A Christmas Carol
By CHARLES DICKENS
—
Mar ley was dead.
Scrooge knew he was dead. Scrooge and he were partners. Scrooge !
was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, a squeezing, wrench :.g, j
grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!
Once upon a time—on Christmas Eve—old Scrooge sat busy in his
counting-house. t I
‘‘A Merry Christmas, uncle. God save you!” cried his nephew’s
cheerful voice. ^
“Bah!” said Scrooge, “Humbug!”
One day when asked to give to
the poor for the festive season,
Scrooge replied, “I help to support
the poorhouses—they cost enough;
and those who are badly off must
go there.”
After dinner that night. Scrooge
went home to bed. A disused bell
that hung in the rooms started to
swing. It was succeeded by a
clanking noise as if as if some one
was dragging a heavy chain over
the casks in the cellar.
It came through the door, and
passed into the room. It was Mar
lay! Marley’s chain was made of
cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, led
gers. deeds and heavy purses
wrought in steel.
The Ghost informed Scrooge, “it
is required of every man that the
spirit within him should walk
abroad among his fellowmen: and
it that spirit goes not term in me,
it is condemned to do so after
death. It is doomed to wander
through the world— and witness
what it cannot share.
“You will be haunted by Three
Spirits. Without their visits, you
cannot hope to shun the path I
tread. Expect the first when the
bell tolls One.”
Scrooge awoke and the curtains
of his bed were drawn by a smal\
elfish creature.
“I am the Ghost of Christmas
Past,” it said.
The Ghost and Scrooge went to
a bare room where a lonely boy
was reading near a feeble fire:
Scrooge wept to see his poor for
gotten self as he used to be, and
glanced anxiously towards the
door. It opened; and a little girl
much younger than the boy came
in and. kising him. addressed him
as her “Dear, dear brother.”
“I came to bring you home dear j
brother!” said the child. “Home,
for good and ail. Home, for ever
and ever. Father has sent me in a
coach to bring you.”
They stopped u chouse
door. It was Ferzzwig’s. A l.ddler
came and tuned like f fty stomach
aches. They danced and ate.;
Scrooge found himself by the side ,
of a fair young irl.
“It matters iittle,” she said soft- j
ly. “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, I have
no just cause to grieve."
“What idol has displaced you?” j
he rejoined.
“A golden one.”
“Spirit!” said Scrooge, “show me
no more! Conduct me home. Why ;
do you torture me?”
Scrooge had no occasion to be
told that the bell was again upon
the stroke of One.
Now his bed became the very:
core and center of a blaze of ruddy
light, which streamed upon it
when the clock proclaimed the
hour. Living green so filled it that
it looked a perfect grove.
In easy state upon this couch,
there sat a jolly giant.
“I am the Ghost of Christmas
Present,” said the Spirit.
"Spirit” said Scrooge, “conduct
me where you will.”
Perhaps it was the Spirit's sym
pathy with all poor men that led
him straight to Scrooge’s clerk. On
the threshold of the door tie Spirit
smiled, and stopped to bless Bob,
Crate-hit's dwelling.
In came Bob, Tiny Tim upon his
shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim. he j
bore a little crutch.
Master Peter, and the two ubi
quitous young Cratchits, went to •
fetch the goose, with which they
soon returned in high procession.
There never was such a goose.
Bob said he didn’t believe there
ever was such a goose cooked.
"God bless us every one!” sa d
Tiny Tim.
Scrooge was taken from Cratch
its by Christmas Present to an
other end of town.
It was a great surprise to
Scrooge to hear a familiar hearty
laugh. Scrooge recognized it as his
own nephew’s.
"He said that Christmas was a
humbug, as I live!” cried Scrooge’s
nephew to the party. “He believed
it too.”
The bell struck again.
Scrooge looked about his bed
room once more, and beheld a sol
emn Phantom, draped and hooded.
He went with the Phantom into
an obscure part of the town, and
into the presence of a man, just as
a woman with a heavy bundle en
tered. ^
She explained that the blankets
belonged to Scrooge, but being
dead he was not likely to take cold.
Scrooge shuddered at the revela
tion that this would be his fate in
retribution for his unkmdnesses
during life.
Holding up his hands in a last*
prayer to have his fate reversed,
Scrooge saw the Phantom shrink,
collapse and dwindle down into a
bedpost.
Yes! and the bedpost was his
own.
The bed was his own, the room
was his own. Best and happiest of
all the time before him was his
own, to make amends in!
Running to the window, he
opened it and put out his head,
calling to a happy urchin in the
street.
“Do you know if the Poulterer’s ;
have sold the prize turkey?”
“It's hanging there now.”
Scrooge had the turkey deliv
ered to Bob Cratchit’s. Scrooge
then went to church and in the
afternoon he went to his nephew's
house.
It’s I. Your Uncle Scrooge. I
From that first Christmas Day until the
present. Christmas has been the happiest and
the most blessed season of the year, because
it is the season of kindness, generosity and
fellowship.
In the age-old spirit of good will, we ex
press our greetings, and wish you an old-time
Merry Christmas.
J
FORD DEPARTMENT
CATERPILLAR DEPT.
Northern Commercial Co.