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🟡 Christmas Carol (Full Audiobook) | Charles Dickens · Weird Fiction Audiobooks: Cosmic Horror, Strange Realities & Uncanny Tales

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: A Christmas Carol in Prose, being a ghost story of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Christmas by Charles Dickens. Preface I have endeavoured in this
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: ghostly little book to raise the ghost of an idea
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: with each other, with the season, or with me. May
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: lay it. Your Faithful Friend and Servant, C.D. December, 1843
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Stave 1. Marley's Ghost Marley was dead to begin with,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: there is no doubt whatsoever about that. The register of
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge's name
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: was good upon change for anything he chose to put
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I don't mean to say that I know of my
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: own knowledge what there is particularly dead about a door-nail.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I might have been inclined myself to regard a coffer-nail
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: as the deadest piece of iron-mongery in the trade, But
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile, and
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: my unhallowed hand shall not disturb it or the country's
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that Marley was as dead as a doornail. Scrooge knew
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: he was dead? Of course he did. How could it
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: sole friend and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: he was an excellent man of business in the very
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: day of the funeral, and solemnized it with an undoubted parkin'.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: was dead. This should be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: can come of the story I am going to relate.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's father died
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: upon his own ramparts, than there would be of any
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: breezy spot, say, St. Paul's Churchyard, for instance, literally to
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: astonish his son's weak mind. Scrooge never painted out old
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Marley's name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Sometimes people knew to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: all the same to him. Oh, but he was a
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: covetous old sinner, hard and sharp as flint, from which
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: no steel ever struck out generous fire, secret and self-contained
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: stiffened his gait, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: rhyme was on his head and on his eyebrows and
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: about with him. He iced his office in the dark
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: days and didn't thaw at one degree at Christmas. External
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Far weathered and did nowhere to have him. The heaviest
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: rain and snow and hail and sleet could boast one
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: advantage over him in only one respect. They often came
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: down handsomely, and Scrooge never did. Nobody ever stopped him
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: on the street to say, with gladsome looks, My dear Scrooge,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: how are you? When will you come to see me?
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: ever once in all his life inquired to the way
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: to such and such a place of Scrooge. Even the
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: blind men's dogs appeared to know him, and when they
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: saw him coming on, would tug their owners into hallways
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and up courts, and then would wag their tails as
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: though they said, No eye at all is better than
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: an evil-eyed dark master. But what did Scrooge care? It
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: was the very thing he liked. To etch his way
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones called
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: nuts to Scrooge. Once upon a time, of all the
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: good days in the year on Christmas Eve, old Scrooge
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: foggy withal, and he could hear the people in the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: court outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: stones to warm them. The city clocks had just gone three,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: but it was quite dark already, it had not been
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: light all day, and candles were flaring in windows of
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: the neighbouring offices like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and was so dense without that although the court was
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: might have thought nature lived hard by and was brewing
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: on a larger scale. The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: that he might keep an eye upon his clock, when
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: a dismal little cell beyond sort of tank was copying letters.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: was so much smaller that it looked like one coal.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: in his own room, and so surely as the clerk
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: put on his white comforter and tried to warm himself
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: with the candle, in which effort, not being a man
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of strong imagination, he failed. A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: save you! cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: of Scrooge's nephew, who had come upon him so quickly
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: that this was the first intimation he had of his approach. Bah!
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. Humbug! He had so heated himself with rapid
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: that he was all to glow. His face was ruddy
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: and handsome, his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.'
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Christmas a humbug, uncle,' said Scrooge's nephew.' You don't mean that,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sure.'' I do,' said Scrooge.' Merry Christmas. What right
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: have you to be merry? What reason have you to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: be merry? You're poor enough.'' Come, then,' returned the nephew gaily.'
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: What right have you to be dismal? What reason have
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: you to be morose? You're rich enough.' scrooge having no
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: better answer ready at the spur of the moment said
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: bah again and followed up with humbug don't be cross
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: uncle said the nephew what else can i be returned
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: the uncle when i live in such a world of
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: fools as this merry christmas out upon merry christmas What's
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: without money, a time for finding yourself a year older
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: but not an hour richer, a time for balancing your
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: books and having every item in them through a round
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: work my will, said Scrooge indignantly, every idiot who goes
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: about with Merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: in his own pudding and buried with a stick of
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: holly through his heart, he should. Uncle, pleaded the nephew. Nephew!
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: returned the uncle, sternly. Keep Christmas in your own way,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and let me keep it in mine. Keep it, repeated
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew, but you don't keep it. Let me leave
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: it alone, then, said Scrooge. Much good it may do you,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: much good it has ever done you. There are many
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: things from which I have derived good, by which I
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: have not profited, I dare say, returned the nephew, Christmas
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: among the rest. But I am sure I have always
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: thought of Christmas time, when it has come round apart
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: from the veneration to its sacred name and origin, if
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: anything belonging to it can be apart from that, as
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time, the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: only time I know of in the long calendar of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the year when men and women seem by one consent
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: other journeys, and therefore, uncle, THOUGH IT HAS NEVER PUT
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: A SCRAP OF GOLD AND SILVER IN MY POCKET, I
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: BELIEVE THAT IT HAS DONE ME GOOD, AND WILL DO
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: ME GOOD, AND I SAY, GOD BLESS IT!' The clerk
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: in the tank, involuntarily applauded, becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: for ever.' Let me hear another sound out of you,'
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge,' and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation!'
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: You're quite a powerful speaker, sir, he said, turning to
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: his nephew. I wonder you don't go to Parliament. Don't
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: be angry, uncle. Come, dine with us to-morrow. Scrooge said
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: he would see him. Yes, indeed he would. He went
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: up the whole length of expression and said that he
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: would see him in that extremity first. But why? cried
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew. Why? Why did you get married? said Scrooge.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Because I fell in love. because you fell in love,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: growled Scrooge, as if it were the only thing in
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. Good afternoon. Nay, uncle,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: but you never came to see me before that happened.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Why give it as a reason for not coming now?
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon, said Scrooge. I want nothing from you. I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: ask nothing of you.' Why cannot we be friends? Good afternoon!''
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I am sorry, with all my heart, that I find
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel for
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: which I have been a party. But I have made
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the trial an homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Christmas humour to the last. So a merry Christmas, uncle!''
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon!' said Scrooge.' And a happy New Year!'' Good afternoon!'
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge.' His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: He stopped at the outer door to bestow his greetings
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: was warmer than Scrooge, for he returned them cordially.' There' s
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: another fellow,' muttered Scrooge, who overheard him.' My clerk, with
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family talking
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: about a merry Christmas, I'll retire to Bedlam.' This lunatic,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold. and now stood
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: with their hats off in Scrooge's office. They had books
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: and papers in their hands, and bowed to him.' Scrooge
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: and Marley's, I believe,' said one of the gentlemen, referring
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: to his list.' Have I had the pleasure of addressing Mr.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Scrooge and Mr. Marley?'' Mr. Marley has been dead these
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: seven years,' Scrooge replied.' He died seven years ago this
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: very night.'' We have no doubt his liberality is well
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: represented by his surviving partner,' said the gentleman, presenting his credentials.'
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: It certainly was, for they had been two kindred spirits.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: At the ominous word liberality, Scrooge frowned and shook his
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: head and handed the credentials back.' At this festive season
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: of the year, Mr. Scrooge,' said this gentleman, taking up
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a pen,' it is more than usually desirable that we
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: who suffer greatly at this present time. Many thousands are
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: in want of common necessaries. Hundreds of thousands are in
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: want of common comfort, sir.' Are there no prisons? said Scrooge.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Bloody prisons! said the gentleman, laying down his pen again.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: And the union workhouses? demanded Scrooge. Are they still in operation?
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: They are still, returned the gentleman. I wish I could
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: say they were not. The treadmill and the paw-law are
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: in full vigour then? said Scrooge. They're both very busy, sir. Oh,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I was afraid from what you said at first that
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. I'm very glad to hear it.' Under the
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind and
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: body to the multitude,' returned the gentleman,' a few of
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: us are endeavouring to raise a fund, to buy the
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: poor some meat and drink in means of warmth.' We
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: choose this time because it is the time of all
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: others when want is keenly felt, and abundance rejoices.' What
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: shall I put you down for?'' Nothing,' Scrooge replied.' You
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: wish to be anonymous?'' I wish to be left alone,'
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge.' Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: that is my answer.' I don't make merry myself at Christmas,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and I can't afford to make idle people merry.' I
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: help to support the establishments I have mentioned.' They cost enough,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and those who are badly off must go there.'' Many
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: can't go there, and many would rather die.'' If they
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: would rather die,' said Scrooge,' they' d better do it and
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: decrease the surplus population.' Besides—'' Excuse me, I don't know that,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: but you might know it, observed the gentleman.' It' s not
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: my business.' Scrooge returned.' It' s enough for a man to
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: understand his own business and not to interfere with other people's.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen.' Seeing clearly that
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: this would be useless to pursue the point, the gentleman withdrew.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Scrooge resumed his labours with an improved opinion of himself,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: and in a more facetious temper than usual, with him.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so. that people ran
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: horses and carriages and conduct them on their way. The
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: ancient tower of the church, whose gruff old bell was
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: always peeping slyly down its scrooge out of a Gothic
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: window in the wall, became invisible and struck the hours
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and quarters in the clouds, with tremendous vibrations afterwards as
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: if its teeth were shattering in its frozen head up there.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: The cold became intense. In the main street at the
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: corner of the court some labourers were repairing the gas-pipes,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: and it lighted a great fire and a brazier, round
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: and rapture, the water-plug being left in solitude and its
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: overflowing sullenly congealed and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: of the shops, where holly sprigs and berries crackled in
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the lamp-heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: they passed, Poulter's and Gross's trades became a splendid joke,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a glorious pageant, in which it was next to impossible
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: had anything to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: of the mighty mansion-house, gave orders to his fifty cooks
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household should.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And even the little tailor, whom he had fined five
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: in the streets, stirred up tomorrow's pudding in his garret.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: while his lean wife and the babies sailed out to
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: buy the beef. Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting cold.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: If the good St. Dunstan had but nipped the evil
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: to regale him with a Christmas carol but at the
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: first sound of God bless you, merry gentlemen, and may
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: nothing you dismay, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost. At
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: an ill will Scrooge dismounted from his stool and tacitly
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: admitted the fact to the expected clerk in the tank,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: who instantly snuffed his candle out and put on his hat.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: You'll want all day tomorrow, I suppose, said Scrooge. If
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: it's quite convenient, sir. It's not convenient, said Scrooge, and
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: it's not fair. If I were to stop half a
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: crown for it, you'd think yourself ill-used, I'll be bound.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: The clerk smiled faintly. And yet, said Scrooge, you don't
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: think me ill-used when I pay a day's wages for
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: no work? The clerk observed that it was only once
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: a year. A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: every 25th of December, said Scrooge, buttoning his greatcoat to
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: his chin. but I suppose you must have the whole day.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I'll be here all the earlier the next morning. The
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: clerk promised that he would, and Scrooge walked out with
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: a growl. The office was closed in a twinkling, and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: dangling below his waist, for he boasted no great coat,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: went down a slide on Corn Hill, at the end
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: of the lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Campton
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Town as hard as he could pelt to play at
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Blind Man's Bluff. Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: usual melancholy tavern, and having read all the papers, and
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker's book,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a yard, where it had so little business to be
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: that one could scarcely have fancied, that I must have
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: run there when it was a young house, playing at
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: It was old enough now, and dreary enough, for nobody
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being all
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: let out as offices. The yard was so dark that
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: grope with his hands. The fog and frost so hung
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: about the black old gateway of the house that it
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: seemed as if the genius of the weather sat in
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: mournful meditation on the threshold. Now, it is a fact
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: that there was nothing in particular about the knocker on
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: the door, except that it was very large. It is
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: also a fact that Scrooge had seen it night and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: morning during his whole residence in that place, also that
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Scrooge had little of what is called fancy about him,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: as any man in the City of London, even including
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: which Isabel were the corporation, alderman, and livery. Let it
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: one thought on Marley since his last mention of his
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: seven years' dead partner that afternoon. and then let any
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: man explain to me, if he can, how it happened
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: of change, not a knocker, but Marley's face. Marley's face!
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: It was not in impenetrable shadow, as the other objects
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: in the yard were, but in a dismal light about it,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. He was
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: used to look, with ghostly spectacles turned up on its
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: ghostly forehead. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a breath of hot air, and though the eyes were
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: wide open, they were perfectly motionless. That and its livid
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: color made it horrible, but its horror seemed to be
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: in spite of the face and beyond its control, rather
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: than a part of his own expression. As Scrooge looked
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. To
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: say that he was not startled or that his blood
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: had been a stranger from infancy would be untrue, but
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: turned it steadily and walked in, and lighted his candle.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: He did pause, with a moment's irresolution, before the shut door,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and he did look cautiously behind this first, as if
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: half expected to be terrified, with the sight of Marley's
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: pigtails sticking out into the hall. But there was nothing
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: in the back of the door except the screws and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: nuts that held the knocker on, so he said poo-poo,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: and closed it with a bang. The sound resounded through
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the house like thunder. Every room above, and every cask
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: in the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a separate
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: peal of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: man to be frightened by echoes. He fastened the door,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: and walked across the hall and up the stairs, slowly, too,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: trimming the candle as he went. You may talk vaguely
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: about driving a coach and six up a good old
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: flight of stairs, or through a bad young act of Parliament.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: but I mean to say that you might have got
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: a hearse up that staircase and taken it broadwise, with
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the splinter bar toward the wall and the door towards
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the balustrades, and done it easy. There was plenty of
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: width for that, and room to spare, which is perhaps
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a locomotive hearse
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: going on before him in the gloom. Half a dozen
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: gas lamps out in the street wouldn't have lighted the
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: entry too well, so you may suppose it was pretty
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: dark with Scrooge's dip. Up Scrooge went, not carrying a
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: button for that. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: his rooms to see that all was right. He had
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: just enough recollection of the face to desire to do that. Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: all as he should be. Nobody under the table, nobody
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: under the sofa. A small fire in the grave, spoon
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and basin ready. and the little saucepan of gruel Scrooge
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: had a coat in his head upon the hob. Nobody
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: under the bed, nobody in the closet, nobody in his dressing-gown,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Lumber-room as usual, old fire-guard, two shoes, two fish-baskets, washing-stand
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: on three legs, and a poker. Quite satisfied, he closed
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: his door and locked himself in. Double-locked himself in, which
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: was not his custom. Thus secured against surprise, he took
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: off his cravat, put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: his nightcap, and sat down before the fire to take
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: his gruel. It was a very low fire indeed, nothing
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: on such a bitter night. He was obliged to sit
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: close to it and brood over it, before he could
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: of fuel. The fireplace was an old one built by
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all around with
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: quaint Dutch tiles designed to illustrate the Scriptures. There were
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Cain's enables, Pharaoh's daughters, queens of Sheba, angelic messengers descending
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: through the air on clouds like feather beds, Abraham's belt
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: as ours, apostles putting off to sea in butterboats, hundreds
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: of figures to attract his thoughts, and yet that face
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient prophet's
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: rod and swallowed up the whole. If each smooth tile
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: had been a blanket first, With power to shape some
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: picture on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: there would have been a copy of old Marley's head
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: on every one.' Humbug!' said Scrooge, and walked across the room.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: After several turns he sat down again. As he drew
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: his head back in the chair, his glance happened to
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: rest upon a bell, a disused bell that hung in
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: the room and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the chamber in the highest story of the building. It
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: was with great astonishment, and with a strange inexplicable dread,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: that as he looked he saw this bell begin to swing.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: It swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: made a sound, but soon it rang loudly, and so
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: did every bell in the house. This might have lasted
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: half a minute or a minute, but it seemed an hour.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: The bells ceased as they had begun together. They were
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: succeeded by a clanking noise deep down below. as if
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: of the wine-merchant's cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have heard
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: The cellar door flew open with a booming sound, and
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: then he heard the noise much louder on the floors below,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: then coming up the stairs, then coming straight towards the door.'
