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Show i R u 4 M ' h n fi f1?' ! H U-sV - -i f' ' . : . M f HmJA' i f it IliJlillllil illpiiMilliBpif liifW Bast s (i5rk.&Ms ffekte:!itoi ?i3sitts :mm a lit tjMariti falsi k "e n'phf- T1"'-v otin cl" ,in.vtMi'!T tliev like - i(sQariJ rfiZS,- r- ' f course, fhey can. Of conrse. they can. Unllo, VSfT-- JJ&L r- "i.v fine fellow!" " Z . r . """Ho!" i-etumed-llie hoy. "Do you know (he poulterer's. In the next . ' " street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge Inquired. " '"tv 1 be 01'0SS' ud'Jb!" said the lr I W & "Whnt else can I be," re-Lr re-Lr turned the- uncle, "when I live 2 I lu such a world of fools as It4 thi"S? Merry Chrislnms! Out V-i' upon merry C'hrlstnms ! Wlial's Chrlstnuis time to you but a lime for paying bills wlt'.iout money; a t i life for fiinl;nj: yourself a year older, and not an hour tidier; a tiiin; for balancing your books and bav-i bav-i very Item in 'ejn through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If 1 could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every Idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas" on bis lips should be boiled with his own pudding, rod tmrlt d wiih a stake of holly run through his leart. He should!" Christmas Carol, Stave 1. The noise In this room was perfectly tumultuous, tumul-tuous, for there were more children there than Scrooge, In his agitated state of mind, could count; and, ui-.like the celebrated herd In the l.oem, they were not forty children conducting themselves like one, hut every child was conducting conduct-ing himself like forty. The consequences were uproarious up-roarious beyond belief; but no one seemed to i-art; on the contrary, the mother and daughter hiitghed heartily, and enjoyed It very much; and the latter, soon beginning to mingle In the sports. i ot pillnged 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, uo, no! 1 wouldn't for the wealth of all the world have crus-hed that braided hair, and torn It down ; and tor (he precious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, Ood bless my soul ! to save my life. As to measuring her waijt In sport, as they did, 1 old young brood, I couldn't have done It; I .-l.ould have expected my arm to have grown round It for a punishment, and never conic straight niraln. And yet I should have dearly liked, I own, i.i have touched her Hps, to have questioned her. i!i:.t she might have opened them; to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast .yes. and never i::)sed a blush; to have let loose waves of hair, i.-r Inch of which would be a keepsake beyond j rice: 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 nt the door was heard, and hi-!i a rush Immediately ensued that she, with hni.'!iing face and plundered dress, was borne toward It in the center of a flushed and boisterous foup. Just In time to greet the father, who came home attended by a man laden with Christmas my and presents. Then tiie shouting and the struggling, and the onslaught that was' made on the defenceless porter! The scaling him, with h!rs for ladders, to (live Into his pockets, despoil ).!im of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his rriivnt, hug lilm tound Hip neck, pommel his back, ii ml kick his legs U Irrepressible aiTclion. The shouts of wonder a.id delight with which the development of every package was received! The (r-n-ili'c announcement lhat the baby had been tci cii mi l!m act of putting a doll's frying pan nls mouth, and was more th.u 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 parlor, and, by one stair at a time, up to the top of the house, where they went to bed, and so subsided. Christmas Carol, Stave 2. Oh, a wonderful pudding. I?ob Cratchit said, and calmly, too, that he regarded it as the great- est success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had something to say about It, but nobody said or thought it was at all a sicill pudding for a Large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint ut such a thing. At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound lu the Jug being tasted, and considered con-sidered perfect, apples and onuiges were put upon the t .title, and a shovel full of chestnuts on the (ire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the henrth. In what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and at Bob Crt-chlt's Crt-chlt's elbow stood the family display of glass, two tumblers and a eustard-eup without a handle. These held the hot stuff from the Jug. however, how-ever, as well as golden goblets would have done; and Bob served It out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed: "A merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us-" Which all the family re-echoed. "God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim. the last of all. Christmas Carol. Stave 8. "I don't know what day of the month It Is," said Scrooge; "I don't know how long I have been among the spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite n baby. Never mind. 1 don't care. I'd rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoip ! Hallo here!" lie was checked In his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clash, hammer ; ding, dong. bell. Bell. dong. -ding; hammer, clang, clash! Oh. glorimis! glorious! running to t lie window, he opened It. and pat out his head. No fog, no ndyt ; clear, bright. Jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; golden sunilght; heavenly sky; sweet fresh u!r; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious! "What's today?" cried Scrooge, calling downward down-ward to a boy In Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered In to look about him. "Eh?" returned the boy, with all his might of wonder. "What's today, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge. "Today!" replied the boy. "Why. Christum. day." "It's Christmas day!" suid Scrooge to himself. "I haven't missed !t. The spirits bue done It nil In one night. They can do anything they like Of course, they can. Of conrse. they can. Hallo, my fine fr How !" ''Hallo!" retunied"lhe boy. "Do you know (he poulterer's, In the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge Inquired. "I should hope I did," replied the lad. "An intelligent boy !" said Scrooge. "A remarkable remark-able boy! Do you know whether they've sold the prize turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize turkey, the big one?" "What, the one as big as me?" returned the boy. "What a delightful boy I" said Scrooge. "It's a pleasure to talk to hlni. Yes, my buck !" "It's hanging there now," replied the boy. "I it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy It." "Walk-er!" exclaimed the boy. "No, no," said Scrooge, "I am in earnest. Go and buy it. and tell 'em to bring it here, that I may give (hem (he 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 ha!f-n-crown !" The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady hand al a trigger who could have got a Bhot off half so fast. "I'll send it to Bob Crnchit's." whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands and splitting with a laugh. "He shan't know who sends It. It's (wlce the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a Joke as sending It to Bob's will be !" The and In which he wrote the address was not a steady one; but write It he did, somehow and went down stairs to open the street door ready for the coming of the poulterer's man. As lie stood, there, waiting his arrival, the knocker caught his eye. "1 shall love It as long as I live!" cried Scrooge, patting It with his hand. "I scarcely ever looked at It before. What an honest expression expres-sion It has In Its face! It's a wonderful knocker! Here's the turkey. Hallo! Whoop! How are yon 1 Merry Christmas !" It was a turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapred 'em short off in a minute, like sticks of sealing wax. "Why, It's Impossible to carry that to Camden Town," said Scrooge. "Ton must hav h cab." The chuckle with which ho said this; and the chuckle with which he- paid for the tnrkey. and the chuckle with 'which he paid for the cab, and the chuckle with vhlch he. recompensed the boy, were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which he sat down brealhless in his chair again, and chuckled til! he cried. Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued to shake very much; and shaving requires re-quires attention, even when you don't dance while you nre at It. But tf he had cut (he end of his nore off, he would have put n piece of sticking nlaster over it. and been quite satisfied. He dressed himself "all In his best," and al last got out into the streets. The people were bv this time pouring forth, as he had set'ii them with the Ghost of Christmas Prefect; ahd walk ing with his hands behind him. Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, three or four good-hunvired follows said. "Good morning, sir! A merry Christinas to you!" And Scrooge suid often afterward, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard. Ihore were the bi't'iest In hln I'll i s. |