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Enjoy A WESTGATE Vacation! 57
The Background of “I don’t know,” said Scrooge. “I do,” said Scrooge. “I must. But why
“Why do you doubt your senses?” do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come
Ebenezer Scrooge “Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing to me?”
affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach “It is required of every man,” the Ghost
makes them cheats. You may be a crumb of returned, “that the spirit within him should walk
Continues From Page 55
cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. abroad among his fellow men, and travel far and
There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is
“In life I was your partner, Jacob
whatever you are!” condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to
Marley.” Scrooge was not much in the habit of wander through the world and witness what it
“Can you - can you sit down?” asked cracking jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by cannot share, but might have shared on earth,
Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him. any means waggish then. The truth is, that he and turned to happiness!”
“I can.”
tried to be smart, as a means of keeping down “You are fettered,” said Scrooge,
“Do it, then.”
his horror. trembling. “Tell me why?”
Scrooge asked the question, because he
How much greater was his horror, when, “I wear the chain I forged in life,”
didn’t know whether a ghost might find himself
the phantom taking off the bandage round its replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and
in a condition to take a chair. But the ghost sat
head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors, its yard by yard; is its pattern strange to you?”
down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if
lower jaw dropped down upon its breast! “But you were always a good man of
he were quite used to it. Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now
“You don’t believe in me,” observed the his hands before his face. began to apply this to himself.
Ghost. “Mercy!” he said. “Dreadful apparition, “Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing
“I don’t,” said Scrooge.
why do you trouble me?” its hands again. “Mankind was my business.
“What evidence would you have of my
“Man of the worldly mind!” replied the
reality beyond that of your senses?”
Ghost, “do you believe in me or not?” (Continued On Page 58)
