24 A Christinas Carol.

had been light and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old
man's sense of feeling. He was conscious of a thousand odours
floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and
hopes, and joys, and cares long, long, forgotten !

" Your lip is trembling," said the Ghost. " And what is that upon
your cheek ? "

Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was
a pimple ; and begged the Ghost to lead him where he would.

" You recollect the way ? " inquired the Spirit.

" Eemember it ? " cried Scrooge with fervour ; " I could walk it
blindfold."

" Strange to have forgotten it for so many years ! " observed the
Ghost. " Let us go on."

They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every gate, and
post, and tree ; until a little market-town appeared in the distance,
with its bridge, its church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies
now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who
called to other boys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers.
All these boys were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until
the broad fields were so full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed
to hear it.

" These are but shadows of the things that have been," said the
Ghost. " They have no consciousness of us."

The jocund travellers came on ; and as they came, Scrooge knew
and named them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds
to see them ! Why did his cold eye glisten, and his heart leap up as
they went past ! Why was he filled with gladness when he heard
them give each other Merry Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads
and by-ways, for their several homes ! What was merry Christmas
to Scrooge ? Out upon merry Christmas ! What good had it ever
done to him ?

" The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. " A solitary
child, neglected by his friends, is left there still."

Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.

They left the high-road, by a well-remembered lane, and soon
approached a mansion of dull red brick, with a little weathercock-
surmounted cupola, on the roof, and a bell hanging in it. It was a
large house, but one of broken fortunes ; for the spacious offices were
little used, their walls were damp and mossy, their windows broken,
and their gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables ;
and the coach-houses and sheds were overrun with grass. Nor was
it more retentive of its ancient state, within ; for entering the dreary
hall, and glancing through the open doors of many rooms, they found
them poorly furnished, cold, and vast. There was an earthy savour
in the air, a chilly bareness in the place, which associated itself some-
how with too much getting up by candle-light, and not too much to
eat.



Scrooge's School- Days. 25

They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the
back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare,
melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and
desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire :
and Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten
self as he used to be.

Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle from the
mice behind the panelling, not a drip from the half-thawed water-
spout in the dull yard behind, not a sigh among the leafless boughs of
one despondent poplar, not the idle swinging of an empty store-house
door, no, not a clicking in the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge
with a softening influence, and gave a freer passage to his tears.

The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his younger
self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man, in foreign garments :
wonderfully real and distinct to look at : stood outside the window,
with an axe stuck in his belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden
with wood.

" Why, it's Ali Baba ! " Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. " It's dear
old honest Ali Baba ! Yes, yes, I know ! One Christmas time, when
yonder solitary child was left here all alone, he did come, for the first
time, just like that. Poor boy ! And Valentine," said Scrooge, " and
his wild brother, Orson ; there they go ! And what's his name, who
was put down in his drawers, asleep, at the Gate of Damascus ; don't
you see him ! And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the
Genii ; there he is upon his head ! Serve him right. I'm glad of it.
What business had he to be married to the Princess ! "

To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such
subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying ;
and to see his heightened and excited face ; would have been a sur-
prise to his business friends in the city, indeed.

" There's the Parrot ! " cried Scrooge. " Green body and yellow
tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head ;
there he is ! Poor Robin Crusoe, he called him, when he came home
again after sailing round the island. 'Poor Robin Crusoe, where
have you been, Robin Crusoe ? ' The man thought he was dreaming,
but he wasn't. It was the Parrot, you know. There goes Friday,
running for his life to the little creek ! Halloa ! Hoop ! Halloo ! "

Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual
character, he said, in pity for his former self, " Poor boy ! " and cried
again.

"I wish," Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and
looking about him, after drying his eyes with his cuff : " but it's too
late now."

" What is the matter? " asked the Spirit.

" Nothing," said Scrooge. " Nothing. There was a boy singing a
Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given
him something : that's all."



