Show by gj arh diek n ILL afa armma j as V araj service THE STORY SO FAR scrooge tightfisted and III disposed towards everyone had told his good natured nephew that christmas was a humbug he also iso told a committee looking for christmas rna donations to aid the poor that he was already supporting institutions such as poor houses jails and workhouses for them oh he be was mean and miserly and rich was scrooge but that night christmas eve lust just teven years after his partner marley died installment TWO bear but a touch of my hand there said the spirit laying it upon his heart As the words were spoken they passed through the wall and stood upon arr an open country road good heaven Heave nl said scrooge 1 I was a boy herel the spirit gazed upon him mildly strange to have forgotten it for so many years observed the ghost let us go on some shaggy pon ponies les now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their backs these are but shadows of the things that have been said the ghost the jocund travelers came on and as they came 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 give each other merry christmas the school is not quite deserted said the ghost A solitary child is left there still scrooge jsaie said he knew it and he sobbed they went the ghost and scrooge to a melancholy room made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks at one of these a lonely boy w was 5 as reading near a feeble fire and scrooge wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be the spirit touched him on the arm and pointed to his younger self intent upon his reading suddenly a man in forel foreign gri garments wonderfully der fully 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 its ali baba scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy its dear old honest ali baba yes yes I 1 know one christmas time when yonder solitary child was left here all alone lie 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 his name who was put down in his drawers asleep at the gate of da liascos li Is dont you see him and the tae sultans groom turned upside down by the genii there he is upon his head serve him right im glad of it what business had he to be married to the princess 1 I wish scrooge muttered d drying ry his eyes with his cuff but its too late now what asked the spirit nothing said scrooge nothing there was a boy singing a christmas carol at my door last night I 1 should like to have given him something all the ghost smiled thoughtfully and waved its hand saying let us see another christmas scrooges former self grew larger at the words there he was alone again when all the other boys had gone cone home for the jolly holidays scrooge looked at the ghost and glanced anxiously towards the door it opened and a lit little tie girl much much younger than the boy came darting in and putting her arms about his neck and often kissing him addressed him as her dear dear brother 1 I have come to bring you home dear brother br otherl said the child home little fan yes said the child brimful of glee home for good and all home for or ever and ever father is so eo much kinder that I 1 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 youre to be a man mani said the child opening her eyes and are never to come back here but first were to be together all the christmas long and have the merriest time in all the world a woman fan exclaimed the boy she clapped her hands and laughed always a delicate creature whom a breath might have withered said the ghost but she had bad a large hearal so she had cried scrooge she died a woman said the ghost and had I 1 think children one child scrooge returned true said the ghost your nephews nep hewl although they had but that moment left the school behind them they were now in a busy city i the ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door and asked scrooge it if he knew it know it said scrooge was jl JI apprenticed here beret we he saw marleys ghost marley had been as unlovely and BS as ungenerous as himself marley Is wearing chains forged by his uncharitable deeds while on earth he warns scrooge against his meanness he fie says the chain already forged by scrooge is even thicker and bigger than his he tells him he will be visited by three spirits the first spirit arrives when the bells toll toil one now continue with the story they went in at sight of an old gentleman in a welsh wig scrooge cried in great excitement why its old bless his heart its alive again agai rill 1 old laid down his pen and looked up at the clock which pointed to the hour of seven and called out in a comfortable oily rich fat jovial voice yo ho therel there Eben ebenezer ezerl dichl boges former self now grown a young man came briskly in accompanied compa nied by his fellow prentice dick wilkins to be surel said scrooge to the ghost hilli ho cried old skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility clear away lads lad and lets have lots of room in came a fiddler and tuned like fifty stomach aches in came mrs one vast substantial smile in came the three miss beaming and loveable love able in came the six young followers whose hearts q lv 1 W de A t 7 IA I 1 it matters little she said softly 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 brothers 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 g girl irl from next door but one who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress in they all came some shyly some boldly some gracefully some awkwardly away they all went twenty couple at once hands half round and back again the other way down the middle and u up p again round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping old top couple always turning 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 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 roast and boiled when the fiddler an artful dog t mind struck up sir roger de coverley then old stood out to dance with mrs top couple too with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them three or four and twenty pair of partners matter said the ghost to make these silly folks so full of gratitude small echoed scrooge why I 1 Is it not he has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money it that said scrooge oge heated by the remark it 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 insignia insignificant ficano that it is impossible to add and count em up what then the happiness he gives is quite as great as tt if it cost a fortune he felt the spirits glance and stopped what is it asked the ghost nothing said scrooge something I 1 think the ghost insisted no said scrooge no I 1 should like to tobe be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now my time grows grow S short observed the spirit SI this produced an immediate effect for again scrooge saw sam himself he was older now he was not alone but sat by the side of a fair young girl in whose eyes there were tears it matters little she s said aid softly to you very little another idol has displaced me and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come as I 1 would have tried to do I 1 have no just cause to grieve what idol has displaced you he rejoined A golden one what then he retorted even if I 1 have grown so much wiser what then I 1 am not changed towards you she shook her head your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are she returned 1 I am that which promised happiness when we were one in heart is fraught with misery now that we are two it is enough that I 1 have thought of it and can release you have I 1 ever sought release in words no never in what then in a changed nature in an altered spirit in another atmosphere of life another hope as its great end in everything that made my love of ariy any worth or value in your sight it if this had never been between us said the girl looking mildly but with steadiness upon h him AA tell me would you seek me out and try to win me now he seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition in sp spite ite of himself but he said with a struggle 4 you think not 1 I would gladly think otherwise if I 1 could she answered CIS spirit said scrooge show me no morel more conduct me home why do you delight to torture me one shadow morel more exclaimed the ghost 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 could count but now a knocking at the door was heard and such a rush immediately ensued 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 defenseless porter the scaling him with chairs for ladders to drive 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 receive received edl the terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a dolls 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 parlor 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 down with her and her mother at his own fl fireside reside and then when he thought such another creature quite as gr graceful laceful and as full of promise might have called him father belle said the husband turning to his wife with a smile 1 I saw an old friend of yours this abter afternoon who was it mr scrooge it was I 1 passed his office window and as it was not shut up and he had a candle inside I 1 could scarcely help seeing him his partner lies upon the point of death I 1 hear and there he sat alone quite alone in the world I 1 do believe spirit said scrooge in a broken voice remove me from this place 1 I told you these were shadows of the things that have been said the ghost that they are what they are do not blame mel me remove met me scrooge exclaimed 1 I cannot bear it he was conscious of being exhausted and overcome by an irre irresistible sis tible drow drowsiness and further of being in his own bedroom he had barely time to reel to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep TO BE CONTINUED |