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: It' s humbug still,' said Scrooge.' I won't believe it.' His
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: colour changed, though, when, without a pause, it came on
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: through the heavy door and passed into the room before
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: his eyes. Pornic, coming in the dying flame, leapt up
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: as though it cried,' I know him! Marley's ghost!' and
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: fell again. The same face, the very same, Marley in
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots, the tassels on
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the latter bristling like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: the hair upon his head. The chain he drew was
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: clasped about the middle. It was long and wound about
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: him like a tail, and it was made, for Scrooge
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: observed it closely, of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: heavy purses wrought in steel. His body was transparent, so
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: that Scrooge, observing him and looking through his waistcoat, could
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: see the two buttons on his coat behind. Scrooge had
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: often heard that Marley had no bowels, but he had
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: never believed it until now. Nor did he believe it
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: even now, although he looked the phantom through and through
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and saw it standing before him, though he felt the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: chilling influence of its death-cold eyes, and marked the very
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: texture of the folded kerchief bound round its head and chin,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: which wrapper he had not observed before, he was still incredulous.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: and fought against his senses.' How now?' said Scrooge, caustic
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and cold as ever.' What do you want of me?'' Much.'
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Marley's voice knew doubt about it.' Who are you?'' Ask
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: me who I was.'' Who were you, then?' said Scrooge,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: raising his voice.' You' re particular for a shade.' He was
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: going to say to a shade, but substituted this as
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: more appropriate.' In life, I was your partner, Jacob Marley.'
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Can you sit down? asked Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: I can. Do it, then! Scrooge asked the question because
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: he didn't know whether a ghost so transparent might find
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: himself in a condition to take a chair, and felt
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: that in the event of its being impossible, it might
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: involve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: if he were quite used to it. You don't believe me,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: observed the ghost.' I don't,' said Scrooge.' What evidence would
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?''
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know,' said Scrooge.' Why do you doubt your senses?'' Because,'
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge,' a little thing affects them. A slight disorder
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: of cheese, a fragment of an undead potato.' There's more
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: gravy than a grave about you, whatever you are. Scrooge
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: did he feel in his heart by any means waggish then.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: The truth is that he tried to be smart as
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a means of distracting his own attention and keeping down
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: his terror, for the spectre's voice disturbed the very marrow
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: in his bones. To sit, staring at those fixed, glazed
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: eyes in silence for a moment, would play Scrooge felt
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the very deuce with him. There was something very awful, too,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: in the spectres being provided with an infernal atmosphere of
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: its own. Scrooge could not feel it himself, but it
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: was clearly the case, for though the ghost sat perfectly motionless,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: its hair and skirts and tassels were still agitated as
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: if by the hot vapour from an oven.' You see
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: this toothpick?' said Scrooge, returning quickly to the charge, for
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the reason just assigned and wishing, though it were only
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: for a second, to divert the vision's stony gaze from himself.'
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: I do.' replied the ghost you are not looking at
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: it said scrooge but i see it said the ghost
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding well said scrooge i have but to swallow this
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and be for the rest of my days persecuted by
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: a legion of goblins all of my own creation humbug
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: i tell you humbug this The spirit raised a frightful
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: cry and shook its chain with such a dismal and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: appalling noise that Scrooge held tight to his chair to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: save himself from falling in a swoon. But how much
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: greater was his horror when the phantom, taking off bandage
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: round its head as if it were too warm to
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: wear indoors, his lower jaw dropped down upon his breast.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Scrooge fell upon his knees and clasped his hands before
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: his face. Mercy, he said. Dreadful apparition, why do you
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: trouble me? Man of the worldly mind, replied. the ghost,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: do you believe in me or not? I do, said Scrooge.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, or
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: why do they come to me? It is required of
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: every man, the ghost returned. that the spirit within him
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: should walk abroad among his fellow-men and travel far and wide,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: to wander through the world. Oh, woe is me and
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: earth and turned to happiness. Again the spectre raised a
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: cry and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands.'
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: You are fettered,' said Scrooge, trembling.' Tell me why.'' I
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: wear the chain. I forged in life,' replied the Ghost.'
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I made it, link by link, and yard by yard,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: and girded it on of my own free will, and
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: of my own free will I wore it. Is its
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: pattern strange to you?' Scrooge trembled more and more.' Or
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: would you know?' pursued the Ghost. the weight and length
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: of the strong coil you bear yourself. It was as
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: full as heavy and as long as the seven Christmas
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: eves ago. You have laboured on it since it is
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: a ponderous chain.' Scrooge glanced about him on the floor,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: or sixty fathoms of iron cable, but he could see nothing.' Jacob,'
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: he said imploringly.' Oh, Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: comfort to me, Jacob.'' I have none to give.' The
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: ghost replied, It comes from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: is conveyed by other ministers to other kinds of men.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Nor can I tell you what I would. A very
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: little more is all permitted to me. I cannot rest,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: walked beyond our counting-house. Mark me! In life my spirit
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: never rode beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: and weary journeys lie before me. It was a habit
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: of Scrooge whenever he became thoughtful to put his hands
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: in his preacher's pockets. Pondering on what the ghost had said,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: he did so now, but without lifting up his eyes
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: or getting off his knees.' You must have been very
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: slow about it, Jacob,' Scrooge observed in a businesslike manner,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: though with humility and deference.' Slow,' the ghost repeated.' Seven
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: years dead,' mused Scrooge,' and travelling all the time.'' The
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: whole time,' said the ghost.' No rest, no peace, incessant
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: torture and remorse.'' You travel fast,' said Scrooge.' Of the
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: wings of the wind,' replied the ghost.' You might have
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: got over a great quantity of ground in seven years,'
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge,' the ghost on hearing the set of another cry.'
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: of the night that the ward would have been justified
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: in indicting it for a nuisance.' Oh, captive, bound, and
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: double iron!' cried the phantom.' Not to know! The ages
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: of incessant labour by immortal creatures, for this earth must
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: pass into eternity before the good which is susceptible is
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: all developed.' Not to know that any Christian spirit walking
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: find its mortal life too short for its vast means
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: can make amends for one's life's opportunity misused. Yet such
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: was I! Oh, such was I! But you were always
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: a good man of business, Jacob, faltered Scrooge, who now
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: began to apply this to himself. Business! cried the ghost,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: wringing his hands again. Mankind was my business. The common
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: welfare was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: all my business. The dealings of my trade were but
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: He held up the chain at arm's length as if
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: it were the cause of all its unavailing grief and
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: flung it heavily upon the ground again. At this time
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: of the rolling year, the spectre said, I suffer most.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Why did I walk through the crowds of fellow beings
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: with my eyes turned down and never reasoned to that
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: blessed star which led the wise men to a poor abode,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: were there no poor homes to which its light would
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: have conducted me? Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: the spectre going on at this rate and began to
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: quake exceedingly.' Hear me,' said the ghost.' My time is
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: nearly gone.'' I will,' said Scrooge.' But don't be hard
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: upon me. Don't be flowery, Jacob. Pray.' How is it
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: that I appear before you in a shape that you
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: can see I may not tell? I have sat invisible
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: beside you many and many a day. This was not
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered and wiped the perspiration from
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: his brow. That is no like part of my penance,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: pursued the ghost. I am here tonight to warn you
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring Ebenezer.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: You are always a good friend to me, said Scrooge.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Thank ye. You will be haunted, resumed the ghost, by
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: three spirits. Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: ghost's had done. Is that the chance and hope you mention, Jacob?
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: he demanded in a faltering voice. It is. I think
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I'd rather not, said Scrooge. Without their visits, said the ghost,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. EXPECT
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: THE FIRST TOMORROW WHEN THE BELL TOLLS ONE. COULDN'T I
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: TAKE HIM ALL AT ONCE AND HAVE IT OVER, JACOB?
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: HITTED SCROOGE. EXPECT THE SECOND ON THE NEXT NIGHT AT
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: THE SAME HOUR, THE THIRD UPON THE NEXT NIGHT WHEN
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: THE LAST STROKE OF TWELVE HAS CEASED TO VIBRATE. LOOK
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: TO SEE ME NO MORE, AND LOOK THAT FOR YOUR
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: OWN SAKE. YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAS PASSED BETWEEN US. AND
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: WHEN HE SAID THESE WORDS, THE SPECTOR TOOK ITS WRAPPER
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: FROM THE TABLE AND BOUND IT AROUND ITS HEAD AS BEFORE.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Scrooge knew this by the smart sound its teeth made
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: when the jaws were brought together by the bandage. He
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: ventured to raise his eyes again and found his supernatural
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: visitor confronting him in an erect attitude. With its chain
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: wound over and about its arm, the apparition walked backward
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: from him, and with every step it took the window
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: raised itself a little so that when the spectre reached
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: it it was wide open. It beckoned Scrooge to approach,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: which he did. When they were within two paces of
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: each other, Marley's ghost held up its hand, warning him
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped, not so much in
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: obedience as in surprise and fear, for on the raising
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: of the hand he became sensible of confused noises in
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the air, incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret, wailings inexpressibly
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: sorrowful and self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: joined in the mournful dirge, and floated out upon the bleak,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: dark night. Scrooge followed to the window, desperate in his curiosity.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: He looked out. The air was filled with phantoms, wandering
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: Every one of them wore chains like Marley's ghost. Some few,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: they might be guilty governments, were linked together. None were free.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: He had been quite familiar with one old ghost in
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: a white waistcoat. with a monstrous iron safe attached to
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: a wretched woman with an infant, who it saw below
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: upon a doorstep. The misery within them all was clearly
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: and had lost the power forever. Whether these creatures faded
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: into mist or mist enshrouded them he could not tell,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: but they and their spirit voices faded together, and the
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: night became as it had been when he walked home.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: the ghost had entered. He was double-locked, as he had
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: locked it with his own hands, and the bolts were undisturbed.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: He tried to say humbug, but stopped at the first syllable,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: and being from the emotion he had undergone of the
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the invisible world,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: or the dull conversation of the ghost, or the lateness
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: upon the hour much in need of repose, went straight
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: to bed without undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: The end of Stave 1 of The Christmas Carol by
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Dave Toole
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: The First of the Three Spirits When Scrooge awoke, it
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: was so dark that, looking out of bed, he could
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: his chamber. He was endeavouring to pierce the darkness with
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: his felled eyes when the chimes of a neighbouring church
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: struck the four quarters. So he listened for the hour.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: To his great astonishment, the heavy bell went from six
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: to seven, and from seven to eight, and regular. up
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: to twelve then stopped twelve it was past two when
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: he went to bed the clock was wrong an icicle
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: must have gotten to the works twelve he touched the
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: spring of his repeater to correct the most preposterous clock
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: its rapid little pulse beat twelve and stopped Why, it
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: isn't possible, said Scrooge, that I can have slept through
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: the whole day and far into the night. It isn't
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: possible that anything has happened to the sun, and this
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: is twelve at noon. The idea being an alarming one,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: he scrambled out of bed and groped his way to
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: the window. He was obliged to rub the frost off
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: with the sleeve of his dressing-ground before he could see anything,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: and he could see very little then. All he could
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: make out was that it was still very foggy and
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: extremely cold. and that there was no noise of people
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: running to and fro, and making a great stir, as
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: there unquestionably would have been, if night had beaten off
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: bright day, and taken possession of the world. This was
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: a great relief, because three days after sight, the first
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: exchange you pay of Mr. Everdee's Scrooge, or his order,
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: and so forth, would have become a mere United States security,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: if there were no days to count by. Scrooge went
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought it
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: over and over and over, and could make nothing of it.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: The more he thought, the more perplexed he was, and
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he thought.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Marley's ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within himself,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: after a mature inquiry, that it was all a dream,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: his mind flew back again, like a strong spring released
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: to its first position, and presented the same problem to
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: be worked all through. was it a dream or not?
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: three quarters more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: the ghost had warned him of a visitation when the
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: bell tolled one. He resolved to lie awake until the
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: hour had passed, and, considering that he could no more
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: go to sleep than go to heaven, this was perhaps
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: the wisest resolution in his power. The quarter was so long,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: though he was more than once convinced that he must
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: have sunk into a doze unconsciously and missed the clock.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: At length it broke upon his listening ear. Ding-dong! A
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: quarter past, said Scrooge, counting. Ding-dong! Half past, said Scrooge. Ding-dong!
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: A quarter to it, said Scrooge. Ding-dong! There are itself,
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge triumphantly, and nothing else. He spoke before the
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: hour-bell had sounded. which it now did with a deep, dull, hollow,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: melancholy one. Light flashed up in the room upon an instant,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: and the curtains of his bed were drawn. The curtains
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: a hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: curtains at his back, but those to which his face
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: as close to it as I am now to you,
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: It was a strange figure, like a child, yet not
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: so like a child as like an old man viewed
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: having receded from the view and being diminished to a
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: down its back, was white, as if with age, and
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: yet the face had not a wrinkle on it, and
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: very long and muscular, the hands the same, as if
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: most delicately formed, were like those upper members bare. It
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: wore a tunic of the purest white, and round the
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: was beautiful. It had a branch of fresh green holly
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: in its hand, and, IN SINGULAR CONTRADICTION OF THAT WINTERY EMBLEM,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: HAD ITS DRESS TRIMMED WITH SUMMER FLOWERS. BUT THE STRANGEST
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: THING ABOUT IT WAS, THAT FROM THE CROWN OF ITS
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: HEAD THERE SPRUNG A BRIGHT, CLEAR JET OF LIGHT, BY
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: WHICH ALL WAS VISIBLE, AND WHICH WAS DOUBTLESS THE OCCASION
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: OF ITS USING, IN ITS STELLAR MOMENTS, A GREAT EXTINGUISHER
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: FOR A CAP WHICH IT NOW HELD UNDER ITS ARM.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: EVEN THIS, THOUGH, WHEN SCROUGE LOOKED AT IT WITH INCREASING STEADINESS,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: WAS NOT THE STRANGEST QUALITY. for as its belt sparkled
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: and glittered, now in one part and now in another,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: and what was light one instant at another time was dark,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness. Being now
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without head,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: now a head without a body, of which dissolving parts
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: they melted away, and in the very wonder of this,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: It would be itself again, distinct and clear as ever.'
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: Are you the spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?'
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: asked Scrooge.' I am.' The voice was soft and gentle,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: singularly low, as if instead of being so close beside
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: him it were at a distance.' Who and what are you?'
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Scrooge demanded.' I am the ghost of Christmas past.'' Long past?'
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: inquired Scrooge. observant of its dwarfish stature. No, your past.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: could have asked them, but he had a special desire
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: to see the spirit in his cap, and begged him
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: to be covered. What! exclaimed the ghost, would you so
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: soon put out with worldly hands the light I give?
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Is it not enough that you are one of those
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: whose passions made this cap? and force me through the
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow?
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend, any knowledge of
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: having willfully bonneted the spirit of any period in his life.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Then he made bold to inquire what business brought him here.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Your welfare, said the ghost. Scrooge expressed himself much obliged,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: rest would have been more conductive to that end. The
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Your reclamation, then. Take heed. It put out his hand
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: as it spoke, and clasped him gently by the arm. Rise,
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: and walk with me. It would have been in vain
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: for Scrooge to plead the weather and the hour were
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: not adapted to pedestrian purposes, that Bette was warm and
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: the thermometer a long way below freezing, that he was
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing-gown, and nightcap. and
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: that he had a cold upon him at the time.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was not
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: to be resisted. He rose, but finding that the spirit
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: made towards the window, clasped his robe in supplication.' I
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: am mortal,' Scrooge remonstrated,' and liable to fall.'' Bear but
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: a touch of my hand there,' said the spirit, laying
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: it upon his heart,' and you shall be upheld in
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: more than this.' As the words were spoken, they passed
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: through the wall and stood upon an open country road,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: with fields on either hand. The city had entirely vanished,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: not a vestige of it was to be seen. The
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: darkness and the mist had vanished with it, for it
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: was a clear, cold, wintry day, with snow upon the ground.'
