Level B. Other.

Christmas Story.

INSPIRED by the fortcoming Christmas and My Students

This Story May Have Happened A Long Time Ago or Quite Recently. There Lived A Boy Named Thomas In A Big House. His Parents Were Very Rich, So Tomas Had Always Had Everything He Wanted. Everything except ... happiness. One Christmas Day He Got Up and, As Usually, Saw All Kinds of Nice Presents Under the Christmas Tree. "Another Boring Christmas", - He Though Yawning. - "Why do People Like IT SO Much?" The Boy Opened A Couple of Presents But It Didn't Help Much. Nothing Made Him Happy.

Suddenly Thomas Heard A Strange Noise coming from the window. He LOOKED OUT AND SAW CHILDREN JOYFULLY PLAYING IN THE STREET. They Were Wearing Worn-Out Torn Clothes, Thus It Was Obvious That They Were Poor.

Thomas Couldn't refrain from Staying At Home. HE CAME UP TO CHILDREN AND SAID: "MERRY CHRISTMAS! CAN I JOIN YOU? " ONE OF THE BOYS Answered: "You're Welcome".

THEY MADE SNOWMEN, PLAYED SNOWBALLS, SLEIGHED AND WENT CAROL SINGING TILL LATE. Thomas Had Never Had Such A Wonderful Christmas! In The Evening He Invited Poor Children to His House for Dinner. They Ate A Lot of Tasty Things and Had A Good Time Playing Together.

The Day Was Drawing To A Close. "How Wonderful This Christmas Is!" - Thougoht Thomas Handing Out The Presents to Poor Children. THEY THANKED THE BOY AS THEY HAD NEVER GOT SUCH THINGS BEFORE.

WHEN HE HEARD IT, HE BECAME AS HAPPY AS A A CING AND UNTOOD THAT THE REAL HAPPINESS IS THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE YOUR JOY WITH THE OTHERS.

May this day Be So Special That You Never Ever Feel Lonely and Be Surrounded by Loved Ones Throughout! Merry Coming Christmas!

Perhaps this story occurred a long time ago, and maybe quite recently. In the big house there was a boy named Thomas. He had very rich parents, so Thomas had always had everything he wanted. All but ... happiness.

Once upon a time he woke up and as usual saw under the Christmas tree a lot of beautiful gifts. "Another boring Christmas," he thought, yawning. - "And why does it like people so much?" He opened a couple of gifts, but it did not help. Nothing pleased him.

Suddenly Thomas heard a strange noise that is coming out of the window. He looked out and saw children happily playing on the street. All of them were dressed in fluttered and torn clothes, and it is clear that they were poor.

Thomas could not lie at home. He went to the children and said: "Merry Christmas! Can I play with you? " One of the boys said: "Of course."

They looked snowmen, played snowballs, rode on sledding and sang Christmas carols standing late. Thomas has never had such a wonderful Christmas. In the evening, he invited poor children to his home for dinner. They ate all sorts of goodies and spent time well.

The day was approaching the end. "What a wonderful christmas is!" - Thought the boy, handing out gifts to poor children. They thanked the boy, since they have never received such gifts.

When he heard it, it was incomprehensively glad and realized that real happiness was an opportunity to share his joy with others.

Let this day and the whole coming year with you will be close and loving people! Merry Christmas!

Norma is approaching. And as you know, it is films about Christmas help us to forget about everyday bustle and feel a festive mood!
Therefore, today in our cinema you will watch online cartoon christmas story (A Christmas Carol 2009) in English with English subtitles According to the book Charles Dickens. The cartoon attached text that is broken into separate scenes, which is very convenient for studying of English language.Scenes are preferably printed.

Watching Christmas Films and Reading Christmas Books Is The Best Way to Get in Christmas Spirit.

Read more excerpts from the book "Christmas History" in English in the original or in Russian translated by T.A. Ozerskaya. You can also watch online cartoon in our cinema.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL 2009 (in English, with smbitles)

English text to cartoon scenes->

And now get ready for a meeting with the first ghost. This is how he looked (if you believe Ozerskaya TA)

Scrudge saw a very strange creature, similar to a child, but even more than an old man<…> His long hair scattered on his shoulders was white, like an elder's hair, but there was no wrinkle on his face and there was a gentle blush on his cheeks. His hands were very long and muscular, and the legs are naked. This creature was closed in a snow-white tunic, rejected by the sparkling sush<…>And the hem of his robes was decorated with alive flowers. But what was the most amazing thing, so this is a bright jet of light, which beat him from the crown up and covered his whole figure.<…> Under the mouse, the ghost kept the gasilka in the form of a cap who served him apparently headdress<…>

And here is the description of the ghost in English:

IT Was A Strange Figure - Like A Child: Yet Not So Like A Child As Like An Old Man<….> Its Hair, Which Hung ABOUT ITS NECK AND DOWN ITS Back, Was White As If With Age; And Yet The Face Had Not a Wrinkle in It, And The Tenderest Bloom Was On The Skin. The ARMS WERE VERY LONG AND MUSCULAR; The Hands The Same, AS If Its Hold Were of Uncommon Strength. ITS Legs and Feet, Most Delicately Formed, Were, Like Those Upper Members, Bare. IT WORE A TUNIC OF THE PUREST WHITE, AND ROUND ITS WAIST WAS BOUEN A LUSTROUS BELT, THE SHEEN OF WHICH WAS BEATIFUL.<…> And ITS Dress Was TrimMed With Summer Flowers. But The Strangest Thing About Its Was, That From The Crown of Its Head There Sprung A Bright Clear Jet Of Light, by Which All For Was Visible;<….> A Great Extinguisher for a Cap, Which It Now Held Under Its ARM.<…>

* * *

But as describes Charles Dickens of the second and third ghost:

The Second Ghost.

IT Was Clothed in One Simple Green Robe, Or Mantle, Bordered With White Fur. This Garment Hung So Loosely On The Figure, That Its Capacious Breast Was Bare, AS If Disdaining to Be Warded or Concealed by Any Artifice. ITS Feet, Observable Beneath The Ample Folds of The Garment, Were Also Bare; And On Its Head It Wore No Other Covering Than And There Wreath, Set Here And There with Shining Icicles. Its Dark Brown Curls Were Long and Free; Free As Its Genial Face, Its Sparkling Eye, Its Open Hand, ITS Cheery Voice, Its Unconstrained Demeanour, and Its Joyful Air. Girded Round Its Middle Was An Antique Scabbard; But No Sword Was In IT, And The Ancient Sheath Was Eaten Up with Rust.<…>

Description of the Second Ghost (Christmas Spirit) translated into Russian
It was dressed in a simple green balachon or a mantle broken with white fur. This robe loosely hung on his figure, exposing the breasts that it would be a contempt for any conventions and falsehood. His legs, visible from under the folds of his clothes, were barefoot, and on the head there was only a wreath of an oxidist, from which shiny glances were sticking out there. Dark long curls, framing his open face, brilliant eyes, huge hands, vigorous voice, relaxed behavior and satisfied species created the impression of freedom and joy. His antique sheath has fun on the belt, but there was no sword in them, and the sheath themselves were eaten rust.<…>

The Third Ghost.

It Was Shrouded in a Deep Black Garment, Which Concealed Its Head, Its Face, Its Form, and Left Nothing Of It Visible Save One Outstretched Hand. But for this it Would Have Been Difficult to Detach Its Figure from the nightt, and separate it from the darkness by Which It Was Surrounded.<…>

Description of the Third Ghost (Death Spirit) Translated into Russian

It was a black robe with a hood, similar to Savan, who hid his face and figure. If not an elongated hand, it could not be seen in the night and separate from that darkness that surrounded him.<…>

A Christmas Carol. A Ghost Story of Christmas

I Have Endeavoured in This Ghostly Little Book, to Raise The Ghost of An Idea, Which Shall Not Put My Readers Out of Humour With The Season, With Each Other. May IT Haunt Their Houses Pleasantly, and no one Wish to Lay It.

Their Faithful Friend And Servant, C. D. Deceptber, 1843.

Stave I: Marley "S Ghost Stave II: The Second of the Three Spirits Stave IV: The Last of the Spirits Stave V: The End of It

Stave I: Marley "S Ghost

Marley Was Dead: To Begin WITH. There Is No Doubt Whatever about that. The Register of His Burial Was Signed by The Cergyman, The Clerk, The Undertaker, and the Chief Mourner. SCROOGE SIGNED IT: AND SCROOGE "S NAME WAS GOOD UPON" CHANGE, FOR Anything He Chose To Put His Hand To. Old Marley Was As Dead AS A Door-Nail.

Mind! I DON "T Mean To Say That I Know, of My Own Knowledge, What There Is Particularly Dead About A Door-Nail. I Might Have Been Inclined, MySelf, to Regard A Coffin-Nail As The Dependest Piece Of IronMongery in The Trade . But The Wisdom of Our Ancestors Is In The Simile; And My Unhallowed Hands Shan Not Disturb It, Or The Country "s Done for. You Willuel Therefore Permit Me to Repeat, Emphatically, That Marley Was As Dead AS a Door-Nail.