26 A Christmas Carol.

The Ghosl smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand : saying as is
did so, " Let us see another Christmas ! "

Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the room became
a little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows
cracked ; fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked
laths were shown instead ; but how all this was brought about, Scrooge
knew no more than you do. He only knew that it was quite correct ;
that everything had happened so ; that there he was, alone again,
when all the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays.

He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly.
Scrooge looked at the Ghost, and with a mournful shaking of his
head, glanced anxiously towards the door.

It opened ; and a little girl, much yoimger than the boy, came
darting in, and putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing
him, addressed him as her " Dear, dear brother."

" I have come to bring you home, dear brother ! " said the child,
clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh. " To bring you
uorne, home, home ! "

" Home, little Fan ? " returned the boy.

" Yes ! " said the child, brimful of glee. " Home, for good and all.
Home, for ever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to
be, that home's like Heaven ! He spoke so gently to me one dear
night when I was going to bed, that I was not afraid to ask him once
more if you might come home ; and he said Yes, you should ; and sent
me in a coach to bring you. And you're to be a man ! " said the
child, opening her eyes, " and are never to come back here ; but first,
we're to be together all the Christmas long, and have the merriest
time in all the world."

" You're quite a woman, little Fan ! " exclaimed the boy.
She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his head ;
but being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace
him. Then she began to drag him, in her childish eagerness, towards
the door ; and he, nothing loth to go, accompanied her.

A terrible voice in the hall cried, " Bring down Master Scrooge's
box, there ! " and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster himself, who
glared on Master Scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and threw
him into a dreadful state of mind by shaking hands with him. He
then conveyed him and his sister into the veriest old well of a shiver-
ing best-parlour that ever was seen, where the maps upon the wall,
and the celestial and terrestrial globes in the windows, were waxy
with cold. Here he produced a decanter of curiously light wine, and
a block of curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments of those
dainties to the young people : at the same time, sending out a meagre
servant to offer a glass of " something " to the postboy, who answered
that he thanked the gentleman, but if it was the same tap as he had
tasted before, he had rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by
this time tied on to the top of the chaise, the children bade the school-



Old Fezziwig. 2>

master good-bye right willingly; and getting into it, drove gaily
down the garden-sweep : the quick wheels dashing the hoar-frost and
snow from off the dark leaves of the evergreens like spray.

" Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered,"
said the Gho;3t. " But she had a large heart ! "

" So she had," cried Scrooge. " You're right. I will not gainsay
it, Spirit. God forbid ! "

" She died a <voman," said the Ghost, " and had; as I think, children."

" One child," Scrooge returned.

" True," said the Ghost. " Your nephew ! "

Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind ; and answered briefly, " Yes."

Although they had but that moment left the school behind them,
they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy
passengers massed and repassed ; where shadowy carts and coaches
battled for toe way, and all the strife and tumult of a real city were.
It was made plain enough, by the dressing of the shops, that here too
it was Christmas time again ; but it was evening, and the streets were
lighted up.

The Ghost stepped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge
if he knew it.

" Know it ! " said f jcrooge. " Was I apprenticed here ! "

They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig,
sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller
he must have knocked his head against the ceiling, Scrooge cried in
great excitement :

"Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart; it's Fezziwig alive
again ! "

Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, which
pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands ; adjusted his
capacious waistcoat ; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his
organ of benevolence ; and called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat,
jovial voice :

" Yo ho, there ! Ebenezer ! Dick ! "

Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly in.
accompanied by his fellow-'prentice.

" Dick Wilkins, to be sure ! " said Scrooge to the Ghost. " Bless
m3, yes. There he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick.
Poor Dick ! Dear, dear ! "

" Yo ho, my boys ! " said Fezziwig. " No more work to-night.
Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer ! Let's have the shutters
up," cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, " before &
iaan can say Jack Robinson ! "

You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it ! They
charged into the street with the shutters one, two, three had 'em
up in their places four, five, six barred 'em and pinned 'em seven,
eight, nine and came back before yon could have got to twelve,
panting like race-horses.



