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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, A Christmas Carol by Charles
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Dickens Stave one Marley's Ghost. Marley was dead to begin with.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of
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  Speaker 1: his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge's name
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: was good upon change for anything he chose to put
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  Speaker 1: his hand to. Old Martley was as dead as a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: door nail. Mind, I don't mean to say that I
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  Speaker 1: know of my own knowledge what there is particularly dead
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  Speaker 1: about a door nail. I might have been inclined myself
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  Speaker 1: to regard a coffin nail as the deadest piece of
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  Speaker 1: iron mungery in the trade. But the wisdom of our
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  Speaker 1: ancestors is in the simile, and my unhallowed hands shall
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  Speaker 1: not disturb it. Were the country's done for. You will
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  Speaker 1: therefore permit me to repeat emphatically that Martley was as
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  Speaker 1: dead as a door nail. Scrooge knew he was dead,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: of course he did. How could it be otherwise. Scrooge
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: and he were partners for I don't know how many
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: years Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his
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  Speaker 1: soul assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and
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  Speaker 1: soul mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: up by the sad event, but that he was an
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  Speaker 1: excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral,
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  Speaker 1: and solemnessed it with an undoubted bargain. The mention of
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  Speaker 1: Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started from.
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  Speaker 1: There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: story I am going to relate. If we were not
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: perfectly convinced that Hamlet's father died before the play began,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a
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  Speaker 1: stroll at night in an easterly wind upon his own ramparts,
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  Speaker 1: then there would be in any other middle aged gentleman
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  Speaker 1: rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot, say
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  Speaker 1: Saint Paul's churchyard, for instance, literally to astonish his son's
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  Speaker 1: weak mind. Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: it stood years afterwards above the warehouse door. Scrooge and Marley.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: The firm was known as Scroogrooge and Marly. Sometimes people
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: knew to the business called Scrooge Scrooge and sometimes Marley,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: but he answered to both names. It was all the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: same to him. Oh, but he was a tight fisted
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: hand at the grindstone Scrooge, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous,
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  Speaker 1: old sinner, hard and sharp as flint from which no
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: steel had ever struck out, generous fire, secret and self contained,
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  Speaker 1: and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze
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  Speaker 1: his old features, nipped, his pointed nose shriveled, his cheek
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  Speaker 1: stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue,
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  Speaker 1: and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: rhyme was on his head, and on his eyebrows and
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: about with him. He iced his office in the dog days,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas. External heat
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm,
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  Speaker 1: no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was
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  Speaker 1: bitter than he. No falling snow was more intent upon
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  Speaker 1: its purpose, No pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and snow and hail and sleet could boast of the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: advantage over him in only one respect. They often came
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: down handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: in the street to say, with gladsome looks, my dear Scrooge,
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  Speaker 1: how are you? When will you come to see me?
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  Speaker 1: No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, No children
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  Speaker 1: asked him what it was a clock. No man or
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  Speaker 1: woman ever once in all his life inquired the way
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  Speaker 1: to such and such a place of Scrooge. Even the
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  Speaker 1: blind men's dogs appeared to know him, and when they
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  Speaker 1: saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways
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  Speaker 1: and up courts, and then would wake their tails as
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  Speaker 1: though they said, no, I it all is better than
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: an evil eye, dark master. But what did Scrooge care?
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  Speaker 1: It was the very thing he liked to edge his
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  Speaker 1: way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human
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  Speaker 1: sympathy to keep its distance. Was what the knowing ones
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  Speaker 1: call nuts. To Scrooge, once upon a time of all
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the good days in the year, On chrisms Eve, Old
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Scrooge sat busy in his counting house. It was cold, bleak,
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  Speaker 1: biting weather, foggy withal, and he could hear the people
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  Speaker 1: in the court outside go wheezing up and down, beating
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  Speaker 1: their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon
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  Speaker 1: the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: only just gone three, but it was quite dark already.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: It had not been light all day, and candles were
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: flaring in the windows of the neighboring offices like ruddy
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  Speaker 1: smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: without that although the court was of the narrowest the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: nature lived hard by and was brewing on a large scale.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: The door of Scrooge's counting house was open that he
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  Speaker 1: might keep his eye upon his clerk, who, in a
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: dismal little cell beyond a sort of tank, was copying letters.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Scrooge had a very small fire, But the clerk's fire
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal
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  Speaker 1: box in his own room, and so surely as the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: clerk put on his white comforter and tried to warm
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: himself at the candle, in which effort, not being a
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  Speaker 1: man of a strong imagination, he failed. A Merry Christmas, Uncle,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: God save you, cried a cheerful voice. It was the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: that this was the first intimation he had of his approach. Bah,
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  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, humbug, He had so heated himself with rapid
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: walking in the fog and frost. This nephew of scrooges
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  Speaker 1: that he was all in a glow. His face was
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  Speaker 1: ruddy and handsome, his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. Christmas,
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  Speaker 1: a humbug uncle, said Scrooge's nephew. You don't mean that.
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  Speaker 1: I am sure I do, said Scrooge. Merry Christmas, what
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: right have you to be merry? What reason have you
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  Speaker 1: to be merry? You're poor enough. Come then, returned the
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  Speaker 1: nephew gaily, what right have you to be dismal? What
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough. Scrooge,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment,
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  Speaker 1: said bah again, and followed it up with humbug. Don't
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: be cross, uncle, said the nephew. What else can I be,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: returned the uncle. When I live in such a world
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  Speaker 1: of fools as this merry Christmas out upon merry Christmas?
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  Speaker 1: What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying
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  Speaker 1: bills without money, A time for finding yourself a year
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  Speaker 1: older but not an hour richer, a time for balancing
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  Speaker 1: your books and having every iteman and threw a round
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  Speaker 1: dozen of months presented dead against you. If I could
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  Speaker 1: work my will, said Scrooge indignantly, every idiot who goes
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  Speaker 1: about with Merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled
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  Speaker 1: with his own pudding and buried with the stake of
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  Speaker 1: holly through his heart. He should, uncle, pleaded the nephew.
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  Speaker 1: Nephew returned the uncle sternly, keep Christmas in your own way,
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  Speaker 1: and let me keep it in mine. Keep it, repeated
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  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew. But you don't keep it. Let me leave
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  Speaker 1: it alone, then said Scrooge, much good. May it do
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  Speaker 1: you much good it has ever done you. There are
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  Speaker 1: many things from which I might have derived good, by
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  Speaker 1: which I have not profited. I dare say, return the
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  Speaker 1: nephew Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I
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  Speaker 1: have always thought of Christmas time when it has come round,
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  Speaker 1: apart from the veneration, due to its sacred name and origin,
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  Speaker 1: if anything belonging to it can be apart from that,
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  Speaker 1: as a good time, a kind forgiving, charitable, pleasant time,
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  Speaker 1: the only time I know of in the long calendar
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  Speaker 1: of the year when men and women seem by one
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  Speaker 1: consent to open their shut up hearts freely, and to
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  Speaker 1: think of people below them as if they really were
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  Speaker 1: fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of
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  Speaker 1: creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, Uncle, though it
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  Speaker 1: has never put a scrap of gold or silver in
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  Speaker 1: my pocket, I believe that it has done me good
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  Speaker 1: and will do me good, And I say God bless it.
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  Speaker 1: The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded, becoming Immediately sensible
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  Speaker 1: of the impropriety, he poked the fire and extinguished the
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  Speaker 1: last frail spark forever. Let me hear another sound from you,
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  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, and you'll keep your Christmas by losing situation.
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  Speaker 1: You are quite a powerful speaker, sir, he added, turning
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  Speaker 1: to his nephew, I wonder you don't go into parliament.
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  Speaker 1: Don't be angry, uncle, Come dine with us tomorrow. Scrooge
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  Speaker 1: said that he would see him. Yes, indeed he did.
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  Speaker 1: He went the whole length of the expression and said
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  Speaker 1: that he would see him in that extremity first. But why,
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  Speaker 1: cried Scrooge's nephew. Why why did you get married, said Scrooge.
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  Speaker 1: Because I fell in love, because you fell in love,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: growled Scrooge, as if that were the only one thing
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  Speaker 1: in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. Good afternoon, nay, uncle,
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  Speaker 1: but you never came to see me before that happened.
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  Speaker 1: Why give it as a reason for not coming now?
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  Speaker 1: Good afternoon, said Scrooge. I want nothing from you, I
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  Speaker 1: ask nothing of you. Why cannot we be friends? Good afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. I am sorry with all my heart to
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  Speaker 1: find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel
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  Speaker 1: to work which I have been a party. But I
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: keep my Christmas humor to the last. So a merry Christmas, uncle,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: good afternoon, said Scrooge, and a happy New Year. Good afternoon,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. His nephew left the room without an angry word. Notwithstanding,
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  Speaker 1: he stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: was warmer than Scrooge, for he returned them cordially. There's
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  Speaker 1: another fellow, muttered Scrooge, who overheard him, my clerk with
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  Speaker 1: fifteen shillings a week and a wife and family talking
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: about a merry Christmas. I'll retire to bedlam. This lunatic,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: with their hats off in Scrooge's office. They had books
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: and papers in their hands, and bowed to him. Scrooge
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and Marley's, I believe, said one of the gentlemen, referring
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: to his list. Have I the pleasure of addressing mister
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Scrooge or mister Marley, Mister Marley has been dead these
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: seven years, Scrooge replied, he died seven years ago this
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: very night. We have no doubt his liberality is well
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: represented by his surviving partner, said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.
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  Speaker 1: It certainly was, for they had been two kindred spirits.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: At the ominous word liberality, Scrooge frowned and shook his
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: head and handed the credentials back. At this festive season
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: of the year, mister Scrooge, said the gentleman, taking up
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: a pen, it is more than usually desirable that we
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: in want of common necessaries. Hundreds of thousands are in
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: want of common comforts. Sir, are there no prisons, ask Scrooge.
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  Speaker 1: Plenty of prisons, said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
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  Speaker 1: And the union workhouses demanded Scrooge, are they still in operation?
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  Speaker 1: They are still returned the gentleman. I wish I could
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  Speaker 1: say they were not. The treadmill and the poor law
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: are in full vigor, then, said Scrooge both very busy, Sir, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I was afraid from what you said at first, that
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. I'm very glad to hear it, under the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: body to the multitude, returned the gentleman. A few of
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: choose this time because it is a time of all others,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: when want is keenly felt and abundance rejoices. What shall
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I put you down for nothing? Scrooge replied, you wish
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: to be anonymous. I wish to be left alone, said Scrooge.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is
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  Speaker 1: my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas, and
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: to support the establishments I have mentioned. They cost enough,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: and those who are badly off must go there. Many
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: can't go there, and many would rather die. If they
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: would rather die, said Scrooge, they had better do it
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: and decrease the surplus population. Besides, excuse me, I don't
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: know that, but you might know it, observed the gentleman.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: It's not my business, Scrooge returned. It's enough for a
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: man to understand his own business and not to interfere
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: with other peoples. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the gentleman withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labors with an improved
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: opinion of himself and in a more facetious temper than
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: was usual with him. Meanwhile, the fog and darkness thick
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and sow that people ran about with flaring links, proffering
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: their services to go before horses and carriages and conduct
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: them on their way. The ancient tower of a church,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: whose gruff old bell was always peeping slyly down at
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Scrooge out of a gothic window in the wall, became
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: invisible and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: with tremulous vibrations. Afterwards, as if its teeth were chattering
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in its frozen head. Up there, the cold became intense.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: In the main stream. At the corner of the court,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: some laborers were repairing the gas pipes, and had lighted
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: a great fire in a brazier, round which a party
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of ragged men and boys were gathered, warming their hands
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and winking their eyes before the blaze. In rapture. The
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: water plug, being left in solitude, its overflowing sullenly congealed
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness of the shops
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: were holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp. Heat
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: of the windows made pale faces ruddy as they passed.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Poulterers and grocer's trades became a splendid joke, a glorious
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: pageant with which it was next to impossible to believe
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: butlers to keep Christmas as a lord mayor's household should,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: And even the little tailor, whom he had fined five
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: in the streets, stirred up to morrows putting in his garret,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: buy the beef. Foggier yet and colder, piercing, searching, biting cold.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: If the good Saint Dunstan had but nip the evil
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to regale him with a Christmas carol. But at the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: first sound of God, bless you, merry gentleman, may nothing
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you dismay, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: to the fog and even more congenial frost. At length,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: the hour of shutting up the counting house arrived. With
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: an ill woll. Scrooge dismounted from his stool and tacitly
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the tank,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: who instantly snuffed his candle out and put on his hat.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: You'll want all day tomorrow, I suppose, said Scrooge, if
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: quite convenient, sir. It's not convenient, said Scrooge, And it's
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: not fair. If I was to stop half a crown
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: for it, you'd think yourself ill used. I'll be bound.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: The clerk smiled faintly, and yet said Scrooge, you don't
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: think me ill used when I pay a day's wages
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: for no work. The clerk observed that it was only
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: once a year, A poor excuse for picking a man's
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: pocket every twenty fifth of December, said Scrooge, buttoning his
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: great coat to the chin. But I suppose you must
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: have the whole day be here all the earlier next morning,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: The clerk promised that he would, and Scrooge walked out
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: with a growl. The office was closed in a twinkling,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: and the clerk, with the long ends of his white
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: comforter dangling below his waist, for he boasted no great coat,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: went down a slide on corn Hill at the end
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: of a lane of boys twenty times in honor of
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Canton
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Town as hard as he could pelt to play at
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: blind Man's buff Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: usual melancholy tavern, and, having read all the newspapers and
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker's book,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: suite of rooms in a lowering pile of building up
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: a yard where it had so little business to be
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: their when was a young house, playing at hide and
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: It was old enough now and dreary enough for nobody
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being all
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: let out as offices. The yard was so dark that
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: grope with his hands. The fog and frost so hung
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: about the black old gateway of the house that it
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: seemed as if the genius of the weather sat in
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: mournful meditation on the threshold. Now it is a fact
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: on the door, except that it was very large. It
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: is also a fact that Scrooge had seen it night
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: and morning during his whole residence in that place. Also
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: about him as any men in the city of London,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: even including which is a bold word, the corporation, Alderman
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: and Livery. Let it also be borne in mind that
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley since his
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: last mention of his seven years dead partner that afternoon.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: And then let any man explain to me, if he can,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: lock of the door, saw in the knocker without its
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: undergoing any intermediate process of change. Not a knocker, but
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Marley's face. Marley's face. It was not an impenetrable shadow,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: as the other objects in the yard were, but had
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look, with ghostly
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The hair was
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air, and
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: That and its livid color made it horrible, but its
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: horror seemed to be in spite of the face and
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: beyond its control, rather than a part of its own expression.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: knocker again. To say that he was not startled, or
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: be untrue. But he put his hand upon the key
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: he had relinquished, turned it sturdily, walked in, and lighted
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: his candle. He did pause with a moment's irresolution before
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: he shut the door, and he did look cautious behind
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: it first, as if he half expected to be terrified
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: with the sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the hall.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: But there was nothing on the back of the door
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: So he said pooh pooh and closed it with a bang.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and every cask in the wine merchant cellars below appeared
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to have a separate peal of echoes of its own.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: He fastened the door and walked across the hall and
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: up the stairs, slowly, too, trimming his candle as he went.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: You may talk vaguely about driving a coachan sickx up
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: young active parliament, But I mean to say you might
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: have got a hearse up that staircase and taken it
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: broadwise with the splinter bar towards the wall and the
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: door towards the balustrades, and done it easy. There was
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: plenty of width for that, and room to spare, which
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw locomotive
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: hearst going on before him in the gloom. Half a
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: dozen gas lamps out of the street wouldn't have lighted
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the entry too well, so you may suppose that it
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: was pretty dark with Scrooge's dip up. Scrooge went, not
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: caring a button for that. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: liked it. But before he shut his heavy door, he
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: walked through his rooms to see that all was right.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: He had just enough recollection of the face to desire
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: to do that. Sitting room, bedroom, lumber room, all as
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: they should be. Nobody under the table, nobody under the sofa,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: a small fire in the grate, spoon and basin ready,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and the little saucepan of gruel. Scrooge had a cold
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: in his head upon the hob Nobody under the bed,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Nobody in the closet, Nobody in his dressing gown, which
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Lumber room as usual, old fire guard, old shoes, two
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: fish baskets, washing stand on three legs, and a poker.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Quite satisfied, he closed his door and locked himself in,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: double locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: secured against surprise, he took off his cravat, put on
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: his dressing gown and slippers, in his night cap, and
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: sat down before the fire to take his gruel. It
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: was a very low fire, indeed nothing on such a
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: bitter night. He was obliged to sit close to it
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and brood over it before he could extract the least
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. The
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: designed to illustrate the scriptures. There were canes and abels,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Pharaoh's daughters, queens of Sheba, angelic messengers descending through the
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: air on clouds like feather beds, Abrahams, Belshazars, apostles putting
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: off to sea in butter boats, hundreds of figures to
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: attract his thoughts. And yet that face of Marley, seven
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: years dead, came like the ancient prophets rod and swallowed
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: up the whole. If each smooth tile had been a
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: blanket first, with power to shape some picture on its
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: have been a copy of old Marley's head on every one. Humbug,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, and walked across the room. After several turns,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: he sat down again. As he threw his head back
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: a disused bell that hung in the room and communicated
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: for some purpose now forgotten, with the chamber in the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: highest story of the building. It was with great astonishment
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: But soon it rang out loudly, and so did every
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: bell in the house. This might have lasted half a
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: minute or a minute, but it seemed an hour. The
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: bell ceased as they had begun together. They were succeeded
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: by a clanking noise deep down below, as if some
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the wine merchants cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have heard
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: that ghosts and haunted houses were described as dragging chains.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: The cellar door flew open with a booming sound, and
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: then coming up the stairs, then coming straight towards his door.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Its humbug, still, said Scrooge. I won't believe it. His
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: color changed, though, when without a pause, it came on
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: through the heavy door and passed into the room before
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: his eyes. Upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: up as though it cried, I know him, Marley's ghost,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and fell again. Martley's ghost, Marley's ghost, the same face,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the very same Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: and boots, the tassels on the latter bristling like his pigtail,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: and his coat skirts, and the hair upon his head.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: was long and wound about him like a tail, and
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: it was made for Scrooge observed it closely, of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and heavy purses rod in steel. His body was transparent,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through his waistcoat,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: could see the two buttons on his coat behind. Scrooge
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: but he had never believed it until now. No, nor
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: did he believe it even now, though he looked the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Though he felt the chilling influence of its death cold eyes,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: about its head and chin, which rapper he had not
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: observed before. He was still incredulous and fought against his senses.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: How now, said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever, What
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: do you want with me? Much Marley's voice, no doubt
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: about it. Who are you? Ask me who I was?
