Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the Spirit should attach importance to conversation apparently so trivial, but, feeling assured that it must have some hidden purpose, he set himself to consider what it was likely to be. It could scarcely be supposed to have any bearing on the death of Jacob, his 725 old partner, for that was Past, and this Ghost's province was the Future.

He looked about in that very place for his own image; but another man stood in his accustomed corner, and though the clock pointed to his usual time of day for being there, he saw no 730 likeness of himself among the multitudes that poured in through the Porch. It gave him little surprise, however, for he had been revolving in his mind a change of life, and he thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried out in this.

They left this busy scene, and went into an obscure part of 735 the town, to a low shop where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal were bought. A gray-haired rascal, of great age, sat smoking his pipe.

But 740

Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as a woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. she had scarcely entered, when another woman, similarly laden, came in too, and she was closely followed by a man in faded black. After a short period of blank astonishment, in which the old man with the pipe had joined them, they all three burst into a laugh.

"Let the charwoman alone to be the first!" cried she who had entered first. "Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here's a chance! If we haven't all three met here without meaning it!"

"You couldn't have met in a better place. You were made free of it long ago, you know; and the other two ain't strangers. What have you got to sell? What have you got to sell?"

"Half a minute's patience, Joe, and you shall see."

745

750

"What odds, then! What odds, Mrs. Dilber?" said the wom- 755 an. "Every person has a right to take care of themselves. He

LITERARY ANALYSIS.—756. Every person... themselves. Is this correct in strict grammar? Is it appropriate here?

always did! Who's the worse for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose."

Mrs. Dilber, whose manner was remarkable for general propitiation,* said, "No, indeed, ma'am."

"If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a wicked old screw, why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself."

"It's the truest word that ever was spoke-it's a judgment on him."

760

765

"I wish it was a little heavier judgment; and it should have been, you may depend upon it, if I could have laid my hands on anything else. Open that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the 770 value of it. Speak out plain. I'm not afraid to be the first, nor afraid for them to see it."

Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening the bundle, and dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff.

"What do you call this? Bed-curtains!"

"Ah! Bed-curtains! Don't drop that oil upon the blankets, now."

"His blankets!"

66

775

'Whose else's do you think? He isn't likely to take cold 780 without 'em, I dare say. Ah! You may look through that shirt till your eyes ache; but you won't find a hole in it, nor a threadbare place. It's the best he had, and a fine one too. They'd have wasted it by dressing him up in it, if it hadn't been for me."

Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. "Spirit! I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way now. Merciful Heaven,

what is this?"

785

The scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bare, 790 uncurtained bed. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon this bed; and on it, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this plundered unknown man.

"Spirit, let me see some tenderness connected with a death, or this dark chamber, Spirit, will be forever present to me."

795

573

The Ghost conducted him to poor Bob Cratchit's house-the dwelling he had visited before-and found the mother and the children seated round the fire.

Quiet; very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still as statues in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had a 800 book before him. The mother and her daughters were engaged in needlework. But surely they were very quiet!

"And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them." Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not dream

ed them. The boy must have read them out, as he and the Spir- 805 it crossed the threshold. Why did he not go on?"

The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand

up to her face.

"The color hurts my eyes," she said.

The color? Ah, poor Tiny Tim!

"They're better now again. It makes them weak by candlelight; and I wouldn't show weak eyes to your father when he comes home for the world. It must be near his time."

810

"Past it rather," Peter answered, shutting up his book. "But I think he has walked a little slower than he used, these last few 815 evenings, mother."

"I have known him walk with-I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder, very fast indeed."

"And so have I," cried Peter. "Often."

"And so have I," exclaimed another. So had all.

"But he was very light to carry, and his father loved him so that it was no trouble-no trouble. And there is your father at the door!"

820

She hurried out to meet him; and little Bob in his comforter -he had need of it, poor fellow-came in. His tea was ready 825 for him on the hob, and they all tried who should help him to it most. Then the two young Cratchits got upon his knees and laid, each child, a little cheek against his face, as if they said, "Don't mind it, father. Don't be grieved!"

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-796-841. The imaginary death of Tiny Tim forms a companion piece to the imaginary death of Scrooge, and the exquisite tenderness of the one is finely set off by the ghastly circumstances of the other. Both should receive the careful study of the pupil.

Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to all 830 the family. He looked at the work upon the table, and praised the industry and speed of Mrs. Cratchit and the girls. They would be done long before Sunday, he said.

"Sunday! You went to-day, then, Robert ?"

"Yes, my dear," returned Bob. “I wish you could have gone. 835 It would have done you good to see how green a place it is. But you'll see it often. I promised him that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little child! My little child!"

He broke down all at once. He couldn't help it. If he could have helped it, he and his child would have been farther apart, 840 perhaps, than they were.

"Spectre," said Scrooge, "something informs me that our parting moment is at hand. I know it, but I know not how. Tell me what man that was, with the covered face, whom we saw lying dead?"

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come conveyed him to a dismal, wretched, ruinous churchyard.

845

The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to one. "Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point, answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that 850 Will be, or are they shadows of the things that May be only?"

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

"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, 855 the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!" The Spirit was immovable as ever.

Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went ; and, following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name-Ebenezer Scrooge.

“Am I that man who lay upon the bed? No, Spirit! Oh no, no! Spirit! hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this if I am past all hope? Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life."

For the first time the kind hand faltered.

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The

860

865

Spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the 870 writing on this stone!"

Holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrank, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.

Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the 875 room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!

He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard.

Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. 880 No fog, no mist, no night; clear, bright, stirring, golden day.

"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him. "Eh?"

"What's to-day, my fine fellow?”

"To-day! Why, Christmas-day."

"It's Christmas-day! I haven't missed it. Hallo, my fine fellow !"

"Hallo!"

885

"Do you know the poulterer's, in the next street but one, at 890 the corner?"

"I should hope I did."

(An intelligent boy! A remarkable boy!)-"Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize Turkey-the big one?"

66

What, the one as big as me?"

"What a delightful boy! It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck!"

"It's hanging there now."

"Is it! Go and buy it."

"Walk-ER!" exclaimed the boy.

"No, no, I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell 'em to bring it here, that I may give them the direction where to take it.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-881. No... day. What is the effect of the ellipses? 901. Walk-ER. A piece of London slang in vogue at the time the Christmas Carol was written. It implies utter incredulity.

895

900