SCROOGE KNEW HE WAS DEAD? Of Course HE DID. How Could it be Otherwise? SCROOGE AND HE WERE MANY YEARS. SCROOGE WAS HIS SOLE EXECUTOR, HIS SOLE ADMINISTRATOR, HIS SOLE ASSIGN, HIS SOLE RESIDUARY LEGATEE, HIS SOLE FRIEND, AND SOLE MOUNER. AND EVEN SCROOGE WAS NOT SO DREADFULLY CUT Up by The Sad Event, But That He Was An Excellent Man of Business On The Very Day of the Funeral, and Solemnised It Wit An Undoubted Bargain.

The Mention of Marley "S Funeral Brings Me Back to the Point I started from. There Is No Doubt That Marley Was Dead. This Must Be Distinctly Understood, Or Nothing Wonderful Can Come of The Story I Am Going to Relate. If We Were Not Perfectly CONVINCED THAT HAMLET "S Father Died Be Nothing More Remarkable in His Taking A Stroll At Night, in An Easter Wind, Upon His Own Ramparts, Than Middle-Aged Gentleman Rashly Turning Out After Dark in A Breezy Spot - Say Saint Paul "S Churchyard for Instance-- Literally to Astonish His Son" S Weak Mind.

SCROOGE NEVER PAINTED OUT OLD MARLEY "S NAME. THERE IT STOOD, YEARS AFTERWARDS, ABOVE THE WAREHOUSE DOOR: SCROOGE AND MARLEY AND MARLEY. Sometimes People New to the Business Called SCROOGE SCROOGE, and Sometimes Marley, But He Answered to Both Names. IT Was All the Same to Him.

Oh! But He Was a Tight-Fisted Hand At The Grind-Stone, SCROOGE! A Squeezing, Wrenching, Grabsping, Scraping, CLUTICHING, COVETOUS, OLD SINNER! Hard and Sharp AS Flint, From Which No Steel Had Ever Struck Out Generous Fire; SECRET, AND SELF-Contained, and Solitary AS An Oyster. The Cold Within Him Froze His Old Features, Nipped His Pointed Nose, Shrivelled His Cheek, Stiffened His Gait; Made His Eyes Red, His Thin Lips Blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating vocation. A Frosty Rime Was On His Head, and On His Eyebrows, and His Wiry Chin. HE CARRIED HIS OWN LOW TEMPERATURE ALWAYS ABOUT WITH HIM; He Iced His Office In The Dog-Days; And Didn "T Thaw it One Degree at Christmas.

EXTERNAL HEAT AND COLD HAD LITTLE INFLUENCE ON SCROOGE. No Warmth Could Warm, No Wintry Weather 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. Foul Weather Didn "T Know Where to Have Him. The Heaviest Rain, and Snow, and Hail, and Sleet, Could Boast of the Advantage Over Him In Only One Respect. They Often" Came Down "Handsomely, and SCROOGE NEVER DID.

Nobody Ever Stopped Him In The Street to Say, with Gladsome Looks, "My Dear Scroge, How Are you? 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 Scroge. Even The Blind Men" s Dogs Appeared to Know HIM; And who Saw Him Coming On, Would Tug Their Owners Into Doorways and Up Cours; And Then Would Wag Their Tails As Though The Said, "No Eye AT All Is Better Than An Evil Eye, Dark Master!"

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, Was What The Knowing Ones Call "Nuts" to Scroge.

ONCE UPON A TIME - OF ALL THE GOOD DAYS IN THE THE YEAR, ON CHRISTMAS EVE - OLD SCROOGE SAT BUSY IN HIS COUNTING-HOUSE. IT Was Cold, Bleak, Biting Weather: Foggy Withal: 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 Pavel Stones to Warm Them. The City Clocks Had Only Just Gone Three, But It Was Quite Dark Already-- It Had Not Been Light All Day - And Candles Were Flaring In The Windows of the Neighboring Offices, Like Ruddy Smears Upon The Palpable Brown Air. The Fog Came Pouring In At EVERY CHINK AND KEYHOLE, AND WAS SO DENSE WAS OF THE NARROWEST, THE HOUSES OPPOSITE WERE MERE PHANTOMS. To See The Dingy Cloud Come Drooping Down, Obscuring Everything, One Might Have Thought That Nature Lived Hard By, And Was Brewing On A Large Scale.

The Door of SCROOGE "S Counting-House Was Open That He Might Keep His Eye Upon His 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 Loked Like One COAL. But He Couldn "T Replenish it, for SCROOGE KEPT THE COAL-BOX IN HIS OWN ROOM; AND SO SURELY AS THE CERTICTED THAT IT WOUDICTED, THE MASTER PREDICTED THAT IT WOUD BE NECESSARY FOR THEM TO PART ON WHEREFORE His White Comforter, And Tried to Warm Himself At the Candle; In Which Effort, Not Being A Man Of A Strong Imagination, He Failed.

"A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God Save You!" Cried a Cheerful Voice. IT WAS THE VOICE OF SCROOGE "S NEPHEW, WH CAME UPON HIM SO QUICKLY THAT THIS WAS THE FIST ITIMATION HE HAD OF HIS Approach.

"BAH!" SAID SCROOGE, "HUMBUG!"

HE HAD SO HEATED HIATSELF WITH RAPID WALKING IN THE FOG AND FROST, THIS NEPHEW OF SCROOGE "S, THAT HE WAS ALL IN A GLOW; HIS FACE WAS RUDDY AND HANDSOME; HIS EYES SPARKLED, AND HIS BREATH SMOKED AGAIN.

"Christmas a humbug, uncle!" SAID SCROOGE "S NEPHEW." YOU DON "T MEAN THAT, I Am Sure?"

"I do," SAID SCROOGE. "Merry Christmas! What Right Have You to Be Merry? What Reason Have You to Be Merry? You" Re Poor ENOUGH. "

"Come, Ten," Returned The Nephew Gaily. "What Right Have You to Be Dismal? What Reason Have You to Be Morose? You" Re Rich Enough. "

SCROOGE HAVING NO BETTER ANSWER READY ON THE SPUR OF THE MOMENT, SAID, "BAH!" Again; AND FOLLOWED IT UP WITH "HUMBUG."

"DON" T BE Cross, Uncle! "Said The Nephew.

"What else can i be," Returned the UNCLE, "WHEN I LIVE IN SUCH A WORLD OF FOOLS AS THIS? MERRY CHRISTMAS! OUT UPON MERRY CHRISTMAS! What" s christmas Time to You But a Time for Paying Bills Wort A A Time for Finding Yourself a Year Older, But Not An Hour Richer; A Time for Balancing Your Books and Having Every Item in "Em Through A Round Dozen of Months Present Dead Against You? If I Could Work My Will," SAID SCROOGE INDIGNANTLY, "EVERY IDIOT WHO GOES ABOUT WITH" MERRY CHRISTMAS "ON HIS Lips , SHOLD BE BOOLED WITH HIS OWN PUDDING, AND BURIED WITH A STAKE OF HOLLY THROUGH HIS HEART. HE SHOULD! "

"Uncle!" Pleaded the nephew.

"Nephew!" Returned The Uncle Sternly, "Keep Christmas In Your Own Way, and Let Me Keep IT in Mine."

"Keep IT!" REPEATED SCROOGE "S NEPHEW." But You don "T Keep It."

"Let Me Leave It Alone, Then," Said SCROOGE. "Much Good May It Do You! Much Good It Has Ever Done You!"

"There Are Many Things From Which I Might Have Derived Good, by Which I Have Not Profited, I Dare Say," Returned The Nephew. "Christmas Among The Rest. Butt I Am Sure I Have Always Thought of Christmas Time, When It Has Come Round - Apart from The Veneration Due to Its Sacred Name and Origin, If Anything Belonging to IT CAN BE APART FROM THAT - AS a Good Time; A Kind, Forgiving, Charitable, Pleasant Time; The Only Time I Know of, In The Long Calendar of the Year, When Consent to Open Their SHUT-Up Hearts Freely and To Think of PEOPLE BELOW THEM AS IF THEY REALLY WERE FELLOW-PASSENGERS TO GRAVE, AND NOT ANOTHER RACE OF CREATURES BOUTER 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! "

The Cerrk in the Tank Involuntarily applauded. BECOMING IMMEDIETELY SENSIBLE OF THE IMPROPRIETY, HE POKED THE FIRE, AND EXTINGUISHED THE LAST FRAIL SPARK FOR EVER.

"Let Me Hear Another Sound From You," Said Scrooge, "And You" LL Keep Your Christmas by Losing Your Situation! You "RE QUITE A Powerful Speaker, Sir," He Added, Turning to His Nephew. "I Wonder You don" T GO INTO PARLIAment. "

"DON" T Be Angry, Uncle. Come! DINE WITH US TO-MORROW. "

SCROOGE SAID THAT HE WOULD SEE HIM - YES, INDEED HE DID. He Went The Whole Length of The Expression, and Said That He Would See Him in That Extremity First.

