THE OPEN ROAD

peace, love, happiness & understanding

 

 

December 9, 2021

 

 

Some stories get better with each telling. This is one of those stories. Charles Dickens used to do public readings of an abridged version of “A Christmas Carol” at this time of year. This is based on his abridged version. On Sunday, December 12th, at 3 pm (PST) our Bibliophiles Unanimous! Zoom gathering will feature a Group Reading of this version of A Christmas Carol. Here’s the link:

 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87614013058

 

It’s gonna be fun! I hope you can join us! Merry Christmas! God Bless Us Every One! (J.S.)

 

 

A Christmas Carol

 

 

Storyteller:  Marley was dead. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner, Ebenezer Scrooge.

Old Marley was dead as a doornail.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for…I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole friend, his sole mourner.

Scrooge never painted out old Marley’s name, however. There it yet stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door—Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge “Scrooge,” and sometimes “Marley.” He answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

O, but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone—a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! External heat and cold had little influence on him. No warmth could warm, no cold could chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he. No falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?” No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place of Scrooge. Even the blindmen’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways.

But what did Scrooge care?! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance.

Once upon a time of all the good days of the year, upon a Christmas eve, old Scrooge sat busy in his countinghouse. It was cold, bleak, biting weather, and he could hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already.

The door of Scrooge’s countinghouse was open, that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who, in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn’t replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with his shovel the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore  the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of strong imagination, he failed.

Scrooge’s Nephew:  A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!

Scrooge:  Bah! Humbug!

Scrooge’s Nephew:  Christmas a humbug, uncle?! You don’t mean that, I am sure.

Scrooge:  I do. Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!

Scrooge’s Nephew:  Uncle!

Scrooge:  Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.

Scrooge’s Nephew:  Keep it? But you don’t keep it.

Scrooge:  Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!

Scrooge’s Nephew:  There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-travelers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good: and I say, God bless it!

(Clerk claps.)

Scrooge:  Let me hear another sound from you and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation! You’re quite a powerful speaker, sir. I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.

Scrooge’s Nephew:  Don’t be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow.

Scrooge:  I’ll see you…in hell first.

Scrooge’s Nephew:  But why? Why?

Scrooge:  Why did you get married?

Scrooge’s Nephew:  Because I fell in love.

Scrooge:  Because you fell in love! Good afternoon!

Scrooge’s Nephew:  Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?

Scrooge:  Good afternoon!

Scrooge’s Nephew:  I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?

Scrooge:  Good afternoon!

Scrooge’s Nephew:  I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel. But I’ll keep my Christmas humor to the last. So, a Merry Christmas, uncle!

Scrooge:  Good afternoon!

Scrooge’s Nephew:  And a Happy New Year!

Scrooge:  Good afternoon!

Scrooge’s Nephew:  (Leaving. To Bob Cratchit.)  Merry Christmas.

Cratchit:  Merry Christmas.

Scrooge:  There’s another fellow, my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. He’ll retire to Bedlam.

(Two portly gentlemen enter.)

First Gentleman:  Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe. Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?

Scrooge:  Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years. He died seven years ago, this very night.

Second Gentleman:  We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner. At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.

Scrooge:  Are there no prisons?

First Gentleman:  Plenty of prisons. But under the impression that they scarcely furnish cheer of mind or body to the unoffending multitude, a few of us are endeavoring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth.

Second Gentleman:  We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?

Scrooge:  Nothing!

First Gentleman:  You wish to be anonymous?

Scrooge:  I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the prisons and the workhouses—they cost enough—and those who are badly off must go there.

Second Gentleman:  Many can’t go there.

First Gentleman:  Many would rather die.

Scrooge:  If they had rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

Second Gentleman:  (Leaving.)  Good day, sir.

First Gentleman:  Merry Christmas. 

Scrooge:  Bah! Humbug!

Both Gentlemen:  (To Cratchit.)  Merry Christmas.

Cratchit:  Merry Christmas.

(Scrooge and Cratchit return to their work. Scrooge is very pleased with himself. Some time goes by. Scrooge gets off his stool, which means that it’s time to close up shop. Cratchit snuffs his candle and puts on his hat.)

Scrooge:  You’ll want all day tomorrow, I suppose?

Cratchit:  If it’s convenient.