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: Good heaven!' said Scrooge, clasping his hands together as he
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: looked about him.' I was bred in this place. I
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: was a boy here!' The spirit gazed upon him mildly.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Its gentle touch, though it had been light and instantaneous,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: appeared still present to the old man's sense of feeling.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: each one connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: joys and cares long, long forgotten.' Your lip is trembling,'
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: said the ghost.' And what is that upon your cheek?'
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Scrooge muttered with an unusual catching in his voice that
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: it was a pimple, and begged the ghost to lead
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: him where he would. you recollect the way inquired the
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: spirit remember it cried scrooge with fervor i could walk
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: it blindfolded strange to have forgotten it for so many
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: years observed the ghost let us go on they walked
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: along the road scrooge recognizing every gate every post every
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: tree until a little market town appeared in the distance
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: with its bridge its church and winding river Some shaggy
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: ponies were now seen trotting towards him with boys upon
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: their backs, who called to other boys in country gigs
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were in
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: great spirits and shouted to each other, until the broad
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: fields were so full of merry music that the crisp
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: air laughed to hear it. These are but shadows of
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: things that have been, said the ghost. They have no
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: consciousness of us. The Josson travellers came on as they came.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Scrooge knew and named them every one. Why was he
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: filled with gladness when he heard them give each other
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas as they parted at cross-yards and by-ways for
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: several homes? What was Merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas! What good had it ever done to him?
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: The school is not quite deserted, said the ghost. A
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Scrooge said he knew it, and he sobbed. They left
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: the high road by a well-remembered lane, and soon approached
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: a mansion of dull red brick, with a little weather-cock
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: surmounted cupola on the roof, and a bell hanging in it.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: It was a large house, but one of broken form.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: for the spacious offices were little used, their walls were
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their gates decayed.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables, and the coach-houses
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: and sheds were overrun with grass. Nor was it more
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: retentive of its ancient state with him. or entering the
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: dreary hall and glancing through the open doors of many rooms,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: they found them poorly furnished, cold and vast. There was
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: an earthly savour in the air, a chilly barrenness in
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: the place, which associated itself somehow with too much getting
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: up by candlelight and not too much to eat. They went,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: the ghost and Scrooge, across the hall to a door
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: at the back of the house. It opened before them
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made bare as
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: still by lines of plain-deal forms and desks. At one
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: and Scrooge sat down upon a form and wept to
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: see his poor forgotten self as he used to be.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: and scuffle from the mice behind the paneling, not a
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: drip from the half-thawed water spout in the dull yard behind,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: not a sigh among the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: not the idle swinging of an empty stone house door, no,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: not a clicking of the fire, but fell upon the
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: heart of Scrooge with a softening influence and gave a
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: freer passage to his tears. The spirit touched him on
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: the arm and pointed to his younger self and turned
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: upon his readings. Suddenly a man in foreign garments, wonderfully
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: real and distinct to look at, stood outside the window
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: with an axe struck in his belt, and leading by
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: the bridle an ass laden with wood.' Why, it's Ali Baba!'
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy.' Dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: I know. One Christmas time, when yon sultry child was
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: left here all alone, he did come, for the first time,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: just like that. Poor boy!'' And Valentine!' said Scrooge.' And
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: his wild brother Orson. There they go!' And what's his
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: name who was put down in his drawers asleep at
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: the gate of Damascus? Don't you see him? And the
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: Sultan's groom turned upside down by the genie. There he
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: is upon his head. I'm glad of it. What business
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: had he to be married to the princess? To hear
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Scrooge expanding, on all the earnestness of the nature of
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: and to see his heightened and excited face, would have
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: been a surprise to his business friends in the city indeed.'
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: That' s the parrot!' cried Scrooge, green body and yellow tail,
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: with a thing like lettuce growing out of the top
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: of his head.' There he is! Poor Robinson Crusoe!' he
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: called him when he came home again after sailing round
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: the island.' Poor Robinson Crusoe! Where have you been, Robinson Crusoe?'
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't. He
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: was the parrot, you know.' There goes Friday, running for
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: his life in the little creek. Hello! Hop! Hello!' Then—'
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: With the rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: he said, in a pity of his former self,' Poor boy,'
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: and cried again.' I wish,' Scrooge muttered, putting his hand
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: in his pocket, and looking about him after drying his
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: eyes with his cuff.' But it's too late now. What
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: is the matter?' asked the spirit.' Nothing,' said Scrooge.' Nothing.
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: There was a—' boy singing a Christmas carol in my
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: door last night. I should like to have given him something,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: that's all. The ghost smiled thoughtfully and waved its hand,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: saying as it did so, Let us see another Christmas.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: room became a little darker and more dirty. The panel shrunk,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: the windows cracked, fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: and the naked lathes were shown instead. But how all
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: this was brought about Scrooge knew no more than you do.
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: He only knew that it was quite correct, that everything
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: had happened so, that there he was, alone again, when
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: all the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays.
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly.
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: Scrooge looked at the ghost, and with a mournful shaking
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: of his head glanced anxiously towards the door. It opened.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: and a little girl much younger than the boy came
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: darting in putting her arms about his neck and often
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: kissing him dressed him as her dear dear brother i
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: have come to bring you home dear brother said the
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: child clapping her tiny hands and bending down to laugh
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: to bring you home home home home little fan returned
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: the boy yes said the child brimful with glee' Home
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: for good and all, home for ever and ever. Father
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: is so much kinder than he used to be, that
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: home's like heaven.' He spoke so gently to me one
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: dear night, when I was going to bed, that I
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: was not afraid to ask him once more if he
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: might come home, and he said,' Yes, you should.' And
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: he sent me in a coach to bring you.' And
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: you're to be a man,' said the child, opening her eyes,'
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: and never come back here, but first we'll be together
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: all Christmas long, and have the merriest time in the world.'
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: You're quite a woman, little fan, exclaimed the boy. She
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his head,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: but being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: to embrace him. She then began to drag him in
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: her childish eagerness towards the door, and he, nothing loath
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: to go, accompanied her. A terrible voice in the hall cried,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: Bring down Master Scrooge's box there! And in the hall
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared on Master Scrooge with
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: a ferocious condensation. and threw him into a dreadful state
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: of mind by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: him and his sister into the veriest old well of
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: a shivering best parlour that he ever was seen, where
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: the maps upon the wall and the celestial and terrestrial
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: globes in the window were waxy with cold. Here he
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: produced a decanter of curiously light wine and a block
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: of curiously heavy cake. and administered instalments to those dainties
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: to the young people, at the same time sending out
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: a meagre servant to offer a glass of something to
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: the post-boy, who answered that he thanked the gentleman, but
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: if it was the same tap as he had tasted before,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: he had rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by this
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: time tied on to the top of the chaise, the
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: children bade the schoolmaster good-bye willingly, and getting into it,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: drove gaily down the garden-sweep, the quick wheels dashing the
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: hoar-frost and snow from the old dark leaves of the
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: evergreens like spray.' Always a delicate creature whom a breath
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: might have withered,' said the ghost. But she had a
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: large heart.'' So she had,' cried Scrooge.' You' re right. I
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: will not gainsay it, spare it, God forbid. She died
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: a woman said the ghost, and had, as I think, children.
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: One child, Scrooge returned. True, said the ghost. Your nephew.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind and answered briefly, Yes.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Although they had but at that moment left the school
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: behind them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: the city, where shadowy passengers passed and repassed, where shadowy
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: strife and tumult of a real city were It was
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: made plain enough by the dressing of the shops that there, too,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: it was Christmas time again, but it was evening and
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: the streets were lighted up. The ghost stopped at a
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: certain warehouse door and asked Scrooge if he knew it.'
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: Know it?' said Scrooge.' How was I purchased here?' They
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: went in. At the sight of an old gentleman in
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: a Welsh wig, sitting behind such a high desk, that
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: if he had been two inches tall he must have
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: knocked his head against the ceiling, Scrooge cried in great excitement.' Why,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: it's old Fizzywig! Bless his heart! It's Fizzywig, alive again!'
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Old Fizzywig laid down his pen and looked up at
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: the clock. which pointed to the hour of seven. He
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: rubbed his hands, adjusted his capricious waistcoat, laughed all over himself,
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: from his shoes to his organ of benevolence, and called
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice,' No,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: hold there! Ebenezer!
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: Dick!
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's former self, now a grown young man, came briskly
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: and accompanied by his fellow apprentice.' Dick Wilkins, to be sure,'
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge to the ghost.' Bless me eyes! There he is!''
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: He was very much attached to me, was Dick,' poor
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: dick dear dear yo ho my boys said fizzywig no
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: more work to-night christmas eve dick christmas ebenezer let's have
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: the shutters up cried old fizzywig with a sharp clap
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: of his hands before a man can say jack robinson
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: they charged into the street with the shutters one two
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: three had em up in their places four five six
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: barred em and pinned em seven eight nine and came
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: back before you could get to twelve panting like race-horses.
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: Halli- ho!
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk, with
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: wonderful agility.' Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: of room here. Halli-ho! Dick Chirp, Ebenezer!'' Clear away!' There
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or couldn't have
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: it were dismissed from public life forevermore. The floor swept
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: the fire, and the warehouse was as snug as warm
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: and dry and bright as a ballroom, as you would
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: desire to see upon a winter's night. In came the
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk,
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable— In came the
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: six young followers whose hearts they broke. In came all
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: the young men and women employed in the business. In
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: came the housemaid with her cousin the baker. In came
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: the cook with her brother's particular friend the milkman. In
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: came the boy from over the way, who was suspected
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: of not having bought enough from his master. trying to
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: hide himself behind the girl from next door but one
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: who was proved to have had her ears pulled by
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: her mistress in they all came one after another some
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: shyly some boldly some gracefully some awkwardly some pushing some
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: pulling in they all came anyhow and everyhow away they
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: all went twenty couple at once danced half round and
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: back again the other way down the middle and up
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: again round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: old top couple always turning up in the wrong place
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: new top couple starting off again as soon as they
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: got there all top couples at last another bother one
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: to help him when this result was brought about old
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: fuzzywig clapping his hands to stop the dance cried out
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: well done and the fiddler plunged his hot face into
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: a tub of porter specially provided for that purpose but
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: scorning rest upon his reappearance he instantly began again though
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: there were no dancers yet, as if the fiddle had
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: been carried home exhausted in a shutter, and he were
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: a brand-new man resolved to beat them out of sight
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: or perish. There were more dancers, there were more forfeits,
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: and more dancers, and there was cake, and there was niggas,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: and there was a great piece of cold great piece
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: of coal boiled and there were mince-pies and plenty of
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: beer but the great effect of the evening came after
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: the roast and boiled when the fiddler an artful dog-mind
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: the sort of man who knew his business better than
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: you or i and could have told him struck up
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: sir roger de coverley that old Fezziwig stood out to
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple, too, and a good
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: stiff piece of work cut out for them. Three or
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: four and twenty pair of partners, people who were not
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: to be trifled with, people who would dance and had
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: no notion of walking. But if they had been twice
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: as many, four times, old Fezziwig would have been a
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to her,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: she was worthy to be his partner in every sense
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: of the term. If that's not high praise, tell me
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: higher and I'll use it. a positive light appeared to
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: issue from fezziwig's calves they shone in every part of
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: the dance like moons you wouldn't have predicted at any
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: time what would have become of him next and then
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: old fezziwig and mrs fezziwig had gone all through the
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: dance advance and retire both hands to your partner bow
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: and curtsy corkscrew thread the needle and back again your
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: place Fezziwig cut, cut so deftly he appeared to wink
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: with his legs, and came upon his feet again without
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: a stagger. When the clock struck eleven, the domestic ball
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: broke up. Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: on either side of the door, with shaking hands with
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: every person individually, as he or she went out to
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: wish him or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: retired but the two princesses, they did the same to them,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: and thus the cheerful voices died away and the lads
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: were left to their beds. which were under the counter
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: in the back shop. During this whole time Scrooge acted
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: like a man out of his wits. His heart and
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: soul were in the scene, and with his former self
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: he corroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and underwent the
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: strangest agitation. It wasn't until now, when the bright faces
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: of his former self and Dick were turned from him,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: that he remembered the ghost, and became conscious that it
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: was looking full upon him, while the light upon its
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: head burned very clear.' A small matter,' said the ghost,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.' Small!'
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: echoed Scrooge. The spirit signed him to listen to the
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: two princesses who were pouring out their hearts in praise
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: of Fezziwig, and when he had done so said,' Why,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: is it not? He had spent but a few pounds
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: of your mortal money, three or four, perhaps. Is that
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: so much that he deserves this praise?'' It isn't that,'
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking unconsciously like
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: his former, not his latter, self.' It isn't that, spirit.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: He has the power to render us happy or unhappy,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: to make our service light or burdensome, a pleasure or
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: to add or count them up. What then? The happiness
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: he gives is quite as great as if it cost
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: a fortune.' He felt the spirit's glance and stopped.' What
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: is the matter?' asked the ghost.' Nothing in particular,' said Scrooge.' Something,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: I think,' the ghost insisted.' No,' said Scrooge.' No. I
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: should like to be able to say a word or
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: two to my clerk just now, that's all.' His former
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance to
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: the wish, and Scrooge and the ghost again stood side
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: by side in the open air. My time grew short,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: observed the spirit.' Quick!' This was not addressed to Scrooge
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: or to any one whom he could see, but it
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: produced an immediate effect. For again Scrooge saw himself. He
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: was older now, a man in the prime of life.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: later years, but had begun to wear the signs of
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: care and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: in the eye which showed the passion that had taken
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: root and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: He was not alone, but sat by the side of
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: a fair young woman in a mourning dress. in whose
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: eyes there were tears which sparkled in the light that
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: shone out of the ghost of Christmas past. It matters little,
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: he said softly, to you very little. Another idol has
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: displaced me, and if I can cheer and comfort you
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: in time to come, as I would have tried to do,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: I have no just cause to grieve. What idol has
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: displaced you? he rejoined. A golden one. This is an
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: even-handed dealing of the world, he said. There is nothing
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: on which it is so hard as poverty, and there
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: the pursuit of wealth. You fear the world too much,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: she answered gently. All your other hopes emerge into the
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: until the master-passion gain engrosses you, have I not? What then?
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: he retorted. Even if I have grown so much wiser,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: what then? I am not changed towards you. She shook
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: her head. Am I? Our contract is an old one.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: It was made when we were both poor and content
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: to be so, until, in good season, we could improve
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: our worldly fortunes by our patient industry. You are changed.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: When it was made, you were another man. I was
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: a boy, he said impatiently. Your own feeling tells you
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: that you are not what you are, she returned. I am.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: That which promised happiness when we were one in heart
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: is fraught with misery now that we are two. How
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: often and how keenly have I thought of this I
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: will not say. It is enough that I have thought
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: of it and can release you. Have I ever sought release?