"But Why?" Cried SCROOGE "S Nephew." Why? "

"Why Did You Get Married?" SAID SCROOGE.

"BECAUSE I FELL IN LOVE."

"BECAUSE You FELL IN LOVE!" Growled SCROOGE, AS IF That Were The Only One Thing In The World More Ridiculous Than a Merry Christmas. "GOOD AFTERNOON!"

"Nay, Uncle, But You Never Came to See Me Before Happened. Why Give IT AS A REASON FOR NOT COMING NOW?"

"I WANT NOTHING FROM You; I Ask Nothing Of You; Why Cannot We Be Friends?"

"Good afternoon," Said SCROOGE.

"I am Sorry, with All My Heart, to Find You So Resolute. We Have Never Had Any Quarrel, to Which I Have Been A Party. But i Have Made The Trial in Homage to Christmas, and I" LL Keep My Christmas Humour To The Last. So a merry christmas, uncle! "

"And a Happy New Year!"

"GOOD AFTERNOON!" SAID SCROOGE.

His Nephew Left The Room Wort An Angry Word, Notwithstanding. He Stopped at the Greetings of the Season on The Cerrk, Who, Cold As He Was, Was Warmer Than SCROOGE; For He Returned Them Cordially.

"There" S Another Fellow, "Muttered SCROOGE; Who Overheard HIM:" My Cherrk, with Fifteen Shillings a Week, and a Wife and Family, Talking About a Merry Christmas. I "LL RETIRE TO BEDLAM."

This Lunatic, in Letting SCROOGE "S NEPHEW OUT, HAD LET TWO OTHEW PEPLE IN. THEY WERE PORTLY GENTLEMEN, PLEASANT TO BEHOLD, AND NOW STOOD, WITH HATS OFF, IN SCROOGE" S Office. THEY HAD BOOKS AND PAPERS IN THEIR HANDS, AND BOWED TO HIM.

"SCROOGE AND MARLEY" S, I Believe, "Said One of the Gentlemen, Referring to His List." Have i The Pleasure of Addressing Mr. SCROOGE, OR MR. Marley? "

"Mr. Marley Has Been Dead These Seven Years," SCROOGE REPLIED. "HE DIED SEVEN YEARS AGO, THIS VERY NIGHT."

"We Have No Doubt His Liberality Is Well Representd by His Surviving Partner," Said The Gentleman, Presenting His Credentials.

IT CERTAINLY WAS; For They Had Been Two Kindred Spirits. AT The Ominous Word "Liberality," SCROOGE FROWNED, AND SHOOK HIS HEAD, AND HANDED THE CREDENTIALS BACK.

"At this Festive Season of the Gentleman, Taking Up A Pen," It Is More Thank DESIRABLE THAT WE SLIGHT PROVISION FOR THE POOR AND DESTITUTE, WH SUFFER GREATLY AT THE PRESENT TIME . Many Thousands Are in Want Of Common Necessaries; Hundreds of Thousands Are in Want Of Common Comforts, Sir. "

"Are there no prisons?" ASKED SCROOGE.

"PLENTY OF PRISONS," SAID THE GENTLEMAN, LAYING DOWN THE PEN AGAIN.

"AND THE UNION WORKHOUSES?" Demanded SCROOGE. "Are the Still in Operation?"

"They Are. Still," Returned The Gentleman, "I Wish I Could Say Were Not."

"The Treadmill and The Poor Law A in Full Vigour, Then?" SAID SCROOGE.

"Both Very Busy, Sir."

"Oh! I Was Afraid, from What Your SAID AT First, That Something Had Occurred to Stop Them in Their Useful Course," Said Scroge. "I" M Very Glad to Hear IT. "

"UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT THEY SCARCELY FURNISH CHRISTIAN CHEER OF MIND OR BODY TO THE MULTITUDE," RETURNED THE GENTLEMAN, "A FEW OF US ARE ENDEAVOURING TO RAISE A FUND TO BUY THE POOR SOME MEAT AND DRINK, AND MEANS OF WARMTH. WE CHOOSE This Time, Because It Is a Time, of All Others, Want Is Keenly Felt, and abundance rejoices. What Shall I Put You Down for? "

"NOTHING!" SCROOGE REPLIED.

"YOU WISH TO BE ANONYMOUS?"

"I WISH TO BE LEFT ALONE," SAID SCROOGE. "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 ESTABLISHMENTS I Have Mentioned - They Cost Enough; And Those Who Are Badly Off Must Go There. "

"Many Can" T GO There; AND MANY WOULD RATHER DIE. "

"If The Would Rather Die," SAID SCROOGE, "THEY HAD BETTER DO IT, AND DECREASE THE SURPLUS POPULATION. BESIDES - EXCUSE ME - I DON" T KNOW THAT. "

"But You Might Know IT," Observed The Gentleman.

"IT" S Not My Business, "SCROOGE RETURNED." IT "S Enough for a man to Understand His Own Business, and not to interfere with other people" s. Mine Occupies Me Constantly. Good afternoon, Gentlemen! "

Seeing Clearly That It Would Be Useless to Pursue Their Point, The Gentlemen Withdrew. SCROOGE RESUMED HIS LABOURS WITH AN IMPROVED OPINION OF HIMSELF, AND IN A MORE FACETIOUS TEMPER THAN WAS Usual Wat Him.

Meanwhile The Fog and Darkness Thickened So, That People Ran About With Flaring Links, PROFFERING THEIR SERVICES TO GO BEFORE HORSES IN CARRIAGES, AND CONDUCT THEM ON THEIR WAY. The Ancient Tower Of a Church, Whose Gruff Old Bell Was Always Peeping Slily Down AT SCROOGE OUT OF A Gothic Window In The Wall, Became Invisible, And Struck The Hours and Quarters In The Clouds, with Tremulous Vibrations Afterwards AS If Its Teeth Were Chattering In Its Frozen Head Up There. The Cold Became Intense. In The Court, Some Labourrors Were Repairing The Gas-Pipes, and Had Light Light A Great Fire In A Brazier, Round Which A Party of Ragged Men and Boys Were Gathered: Warming Their Hands and Winking Their Eyes BEFORE THE BLAZE IN RAPTURE. The Water-Plug Being Left in Solitude, ITS Overflowings Sullenly Congeled, and Turned to Misanthropic Ice. The Brightness of the Shops Where Holly Sprigs and Berries Crackled in The Lamp Heat Of The Windows, Made Pale Faces Ruddy Asia Passed. Poulterers "and grocers" Trades Became A Splendid Joke: A Glorious Pageant, with Which It Was Next to Impossible to Believe That Such Dull Principles AS Bargain and Sale Had Anything to Do. The Lord Mayor, In The Stronghold of the Mighty Mansion House, Gave Orders to His Fifty Cooks and Butlers to Keep Christmas Cooks and Butlers to Keep CHRISEHOLD SHOULD; AND EVEN THE LITTLE TAILOR, WHOM HE HAD FINED FIVE SHILLINGS ON THE PREVIOUS MONDAY FOR BEING DRUNK AND BLOODTHIRSTY IN THE STREETS, STIRRED UP TO-MORROW "S Pudding in His Garret, While His Lean Wife and The Baby Sallied Out to BUY THE BEEF.

Fogger Yet, And Colder. Piercing, Searching, Biting Cold. IF The Good Saint Dunstan Had But Nipped The Evil Spirit "S Nose With A Touch Of Such Weather As That, Instead of Using His Familiar Weapons, Then Indeed He Would Have Roared to Lusty Purpose. The Owner of One Scant Young Nose, Gnawed and Mumbled by the Hungry Cold As Bones Are Gnawed by Dogs, Stooped Down At SCROOGE "S Keyhole to Regale Him With A Christmas Carol: But at The First Sound Of

"God Bless You, Merry Gentleman! MAY NOTHING YOU DISMAY!"

SCROOGE Seized The Ruler With Such Energy Of Action, That The Singer Fled In Terror, Leaving The Keyhole to the Fog and Even More Congenial Frost.

AT LENGTH THE HOUR OF SHUTTING UP THE COUNTING-HOUSE Arrived. With An Ill-Will SCROOGE DISOUNTED From His Stool, And Tacitly Admitted The Fact to the Expantly Snuffed His Candle Out and Put on His Hat.

"You" LL Want All Day to-Morrow, I Suppose? "SAID SCROOGE.

"If Quite Convenient, Sir."

"IT" S Not Convenient, "SAID SCROOGE," AND IT "S Not Fair. If I Was To Stop Half-A-Crown for It, You" D Think Yourself Ill-Used, I "LL BOU BOUND?"

The Clerk Smiled Fainly.

"And Yet," SAID SCROOGE, "YOU DON" T THINK ME ILL-USED, WHEN I PAY A DAY "S Wages for No Work."

The Clerk Observed That It Was Only OnCe a Year.