Scrooge:  It’s not convenient, and it’s not fair. If I was to stop half a crown for it, you’d think yourself mightily ill-used. And yet you don’t think me ill-used when I pay a day’s wages for no work.

Cratchit:  It’s only once a year, sir.

Scrooge:  A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December! But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here early the next morning.

Cratchit:  I will.

(Scrooge goes out with a growl, followed by Bob Cratchit.)

Storyteller:  The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk went down a slide, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honor of its being Christmas eve, and then ran home as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman’s bluff.

Scrooge took his usual dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker’s book, went home to bed. He double-locked the door, took off his coat, put on his nightshirt, slippers and cap, and sat down before the fire. It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. He had to sit close to it, and brood over it, before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel.

Then there came a clanking noise, deep down below, as if some person were dragging a heavy chain. Then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight toward his door.

Scrooge:  It’s humbug! I won’t believe it.

Storyteller:  His color changed, though, when, without a pause, it came on through the heavy door, and passed into the room before his eyes. Upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, “I know him; Marley’s Ghost!” and fell again.

The same face, the very same. Marley in his usual waistcoat, tights and boots. The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound around him like a tail; it was made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds and heavy purses wrought in steel. His body was transparent, so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind.

Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him—though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes, he was still incredulous.

Scrooge:  How now?! What do you want with me?

Marley:  Much!

Scrooge:  Who are you?

Marley:  Ask me who I was.

Scrooge:  Who were you then?

Marley:  In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley.

Scrooge:  Can you…can you sit down?

Marley:  I can.

Scrooge:  Do it, then.

Marley:  You don’t believe in me.

Scrooge:  I don’t.

Marley:  What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?

Scrooge:  I don’t know.

Marley:  Why do you doubt your senses?

Scrooge:  Because a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of the grave about you, whatever you are!

Marley:  Ahhhhhhh! Man of the worldly mind! Do you believe in me, or not?

Scrooge:   I do! I do! I must! But…dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me? Why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?

Marley:  It is required of every man, that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness! Oh, woe is me!

Scrooge:  You are fettered. Tell me why.

Marley:  I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you? Or would you know the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It is a ponderous chain!

Scrooge:  Jacob, Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!

Marley:  I have none to give. I cannot tell you what I would. A very little more is all that is permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our countinghouse—mark me!—in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me! Oh blind man, blind man! Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one’s life’s opportunities misused! Yet such was I! Such was I!

Scrooge:  But you were always a good man of business, Jacob!

Marley:  Business? Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! Hear me! My time is nearly gone. I am here tonight to warn you that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.

Scrooge:  You were always a good friend to me.

Marley:  You will be haunted by Three Spirits.

Scrooge:  Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob? I…I think I’d rather not.

Marley:  Without their visits, you cannot hope to shun the path I tread. Look to see me no more. And look that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us.

Storyteller:  It walked backward from him, and at every step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that, when the apparition reached it, it was wide open, and it floated out upon the bleak, dark night.

Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had entered. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, and the bolts were undisturbed. Scrooge tried to say “Humbug!” but stopped at the first syllable. And being, from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the invisible world, or the lateness of the hour, much in need of repose, he went straight to bed, without undressing, and fell asleep on the instant.

When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark that, looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber—until suddenly the church clock tolled a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy ONE.

Light flashed up in the room, and a strange figure appeared: like a child, and like an old man. Its hair was white, as if with age, and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand, and yet its dress was trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible, and which was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher cap, which it now held under its arm.

Scrooge:  Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  I am.

Scrooge:  Who and what are you?

Ghost of Christmas Past:  I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Scrooge:  Long past?

Ghost of Christmas Past:  No. Your past.

Scrooge:  Would you mind putting on your cap?

Ghost of Christmas Past:  What?! Would you so soon put out the light I give?

Scrooge:  No, no. Of course not. What business brings you here?

Ghost of Christmas Past:  Your welfare. Rise, and walk with me! (Takes Scrooge by he hand, leads him to the open window, and prepares to fly out.)

Scrooge:  I am a mortal, and liable to fall!

Ghost of Christmas Past:  Bear a touch of my hand upon your heart, and you shall be upheld in more than this!