28 A Christtn as Carol.

" Hilli-ho ! " cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high
desk, with wonderful agility. " Clear away, my lads, and let's have
lots of room here ! Hilli-ho, Dick ! Chirrup, Ebenezer ! "

Clear away ! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away,
or couldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was
done in a minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were
dismissed from public life for evermore ; the floor was swept and
watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire ; and
the warehouse was as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room,
as you would desire to see upon a winter's night.

In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk,
and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. In
came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three
Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and loveable. In came the six young followers
whose hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women
employed in the business. In came the housemaid, with her cousin,
the baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular friend,
the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was suspected
of not having board enough from his master ; trying to hide himself
behind the girl from next door but one, who was proved to have had
her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all came, one after another ;
some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some
pushing, some pulling ; in they all came, anyhow and everyhow.
Away they all went, twenty couple at once ; hands half round and back
again the other way ; down the middle and up again ; round and round
in various stages of affectionate grouping ; old top couple always turn-
ing up in the wrong place ; new top couple starting off again, as soon as
they got there ; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help
them ! When this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping
his hands to stop the dance, cried out, " Well done ! " and the fiddler
plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially provided for that
purpose. But scorning rest, upon his reappearance, he instantly
began again, though there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler
had been carried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-
new man resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish.

There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances,
and there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece
of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there
were mince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the
evening came after the Boast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful
dog, mind ! The sort of man who knew his business better than you or
I could have told it him !) struck up " Sir Roger de Coverley." Thou
old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple,
too ; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them ; three or four
and twenty pair of partners ; people who were not to be trifled with ;
people who would dance, and had no notion of walking.

But if they had been twice as many ah, four times old Fezziwig



The Fezziwig Ball. 29

would have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As
to her, she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term.
If that's not high praise, tell me higher, and I'll use it. A positive
light appeared to issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every
part of the dance like moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any
given time, what would have become of them next. And when old
Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance ; advance
and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and curtsey, corkscrew,
thread-the-needle, and back again to your place ; Fezziwig " cut "-
cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon
his feet again without a stagger.

When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. Mr.
and Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side of the door,
and shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went
out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had
retired but the two 'prentices, they did the same to them ; and thus-
the cheerful voices died away, and the lads were left to their beds ;
which were under a counter in the back-shop.

During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a man out of
his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former
self. He corroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed
everything, and underwent the strangest agitation. It was not until
now, when the bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned
from them, that he remembered the Ghost, and became conscious that
it was looking full upon him, while the light upon its head burnt
very clear.

" A small matter," said the Ghost, " to make these silly folks so
full of gratitude."

" Small ! " echoed Scrooge.

The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were
pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig: and when he had
done so, said,

" Why ! Is it not ? He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal
money : three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this
praise ? "

" It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking
unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. " It isn't that,
Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to
make our service light or burdensome ; a pleasure or a toil. Say
that his power lies in words and looks ; in things so slight and
insignificant that it is impossible to add and count 'em up : what
then ? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a
fortune."

He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped.

" What is the matter ? " asked the Ghost.

" Nothing particular," said Scrooge.

" Something, I think ? " the Ghost insisted.



30 A Christmas Carol.

" No," said Scrooge, " No. I should like to be able to say a word
or two to my clerk just now. That's all."

His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance to the
wish ; and Scrooge and the Ghost again stood side by side in the
open air.

" My time grows short," observed the Spirit. " Quick ! "

This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he could
see, but it produced an immediate effect. For again Scrooge saw
himself. He was older now ; a man in the ^rinie of life. His face
had not the harsh and rigid lines of later yt ars ; but it had begun to
wear the signs of care and avarice. There was an eager, greedy,
restless motion in the eye, which showed the passion that had taken
root, and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.

He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a
mourning-dress : in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in
the light that shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past.