"A POOR EXCUSE FOR PICKING A MAN" S Pocket Every Twenty Fifth of December! "Said SCROOGE, Buttoning His Great-Coat to the Chin." Butt I Suppose You Must Have the Whole Day. Be Here All The Earlier Next Morning. "

The Clerk Promised That He Would; And scrooge Walked Out with a Growl. The Office Was Closed in A Twinkling, And The Cerrk, With The Long Ends of His White Comforter Dangling Below His Waist (for He Boasted No Great-Coat), Went Down A Slide On Cornhill, At The End Of A Lane Of Boys, Twenty Times, in Honour of Its Being Christmas Eve, And then Ran Home to Camden Town AS Hard As He Could Pelt, To Play At Blindman "S-buff.

SCROOGE TOOK HIS MELANCHOLY DINNER IN HIS USUAL Melancholy Tavern; And Benker "S-Book, Went Home to bed. He Lived in Chambers Which Had Once Belonged to His Deceased Partner. They Were A Gloomy Suite of Rooms, In A Lowering Pile of Building Up A Yard, Where It Had So Little Business to Be, That One Could Scarcely Help Fancying It Must Have Run There When It Was a Young House, Playing At Hide and Seek With Other Houses and Forgotten The Way Out Again. IT WAS OLD ENOUGH NOW, AND DREARY ENOUGH, FOR NOBODY LIVED IN IT BUT SCROOGE, THE OTHER ROOMS BEING ALL LET OUT AS OFFICES. THE YARD WAS SO DARK THAT EVEN SCROOGE, WH KNEW ITS EVERY STONE, WAS FAIN TO GROPE With His Hands. The Fog And Frost So Hung ABOUT The Black Old Gateway of the House, That It Seeemed As If The Genius of the Weather Sat in Mournful Meditation on the Threshold.

NOW, IT IS A FACT, THAT THAT WAS NOTHING AT ALL PARTICULAR ABOUT THE KNOCKER ON THE DOOR, EXCEPT THAT IT WAS VERY LARGE. IT IS ALSO A FACT, THAT SCROOGE HAD SEEN IT, NIGHT AND MORNING, DURING HIS WHOLE RESIDENCE IN THAT PLACE; ALSO THAT SCROOGE HAD AS LITTLE OF WHAT IS CALLED FANCY ABOUT HIM Any MAN IN THE CITY OF LONDON, EVEN INCLUDING - Which Is a Bold Word - The Corporation, Aldermen and Livery. Let It Also Be Borne in Mind That SCrooge Had Not Bestowed One Thought On Marley, Since His Last Mention of His Seven Years "Dead Partner That Afternoon. And Then Let Any Man Explain to Me, If He Can, How It Happened That SCROOGE, Having His Key In The Lock Of The Door, Saw In The Knocker, WITHOUT ITS Undergoing Any Intermediate Process of Change - Not a Knocker, But Marley "S Face.

Marley "s face. It Was Not in ImpenetRable Shadow As the Oter Objects in the Yard Were, But Had A Dismal Light About It, Like a Bad Lobster in a Dark Cellar. It Was Not Angry or Ferocious, But Looking AT SCROOGE AS MARLEY Used to look: With Ghostly Spectacles Turned Up On Its Ghostly Forehead. The Hair Was Curiously Stirred, AS IF by Breath or Hot Air; And Though The Eyes Were Wide Open, They Perfectly Motionless. That, and Its LiDid Color, Made Its Horrible; But Its Horror Seeemed to Be in Spite of The Face and Beyond Its Control, Rather Than A Part of Is Own Expression.

AS SCROOGE LOOKED FIXEDLY AT THIS PHENOMENON, IT WAS A KNOCKER AGAIN.

To Say That He Was Not Startled, Or That His Blood Was Not Conscious of a Terrible Sensation to Which It Had Been A Stranger from Infancy, Would be Untrue. But He Put Had Upon The Key He Had Relinquished, Turned It Sturdily, Walked In, and Lighted His Candle.

HE DID PAUSE, WITH A MOMENT "S IRRESOLUTION, BEFORE HE SHUT THE DOOR; AND HE DID LOOK CAUTIOUSLY BEHIND IT FIRST, AS If He Half Expected to Be Terrified with the Sight of Marley" S Pigtail Sticking Out Into The Hall. But There Was Nothing On The Back Of The Door, Except The Knocker ON, SO He Said "Pooh, Pooh!" and closed it with a bang.

The Sound Resounded Through The House Like Thunder. Every Room Above, And Cask in the Wine-Merchant "S Cellars Below, Appeared to Have A Separate PEAL OF ECHOES OF ITS OWN. SCROOGE WAS NOT A MAN TO BE FRIGHTENED by Echoes. He Fastened The Door and Walked Across the Hall , and up the stairs; Slowly Too: Trimming His Candle As He Went.

You may Talk Vaguely About Driving A Coach-and-Six Up a Good Old Flight of Stairs, Or Through A Bad Young Act of Parliament; But I Mean To Say You Might Have Got A Hearse Up That Staircase, and Taken It Broadwise, with the Splinter-Bar Towards The Balustrades: And Done It Easy. There Was Plenty of Width for That and Room to Spare; Which Is Perhaps The Reason Why Scrooge Thought He Saw A Locomotive Hearse Going On Before Him In The Gloom. Half-A-dozen Gas-Lamps Out of the Street Wouldn "T Have Lighted The Entry Too Well, So You May Suppose That It Was Pretty Dark With SCrooge" S Dip.

Up scrooge Went, Not Caring A Button for That. Darkness is Cheap, and scrooge Liked it. But Before He Shut His Heavy Door, He Walked Through His Rooms to See That All Was Right. He Had Just Enough Recollection of The Face to Desire to do that.

Sitting-Room, Bedroom, Lumber-Room. All As They Should Be. Nobody Under The Table, Nobody Under the Sofa; a small fire in the grate; SPOON AND BASIN READY; And The Little Saucepan of Gruel (SCROOGE HAD A COLD IN HIS HEAD) UPON THE HOB. Nobody Under the Bed; Nobody in the closet; Nobody in His Dressing-Gown, Which Was Hanging Up in A Suspicious Attitude Against The Wall. Lumber-Room As Usual. Old Fire Guard, Old Shoes, Two Fish-Baskets, Washing-Stand on Three Legs, and a Poker.

Quite Satisfied, He Closed His Door, And Locked Himself In; Double-Locked Himself in, Which Was Not His Custom. Thus Secure Against Surprise, He Took Off His Cravat; Put On His Dressing-Gown and Slippers, And His Nightcap; And Sat Down Before Fire to Take His Gruel.

IT WAS A Very Low Fire Indeed; Nothing On Such A Bitter Night. He Was Obliged to Sit Close to IT, And Brood Over It, Before He Could Extract The Least Sensation of Warmth from Such a Handful of Fuel. The Fireplace Was An Old One, Built By Some Dutch Merchant Long Ago, and Paved All Round with Quaint Dutch Tiles, Designed to Illustrate The Scriptures. There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh "s daughters; Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; and Yet That Face of Marley, Seven Years Dead, Came Like The Ancient Prophet "S Rod, and Swallowed Up the Whole. IF Each Smooth Tile Had Been A Blank At First, with Power to Shape Some Picture on Its Surface from The Disjointed Fragments of His Thoughts, There Would Have Been A Copy of Old Marley "S Head On Every One.

"Humbug!" SAID SCROOGE; AND WALKED ACROSS THE ROOM.

After Several Turns, He Sat Down Again. As He Threw His Head Back In The Chair, His Glance Happened to Rest Upon a Bell, A Disouted Bell, That Hung In The Room, and Communicated for some Purpose Now Forgotten with a Chamber in The Highest Story of the Building. IT Was with Great Astonishment, and with a Strange, Inexplicable Dread, That As He Looked, He Saw This Bell Begin to Swing. IT SWUNG SO SOFTLY IN THE OUTSET THAT IT SCARCELY MADE A SOUND; But Soon It Rang Out Loudly, and So Did Every Bell In The House.

This Might Have Lasted Half A Minute, Or A Minute, But It Seeemed An Hour. The Bells Ceased As They Had Begun, Together. They Were Succeeded by A Clanking Noise, Deep Down Below; AS IF Some Chain Over The Casks in the Wine-Merchant "S Cellar. SCROOGE THEN REMEMBERED TO WERE HEARD THAT GHOSTS IN HAUNED HOUSES WERE DESCRIBED AS DRAGGING CHAINS.

The Cellar-Door Flew Open With A BOOMING SOUND, AND THEN HE HEARD THE NOISE MUCH LOUDER, ON THE FLOORS BELOW; THEN COMING UP THE STAIRS; Then coming Straight Towards His Door.

"IT" s Humbug Still! "SAID SCROOGE." I WON "T Believe It."