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Who were you? Then, said Scrooge, raising his voice. You're
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: particular for a shade. He was going to say, to
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: a shade, but substituted this as more appropriate in life.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: I was your partner, Jacob Marley. Can you can you
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: sit down? Asked Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him. I can
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: do it. Then. Scrooge asked the question because he didn't
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: know whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: a condition to take a chair, and felt that in
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the event of its being impossible, it might involve the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: necessity of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat down
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: on the opposite side of the fireplace as if he
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: were quite used to it. You don't believe in me,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: observed the ghost. I don't, said Scrooge. What evidence would
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know, said Scrooge. Why do you doubt your senses? Because,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, a little thing affects them. A slight disorder
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: nor did he feel in his heart by any means waggish.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Then the truth is that he tried to be smart
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: as a means of distracting his own attention and keeping
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: down his terror. For the specter's voice disturbed the very
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: marrow in his bones. To sit staring at those fixed
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: glazed eyes in silence for a moment would play. Scrooge
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: felt the very deuce with him. There was something very
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: awful too, in the specter's being provided with an infernal
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: atmosphere of its own. Scrooge could not feel it himself,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: but this was clearly the case for the Though the
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair and skirts and tassels
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: were still agitated as by the hot vapor from an oven.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: You see this, toothpick, said Scrooge, returning quickly to the
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: charge for the reason just assigned and wishing, though it
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: were only for a second, to divert the vision's stony
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: gaze from himself. I do, replied the ghost. You are
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: not looking at it, said Scrooge, But I see it,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: said the ghost. Notwithstanding, well, return Scrooge. I have but
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to swallow this and be for the rest of my
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: days persecuted by a legion of goblins, all of my
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: own creation. Humbug, I tell you, humbug. At this, the
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: spirit raised a frightful cry and shook its chain with
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: such a dismal and appalling noise that Scrooge held untight
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: his chair to save himself from falling in a swoon.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: But how much greater was his horror when the phantom,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: taking off the bandage round its head, as if it
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: were too warm to wear indoors, its lower jaw dropped
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: down upon its breast. Scrooge fell upon his knees and
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: clasped his hands before his mercy. He said, dreadful apparition,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: why do you trouble me? Men of the worldly mind?
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Replied the ghost. Do you believe in me or not?
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I do, said Scrooge. I must, But why do spirits
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: walk the earth? And why do they come to me?
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: It is required of every man? The ghost returned, that
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: and travel far and wide. And if that spirit goes
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: not forth in life, it is condemned to do so.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: After death it is doomed to wander through the world.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Oh woe is me? And witness what it cannot share
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness again.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: The specter raised a cry, and shook its chain and
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: wrung its shadowy hands. You are fettered, said Scrooge, trembling.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Tell me why I wear the chain I forged in life,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: replied the ghost. I made it link by link and
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: yard by yard. I girded it on of my own
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: free will, and of my own free will, I war
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: it is its pattern strange to you. Scrooge trembled more
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: and more, or would you know pursue the ghost? The
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: It was full, as heavy and as long as this
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: seven Christmas eves ago. You have labored on it. Since
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: it is a ponderous chain. Scrooge glanced about him on
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: the floor in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable. But he
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: could see nothing. Jacob, he said, imploringly, Old Jacob Marley,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob, I have
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: none to give, the ghost replied. It comes from other regions,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers. To other
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: kinds of men, Nor can I tell you what I
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: would A very little more is all permitted to me.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: My spirit never walked beyond our counting house mark me
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: in life. My spirit never rove beyond the narrow limits
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: of our money. Changing hole and weary journeys lie before me.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: It was a habit with Scrooge. Whenever he became thoughtful
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: to put his hands in his breeches pockets, pondering on
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: what the ghost had said, He did so now, but
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: without lifting up his eyes or getting off his knees.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: You must have been very slow about it, Jacob Scrooge observed,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: in a business like manner, though with humility and deference.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Slow the ghost repeated. Seven years dead, mused Scrooge, and
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: traveling all the time the whole time, said the ghost.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: No rest, no peace, incessant torture of remorse. You travel fast,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. On the wings of the wind, replied the ghost.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: You might have got over a great quantity of ground
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: in seven years, said Scrooge. The ghost, on hearing this,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: set up another cry and clanked its chain so hideously.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: In the dead silence of the night, that the ward
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance. Oh, captive,
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: bound and double ironed, cried the phantom. Not to know
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: that ages of incessant labor by immortal creatures for this
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: earth must pass into eternity before the good of which
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: it is susceptible is all due developed. Not to know
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: that any Christian spirit, working kindly in its little sphere,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: that no space of regret can make amends for one
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: life's opportunity misused. Yet such was I, Oh, such was I.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: But you were always a good man of business, Jacob
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself business,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: cried the ghost, wringing its hands again. Mankind was my business.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: The common welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance, and
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: benevolence were all my business. The dealings of my trade
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: of my business. It held up its chain at arm's length,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: as if that were the cause of all its unavailing
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: grief and flung it heavily upon the ground again at
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: this time of the rolling year. The specter said, I
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: to the blessed star which led the wise men to
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: its light would have conducted me? Scrooge was very much
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: dismayed to hear the specter going on at this rate,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: and began to quake exceedingly hear me, cried the ghost.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: My time is nearly gone, I will, said Scrooge, But
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: don't be hard upon me. Don't be flowery, Jacob. Pray
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: how it is that I appear before you in a
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: shape that you can see? I may not tell I
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: have sat invisible beside you many and many a day.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered and wiped
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: the perspiration from his brow. That is no light part
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: of my penance, pursued the ghost. I am here tonight
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: to warn you that you have yet a chance and
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: hope of escaping my fate, a chance and hope of
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: my procuring. Ebenezer, you were always a good friend to
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: me said Scrooge. Thankee ye, you will be haunted, resumed
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the ghost by three spirits. Scrooge's countenance fell almost as
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: low as the ghosts had done. Is that the chance
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: and hope you mentioned, Jacob, he demanded in a faltering voice.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: It is I I think I'd rather not, said Scrooge.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Without their visits, said the ghost, you cannot hope to
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: shun the path I tread. Expect the first tomorrow when
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the bell tolls. One couldn't I take em all at
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: once and have it over, Jacob hinted Scrooge. Expect the
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: second on the next night, at the same hour. The
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: third upon the next night, when the last stroke of
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: and look that for your own sake, you remember what
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: has passed between us. When it had said these words,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the specter took its wrapper from the table and bound
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: it round its head as before. Scrooge knew this by
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the smart sound its teeth made when the jaws were
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: brought together by the bandage. He ventured to raise his
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: eyes again and found his supernatural visitor confronting him in
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and about
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: its arm. The apparition walked backward from him, and at
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: every step it took the window raised itself a little,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: so that when the specter reached it, it was wide open.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. When they
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: were within two paces of each other. Marley's ghost held
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: up its hand, warning him to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: not so much in obedience as in surprise and fear,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: for on the raising of the hand he became sensible
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: of confused noises in the air, incoherent sounds of lamentation
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: and regret, wailing's inexpressibly sorrowful and self accusatory. The specter,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: after listening for a moment, joined in the mournful dirge,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: and floated out upon the bleak, dark night. Scrooge followed
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: to the window, desperate in his curiosity. He looked out.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in restless haste and moaning as they went. Every one
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: of them wore chains, like Marley's ghost. Some few they
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: might be guilty governments were linked together. None were free.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: He had been quite familiar with one old ghost in
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: a white waistcoat with a monstrous iron safe attached to
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: upon a dar step. The misery with them all was
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: clearly that they sought to interfere for good in human matters,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: and had lost the power forever ghosts of departed usurers.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Whether these creatures faded into mist or mist enshrouded them,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: he could not tell. But they and their spirit voices
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: faded together, and the night became as it had been
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: when he walked home. Scrooge closed the window and examined
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: the door by which the ghost had entered. It was
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: double locked, as he had locked it with his own hands,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: and the bolts were undisturbed. He tried to say humbug,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: but stopped at the first syllable, and, being from the
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues of the day,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: or his glimpse of the invisible world, or the dull
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: conversation of the ghost, or the lateness of the hour,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: much in need of repose, went straight to bed without undressing,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: and fell asleep upon the instant stave two, the first
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: of the three spirits. When Scrooge awoke, it was so
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: dark that, looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: He was endeavoring to pierce the darkness with his ferret
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: eyes when the chimes of a neighboring church struck the
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: four quarters. So he listened for the hour. To his
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: great astonishment, the heavy bell went on from six to seven,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: and from seven to eight, and regularly up to twelve,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: then stopped twelve. It was past two when he went
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: got into the works twelve. He touched the spring of
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: his repeater to correct this most preposterous clock. Its rapid
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: little pulse beat twelve and stopped. Why it isn't possible,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, that I can have slept through a whole
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: day and far into another night. It isn't possible that
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: anything has happened to the sun, and this is twelve
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: at noon. The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: out of bed and groped his way to the window.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: He was obliged to rub the frost off with the
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: sleeve of his dressing gown before he could see anything,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: and could see very little then. All he could make
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: out was that it was still very foggy and extremely cold,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: and that there was no noise of people running to
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and fro and making a great stir, as there unquestionably
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: would have been if night had beaten off bright day
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and taken possession of the world. This was a great relief,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: because three days after sight of this first of exchange,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: pay to mister Ebenezer Scrooge or his order and so
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: forth would have become a mere United States security if
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: there were no days to count by. Scrooge went to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: bed again and thought and thought and thought it over
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and over and over, and could make nothing of it.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: The more he thought, the more perplexed he was, and
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the more he endeavored not to think. The more he thought.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Martley's ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: himself after mature inquiry that it was all a dream,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: his mind flew back again, like a strong spring released
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: to its first position, and presented the same problem to
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: be worked all through. Was it a dream or not
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Scrooge lay in the state until the chime had gone
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: three quarters more, when he remembered on a sudden that
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: the ghost had warned him of a visitation. When the
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: bell told one, he resolved to lie awake until the
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: hour was past, and, considering that he could no more
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: go to sleep than go to heaven, this was perhaps
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: the wisest resolution in his power. The quarter was so
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: long that he was more than once convinced he must
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: have sunk into a doze unconsciously and missed the clock.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: At length it broke upon his listening ear ding Dong.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: A quarter passed, said Scrooge, counting ding dong. Half past,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, ding Dong. A quarter to it, said Scrooge,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: ding Dong. The hour itself, said Scrooge triumphantly, And nothing
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: else he spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: now did with a deep, dull, hollow melancholy. One light
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: curtains of his bed were drawn. The curtains of his
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: bed were drawn aside, I tell you by a hand,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: his back, but those to which his face was addressed,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: the curtains of his bed were drawn aside, and Scrooge,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: starting up into a half recumbent attitude, found himself face
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: to face with the unearthly visitor, who drew them as
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: close to it as I am now to you, and
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. It
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: was a strange figure, like a child, yet not so
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: like a child, as like an old man, viewed through
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: receded from the view and being diminished to a child's proportions.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: was white, as if with age, and yet the face
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: the hands the same as if its hold were of
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: like those upper members bare. It wore a tunic of
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the purest white, and round its waist was bound a
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a branch of fresh green holly in its hand, and
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: was that from the crown of its head there sprung
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: a bright, clear jet of light, by which all this
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: was visible, and which was doubtless the occasion of its using,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: in its duller moments a great extinguisher for a cap
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: which it now held under its arm. Even this, though,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, was not
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: its strangest quality. For as its belt sparkled and glittered,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: now in one part and now in another, and what
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: was light one instant at another time was dark, so
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness, being now a
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: now a head without a body, of which dissolving parts
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: they melted away, And in the very wonder of this
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: it would be itself again, distinct and clear as ever,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Are you the spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: Asked Scrooge, I am. The voice was soft and gentle,
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: singularly low, as if, instead of being so close beside
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: him it were at a distance. Who and what are you,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Scrooge demanded, I am the ghost of Christmas past, long past,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: inquired Scrooge, observant of its dwarfish stature. No, your past, perhaps,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Scrooge could not have told anybody why. If anybody he
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: could have asked him, But he had a special desire
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: to see the spirit in his cap, and begged him
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: to be covered. What, exclaimed the ghost, would you so
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: soon put out with worldly hands the light I give?