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: In words, no, never. In what then? In a changed nature,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: in an altered spirit, in another atmosphere of life, another
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: hope has its great end. If this had never been
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: between us, said the girl, looking mildly but with steadiness
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: upon him, tell me, would you seek me out now
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: and try to win me now? Ah, no. He seemed
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: to yield the justice of its supposition in spite of himself,
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: but said with a struggle, You think not. I would
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: gladly think otherwise, if I could, she answered. Heaven knows.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: When I have learned a truth like this, I know
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: how strong and irresistible it must be. But if you
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: are free today, tomorrow, yesterday, can even believe that you
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: would choose a dowerless girl, you who, in your very
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: confidence with her, weigh everything by gain, or choosing her,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: if for a moment you are false enough to your
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: one guiding principle to do so, do I not know
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: that your repentance and regret would surely follow? I do,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: and I release you, with a full heart, for the
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: love of him you once were. He was about to speak.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: but with her head turned from him she resumed, You may,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: the memory of what has passed half makes me hope
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: you will, have pain in this, a very, very brief time,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly as
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: an unprofitable dream, from which it has happened well that
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: you awoke. May you be happy in the life that
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: you have chosen. She left him, and they parted. Spirit,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, show me no more. conduct me home why
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: do you delight to torture me one shadow more exclaimed
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: the ghost no more cried scrooge no more i do
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: not wish to see it show me no more but
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: the relentless ghost pinioned him in both arms and forced
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: him to observe what happened next they were in another
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: scene in place a room not very large or handsome
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: but full of comfort Near to the winter fire sat
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: a beautiful young girl, so like that lass that Scrooge
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: believed it was the same until he saw her, now
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: a comely matron sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: the room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more children
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: there than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: and unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, there were
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: not forty children conducting themselves like one, but every child
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: was conducting itself like forty. The consequences were uproarious beyond belief,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: but no one seemed to care. On the contrary, the
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: mother and daughter laughed heartily and enjoyed it very much,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: and the latter, soon beginning to mingle in sports, got
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: pillaged by the young brigands most ruthlessly. What would I
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: not have given to be one of them? though I
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: would never have been so rude. No, no, I wouldn't
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: for the wealth of all the world have crushed that
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: braided hair and torn it down, and for the precious
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: little shoe I wouldn't have plucked it off. God bless
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: my soul to save my life. As to measuring her
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: waist in sport, there's they did. Bold young brood, I
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: couldn't have done it. I should have expected my arm
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: to have grown round for the punishment, and never come
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: straight again. And yet— I should have dearly liked, I own,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: to have touched her lips, to have questioned her, that
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: she might have opened them, to have looked upon the
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: lashes of her downcast eyes, and have never raised a blush,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: to have let loose waves of hair, an inch of
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: which would be a keepsake beyond price. In short, I
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: should have liked, I do confess, to have the lightest
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: license of a child, and yet have been man enough
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: to know its value. But now a knocking on the
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: door was heard, and such a rush immediately ensued, that
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: with a laughing face and plundered dress was borne towards
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just in
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: time to greet the father, who had come home attended
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: by a man laden with Christmas toys and presents. Then
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: the shouting and struggling, and the onslaught that was made
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: on the defenceless porter, the scaling him with chairs for
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: ladders to drive into his pockets, despoil him with brown-paper
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: parcels to hold on tight by his cravat, hug him
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: round the neck, pobble his back, and kick his legs
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: in irrepressible affection. The shouts of wonder and delight with
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: which the development of every package was received. the terrible
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: announcement that the baby had taken in the act of
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: putting a doll's frying-pan into his mouth, and was more
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey glued on
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: a wooden platter. The immense relief of finding this a
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: false alarm, the joy, the gratitude, and ecstasy, they were
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: all indescribable alike. It is enough that by degrees the
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: children and their emotions had got out of the parlour,
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: and by one stare at a time, up to the
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: top of the house, when they went to bed, and
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: so subsided. And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: ever when the master of the house, having his daughter
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: leaning fondly on him, sat down with her and her
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: mother at his own fireside, and when he thought that
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: such another creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: might have called him father, and it had been a
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: springtime and haggard winter of his life, his sight grew
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: very dim indeed.' Bell,' said the husband, turning to his
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: wife with a smile,' I saw an old friend of
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: yours this afternoon.'' Who was it?'' Guess.'' How can I?
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: I don't know,' she added, in the same breath, laughing
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: as he laughed.' Mr. Scrooge! Mr. Scrooge it was. I
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: passed his office window, and it was not shut up,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: and he had a candle inside. I could scarcely help
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: seeing him. His partner lies upon the point of death,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: I hear, and there he sat alone, quite alone in
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: the world, I do believe.'' Spirit,' said Scrooge, in a
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: broken voice, 'remove me from this place.' I have shown
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: you the shadows of things that have been, said the ghost,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: that they are what they are. Do not blame me.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: Remove me, Scrooge exclaimed. I cannot bear it. He turned
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: upon the ghost, and seeing that it looked upon him
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: with a face in which some strange way there were
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: fragments of all faces it had shown him, wrestled with it.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: Leave me! Take me back! Haunt me no longer! In
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: the struggle, if it can be called a struggle, in
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: which the ghost, with no visible resistance on its own part,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: that its light was burning high and bright, and dimly
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: connecting that with its influence over him, he seized his
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: extinguisher cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: upon his head. The spirit dropped beneath it, so that
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: the extinguisher covered its whole form, but though Scrooge pressed
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: it down with all its force, he could not hide
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: the light. which streamed from under it in an unbroken
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: flood upon the ground. He was conscious of being exhausted
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness and further of being
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: in his own bedroom. He gave the cap a parting
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: squeeze in which his hand relaxed and had barely time
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: to reel to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep.
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: THE END OF STAVE II OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL BY
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: CHARLES DICKENS This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox.org. That's L-I-B-R-I-V-O-X dot org. Recorded by me,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: Glenn Hallstrom, also known as Smokestack Jones. SmokestackJones at gmail.com.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: You'll also find my blog at TooMuchJohnson.blogspot.com. A Christmas Carol
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: by Charles Dickens. Stave 3. The second of the three Spinnets.
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: awakening in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore and
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together scrooge
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: had no occasion to be told what bell it was
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: again upon the stroke of one he felt he was
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: restored to consciousness in the right nick of time for
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: the especial purpose of holding a conference with the second
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: messenger dispatched to him through jacob marley's intervention but finding
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: that he turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: which of his curtains the new spectre would draw back
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: he put them every one aside with his own hands
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: and lying down again established a sharp lookout all round
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: the bed for he wished to challenge the spirit in
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: the moment of its appearance and did not wish to
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: be taken by surprise and made nervous gentlemen of the
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: free and easy sort who plume themselves on being acquainted
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: with a move or two and being usually equal to
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: the time of day, express the wide range of their
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter, between which opposite extremes, no doubt,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: there lies a tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: Without venturing for Scrooge quite as handily as this, I
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: don't mind in calling on you to believe that he
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: was ready for a good broad field of strange appearances,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: and that nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros would
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: have astonished him very much. Now, being prepared for almost anything,
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: he was not by any means prepared for nothing, and consequently,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: when the bell struck one, and no shape appeared, he
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: was taken with a violent fit of trembling. Five minutes,
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: nothing came. All this time he lay upon his bed,
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: the very core and centre of a blazing ruddy light,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour,
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: at which, being only light, was more alarming than a
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: it meant, or would be at, and was sometimes apprehensive
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: that he might be at the very moment an interesting
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: case of spontaneous combustion, without having the consolation of knowing it.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: At last, however, he began to think, as you and
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: I would have thought at first, for it is always
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: the person not in the predicament who knows what ought
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: done it too at last, I say, he began to
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: think that the source and secret of his ghostly light
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: might be in the adjoining room, from whence, on further
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea, taking full
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: possession of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: in his slippers to the door. The moment Scrooge's hand
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: was on the lock, a strange voice called him by
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: his name and bade him enter. He obeyed. It was
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: his own room, there was no doubt about that, but
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls and ceiling
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: were so hung with living green that it looked a
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: perfect grove, from every part of which bright gleaming berries glistened,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: the crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy, reflected back
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: the light as if so many little mirrors had been
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: scattered there, and such a mighty blaze went roaring up
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: the chimney as that dull petrification of a hearth had
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: never known in Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: and many a winter season gone. Heaped up on the floor,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: great joints of meat, suckling pigs, long wreaths of sausages,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: mince pies, plum puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth cakes, and seething bowls
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: of punch that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: In easy state upon this couch there sat a jolly giant,
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: glorious to see, who bore a glowing torch in shape
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: not unlike Plenty's horn, and held it up, high up,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: to shed its light on Scrooge as he came peeping
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: round the door. Come in, exclaimed the ghost. Come in
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: and know me better, man. Scrooge entered timidly, and hung
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: his head before the spirit. He was not the dogged
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: Scrooge he had been, and though the spirit's eyes were
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: clear and kind, he did not like to meet them.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: I am the ghost of Christmas present, said the spirit.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: Look upon me! Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: in one simple green robe or mantle bordered with white fur.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: This garment hung so loosely on the figure that its
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: capricious breast was bare, as if disdaining to be watered
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: or concealed by any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: ample folds of the garment, were also bare, and on
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: curls were long and free. Free as its genial face,
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: its sparkling eyes, its open hand, its cheery voice, its
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: unconstrained divina, and its joyful air. Girded around its middle
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: was an antique scabbard, but no sword was in it,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust. You
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: have never seen the like of me before, exclaimed the spirit. Never,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: Scrooge made answer to it.
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 3: Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family,
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 3: meaning for I am very young. My elder brothers, born
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 3: in these later years, pursued the phantom. I don't think
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 3: I have, said Scrooge. I'm afraid I have not. Have
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 3: you had many brothers, Spirit?
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: More than eighteen hundred, said the ghost. A tremendous family
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: to provide for, muttered Scrooge. The ghost of Christmas present rose. Spirit...
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge submissively. Induct me where you will. I went
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: which is working now. Tonight, if you have aught to
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: teach me, let me profit by it. Touch my robe!
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: Holly mistletoe, Red berries, ivy, turkey, skis, game, poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, fruit,
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: and punch all vanished instantly. So did the room, the fire,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: in the city streets on Christmas morning, where, for weather
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: was severe, the people made a rough but brisk and
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: the pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: tops of their houses whence It was mad delight to
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: the boys to see it come plumping down into the
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: road and splitting into artificial little snowstorms. The house fronts
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: looked black enough, and the windows blacker, contrasting with the
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: the dirty snow upon the ground, which last deposited had
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: of carts and wagons, furrows that crossed and recrossed each
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: other hundreds of times, where the great streets branched off
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: and made intricate channels, hard to trace in the thick
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy, and
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: the shorter streets were choked up with the dingy mist
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in a
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: Great Britain had by but one consent caught fire, and
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: were blazing away to their dear hearts' content. There was
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: yet there was an air of cheerfulness abroad, that the
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: clearer summer air and brighter summer sun might have endeavored
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: to diffuse in vain. For the people who were shoveling
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: calling out to one another from the parapets, and now
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: and then exchanging a facetious snowball, better natured missile far
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: than many a wordy jest, laughing heartily as it went
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: right or less than heartily as it went wrong. The
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: poulterers' shops were still half open, and the fruiters' were
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: radiant in their glory. There were great, round, pot-bellied baskets
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: in their apoplectic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girthed Spanish onions,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish friars,
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: and wigging from their shelves in wanton slyness at the
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: girls as they went by, and glanced demurely at the
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: hung-up mistletoe. there were pears and apples clustered high in
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: blooming pyramids there were bunches of grapes made in the
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: shopkeeper's benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks that people's mouths
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: might water gratis as they passed there were piles of
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: filberts mossy and brown recalling in their fragrance ancient walks
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: among the woods and pleasant shufflings ankle-deep through withered leaves
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: There were Norfolk biffins squatting swathes, setting off the yellow
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: carried home in brown-paper bags and eaten after dinner. The
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: very gold and silver fish set forth among these choice
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: stagnant-blooded race appeared to know there was something going on,
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: and to a fish went gasping round and round in
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: their little world in slow and passionless excitement. grossest oh
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: the grossest nearly closed were perhaps two shutters down or
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: one but through those gaps such glimpses it was not
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: alone that the scales descending on the counter made a
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: merry sound or that the twine and roller departed company
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: so briskly or that the canisters were rattled up and
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: down like juggling tricks or even that the blended scents
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose,
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: or even the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: and straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: so caked and spotted with molten sugar, as to make
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: the coldest lookers-on feel faint and subsequently bilious. Nor was
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: it that the figs were moist and pulpy, or that
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: the French plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: decorated boxers, or that everything was good to eat and
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: in its Christmas dress, but the customers were all so
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: hurried and so eager in their hopeful promise of the
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: day that they tumbled up against each other at the door,
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: crashing their wicker baskets wildly and left their purchases upon
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: the counter, and came running back to fetch them, and
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best humour possible,
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: while the grocer and his people were so frank and
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: fresh that the polished hearts in which they fastened their
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: aprons behind might have been their own, worn outside for
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: general inspection and for Christmas dolls to peck at if
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: they choose. But soon the steeples called good people all
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: the streets in their best clothes and with their gayest faces.
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: And at the time there emerged from scores of by-streets,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: lanes and nameless turnings, innumerable people carrying their dinners to
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: the baker's shops. The sight of these poor revelers appeared
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: to interest the spirit very much. for he stood with
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway and taking off
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: the covers, as their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on the
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: dinners from his torch. And it was a very uncommon
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: kind of torch, for once or twice, when there were
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other,
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: he shed a few drops of water on them from it,
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: and their good humor was restored directly, for they said
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day, and
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: so it was, God love it, so it was. In
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: and yet there was a general shadowing forth of all
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: these dinners in the progress of their cooking, in the
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: thawed blotcher wet above each baker's oven, where the pavement
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: smoked as if its stones were cooking too.' Is there
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: a peculiar flavour in which you sprinkle from your torch?'
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: asked Scrooge.' There is. My own.'' Would it apply to
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: any kind of dinner on this day?' asked Scrooge.' To
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: any kindly given. To a poor one most.' Why a
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: poor one most? asked Scrooge. Because it needs it most.
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: Spit it, said Scrooge, after a moment's thought. I wonder you,
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: of all the beings in the many worlds about us,
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment. Aye,
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: cried the spirit. You would deprive them of all their
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: means of dining every seventh day, often the only day
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: in which they can be said to dine at all,
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. Wouldn't you? Aye? cried the spirit. You seek
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: to choose these places on the seventh day, said Scrooge,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: and it comes to the same thing. I seek, exclaimed
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: the spirit. Forgive me if I am wrong, it has
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: been done in your name, or at least that of
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: your family, said Scrooge. There are some upon this earth
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: of yours, returned the spirit, who lay claim to know us,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry,
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: and self-righteousness in our name, who are as strange to
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: us and all our kith and kin as if they
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: had never lived. Remember that, and charge the doings on themselves,
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: not us. Scrooge promised that he would, and they went
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: all invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: of the town. it was a remarkable quality of the
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: ghost which scrooge had observed at the baker's that notwithstanding
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: his gigantic size he could accommodate himself to any place
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 1: with ease and that he stood beneath a low roof
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: quite as gracefully and like a supernatural creature as it
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: was possible that he could have done in any lofty
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: hall and perhaps it was the pleasure the good spirit
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: had in showing off this power of his or else
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: it was his own kind generous hearty nature and his
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: sympathy with all poor men that led him straight to
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's clerks. For there he went, and took Scrooge with him,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: holding to his robe, and on the threshold of the
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: door the spirit smiled and stopped, to bless Bob Cratchit's
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: dwelling with the twinkling of his torch. Think of that!
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: Bob had but fifteen Bob-a-week himself. He pocketed on Saturdays
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 1: but fifteen copies of his Christian name, and yet the
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: ghost of Christmas present blessed his four-room house. Then up
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but poorly in
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons which are cheap
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: and make a goodly show. for sixpence. And she laid
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her daughters,
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: also brave in ribbons, while Master Peter Cratchit plunged a
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and getting the corners
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: of his monstrous shirt-collar, Bob's private property, conferred upon his
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: son and heir in honour of the day, into his mouth.
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: show his linen in the fashionable parks. And now two
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: outside the baker's they had smelt the goose, and known
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: it for their own. And basking in luxurious thoughts of
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about the table,
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he,
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: not proud, though his colours nearly choked him, blew the
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: fire until the slow potatoes bubbling out knocked loudly in
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: the saucepan lid to be let out and peeled.' What
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: has ever got your precious father, then?' said Mrs. Cratchit.'
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: Had your brother, Tiny Tim. And Martha weren't as late
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: last Christmas Day by half an hour.'' Here' s Martha, mother,'
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: said a girl, appearing as she spoke.' Here' s Martha, mother,'
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: cried the two young Cratchits.' Hurrah! There's such a goose, Martha!' Why,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: bless your heart, lie, my dear, how late you are,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: off her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal.
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: We had a deal of work to finish up last night,
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: replied the girl, and had to clear away this morning, mother. Well,
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: never mind, so long as you've come, said Mrs. Cratchit.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: Sit ye down by the fire, my dear, and have
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: a warm Lord bless ye. No, no, father's coming, cried
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: the two young Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. Hide, Martha, hide!
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob the father,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: with at least three feet of comforter exclusive to the fringe,
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: hanging down before him, and his threadbare clothes donned up
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: and brushed to look seasonable, and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas,
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: for Tiny Tim he bore a little crutch, and had
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: his limbs supported by an iron frame. Why, where's our Martha?
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: cried Bob Cratchit, looking round. Not coming, said Mrs. Cratchit.
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: Not coming, said Bob, with a sudden declension of his
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: high spirits, for he had been Tim's blood horse all
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: the way from church, and he had come home rampant.
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: Not coming upon Christmas Day! Martha didn't like to see
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: him disappointed, if it were only in joke, so she
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: came out prematurely from behind the closet door and ran
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: into his arms, while the two young cratchits hustled Tiny
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: Tim and bore him off into the wash-house, that he
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: might hear the pudding singing in the copper. And how
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: did little Tim behave? asked Mrs. Cratchit, and Bob had
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: hugged his daughter to his heart's content. As good as gold,
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: said Bob, and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: He told me coming home that he had hoped people
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: saw him in the church because he was a cripple,
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this in
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: trembled more when he said that tiny tim was growing
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: strong and hearty his active crutch was heard upon the
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: floor and back came tiny tim before another word was
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: spoken escorted by his brother and sister to his stool
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: before the fire while bob turning up his cuffs as
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: if poor fellow they were capable of being made more
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: shabby compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: and lemons and stirred it round and round and put
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: it on the hob to simmer. Master Peter and the
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, which
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: they soon returned in high procession. Such a bustle ensued
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: that you might have thought a goose was the rarest
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: of all birds, a feathered phenomenon, for which a black
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: swan was a matter of course, and in truth it
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: was something very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: made the gravy already beforehand in a little saucepan hissing.
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: Master Peter mashed the potatoes with an incredible vigour. Miss
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: Belinda sweetened up the applesauce. Martha dusted the hot plates.
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: of the table. The two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody,
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: before their turn came to be held. At last the
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: dishes were set on, and grace was set. It was
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast.
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: But when she did, and when the long-expected gush of
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all round
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: young cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: his knife, and feebly cried, Hurrah! There never was such
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: a goose! Bob said he didn't believe that there ever
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavor, size
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Inked out
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: by applesauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: for the whole family. Indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: great delight, surveying one small atom of a bone upon
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: the dish, they hadn't ate it all at last. Yet
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: particular were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows.
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: But now the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: Cratchit left the room alone, too nervous to hear witnesses,
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: to take the pudding up and bring it in. Suppose
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: it had not been done enough. Suppose it should break
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: in turning out. Suppose somebody should have gotten over the
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: wall over the backyard and stolen it. Well, they were
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: merry with the goose, a supposition at which the two
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: young Cratchits became livid. All sorts of horrors were supposed. Hello,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: a great deal of steam. The pudding was out of
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: the copper. A smell like a washing day. That was
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: the cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastry-cook's
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: next door to each other, with the laundresses next door
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: to that. That was the pudding. In half a minute Mrs.
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: Cratchit entered flush, but smiling proudly, with the pudding like
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: a speckled cannonball, so hard and firm, blazing with half
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: of half a quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: Christmas holly stuck into the top. oh what a wonderful
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: pudding bob cratchit said and calmly too that he regarded
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: it as the greatest success achieved by mrs cratchit since
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: their marriage mrs cratchit said that now the weight was
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: off her mind she would confess that she hadn't had
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: doubts about the quality of the flour every one had
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: something to say about it for nobody said or thought
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: it was at all a small pudding for a large
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: family it would have been a flat heresy to do
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: so any cratchit would have blushed to hint at such
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: a thing At last the dinner was all done, the
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: cloth was cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: The compound in the jug was being tasted, and considered perfect.
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: Apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: shovelful of chestnuts on the fire. And then all the
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: called a circle, meaning half a one. And at Bob
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: Cratchit's elbow stood the family display of glass, two tumblers,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: and a custard cup without handles. These held the hot
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden goblets
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: would have done, and Bob served it out with beaming looks,
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and crackled noisily.
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: Then Bob proposed,' A merry Christmas to us all, my dears!
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: God bless us!' which all the family be echoed.' God
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: bless us, every one!' said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: He sat very close to his father's side upon the stool.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: he loved the jug. and he wished to keep him
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: by his side and dreaded that he might be taken
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: from him.' Spirit,' said Scrooge, with an interest he had
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: never felt before,' tell me if Tiny Tim will live.''
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: I see a vacant seat,' replied the ghost,' in the
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: poor chimney-corner and a crutch without an owner carefully preserved.'
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: will die.'' No, no,' said Scrooge.' Oh, no, kind spirit.
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: Say he will be spared.' If these shadows remain unaltered
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: by the future, none other of my race, returned the ghost,
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: will find him here. What then? If he be like
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: to die, he had better do it, and decrease the
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: surplus population. Scrooge hung his head to hear his own
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: words quoted by the spirit, and was overcome with penitence
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: and grief. Man, said the ghost. If, man, you be
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: at heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked count until you
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: have discovered what the surplus is and where it is.
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: Will you decide what men shall live and what men
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: shall die? It may be that in the sight of
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: heaven you are more worthless and less fit to live
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: than millions like this poor man's child. Oh, God, to
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too-much-life
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: among his hungry brothers in the dust! Scrooge bent before
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: the ghost's rebuke, and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground,
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: but he raised them speedily upon hearing his own name. Mr. Scrooge,
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: said Bob, I give you Mr. Scrooge, the founder of
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: our feast. The founder of our feast, indeed, cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening.
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: I wish I had him here. I'd give him a
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: piece of my mind to feast upon, and hope he'd
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: have a good appetite for it. My dear, said Bob,
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: the children, Christmas Day. It should be Christmas Day, I'm sure,
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: said she, in which one drinks the health of such
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. You
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: know he is, Robert. Nobody knows it better than you,
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: poor fellow. My dear, was Bob's mild answer. Christmas Day.
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: I'll drink his health for your sake in the days,
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Cratchit, but not for his. Long life to him.
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: A merry Christmas and a happy New Year. He'll be
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: very merry and very happy, I have no doubt. The
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: children drank the toast after her. It was the first
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: of their proceedings, which had no heartiness. Tiny Tim drank
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: the last of all, but he didn't care two pence
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: for it. Scrooge was the ogre of the family. The
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: mention of his name cast a dark shadow upon the party,
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: which was not dispelled for full five minutes. After it
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before,
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: and the mere relief of Scrooge, the bailiff, for being
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: done with, Bob Cratchit told them how he had a
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: situation in his eye for Master Peter, which would bring in,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: if obtained, full five and sixpence weekly. The two young
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: man of business, and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: fire from between his collars, as if he were deliberating
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: what particular investments he should favour when he came into
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: the receipt of that bewildering income martha who was a
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: poor apprentice at a mill nurse then told them what
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: kind of work she had to do and how many
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: hours she worked at a stretch and how she meant
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: to lie abed to-morrow morning for a good long rest
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: tomorrow being a holiday she passed at home, and how
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: she had seen a countess and a lord some days before,
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: and how the lord was much about as tall as Peter,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: at which Peter pulled up his collar so high that
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: you couldn't have seen his head if you had been there.
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: All this time the chestnuts and the jug went round
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: and round, and by and by they had a song
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim,
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: well indeed. There was nothing of high mark in this.
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: They were not a handsome family. They were not well-dressed.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: The shoes were far from being waterproof, their clothes were scanty,
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: insight of a pawnbroker's. But they were happy, grateful, pleased
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: with one another, and contented with the time, and when
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: they faded they looked happier yet. In the bright sprinklings
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: of the spirit's torture parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them,
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: and especially untidied him until the last. By this time
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: it was getting dark and snowing pretty heavily. As Scrooge
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: and the spirit went along the streets, the brightness of
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: the roaring fires in kitchens, parlors, and all sorts of
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: rooms was wonderful. Here the flickering of the blaze showed
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: preparations for a cozy dinner, with hot plates baking through
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: and through before the fire, and deep red curtains ready
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: to be drawn to shut out the cold and darkness.
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: there all the children in the house are running out
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: in the snow to meet their married sisters brothers cousins
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: uncles aunts and to be the first to greet them
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: here again were shadows on the window-blind of guests assembling
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: and there a group of handsome girls all hooded and
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: fur-booted and all chattering at once tripped lightly off to
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: some near neighbor's house where woe upon the single man
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: who saw them enter artful witches well they knew it
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: in a glow But if you were judged from the
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: numbers of people on their way to friendly gatherings, you
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: might have thought that no one was home to give
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: them welcome when they got there. Instead of every house
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: expecting company and piling up its fires half chimney high,
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: blessings on it how the ghost exalted, how it bared
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: its breath abreast and opened its capricious palm and floated on,
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: outpouring with a generous hand its bright and harmless mirth
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: on everything within its reach. The very lamplighter who ran
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: on before, darting the dusky street with specks of light,
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: out loudly as the spirit passed, though he had kenned
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: the lamplighter that he had any company but Christmas. And now,
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: without a word of warning from the ghost, they stood
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: rude stone were cast about as though it were the
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: burial-place of giants. and water spread itself wherever it listed
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: or would have done so but for the frost that
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: held it prisoner, and nothing grew but moss and firs
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: in coarse rain-grass. Down in the west the setting sun
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: had left a streak of fiery red which glared upon
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: the desolation for an instant like a sullen eye, and
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in the thick
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: gloom of darkest night. What place is this? asked Scrooge.
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: A place where miners live, who labor in the bowels
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: of the earth, returned the spirit. But they know me. See!
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: A light shone from the window of a hut, and
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: swiftly they advanced towards it, passing through the wall of
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 1: mud and stone. They found a cheerful company assembled around
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: a glowing fire. An old, old man and woman, with
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: their children and their children's children. and another generation beyond that,
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: all decked out gaily in their holiday attire. The old man,
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: in a voice that seldom rose above the howling wind
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: upon the barren waste, was singing them a Christmas song.
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: It had been a very old song when he was
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: a boy, and from time to time they all joined
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: in in the chorus. So surely as they raised their
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: voices the old man got quite blithe and loud, and
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: so surely as they stopped his vigor sank again. The
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his robe,
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: and passing on above the moor sped whither. Not to see.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: To see. To Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw the
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: last of the land, a frightful rage of rocks behind him,
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: as it rolled and roared and raged among the dreadful
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: caverns it had worn, and scarcely tried to undermine the earth.
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: or so from shore, on which the waters chafed and
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: dashed the wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse.
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: Great heaps of seaweed clung to its base, and storm-birds,
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: born of the wind one might suppose as seaweed of
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: the water, rose and fell about it like the waves
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: they skimmed. But even there two men who watched the
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: light had made a fire, and through the loophole of
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: the thick stone wall shed out a rare brightness in
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: the awful sea. Drawing their horny hands over a rough
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: table at which they sat, they wished each other Merry
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: Christmas in their can of grog, and one of them,
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: the elder, too, with his face all damaged and scarred
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: with hard weather, as a figure of an old ship
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: might be, struck up a sturdy song that was like
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: a gale in itself. Again the ghost sped on, above
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: the black and heaving sea, on, on, until, being far away,
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: a ship. they stood beside the helmsman at the wheel
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: the lookout in the bow the officers who had the
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: watch dark ghostly figures in their several stations but every
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: man among them hummed a christmas tune or had a
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: christmas thought or spoke below his breath to his companion
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: of some bygone christmas day with homeward hopes belonging to
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: it and every man on board waking or sleeping good
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: or bad had had a kinder word for another on
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: that day than on any day in the year, and
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: they had shared to some extent in their festivities, and
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: had known that they delighted to remember him. It was
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the moaning
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: of the wind, and thinking what a solemn thing it
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: was to move on through a lonely darkness over an
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: unknown abyss, whose depths were secrets as profound as death.
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus engaged,
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: to hear a hearty laugh, It was a much greater
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 1: surprise to Scrooge to recognize it as his own nephew's,
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming room,
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: with the spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: at that same nephew with approving affability.' Ha, ha, ha!'
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: laughed Scrooge's nephew.' Ha, ha, ha! If you should happen
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: by any unlikely chance to know a man more blessed
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is,
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: I should like to know him, too. Introduce him to me,
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: and I'll cultivate his acquaintance.' it is a fair even-hand
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: noble adjustment of things that there is infection in disease
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: and sorrow there is nothing in the world so irresistibly
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: contagious as laughter and good-humour when scrooge's nephew laughed in
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: this way holding his sight rolling his head and twisting
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: his face in the most extravagant contortions scrooge's niece by
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: marriage laughed as hardly as he, and their assembled friends,
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: not being a bit behind hand, roared out lustily. He
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: said that Christmas was a humbug as I live, said
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew. He believed it, too. More shame for him, Fred,
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge's niece indignantly. Bless those who own, they never
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: do anything by halves. They are always in earnest. She
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: was very pretty, exceedingly pretty. with a dimpled, surprised-looking capital face,
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: a ripe little mouth that seemed to be made to
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: be kissed, as no doubt it was, all kinds of
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 1: good little dots about her chin that melted into one
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: another when she laughed, and the sunniest pair of eyes
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: you ever saw in any little creature's head. Altogether she
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: was what you would have called provoking, you know, but
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: satisfactory too, oh, perfectly satisfactory. He's a comical old fellow,
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge's nephew. That's the truth, but not so pleasant
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: as he might be. However, his offences carry their own punishment,
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: and I have nothing to say against him. I'm sure
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: he's very rich, Fred, hinted Scrooge's niece. At least you
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: always tell me so. What of that, my dear, said
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew? His wealth is of no use to him.
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: He don't do any good with it. He don't make
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: himself comfortable with it. He hasn't the satisfaction of thinking
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: that he is ever going to benefit us with it.
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: I have no patience with him, observed Scrooge's niece. Scrooge's
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: niece's sisters and all the other ladies expressed the same opinion. Oh,
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: I have, said Scrooge's nephew. I'm sorry for him. I
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: couldn't be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: by his ill whims? Himself always. Here he takes it
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: into his head to dislike us, and he won't come
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: and dine with us. What's the consequence? He don't lose
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: much of a dinner.'' Indeed, I think he loses a
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: very good dinner,' interrupted Scrooge's niece. Everyone else said the same,
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: and there must be allowed to have been competent judges,
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: because they had all just had dinner, and, with the
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire by lamplight.'
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: well i'm very glad to hear it said scrooge's nephew
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: because i haven't great faith in these young housekeepers what
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: do you say topper topper had clearly got his eye
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: upon one of scrooge's niece's sisters for he answered that
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: a bachelor was a wretched outcast who had no right
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: to express an opinion on the subject whereas scrooge's niece's sister,
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: the plump one with the lace tucker, not the one
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: with the roses, blushed.' Do go on, Fred,' said Scrooge's niece,
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: clapping her hands.' He never finishes what he begins to say.
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: He is such a ridiculous fellow.' Scrooge's nephew reveled in
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: another laugh, and as it was impossible to keep the
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: infection off, though the plump sister tried hard to do
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: it with an aromatic vinegar, his example was unanimously followed.'
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: I was only going to say,' said Scrooge's nephew, that
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: the consequence of his taking a dislike to us and
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: not making merry with us is, as I think, that
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: he loses some pleasant moments which could do him no harm.
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: I am sure he loses pleasanter comparisons than he can
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: find in his own thoughts, either in his mouldy old
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: office or his dusty chambers. I mean to give him
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: the same chance every year, whether he likes it or not,
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: for I pity him. He may rail at Christmas till
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: he dies. but I can't help thinking better of it.