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 Pigtail, USUAL WAISTCOAT, Tights and Boots; The Tassels on the Latter Bristling, Like His Pigtail, and His Coat-Skirts, And The Hair Upon His Head. The Chain He Drew Was Clasped About His Middle. IT WAS LONG, AND WOUND ABOUT HIM LIKE A TAIL; And It Was Made (for SCROOGE OBSERVED IT Closely) 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.

SCROOGE HAD OFTEN HEARD IT SAID THAT MARLEY HAD NO BOWELS, BUT HE HAD NEVER BELIEVED IT UNTIL NOW.

No, Nor Did He Believe IT Even Now. 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; And Marked The: Very Texture of the Folded Kerchief Bound About Its Head And Chin, Which Wrapper He Had Not Observed Before; He Was Still Incredulous, and Fought Against His Senses.

"How Now!" SAID SCROOGE, CAUSTIC AND COLD AS EVER. "What do you want with me?"

"Much!" - Marley "S Voice, no doubt about it.

"Ask Me Who I Was."

"WHO WERE YOU THEN?" SAID SCROOGE, RAISING HIS VOICE. "You" re particular, for a shade. "He Was Going to Say" To a Shade, "But Substituted This, As More AppRiate.

"In Life I Was Your Partner, Jacob Marley."

"CAN You - Can You Sit Down?" ASKED SCROOGE, LOOKING DOUBTFULLY AT HIM.

SCROOGE ASKED THE QUESTION, BECAUSE HE DIDN "T KNOW WHETHER A GHOST SO TRANSPARENT MIGHT FIND HIMSELF IN A CONDITION TO TAKE A CHAIR; AND FELT THAT IN THE EVENT OF IMPOSSIBLE, IT MIGHT INVOLVE THE NESCESSITY OF AN EMBARRASSING EXPLANATION. But the Ghost Sat Down On the Opposite Side Of The Fireplace, AS If He Were Quite Used to IT.

"You don" T Believe in Me, "Observed The Ghost.

"I DON" T, "SAID SCROOGE.

"What of My Reality Beyond That Of Your Senses?" What of My Reality Beyond That Of Your Senses? "

"I DON" T KNOW, "SAID SCROOGE.

"Why Do You Doubt Your Senses?"

"BECAUSE," SAID SCROOGE, "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 An Underdone Potato. There "S More of Gravy Than of Grave About You, Whatever You Are!"

SCROOGE WAS NOT MUCH IN THE HABIT OF CRACKING JOKES, NOR DID HE FELEEL, IN HIS Heart, by Any Means Waggish Then. The Truth Is, That He Tried to Be Smart, As a Means of Distracting His Own Attention, And Keeping Down His Terror; For the Spectre "S Voice Disturbed The Very Marrow in His Bones.

To Sit, Staring At Those Fixed Glazed Eyes, In Silence for a Moment, Would Play, SCROOGE Felt, The Very Deuce with Him. There Was Something Very Awful, Too, In The Spectre "S Being Provided with An Infernal Atmosphere of Its Own. SCROOGE COULD NOT FEEL IT HIMSELF, BUT THIS WAS CLEARLY THE CASE; FOR THOUGH THE GHOST SAT PERFECTLY MOTIONLESS, ITS Hair and Skirts , and Tassels, Were Still Agitated AS by The Hot Vapour from An Oven.

"You see this toothpick?" SAID SCROOGE, RETURNING QUICKLY TO THE CHARGE, FOR THE REASON JUST ASSIGNED; And Wishing, Though it Were Only for a second, to divert the vision "s Stony Gaze from Himself.

"I do," replied the ghost.

"You are not looking at it," SAID SCROOGE.

"But i See IT," Said The Ghost, "Notwithstanding."

"Well!" Returned SCROOGE, "I Have But To Swallow This Persecuted by A Legion of Goblins, All of My Own Creation. Humbug, I Tell You! Humbug!"

At this the Spirit Raised A Frightful Cry, And Shook Its Chain With Such A Dismal and Appalling Noise, That Scroge Held on Tight to His Chair, to Save Himself from Falling in A Swoon. But Howed Much Greater Was His Horror, When the Phantom Taking Off The Bandage Round Its Head, AS If It Were Too Warm to Wear Indoors, Its Lower Jaw DowN Upon Its Breast!

SCROOGE FELL UPON HIS KNEES, AND CLASPED HIS HANDS BEFORE HIS FACE.

"Mercy!" He Said. "Dreadful Apparition, Why Do You Trouble Me?"

"MAN OF THE WORLDLY MIND!" Replied The Ghost, "Do You Believe in Me Or Not?"

"I do," SAID SCROOGE. "I MUST. But Why Do Spirits Walk The Earth and Why Do the Come to Me?"

"IT IS REQUIRED OF EVERY MAN," THE GHOST RETURNED, "THAT THE SPIRIT WITHIN HIM SHOLD WALK ABROAD AMONG HIS FELLOWMEN, AND TRAVEL FAR AND WIDE; AND IF THAT SPIRIT GOES NOT FORTH IN LIFE, IT IS CONDEMNED TO SO AFTER DEATH . IT IS DOOMED TO WANDER THROUGH THE WORLD - OH, WOE IS ME! \u200b\u200b- AND WITNESS WHAT IT CANNOT SHARE, BUT MIGHT HAVE SHARED ON EARTH, AND TURNED TO HAPPINESS! "

AGAIN THE SPECTRE RAISED A CRY, AND SHOOK ITS CHAIN \u200b\u200bAND WRUNG ITS SHADOWY HANDS.

"You are Fettered," SAID SCROOGE, TREMBLING. "TELL ME WHY?"

"I Wear The Chain I Forged in Life," Replied The Ghost. "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 Will Item It. Is Its Pattern Strange To You?"

SCROOGE TREMBLED MORE AND MORE.

"Or Would You Know," Pursued the Ghost, "The Weight and Length of the Strong Coil You Bear Yourself? It Was Full As Heavy and As Long As This, Seven Christmas eves Ago. You have Laboured on It, Since. IT IS A Ponderous Chain! "

SCROOGE GLANCED ABOUT HIM ON THE FLOOR, IN THE EXPECTION OF FINDING HIMSELF SURROUMDED by Some Fifty or Sixty Fathoms of Iron Cable: But He Could See Nothing.

"Jacob," He Said, imploringly. "Old Jacob Marley, Tell Me More. Speak Comfort to Me, Jacob!"

"I Have None to Give," The Ghost replied. "IT Comes from Other Regions, Ebenezer SCROOGE, And Conveyed by Other Ministers, to Other Kinds of Men. Nor Can I Tell You Would I Would. A Very Little More Is All Permitted to Me. I Cannot Rest, I Cannot Stay, I Cannot Linger Anywhere. My Spirit Never Walked Beyond Our Counting-House - Mark Me! - In Life My Spirit Never Roved Beyond The Narrow Limits of Our Money-Changing Hole; and Welarney Journeys Lie Before Me! "

IT WAS A HABIT WITH SCROOGE, WHENEVER HE BECAME THOUGHTFUL, TO PUT HIS HANDS IN HIS BREECHES POCKETS. Pondering on What the Ghost Had Said, He Did So Now, Butat Lifting Up His Eyes, Or Getting Off His Knees.

"You Must Have Been Very Slow About It, Jacob," SCROOGE OBSERVED, IN A BUSINESS-LIKE MANNER, THOUGH WITH HUMILITY AND DEFERENCE.

"SLOW!" The Ghost Repeated.

"Seven Years Dead," MUSED SCROOGE. "AND TRAVELING ALL THE TIME!"

"The Whole Time," Said The Ghost. "NO REST, NO PEACE. INCESSANT TORTURE OF REMORSE."

"You Travel Fast?" SAID SCROOGE.

"On the Wings of the Wind," Replied The Ghost.

"You Might Have Got Over A Great Quantity of Ground in Seven Years," Said Scroge.

The Ghost, On Hearing This, Set Up Another Cry, And Clanked Its Chain So Hideously In The Dead Silence Of The Night, That The Ward Would Have Been Justified in Indicting It For a Nuisance.

"Oh! Captive, Bound, and Double-Ironed," CRIED THE PHANTOM, "NOT TO KNOW, THAT AGES OF INCESSANT LABOUR by Immortal Creatures, For this Earth Must Pass Into Eternity Before Good of Which IT Susceptible Is All Developed. NOT TO KNOW THAT ANY CHRISTIAN SPIRIT WORKING KINDLY IN ITS LITTLE SPHERE, WHATER IT MAY BE, WILL FIND ITS MORTAL LIFE TOO SHORT FOR ITS VAST MEANS OF USEFULNESS. NOT TO KNOW THAT NO SPACE OF REGRET CAN MAKE AMENDS FOR ONE LIFE "S OPPORTINITY Misused! Yet Such Was I! Oh! Such Was I! "

"But You Were Always A Good Man of Business, Jacob," Faltered SCROOGE, Who Now Began to Apply This To Himself.

"Business!" Cried the Ghost, Wringing Its Hands Again. "Mankind Was My Business. The Common Welfare Was My Business; Charity, Mercy, Forbearance, And Benevolence, Were, All, My Business. The Dealings of My Trade Were But a Drop of Water In The Complensive Ocean of My Business!"