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Is it not enough that you are one of those
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: whose passions made this cap, and force me, through whole
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: trains of years to wear it low upon my brow?
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend, or any knowledge
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: of having wilfully bonnet the spirit at any period of
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: his life. He then made bold to inquire what business
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: brought him there? Your welfare, said the ghost. Scrooge expressed
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: knight of unbroken rest would have been more conducive. To
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: that end. The spirit must have hurt him thinking, for
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: it said, immediately your reclamation, then take heed. It put
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: gently by the arm. Rise and walk with me. It
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: that bed was warm and the thermometer a long way
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: below freezing, that he was clad but lightly in his slippers,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: dressing gown and nightcap, and that he had a cold
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: upon him at that time. The grasp, though gentle as
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: a woman's hand, was not to be resisted. He rose, but,
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: finding that the spirit made towards the window, clasped his
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: robe in supplication. I am a mortal, Scrooge, remonstrated and
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: liable to fall bear. But a touch of my hand,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: there said the spirit, laying it upon his heart, and
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: you shall be upheld in more than this. As the
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: words were spoken, they passed through the wall and stood
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: upon an open country road, with fields on either hand.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: was to be seen. The darkness in the mist had
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold winter day,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: with snow upon the ground. Good heaven, said Scrooge, clasping
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: his hands together as he looked about him. I was
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: bred in this place. I was a boy here. The
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch, though it
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: had been light and instantaneous, appeared still present to the
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: old man's sense of feeling. He was conscious of a
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: thousand odors flowing in the air, each one connected with
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: a thousand thoughts and hopes, and joys and cares long
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: long forgotten. Your lip is trembling, said the ghost, And
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: what is that upon your cheek? Scrooge muttered, with an
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: unusual catching in his voice, that it was a pimple,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: and begged the ghost to lead him where he would
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: you recollect the way, inquired the spirit, Remember it, cried Scrooge,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: with fervor. I could walk it blindfold. Strange to have
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: forgotten it for so many years, observed the ghost. Let
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: us go on. They walked along the road, Scrooge recognizing
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: every gate and post and tree, until a little market
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: town appeared in the distance, with its bridge, its church,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: towards them, with boys upon their backs, who called to
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: other boys in country gigs and carts driven by farmers.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: All these boys were in great spirits and shouted to
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: each other, until the broad fields were so full of
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: merry music that the crisper laughed to hear it. These
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: are but shadows of the things that have been, said
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the ghost. They have no consciousness of us. The jock
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: and travelers came on, and as they came, Scrooge knew
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: and named them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: all bounds to see them? Why did his cold i
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: glisten and his heart leap up as they went past?
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: Why was he filled with gladness when he heard them
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: give each other Merry Christmas? As they parted at cross
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: roads and by ways for their several homes. What was
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon Merry Christmas? What good
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: had it ever done to him? The school is not
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: quite deserted, said the ghost. A solitary child, neglected by
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: his friends, is left there still. Scrooge said he knew it,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: and he sobbed. They left the high road by a
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: well remembered lane and soon approached a mansion of dull
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: red brick with a little weathercock surmounted cupola on the
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: roof and a bell hanging in it. It was a
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: large house but one of broken fortunes. For the spacious
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: offices were little used. Their walls were damp and mossy,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: their windows broken, and their gates decayed. Fowls clucked and
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: strutted in the stables, and the coach houses and sheds
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: were overrun with grass. Nor was it more retentive of
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: its ancient state within. For entering the dreary hall, and
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: glancing through the open doors of many rooms, they found
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: them poorly furnished, cold and vast. There was an earthy
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: saver in the air, a chilly bareness in the place,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: candle light, and not too much to eat. They went
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the Ghost and Scrooge across the hall to a door
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: at the back of the house. It opened before them
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: by lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: of these, a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: and Scrooge sat down upon a form and wept to
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: see his poor, forgotten self as he used to be.
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: and scuffle from the mice behind the paneling. Not a
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: drip from the half thawed water spout in the dull
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: yard behind, Not a sigh among the leafless boughs of
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: one despondent poplar, Not the idle swinging of an empty
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: store house door. No, not a clicking in the fire,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with a softening influence,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: and gave a freer passage to his tears. The spirit
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: touched him on the arm and pointed to his younger self,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: intent upon his reading. Suddenly, a man in foreign garments,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: wonderfully real and distinct to look at, stood outside the window,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: with an axe stuck in his belt and leading by
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: the bridle in aes laden with wood. Why it's Ali Baba,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. It's dear, old, honest Ali Baba. Yes, yes,
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: I know. One Christmas time, when yonder solitary child was
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: left here all alone, he did come for the first time,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: just like that, poor boy. And Valentine, said Scrooge, and
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: his wild brother orson there they go. And what's his name?
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Who was put down in his drawers asleep at the
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: gate of Damascus? Don't you see him? And the Sultan's
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: groom turned upside down by the GENII. There he is
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: upon his head. Serve him right. I'm glad of it.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: What business had he to be married to the princess?
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: on such subjects in a most extraordinary voice, between laughing
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: and crying, and to see his heightened and excited face
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: would have been a surprise to his business friends in
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: the city. Indeed, there's the parrot, cried Scrooge, green body
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: and yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: out of the top of his head. There he is,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Poor Robin Crusoe, he called him, when he came home
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: again after sailing round the island, Poor Robin Crusoe, Where
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: have you been, Robin Crusoe? The men thought he was dreaming,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: but he wasn't. It was the parrot, you know. There
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: goes Friday, running for his life to the little creek. Hullo,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: whoop halloo. Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: to his usual character, he said in pity for his
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: former self, poor boy, and cried again. I wish Scrooge muttered,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: putting his hand in his pocket and looking about him.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: After drying his eyes with his cuff. But it's too
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: late now. What is the matter? Ask the spirit? Nothing,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. Nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: care at my door last night. I should like to
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: have given him something, that's all. The ghost smiled thoughtfully
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: and waved its hand, saying, as it did, so, let
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: us see another Christmas. Scrooge's former self grew larger at
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: the words, and the room became a little darker and
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked, fragments of
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laughs
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: were shown instead. But how all this was brought about?
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: Scrooge knew no more than you do. He only knew
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: that it was quite correct that everything had happened, so
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: that there he was alone again, when all the other
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: boys had gone home for the jolly holidays. He was
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly. Scrooge
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: looked at the ghost, and with a mournful shaking of
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: his head, glanced anxiously towards the door. It opened, and
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: a little girl, much younger than the boy, came, darting
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: in and putting her arms about his neck, and often
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: kissing him, addressed him as her dear dear brother. I
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: have come to bring you home, dear brother, said the child,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: clapping her tiny hands and bending down to laugh. To
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: bring you home, home, Home, home, little fan, returned the boy. Yes,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: said the child, brimfull of glee. Home for good and all,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: home forever and ever. Father is so much kinder than
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: he used to be. That home's like heaven. He spoke
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: so gently to me one dear night when I was
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: going to bed that I was not afraid to ask
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: him once more if you might come home, And he said, yes,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: you should, and sent me in a coach to bring you.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: And you're to be a man, said the child, opening
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: her eyes, and are never to come back here. But
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: first we're to be together all the Christmas long and
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: have the merriest time in all the world. You are
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: quite a woman, little fan, exclaimed the boy. She clapped
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: her hands and laughed and tried to touch his head,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: but being too little, laughed again and stood on tiptoe
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: to embrace him. Then she began to drag him, in
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: her childish eagerness towards the door, and he, nothing loath
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: to go, accompanied her a terrible voice, in the hall, cried,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: bring down Master Scrooge's box there, And in the hall
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared on Master Scrooge with
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: a ferocious condescension and threw him into a dreadful state
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: of mind by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: him and his sister into the veriest old well of
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: a shivering best parlor that ever was seen. Were the
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: maps upon the wall, and the celestial and terrestrial globes
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: in the windows were waxy with cold. Here he produced
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: a decanter of curiously light wine and a block of
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: curiously heavy cake, and administered installments of those dainties to
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: the young people, at the same time sending out a
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: meager servant to offer a glass of something to the postboy,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: who answered that he thanked the gentleman, but if it
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: was the same tap as he had tasted before, he
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: had rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by this time
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: tied on to the top of the chaise, the children
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: bade the schoolmaster good by right willingly, and getting into it,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: drove gaily down the garden, sweep the quick wheels, dashing
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: the hoar frost and snow from off the dark leaves
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: of the evergreens like spray. Always a delicate creature whom
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: a breath might have withered, said the ghost. But she
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: had a large heart, so she had cried Scrooge, You're right,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: I will not gainsay it spirit, God forbid. She died
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: a woman, said the ghost, and had, as I think children,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: one child. Scrooge returned, true, said the ghost, your nephew.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind, and answered briefly yes,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: although they had. But that moment left the school behind them.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: They were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: where shadowy passengers passed and repassed, where shadowy carts and
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: tumult of a real city were. It was made plain
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: enough by the dressing of the shops that here too,
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: it was Christmas time again. But it was evening, and
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: the streets were lighted up. The ghost stopped at a
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: certain warehouse door and asked Scrooge if he knew it,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: know it, said Scrooge, was I apprenticed here? They went
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: in at sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: sitting behind such a high desk that if he had
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: been two inches taller, he must have knocked his head
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: against the ceiling. Scrooge cried in great excitement. Why it's
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: old Fezwig, bless his heart, it's Feziwig alive again. Old
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Feeswig laid down his pen and looked up at the clock,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: adjusted his capacious waistcoat, laughed all over himself, from his
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: shoes to his organ of benevolence, and called out, in
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice, Yoho, there, Ebenezer. Dick,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly in,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: accompanied by his fellow prentice, Dick Wilkins. To be sure,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge to the ghost. Bless me, Yes, there he is.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: He was very much attached to me, was Dick, Poor Dick,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: dear dear. Yoho, my boys, said Fesiwig. No more work
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: to night, Christmas Eve, Dick, Christmas, Ebenezer. Let's have the
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: shutters up, cried Old Feesewig, with a sharp clap of
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: his hands. Before a men can say, Jack Robinson, you
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it. They
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: charged into the street with the shutters one, two, three
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: had em up in their places, four, five, six, barred
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: M and pinned M seven, eight nine, and came back
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: before you could have got to twelve, panting like race horses.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Hilli Ho, cried Old Feesewig, skipping down from the high
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: desk with wonderful agility. Clear away, my lads, and let's
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: have lots of room here, hilli Ho, dick, chirrup, Ebenezer,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: clear away. There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: or couldn't have cleared away, with Old Fezewig looking on.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: It was done in a minute. Every moveable was packed off,
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: as if it were dismissed from public life forevermore. The
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: floor was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: was heaped upon the fire, and the warehouse was a
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: snug and warm and dry and bright a ball room
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: as you would desire to see upon a winter's night.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: In came a fiddler with a music book, and went
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: up to the lofty desk and made an orchestra of it,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: and tuned like fifty stomach aches. In came missus Fezziwig,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: one vast substantial smile. In came the three miss Feeswigs,
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: hearts they broke. In came all the young men and
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: women employed in the business. In came the housemaid with
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: her cousin the baker. In came the cook with her
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: brother's particular friend, the milkman. In came the boy from
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: over the way, who was suspected of not having bored
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: enough from his master, trying to hide himself behind the
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: girl from next door, but one who was proved to
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: all came, one after another, some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling. In they all came, anyhow,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: and everyhow away they all went, twenty couple at once,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: hands half round and back again the other way, down
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: the middle, and up again, round and round, in various
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: stages of affectionate grouping. Old top couple always turning up
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: in the wrong place, new top couples starting off again
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: as soon as they got there. All top couples at last,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: and not a bottom one to help them. When this
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: result was brought about, Old Feesewig, clapping his hands to
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: stop the dance, cried out, well done, and the fiddler
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: plunged his hot face into a pot of porter especially
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: provided for that purpose, but scorning rest. Upon his reappearance,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: he instantly began again, though there were no dancers yet,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: as if the other fiddler had been carried home exhausted
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: on a shutter, and he were a brand newman resolved
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: to beat him out of sight or perish. There were
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: more dances, and there were forfeits and more dances, and
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: there was cake, and there was negus, and there was
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: a great piece of cold roast, and there was a
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: great piece of cold boiled, and there were mince pies
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: evening came after the roast and boiled. When the fiddler,
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: an artful dog mined the sort of men who knew
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: his business better than you were. I could have told
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: it him struck up, Sir Roger de Coverley, than Old
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Feeswig stood out to dance with Missus Fesowig. Top couple too,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Three or four and twenty pair of partners, people who
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: were not to be trifled with, people who would dance
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: and had no notion of walking mister Feswig's ball, mister
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Fesewig's ball. But if they had been twice as many
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: ah four times, Old Feswig would have been a match
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: for them, and so would Missus Feswig. As to her,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: she was worthy to be his partner in every sense
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: of the term. If that's not high praise, tell me higher,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and I'll use it. A positive light appeared to issue
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: from Fesowig's calves. They shone in every part of the
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: dance like moons. You couldn't have predicted at any given
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: time what would have become of them next. And when
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: Old Fesewig and Missus Fesewick had gone all through the dance,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: advance and retire both hands to your partner, bow and
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: curtsey corkscrew, thread the needle, and back again to your place.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Fesewig cut cut so deftly that he appeared to wink
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: with his legs, and came upon his feet again without
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: a stagger. When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: broke up. Mister and Missus Feswig took their stations, one
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: on either side of the door, and, shaking hands with
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: every person individually as he or she went out, wished
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: him or her a merry Christmas. When everybody had retired,
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: but the two prentices, they did the same to them.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: And thus the cheerful voices died away, and the lads
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: were left to their beds, which were under a counter
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: in the back shop. During the whole of this time,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Scrooge had acted like a man out of his wits.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: His heart and soul were in the scene, and with
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: his former self he corroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed everything,
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: and underwent the strangest agitation. It was not until now,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: when the bright faces of his former self and Dick
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: were turned from them, that he remembered the ghost and
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: became conscious that it was looking full upon him, while
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: the light upon its head burnt very clear. A small matter,
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: said the ghost, to make these silly folks so full
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: of gratitude, small echoed Scrooge. The spirit signed to him
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: to listen to the two apprentices who were pouring out
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: their hearts and praise of Feswig. And when he had
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: done so, said Why is it not he has spent
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: but a few pounds of your mortal money three or four?
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Perhaps is that so much that he deserves this praise?
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: It is, isn't that? Said Scrooge, heated by the remark,
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: and speaking unconsciously like his former not his ladder self.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: It isn't that spirit? He has the power to render
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: us happy or unhappy, to make our service light or burdensome,
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: in words and looks in things so slight and insignificant
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: that it is impossible to add and count m up.
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: What then, the happiness he gives is quite as great
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: as if it cost a fortune. He felt the spirit's
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: glance and stopped. What is the matter? Ask the ghost?
