02:36:10):
how patient and how mild he wasalthough he was a little little
child, we shall not quarreleasily among ourselves and
forget poor tiny Tim.
And doing it.
No, never, father.
They all cried again.
I am very happy, said littleBob, I am very happy.
Mrs Cratchit kissed him, hisdaughters kissed him, the two

(02:36:33):
young Cratchits kissed him, andPeter and himself shook hands.
Spirit of tiny Tim, thychildless essence was from God.
Spectre said Scrooge.
Something informs me that ourparting moment is at hand.
I know it, but I know not how.
Tell me what man that was whomwe saw lying dead.
The ghost of Christmas yet tocome conveyed him as before,

(02:36:57):
though at a different time.
He thought, indeed, thereseemed to no order in these
latter visions, save that theywere in the future into the
resorts of businessmen, butshowed him not himself.
Indeed, the Spirit did not stayfor anything but went straight
on as to the end, just now,desired until be sought by

(02:37:17):
Scrooge to tarry for a moment.
This court said Scrooge, throughwhich we hurry now, is where my
place of occupation is and hasbeen for a length of time.
I see the house.
Let me behold what I shall bein days to come".
The Spirit stopped.
The hand was pointed elsewhere.
The house is yonder, scroogeexclaimed.

(02:37:38):
Why do you point away?
The inexorable finger underwentno change.
Scrooge hastened to the windowof his office and looked in.
It was an office still, but nothis.
The furniture was not the sameand 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

(02:37:59):
gone, accompanied it until theyreached an iron gate.
He paused to look round beforeentering A churchyard.
Here, then, the wretched manwhose name he had now to learn
lay underneath the ground.
It was a worthy place, walledin by houses, overrun by grass
and weeds, the growth ofvegetation's death, not life,

(02:38:23):
choked up with too much bearingfat, with repleted appetite.
A worthy place.
The Spirit stood among thegraves and pointed down to one.
He advanced towards ittrembling.
The phantom was exactly as ithad been, but he dreaded that he
saw new meaning in its solemnshape.

(02:38:43):
Before I draw nearer to thatstone to which he points, said
Scrooge, answer me one questionAre these the shadows of things
that will be, or are theyshadows of things that may be
only Still?
The ghost pointed downward tothe grave by which it stood.
Men's courses will foreshadowcertain ends to which, if

(02:39:04):
persevered in, they must lead,said Scrooge.
But if the courses be departedfrom, the ends will change.
Say it is thus with what youshow me, the Spirit was
immovable, as ever.
Scrooge crept towards it,trembling as he went and,
following the finger, read uponthe stone of the neglected grave
his own name Ebenezer Scrooge.

(02:39:25):
Am I that man who lay upon thebed?
He cried upon his knees.
The finger pointed from thegrave to him and back again.
No, spirit, oh, no, no, thefinger 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 musthave been, but for this

(02:39:48):
intercourse.
Why show me this if I am pastall hope For the first time the
hand appeared to shake.
Good Spirit he pursued as downupon the ground, he fell before
it.
Your nature intercedes for meand pities me.
Assure me that I yet may changethese shadows you have shown me
by an altered life.

(02:40:09):
The kind hand trembled.
I will honor Christmas in myheart and try to keep it all the
year.
I will live in the past, thepresent and the future.
The spirits of all three shallstrive within me.
I will not shut out the lessonsthat they teach.
Oh, tell me, I may sponge awaythe writing on this stone.

(02:40:31):
In his agony he caught thespectral hand.
It sought to free itself, buthe was strong in his entreaty
and detained it.
The spirit, stronger yet,repulsed him, holding up his
hands in a last prayer to havehis fate reversed.
He saw an alteration in thephantom's hood and dress.
It shrunk, collapsed anddwindled down into a bed post.

(02:40:55):
The bed was his own, the roomwas his own, best and happiest

(02:41:18):
of all, the time before him washis own to make amends in.
I will live in the past, thepresent and the future, scrooge
repeated as he scrambled out ofbed.
The spirits of all three shallstrive within me.
Oh, jacob Marley.
Heaven and the Christmas timebe praised for this.
I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees.

(02:41:42):
He was so fluttered and soglowing with his good intentions
that his broken voice wouldscarcely answer to his call.
He had been sobbing violentlyin his conflict with the spirit
and his face was wet with tears.
They are not torn down, criedScrooge, folding one of his bed
curtains in his arms.
They are not torn down.

(02:42:02):
Rings and all they are here.
I am here.
The shadows of the things thatwould have been may be dispelled
.
They will be, I know they willbe.
His hands were busy with hisgarments all this time, turning
them inside out, putting them onupside down, burying them,
mislaying them, making themparties to every kind of

(02:42:23):
extravagance.
I don't know what to do, criedScrooge, laughing and crying in
the same breath and making aperfect leo-kuin of himself with
his stockings.
I am as light as a feather.
I am as happy as an angel.
I am as merry as a schoolboy.
I am as giddy as a drunken man.
A merry Christmas to everybody.

(02:42:44):
A happy new year to all theworld.
Hello there, whoop.
Hello.
He had frisked into the sittingroom and was now standing there,
perfectly winded.
There is the saucepan that thegruel was in, cried Scrooge,
starting off again and goinground the fireplace.
There is the door by which theghost of Jacob Marley entered.
There is the corner where theghost of Christmas presents sat.

(02:43:06):
There is the window where I sawthe wandering spirits.
It's all true, it's all true,it all happened.
Ha ha ha.
Really, for a man who had beenout of practice for so many
years, it was a splendid laugh,a most illustrious laugh, the
father of a long, long line ofbrilliant laughs.

(02:43:26):
I don't know what day of themonth it is said, scrooge.
I don't know how long I've beenamong the spirits.
I don't know anything.
I'm quite a baby.
Never mind, I don't care, I'drather be a baby.
Hello, whoop, hello.
There.
He was checked in his transportsby the churches ringing out the
lustiest peals he had everheard Clash, clang, hammer, ding

(02:43:49):
, dong, bell, bell, ding, dong,hammer, clang, clash.
Oh, glorious, glorious.
Running to the window, heopened it and put out his head.
No fog, no mist, clear, bright,jovial, stirring, cold, cold
piping for the blood to dance toGolden sunlight, heavenly sky,

(02:44:12):
sweet, fresh air, merry bells.
Oh, glorious, glorious.
What's today?
Cried Scrooge, calling downwardto a boy in Sunday clothes who
perhaps had loitered in to lookupon him.
A returned the boy with all hismight of wonder.
What's today, my fine fellow?
Said Scrooge Today, replied theboy.

(02:44:34):
Why Christmas day.
It's Christmas day, saidScrooge to himself.
I haven't missed it.
The spirits must have done itall 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 polters in thenext street?
But one at the corner?
Scrooge, inquired.

(02:44:55):
I should hope I did, repliedthe lad, an intelligent boy,
said Scrooge, a remarkable boy.
Do you know whether they'vesold the prize turkey that was
hanging up there?
Not the little prize, turkey,the big one.
What the one.
As big as me?
Replied the boy.
What a delightful boy, saidScrooge, it's a pleasure to talk
to him.
Yes, my buck, it's hangingthere now, replied the boy.

(02:45:17):
Is it, said Scrooge, go and buyit, walk rrrr.
Replied the boy.
No, no, said Scrooge, I am inearnest.
Go and buy it and tell him tobring it here that I may give
them the direction where to takeit.
Come back with the man and I'llgive you a shilling.
Come back with him in less thanfive minutes and I'll give you
half a crown.

(02:45:39):
The boy was off like a shot.
He must have a steady hand at atrigger.
Who could have got a shot offhalf so fast?
I'll send it to Bob Cratchit,whispered Scrooge, rubbing his
hands and splitting with a laugh.
He shan't know who sends it.
It's twice the size of Tiny Tim.
Joe Miller never made such ajoke as sending it to Bob's Will
Bee.

(02:46:00):
The hand in which he wrote theaddress was not a steady one,
but right at, he did somehow andwent downstairs to open the
street door ready for the comingof the polterer's man.
As he stood there waiting hisarrival, the knocker caught his
eye.
I shall love it as long as Ilive, cried Scrooge, patting it
with his hand.
I scarcely ever looked at itbefore.

(02:46:20):
What an honest expression ithas in its face.
It's a wonderful knocker.
Here's the turkey.
Hello whoop, how are you, merryChristmas?
It was a turkey.
He never could have stood uponhis legs, that bird.
He would have snapped themshort off in a minute like
sticks of ceiling wax.
Why, it's impossible to carrythat to Camden Town, said

(02:46:42):
Scrooge.
You must have a cab.
The chuckle with which he saidthis and the chuckle with which
he paid for the turkey and thechuckle with which he paid for
the cab and the chuckle withwhich he recompensed the boy
were only to be exceeded by thechuckle with which he sat down
breathless in his chair againand chuckled till he cried.
Shaving was not an easy task,for his hand continued to shake

(02:47:05):
very much and shaving requiresattention, even when you don't
dance while you're at it.
But if he had to cut the end ofhis nose off, he would have put
a piece of sticking plasterover it and had been quite
satisfied.
He dressed himself all in hisbest and at last got out into
the streets.
The people were by this timepouring forth, as he had seen

(02:47:26):
them do, with the Ghost ofChristmas present and walking
with his hands behind him.
Scrooge regarded everyone witha delighted smile.
He looked so irresistiblypleasant in a word, that three
or four good-humored fellowssaid Good morning, sir, a merry
Christmas to you.
And Scrooge said oftenafterwards that of all the
blithe sounds he had ever heard,those were the blithest in his

(02:47:49):
ears.
He had not gone far when,coming on towards him, he beheld
the portly gentleman who hadwalked into his counting-house
the day before and said Scroogeand Marley's.
I believe it sent a pang acrosshis heart to think how this old
gentleman would look upon himwhen they met.
But he knew what path laystraight before him and took it.
My dear sir, said Scrooge,quickening his pace and taking

(02:48:12):
the old gentleman by both hishands.
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 myname 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 hisear.

(02:48:33):
Lord, bless me, cried thegentleman as if his breath were
taken away.
My dear Mr Scrooge, are youserious If you please, said
Scrooge.
Not a farthing less.
A great many back payments areincluded 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 tosuch munis.

(02:48:56):
Don't say anything.
Please, retorted Scrooge, comeand see me.
Will you come and see me?
I will, cried the old gentleman, and it was clear he meant to.
Thank you, said Scrooge.
I am much obliged to you.
I thank you fifty times.
Bless you.
He went to church and walkedabout the streets and watched
the people hurrying to and froand patted children on the head

(02:49:18):
and questioned beggars, andlooked down into the kitchens of
houses and up to the windowsand found that everything could
yield him pleasure.
He had never dreamed that anywalk, that anything, could give
him so much happiness.
In the afternoon he turned hissteps towards his nephew's house
.
He passed the door a dozentimes before he had the courage

(02:49:39):
to go up and knock, but he madea 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 is in the dining room, sir,along with the mistress.
I'll show you upstairs, if youplease.
Thank you, he knows me, saidScrooge, with his hand already

(02:50:00):
on the dining room lock.
I'll go in here, my dear.
He turned it gently and sighedto his face in round the door.
They were looking at the tablewhich was spread out in great
array, for these younghousekeepers are always nervous
on such points and like to seethat everything is right.
Fred, said Scrooge, dear heartalive, how his niece by marriage

(02:50:22):
started.
Scrooge had forgotten for themoment about her sitting in the
corner with the footstool, or hewouldn'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.

(02:50:44):
Nothing could be hardier.
His niece looked just the same.
So did Topper when he came.
So did the plump sister whenshe came.
So did everyone when they came.
Wonderful party, wonderfulgames, wonderful unanimity,
wonderful happiness.
But he was early at the officenext morning.
Oh, he was early there.
If he could only be there firstand catch Bob Cratchit coming

(02:51:08):
late.
That was the thing he had sethis heart upon and he did it.
Yes, he did it.
The clock struck nine.
No, bob.
A quarter past.
No, bob, he was a full 18minutes and a half behind his
time.
Scrooge sat with his door wideopen that he might see him come
into the tank.
His hat was off.

(02:51:29):
Before he opened the door hiscomfort or two.
He was on his stool in a jiffy,driving away with his pen as if
he were trying to overtake nineo'clock.
Hello, growled Scrooge and hisaccustomed voice as near as he
could faint it.
What do you mean by coming hereat this time of day?
I am very sorry, sir, said Bob,I am behind my time.
You are repeated, scrooge.

(02:51:51):
Yes, I think you are.
Step this way, sir, if youplease.
It's only once a year, sir,pleaded Bob appearing from the
tank.
It shall not be repeated.
I was making rather merryyesterday, sir.
Now I'll tell you what my friendsaid.
Scrooge, I am not going tostand this sort of thing any
longer.
And therefore he continuedleaping from his stool and

(02:52:15):
giving Bob such a dig in thewaistcoat that he staggered back
into the tank again andtherefore I am about to raise
your salary.
Bob trembled and got a littlenearer to the ruler.
He had a momentary idea ofknocking Scrooge down with it,
holding him and calling to thepeople in the court for help in
a straight waistcoat.

(02:52:35):
A merry Christmas, bob, saidScrooge with an earnestness that
could not be mistaken as heclapped him on the back.
A merrier Christmas, bob, mygood fellow, than I have given
you for many a year.
I'll raise your salary andendeavor to assist your
struggling family, and we willdiscuss your affairs this very
afternoon over a Christmas bowlof smoking.

(02:52:58):
Bishop Bob, make up the firesand buy another coal scuttle
before you dot another I,Bob Cratchit! Scrooge was better
than his word.
He did it all and infinitelymore.
And to Tiny Tim, who did notdie, he was a second father.
He became as good a friend, asgood a master and as good a man

(02:53:20):
as the good old city knew, orany other good old city, town or
borough in the good old world.
Some people laughed to see thealteration in him, but he let
them laugh and little heededthem, for he was wise enough to
know that nothing ever happenedon this globe for good at which
some people did not have theirfill of laughter in the outset,

(02:53:42):
and knowing that such as thesewould be blind anyway, he
thought it quite as well thatthey should wrinkle up their
eyes and grins, as have themalady and less attractive forms
.
His own heart laughed, and thatwas quite enough for him.
He had no further intercoursewith spirits, but lived upon the
total abstinence principle everafterwards, and it was always

(02:54:04):
said of him that he knew how tokeep Christmas.
Well, if any man alivepossessed the knowledge, may
that be truly said of us and allof us.
And so, as Tiny Tim observed.
God bless us every one.
I hope you've enjoyed listeningto A Christmas Carol by Charles

(02:54:26):
Dickens and I encourage you togo and visit our sponsor's
website, Jenelle Hovde.
She's a great author and if yougo to her website today and
sign up for her email list, youwill get a free e-book, which I
have read, and it is aphenomenal short story that will
give you an opportunity to getto know her work.
So go and check out her website, which will be linked in the

(02:54:49):
show notes on this podcast.
Have a Merry Christmas!

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