IT HELD UP ITS CHAIN \u200b\u200bARM "S LENGTH, AS If That Were The Cause of All Its Unavailing Grief, And Flung It Heavily Upon The Ground Again.

"AT Time Of The Rolling Year," The Spectre Said, "I Suffer Most. Why Did I Walk Through Crowds of Fellow-Beings With My Eyes Turned Down, and Never Raise Them to That Blessed Star Which LED The Wise Men To A Poor Abode! WERE THERE NO POOR HOMES TO WHICH ITS LIGHT WOULD WOUDUCHED ME! "

SCROOGE WAS Very Much Dismayed to Hear The Spectre Going On AT This Rate, and Began to Quake Exceedingly.

"Hear Me!" cried the ghost. "MY TIME IS NEARLY GONE."

"I Will," SAID SCROOGE. "But Don" T BE Hard Upon Me! DON "T BE FLOWERY, JACOB! PRAY!"

"How It Is That I Appear Before You in A Shape That You Can See, I May Not Tell. I Have Sat Invisible Beside You Many and Many A Day."

IT WAS NOT An Agreeable Idea. SCROOGE SHIVERED, AND WIPED THE PERSPIRATION FROM HIS BROW.

"That Is No Light Part of My Penance," Pursued The Ghost. "I am here to-night to warn you, that you have it a chance and hope of escaping my faate. A Chance and Hope of My Procuring, Ebenezer."

"You Were Always a Good Friend to Me," Said SCROOGE. "Thank" EE! "

"You Will Be Haunted," Resumed The Ghost, "by Three Spirits."

SCROOGE "S COUNTENANCE FELL ALMOST AS LOW AS THE GHOST" S HAD DONE.

"Is That The Chance and Hope You Mentioned, Jacob?" He Demanded, in a Faltering Voice.

"I - I Think I" D Rather Not, "Said SCROOGE.

"Without their Visits," Said The Ghost, "You Cannot Hope to Shun The Path I Tread. Expect the first to-morrow, When the Bell Tolls One."

"COULDN" T I TAKE "EM ALL AT ONCE, AND WE OVER, JACOB?" Hinted SCROOGE.

"EXPECT THE SECOND ON THE NEXT NIGHT AT THE NIGHT NIGHT WHEN THE LAST STROKE OF TWELVE HAS CEASED TO VIBRATE. Look To See Me No More; And Look That, For Your Own Sake, You Remember Whats Has Passed Between US! "

WHEN IT SAID THESE WORDS, THE SPECTRE TOOK ITS WRAPPER FROM THE TABLE, AND BOUND ITS ROUND ITS HEAD, AS BEFORE. SCROOGE KNEW THIS, by The Smart Sound Its Teeth Made, When the Jaws Were Brought Together By The Bandage. HE VENTURED TO RAISE HIS EYES AGAIN, AND FOUND HIM SUPERNATURAL VISITOR CONFRONTING HIM IN AN ERECT ATTITUDE, WOUT ITS CHAIN \u200b\u200bWOUD OVER AND ABOUT ITS ARM.

The Apparition Walked Backward From Him; And AT EVERY STEP IT TOOK, The Window Raised ItSelf A Little, So That When The Spectre Reached IT, It Was Wide Open.

IT Beckoned SCROOGE to Approach, Which He Did. Were Were Within Two Pacees of Each Other, Marley "S Ghost Held Up Its Hand, Warning Him to Come No Nearer. Scroge stopped.

NOT SO MUCH IN OBEDIENCE, AS IN SURPRISE AND FEAR: FOR ON THE RAISING OF THE HAND, HE BECAME SENSIBLE OF CONFUSED NOISES IN THE AIR; INCOHERENT SOUNDS OF LAMENTATION AND REGRET; WAILINGS INEXPRESSIBLY SORROWFUL AND SELF-ACCUSATORY. The Spectre, After Listening for a Moment, Joined in The Mournful Dirge; And Floated Out Upon The Bleak, Dark Night.

SCROOGE FOLLOWED TO THE WINDOW: Desperate in His Curiosity. He LOOKED OUT.

The Air Was Filled with Phantoms, Wandering Hicker and Thither in Restless Haste, and Moaning Asia Went. Every One of Them Wore Chains Like Marley "S Ghost; Some Few (They Might Be Guilty Governments) Were Linked Together; NONE WERE FREE. MANY HAD BEEN PERSONALLY KNOWN TO SCROOGE IN THEIR LIVES. HE HAD BEEN QUITE FAMILIAR WITH ONE OLD GHOST, In a Monstrous Iron Safe Attached to Its Ankle, Who Cried Piteously at Being Unable to Assist a Wretched Woman with An Infant, Whom It Saw Below, Upon A Door-Step. The Misery With Them All Was, Clearly, That The Sought to Interfere, For Good, in Human Matters, And Had Lost The Power for Ever.

Whether These Creatures Faded Into Mist, Or Mist Enshrouded Them, He Could Not Tell. But The And Their Spirit Voices Faded Together; And The Night Beecame As It Had Been WHEN HE WALKED HOME.

SCROOGE CLOSED THE WINDOW, AND EXAMINED THE DOR BY WHICH THE GHOST HAD ENTERED. IT WAS Double-Locked, As He Had Locked It Wt's His Own Hands, And The Bolts Were Undisturbed. HE TRIED TO SAY "HUMBUG!" But Stopped AT The First Syllable. And Being, From the Emotion He Had Undergone, Or Glimpse of the Invisible World, Or Glimpse of the Invisible World, Or The Dull Conversation of the Hour, Much in Need of Repose; Went Straight To Bed, Without Undressing, And Fell Asleep Upon The Instant.

Stave II: The First of the Three Spirits

WHEN SCROOGE AWOKE, IT WAS SO DARK, THAT LOOKING OUT OF BED, HE COULD SCARCELY DISTINGUISH THE TRANSPARENT WALLS OF HIS CHAMBER. He Was Endeavouring to Pierce The Darkness with His Ferret Eyes, When the chimes of a Neighboring Church Struck The Four Quarters. So He Listened for the Hour.

To His Great Astonishment The Heavy Bell Went On From Six to Seven, and from Seven to Eight, and Regularly Up to Twelve; Then stopped. Twelve! It Was Past Two Went To Bed. The Clock Was Wrong. An ICicle Must Have Got Into The Works. Twelve!

He Touched The Spring Of His Repeater, To Correct This Most Preposterous Clock. ITS Rapid Little Pulse Beat Twelve: and stopped.

"Why, IT ISN" T Possible, "SAID SCROOGE," That I Can Have Slept Through a Whole Day and Far Into Another Night. IT ISN "T Possible That Anything Has Happened to the Sun, And This Is Twelve At Noon!"

The Idea Being An Alarming One, He Scrambled Out of Bed, and Groched His Way To the Window. HE WAS OBLIGED TO RUB THE FROST OFF WITH THE SLEEVE OF HIS DRESSING-GOWN BEFORE HE COULD SEE ANYTHING; And Could See Very Little Thatn. All He Could Make Out Was, That It Was Still Very Was No Noise of People Running To and Fro, And Making A Great Stir, AS There UnquestionaBly Would Have Been If Night Had Beaten Off Bright Day, AND TAKEN POSSESSION OF THE WORLD. This Was A Great Relief, Because "Three Days After Sight Of this First of Exchange Pay to Mr. Ebenezer SCROOGE OR HIS Order," And So Forth, Would Have Become A Mere United States "Security If there Were No Days to Count by.

SCROOGE WENT TO BED AGAIN, AND THOUGHT, AND OVER AND OVER, AND COULD MAKE NOTHING OF IT. The More He Thougoht, The More Perplexed He Was; And The More He Endeavoured Not To Think, The More He Thougoht.

Marley "S Ghost Bothered Him Exceedingly. Every Time He Resolved Within Himself, After Mature Inquiry, That It Was All A Dream, His Mind Flew Back Again, Like A Strong Spring Released, To Its First Position to Be WORKED ALL THROUGH, "WAS IT A DREAM OR NOT?"

SCROOGE LAY IN THIS STATE UNTIL THE CHIME HAD GONE THREE QUARTS MORE, WHEN HE REMEMBERED, ON SUDDEN, THAT THE GHOST HAD WARNED HIM OF A VISITATION WHEN THE BELL TOLLED ONE. He Resolved to Lie Awake Until The Hour Was Passed; And, Considering That He Could No More Go to Sleep Thant Go to Heaven, This Was Perhaps The Wisest Resolution In His Power.

The Quarter Was So Long, That He Was More Thanne Convinced He Must Have Sunk Into A Doze Unconsciously, And Missed The Clock. AT LENGTH IT BROKE UPON HIS LISTENING EAR.

"A Quarter Past," SAID SCROOGE, COUNTING.

"Half-Past!" SAID SCROOGE.