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: I defy him. If he finds me going there in
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: good temper year after year and saying, Uncle Scrooge, how
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: are you? If it only puts him in the vein
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, that's something. And
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: I think I shook him yesterday. It was their turn
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: to laugh now at the notion of shaking Scrooge, but
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: being thoroughly good-natured and not caring much what they laughed at,
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: so that they laughed at any rate, he encouraged them
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: in their merriment and passed the bottle joyously. After tea
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: they had some music, for they were a musical family,
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: and knew what they were about when they sung a
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: glee or catch, I can assure you, especially Topper, who
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: would growl away in the bass like a good one,
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: and never swell the large veins in his forehead or
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: get rid in the face over it. Scrooge's niece played
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: well upon the harp, and played, among other tunes, a
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: simple little air, a mere nothing, you might learn to
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: whistle it in two minutes, which had been familiar to
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: the child who fetched Scrooge from the boarding-school, as he
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: had been reminded by the ghost of Christmas past. When
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: this strain of music sounded, all the things the ghost
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: had shown him came upon his mind. He softened more
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: and more, and thought if he could listen to it
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: often years ago, he might have cultivated the kindness of
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: life for his own happiness with his own hands, without
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: resorting to the sexton spade that buried Jacob Marley. But
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After a
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: while they played forfeits, for it is good to be
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: children sometimes. It never better at Christmas when its mighty
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: founder was a child himself. Stop. There was first a
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: game at Blind Man's Bluff. Of course there was. And
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: I no more believe Topper was really blind than I
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: believe he had eyes in his boots. My opinion is
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: that it was a dumb thing between him and Scrooge's nephew,
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 1: and that the ghost of Christmas present knew it. The
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: way he went after that plump sister in the lace
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: tucker was an outrage on the credulity of human nature,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling over chairs, bumping against the piano,
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: smothered himself among the curtains. Wherever she went, there went he.
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: He always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn't
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: catch anybody else. If you had fallen up against him,
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: as some of them did on purpose, he would have
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: have been an affront to your understanding, and would instantly
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister.
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: She often cried out that it wasn't fair. It really
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: was not. But when at last he caught her, when,
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: in spite of all her silken rustlings and rapid flutterings
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: past him, he got her into a corner whence there
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: was no escape, Then his conduct was the most execrable,
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: for his pretending not to know her, his pretending that
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: it was necessary to touch her headdress, and further to
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: assure himself of her identity by pressing a certain ring
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: upon her finger, and a certain chain about her neck
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: was vile and monstrous. No doubt she told him her
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: opinion of it, when, another blind man being in office,
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: there were so many confidential together behind the curtains. Scrooge's
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: niece was not one of the blind men's bluff party,
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: but made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: in a snug corner where the ghost and Scrooge were
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: close behind her. But she joined in the forfeits and
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: loved her love to admiration with all the letters of
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: the alphabet. Likewise, at the game of how, when, and where,
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: she was very great, and to the secret joy of
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: Scrooge's nephew beat her sister's hollow, though they were sharp girls, too,
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: as Topple would have told you. There might have been
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 1: twenty people there, young and old, but they all played,
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: and so did Scrooge, for wholly forgetting in the interest
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: he had in what was going on, that his voice
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: made no sound in the air, as he sometimes came
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: out with his guess quite loud, and very often guessed
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: quite right, too, for the sharpest needle best Whitechapel warranted
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: not to cut in the eye was not sharper than Scrooge,
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: blunt as he took it in his head to be.
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: The ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood,
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: and looked upon him with such favour that he begged
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: like a boy to be allowed to stay until the
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: guests departed. But this, the spirit said, could not be done.'
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: Here' s a new game,' said Scrooge.' One half-hour, spirit, only one!'
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: It was a game called Yes or No, where Scrooge's
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: nephew had to think of something, and the rest must
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: find out what, he only answering to their questions yes
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: or no, as the case was. The risk-fire of questioning
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: to which he was exposed elicited from him that he
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: was thinking of an animal, a live animal, rather a
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal that growled and
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: grunted sometimes and talked sometimes, and lived in London, and
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: walked about in streets, and wasn't made a show of,
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a menagerie,
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: and was never killed in a market, and it was
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: a bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig,
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: or a cat, or a bear. At every fresh question
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: that was put to him, This nephew burst into a
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: fresh roar of laughter, and was so inexpressibly tickled that
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: he was obliged to get off off the sofa and stamp.
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: At last the plump sister, falling into a similar state,
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: cried out,' I found it! I know what it is! Fred,
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 1: I know what it is!'' What is it?' said Fred.'
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: It' s your Uncle Scrooge!' which it certainly was. Admiration was
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: the universal sentiment, though some objected that the reply to,
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: Is it a bear? ought to have been, Yes, inasmuch
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: as an answer in the negative was sufficient to have
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: diverted their thoughts from Mr. Scrooge, supposing they had never
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: had any tendency that way. He has given us plenty
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: of merriment, I am sure, said Fred, and it would
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: be ungrateful not to drink his health. Here is a
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment,
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: and I say, Uncle Scrooge. Well, Uncle Scrooge, they cried.
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 1: A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: old man wherever he is, said Scrooge's nephew. He wouldn't
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: take it from me, but he may have it nevertheless.
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: Uncle Scrooge! Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: light of heart that he would have pledged the unconscious
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: company in return and thanked them in an inaudible speech
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: if the ghost had given him time. But the whole
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: scene passed off in the breath of the last words
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: spoken by his nephew, and he and the spirit were
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: again upon their travels. Much they saw, and far they went,
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 1: and many homes they visited, but always with a happy end.
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: The spirit stood beside sick beds, and they were cheerful
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 1: on foreign lands, and they were close at home. By
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: struggling men, and they were patient with their greater hope.
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: By poverty, and it was rich. in almshouse hospital and
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: jail in miseries every refuge where vain man and his
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: little brief authority had not made fast the door and
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: barred the spirit out he left his blessing and taught
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: scrooge his precepts it was a long night if it
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: were only a night but scrooge had his doubts about this,
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: because Christmas holidays appeared to be condensed into a space
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: of time they passed together. It was strange, too, that,
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: while Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the ghost
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: grew older, clearly older. Scrooge had observed this change, but
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 1: never spoke of it, until they had left a children's
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: twelfth-night party, when, looking at the spirit as they stood
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: together in an open place, he noticed that his hair
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: was grey.' A spirit's life's so short?' asked Scrooge.' My
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: life upon this globe is very brief,' replied the ghost.'
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: It ends to-night.'' To- night!' cried Scrooge.' To- night at midnight. Park.
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: The time is drawing near.' The chimes were ringing three-quarters
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: past eleven at the moment.' Forgive me if I am
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: not justified in what I ask,' said Scrooge, looking intently
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: at the spirit's robe.' But I see something strange, and
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts.' Is that
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: a foot or a claw? It might be a claw,
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: for the flesh there is upon it, was the spirit's
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 1: sorrowful reply. Look here! From the foldings of his robe
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: he brought two children. Wretched, abject, frightful, he is miserable.
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: They knelt down on his feet and clung upon the
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: outside of his garment. Oh, man, look here! Look! Look
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: down here! exclaimed the ghost. They were a boy and girl, yellow, meager, ragged, scowling, wolfish,
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 1: but prostrate too in their humility. Where graceful youth should
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 1: have filled their features out and touched them with its
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: freshest tints, a stale and shriveled hand like that of
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: age had pinched and twisted them and pulled them into shreds.
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: Where angels might have sat and thrown, devils lurked and
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 1: humanity in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation,
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: has monsters half so horrible in dread? Scrooge started back appalled.
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: Having them shown to him in this way, he tried
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves.
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: Rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: This is the spirit. Are they yours? Scrooge could say
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: no more. They are man's, said the spirit, looking down
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: upon them. and they cling to me, appealing from their fathers.
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: The boy is ignorance. The girl is want. Beware them both,
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: in all of their degree, but most of all beware
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: the boy, for on his brow I see written which
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: is doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it, cried
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: the spirit, stretching out his hand towards the city. Stand
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: to those who tell it, ye.' admit it for your
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: facetious purposes, make it worse, and bide the end.'' Have
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 1: they no refuge or resource?' cried Scrooge.' Are there no prisons?'
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: said the spirit,' turning on him for the last time
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: with his own words.' Are there no workhouses?' the bell
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: struck twelve.' Scrooge looked about him for the ghost and
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: saw it not.' As the last stroke ceased to vibrate,'
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Barley in lifting
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: up his eyes.' beheld a solemn phantom draped and hooded,
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: coming like a mist along the ground towards him. A
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Stay four. The Last of
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: the Three Spirits. The phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee,
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: for in the very air through which the spirit moved,
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery. It was shrouded
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face,
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: its form, and left nothing of it visible save one
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: to detach its figure from the night, and separated from
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: the darkness by which it was surrounded. He felt that
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: it was tall and stately when it came beside him,
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread.
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 1: He knew no more, for the spirit neither spoke nor moved.'
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: Am I in the presence of the ghost of Christmas
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: yet to come?' said Scrooge. The spirit answered not, but
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: pointed onward with its hand. You are about to show
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: me shadows of things that have not happened, but will
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: happen in the time before us, Scrooge pursued. Is that so, spirit?
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: instant in its folds, as if the spirit had inclined
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: its head. That was the only answer he received. Although
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: well used to ghostly company by this time, Scrooge feared
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him,
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: and he found that he could hardly stand when he
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: prepared to follow it. The spirit paused a moment, as
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: observing his condition, and giving him time to recover. But
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: Scrooge was all the worse for this. It thrilled him
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: with a vague, uncertain horror, to know that behind the
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost—
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: heap of black. Ghost of the future, he exclaimed, I
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: fear you more than any spectre I have seen, but
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: as I know your purpose is to do me good,
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: and as I hope to live to be another man
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 1: from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company,
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: speak to me? It gave him no reply. The hand
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: was pointed straight before them. Lay down, said Scrooge. Lay down.
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: The night is waning fast, and it is precious time
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: to me, I know. Lay down, spirit. The phantom moved
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: away as it had come towards him. Scrooge followed in
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: the shadow of its dress, which bore him up, he thought,
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: and carried him along. They scarcely seemed to enter the city,
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: for the city rather seemed to spring up about them.
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: and encompassed them of its own act. But there they
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: were in the heart of it, on change amongst the merchants,
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: who hurried up and down, and chinkled the money in
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: their pockets, and conversed in groups, and looked at their watches,
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: and trifled thoughtfully with the great old seals, and so forth,
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: as Scrooge had seen them often. The spirit stopped beside
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: one little knot of businessmen. Observing that the hand was
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: pointed to them, Scrooge advanced to listen to their talk.' No,'
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: said a great fat man with a monstrous chin.' I
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: don't know much about it either way. I only know
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: he's dead.'' When did he die?' inquired another.' Last night,
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: I believe.'' Why, what's the matter with him?' asked the third,
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: taking a vast quantity of snuff out of a very
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: large snuff-box.' I thought he'd never die.'' God knows,' said
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: the first, with a yawn.' What has he done with
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: his money?' asked a red-faced gentleman, with a pendulous excretion
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: on the end of his nose, that shook like the
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: gills of a turkey-cock.' I haven't heard,' said the man,
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: with a large chin, yawning again.' Left it to his company, perhaps.
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: He hasn't left it to me, that's all I know.'
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: This pleasantry was received with a general laugh. It's very
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: likely to be a very cheap funeral, said the same speaker,
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 1: for upon my life I don't know of anybody to
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: go to it. Suppose we make up a party and volunteer.
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: I don't mind going if lunch is provided, observed the
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 1: gentleman with the excretions on his nose, but I must
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 1: be fed if I make one. Another laugh. Well, I
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: am the most disinterested among you after all, said the
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 1: first speaker, for I never wear black gloves and I
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: never eat lunch, but I'll offer to go if anybody
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: else will. When I come to think of it, I'm
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: not at all sure that I wasn't his most particular friend,
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: for we used to stop and speak whenever we met. Bye-bye.
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: Speakers and listeners strolled away, and mixed with other groups.
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: Scrooge knew the man, and looked towards the spirit for
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: an explanation. The phantom glided on into a street. Its
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: finger pointed to two persons meeting. Scrooge listened again, thinking
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: that the explanation might lie here. He knew these two
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: men also perfectly. They were men of business, very wealthy,
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: and of great importance. He had made a point always
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: of standing well in their esteem, in a business point
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: of view, that is, strictly in a business point of view.' Oh,
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: how are you?' said one.' Oh, how are you?' returned
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: the other.' Well,' said the first,' old Scratch has got
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: his own at last, hey?'' So I am told,' returned
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: the second.' Gold, isn't it?'' Seasonable for Christmas time. You're
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: not a skater, I suppose?'' No, no. Something else to
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: think of. Good morning.' Not another word. That was their meeting,
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: their conversation, and their parting. Scrooge was at first inclined
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: to be surprised that the spirit should attach importance to
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: conversations apparently so trivial, but, feeling assured that they must
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: have some hidden purpose, he set himself to consider what
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: it was likely to be. They could scarcely be supposed
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: to have any bearing on the death of Jacob, his
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: old partner, for that was past, and the ghost's province
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: was of the future. Nor could he think of any
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: one immediately connected with himself, to whom he could apply them.
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: But nothing doubting that, to whomever they applied, they had
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: some latent moral for his own improvement, he resolved to
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: treasure up every word he heard, and everything he saw,
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: and especially to observe the shadow that the conduct of
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: his future self would give him the clue he missed,
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: and would render the resolution of these riddles easy. He
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 1: looked about in the very place for his own image,
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: but another man stood in his accustomed corner, and though
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: the clock pointed to his usual time of day for
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 1: being there, he saw no likenesses of himself among the
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: multitudes that poured in through the porch— It gave him
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: little surprise, however, for he had been revolving in his
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: mind a change of life, and thought and hoped he
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: saw his no-born resolutions carried out in this. Quiet and
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: dark beside him stood the phantom with its outstretched hand.
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: When he roused himself from his thoughtful quest, he fancied
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: from the turn of the hand and its situation in
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: reference to himself that the unseen eyes were looking at
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 1: him keenly. It made him shudder and feel very cold.
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: part of town where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: he recognized its situation and its bad repute. The ways
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: were foul and narrow, the shops and houses wretched, the
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 1: people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. Alleys and archways, like so
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: many cesspools, disgorged the offences of smell and dirt and
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: life upon the straggling streets. and the whole quarter reeked
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: with crime, with filth and misery. Far in this den
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: of infamous resort there was a low-browed beetling shop, below
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: a penthouse roof, where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: greasy offal were brought. upon the floor within were piled
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: up heaps of rusty keys nails chains hinges files scales
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: weights and refuse iron of all kinds secrets that few
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: would like to scrutinize were bred and hidden in mountains
• 2:08:34
  Speaker 1: of unseemly rags masses of corrupted fat and sepulchres of
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: bones sitting in among the wares he dealt in by
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: a charcoal stove made of bricks was a grey-haired rascal
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: nearly seventy years of age who had screened himself from
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: the cold air without by a frowsy curtaining and miscellaneous
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: tatters hung up in a line and smoked his pipe
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: in all the luxury of calm retirement Scrooge and the
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: phantom came into the presence of this man, just as
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 1: a woman with a heavy bundle slung into the shop.
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: But she had scarcely entered when another woman, similarly laden,
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: came in too, and she was closely followed by a
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: man in faded black, who was no less startled by
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: the sight of them than they had been upon the
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: recognition of each other. After a short period of blank astonishment,
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: in which the old man with the pipe had joined them,
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: they all three burst into a laugh— Let the charwoman
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: alone to be the first, cried she, who had entered first.
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: Let the laundresses alone to be the second, and let
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: the undertaker's men alone to be the third. Look here,
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 1: old Joe, here's a chance. If we haven't all three met,
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: they're without meaning it. You couldn't have met in a
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: better place, said old Joe, removing the pipe from his mouth.
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: Come into the parlour. You were made free for it
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: long ago, you know, and the other two ain't strangers.
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: Shop till they shut the door of the shop.' Oh,
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: how it streaks! There ain't such a rusty bit of
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: metal in the place as it only is, I believe.
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure there's no such old bones here as mine.
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: We're all suitable for our calling, well matched. Come into
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: the parlour! Come into the parlour!' The parlour was the
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: space behind the screen of rags. The old man raked
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: the fire together with an old stair rod, and having
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: trimmed his smoky lamp before it was night with the
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: stem of his pipe, put it in his mouth again.