Storyteller:  They flew through the air until they came to a country road, with fields on either side. The city had entirely vanished. It was a clear, cold, winter day, with snow upon the ground.

Scrooge:  Good Heaven! I was bred in this place. I was a boy here!

Ghost of Christmas Past:  You remember the way?

Scrooge:  Remember it? I could walk it blindfolded.

Storyteller:  They walked along the road—Scrooge recognizing every gate, and post, and tree—until a little market town appeared in the distance.  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.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  These things are but shadows of the things that have been; they will have no consciousness of us.

Storyteller:  But Scrooge knew and named them, every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them? Why was he filled with gladness when he heard them wish each other Merry Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for their several homes? What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done him?

Ghost of Christmas Past:  The school is not quite deserted. A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still.

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

Scrooge:  Poor boy. I wish…but it’s too late now.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  What is the matter?

Scrooge:  Nothing, 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.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  Let us see another Christmas!  (The boy Scrooge stands up and is now some years older. Scrooge’s younger sister comes in.)

Scrooge’s Sister:  Dear, dear brother! I have come to bring you home, dear brother! To bring you home, home, home! 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 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 he sent me a coach to bring you, and you are never to come back here. And we’ll be together all the Christmas long, and have the merriest time in all the world!

Ghost of Christmas Past:  Always a delicate creature, your sister, whom a breath might have withered. But she had a large heart!

Scrooge:  So she had.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  She died a woman, and had, as I think, children.

Scrooge:  One child.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  True, your nephew!

Scrooge:  Yes.

Storyteller:  They were now in the busy thoroughfare of a city, and it was Christmas time again, but it was evening, and the streets were lighted up. The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  Do you know this place?

Scrooge:  Know it?! I was apprenticed here!  (They go in. Fezziwig sits at his desk.)  

Scrooge:  Why, its old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it’s Fezziwig, alive again!

Fezziwig:  (Gets up.) Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick! (Dick Wilkins and young Scrooge come in.)

Scrooge:  Dick Wilkins, to be sure. My old fellow-‘prentice, bless me. Yes, there he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear, dear!

Fezziwig:  Yo ho, my boys! No work tonight. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let’s have the shutters up, before a man can say Jack Robinson! Clear away, my lads, and let’s have lots of room here! (They bustle about. The room fills up with guests, including Mrs. Fezziwig and their three daughters. Maybe the piano player could play a tune, while a lively dance is improvised.)

Storyteller:  There were more dances, and more dances, and there was cake, and there was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there were mince-pies and plenty of beer. When the clock struck eleven this domestic ball broke up. (Everyone says “Merry Christmas” to the Fezziwigs as they leave.)

Ghost of Christmas Past:  A small matter, to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.

Scrooge:  Small?

Ghost of Christmas Past:  He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money—three or four, perhaps.

Scrooge:  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. The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  What is the matter?

Scrooge:  Nothing particular.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  Something, I think.

Scrooge:  No, no. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That’s all.

Ghost of Christmas Past:  My time grows short. Quick! (The young Scrooge comes back in and sits next to a young woman.)

Young Woman:  (Tears in her eyes.) It matters little to you. Another idol has displaced me. If it can comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.

Scrooge:  What idol has displaced you?

Young Woman:  A golden one. You fear the world too much. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you.

Scrooge:  What then? Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you. Have I ever sought release from our engagement?

Young Woman:  In words, no. Never.

Scrooge:  In what, then?

Young Woman: In a changed nature.If you were free today, can I believe that you would choose a poor girl? Or that you would not repent that choice? And so, I release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you once were. May you be happy in the life you have chosen. (She leaves.)

Scrooge:  Spirit, show me no more! Take me home. Why do you delight to torture me?

Ghost of Christmas Past:  I told you these were shadows of the things that have been. Do not blame me that they are what they are.

Scrooge:  Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer!

Storyteller:  Scrooge seized the extinguisher cap and pressed it down upon the Spirit’s head. The flame went out. The Spirit dropped down.

Scrooge was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness. He was back in his own bedroom. He fell into a heavy sleep.

When the clock struck again, Scrooge was suddenly wide awake: waiting for the next Spirit to appear. After a while, when a Spirit failed to materialize, he notice a great light coming from the adjoining room. He shuffled in his slippers into the next room and saw that it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green that it seemed like a grove. Leaves of holly, mistletoe and ivy reflected the light, as if many little mirrors had been scattered there. A mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney: a blaze never known in Scrooge’s time!