"A Quarter to IT," SAID SCROOGE.

"The Hour Itself," SAID SCROOGE, TRIUMPHANTLY, "AND NOTHING ELSE!"

HE SPOKE BEFORE THE HOUR BELL SOUNDED, WHICH IT NOW DID WITH A DEEP, DULL, HOLLOW, MELANCHOLY ONE. Light Flashd Up in the Curtains of His Bed Were Drawn.

The Curtains of His Bed Were Drawn Aside, I Tell You, By A Hand. NOT THE CURTAINS AT HIS FEET, NOR THE CURTAINS AT HIS Back, But Those to Which His Face Was AddRessed. The Curtains of His Bed Were Drawn Aside; And SCROOGE, Starting Up Into a Half-Recumbent Attitude, Found Half Face to Face WHO Drew Them: AS Close to IT As I Am Now to You, and I Am Standing In The Spirit At Your Elbow.

IT WAS A Strange Figure - Like A Child: Yet Not So Like A Child As Like An Old Man, Viewed Through Some Supernatural Medium, Which Gave Him The View, And Being Diminished to a child "s Proportions . Its Hair, Which Hung ABOUT ITS NECK AND DOWN Its Back, Was White AS If with Age; and Yet The Face Had Not a Wrinkle in It, And the Tenderest Bloom Was On The Skin. The Arms Were Very Long and Muscular; The Hands The Same, AS If Its Hold Were of Uncommon Strength. Is Legs and Feet, Most Delicately Formed, Were, Like Those Upper Members, Bare. It's Wore a Tunic of the Purest White; And Round Its Waist Was Bound A Lustrus Belt, The Sheen of Which Was Beautiful. IT HELD A BRANCH OF FRESH GREEN HOLLY IN ITS HAND; AND IN SINGULAR CONTRADICTION OF THAT WINTRY EMBLEM, HAD ITS DRESSMED 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 Wa S Doubtless The Occasion of Its Using, In Its Duller Moments, A Great Extinguisher for a Cap, Which It Now Held Under Its ARM.

Even This, Though, When Scroge Looked at it with Increasing Steadiness, Was Not Its Strangest Quality. For As Its Belt Sparkled and glittered now in one Part and No in Another, And What Was Light One Instant, At Another Time Was Dark, So The Figure Itself Fluccaated in Its Distinctune: Being Now A Arm, Now With One Leg , NOW WITH TWENTY LEGS, NOW A PAIR OF LEGS WITHOUT A HEAD, NOCH DISSOLVING PARTS, NO OUTLINE WOULD BE VISIBLE IN THE DENSE GLOOM WHEREIN THEY MELTED AWAY. And In The Very Wonder of this, It Would be Itself Again; Distinct and Clear AS Ever.

"Are you the Spirit, Sir, Whose COMING WAS FORETOLD TO ME?" ASKED SCROOGE.

The Voice Was Soft and Gentle. Singularly Low, AS If Instead of Being So Close Beside Him, IT WERE AT A DISTANCE.

"WHO, AND WHAT ARE YOU?" SCROOGE DEMANDED.

"I am The Ghost of Christmas Past."

"LONG PAST?" Inquired SCROOGE: OBSERVANT OF ITS DWARFISH STATURE.

"No. Your Past."

Perhaps, SCROOGE COULD NOT Have Told Anybody Why, if Anybody Could Have Asked Him; But He Had a Special Desire to See The Spirit in His Cap; And Begged Him To Be Covered.

"What!" Exclaimed The Ghost, "Would You So Soon Put Out, With Worldly Hands, The Light I Give? Is It Not Enough That You are ONE OF THOSE WHOSE PASSONS MADE THIS CAP, AND FORCE ME THROUGH WHOLE TRAINS OF YEARS TO WEAR IT LOW UPON My Brow! "

SCROOGE REVERENTLY DISCLAIMED ALL INTENTION TO OFFEND OR Any Knowledge of Having Wilfully "BonneD" The Spirit At Any Period of His Life. HE THEN MADE BOLD TO INQUIRE WHAT BUSINESS BROUGHT HIM THERE.

"Your Welfare!" SAID THE GHOST.

SCROOGE Expressed Himself Much Obliged, But Could Not Help Thinking That A Night of Unbroken Rest Would Have Been More Conducive to That End. The Spirit Must Have Heard Him Thinking, for it Said Immediately:

"Your RECLAMATION, THEN. Take Heed!"

IT Put Out Its Strong Hand As It Spaoke, And Clasped Him Gently by The Arm.

"Rise! And Walk With Me!"

It Would Have Been in Vain for SCROOGE TO PLEAD THAT ADAPTED TO PEDESTIN PURPOSES; IT WOATHER AND THE HOUR WERE NOT ADAPED TO PEDESTIN That Bed Was Warm, And The Termometer A Long Way Below Freezing; That He Was Clad But Lightly in His Slippers, Dressing-Gown, and Nightcap; And That He Had A Cold Upon Him At That Time. The Grasp, Though Gentle As A Woman "S Hand, Was Not to Be ResiSted. He Rose: But Finding That The Spirit Made Towards The Window, Clasped His Robe in Supplication.

"I am a Mortal," SCROOGE REMONSTRATED, "AND LIBLE TO FALL."

"Bear But A Touch of My Hand There," Said The Spirit, Laying IT Upon His Heart, "And You Shall Be Upheld In More Thank!"

AS The Words Were Spoken, The Passed Through The Wall, and Studo Upon An Open Country Road, with fields on Either Hand. The City Had Entirely Vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The Darkness And The Mist Had Vanished With It, For It Was A Clear, Cold, Winter Day, with Snow Upon The Ground.

"Good Heaven!" SAID SCROOGE, CLASPING HIS HANDS TOGETHER, AS HE LOOKED ABOUT HIM. "I Was Bred in This Place. I WAS A BOY HERE!"

The Spirit Gazed Upon Him Mildly. Its Gentle Touch, Though It 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.

"REMEMBER 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 Winning 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 Laughd to Hear It!

"These Are But Shadows of The Things That Have Been," Said The Ghost. "They Have no Consciousness of us."

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 Did His Cold Eye Glisten, and His Heart Leap Up As the Went Past! Why Was Hearded With Gladness WHEN HE Heard Them Give Each Other Merry Christmas, As They-Ways, For Their Sevel Homes! What Was Merry Christmas to Scroge? 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.

The 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-House and Sheds Were Over-Run 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 Earth Savour in The Air, A Chilly Bareness In The Place, Which Associated Itself Somehow with Too Much Getting Up by Candle-Light, And Not Tooo Much to Eat.

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 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 Young Self, Intent Upon His Reading. Suddenly a man, in Foreign Garments: Wonderfully Real and Distinct To Look At: Studo Outside The Window, with An Axe Studing 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 ALLONE, 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, 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 Surprise 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 Crucoe, 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. "

The Ghost Smiled ThoughTfully, And Waved Its Hand: Saying As It Did So, "Let US See Another Christmas!"

SCROOGE "S FORMER SELF GREW LARGER AT THE WORDS AND THE 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 ABOT, SCROOGE KNEW No More Than Do. He Only Knew That It Was Quite Correct; That Everything Had Happened So The Here 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 TOWARS THE DOOR.

IT OPENED; And A Little Girl, Much Young Thanger, Came Darting In, And Putting Her Arms About His Neck, And Often Kissing Him, ADDRESED 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 Home, Home, Home!"

"HOME, LITTLE FAN?" Returned The Boy.

"YES!" SAID THE CHILD, BRIMFUL OF GLEE. "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 BEGETHER ALL THE CHRISTMAS LONG, AND HAVE THE MERRIEST TIME IN ALL THE WORLD. "

"You are Quite A Woman, Little Fan!" Exclaimed The Boy.

She Clapped Her Hands and Laughd, and Tried to Touch His Head; But Being Tooo 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 Apeared 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 Shivering 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 ADMINISTRED INSTALMENTS OF THOSE DAINTIES TO THE THENG PEOPLE: AT THE SAME TIME, SENDING OUT A MEAGRE SERVANT TO OFFER A GLASS OF "SOMETHING" TO THE POSTBOY, WHO ANSWERED THOR 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 Schoolmaster Good -Bye Right Willingly; And Getting Into It, Drove Gaily Down The Garden-Sweep: The Quick Wheels Dashing The Dark Leaves of the Evergreens Like Spray.

"Always a Delicate Creature, WHOM A Breath Might Have Withered," Said The Ghost. "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 Woman," Said The Ghost, "And Had, As I Think, Children."

"One Child," Scroge Returned.

"TRUE," SAID THE GHOST. "Your Nephew!"

Scroge Seemed Uneasy In His Mind; And Answered Briefly, "Yes."

Although The School Behind Thatm, The School Behind Them, They Now in The Busy Thoroughfares of A City, Where Shadowy Passengers Passed and Republicssed; Where Shadowy Carts and Coaches Battled for the 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 Light Up.

The Ghost Stopped at a Certain Warehouse Door, and Asked SCROOGE If He Knew IT.

