Page 59 - 2017-12-16_june_july_2009.qxd

The Background of Ebenezer Scrooge 59

The Background of

Ebenezer Scrooge

Continues From Page 58

At this time of the rolling year I suffer
most. He was not alone, but sat by the side of a
fair young girl in a mourning-dress: in whose
eyes there were tears.
“It matters little,” she said, softly, to
Scrooge’s former self. “To you, very little.
Another idol has displaced me; and if it can
comfort you in time to come, as I would have
tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.”
“What Idol has displaced you?” he
rejoined.
“A golden one. I have seen your nobler
aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-
passion, Gain, engrosses you.”
“What then?” he retorted. “Even if I
have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not
changed towards you. Have I ever sought
release from our engagement?”
“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. But if you were free to-
day, to-morrow, yesterday, can even I believe irrepressible affection! The shouts of wonder
that you would choose a dowerless girl; do I not and delight with which the development of every What kind of life is Scrooge living at the time of
know that your repentance and regret would package was received! The terrible "Christmas Present?" Is he proud of his actions?
surely follow? I do, and I release you. With a announcement that the baby had been taken in Should he be? Is he blind to the reality of the
full heart, for the love of him you once were. the act of putting a doll’s frying-pan into his world around him? Does he even see the needs
May you be happy in the life you have chosen!” mouth, and was more than suspected of having of others? Does he understand the positive
She left him, and they parted. swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden impact he could make if he were less-selfish?
“Spirit!” said Scrooge, “show me no platter! The immense relief of finding this a false What about the family of his clerk, Bob
more! Conduct me home. Why do you delight to alarm! The joy, and gratitude, and ecstasy! They Cratchit? Does Scrooge know that Bob has a
torture me?” are all indescribable alike. It is enough that by son, "Tiny Tim," who suffers from a lack of
“One shadow more!” exclaimed the degrees the children and their emotions got out daily needs because his family cannot afford to
Ghost. of the parlor, and by one stair at a time, up to the keep him healthy? Could Scrooge be a help to
“No more!” cried Scrooge. “No more. I top of the house; where they went to bed, and so Tim?
don’t wish to see it. Show me no more!” subsided.
But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in And now Scrooge looked on more Scrooge awoke in his own bedroom. There was
both his arms, and forced him to observe what attentively than ever, when the master of the no doubt about that. But it, and his own
happened next. house, having his daughter leaning fondly on adjoining sitting room into which he shuffled in
They were in another scene and place; a him, sat down with her and her mother at his his slippers - attracted by a great light there -
room, not very large or handsome, but full of own fireside; and when he thought that such had undergone a surprising transformation. The
comfort. Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful another creature, quite as graceful and as full of walls and ceiling were so hung with living green,
young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed promise, might have called him father, and been that it looked a perfect grove. The crisp leaves
it was the same, until he saw her, now a comely a spring-time in the haggard winter of his life, of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the
matron, sitting opposite her daughter. The noise his sight grew very dim indeed. light, as if so many little mirrors had been
in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there “Spirit!” said Scrooge in a broken voice, scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went
were more children there, than Scrooge in his “remove me from this place.” roaring up the chimney, as that dull hearth had
agitated state of mind could count; and every “I told you these were shadows of the never known in Scrooge’s time, or Marley’s, or
child was conducting itself like forty. The things that have been,” said the Ghost. “That for many and many a winter season gone.
consequences were uproarious beyond belief; they are what they are, do not blame me!” Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of
but no one seemed to care; on the contrary, the “Remove me!” Scrooge exclaimed, “I throne, were turkeys, geese, game, brawn, great
mother and daughter laughed heartily, and cannot bear it! Leave me! Take me back. Haunt joints of meat, long wreaths of sausages, mince-
enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon me no longer!” pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot
beginning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged As he struggled with the Spirit he was chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges,
by the young brigands most ruthlessly. conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and
But now a knocking at the door was an irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being seething bowls of punch. In easy state upon this
heard, and a rush immediately ensued toward it, in his own bedroom. He had barely time to reel couch, there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see;
just in time to greet the father, who came home to bed, before he sank into a heavy sleep. who bore a glowing torch, in shape not unlike
attended by a man laden with Christmas toys Plenty’s horn, and who raised it high, to shed its
and presents. Then the shouting and the The Spirits, however, were not done with light on Scrooge, as he came peeping round the
struggling, and the onslaught that was made on Scrooge. He would soon get a visit from a door.
the defenseless porter! The scaling him with gigantic ghost who didn't mince words just to “Come in!” exclaimed the Ghost.
chairs for ladders to dive into his pockets, make Ebenezer feel better about himself. “Come in! And know me better, man!”
despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on True to his word, Marley's ghost foretells Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his
tight by his cravat, hug him round the neck, a second visit from a "Christmas Spirit." This head before this Spirit.
pommel his back, and kick his legs in time Ebenezer Scrooge meets the "Spirit of
Christmas Present." (Continued On Page 60)