Heaped upon the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, 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-night cakes, and great bowls of punch. In easy state upon this couch there sat a Giant, glorious to see, who bore a glowing torch, shaped like Plenty’s horn, that shed its light upon Scrooge, as he came peeping round the door.

Ghost of Christmas Present:  Come in! Come in and know me better, man! I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon me!

Storyteller:  He was clothed in a simple green robe, bordered with white fur. His feet were bare, and on his head he wore a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. He had a genial face, sparkling eyes, and a joyful disposition.

Ghost of Christmas Present:  You have never seen the like of me before!

Scrooge:  Never.

Ghost of Christmas Present:  Have never walked forth with the members of my family who came before me?

Scrooge:  I don’t think so. I’m afraid not. Have you many brothers, Spirit?

Ghost of Christmas Present:  More than eighteen hundred.

Scrooge: A tremendous family to provide for!

Ghost of Christmas Present:  Come! Touch my robe! (Scrooge does so.)

Storyteller:  The room and all its contents vanished instantly. They stood in the city streets upon a snowy Christmas morning.

Scrooge and the Ghost passed on, invisible, straight to the home of Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchit.

First they encountered Mrs. Cratchit, dressed in a simple gown, adorned with ribbons, which are cheap, but make a goodly show for sixpence. She was assisted in laying the cloth upon the table by her oldest daughter, Belinda Cratchit. Master Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes. And now two smaller Cratchits, a boy and a girl, came tearing in. They danced about the table while Master Peter blew the fire, until the slow potatoes, bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan lid to be let out and peeled.

Mrs. Cratchit:  What has ever got your father? And your brother, Tiny Tim?

Two Young Cratchits:  There’s father coming!

Storyteller:  In came Bob, the father, with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for poor Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame! The two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim off to the wash-house that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.

Mrs. Cratchit:  And how did little Tim behave?

Bob Cratchit:  As good as gold, and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. 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 the lame beggars walk and the blind see. He’s growing strong and hearty.

Storyteller:  Tiny Tim came back in with his brother and sister. Bob compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer. Master Peter and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession.

Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds—a feathered phenomenon—and in truth it was something very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor; Miss Belinda sweetened up the applesauce; Bob sat Tiny Tim beside him at the corner of the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped. At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast. But when she did, and when the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all around the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried:

Tiny Tim:  Hurrah!

Storyteller:  There never was such a goose! Its tenderness and flavor, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by applesauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family. Everyone had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows! But now, the plates being changed, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone to take the pudding up and bring it in.

In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit returned, flushed, but smiling proudly, with the pudding, like a speckled cannonball, so hard and firm, blazing in half a quarter of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck on top.

O, a wonderful pudding! Everyone had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing.

At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth was swept, and the fire made up.

Bob Cratchit:  A  Merry Christmas to us all, my dears.  God bless us!

Tiny Tim:  God bless us, every one!

Storyteller:  He sat very close to his father’s side, upon his little stool. Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him.

Scrooge:  Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.

Ghost of Christmas Present:  I see a vacant seat in the chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race will find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

Scrooge:  I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…

Ghost of Christmas Present:  Man—if man you be in heart—forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus is and where it is.

Bob Cratchit:  (Toasting.)  To Mr. Scrooge: the Founder of the Feast!

Mrs. Cratchit:  The Founder of the Feast, indeed! I wish I had him here! I’d give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he’d have a good appetite for it!

Bob Cratchit:  My dear, the children! Christmas day!

Mrs. Cratchit:  It should be Christmas day, I am sure, on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. You know he is, Robert! Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow!

Bob Cratchit:  My dear…Christmas day!

Mrs. Cratchit: I’ll drink his health for your sake and for the day’s, not for his. Long life to him! A merry Christmas and a happy New Year! He’ll be very merry and happy, I have no doubt!

Storyteller:  The children drank the toast after her. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness in it. Scrooge was the ogre of the family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for a full five minutes.

But after it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. All this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round.

Tiny Tim:  God Bless Us, Every One!

Storyteller:  They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being waterproof; their clothes were scanty. But they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time. And when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit’s torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.