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: Nothing particular, said Scrooge, something I think, the ghost insisted. No,
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, No, I should like to be able to
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: say a word or two to my clerk, just now.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: That's all. His former self turned down the lamps as
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: he gave utterance to the wish, and Scrooge and the
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: ghost again stood side by side in the open air.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: My time grows short, observed the spirit. Quick This was
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: could see. But it produced an immediate effect. For again
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Scrooge saw himself. He was older, now, a man in
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: the prime of life. His face had not the harsh
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: and rigid lines of later years, but it had begun
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: to wear the signs of care and avarice. There was
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye which showed
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: of the growing tree would fall. He was not alone,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: but sat by the side of a fair young girl
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: in a morning dress, in whose eyes there were tears
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: which sparkled in the light that shone out of the
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: ghost of Christmas past. It matters little, she said softly
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: to you, very little. Another idol has displaced me. And
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: as I would have tried to do, I have no
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: just cause to grieve what idol has displaced you. He
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: rejoined a golden one. This is the even handed dealing
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: of the world, he said. There is nothing on which
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: it is so hard as poverty, and there is nothing
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: of wealth. You fear the world too much, she answered gently.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: All your other hopes have merged into the hope of
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one until
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: the master passion gain engrosses you. Have I not what, then,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: he retorted, Even if I have grown so much wiser,
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: what then I am not changed towards you? She shook
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: her head. Am I our contract is an old one.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: It was made when we were both poor and content
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: to be so, until in good season we could improve
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: When it was made. You were another man. I was
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: a boy, he said impatiently. Your own feeling tells you
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: that you were not what you are. She returned. I
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: am that which promised happiness when we were one in
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: heart is fraught with misery now that we are two.
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: How often and how keenly I have thought of this?
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: I will not say it is enough that I have
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: thought of it and can release you. Have I ever
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: sought release in words? No? Never in what? Then? In
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: a changed nature, in an altered spirit, in another atmosphere
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: of life, another hope as its great end in everything
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: that made my love of any worth or value in
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: your sight? If this had never been between us, said
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: the girl, looking mildly but with steadiness upon him, Tell me,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: would you seek me out and try to win me? Now? Ah? No,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: he seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: in spite of himself, But he said, with a struggle,
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: you think not. I would gladly think otherwise if I could.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: She answered, Heaven knows when I have learned a truth
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: like this, I know how strong and irresistible it must be.
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: But if you were free to day, tomorrow, yesterday, can
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl,
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: you who, in your very confidence with her, weigh everything
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: by gain or choosing her, if for a moment you
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: were false enough to your one guiding principle to do so.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: Do I not know that your repentance and regret would
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: surely follow? I do, and I release you with a
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: full heart for the love of him you once were.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: He was about to speak, but with her head turned
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: from him, she resumed, you may the memory of what
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: is past half makes me hope you will have pain
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: in this a very, very brief time, and you will
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: dismiss the recollection of it gladly as an unprofitable dream
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: from which had happened. Well that you awoke, May you
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: be happy in the life you have chosen. She left
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: him and they parted. Spirit said Scrooge, Show me no more,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: conduct me home. Why do you delight to torture me
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: one shadow more? Exclaimed the ghost. No more, cried Scrooge,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: No more, I don't wish to see it. Show me
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: no more. But the relentless ghost pinioned him in both
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: his arms and forced him to observe what happened. Next,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: they were in another scene and place, a room not
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: very large or handsome, but full of comfort. Near to
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: the winter fire, sat a beautiful young girl, so like
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: that last that Scrooge believed it was the same until
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: he saw her, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: The noise in this room was perfectly tumulti, for there
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: were more children there than Scrooge, in his agitated state
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: of mind, could count, And unlike the celebrated herd in
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: the poem, they were not forty children conducting themselves like one,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: but every child was conducting itself like forty. The consequences
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: were uproarious beyond belief, but no one seemed to care.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily and
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: enjoyed it very much, and the latter, soon beginning to
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: most ruthlessly. What would I not have given to be
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: one of them? Though I never could have been so rude? No, no,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't for the wealth of all the world of
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: crush that braided hair and torn it down, and for
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the precious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: God bless my soul to save my life. As to
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: measuring her waist in sport, as they did, bold young brood,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have done it. I should have expected my
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: arm to have grown round it for a punishment and
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: never come straight again. And yet I should have dearly
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: liked I own to have touched her lips, to have
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: questioned her that she might have opened them, to have
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes. I never
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: raised a blush to have let loose waves of hair,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: In short, I should have liked I do confess to
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: have had the lightest license of a child, and yet
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: to have been men enough to know its value. But
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: now a knocking at the door was heard, and such
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: a rush immediately ensued that she, with laughing face and
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: plundered dress, was borne towards it, the center of a
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: flushed and boisterous group, just in time to greet the
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: father who came home attended by a man laden with
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: Christmas toys and presents. Then the shouting, in the struggling,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: and the onslaught that was made on the defenseless porter,
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: the scaling him with chairs for ladders, to dive into
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: his pockets, despoil him of brown paper parcels, hold on
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: tight by his cravat, hug him round his neck, pommel
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection. The
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: every package was received. The terrible announcement that the baby
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: had been taken in the act of putting a doll's
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: frying pan into his mouth, and was more than suspected
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: of having swallowed a fictitious turkey glued on a wooden platter.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: The immense relief of finding this a false alarm. The joy,
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: and gratitude and ecstasy, they are all indescribable. Alike, it
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: is enough that by degrees the children and their emotions
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: got out of the parlor, and by one stare at
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: a time up to the top of the house where
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: they went to bed, and so subsided. And now Scrooge
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: looked on more attentively than ever, when the master of
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: down with her and her mother at his own fireside.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: And when he thought that such another creature, quite as
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: graceful and as full of promise, might have called him father,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: and been a springtime in the haggard winter of his life,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: his sight grew very dim. Indeed, Bell said the husband,
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: turning to his wife with a smile. I saw an
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: old friend of yours this afternoon. Who was it? Guess?
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: How can I tut? Don't I know? She added in
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: the same breath, laughing as he laughed, Mister Scrooge, Mister
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: Scrooge it was. I passed his office window, and as
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: I could scarcely help seeing him his partner lies upon
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: the death. I hear and there he sat alone, quite
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: alone in the world. I do believe spirit, said Scrooge
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: in a broken voice. Remove me from this place. I
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: told you these were shadows of the things that have
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: been said the ghost that they are what they are.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: Do not blame me, Remove me, Scrooge exclaimed, I cannot
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: bear it. He turned upon the ghost, and, seeing that
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: it looked upon him with a face in which, in
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: some strange way there were fragments of all the faces
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: it had shown him, wrestled with it. Leave me, take
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: me back, haunt me no longer. In the struggle, if
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: there can be called a struggle in which the ghost,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: with no visible resistance on its own part, was undisturbed
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed that its
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: light was burning high and bright and dimly. Connecting that
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: with its influence over him, he seized the extinguisher cap
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: and by a sudden action, pressed it down upon its head.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: The spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: its whole form. But though Scrooge pressed it down with
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: all his force, he could not hide the light, which
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: streamed from under it in an unbroken flood upon the ground.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: He was conscious of being exhausted and overcome by an
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: irresistible drowsiness, and further of being in his own bedroom.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: He gave the cap a parting squeeze in which his
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: hand relaxed, and had barely time to reel to bed
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: before he sank into a heavy sleep. Scrooge extinguishes the
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: first of the three spirits, Stave three, the second of
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: the three spirits. Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: tough snore and sitting up in bed to get his
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: the bell was again upon the stroke of one. He
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: nick of time for the especial purpose of holding a
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: conference with the second messenger despatched to him through Jacob
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: Marley's intervention. But finding that he turned uncomfortably cold when
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: he began to wonder which of his curtains this new
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: specter would draw back, he put them every one aside
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: with his own hands, and lying down again, established a
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: sharp lookout all round the bed, for he wished to
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: challenge the spirit on the moment of its appearance, and
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: did not wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: Gentlemen of the free and easy sort, who plumed themselves
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: on being acquainted with a move or two, and being
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: usually equal to the time of day, expressed the wide
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: are good for anything from pitchent toss to manslaughter, between
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: which opposite extremes no doubt there lies a tolerably wide
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: and comprehensive range of subjects. Without venturing for Scrooge quite
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: as heartily as this, I don't mind calling on you
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: to believe that he was ready for a good broad
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: field of strange appearances, and that nothing between a baby
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: and rhinoceros would have astonished him very much. Now being
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: prepared for almost anything, he was not, by any means
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: prepared for nothing. And consequently, when the bell struck one
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: and no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: fit of trembling. Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: an hour went by, yet nothing came. All this time
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: he lay upon his bed the very core and center
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: of a blaze of ruddy light which streamed upon it
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: when the clock proclaimed the hour, and which, being only light,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: was more alarming than a dozen ghosts, as he was
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: powerless to make out what it meant or would be
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: at and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be, at
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: that very moment an interesting case of spontaneous combustion, without
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: having the consolation of knowing it. At last, however, he
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: began to think as you or I would have thought
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: at first, for it is always the person not in
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: the predicament who knows what ought to have been done
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: in it, and would unquestionably have done it too. At last,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: I say, he began to think that the source and
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: From whence on further tracing it, it seemed to shine
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: this idea. Taking full possession of his mind, he got
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the door.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: voice called him by his name and bade him enter.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: He obeyed. It was his own room, there was no
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: doubt about that, but it had undergone a surprising transformation.
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: that it looked a perfect grove, from every part of
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: which bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: mistletoe and ivy reflected back the light as if so
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: many little mirrors had been scattered there, and such a
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: mighty roaring up the chimney as the dull petrification of
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: a hearth had never known in Scrooge's time, or Marley's,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: or for many and many a winter season gone. Heaped
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: up on the floor to form a kind of throne
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince pies, plum puddings,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: barrels of oysters, red hot chestnuts, cherry cheeked apples, juicy oranges,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: luscious pears, immense twelfth cakes, and seething bowls of punch
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: easy state, upon this couch there sat a jolly giant,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: glorious to see, who bore a glowing torch in shape
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: knot unlike Plenty's horn, and held it up high up
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: to shed its light on Scrooge as he came peeping
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: round the door. Come in, exclaimed the ghost, Come in
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: and know me better, man. Scrooge entered timidly and hung
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: his head before this spirit. He was not the dogged
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: Scrooge he had been, And though the spirit's eyes were
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: clear and kind, he did not like to meet them.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: I am the ghost of Christmas present, said the spirit.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: Look upon me. Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: in one simple green robe or mantle, bordered with white fur.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: This garment hung so loosely on the figure that its
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: capacious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: ample folds of the garment, were also bare, and on
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: curls were long and free, free as its genial face,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: unconstrained demeanor, and its joyful air. Girded round its middle
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: was an antique scabbard, but no sword was in it,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust. Scrooge's
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: third visitor. Scrooge's third visitor, you have never seen the
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: like of me before exclaimed the spirit. Never Scrooge made
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: answer to it. Have never walked forth with the younger
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: members of my family, meaning for I am very young.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: My elder brothers born in these later years, pursued the fan.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: M I don't think I have, said Scrooge. I am
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: afraid I have not. Have you had many brothers, spirit,
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: more than eighteen hundred, said the ghost, A tremendous family
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: to provide for muttered Scrooge. The ghost of Christmas present
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: rose Spirit, said Scrooge submissively, conduct me where you will.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learned
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: a lesson which is working now to night. If you
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: have ought to teach me, let me profit by it.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: Touch my robe. Scrooge did as he was told and
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: held it fast. Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, poultry,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: brawn meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, fruit, and punch
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: all vanished instantly, So did the room, the fire, the
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: ruddy glow, the hour of night. And they stood in
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: the city streets on Christmas morning, where for the weather
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: was severe. The people made a rough, but brisk and
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: not unpleasant kind of music in scraping the snow from
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: the pavement in front of their dwellings and from the
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: tops of their houses. Whence it was mad delight to
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: the boys to see it come plumping down into the
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: road below, and splitting into artificial little snow storms. The
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: house fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, contrasting
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: and with the dirtier snow upon the ground, which last
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: deposit had been plowed up in deep furrows by the
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: heavy wheels of carts and wagons, furrows that crossed and
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: recrossed each other hundreds of times, where the great streets
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: branched off and made intricate channels hard to trace. In
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in a
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: Great Britain had by one consent caught fire and were
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: blazing away to their dear heart's content. There was nothing
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: very cheerful in the climate or the town. And yet
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavored to
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: diffuse in vain. Four. The people who were shoveling away
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: on the house stops were jovial and full of glee,
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: calling out to one another from the parapets, and now
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: and then exchanging a facetious snowball, better natured missile far
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: than many a warty jest, laughing heartily if it went right,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: and not less heartily if it went wrong. The poulterer's
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: shops were still half open, and the fruiterers were radiant
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: in their glory. There were great, round, pot bellied baskets
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen,
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: lolling at the doors and tumbling out into the street
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown faced, broad
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: girthed Spanish onions, shining in the fatness of their growth
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: like Spanish friars, and winking from their shelves in wanton
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: slyness at the girls as they went by, and glanced
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: demurely at the hung up mistletoe. There were pears and
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: apples clustered high in blooming pyramids. There were bunches of grapes,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: made in the shopkeeper's benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: that people's mouths might water grotis as they passed. There
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling in their
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: fragrance ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: deep through withered leaves. There were Norfolk biffins, squat and swarthy,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: in the great compactness of their juicy persons urgently entreating
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: eaten after dinner. The very gold and silver fish set
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: forth among these choice fruits in a bowl. Though members
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: of a dull and stagnant blooded race appeared to know
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: that there was something going on, and to a fish
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: went gasping round and round their little world in slow
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: and passionless excitement. The grocers, oh, the grocers nearly closed
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: with perhaps two shutters down or one. But through those
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: gaps such glimpses, it was not alone that the scales
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: or even that the blended scents of tea and coffee
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: were so grateful to the nose, or even that the
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: spice is so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: on feel faint and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the wrench
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly decorated boxes,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: or that everything was good to eat and in its
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: Christmas dress. But the customers were also hurried and so
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: eager in the hopeful promise of the day that they
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: and came running back to fetch them, and committed hundreds
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: of the like mistakes in the best humor possible. While
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: the grocer and his people were so frank and fresh
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: behind might have been their own, worn outside for general
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: inspection and for Christmas DAWs to pecket if they chose.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: But soon the steeples called good people all to church
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: in their best clothes and with their gayest faces. And
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: at the same time there emerged from scores of by streets,
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: lanes and nameless turnings, innumerable people carrying their dinners to
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: the baker's shops. The sight of these poor revelers appeared
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: to interest the Spirit very much, for he stood with
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and, taking off
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: the covers as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: dinners from his torch. It was a very uncommon kind
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: of torch, for once or twice, when there were angry
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: words between some dinner carriers who had jostled each other,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: he shed a few drops of water on them from it,
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: and their good humor was restored directly. For they said
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day, and
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: so it was God love it. So it was in
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: time the bell ceased, and the bakers were shut up.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: And yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: these dinners and the progress of their cooking in the
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: thawed blotch of what above each baker's oven, where the
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. Is
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: there a peculiar flavor in what you sprinkle from your torch?