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 1: While he did this, the woman who had already spoken
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: threw her bundle on the floor, and sat down in
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: a flaunting manner on a stool, crossing her elbows on
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: her knees, and looking with bold defiance at the other two.'
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: What odds, what odds, Mrs. Dilber?' said the woman.' Every
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: person had the right to take care of themselves. He
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: always did.'' Oh, that's true indeed,' said the laundress.' No
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: more men so.'' Why, then, don't stand staring as if
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: you was afraid, woman.' Who' s the wiser?' We' re not going
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: to pick holes in each other's coats, I suppose.'' No, indeed,'
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Dilber and the man together.' We should hope not.''
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: Very well, then,' cried the woman.' That' s enough.' Who' s the
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: worse for the loss of a few things like these?'
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: Not a dead man, I suppose.'' No, indeed,' said Mrs. Dilber, laughing.'
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: I wish it was a little heavier judgment, replied the woman,
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: and it shouldn't have been. You may depend on it.
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: If I could have laid my hands on anything else,
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: open the bundle, old Joe, and let me know the
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: value of it. Speak out plain. I'm not afraid to
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: be the first, not afraid for them to see it.
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: We know pretty well what we're helping ourselves. For met here,
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: I believe, it's no sin. Open the bundle, Joe. But
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: the gallantry of her friends would not allow this, and
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: the man in faded black, mounting the breach first, produced
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: his plunder. It was not extensive— a seal or two, a pencil-case,
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 1: a pair of sleeve-buttons, and a brooch of no great
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 1: value were all. They were severally examined and appraised by
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: old Joe, who chalked the sums as he was supposed
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: to give for each upon the wall, and added them
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: up to a total when he found there was nothing
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: more to come.' That' s your account,' said Joe.' And I
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: wouldn't give another sixpence if I were to be bored
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: for not doing it. Who's next?' Mrs. Dilber was next.
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: Sheets and towels, a little wearing apparel, two old-fashioned silver teaspoons,
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: a pair of sugar-tongs, and a few boots. Her account
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: was stated on the wall in the same manner.' I
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 1: always give too much to the ladies. It's a weakness
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: of mine, and it's the way I've ruined myself,' said
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: old Joe.' That' s your account. If you ask me for
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 1: another penny, and made it an open question, I'd repent
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: of being so liberal and knock off at the ground.''
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: And now undo my bundle, Joe,' said the first woman.
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: of opening it, and having unfastened a great many knots,
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff.'
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: What do you call these?' said Joe.' Bed- curtains!'' Ah!' returned
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: the woman, laughing and leaning forward in her crossed arms.' Bed- curtains!
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: You don't mean to say you took them down rigs
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 1: at all with them lying there?' said Joe.' Yes, I do,'
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: replied the woman.' Why not?'' You were born to make
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: your fortune,' said Joe,' and you'll certainly do it.' I
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: certainly shan't hold my hand when I can get anything
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: in it by reaching it out, for the sake of
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: such a man as he was, I promise you, Joe.
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 1: Don't drop that all upon the blankets now.'' It' s blankets?'
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: asked Joe.' Well, whose else do you think?' replied the woman.'
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: Is it likely you take go with Adam, I dare say?'' Well,
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: I hope he didn't die of anything catching, eh?' said
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: old Joe, stopping in his work and looking up.' Don' t
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: you be afraid of that,' returned the woman.' I ain't
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: so fond of his company and lauder about him for
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: such things as he did. Ah, you may look through
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: that shirt until your eyes ache, but you won't find
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: a hole in it, not a threadbare place. It's the
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: best he had and a fine one, too. They'd waste
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 1: it if it hadn't been for me.'' What do you
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 1: call wasting it?' asked old Joe.' Putting it on him
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: to be buried, for sure,' replied the old woman with
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 1: a laugh.' Somebody was fool enough to do it, but
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 1: I took it off again. If Calico ain't good enough
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 1: for such a purpose, it isn't good enough for anything.
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: It's quite as becoming to the body. It can't look
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: ugly as it did in that one.' Scrooge listened to
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 1: this dialogue in horror. As they sat grouped about their
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: spoil in the scanty light afforded by the old man's lamp,
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: he viewed them with a detestation and disgust which could
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 1: hardly have been greater, though they had been obscene demons
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: marketing the corpse itself.' Ha! ha!' laughed the woman, when
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: old Joe, producing a flannel bag with money in it,
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: told out their several gains upon the ground.' This is
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: the end of it, you see. He frightened everyone away
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: from him when he was alive, to profit us when
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 1: he was dead. Ha! ha! ha!'' Spit it,' said Scrooge,
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 1: shuddering from head to foot.' I see. I see. The
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: case of this unhappy man might be my own. My
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: life tends that way. Now, merciful Heaven, what is this?'
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: he recoiled in horror, for the scene had changed, and
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: now he almost touched a bed, a bare, uncurtained bed,
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: on which, beneath a ragged sheet, there lay something covered up, which,
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: though it was dumb, announced itself in awful language. The
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: room was very dark, too dark to be observed with
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: any accuracy, though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: a secret impulse, anxious to know what kind of room
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 1: it was. A pale light rising in the outer air,
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: fell straight upon the bed, and on it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept,
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: uncared for, was the body of this man. Scrooge glanced
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: toward the phantom. Its steady hand was pointed to the head.
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: The cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: of it, the motion of a finger upon Scrooge's part,
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: would have disclosed the face. He thought of it, felt
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: how easy it would be to do so, and longed
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: to do it, but had no more power to withdraw
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: the veil than to dismiss the spectre at his side.
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: O cold, cold, rigid, dreadful death, set up thine altar here,
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 1: and dress it with such tears as thou hast at
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: thy command, for this is thy dominion. But of the loved, revered,
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 1: and honoured head thou canst not turn one hair to
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: any dread purposes, or make one feature odious. It is
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 1: not that The hand is heavy, or will fall down
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: when released. It is not that the heart and pulse
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 1: are still, but the hand was open, generous, and true.
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: The heart brave, warm, and tender, and the pulse a man's. Strike, shadow, strike,
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: and see his good deed springing from the wound, to
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: sow the world with life immortal. No voice pronounced these
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: words in Scrooge's ears, and yet he heard them when
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: he looked upon the bed. He thought, if this man
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 1: could be raised up now, what would be his foremost thoughts? Avarice,
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: hard dealing, griping cares, they have brought him to a
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: rich end, truly. He lay in the dark empty house,
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: with not a man, a woman, or a child, to
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 1: say that he was kind to me in this or that,
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: and for the memory of one kind word I will
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: be kind to him. A cat was tearing at the door,
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: and there was a sound of gnawing rats beneath the hearthstone.
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 1: What they wanted in the room of death, and why
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 1: they were so restless and disturbed, Scrooge did dare not think.
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: Spit it, he said. This is a fearful place. In
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 1: leaving it, I shall not leave its lesson. Trust me,
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: let us go. Still the ghost pointed with an unmoved
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: finger to the head. I understand you, Scrooge returned. and
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: I would do it if I could, but I have
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 1: not the power, spirit, I have not the power. Again
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: it seemed to look at him. If there is any
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: person in the town who feels emotion caused by this
• 2:17:54
  Speaker 1: man's death, said Scrooge, quite agonized, show that person to me, spirit,
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: I beseech you. The phantom spread its dark robe before
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: him for a moment like a wing, and withdrawing it
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: revealed a room by daylight where a mother and her
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 1: children were. She was expecting someone, and with anxious eagerness,
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: for she walked up and down the room, started at
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: every sound, looked out from the window, glanced at the clock,
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 1: tried but in vain to work with her needle, and
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: could hardly bear the voices of the children in their play.
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: At length, the long-expected knock was heard. She hurried to
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 1: the door, and met her husband, a man whose face
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: was careworn and depressed, though he was young. There was
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: a remarkable expression in it now. a kind of serious
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: delight of which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: to repress. He sat down to the dinner that had
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 1: been hoarding for him by the fire, and when she
• 2:18:49
  Speaker 1: asked him faintly what news, which was not until after
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: a long silence, he appeared embarrassed how to answer.' Is
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 1: it good?' she said.' Or bad?' to help him.' Bad,'
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 1: he answered.' We are quite ruined?'' No. There is hope yet, Caroline.
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: If he relents, she said, amazed, there is. Nothing is
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: past hope, if such a miracle has happened. He is
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: past relenting, said her husband. He is dead. She was
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: a mild and patient creature if her face spoke truth,
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: but she was thankful in her soul to hear it,
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: and she said so with clasped hands. She prayed forgiveness
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: the next moment, and was sorry, but the first was
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: the emotion of the heart. What the half-drunken woman— whom
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 1: I told you of last night, said to me, when
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: I tried to see him and obtain a week's delay,
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: and what I thought was a mere excuse to avoid me,
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: turns out to have been quite true. He was not
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: only very ill, but dying then. To whom will our
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: debt be transferred? I don't know. But before that time
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: we shall be ready with the money, and even though
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 1: we were not, it would be a bad fortune indeed
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: to find so merciless a creditor in his successor. We
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 1: may sleep to-night with light hearts, Caroline. Yes, soften it
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 1: as they would. Their hearts were lighter. The children's faces
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 1: hushed and cloistered around to hear what they so little
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: understood were brighter. And it was a happier house for
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 1: this man's death. The only emotion that the ghost could
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: show him, caused by the event, was what a pleasure.'
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: Let me see some tenderness connected with the death,' said Scrooge.'
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: Or that dark chamber spirit which we left just now
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 1: will be ever present to me.' The ghost conducted him
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: through several streets familiar to his feet, and as they
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: went along Scrooge looked here and there to find himself,
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: but nowhere was he to be seen. They entered poor
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 1: Bob Cratchit's house, the dwelling he had visited before, and
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: found the mother and the children seated around the fire. Quiet,
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 1: very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 1: statues in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter,
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: who had a book before him. The mother and her
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: daughters were engaged in sewing, but surely they were very quiet.
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: And he took a child and set him in the
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: midst of them. Where had Scrooge heard those words? He
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 1: had not dreamed them. The boy must have read them
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: out as he and the spirit crossed the threshold. Why
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 1: did he not go on? The mother laid her work
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: upon the table and put her hand up to her face.
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 1: The color hurts my eyes, she said. The color?' Poor
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: tiny Tim!'' They' re better now again,' said Cratchit's wife.' It
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: makes them weak by candlelight,' and I wouldn't show weak
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 1: eyes to your father when he comes home for the world.'
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: It must be near his time.'' Past it, rather,' Peter answered,
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: shutting up his book.' But I think he walked a
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 1: little slower than he used to these past few evenings, mother.''
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: They were very quiet again.' At last,' she said in
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: a steady, cheerful voice that only faltered once, I have
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: known him to walk with tiny Tim upon his shoulder,
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 1: very fast indeed. And so have I, cried Peter, often.
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: And so have I, exclaimed another. So had all. But
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 1: he was very light to carry, she resumed, intent upon
• 2:22:22
  Speaker 1: her work, and his father loved him so, and it
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: was no trouble, no trouble. And there is your father
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: at the door. She hurried out to meet him, and
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 1: little Bob, in his comforter, he had need of it,
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: poor fellow, came in. His tea was ready for him
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 1: on the harp, and they all tried who should help
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 1: him to it most. Then the two young Cratchits got
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: up on his knees, and laid each a child a
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 1: little cheek against his face, and they said, Don't mind it, father,
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 1: don't be grieved. He was very cheerful with them, and
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 1: spoke pleasantly to all the family. He looked at the
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 1: work upon the table, and praised the industry and speed
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: of Mrs. Cratchit and the girls. They would be done
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: long before Sunday, he said. Sunday? You went today, then, Robert?
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: asked his wife. Yes, my dear, returned Bob. I wish
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: you could have gone. It would have done you good
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: to see how green a place it is. But you'll
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: see it often. I promised him that I would walk
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 1: there on a Sunday. My little, little child, cried Bob,
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: my little child. He broke down all at once. He
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: couldn't help it. If he could have helped it, he
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: and his child would have been farther apart perhaps than
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: they were. He left the room and went upstairs into
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: the room above, which was lighted cheerfully and hung with Christmas.
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: There was a chair set close beside the child, and
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: there were signs of someone having been there lately. Poor
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: Bob sat down in it, and when he had thought
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 1: a little and composed himself, he kissed the little face.
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: He was reconciled, what had happened, and went down again
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: quite happy. They drew about the fire and talked, the
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 1: girls and mother working still. He told them the extraordinary
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 1: kindness of Mr. Scrooge's nephew, whom he had scarcely seen
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 1: but once, and who, meeting him in the street that day,
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: and seeing that he looked a little— just a little down,
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 1: you know, said Bob, inquired what had happened to distress him.'
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 1: On which?' said Bob.' For he is the pleasantest-spoken gentleman
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 1: you've ever heard. I told him I am heartily sorry
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: for it, Mr. Cratchit, he said, and heartily sorry for
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: your good wife. By the by, how he ever knew that,
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Knew what, my dear? Why, that you
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 1: were a good wife, replied Bob. Everybody knows that, said Peter.
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 1: Very well observed, my boy, cried Bob. I hope they do.
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 1: Heartily sorry, he said, for your good wife, if I
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: can be of service to you in any way, he said,
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: giving me his card.' That' s where I live. Pray come
• 2:24:59
  Speaker 1: to me.'' Now it wasn't,' cried Bob,' for the sake
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: of anything he might be able to do for us,
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 1: 'so much as for his kind way, that this was
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 1: quite delightful.' He really seemed as if he had known
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 1: our tiny Tim and felt with us.'' I' m sure he's
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 1: a good soul,' said Mrs. Cratchit.' You' ll be surer of it,
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 1: my dear,' returned Bob,' if you saw and spoke to him.'
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't be at all surprised, mark what I say,'
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: if he got Peter a better situation.'' Only hear that, Peter?'
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: said Mrs. Cratchit.' And then,' cried one of the girls,'
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 1: Peter will be keeping company with someone and setting up
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: for himself.'' Get along with you,' retorted Peter, grinning.' It' s
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: just as likely as not,' said Bob.' One of these days,
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 1: though there's plenty of time for that, my dear. But
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 1: however and whenever we part from one another, I'm sure
• 2:25:48
  Speaker 1: we shall none of us forget poor tiny Tim, shall we?
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: Or his first parting that there was among us.'' Never, father,'
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: cried they all.' And I know,' said Bob,' I know,
• 2:26:01
  Speaker 1: my dears, that when we recollect how patient and how
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: mild he was, though he was a little, little child,
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves and forget poor
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: tiny Tim in doing it.'' No, never, father,' they all
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: cried again.' I am very happy,' said little Bob,' I
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: am very happy.' Mrs. Cratchit kissed him, his daughters kissed him,
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: the two young Cratchits kissed him, and Peter himself shook hands.
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: Spirit of Tiny Tim, thy childish essence was from God. Spectre,
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, something informs me that our parting moment is
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 1: at hand. I know it, but I know not how.
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 1: Tell me, what man that was whom we saw lying dead?
• 2:26:51
  Speaker 1: THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS YET TO COME CONVEYED HIM AS BEFORE,
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: THOUGH AT A DIFFERENT TIME HE THOUGHT INDEED THERE SEEMED
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 1: NO ORDER TO THESE LATTER VISIONS, SAVE THAT THEY WERE
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: OF THE FUTURE, INTO THE RESORTS OF BUSINESSMEN, BUT SHOWED
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: HIM NOT HIMSELF. INDEED THE SPIRIT DID NOT STAY FOR ANYTHING,
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: BUT WENT STRAIGHT ON, AS TO THE END JUST NOW DESIRED,
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: UNTIL BESOUGHT BY SCROOGE TO TARRY FOR A MOMENT.' This court,'
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, through which we hurry now, is where my
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: place of occupation is and has been for a length
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: of time. I see the house. Let me behold what
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: I shall be in days to come.' The spirit stopped.
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: The hand was pointed elsewhere.' The house is yonder!' Scrooge exclaimed.'
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: Why do you point away?' The inexorable finger underwent no change.