Next, Scrooge was surprised to find himself at his nephew’s, in a bright, dry, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at that same nephew with approving affability.

Fred:  He said that Christmas is a humbug! He believed it, too!

Fred’s Wife:  More shame for him, Fred.

Fred:  He’s a comical old fellow: that’s the truth. I am sorry for him. I couldn’t be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims? Himself, always. He takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won’t come and dine with us. What’s the consequence? He loses some pleasant moments, which could do him no harm. But I mean to give him the same chance every year, whether he likes it or not.

Storyteller:  Now the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by the nephew. Then Scrooge and the Spirit were again upon their travels.

Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes were visited, but always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick beds, and they were cheerful; on foreign lands, and they were close at home; by struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope; by poverty, and it was rich. In almshouse, hospital and jail, in misery’s 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.

It was a long night, if it were only a night. It was strange, too, that while Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older. Scrooge noticed that his hair was grey.

Scrooge:  Are spirits’ lives so short?

Ghost of Christmas Present:  My life upon this globe is very brief. It ends tonight at midnight. Hark! The time is drawing near.

Scrooge:  Forgive me, but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your robe. Is it a foot or a claw? Spirit, are they yours?

Ghost of Christmas Present:  They are Man’s. And they cling to me. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both—but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

Scrooge:  Have they no refuge or resource?

Ghost of Christmas Present:  Are there no prisons?

Storyteller:  The clock struck the hour. Scrooge looked around him for the Ghost, and saw it no more. As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and, lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming like a mist along the ground toward him.

The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. In the air through which this spirit moved, it seemed to spread gloom and mystery.

It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing visible save one outstretched hand. But for this, it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded.

Its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. The Spirit neither spoke nor moved.

Scrooge:  Am I in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?  

Storyteller:  The Spirit pointed downward with its hand.

Scrooge:  You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us. Is that so, Spirit?

Storyteller:  The Spirit inclined its head. That was the only answer he received.

Although well used to the ghostly company by this time, Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found that he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it.

It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black.

Scrooge:  Ghost of the Future, I fear you more than any specter I have seen! But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?

Storyteller:  It gave him no reply. The hand pointed straight before them.

Scrooge:  Lead on! Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!

Storyteller:  They scarcely seemed to enter the city, for the city rather seemed to spring up about them. But there they were in the heart of it, amongst the merchants, who hurried up and down, and chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in groups, and looked at their watches, and so forth, as Scrooge had seen them often do.

The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of businessmen. (The Spirit points to them.)

First Businessman:  No, I don’t know much about it. I only know he’s dead.

Second Businessman:  When did he die?

First Businessman:  Last night, I believe.

Third Businessman:  Why, what was the matter with him? I thought he’d never die.

First Businessman:  God knows.

Second Businessman:  What has he done with his money?

First Businessman:  I haven’t heard. Left it to the company, perhaps. He hasn’t left it to me. That’s all I know.

Third Businessman:  It’s likely to be a very cheap funeral, for upon my life I don’t know of anybody to go to it. Shall we make up a party and volunteer?

Second Businessman:  I don’t mind going if a lunch is provided. But I must be fed.

Storyteller:  Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the Spirit should attach importance to conversation apparently so trivial. He looked about him in that very place for his own image, but another man stood in his accustomed corner, and though the clock pointed to his usual time of day for being there, he saw no likeness of himself among the multitudes.

Now he recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bed: a bare uncurtained bed, on which, beneath a ragged sheet, there lay, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of a man.  (Phantom points to the head.)  

The cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of it, the motion of a finger upon Scrooge’s part, would have disclosed the face.

Scrooge:  I understand you, and I would do it if I could. But I have not the power, Spirit. I have not the power. (Ghost continues to point at the head.) If there is any person in the town who feels emotion caused by this man’s death, show that person to me, Spirit, I beseech you.

Storyteller:  The Phantom spread its dark robe before him for a moment, like a wing, and, withdrawing it, revealed a room by daylight, where a woman waited.

She was expecting someone with anxious eagerness. At length the long-expected knock was heard. She hurried to the door, and met her husband: a man whose face was careworn and depressed, though he was young. There was a remarkable expression in it now; a kind of serious delight of which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled to repress.