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: Ask Scrooge, there is my own? Would it apply to
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: any kind of dinner on this day? Ask Scrooge to
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: any kindly given to ap pour one most? Why to
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: ap pour one most? Ask Scrooge, because it needs it most? Spirit,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge after a moment's thought. I wonder you, of
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: all the beings in the many worlds about us, should
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment, I
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: cried the Spirit. You would deprive them of their means
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: of dining every seventh day, often the only day on
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: which they can be said to dine at all, said Scrooge.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't you, I cried the Spirit. You seek to close
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: these places on the seventh day, said Scrooge. And it
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: comes to the same thing I seek exclaimed the Spirit,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: in your name, or at least in that of your family,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. There are some upon this earth of yours,
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: returned the Spirit who lay claim to know us, and
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill will, hatred, envy, bigotry,
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: us and all our kith and kin, as if they
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: not us. Scrooge promised that he would, and they went on,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: invisible as they had been before, into the suburbs of
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: the town. It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: which Scrooge had observed at the Baker's, that notwithstanding his
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place with ease,
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it was possible
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: he could have done in any lofty hall. And perhaps
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: it was the pleasure the Good Spirit had in showing
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: off this power of his, or else it was his
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: own kind, generous, hearty nature, and his sympathy with all
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: poor men. That led him straight to Scrooge's clerks, For
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: there he went and took Scrooge with him, holding to
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: his robe. And on the threshold of the door, the
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: spirit smiled and stopped to bless Bob Cratchit's dwelling with
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: the sprinkling of his torch. Think of that Bob had
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: but fifteen bob a week himself he pocketed on Saturdays,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: but fifteen copies of his Christian name, And yet the
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: ghost of Christmas present blessed his fore roomed house. Then
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: up rose Missus Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: in a twice turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence, And
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: she laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: her daughters, also brave in ribbons, while Master Peter Cratchit
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and getting
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: the corners of his mind Easter shirt collar Bob's private
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: property conferred upon his son and heir in honor of
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: the day, into his mouth. Rejoiced to find himself so
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: gallantly attired, and yearned to show his linen in the
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: fashionable parks, and now two smaller cratchits, boy and girl,
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker's they had
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: smelt the goose and known it for their own. And
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: Cratchits danced about the table and exalted Master Peter Cratchit
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: to the skies, while he not proud, although his collars
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: nearly choked him, blew the fire until the slow potatoes
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan lid to be
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: let out and peeled. What has ever got your precious father, then,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: said missus Cratchit, and your brother tiny Tim and Martha
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: warned as late last Christmas day by half an hour.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: Here's Martha, mother, said a girl appearing as she spoke.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: Here's Martha, mother, cried the two young cratchits. Hurrah, there's
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: such a goose, Martha. Why bless your heart alive, my dear,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: How late you are, said missus Cratchit, kissing her a
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: dozen times and taking off her shawl and bonnet for
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: her with a fish's seal. We'd a deal of work
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: to finish, up last night, replied the girl, and had
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: to clear away this morning. Mother. Well, never mind, so
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: long as you are, come, said missus Cratchit. Sitty down
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: before the fire, my dear, and have a warm lord
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: bless ee. No, no, there's father coming, cried the two
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: young Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. Hide Martha. Hide.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: fringe hanging down before him, and his threadbare clothes, darned
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: up and brushed to look seasonable, and tiny Tim upon
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. Alas for tiny Tim, he bore a little
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: crutch and had his limbs supported by an iron frame.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: Why where's our Martha, cried Bob Cratchit looking round. Not coming,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: said missus Cratchit. Not coming, said Bob, with a sudden
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: declension in his high spirits, for he had been Sim's
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: blood horse all the way from church and had come
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: home rampant. Not coming upon Christmas Day. Martha didn't like
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: to see him disappointed, if it were only in joke,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: so she came out prematurely from behind the closet door
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: and ran into his arms. While the two young Cratchits
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: hustled Tiny Tim and bore him off into the wash
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: house that he might hear the putting singing in the copper.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: And how did little Tim behave, asked missus Cratchit, when
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: she had rallied Bob on his credulity and Bob had
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: hugged his daughter to his heart's content. As good as gold,
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: said Bob, and better somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: He told me coming home that he hoped the people
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: saw him in the church because he was a cripple,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: strong and hearty. His active little crutch was heard upon
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: the floor, and back came Tiny Tim before another word
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister to his
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: stool before the flore and while Bob turning up his
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: cuffs as if poor fellow they were capable of being
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: made more shabby compounded some hot mixture in a jug
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round,
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: and put it on the hob to simmer. Master Peter
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: with which they soon returned in high procession. Such a
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: rarest of all birds, a feathered phenomenon, to which a
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: black swan was a matter of course, And in truth
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: it was something very like it. In that house, missus
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: Cratchit made the gravy ready beforehand in a little saucepan,
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: hissing hot, Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor.
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple sauce. Martha dusted the
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: hot plates. Bob took tiny tim beside him in a
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: tiny corner at the table, the two young Cratchits set
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: their posts, cramed spoons into their mouths lest they should
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped.
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said.
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as missus Cratchit,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: looking slowly all along the carving knife, prepared to plunge
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: it in the breast. But when she did, and when
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: of delight arose all round the board, and even tiny Tim,
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: with the handle of his knife and feebly cried, hurrah,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: there never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: believe there ever was such a goose. Cooked its tenderness
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: and flavor, size and cheapness were the themes of universal
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: admiration eked out by apple sauce and mashed potatoes. It
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: was a sufficient dinner for the whole family. Indeed, as
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: missus Cratchit said, with great delight, surveying one small atom
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: of a bone upon the dish, they hadn't ate it
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: all at last, Yet every one had had enough, and
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: the youngest Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: onion to the eyebrows. But now the plates being changed
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: by miss Belinda, missus Cratchit left the room alone, too
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: nervous to bear witnesses to take the pudding up and
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: bring it in. Suppose it should not be done enough.
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: Suppose as it should break in turning out. Suppose somebody
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: should have got over the wall of the backyard and
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: stolen it while they were merry with the goose, A
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 1: supposition at which the two young Cratchits became livid. All
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: sorts of horrors were supposed. Hullo, a great deal of steam.
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: a washing day. That was the cloth, A smell like
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: an eating house and a pasture cook's next door to
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: each other, with a laundress's next door to that, That
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: was the pudding. In half a minute, Missus Cratchit entered,
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: flushed but smiling proudly, with the pudding like a speckled
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: cannon ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: half a quartern of ignited brandy and bedight, with Christmas
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: Holly stuck into the top. Oh, a wonderful pudding, Bob
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: Cratchitt said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: the greatest success achieved by Missus Cratchit since their marriage.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: Missus Cratchitt said that now the weight was off her mind,
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: she would confess she had had her doubts about the
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: quantity of flour. Everybody he had something to say about it,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: but nobody said or thought it was at all a
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: small pudding for a large family. It would have been
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: to hint at such a thing. At last, the dinner
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: was all done, The cloth was cleared, the hearth swept,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: and the fire made up the compound, and the jug
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: being tasted and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: upon the table, and a shovelful of chestnuts on the fire.
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth in
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one,
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: And at Bob Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: two tumblers, and a custard cup without a handle. These
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: as golden goblets would have done, and Bob served it
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: sputtered and cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed a Merry Christmas
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: to us, all my DearS, God bless us, which all
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: the family re echoed God bless us every one, said
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: tiny Tim, the last of all. He sat very close
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: to his father's side upon his little stool. Bob held
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: his withered little hand in his as if he loved
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: the child and wished to keep him by his side,
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: and dreaded that he might be taken from him. Spirit,
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: Tell me if tiny Tim will live. I see a
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: vacant seat, replied the ghost, in the poor chimney corner,
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die. No, no,
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. Oh, no, kind spirit say he will be spared.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: of my race returned. The ghost will find him here.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: What then, if he be like to die, he had
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: better do it and decrease the surplus population. Scrooge hung
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: his head to hear his own words quoted by the spirit,
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: and was overcome with penitence and grief. Man, said the ghost.
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: If man, you be in heart not adamant forbear that
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus is
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: and where it is so you decide what men shall live,
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: what men shall die. It may be that, in the
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: to live than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust,
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: Scrooge bent before the ghost's rebuke and trembling, cast his
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: eyes upon the ground, but he raised them speedily on
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: hearing his own name. Mister Scrooge said, Bob, I'll give you,
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: mister Scrooge, the founder of the feast, the founder of
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: the feast, indeed, cried missus Cratchit reddening. I wish I
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: had him here. I'd give him a piece of my
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: good appetite for it. My dear, said Bob, the children
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: Christmas Day. It should be Christmas Day, I am sure,
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: said she, on which one drinks the health of such
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling men as mister Scrooge, you
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: know he is. Robert. Nobody knows it better than you do,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: poor fellow, my dear, was Bob's mind. He answer Christmas
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: Day I'll drink his health for your sake in the days,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: said missus Cratchit, not for his long life. To him
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. He'll be
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: very merry and very happy, I have no doubt. The
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: children drank the toast after her. It was the first
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: of their proceedings which had no heartiness. Tiny Tim drank
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: it last of all, but he didn't care tuppence for it.
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: Scrooge was the ogre of the family. The mention of
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: was not dispelled for full five minutes after it had
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: passed away. They were ten times merrier than before from
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: the mere relief of Scrooge the baleful being done with.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: his eye for Master Peter, which would bring in if
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: obtained full five an sixpence weekly. The two young Cratchits
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: of business, and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: from between his collars, as if he were deliberating what
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: particular investments he should favor. When he came into the
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: receipt of the bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: apprentice at a milliner's, then told them what kind of
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: work she had to do, and how many hours she
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: abed to morrow morning for a good long rest, tomorrow
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: being a holiday she passed at home. Also how she
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: had seen a countess and a lord some days before,
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: and how the lord was much about as tall as Peter,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: at which Peter pulled up his collars so high that
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: you couldn't have seen his head if you had been there.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: All this time, the chestnuts and the jug went round
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: and round, and by and by. They had a song
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: about a lost child traveling in the snow, from tiny Tim,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well. Indeed,
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: there was nothing of high mark in this. They were
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: not a handsome family. They were not well dressed, their
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: shoes were far from being waterproof, their clothes were scanty,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: inside of a pawnbroker's. But they were happy, grateful, pleased
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: with one another, and contented with the time, and when
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: they faded and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: of the Spirit's torch. At parting, Scrooge had his eye
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: upon them, and especially on tiny tim until the last.
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: By this time it was getting dark and snowing pretty heavily,
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: And as Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets,
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: the brightness of the roaring fires and kitchens, parlors and
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: all sorts of rooms was wonderful. Here the flickering of
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: the blaze showed preparations for a cozy dinner, with hot
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: red curtains ready to be drawn to shut out cold
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: and darkness. There all the children of the house were
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: running out into the snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts,
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: and be the first to greet them. Here again were
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: shadows on the window blind of guests assembling, and there
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: a group of handsome girls, all hooded and fur booted
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: near neighbor's house, where woe upon the single men who
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: saw them enter. Artful witches. Well, they knew it in
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: a glow, But if you had judged from the numbers
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: of people on their way to friendly gatherings. You might
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: have thought that no one was at home to give
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: them welcome when they got there, instead of every house
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: expecting company and piling up its fires half chimney high.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: Blessings on it. How the ghost exalted, How it bared
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: its breadth of breast and opened its capacious palm, and
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: floated on outpouring with a generous hand its bright and
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: harmless mirth on everything within its reach. The very lamp lighter,
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: who ran on before, dotting the dusky street with specks
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: of light, and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere,
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: laughed out loudly as the spirit passed. Though little can
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: the lamp lighter that he had any company but Christmas.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: And now, without a word of warning from the ghost,
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: they stood upon a bleak and desert more, where monstrous
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: masses of rude stone were cast about as though it
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: were the burial place of giants, and water spread itself
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: wheresoever it listed, or would have done so, but for
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: the frost that held it prisoner, and nothing grew but
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: moss and furs and coarse rank grass. Down in the west,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: the setting sun had left a streak of fiery red
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: which glared upon the desolation for an instant like a
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: sullen eye, and frowning lower lower lower. Yet was lost
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: in the thick gloom of darkest night. What place is this,
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: ask Scrooge. A place where miners live, who labor in
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: the bowels of the earth, returned the spirit, But they
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: know me. See a light shone from the window of
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: a hut, and swiftly they advanced towards it. Passing through
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: the wall of mud and stone, they found a cheerful
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: company assembled round a glowing fire, an old old man
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: and woman, with their children, and their children's children, and
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: another generation beyond that, all decked out gaily in their
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: holiday attire. The old man, in a voice that seldom
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: rose above the howling of the wind upon the barren waste,
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: was singing them a Christmas song. It had been a
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: very old song when he was a boy, and from
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: time to time they all joined in the chorus. So
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: surely as they raised their voices, the old men got
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: quite blithe and loud, and so surely as they stopped,
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: his vigor sank again. The Spirit did not tarry here,
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: but bade Scrooge hold his robe, and, passing on above
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: the moor sped whither, not to see, to see, to
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's horror. Looking back, he saw the last of the land,
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: a frightful range of rocks behind them, and his ears
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: were deafened by the thundering of water as it rolled
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: and roared and raged among the dreadful caverns it had
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: worn and fiercely tried to under mine. The earth. Built
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: the wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse. Great
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: heaps of seaweed clung to its base, and storm birds,
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: born of the wind, one might suppose, as seaweed of
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: the water rose and fell about it like the waves
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: they skimmed. But even here two men who watched the
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: light had made a fire that, through the loophole in
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: the thick stone wall, shed out a ray of brightness
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: on the awful sea. Joining their horny hands over the
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: rough table at which they sat, they wished each other
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas in their kin of grog, and one of them,
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: the elder two, with his face all damaged and scarred
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: with hard weather. As the figurehead of an old ship
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: might be struck up a sturdy song that was like
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: a gale in itself. Again, the ghosts sped on above
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: the black and heaving sea, on on, until being far away,
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: as he told Scrooge, from any shore they lighted on
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: a ship. They stood beside, the helmsmen at the wheel,
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: the lookout in the bow, the officers who had the watch,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: dark ghostly figures in their several stations, but every among
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: them home to Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought,
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: or spoke below his breath to his companion of some
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: by gone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it,
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad,
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: had had a kinder word for another on the day
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: than on any day in the year, and had shared
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: to some extent in its festivities, and had remembered those
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: he cared for at a distance, and had known that
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: they delighted to remember him. It was a great surprise
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: to Scrooge, while listening to the moaning of the wind,
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: and thinking what a solemn thing it was, to move
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: on through the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss whose
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: depths were secrets as profound as death. It was a
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: great surprise to Scrooge while thus engaged, to hear a
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: hearty laugh. It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: to recognize it as his own nephews, and to find
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: himself in a bright, dry, gleaming room with the Spirit
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: standing smiling by his side, and looking at that same
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: nephew with approving affability. Ha ha, laughed Scrooge's nephew. Ha
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: ah ha. If you should happen, by any unlikely chance
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: to know a man more blessed in a laugh than
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is I shall I
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: like to know him too? Introduce him to me, and
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: I'll cultivate his acquaintance. It is a fair, even handed,
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection and
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor. When Scrooge's nephew
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: laughed in this way, holding his sides, rolling his head,
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: and twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions, Scrooge's
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: niece by marriage laughed as heartily as he, and their
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: assembled friends, being not a bit behindhand roared out lustily.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: Ha ah ha ah ha ha. He said that Christmas
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: was a humbug as I live, cried Scrooge's nephew. He
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: believed it too. More shame for him, Fred said Scrooge's
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: niece indignantly. Bless those women. They never do anything by halves.
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: They are always in earnest. She was very pretty, exceedingly pretty,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: with a dimpled, surprised looking capital face, a ripe little
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: mouth that seemed made to be kissed as no doubt,
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: it was all kinds of good little dots about her
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: chin that melted into one another when she laughed, and
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: little creature's head. Altogether, she was what you would have
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: called provoking, you know, but satisfactory too, Oh, perfectly satisfactory.
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: He's a comical old fellow, said Scrooge's nephew, that's the truth,
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: offenses carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: say against him. I'm sure he is very rich, Fred
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: hinted Scrooge's niece. At least you always tell me so.