"Know IT!" SAID SCROOGE. "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.

"DiK Wilkins, To Be Sure!" SAID SCROOGE TO THE GHOST. "BBS Me, 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 A Man Can Say Jack Robinson! "

You Wouldn "T Believe How Those Two Fellow 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 You Could Have Got to Twelve, Panting Like Race-Horses.

"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, DiK! Chirrup, Ebenezer! "

Clear Away! There Was Nothing The 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 Lamp Were Trimmed, Fuel Was Heapad 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 Lovable. 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 The All Came, One After Another; Some Shyly, Some Boldly, Some Gracefully, Some Awkwardly, Some Pushing, Some Pulling; In The All Came, anyhow and every. 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 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 THIM! WHEN 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 Reest, 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 Of Of Sight, or perish.

There Were 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 Fiddler (An Artful Dog, Mind! 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. " Then 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 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 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 Wort A Stagger.

WHEN THE CLOCK STRUCK ELEVEN, THIS DOMESTIC BALL BROKE UP. Mr. and mrs. FEZZIWIG TOOK THEIR STATIONS, ONE ON ETER SIDE OF THE DOOR, AND SHAKING HANDS WEN OR SHE WENT OUT, WISHED HIM OR HER A MERRY CHRISTMAS. WHEN EVERYBODY HAD RETIRED BUT THE TWO "PRENTICES, THUS 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 n't? He HE 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 THAAT, "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 Happy As Great As If It Cost a Fortune. "The Happiness He 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.

"NO," SAID SCROOGE, "No. I SHOLD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO SAY A WORD OR TWO TO MY CERFORK 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 Scroge, 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 prime of life. HIS FACE HAD NOT THE HARSH AND RIGID LINES OF LATER YEARS; But It's 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 Have Displaced You?" He rejointed.

"This Is The World!" This Is 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."

Sheek Her Head.

"Our Contract IS An Old One. It Was Made Whe 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 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 Happy WHEN WE WERE ONE IN HEART, IS FRAGHT 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 Sough 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 MADE OF ANY WORTH OR VALUE IN YOUR SIGHT. If this Had Never Been 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 I Have Learned A Truth Like This, I Know How Strong and Irresistible IT Must Be. But If You Were Free To-Day, To-Morrow, Yes Would Choose A Dowerless Girl - You Would Choose A Dowerless Girl - You Who, 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 Tat Your Reportance 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 Happy WELL THAT YOU AWOKE. MAY YOU BE HAPPY IN THE LIFE YOU HAVE Chosen! "

She Left Him and her parted.

"Spirit!" SAID SCROOGE, "SHOW ME NO ME! 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.

Christmas, perhaps, can be called the most inspiring holiday and children and adults. Children are waiting for a miracle, in the morning they will find their gifts under the Christmas tree. And then they are waiting for winter fun, guests, games, goodies. Adults also love this holiday, they remember their carefree childhood and surging feelings fill the hearts with joy. Magic hovers in the air ... Read in English two very simple stories about Christmas, listen to the New Year's song and look a wonderful video clip.

My Favourite Day - Christmas (my favorite day - Christmas)

Christmas - December 25th. This is my favorite season. We decorate our Christmas tree with toys, tinsel and lights. Then we set a star or a fairy from above.
We put our gifts under the tree. We ship Christmas cards and sing christmas songs at school or church. Some people sing songs and get money.

Merry Christmas,
Merry Christmas,
Merry Christmas
and happy new year!

Children are waiting that Santa Claus will bring them gifts. Many leave food for him so that he would like when he comes to visit. On Christmas dinner, we eat turkey, and then christmas pie. My favorite part is to pull the flap!

Santa's Christmas (Santa Christmas)

Santa IS ILL (Santa fell ill)

It was a wonderful December day with a clear blue sky and snow-covered trees. Christmas was in the air! But in the Santa's house everything was quiet. The usual bustle and turmoil cooking christmas gifts disappeared because Santa fell ill. "My God, what will the children say, when they won't get gifts this year?" - Santa thought sadly when he was lying on the bed.

Reindeer (deer)

Suddenly he heard noise outside. He looked out the window and saw his four deer stand patiently as usual. But they seemed completely out of breath, as if they had just finished a long trip. Santa looked closer, and could not believe what he saw. Behind the deer was a long train of Sanya, bringing small children dressed in all sorts of colors.

Children (Children)

One after another they jumped into the snow and went to the Santa Claus house. Soon there was a knock at the door. 'Sign!' - said Santa, because he was very curious. A little girl came, hugging something soft in her hands. "I heard that you are sick, Mr. Santa," she began. "So I give you my teddy bear so that you have had a company."

Gifts for Santa (Gifts for Santa)

"Why, thanks, little Emma!" Said Santa, because he knew every child by name.
Then you entered the young boy with a red package in his hands.
"We knew that you were sick, Pope Santa," he said. "So my family tied up this blanket for you to make it warm in winter days."
"Well, why, what a wonderful thought, the floor!" - Santa whispered, patting him on his head. And one by one, the children were part of Santa's door, each with a special gift to wish Santa all the best. There were cookies, pies, socks, mittens, books, puzzles and even a small Christmas tree!

Kindness (Kindness)

"Christmas reached my threshold!" - Santa exclaims. "Come, let's all share these wonderful gifts." And he collected children around himself in a big circle. "Santa, what do you like most?" Asked Emma soon. "My dear," - smiling, answered Santa, "This is love and kindness that each of you showed me today, that's what is the best gift for everyone." He looked at all energetic faces around him. "This is my little, the true meaning of Christmas." And with this, Santa presented each of the children big, warm festive hugs.

These are two stories about the most favorite holiday of kids - Christmas. More stories for beginners to different topics you can find on, as well as on the Bookbox.com website many colorful and simple video stories in English (only without translation).

The Project Gutenberg Ebook of a Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

This Ebook Is For The Use of Anyone Anywhere At No Cost and With
almost No Restrictions Whatsoever. You may Copy It, Give IT Away or
re-Use IT UNDER THE TERMS OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE INCLUDED
with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: a Christmas Carol

Illustrator: George Alfred Williams

Release Date: September 20, 2006
Last Updated: January 21, 2009

Language: English.

Produced by Jason Isbell and The Online Distributed
PROFREADING TEAM AT http://www.pgdp.net

A Christmas Carol.

By Charles Dickens.

Illustrated by George Alfred Williams

New York The Platt & Peck CO.

Copyright, 1905, by THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY

" HE HAD BEEN TIM "S Blood Horse All The Way From Church."

Introduction.

The combined qualities of the realist and the idealist which Dickens possessed to a remarkable degree, together with his naturally jovial attitude toward life in general, seem to have given him a remarkably happy feeling toward Christmas, though the privations and hardships of his boyhood could have Allowed Him But Little Real Experience With This Day of Days.

Dickens Gave His First Formal Expression to His Christmas Thoughts In His Series of Small Books, The First of Which Was The Famous "Christmas Carol," The One Perfect Chrysolite. The Success of the Book Was Immediate. Thacheray Wrote of IT: " WHO CAN LISTEN TO OBJECTIONS REGARDING SUCH A BOOK AS THISIT Sems to Me a National Benefit, and to Every man or Woman Who Reads It, A Personal Kindness."

This Volume Was Put Forth in A Very Attractive Manner, with Illustrations by John Leech, Who Was The First Artist to Make These Characters Live and His Drawings Were Varied and Spirited.

THERE FOLLOWED UPON THIS FOUR OTHERS:"The Chimes," The Cricket On The Hearth, "The Battle of Life," And "The Haunted Man," With Illustrations on Their First Appearance by Doyle, Maclise and Others. The Five Are Known to Day AS The"Christmas Books." Is The Best Known and Loved, and "The Cricket On The Hearth," Although Third In The Series, Is Perhaps Next In Point Of Popularity, and Is Especially Familiar to Americans Through Caleb Plummer.

Dickens Seems to Have Put His Whole Self Into These Glowing Little Stories. WHOEVER SEES But A Clever Ghost Story In The "Christmas Carol" Misses Its Chief Charm and Lesson, For the Here IS A Different Meaning In The Movements of Scroge and His Attendant Spirits. A New Life Is Brought to Scroge When HE"running to His Window, Opened It and Put Out His Head. NO FOG, NO MIST; clear, Bright, Jovial, Stirring Cold;cOLD, PIPING FOR THE BLOOD TO DANCE TO;Golden Sun-Light; Heavenly Sky; Sweet Fresh Air; Merry Bells. Oh, Glorious! Glorious! " ALL This Brightness Has Its Attendant Shadow, And Deep from the Childish Heart Comes That True Note Of Pathos, The Ever Memorable Toast of Tiny Tim,"GOD BESS US, EVERY ONE!" "The Cricket On The Hearth" Strikes a Different Note. CHARMINGLY, Poeticle Cricket IS Associated with Human Feelings and Actions The Fate and Fortune of the Carrier and His Wife.