Caroline:  Is it good…or bad?

Husband:  Bad.

Caroline:  Then, we are quite ruined.

Husband:  No, there is hope yet, Caroline.

Caroline:  If he relents, there is. Nothing is past hope, if such a miracle has happened.

Husband:  He is past relenting. He is dead.

Caroline:  I am thankful. God forgive me. I’m sorry…To whom will our debt be transferred?

Husband:  I don’t know. But before that time we shall be ready with the money. We may sleep tonight with light hearts, Caroline.

Storyteller:  The only emotion that the Ghost could show him, caused by the event, was one of pleasure.

Scrooge:  Let me see some tenderness connected with a death, or that dark chamber which we left just now will be forever present to me.

Storyteller:  The Ghost conducted him through several streets with which he was familiar, and as they went along Scrooge looked here and there to find himself, but nowhere was he to be seen. They entered poor Bob Cratchit’s house, the dwelling he had visited before, and found the mother and the children seated round the fire.

Quiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues in the corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who was reading a book. The mother and her daughter were engaged in sewing. But surely they were very quiet!

The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand up to her face.

Mrs. Cratchit:  Your father should be home soon.

Peter:  He’s late.  But I think he has walked a little slower than he used to, these last few evenings, mother.

Mrs. Cratchit:  When he walked with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder, he walked very fast indeed. But he was very light to carry, and his father loved him so, that it was no trouble…no trouble. There’s your father now. (The family rushes to greet Bob Cratchit. He appears very cheerful.) You went today, then, Robert?

Bob Cratchit:  Yes, my dear. I wish you could have gone. It would have done you good to see how green a place it is. But you’ll see it often. I promised him that I would walk there every Sunday. My little child! My little child! (Sobs.) However and whenever we part from one another, I am sure we shall none of us forget poor Tiny Tim—shall we?—or this first parting that there was among us.

All:  Never, father!

Bob Cratchit:  And I know…I know, my dears, that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was, although he was a little child, we shall not quarrel easily among ourselves, and forget poor Tiny Tim in doing it.

All:  No, never, father!

Bob Cratchit:  I am very happy! I am very happy!

Scrooge:  Specter, something informs me that our parting moment is at hand. I know it, but I know not how. Tell me what man that was whom we saw lying dead.

Storyteller:  The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come conveyed him to a dismal, wretched, ruinous churchyard. The Spirit stood among the graves and pointed down to one.

Scrooge:  Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point, answer me one question: Are these shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that may be only?

Storyteller:  Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.

Scrooge:  Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me.

Storyteller:  The Spirit was as immovable as ever.

Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went, and, following the finger, read upon the neglected grave his own name: EBENEZER SCROOGE.

Scrooge:  Am I that man who lay upon the bed? (The Spirit points from the grave to him, and back to the grave.) No, Spirit! Oh no, no! Spirit, hear me! I am not the man I was. Why show me this if I am past all hope? Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life! I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. O, tell me I may erase the writing on this stone!

Storyteller:  Holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom’s hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into…a bedpost. Yes, and the bedpost was his own! The bed was his own!

Scrooge:  I am here!  The shadows of the things that would have been may be dispelled. They will be! I know they will!  I will live in the past, the present and the future!  The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven and the Christmas time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees!

I don’t know what to do! (Laughing.) I am as light as a feather! I am as happy as an angel! I am as merry as a schoolboy! I am as giddy as a drunken man! A Merry Christmas to everybody! A Happy New Year to all the world!

There’s the door by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There’s the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present sat. It’s all right, it’s all true, it all happened! (He laughs.)

Storyteller:  Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs.

Scrooge:   I don’t know what day of the month it is. I don’t know how long I’ve been among the spirits. I don’t know anything. I’m quite a baby. Never mind. I don’t care. I’d rather be a baby.

Storyteller:  The church bells began ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Oh, glorious, glorious!  

Running to the window, he opened it and put out his head. No fog, no mist, just clear, bright, jovial, stirring cold! Golden sunlight! Heavenly sky! Sweet fresh air! Merry bells! Oh, glorious, glorious!

Scrooge:  What’s today?

Boy:  Huh?

Scrooge:  What’s today, my fine fellow?

Boy:  Today?! Why, CHRISTMAS DAY!