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: Scrooge hastened to the window of his office and looked in.
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 1: It was an office still, but not his. The furniture
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: was not the same, and the figure in the chair
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 1: was not himself. The phantom pointed as before. He joined
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 1: it once again, and, wondering why and whither he had gone,
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 1: accompanied it until they had reached an iron gate. He
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: paused to look round before entering. It was a worthy place,
• 2:28:07
  Speaker 1: walled in by houses, overrun by grass and weeds, the
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 1: growth of vegetation's death, not life, choked up by too
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 1: much burying, fat with repleted appetite, a worthy place. The
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 1: spirit stood among the graves and pointed down to one.
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 1: He advanced toward it, trembling. The phantom was exactly as
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 1: it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 1: meaning in its solemn shape.' Before I draw nearer to
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 1: that stone in which you point,' said Scrooge,' answer me
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 1: one question. Are these the shadows of things that will be,
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 1: or the shadows of things that may be only?' Still
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 1: the ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 1: Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if preserved in,
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 1: they must lead, said Scrooge. But if the courses be
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 1: departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus,
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 1: with what you show me. The spirit was as immovable
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: as ever. Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went, and,
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: grave his own name. Ebenezer Scrooge. Am I the man
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: who lay upon the bed? he cried upon his knees.
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: The finger pointed from the grave to him and back again. No, spirit,
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: oh no, no! The finger was still there. Spirit, he cried,
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: tight clutching at his robe. Hear me. I am not
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: the man I was, I will not be the man
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: I must have been for this intercourse. Why show me
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 1: this if I am past all hope? For the first
• 2:29:57
  Speaker 1: time the hand appeared to shake. Good spirit, he pursued,
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: as down on the ground he fell before it, your
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: nature deceives for me, and pities me. Assure me that
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 1: I may yet change the shadows you have shown me
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 1: by an altered life. The kind hand trembled. I will
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: honor Christmas in my heart and try and keep it
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: all the year. I will live in the past, the present,
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 1: and the future. The spirits of all three will strive
• 2:30:24
  Speaker 1: within me. I will not shut out the lessons that
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 1: they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: writing of this stone. In his agony he caught the
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 1: spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but he was
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 1: strong in his entreaty and detained it. The spirit, stronger yet,
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: repulsed him. Holding up his hands in a last prayer
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 1: to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 1: the phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: down into a bedpost. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 1: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. That's L-I-B-R-I-V-O-X dot org.
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: Recorded by me, Glenn Hallstrom, also known as Smokestack Jones.
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 1: Smokestackjones at gmail.com. You'll also find my blog at too muchjohnson.blogspot.com.
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Stay five. The end
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 1: of it. Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: bed was his own, the room was his own. Best
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 1: and happiest of all, the time before him was his
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 1: own to make amends in. I will live in the past,
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: the present, and the future, Scrooge repeated as he scrambled
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: out of bed. The spirits of all three shall strive
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 1: within me. Oh, Jacob, Marley, heaven in the Christmas time,
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 1: be praised for this. I say it on my knees,
• 2:32:03
  Speaker 1: old Jacob, on my knees. He was so fluttered and
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 1: so glowing in his good intentions that that his broken
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 1: voice could scarcely answer to his call. He had been
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: sobbing violently in his conflict with the spirit, and his
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 1: face was wet with tears.' They are not torn down!'
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 1: cried Scrooge, folding one of his bed-curtains in his arms.'
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 1: They are not torn down, Briggs, at all! They are here!
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: I am here! The shadows of the things that would
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 1: have been may be dispelled! They will be! I know
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 1: they will!' his hands were busy with his garments all
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 1: this time turning them inside out putting them all upside
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: down tearing them mislaying them making them parties to every
• 2:32:40
  Speaker 1: kind of extravagance i don't know what to do cried
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 1: scrooge laughing and crying in the same breath making a
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: perfect locution of himself with his stockings I'm as light
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: as a feather. I'm as happy as an angel. I'm
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: as merry as a schoolboy. I'm as giddy as a
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 1: drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 1: Year to all the world! Hello there! Hello! He had
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 1: frisked into the living room, and he was now standing there.
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 1: Perfectly winded. There's the saucepan that the guru was in,
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 1: cried Scrooge, starting off again and going round the fireplace.
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 1: There's the door by which the ghost of Jigamali entered.
• 2:33:13
  Speaker 1: There's the corner where the ghost of Christmas presents sat.
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: There's the window where I saw the wandering spirits. It's
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: all right. It's all true. It all happened. Really, for
• 2:33:23
  Speaker 1: a man who had been out of practice for so
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 1: many years, it was a splendid life. A most illustrious laugh.
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 1: The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs.
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know what day of the month it is,
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. I don't know how long I've been among
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: the spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite a baby.
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 1: Never mind. I don't care. I'd rather be a baby.
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 1: Hello there! He was checked in his transports by the churches,
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 1: ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash! Clang! Hammer! Ding! Dong! Bell! Dong! Ding! Hammer! Clang! Crash! Oh, glorious! glorious.
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 1: Running to the window, he opened it and put out
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 1: his head. No fog, no mist, clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold,
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 1: cold piping for the blood to dance to. Golden sunlight,
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 1: heavenly sky, sweet, fresh air, many bells, oh, glorious, glorious.
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: What's to-day? cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 1: Sunday clothes who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. I,
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 1: returned the boy with all his might of wonder, What's today,
• 2:34:26
  Speaker 1: my fine fellow, said Scrooge. Today, replied the boy, or
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: Christmas Day. It's Christmas Day, said Scrooge himself. I haven't
• 2:34:37
  Speaker 1: missed it. The spirits have done it all in one night.
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 1: They can't do anything like that. Hike, of course they can.
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 1: Of course they can. Hello, my fine fellow. Hello, returned
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 1: the boy. Do you know the polterers in the next
• 2:34:49
  Speaker 1: street but one at the corner? Scrooge inquired. I should
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 1: hope I did, replied the lad. An intelligent boy, said Scrooge,
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 1: a remarkable boy. Do you know whether they've sold the
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: prized turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 1: prized turkey, the big one. What, all as big as me,
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: returned the boy. What a delightful boy, said Scrooge. It's
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 1: a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck. It's
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 1: hanging there now, replied the boy. Is it? said Scrooge.
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 1: Go and buy it. Oh, cur! exclaimed the boy. No, no,
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. I am in earnest.
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 2: Go by it, and tell him to bring it here,
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 2: that I may give him the direction where to take it.
• 2:35:26
  Speaker 2: Come back with the man, and I'll give you a shilling.
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 2: Come back with him in less than five minutes, and
• 2:35:29
  Speaker 2: I'll give you half a crown. The boy was off
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 2: like a shot.
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: He must have had a steady hand at a trigger
• 2:35:35
  Speaker 1: who had got a shot off half so fast. I
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 1: sent it to Bob Cratchit, whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 1: and splitting with love. He shan't know who sends it.
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: It's twice the size of Daddy Tim. Joe Miller never
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: made such a joke as sending it to Bombs Will Be.
• 2:35:51
  Speaker 1: The hand in which he wrote the address was not
• 2:35:52
  Speaker 1: a steady one, but righted he did, somehow, and went
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 1: downstairs to open the street door, ready for the coming
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 1: of the poldersman. As he stood there, waiting his arrival,
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 1: the knocker caught his eye. I shall love it as
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 1: long as I live, cried Scrooge, patting it with his hand.
• 2:36:07
  Speaker 1: I scarcely ever looked at it before. What an honest
• 2:36:10
  Speaker 1: expression it has on its face. It's a wonderful knocker.
• 2:36:13
  Speaker 1: Here's the turkey. Hello. How are you? Merry Christmas. It
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 1: was a turkey. He never could have stood upon his legs,
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 1: that bird. He would have snapped him short off in
• 2:36:23
  Speaker 1: a minute, like sticks of sealing wax. Why, it's impossible
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 1: to carry that to Camden Town, said Scrooge. You must
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 1: have a cab. The chuckle with which he said this,
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: and the chuckle with which he paid for the turkey,
• 2:36:34
  Speaker 1: and the chuckle with which he paid for the cab,
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: and the chuckle with which he recompensed the boy, were
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 1: only to be exceeded by the chuckle in which he
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 1: sat down breathless in his chair again, and chuckled till
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 1: he cried. Shaving was not an easy task, for his
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 1: hand continued to shake very much, and shaving requires attention
• 2:36:50
  Speaker 1: even when you don't dance while you're at it. But
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: if he had cut the end of his nose off,
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 1: he would have put a piece of sticking plaster over
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 1: it and been quite satisfied. He dressed himself all his best,
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: and at last got out into the streets. The people
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 1: were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 1: them with the ghost of Christmas present, and walking with
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 1: his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one with a
• 2:37:11
  Speaker 1: delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word,
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 1: that three or four good-humoured fellows said, Good morning, sir,
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 1: a merry Christmas to you, and Scrooge said often afterwards
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard,
• 2:37:24
  Speaker 1: those were the blithest in his ears. He had not
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 1: gone far when coming on towards him he beheld the poor.
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 1: chap of men who had walked into his counting-house the
• 2:37:32
  Speaker 1: day before and said Scrooge and Marley's I believe it
• 2:37:36
  Speaker 1: sent a pang across his heart to think how this
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: old gentleman would look upon him when they met but
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 1: he knew what path lay straight before him and he
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: took it my dear sir said Scrooge quickening his pace
• 2:37:46
  Speaker 1: and taking the old gentleman by both his hands how
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 1: do you do I hope you succeeded yesterday. It was
• 2:37:51
  Speaker 1: very kind of you. A merry Christmas to you, sir. Mr. Scrooge? Yes,
• 2:37:57
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge. That is my name, and I fear it
• 2:38:00
  Speaker 1: may not be pleasant to you. Allow me to ask
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 1: your pardon. Will you have the goodness? Here Scrooge whispered
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 1: in his ear. Lord, bless me, cried the gentleman as
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: his breath was taken away. My dear Scrooge, are you serious?
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: If you please, said Scrooge. Not a farthing less. A
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 1: great many back payments are included in it, I assure you.
• 2:38:20
  Speaker 1: Will you do me that favour? My dear sir, said
• 2:38:23
  Speaker 1: the other, shaking hands with him, I don't know what
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 1: to say to such munificence. Don't say anything, please, retorted Scrooge.
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 1: Come and see me. Will you come and see me?
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 1: I will, cried the old gentleman, and it was clear
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 1: he meant to do it. Thank you, said Scrooge. I
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 1: am much obliged to you. Thank you fifty times. Bless you.
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 1: He went to church and walked about the streets and
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 1: watched the people hurrying to and fro. and patted children
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 1: on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 1: the kitchens of houses and up to the windows, and
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never
• 2:38:55
  Speaker 1: dreamed at any walk that anything could give him so
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 1: much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 1: his nephew's house. He passed the door a dozen times
• 2:39:05
  Speaker 1: before he had the courage to go up and knock,
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 1: but he made a dash and did it. Is your
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 1: master at home, my dear? said Scrooge to the girl.
• 2:39:11
  Speaker 1: Nice girl, very. Yes, sir.' Where is he, my love?'
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge.' He' s in the dining-room, sir, along with Mistress.
• 2:39:19
  Speaker 1: I'll show you upstairs, if you please.'' Thank ye, he
• 2:39:21
  Speaker 1: knows me,' said Scrooge, with his hand already on the
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 1: dining-room lock.' I' ll go in there, my dear.' He turned
• 2:39:27
  Speaker 1: it gently, and sidled his face in round the door.
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 1: They were looking at the table, which was spread out
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 1: in great array, for these young housekeepers were always nervous
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 1: on such points, and liked to see that everything is right. Fred,
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge, dear heart, alive, how his niece by marriage started.
• 2:39:44
  Speaker 1: Scrooge had forgotten for the moment about her sitting in
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: the corner with the footstool, or he wouldn't have done
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 1: it on any account. Why, bless my soul, cried Fred.
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: Who's that? It is I, your Uncle Scrooge. I've come
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 1: to dinner. Will you let me in, Fred? Let him in?
• 2:40:03
  Speaker 1: It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off.
• 2:40:05
  Speaker 1: He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier.
• 2:40:08
  Speaker 1: His niece looked just the same. So did Topper when
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 1: he came. So did the plump sister when she came.
• 2:40:13
  Speaker 1: So did everyone when they came. Wonderful party. Wonderful games.
• 2:40:17
  Speaker 1: Wonderful unanimity. Wonderful happiness. But he was early at the
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 1: office next morning. Oh, he was early there. If he
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 1: could only be there first and catch Bob Cratchit coming late.
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: That was the thing he had set his heart upon.
• 2:40:30
  Speaker 1: And he did it. Yes, he did it. The clock
• 2:40:32
  Speaker 1: struck nine. No, Bob. A quarter passed. No, Bob. He
• 2:40:37
  Speaker 1: was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time.
• 2:40:40
  Speaker 1: Scrooge sat with his door wide open that he might
• 2:40:43
  Speaker 1: see him come into the tank. His hat was off
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 1: before he opened the door, his comforter too. He was
• 2:40:48
  Speaker 1: on his stool in a jiffy, driving away with his
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 1: pen as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock. Hello,
• 2:40:54
  Speaker 1: growled Scrooge in his accustomed voice as near as he
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 1: could feign it. What do you mean by coming in
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: here at this time of day? I'm very sorry, sir,
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 1: said Bob.' I am behind my time.'' You are?' repeated Scrooge.' Yes,
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 1: I think you are. Step this way, sir, if you please.''
• 2:41:14
  Speaker 1: It' s only once a year, sir,' pleaded Bob, appearing from
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: the tank.' It shall not be repeated. I was making
• 2:41:21
  Speaker 1: rather merry yesterday, sir.'' Now, I'll tell you what, my friend,'
• 2:41:26
  Speaker 1: said Scrooge.' I am not going to stand this sort
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 1: of thing any longer.' And therefore, he continued leaping from
• 2:41:36
  Speaker 1: his stool and giving Bob such a dig in the
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: waistcoat that he staggered back into the tank again. And therefore,
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 1: I'm about to raise your salary. Bob trembled, and he
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: got a little nearer to the ruler. He had a
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 1: momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him,
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 1: and calling to the people in the court for help
• 2:41:53
  Speaker 1: in a straight waistcoat. Merry Christmas, Bob, said Scrooge, with
• 2:41:56
  Speaker 1: an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped
• 2:41:59
  Speaker 1: him on the back. A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow,
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 1: than I have given you for many a year. I'll
• 2:42:05
  Speaker 1: raise your salary and endeavor to assist your struggling family,
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 1: and we'll discuss your affairs this very afternoon over a
• 2:42:11
  Speaker 1: Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob. Make up the fires
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 1: and buy another cold scuttle before you dart another. Aye,
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 1: Bob Cratchit! Scrooge was better than his word. He did
• 2:42:21
  Speaker 1: it all, and infinitely more, than to a tiny Tim
• 2:42:25
  Speaker 1: who did not die. He was a second father. He
• 2:42:29
  Speaker 1: became as good a friend, as good a master, and
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 1: as good a man as the good old city knew,
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 1: or any other good old city, town, or borough in
• 2:42:37
  Speaker 1: the good old world. Some people laughed to see the
• 2:42:41
  Speaker 1: alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 1: heeded them. For he was wise enough to know that
• 2:42:48
  Speaker 1: nothing ever happened in this globe for good, at which
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 1: some people did not have their fill of laughter at
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 1: the outset. and knowing that such as these would be
• 2:42:56
  Speaker 1: blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 1: should wrinkle up their eyes in greens, as have the
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 1: malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed, and
• 2:43:04
  Speaker 1: that was quite enough for him. He had no further
• 2:43:08
  Speaker 1: intercourse with spirits, but lived on the total abstinence principle
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 1: ever afterwards, and it was always said of him that
• 2:43:16
  Speaker 1: he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man
• 2:43:19
  Speaker 1: alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us.
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 1: and all of us. And so, as Tiny Tim observed,
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 1: God bless us, everyone.