" It matters little, "she said, softly. " To you, very little. Another
idol has displaced me ; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to
come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve."

" What Idol has displaced you ? " he rejoined.

"A golden one."

" This is the even-handed dealing of the world ! " he said. " There
is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty ; and there is nothing it
professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth ! "

" You fear the world too much," she answered, gently. " All your
other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of
its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one
by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not ? "

" What then ? " he retorted. " Even if I have grown so much
wiser, what then ? I am not changed towards you."

She shook her head.

"Ami?"

" Our contract is an oH one. Ifc was made when we were both poor
and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our
worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed. When it
was made, you were another man."

" I was a boy," he said impatiently.

" Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are," she
returned. "I am. That which promised happiness when we were
one in heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two. How often
and how keenly I have thought of this, I will not say. It is enough
that I have thought of it, and can release you."

" Have I ever sought release ? "

" In words. No. Never."

" In what, then ? "

" In a changed nature ; in an altered spirit ; in another atmosphere
of lifo ; another Hope as its great end. In everything that made my



Scrooges Old Love. 31

love of any worth or value in your sight. If this had never heeii
between us," said the girl, looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon
him; "tell me, would you seek me out and try to win me now?
Ah, no ! "

He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in spite of
himself. But he said with a struggle, " You think not."

" I would gladly think otherwise if I could," she answered, " Heaven
knows ! When J have learned a Truth like this, I know how strong
and irresistible it must be. But if you were free to-day, to-morrow,
yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a do \verless girl
you who, in your very confidence with her, weigh everything by
Gain : or, choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to
your one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repent-
ance and regret would surely follow ? I do ; and I release you.
With a full heart, for the love of him you once were."

He was about to speak ; but with her head turned from him, she
resumed.

" You may the memory of what is past half makes me hope you
will have pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss
the recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it
happened well that you awoke. May you be happy in the life you
have chosen ! "

She left him, and they parted.

"Spirit!" said Scrooge, " show me no more ! Conduct me home.
Why do you delight to torture me ? "

" One shadow more ! " exclaimed the Ghost.

" No more ! " cried Scrooge. " No more. I don't wish to see it.
Show me no more ! "

But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and forced
him to observe what happened next.

They were in another scene and place ; a room, not very large or
handsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful
young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same,
until he saw her, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter.
The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more
children there, than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could
count ; and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not
forty children conducting themselves like one, but every child was
conducting itself like forty. The consequences were uproarious
beyond belief ; but no ono seemed to care ; on the contrary, the
mother and daughter laughed heartily, and enjoyed it very much ;
and the latter, soon beginning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged by
the young brigands most ruthlessly. What would I not have given to
be one of them ! Though I never could have been so rude, no, no !
I wouldn't for the wealth of all the world have crushed that braided
hair, and torn it down ; and for the precious little shoe, I wouldn't
have plucked it oif, God bless my soul ! to save my life. As to



32 A Christmas Carol.

measuring her Waist in sport, as they did, bold young brood, I
couldn't have done it ; I should have expected my arm to have grown
round it for a punishment, and never come straight again. And yet
I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips ; to have
"questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked
upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush ; to
have let loose waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake
beyond price : in short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had
the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been man enough to
know its value.

But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a rush
immediately ensued that she with laughing face and plundered dress
was borne towards it the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just
in time to greet the father, who came home attended by a man laden
with Christmas toys and presents. Then the shouting and the
struggling, and the onslaught that was made on the defenceless
porter ! The scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his
pockets, despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his
cravat, hug him round his neck, pommel his back, and kick his legs
in irrepressible affection! The shouts of wonder and delight with
which the development of every package was received ! The terrible
announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a
doll's frying-pan into his mouth, and was more than suspected of
having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden platter !
The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy, and
gratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike. It is
enough that by degrees the children and their emotions got out of the
parlour and by one stair at a time, up to the top of the house ; where
they went to bed, and so subsided.

And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, when the
master of the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat