Scrooges niece was not one of the blind-mans buff party, but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in a snug corner, where the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her. say he will be spared., If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race, returned the Ghost, will find him here. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but always with a happy end. Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse. The two young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter s being a man of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular investments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didnt care twopence for it. The Daughters of the Late Colonel: I, 176. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes. Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner, interrupted Scrooges niece. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 172. They were a boy and girl. But being thoroughly good-natured, and not much caring what they laughed at, so that they laughed at any rate, he encouraged them in their merriment, and passed the bottle joyously. It has been done in your name, or at least in that of your family, said Scrooge. So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Never mind so long as you are come, said Mrs Cratchit. But when at last, he caught her; when, in spite of all her silken rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, he got her into a corner whence there was no escape; then his conduct was the most execrable. It ends to-night., To-night at midnight. And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind, generous, hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor men, that led him straight to Scrooges clerks; for there he went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped to bless Bob Cratchits dwelling with the sprinkling of his torch. Ill give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast! Hurrah! The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts content. There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain. This idea taking full possession of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the door. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die., No, no, said Scrooge. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didnt care twopence for it. At last, however, he began to thinkas you or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it tooat last, I say, he began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes[2], and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. He regards Cratchit merely as an expense and resents having to pay his miserable wages. . I am afraid I have not. Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means prepared for nothing; and, consequently, when the Bell struck One, and no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling. In "penitence and grief," Scrooge hangs his head. But it had undergone a surprising transformation. After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. The Grocers! Topper had clearly got his eye upon one of Scrooges nieces sisters, for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, who had no right to express an opinion on the subject. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of the garment, were also bare; and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which Scrooge had observed at the bakers), that notwithstanding his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it was possible he could have done in any lofty hall. The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. Christmas Day.It should be Christmas Day, I am sure, said she, on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to remember him. Now, when Scrooge sees the Crachits in their own home, they start to become real people to him. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. oh the Grocers! Deny it! cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. Passing through the wall of mud and stone, they found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. He begins to care about them, especially poor Tiny Tim, who can't get medical treatments because of how little Scrooge pays his father. To Scrooges horror, looking back, he saw the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them; and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it rolled and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth. My opinion is, that it was a done thing between him and Scrooges nephew; and that the Ghost of Christmas Present knew it. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycooks next door to each other, with a laundresss next door to that! Dickens says of Scrooge: ''To Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. The compound in the jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts on the fire. A decorated cake made for a Twelfth Night (January 5, the eve of Epiphany) celebration. We are currently converting the 3,000+ pages within our WordPress site to make them more mobile friendly. Scrooges nephew revelled in another laugh, and as it was impossible to keep the infection off; though the plump sister tried hard to do it with aromatic vinegar; his example was unanimously followed. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 130. In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in miserys every refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts. Latest answer posted December 01, 2021 at 9:27:30 PM. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. That was the cloth. But the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his nephew; and he and the Spirit were again upon their travels. Scrooge's eyes are well and truly opened by the sight of the Cratchits' homelife. But this the Spirit said could not be done. So surely as they raised their voices, the old man got quite blithe and loud; and so surely as they stopped, his vigour sank again. He works for Scrooge, copying letters in a cold dismal room, so small it is described as a sort of tank. Without venturing for Scrooge quite as hardily as this, I dont mind calling on you to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of strange appearances, and that nothing between a baby and rhinoceros would have astonished him very much. asked Mrs Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his hearts content. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day. Introduce him to me, and Ill cultivate his acquaintance. "How is Scrooge affected by seeing the Cratchits in A Christmas Carol?" A light shone from the window of a hut, and swiftly they advanced towards it. He believed it too!. Bob had but fifteen Bob a-week himself; he pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost of Christmas Present blessed his four-roomed house! Is it a foot or a claw?, It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it, was the Spirits sorrowful reply. Theres father coming, cried the two young Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. Learn how your comment data is processed. Design changes: Please bear with us if you come across anything that may look a little disjointed. God bless us!. This compels Scrooge to care about them when he did not before. But even here, two men who watched the light had made a fire, that through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on the awful sea. Here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment; and I say, Uncle Scrooge! , A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man, whatever he is! said Scrooges nephew. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.. God bless us every one! said Tiny Tim, the last of all. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. The Daughters of the Late Colonel: XI, 186. To a poor one most., Spirit? said Scrooge, after a moments thought, I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these peoples opportunities of innocent enjoyment., You would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day[6], often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all, said Scrooge. Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects. Taken from the following passage inStave 3 (The Second Of The Three Spirits) ofA Christmas Carol: Mr. And how did little Tim behave? 10 May 1851. Wed a deal of work to finish up last night, replied the girl, and had to clear away this morning, mother!, Well!
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