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: What of that? My dear, said Scrooge's nephew. His wealth
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: is of no use to him. He don't do any
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: good with it. He don't make himself comfortable with it.
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: He hasn't the satisfaction of thinking haw haw haw that
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: he is ever going to benefit us with it. I
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: have no patience with him, observed Scrooge's niece. Scrooge's nieces, sisters,
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: and all the other ladies expressed the same opinion. Oh
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: I have, said scrooge nephew. I am sorry for him.
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: I couldn't be angry with him if I tried. Who
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: suffers by his ill whims himself always here. He takes
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: it into his head to dislike us, and he won't
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: come and dine with us. What's the consequence. He don't
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: lose much of a dinner. Indeed, I think he loses
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: a very good dinner, interrupted Scrooge's niece. Everybody else said
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: the same. And they must be allowed to have been
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: competent judges, because they had just had dinner, and with
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: the dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: by lamplight. Well, I'm very glad to hear it, said
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew, because I haven't great faith in these young housekeepers?
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: What do you say? Topper? Topper had clearly got his
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: eye upon one of Scrooge's niece's sisters, for he answered
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: that a bachelor was a wretched outcast who had no
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: right to express an opinion on the subject. Whereat Scrooge's
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: niece's sister, the plump one with the lace tucker, not
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: the one with the roses blushed? Do go on, fred,
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge's niece, clap her hands. He never finishes what
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: he begins to say. He is such a ridiculous fellow,
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew reveled in another laugh. And as it was
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: impossible to keep the infection off, though the plump sister
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: tried hard to do it with aromatic vinegar, his example
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: was unanimously followed. I was only going to say, said
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew, that the consequence of his taking of dislike
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: to us and not making merry with us is as
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: I think that he loses some pleasant moments which could
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: do him no harm. I am sure he loses pleasanter
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: companions than he can find in his own thoughts, either
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: in his moldy old office or his dusty chambers. I
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: mean to give him the same chance every year, whether
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: he likes it or not, for I pity him. He
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: may rail at Christmas till he dies, but he can't
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: help thinking better of it. I defy him if he
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: finds me going there in good temper year after year
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: and saying, Uncle Scrooge, how are you if it only
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: fifty pounds? That's something, And I think I shook him yesterday.
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: It was their turn to laugh now at the notion
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: of his shaking Scrooge, But being thoroughly good natured and
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: not much caring what they laughed at, so that they
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: laughed at any rate, he encouraged them in their merriment
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: and passed the bottle joyously. After tea, they had some music,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: for they were a musical family and knew what they
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: were about when they sung a glee or catch. I
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: can assure you, especially Topper, who could growl away in
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: the bass like a good one, and never swell the
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: large veins in his forehead or get red in the
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: face over it. Scrooge's niece played well upon the harp,
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: and played, among other tunes, A simple little air, a
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: mere nothing. You might learn to whistle it in two minutes,
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: which had been familiar to the child who fetched Scrooge
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: from the boarding school, as he had been reminded by
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: the ghost of Christmas past. When this strain of music sounded,
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: all the things that ghosts had shown him came upon
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: his mind. He softened more and more, and thought that
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: if he could have listened to it often years ago,
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: he might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: own happiness with his own hands, without resorting to the
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: sexton spade that buried Jacob Marley. But they didn't devote
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: the whole evening to music. After a while they played
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: at forfeits. For it is good to be children sometimes,
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty founder
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: was a child himself. Stop there was first a game
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: at Blindman's buff of course there was, And I no
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: more believe Topper was really blind than I believe he
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: had eyes in his boots. My opinion is that it
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: was a done thing between him and Scrooge's nephew, and
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: that the ghost of Christmas present knew it. The way
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: he went after that plump sister in the lace Tucker
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: was an outrage on the credulity of human nature, knocking
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: down the fire irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping against
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: the piano, smothering himself among the curtains. Wherever she went,
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: there went he. He always knew where the plump sister was.
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't catch anybody else. If you had fallen up
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: against him, as some of them did on purpose, he
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: would have made a feint of endeavoring to seize you,
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: which would have been an affront to your understanding, and
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: would instantly have sidled off in the direction of the
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: plump sister. She often cried out that it wasn't fair,
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: and it really was not. But when at last he
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: caught her, when in spite of all her silken rustlings
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: and her rapid flutterings past him, he got her into
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: a corner, whence there was no escape, then his conduct
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: was the most execrable. For his pretending not to know her,
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: his pretending that it was necessary to touch her head dress,
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: and further to assure himself of her identity by pressing
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: a certain ring upon her finger and a certain chain
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: about her neck, was vile, monstrous, No doubt, she told
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: him her opinion of it. When another blind man being
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: in office, they were so very confidential together behind the curtains.
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's niece was not one of the blind men's buff party,
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: but was made comfortable with a large chair and a
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: footstool in a snug corner where the ghost and Scrooge
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: were close behind her. But she joined in the forfeits
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: and loved her love to admiration with all the letters
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: of the alphabet. Likewise, at the game of how, when
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: and where she was very great, and to the secret
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat her sister's hollow. Though they
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: were sharp girls too, As Topper could have told you,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: there might have been twenty people there, young and old,
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: but they all played, And so did Scrooge for wholly
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: forgetting in the interest he had in what was going on,
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: that his voice made no sound in their ears. He
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: sometimes came with his guests quite loud, and very often
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: guessed quite right too. For the sharpest needle, best whitechapel
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: warranted not to cut in the eye, was not sharper
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: than Scrooge blunt, as he took it in his head
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: to be. The ghost was greatly pleased to find him
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: in this mood, and looked upon him with such favor
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: that he begged like a boy to be allowed to
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: stay until the guests departed. But this, the spirit said,
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: could not be done. Here is a new game, said Scrooge,
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: one half hour, spirit, only one. It was a game
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: called yes and no, where Scrooge's nephew had to think
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: of something and the rest must find out what he
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: only answering to their questions yes or no, as the
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: case was. The brisk fire of questioning to which he
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: an animal, a live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: savage animal, an animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: talked sometimes, and lived in London and walked about the streets,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: and wasn't made a show of and wasn't led by anybody,
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: and didn't live in a menagerie, and was never killed
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: in a market, and was not a horse or an ass,
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: or a cat or a bowl, or a tiger, or
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: a dog or a pig, or a cat or a bear.
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: At every fresh question that was put to him, this
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter, and was
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: so inexpressibly tickled that he was obliged to get up
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: off the sofa and stamp. At last, the plump sister,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: falling into a similar state, cried out, I have found
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: it out. I know what it is, Fred, I know
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: what it is. What is it? Cried Fred? It's your
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: uncle scro o o o Oge, which it certainly was.
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: Admiration was the universal sentiment, though some objected that the
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: reply to is it a bear ought to have been yes,
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: inasmuch as an answer in the negative was sufficient to
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: have diverted their thoughts from mister Scrooge, supposing they had
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: ever had any tendency that weigh. He has given us
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 1: plenty of merriment. I am sure, said Fred, and it
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: would be ungrateful not to drink his health. Here is
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: a glass of muld wine ready to our hand at
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: the moment, and I say, Uncle Scrooge, Well, Uncle Scrooge.
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: They cried, a merry Christmas and a happy new Year
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: to the old old men. Whatever he is, said Scrooge's nephew.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: He wouldn't take it from me, but may he have it? Nevertheless,
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: Uncle Scrooge. Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: light of heart that he would have pledged the unconscious
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: company in return and thanked them in an inaudible speech,
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: if the ghost had given him time. But the whole
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: scene passed off in the breath of the last words
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: spoken by his nephew, and he and the Spirit were
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: again upon their travels. Much they saw, and far they went,
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: and many homes they visited, but always with a happy end.
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: The Spirit stood beside sick beds, and they were cheerful
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: on foreign lands, and they were close at home by
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: by poverty, And it was rich in almshouse, hospital and jail,
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: in miseries, every refuge where vain men. In his little
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: brief authority had not made fast the door and barred
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: the spirit out. He left his blessing and taught Scrooge's precepts.
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: It was a long night if it were only a night.
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: But Scrooge had his doubts of this, because the Christmas
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: they passed together. It was strange, too, that while Scrooge
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: remained unaltered in his outward form, the ghost grew older,
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: clearly older. Scrooge had observed this change, but never spoke
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: of it until they left a children's twelfth night party.
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: When looking at the spirit as they stood together in
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: an open place, he noticed that its hair was gray.
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: Are spirits live so short? Ask Scrooge. My life upon
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: this globe is very brief, replied the ghost. It ends tonight. Tonight,
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: cried Scrooge, tonight at midnight. Hark, the time is drawing near.
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: The chimes were ringing the three quarters past eleven at
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: that moment. Forgive me if I am not justified in
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: what I ask, said Scrooge, looking intently at the spirit's robe.
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: But I see something strange and not belonging to yourself
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: It might be a claw, for the flesh there is
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: upon it was the spirit's sorrowful reply. Look here, from
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: the foldings of its robe. It brought two children, wretched, abject, frighten, hideous, miserable.
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: They knelt down at its feet and clung upon the
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: outside of its garment. Oh man, look here, look look
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: down here, exclaimed the ghost. They were a boy and girl, yellow, meager, ragged, scowling, wolfish,
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: but prostrate too in their humility, Where graceful youth should
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: have filled their features out and touched them with its
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: freshest tints, a stale and shriveled hand like that of age,
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: had pinched and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds.
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked and glared
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: out menacing no change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation,
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: as monsters half so horrible and dread, ignorance and want.
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: Scrooge started back, appalled having them shown to him in
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: this way. He tried to say they were fine children,
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: but the words choked themselves. Rather than be parties to
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: a lie of such enormous magnitude, Spirit, are they yours?
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: Screw Rooge could say no more. They are man's, said
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: the spirit, looking down upon them, and they cling to me,
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: appealing from their fathers. This boy is ignorance, this girl
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: is wont beware them both and all of their degree,
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: But most of all, beware this boy, for on his
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: brow I see that written which is doom. Unless the
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: writing be erased, deny it, cry, the spirit, stretching out
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: its hand towards the city, slander those who tell it, ye,
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse.
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: And by the end have they no refuge or resource?
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: Cried Scrooge. Are there no prisons? Said the spirit, turning
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: on him for the last time with his own words.
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: Are there no workhouses? The bell struck twelve. Scrooge looked
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: about him for the ghost, and saw it not. As
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: a solemn phantom, draped and hooded, coming like a mist
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: along the ground towards him. Stay four the mast of
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: the spirits. The phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee, for
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: in the very air through which the spirit moved it
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. It was shrouded in
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face,
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: its form, and left nothing of it visible save one
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: to detach its figure from the night, and separated from
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: the darkness by which it was surrounded. He felt that
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: it was tall and stately when it came beside him,
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread.
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: He knew no more, for the spirit neither spoke nor moved.
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: I am in the presence of the ghost of Christmas
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: yet to come, said Scrooge. The Spirit answered not, but
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: pointed onward with its hand. You are about to show
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: me shadows of the things that have not happened, but
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: will happen in the time before us. Scrooge pursued, Is
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: that so, Spirit? The upper portion of the garment was
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: contracted for an instant in its folds, as if the
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: Spirit had inclined its head. That was the only answer
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: he received. Although well used to ghostly company by this time,
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: trembled beneath him, and he found that he could hardly stand.
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: When he prepared to follow it, The spirit paused a moment,
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 1: as observing his condition and giving him time to recover.
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: But Scrooge was all the worse for this. It thrilled
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: him with a vague, uncertain horror to know that behind
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him,
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: could see nothing but a spectral hand in one great
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: heap of black ghost of the future. He exclaimed, I
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: fear you more than any specter I have seen. But
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: as I know your purpose is to do me good,
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: and as I hope to live to be another man
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: from what I was, I am prepared to bear you
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: company and do it with a thankful heart. Will you
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: not speak to me? It gave him no reply. The
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: hand was pointed straight before them. Lead on, said Scrooge.
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: Lead on. The night is waning fast, and it is
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: precious time to me, I know, Lead on, spirit. The
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: phantom moved away, as it had come to towards him.
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: Scrooge followed in the shadow of its dress, which bore
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: him up, he thought, and carried him along. They scarcely
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: seemed to enter the city, for the city rather seemed
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: to spring up about them and encompass them of its
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: own act. But there they were, in the heart of it,
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: on change amongst the merchants, who hurried up and down
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: and chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in groups,
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully with their
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: great gold seals, and so forth, as Scrooge had seen them. Often,
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: the spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: Observing that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge advanced
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: to listen to their talk. No set a great fat
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: man with a monstrous chin. I don't know much about
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: it either way. I only know he's dead. When did
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: he die? Inquired another last night? I believe why? What
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: was the matter with him? Asked a third, taking a
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: vast quantity of snuff out of a very large snuff box.
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: I thought he'd never die. God knows, said the first,
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: with a yawn. What has he done with his money?
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: Asked a red faced gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: the end of his nose that shook like the gills
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: of a turkey cock. I haven't heard, said the men
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: with the large chin, yawning again. Left it to his company.
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: Perhaps he hasn't left it to me, That's all I know.
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: This pleasantry was received with a general laugh. It's likely
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: to be a very cheap funeral, said the same speaker.
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: For upon my life I don't know of anybody to
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: go to it. Suppose we make up a party and volunteer.
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: I don't mind going if a lunch is provided, observed
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: the gentleman with the excrescence on his nose. But I
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: must be fed if I make one another laugh. Well,
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: I am the most disinterested among you, after all, said
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: the first speaker. For I never wear black gloves, and
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: I never eat lunch. But I'll offer to go if
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: anybody else will. When I come to think of it,
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not at all sure that I wasn't his most
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: particular friend, For we used to stop and speak whenever
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: we met. Bye bye speakers and listeners strolled away and
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: mixed with other groups. Rouge knew the men and looked
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: towards the spirit for an explanation. The phantom glided on
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: into a street. Its finger pointed to two persons meeting.
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: Scrooge listened again, thinking that the explanation might lie here.
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: He knew these men also perfectly. They were men of business,
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: very wealthy, and of great importance. He had made a
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: point always of standing well in their esteem in a
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: business point of view, that is, strictly in a business
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: point of view. How are you said, one, how are
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: you returned? The other? Well said the first old scratch
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: has got his own at last. Hey, so I am
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: told return the second cold. Isn't it seasonable for Christmas time?
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: You're not a skater? I suppose, no, no, something else
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: to think of? Good morning, not another word. That was
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: their meeting, their conversation, and their parting. Scrooge was at
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: first inclined to be surprised that the spirit should attach
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: importance to conversations apparently so trivial, But feeling assured that
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: they must have some hidden purpose, he set himself to
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: consider what it was likely to be. They could scarcely
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: be supposed to have any bearing on the death of Jacob,
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: his old partner, for that was past, and this ghost
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: province was the future. Nor could he think of any
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: one immediately connected with himself to whom he could apply them,
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: but nothing doubting that to whomsoever they applied, they had
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: some latent moral. For his own improvement. He resolved to
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: treasure up every word he heard and everything he saw,
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: and especially to observe the shadow of himself when it appeared,
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: For he had an expectation that the conduct of his
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: future self would give him the clue he missed, and
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: would render the solution of these riddles easy. He looked
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: about in that very place for his own image, But
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: another man stood in his accustomed corner, and though the
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: clock pointed to his usual time of day, for being there,
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: he saw no likeness of himself among the multitudes that
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: poured in through the porch. It gave him little surprise, however,
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: for he had been revolving in his mind a change
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: of life and thought, and hoped he saw his new
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 1: born resolutions carried out in this quiet and dark Beside
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: him stood the phantom with its out stretched hand. When
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: he roused himself from his thoughtful quest, he fancied from
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: the turn of the hand and its situation in reference
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: to himself. That the unseen eyes were looking at him keenly.