Scrooge:  It’s Christmas Day! I haven’t missed it! The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hello, my fine fellow!

Boy:  Hello.

Scrooge:  Do you know the Poulterer’s shop, over in the next street, on the corner?

Boy:  Of course I do!

Scrooge:  An intelligent boy! A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they’ve sold the prize turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize turkey… the big one?

Boy:  The one as big as me?

Scrooge:  What a delightful boy! It’s a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, the one as big as you!

Boy:  It’s hanging there now.

Scrooge:  Is it? Go and buy it.

Boy:  What?!

Scrooge:  Go and buy it and tell ‘em to bring it here. I’ll give them the directions where to take it. Come back with the man and I’ll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes and I’ll give you half a crown! (The boy runs off.)

I’ll send it to Bob Cratchit’s! He won’t know who sent it. It’s twice the size of Tiny Tim! (The boy and the poulterer’s apprentice arrive.) Here’s the turkey! Hello! How are you? Merry Christmas!

Storyteller:  It was a turkey! He never could have stood on his legs, that bird. They would have snapped off like sticks of sealing wax.

Scrooge:  Why, it’s impossible to carry that to Camden Town. You must have a cab.

Storyteller:  The chuckle with which he said this, and the chuckle with which he paid for the turkey, and the chuckle with which he paid for the cab, and the chuckle with which he recompensed the boy, were only exceeded by the chuckle with which he sat down, breathless, in his chair again, and chuckled till he cried.

Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued to shake very much. And shaving requires attention, even when you don’t dance while you are at it. But if he had cut the end of his nose off, he would have put a piece of sticking-plaster over it, and been quite satisfied.

He dressed himself all in his best, and at last got out into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, and Scrooge looked so irresistibly pleasant that three or four good-humored fellows said:

Good-humored Fellows:  Good morning, sir. A Merry Christmas to you.

Scrooge:  Merry Christmas!

Storyteller:  And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.

He had not gone very far, when he saw coming toward him the portly gentleman who had walked into his countinghouse the day before. It sent a pang across his heart to think how this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it.

Scrooge:  My dear sir (taking both his hands), how do you do? I hope you succeeded yesterday. It was very kind of you. A Merry Christmas to you, sir!

First Gentleman:  Mr. Scrooge?

Scrooge:  Yes, that is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant to you. Allow me to ask your pardon. And will you have the goodness…(Scrooge whispers in his ear.)

First Gentleman:  Lord bless me! My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?

Scrooge:  If you please, not a farthing less. A great many back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that favor?

First Gentleman:  My dear sir, I don’t know what to say to so much munifence…

Scrooge:  Don’t say anything. Please come and see me. Will you?

First Gentleman:  I will!

Scrooge:  Thank you. I am much obliged to you. I thank you fifty times. Bless you!

Storyteller:  Scrooge went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk—that anything—could give him so much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew’s house.

He passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and knock. But he made a dash, and did it:

Scrooge:  Fred!

Fred:  Who is it?

Scrooge:  It’s I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, Fred?

Storyteller:  Let him in?! It’s a mercy he didn’t shake his arm off! He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, wonderful happiness!

But he was early at the office the next morning! If he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That was the thing he had set his heart upon.

And he did it. The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. Bob was a full eighteen minutes and-a-half late. Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come in.

Bob’s hat was off before he opened the door, his comforter too.  He was on his stool in a jiffy, driving away with his pens, as if he were trying to overtake nine o’clock.

Scrooge:  (Growling.)  What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?

Cratchit:  I’m very sorry, sir. I’m late.

Scrooge:  Are you? Yes, I think you are. Come over here.

Cratchit:  It’s only once a year, sir. It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir.

Scrooge:  Now, I’ll tell you what, my friend. I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore…and therefore…I am going to raise your salary!

Storyteller:  Bob trembled and got a little nearer to the ruler. He had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and a straight-jacket.

Scrooge:  A Merry Christmas, Bob! A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon over a bowl of hot wassail, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal scuttle before you dot another “i,” Bob Cratchit.

Storyteller:  Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more. And to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old world.

And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.May that be truly said of all of us! And as Tiny Tim would say:

Tiny Tim:  God Bless Us, Every One!

 

 

 

—Charles Dickens