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: It made him shudder and feel very cold. They left
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: the busy scene and went into an obscure part of
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: the town where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: recognized its situation and its bad repute. The ways were
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: foul and narrow, the shops and houses wretched, the people
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: half naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly alleys and archways, like so
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 1: many cesspools, disgorged their offenses of smell and dirt and
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 1: life upon the straggling streets, and the whole quarter reeked
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: with crime, with filth and misery. Far in this den
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: of infamous resort, there was a low browed beetling shop
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: below a pent house roof, where iron, old rags, bottles, bones,
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 1: and greasy offal were bought upon the floor. Within were
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: piled up heaps of rusty keys, nails, chains, hinges, files, scales, weights,
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: and refuse iron of all kinds. Secrets that few would
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: like to scrutinize were bred and hidden in mountains of
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchers of bones.
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: Sitting in among the wares he dealt in by a
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: charcoal stove made of old bricks, was a gray haired
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: rascal nearly seventy years of age, who had screened himself
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: from the cold air without by a frussy curtaining of
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: miscellaneous tatters, hung upon a line, and smoked his pipe
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: in all the luxury of calm retirement. Scrooge and the
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: a woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop,
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: but she had scarcely entered when another woman, similarly laden
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: came in two, and she was closely followed by a
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: man in faded black, who was no less startled by
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: the sight of them than they had been upon the
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 1: recognition of each other. After a short period of blank astonishment,
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: in which the old men with the pipe had joined them,
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: they all three burst into a laugh. Let the charwoman
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: alone to be the first, cried she who had entered first.
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: Let the laundress alone to be the second, and let
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: the undertakers men alone to be the third. Look here,
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: old Joe, here's a chance. If we haven't all three
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: met here without meaning it, you couldn't have met in
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 1: a better place, said old Joe, removing his pipe from
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: his mouth. Come into the parlor. You were made free
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: of it long ago, you know. And the other two
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: and strangers stop till I shut the door of the shop. Ah,
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: how it screaks. They ain't such a rusty bit of
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 1: metal in the place as its own hinges, I believe,
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure there's no such old bones here as mine.
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: Ha Ah. We're all suitable to our calling. We're well matched,
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: Come into the parlor. Come into the parlor. The parlor
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: was the space behind the screen of rags. The old
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 1: men raked the fire together with an old stair rod, and,
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: having trimmed his smoky lamp for it was night, with
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: the stem of his pipe, put it in his mouth again.
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: While he did this, the woman, who had already spoken
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: through her bundle on the floor and sat down in
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: a flaunting manner on a stool, crossing her elbows on
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: her knees, and looking with a bold defiance at the
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: other two. What odds then? What odds? Missus Bilbert, said
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: the woman. Every person has a right to take care
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: of themselves. He always did. That's true, indeed, said the laundress.
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: No man. More so, why then, don't stand staring as
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: if he was afraid? Woman? Who's the wiser? We're not
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: going to pick holes in each other's coats? I suppose, no, indeed,
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: said Missus Bilbert. And the men together, we should hope
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: not very well, then, cried the woman. That's enough. Who's
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: the worse for the loss of a few things like these?
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: Not a dead man, I suppose, no, indeed, said Missus Vilbert, laughing.
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: If he wanted to keep em after he was dead.
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 1: A wicked old screw pursued the woman. Why wasn't he
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: had somebody to look after him when he was struck
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: with death, instead of lying gasping out his last there
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: alone by himself. It's the truest word that ever was spoke,
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 1: said missus Bilbert. It's a judgment on him. I wish
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: it was a little heavier judgment, replied the woman, And
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 1: it should have been. You may depend upon it if
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: I could have laid my hands on anything else. Open
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: of it. Speak out plain. I'm not afraid to be
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: the first, nor afraid for them to see it. We
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: know pretty well that we were helping ourselves before we
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: met here. I believe it's no sin open the bundle, Joe.
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: But the gallantry of her friends would not allow of this,
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: and the men in faded black mounting the breech first
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: produced his plunder. It was not extensive. A seal or two,
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: a pencil case, a pair of sleeve buttons, and a
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: brooch of no great value were all. They were severally
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: examined and appraised by Old Joe, who chopped the sums
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: he was disposed to give for each upon the wall,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: and added them up into a total when he found
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 1: there was nothing more to come. That's your account, said Joe,
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 1: and I wouldn't give another sixpence if I was to
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: be boiled for not doing it. Who's next, missus Dilbear
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: was next, sheets and towels, a little wearing apparel, two
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: old fashioned silver teaspoons, a pair of sugar tongs, and
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: a few boots. Her account was stated on the wall
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: in the same manner. I always give too much to ladies.
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: It's a weakness of mine, and that's the way I
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 1: ruin myself, said Old Joe. That's your account. If you
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: asked me for another penny and made it an open question,
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: I'd repent of being so liberal and knock off half
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: a crown. And now undo my bundle, Joe, said the
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: first woman. Joe went down on his knees for the
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: greater convenience of opening it, and, having unfastened a great
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: many knots, dragged out a large and heavy roll of
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 1: some dark stuff. What do you call this? Said Joe.
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 1: Bed curtains Ah returned the woman, laughing and leaning forward
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: on her crossed arms bed curtains. You don't mean to
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: say you took em down, rings and all with him
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: lying there, said Joe. Yes, I do, replied the woman.
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: Why not. You were born to make your fortune, said Joe,
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: and you'll certainly do it. I certainly shan't hold my
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: hand when I can get anything in it by reaching
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: it out. For the sake of such a man as
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: he was, I promise you, Joe, returned the woman coolly.
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: Don't drop that oil upon the blankets now his blankets,
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: asked Joe. Who's else's do you think? Replied the woman.
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: He isn't likely to take cold without em. I dare say.
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: I hope he didn't die of anything catching, eh, said
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: old Joe, stopping in his work and looking up. Don't
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: you be afraid of that, returned the woman. I had
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: so fond of his company that I'd loiter about him
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: for such things if he did. Ah, you may look
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: through the shirt till your eyes ache, but you won't
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: find a hole in it, nor a threadbare place. It's
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: the best he had, and a fine one too. They'd
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: have wasted it if it hadn't been for me. What
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 1: do you call wasting of it, asked Old Joe, putting
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 1: it on him to be buried in to be sure,
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: replied the woman with a laugh. Somebody was fool enough
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: to do it, but I took it off again. If
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: Kaliko and good enough for such a purpose it it
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: isn't good enough for anything. It's quite as becoming to
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: the body. He can't look uglier than he did in
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: that one. Scrooge listened to this dialog in horror. As
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: they sat grouped about their spoil in the scanty light
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: afforded by the old man's lamp. He viewed them with
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: a detestation, in disgust which could hardly have been greater,
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: though they had been obscene demons marketing the corpse itself.
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: Ha ha, laughed the same woman, when Old Joe, producing
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: a flannel bag with money in it, told out their
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: several gains upon the ground. This is the end of it,
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: you see. He frightened every one away from him when
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: he was alive, to profit us when he was dead.
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: Ha ah ha, spirit, said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot.
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: I see, I see the case of this unhappy man
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: might be my own. My life tends that way. Now,
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: merciful Heaven, what is this? He recoiled in terror, for
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: the scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bed,
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: a bear on curtained bed, on which, beneath a ragged sheet,
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: there lay a something up which, though it was dumb,
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: announced itself in awful language. The room was very dark,
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: too dark to be observed with any accuracy, though Scrooge
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse, anxious
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: to know what kind of room it was. A pale light,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed,
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: and on it plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 1: was the body of this man? Scrooge glanced towards the phantom.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: Its steady hand was pointed to the head. The cover
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of it,
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part, would have
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: disclosed the face. He thought of it, felt how easy
• 2:01:37
  Speaker 1: it would be to do, and longed to do it,
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: but had no more power to withdraw the veil than
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: to dismiss the specter at his side. Oh, cold, cold, rigid,
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: dreadful death. Set up thine altar here and dress it
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: with such terrors as thou hast at thy command. For
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: this is thy dominion. But of the loved, revered and
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: honored head, Thou canst not turn one hair to thy
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released.
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: It is not that the heart and pulse are still,
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: but that the hand was open, generous and true, the
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: heart brave, warm and tender, and the pulse of man's
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: strike shadow strike, and see his good deeds springing from
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 1: the wound, to sow the world with life immortal. No
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: voice pronounced these words in Scrooge's ears, and yet he
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: heard them. When he looked upon the bed, he thought,
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: if this man could be raised up now, what would
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: be his foremost thoughts? Avarice, hard dealing, griping cares. They
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: have brought him to a rich end. Truly, he lay
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: in the dark, empty house, with not a man, a woman,
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: or a child to say that he was kind to
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: me in this or that. And for the memory of
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 1: one kind word, I will be kind to him. A
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 1: cat was tearing at the door, and there was a
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: sound of gnawing rats beneath the hearthstone, what they wanted
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: in the room of death, and why they were so
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: restless and disturbed. Scrooge did not dare to think, spirit,
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: he said, this is a fearful place. In leaving it,
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: I shall not leave its lesson. Trust me, let us
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 1: go still. The ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: the head. I understand you, Scrooge returned, and I would
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: do it if I could, But I have not the power. Spirit,
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: I have not the power. Again, it seemed to look
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: upon him. If there is any person in the town
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: who feels a motion caused by this man's death, said Scrooge,
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: quite agonized, show that person to me, Spirit, I beseech you.
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: The phantom spread its dark robe before him for a moment,
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: like a wing, and withdrawing it revealed a room by daylight,
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: where a mother and her children were. She was expecting
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: some one, and with anxious eagerness for she walked up
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: and down the room, started at every sound, looked out
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: from the window, glanced at the clock, tried but in
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: vain to work with her needle, and could hardly bear
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: the voices of the children in their play. At length,
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 1: the long expected knock was heard. She hurried to the
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: door and met her husband, a man whose face was
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: careworn and depressed. Though he was young, there was a
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: remarkable expression in it now, a kind of serious delight
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: of which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled to repress.
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: He sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: for him by the fire, and when she asked him faintly,
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: what news, which was not until after a long silence,
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: he appeared embarrassed. How to answer? Is it good? She said?
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: Or bad? To help him bad? He answered, we are
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: quite ruined. No, there is hope yet, Caroline. If he relents,
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: she said, amazed, there is nothing is past hope. If
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: such a miracle has happened, he is past relenting, said
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: her husband. He is dead. She was a mild and
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: patient creature if her face spoke truth, but she was
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: thankful in her soul to hear it, and she said
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: so with clasped hands. She prayed forgiveness the next moment,
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: and was sorry. But the first was the emotion of
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: her heart. What the half drunken woman whom I told
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: you of last night said to me when I tried
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: to see him and obtain a week's delay, And what
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: I thought was a mere excuse to avoid me, turns
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: out to have been quite true. He was not only
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: very ill, but dying. Then to whom will our debt
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: be transferred? I don't know, But before that time we
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: shall be ready with the money. And even though we
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: were not, it would be a bad fortune indeed, to
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: find so merciless a creditor in his Successor we may
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: sleep to night with light hearts, Caroline, Yes, soften it
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: as they would. Their hearts were lighter, The children's faces
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: hushed and clustered round to hear what they so little understood,
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: were brighter, and it was a happier house for this
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: man's death. The only emotion that the ghost could show
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: him caused by the event was one of pleasure. Let
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: me see some tenderness connected with the death, said Scrooge.
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: Or that dark chamber spirit which we left just now
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: will be forever present to me. The ghost conducted him
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: through several streets familiar to his feet, and as they
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: went along, Scrooge looked here and there to find himself,
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: But nowhere was he to be seen. They entered poor
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: Bob Cratchett's house, the dwelling he had visited before and
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: found the mother and the children seated round the fire, quiet,
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: very quiet. The noisy little cratchits were as still as
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: statues in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter,
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: who had a book before him. The mother and her
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: daughters were engaged in sewing, but surely they were very quiet.
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: And he took a child and set him in the
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: midst of them. Where had Scrooge heard those words? He
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: had not dreamed them. The boy must have read them
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 1: out as he and the spirit crossed the threshold. Why
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: did he not go on? The mother laid her work
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: upon the table and put her hand up to her face.
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: The color hurts my eyes, she said. The color. Ah, poor,
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: tiny tim They're better now again, said Cratchett's wife. It
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: makes them weak by candle light. And I wouldn't show
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: weak eyes to your father when he comes home for
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: the world. It must be near his time passed it rather,
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: Peter answered, shutting up his book. But I think he
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: has walked a little slower than he used these few
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: last evenings. Mother, they were very quiet again at last,
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: she said, and in a steady, cheerful voice that only
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: faltered once. I have known him walk with I have
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: known him walk with tiny Tim upon his shoulder very fast. Indeed,
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 1: and so have I, cried Peter often, and so have
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: I exclaimed another, so had all. But he was very
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: light to carry. She resumed intent upon her work, and
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: his father loved him so that it was no trouble,
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: no trouble. And there is your father at the door.
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: She hurried out to meet him, and little Bob and
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: his comforter he had need of it. Poor fellow came in.
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: His tea was ready for him on the hob, and
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: they all tried who should help him to it most.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: Then the two young Cratchits got upon his knees and
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: laid each child a little cheek against his face, as
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: if they said, don't mind it, father, don't be grieved.
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: all the family. He looked at the work upon the
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 1: table and praised the industry in speed of missus Cratchit
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: and the girls. They would be done long before Sunday,
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: he said, Sunday you went to day? Then, Robert said
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: his wife. Yes, my dear, returned Bob, I wish you
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: could have gone. It would have done you good to
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: see how green a place it is, but you'll see
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: it often. I promised him that I would walk there
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: on a Sunday. My little little child, cried Bob, my
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: little child. He broke down all at once. He couldn't
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: help it. If he could have helped it, he and
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: his child would have been farther apart, perhaps than they were.
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: He left the room and went upstairs into the room above,
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: which was lighted cheerfully and hung with Christmas. There was
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 1: a chair set close beside the child, and there were
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: signs of some one having been there lately. Poor Bob
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: sat down in it, and when he had thought a
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: little and composed himself, he kissed the little face. He
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: was reconciled to what had happened, and went down again,
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: quite happy. They drew about the fire and talked, the
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: girls and mother working still. Bob told them of the
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: extraordinary kindness of mister Scrooge's nephew, whom he had scarcely
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 1: seen but once, and who meeting him in the street
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: the day, and seeing that he looked a little just
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: a little down, you know, said Bob, inquired what had
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: happened to distress him? On which said Bob, for he
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 1: is the pleasantest spoken gentleman you ever heard. I told him,
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: I am heartily sorry for it, mister Cratchit, he said,
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: and heartily sorry for your good wife. By the bye.
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: How he ever knew that, I don't know knew what,
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: my dear why that you were a good wife, replied Bob.
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: Everybody knows that, said Peter, very well observed my boy,
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: cried Bob. I hope they do. Heartily sorry, he said,
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: for your good wife. If I can be of service
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: to you in any way, he said, giving me his card,
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: that's where I live, pray, come to me now. It wasn't,
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: cried Bob, for the sake of anything he might be
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: able to do for us, so much as for his
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: kind way. That this was quite delightful. It really seemed
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: as if he had known our tiny tim and felt
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: with us. I'm sure he's a good soul, said missus Cratchit.
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 1: You would be sure of it, my dear, returned Bob.
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: If you saw and spoke to him, I shouldn't be
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 1: at all surprised. Mark what I say, if he got
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: Peter a better situation. Only hear that, Peter, said Missus Cratchit,
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: and then cried one of the girls, Peter will be
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 1: keeping company with some one and setting up for himself.
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: Get along with you, retorted Peter, grinning. It's just as
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: likely as not, said Bob. One of these days, though
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: there's plenty of time for that, my dear. But however,
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: and whenever we part from one another, I am sure
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: we shall none of us forget poor tiny Tim, shall we?
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: Or this first parting that there was among us? Never? Father?
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: Cried they all. And I know, said Bob, I know,
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: my DearS, that when we recollect, how patient and how
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: mild he was, although he was a little little child,
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves and forget poor
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: tiny Tim in doing it. No, Never, Father, they all
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: cried again. I am very happy, said little Bob. I
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 1: am very happy. Missus Cratchit kissed him, His daughters kissed him.
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: The two young Cratchits kissed him, and Peter and himself
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: shook hands. Spirit of tiny Tim, like childish essence was
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: from God, specter, said Scrooge. Something informs me that our
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: parting moment is at hand. I know it, but I
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: know not how tell me what man that was whom
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: we saw lying dead? The ghost of Christmas? Yet to come,
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: conveyed him as before, though at a different time. He thought. Indeed,
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: there seemed no order in these latter visions, save that
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: they were in the future into the resorts of business men.
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: But showed him not himself. Indeed, the spirit did not
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 1: stay for anything, but went straight on as to the
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: end just now desired, until besought by Scrooge to tarry
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: for a moment. This court, said Scrooge, through which we hurry.
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: Now is where my place of occupation is, and has
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: been for a length of time. I see the house,
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: Let me behold what I shall be in days to come.
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: The spirit stopped, the hand was pointed elsewhere. The house
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: is yonder. Scrooge exclaimed, Why do you point away? The
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: inexorable finger underwent no change. Scrooge hastened to the window
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: of his office and looked in. It was an office still,
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 1: but not his is. The furniture was not the same,
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: and the figure in the chair was not himself. The
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: phantom pointed as before. He joined it once again, and,
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: wondering why and whither he had gone, accompanied it until
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: they reached an iron gate. He paused to look round
• 2:12:14
  Speaker 1: before entering a churchyard. Here then the wretched men, whose
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: name he had now to learn, lay underneath the ground.
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: It was a worthy place, wallden by houses, overrun by
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: grass and weeds, the growth of vegetation's death, not life
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: choked up with too much burying fat, with replete appetite,
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: a worthy place. The spirit stood among the graves and
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 1: pointed down to one. He advanced towards it, trembling. The
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 1: phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 1: that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape. Before
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 1: I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, Answer me one question. Are these the shadows
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: of the things that will be? Or are the shadows
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: of things that may be? Only? Still? The ghost pointed
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: downward to the grave by which it stood. Men's courses
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: must lead, said Scrooge. But if the courses be departed
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: from the ends, will change. Say it is thus with
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: what you show me. The spirit was immovable, as ever.
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went, and following
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 1: the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: his own name, Ebenezer Scrooge, The last of the spirits,
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: The last of the spirits? Am I that men who
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: lay upon the bed? He cried upon his knees. The
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: finger pointed from the grave to him and back again.
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: No spirit, Oh, no, no, the finger still was there. Spirit.
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: He cried, tight, clutching at its robe. Hear me, I
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: am not the men I was. I will not be
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: the men I must have been. But for this intercourse?
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: Why show me this? If I am past all hope?
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: For the first time, the hand appeared to shake good spirit,
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it.
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 1: Your nature intercedes from me and pities me. Assure me
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: that I yet may change these shadows you have shown
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: me by an altered life. The kind hand trembled. I
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 1: it all the year. I will live in the past,
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: the present, and the future. The spirits of all three
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: shall strive within me. I will not shut out the
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: lessons that they teach. Oh tell me, I may sponge
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: away the writing on this stone. In his agony, he
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: he was strong in his entreaty and detained it. The
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: spirit stronger yet repulsed him. Holding up his hands in
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: a last prayer to have his fate reversed. He saw
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: an alteration in the phantoms hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed,
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 1: and dwindled down into a bedpost. Stay five the end
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: of it. Yes, And the bedpost was his own. The
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: bed was his own, the room was his own, best
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: and happiest of all. The time before him was his
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: own to make amends in. I will live in the past,
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: the present, and the future, Scrooge repeated as he scrambled
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 1: out of bed. The spirits of all three shall strive
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: within me. Oh, Jacob Marley, Heaven and the Christmas Time
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 1: be praised for this. I say it on my knees,
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: Old Jacob, on my knees. He was so fluttered and
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 1: so glowing with his good intentions that his broken voice
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 1: would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: violently in his conflict with the spirit, and his face
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: was wet with tears. They are not torn down, cried Scrooge,
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: folding one of his bed curtains in his arms. They
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: are not torn down, rings and all they are here.
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: I am here, the shadows of the things that would
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: have been may be dispelled. They will be, I know
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 1: they will. His hands were busy with his garments all
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 1: this time, turning them inside out, putting them on upside down,
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: of extravagance. I don't know what to do, cried Scrooge,
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: laughing and crying in the same breath, and making a
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: perfect layacoon of himself with his stockings. I am as
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel.
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody,
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: A happy New Year to all the world. Hullo here, whoop, hullo.
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: He had frisked into the sitting room and was now
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: standing there, perfectly winded. There's the saucepand that the gruel
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: was in, cried Scrooge, starting off again and going round
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: the fireplace. There's the door by which the ghost of
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: Jacob Marley entered. There's the corner where the ghost of
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 1: Christmas Present sat. There's the window where I saw the
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: wandering spirits. It's all right, it's all true, it all happened.
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 1: Ha ha ha. Really for a man who had been
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: out of practice for so many years, it was a
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh, the father of a long,
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 1: long line of brilliant laughs. I don't know what day
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: of the month it is, said Scrooge. I don't know
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: how long I've been among the spirits. I don't know anything.
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: I'm quite a baby. Never mind, I don't care. I'd
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: rather be a baby. Hullo, whoop, hullo. Here he was
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 1: checked in his transports by the churches, ringing out the
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clang, hammer, ding dong, bell,
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: bell dong, ding, hammer, clang, clash, Oh, glorious, glorious. Running
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: to the window, he opened it and put out his head.
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 1: No fog, no mist, clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold, cold
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 1: piping for the blood to dance to golden sunlight, heavenly sky,
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: sweet fresh air, merry bells. Oh, glorious, glorious. What's to day?
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: Cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes,
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 1: who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. Eh
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: returned the boy with all his might of wonder, what's
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: to day, my fine fellow, said Scrooge. To day, replied
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: the boy. Why Christmas Day? It's Christmas Day, said Scrooge
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: to himself. I haven't missed it. The spirits have done
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 1: it all in one night. They can do anything they like.
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: Of course they can. Of course they can. Hullo, my
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: fine fellow. Hullo, returned the boy. Do you know the
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: poulterers in the next street, but one at the corner,
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: Scrooge inquired, I should hope I did, replied the lad.
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: An intelligent boy, said Scrooge. A remarkable boy. Do you
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: know whether they've sold the prize turkey that was hanging
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: up there? Not the little prize turkey, the big one?
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 1: What the one as big as me? Returned the boy.
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: What a delightful boy, said Scrooge. It's a pleasure to
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: talk to him. Yes, my buck, it's hanging there now,
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: replied the boy. Is it, said Scrooge. Go and buy it, walker,
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 1: exclaimed the boy. No, No, said Scrooge. I am in earnest.
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: Go and buy it and tell em to bring it
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 1: here that I may give them the direction where to
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: take it. Come back with the men, and I'll give
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: you a shilling. Come back with him in less than
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: five minutes, and I'll give you half a crown. The
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: boy was off like a shot. He must have had
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: a steady hand at a trigger. Who could have got
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: a shot off half so fast. I'll send it to
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 1: Bob Cratchit's, whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands and splitting with
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 1: a laugh. He sha'n't know who sends it. It's twice
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: the size of tiny Tim Joe Miller never made such
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: a joke as sending it to Bob's will be. The
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: hand in which he wrote the address was not a
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: steady one. But write it he did, somehow, and went
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: downstairs to open the street door, ready for the coming
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: of a polterer's man. As he stood there waiting his arrival,
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 1: the knocker caught his eye. I shall love it as
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 1: long as I live, cried Scrooge, patting it with his hand.
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: I scarcely ever looked at it before. What an honest
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 1: expression it has in its face. It's a wonderful knocker.
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: Here's the turkey. Hullo, whoop, how are you merry Christmas?
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 1: It was a turkey. He never could have stood upon
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: his legs that bird. He would have snapped m short
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 1: off in a minute, like sticks of sealing wax. Why
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: it's impossible to carry that to Camden town, said Scrooge.
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: You must have a cab. The chuckle with which he
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 1: said this, and the chuckle with which he paid for
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 1: the turkey, and the chuckle with which he paid for
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: the cab, and the chuckle with which he recompensed the boy,
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: he sat down breathless in his chair again and chuckled
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 1: till he cried. Shaving was not an easy task, for
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: his hand continued to shake very much, and shaving requires attention,
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: even when you don't dance while you are at it.
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: But if he had cut the end of his nose off,
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: he would have put a piece of sticking plaster over
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 1: it and been quite satisfied. He dressed himself all in
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: his best and at last got out into the streets.
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: The people were by this time pouring forth as he
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 1: had seen them. With the ghost of Christmas present, and
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 1: walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 1: with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant in
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 1: a word, that three or four good humored fellows said
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: good morning, sir, A merry Christmas to you, And Scrooge
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: said often afterwards that of all the blithe sounds he
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 1: had ever heard, those were the blithest. In his ears.
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: He had not gone far when coming on towards him,
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: he beheld the portly gentleman who had walked into his
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: counting house the day before, and said, Scrooge and Marley's
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: I believe it sent a pang across his heart to
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: think how this old gentleman would look upon him when
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: they met. But he knew what path lay straight before him,
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: and he took it. My dear sir, said Scrooge, quickening
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 1: his pace, and taking the old gentleman by both his hands.
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: How do you do? I hope you succeeded yesterday. It
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: was very kind of you. A merry Christmas to you, sir,
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: mister Scrooge, Yes, said Scrooge, that is my name. And
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 1: I fear it may not be pleasant to you. Allow
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: me to ask your pardon and what you have the
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 1: goodness here, Scrooge whispered in his ear. Lord bless me,
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: cried the gentleman, as if his breath were taken away.
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: My dear mister, Scrooge, Are you serious, if you please,
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, not a farthing less a great many back
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 1: payments are included in it. I assure you will you
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: do me that favor, My dear sir, said the other,
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 1: shaking hands with him. I don't know what to say
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 1: to such unify. Don't say anything, please, retorted Scrooge. Come
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 1: and see me. Will you come and see me? I will,
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: cried the old gentleman, And it was clear he meant
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: to do it. Thank'eye, said Scrooge. I am much obliged
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: to you. I thank you fifty times bless you. He
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: went to church and walked about the streets and watched
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: the people hurrying to and fro and patted children on
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 1: the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the
• 2:22:45
  Speaker 1: kitchens of houses and up to the windows, and found
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 1: that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: that any walk, that anything, could give him so much happiness.
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: In the afternoon, he turned his steps towards his nephew's house.
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: He passed the door a dozen times before he had
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 1: the courage to go up and knock. But he made
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: a dash and did it. Is your master at home?
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: My dear, said Scrooge to the girl. Nice girl, very yes, sir,
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 1: Where is he, my love? Said Scrooge. He's in the
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 1: dining room, sir, along with mistress. I'll show you upstairs
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 1: if you please. Thank'e e he knows me, said Scrooge,
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 1: with his hand already on the dining room lock. I'll
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 1: go in here, my dear. He turned it gently and
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 1: sidled his face in round the door. They were looking
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: at the table, which was spread out in great array.
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 1: For these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points,
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 1: and like to see that everything is right. Fred, said Scrooge,
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 1: dear heart alive. How his niece by marriage started. Scrooge
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 1: had forgotten for the moment about her sitting in the
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 1: corner with the footstool, or he wouldn't have done it
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 1: on any account. Why, bless my soul, cried Fred, who's that?
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 1: It's I, your uncle'sc Rooge. I have come to dinner.
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: Will you let me in? Fred? Let him in? It
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 1: is a mercy. He didn't shake his arm off. He
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier.
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: His niece looked just the same, so did Topper when
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: he came so did the plump sister when she came.
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 1: So did every one when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful games,
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 1: wonderful unanimity, wonderful happiness. But he was early at the
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 1: office next morning. Oh, he was early there. If he
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: could only be there first and catch Bob Cratchit coming late.
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 1: That was the thing he had set his heart upon,
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 1: and he did it. Yes he did. The clock struck nine,
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 1: No Bob. A quarter passed, no Bob. He was full
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 1: eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 1: with his door wide open that he might see him
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: come into the tank. His hat was off before he
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: opened the door. His comforter too. He was on his
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: stool in a jiffy, driving away with his pen as
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock. Hullo, growled
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: Scrooge in his accustomed voice, as near as he could
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: feign it. What do you mean by coming here at
• 2:25:11
  Speaker 1: this time of day? I am very sorry, sir, said Bob.
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 1: I am behind my time, you are, repeated Scrooge. Yes,
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: I think you are. Step this way, sir, if you please,
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 1: It's only once a year, sir, pleaded Bob. Appearing from
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 1: the tank. It shall not be repeated. I was making
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 1: rather merry yesterday, sir. Now I'll tell you what my
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 1: friend said Scrooge. I am not going to stand this
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 1: sort of thing any longer. And therefore he continued leaping
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 1: from his stool and giving Bob such a dig in
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: the waistcoat that he staggered back into the tank again.
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: And therefore I am about to raise your salary. Bob
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 1: trembled and got a little nearer to the ruler. He
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it,
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: holding him and calling to the people in the court
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 1: for help in a strait waistcoat. A merry Christmas, Bob,
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken,
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 1: as he clapped him on the back. A merrier Christmas, Bob,
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: my good fellow, than I have given you for many
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: a year. I'll raise your salary and endeavor to assist
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this
• 2:26:18
  Speaker 1: very afternoon over a Christmas bowl of smoking Bishop, Bob,
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 1: make up the fires and buy another coal. Scuttle before
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: you got another eye, Bob, cratchit Scrooge and Bob Cratchit.
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 1: Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: and infinitely more. And to Tiny Tim, who did not die,
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 1: he was a second father. He became as good a friend,
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: as good a master, and as good a man as
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: the good old city knew, or any other good old city,
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: town or borough in the good old world. Some people
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 1: laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 1: them laugh, and little heeded them, for he was wise
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 1: enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 1: for good, at which some people did not have their
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 1: fill of laughter in the outset, And knowing that such
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 1: as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins,
• 2:27:02
  Speaker 1: as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 1: heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him. He
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 1: had no further intercourse with spirits, but lived upon the
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: total abstinence principle ever afterwards. And it was always said
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well.
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: If any man alive possessed the knowledge, may that be
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 1: truly said of us and all of us. And so
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 1: as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, every one,