For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowballbetter-natured missile far than many a wordy jest laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong. Look upon me!. Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!, No, no! Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly. ", Scrooge recognises the urgent need to help the poor and he realises that his own words were cruel, its capacious breastits genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air, The Spirit represents generosity, abundance and joy much like Fezziwig, "Tonight if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it. It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooges nephew had to think of something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their questions yes or no, as the case was. Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Which it certainly was. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Scrooge was the ogre of the family. A place where Miners live, who labour in the bowels of the earth, returned the Spirit. And their assembled friends being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily. The Ghost of Christmas Present, the second of the three spirits that haunt the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, in order to prompt him to repent his selfish ways, has taken Scrooge to see the family of his clerk, Bob Cratchit. He regards Cratchit merely as an expense and resents having to pay his miserable wages. At last the plump sister, falling into a similar state, cried out: I have found it out! This boy is Ignorance. Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return, and thanked them in an inaudible speech, if the Ghost had given him time. A Christmas Carol Full Text - Stave Three - Owl Eyes He is such a ridiculous fellow!. The Grocers! Spirit, said Scrooge submissively, conduct me where you will. God love it, so it was! At last, however, he began to thinkas you or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it tooat last, I say, he began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. Id give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope hed have a good appetite for it. Latest answer posted December 03, 2020 at 4:13:31 PM. The Daughters of the Late Colonel: XI, 186. There was no doubt about that. What has ever got your precious father then? said Mrs. Cratchit. The chimes were ringing the three quarters past eleven at that moment. Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.. Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. I am afraid I have not. 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. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. Now the ghost throws those harsh words back into Scrooges own face, compelling him to hang his head in shame and feel overcome with penitence and grief. Without seeing the family of his employee Bob Cratchit, it seems unlikely that Scrooge would have experienced such a change of heart in his thoughts about and treatment of the poor. Powerful metaphor, children should be innocent but poverty had ruined them, "Have they no refuge or resource?" I am sorry for him; I couldnt be angry with him if I tried. Wouldnt you?, You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day, said Scrooge. Sctooge does not give the Cratchit family enough to live on. Lauren has taught English at the university level and has a master's degree in literature. There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming pyramids; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shopkeepers benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks, that peoples mouths might water gratis as they passed; there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves; there were Norfolk Biffins[3], squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner. A smell like a washing-day! MA 97, Page 40 | Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol | The Morgan Library Long life to him! The time is drawing near.. Add commas where necessary. A tremendous family to provide for, muttered Scrooge. He rejoices to remember a "visit" from the storybook character Ali Baba. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel upon Christmas Day. say he will be spared., If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race, returned the Ghost, will find him here. Readers learn that Scrooge lived a lonely childhood but compensated with imagination and fun. Oh, Man! "Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where you will. He always knew where the plump sister was. The narrator considers that the phrase "dead as a doornail" doesn't even describe Marley's lifelessness well enough. Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town. Joining their horny hands over the rough table at which they sat, they wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog; and one of them: the elder, too, with his face all damaged and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old ship might be: struck up a sturdy song that was like a Gale in itself. So surely as they raised their voices, the old man got quite blithe and loud; and so surely as they stopped, his vigour sank again. Scrooge started back, appalled. Never mind so long as you are come, said Mrs. Cratchit. I wish I had him here. If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a man more blest in a laugh than Scrooges nephew, all I can say is, I should like to know him too. nearly closed, with perhaps two shutters down, or one; but through those gaps such glimpses! The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxeds Church, 11. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. The Cratchits show that when it comes down to it, you don't need money to be happy. Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow!My dear, was Bobs mild answer, Christmas Day.Ill drink his health for your sake and the Days, said Mrs. Cratchit, not for his. It was a long night, if it were only a night; but Scrooge had his doubts of this, because the Christmas Holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time they passed together. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister to his stool before the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffsas if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabbycompounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer; Master Peter, and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession. The sky was gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles descended in a shower of sooty atoms, as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear hearts content. It was his own room. With this in mind, Scrooge asks the Spirit what will become of Tiny Tim in the future. This girl is Want. At last, however, he began to thinkas you or I would have thought at first; for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it tooat last, I say, he began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room, from whence, on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. Look upon me!. A merry Christmas and a happy new year!hell be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!. Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before this Spirit. The mention if his name cast a dark shadow on the party. Christmas Day., It should be Christmas Day, I am sure, said she, on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. And it was a very uncommon kind of torch, for once or twice when there were angry words between some dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good humour was restored directly. Topper had clearly got his eye upon one of Scrooges nieces sisters, for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, who had no right to express an opinion on the subject. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes. Scrooge promised that he would; and they went on, invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town. It would have been flat heresy to do so. They were not a handsome family; they were not well dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbrokers. withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him. It was a much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognise it as his own nephews and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at that same nephew with approving affability! Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!, No, no! Suppose it should not be done enough! The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as that dull petrification of a hearth had never known in Scrooges time, or Marleys, or for many and many a winter season gone. Im very glad to hear it, said Scrooges nephew, because I havent great faith in these young housekeepers. This boy is Ignorance. Blessings on it, how the Ghost exulted! Dickens says of Scrooge: ''To Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He wouldnt take it from me, but may he have it, nevertheless. Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before this Spirit. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, pages 83-84 Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course-and in truth it was something very like it in that house. The Daughters of the Late Colonel: X, 185. Is it a foot or a claw?, It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it, was the Spirits sorrowful reply. What then? Long life to him! The children drank the toast after her. Suppose it should not be done enough! Just before the selfish Scrooge met the first of his ghostly visitors, the knocker on his door seemed to turn into his dead partner Marley's face. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadnt ate it all at last! Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly. God bless us every one! said Tiny Tim, the last of all. English Literature: Victorians and Moderns, Self-ignition. After it had passed away they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Analysis. Stop! Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family; meaning (for I am very young) my elder brothers born in these later years? pursued the Phantom. They are Mans, said the Spirit, looking down upon them. Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed, the wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse. The Daughters of the Late Colonel: V, 180. Knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping against the piano, smothering himself among the curtains, wherever she went, there went he. Scrooge bent before the Ghosts rebuke, and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground. Then Bob proposed: A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. Ha, ha! laughed Scrooges nephew. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 83. He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live! cried Scrooges nephew. With a dimpled, surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth, that seemed made to be kissedas no doubt it was; all kinds of good little dots about her chin, that melted into one another when she laughed; and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creatures head. Deeply moved by the love and warmth in the home of his clerk, Scrooge also notices that Bob's voice "was tremulous" when he tells the family about Tiny Tim's visit to the church where he tells his father that he hopes others see him so that they will remember that it was Christ who made beggars walk and blind men see. It ends to-night., To-night at midnight. I wish I had him here. It was their turn to laugh now at the notion of his shaking Scrooge. After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with. For he wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its appearance, and did not wish to be taken by surprise, and made nervous. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliners, then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie abed to-morrow morning for a good long rest; to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects. Bring wintertime, he is forced to try and stay warm with thick clothes and heat himself by the flame of a candle. Wed a deal of work to finish up last night, replied the girl, and had to clear away this morning, mother., Well! She was very pretty: exceedingly pretty. God bless us!. If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.. What do you say, Topper?. The very lamplighter, who ran on before, dotting the dusky street with specks of light, and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out loudly as the Spirit passed, though little kenned the lamplighter that he had any company but Christmas. How does Scrooge change in Stave 3? - TimesMojo At every fresh question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter; and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp. When two men approach Scrooge about donating to charity, he asks them whether there are prisons and workhouses for the poor. Do go on, Fred, said Scrooges niece, clapping her hands. At least you always tell me so., What of that, my dear! said Scrooges nephew. Blessings on it, how the Ghost exulted! Stop! Use each word only once. He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure, said Fred, and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. Accessed 1 May 2023. Who are the experts?Our certified Educators are real professors, teachers, and scholars who use their academic expertise to tackle your toughest questions. I dont think I have, said Scrooge. A Christmas Carol: Ebenezer Scrooge Quotes | SparkNotes Heres Martha, mother! said a girl, appearing as she spoke. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Mrs. Cratchit voices her dislikes, and refers to Scrooge as an "odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man." The family feels this way toward Scrooge because Mr. Cratchit works hard as his employee but is paid little and treated poorly. How does Dickens show this to be true? Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? On Christmas Eve. Well. He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure, said Fred, and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. But now, the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs Cratchit left the room alonetoo nervous to bear witnessesto take the pudding up and bring it in. Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. The mention of his name Great heaps of sea-weed clung to its base, and storm-birdsborn of the wind one might suppose, as sea-weed of the waterrose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed. The ghost replies by saying that if things go on as they are, then the poor boy will die. Although they don't have two brass ha'pennies to rub togetherlargely thanks to Scrooge's incorrigible stinginessthey still somehow manage to maintain a household full of love, warmth, and happiness. Study Questions, Activities, and Resources, 156. Their sentiments are not missed by the miser who realizes he is the "Ogre of the family.". Here, again, were shadows on the window-blind of guests assembling; and there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted, and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near neighbours house; where, woe upon the single man who saw them enter-artful witches, well they knew it - in a glow! The chimes were ringing the three quarters past eleven at that moment. Slander those who tell it ye! This work (A Christmas Carol: Stave 3 by Charles Dickens) is free of known copyright restrictions. And at the same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners to the bakers shops[5]. If it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds, thats something; and I think I shook him yesterday.. And so it was! Hide, Martha, hide!. His wealth is of no use to him. Five minutes, ten minutes, a quater of an hour went by, yet nothing came. But they know me. I am the Ghost of Christmas Present, said the Spirit. Discover more quotations from A Christmas Carol. Explicit reference to poverty in the Cratchit family, Scrooge is concerned about the fate of Tiny Tim, Metaphor, Scrooge is essentially the opposite the family, he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay, Scrooge rediscovers his inner child and has enthusiasm again, two children, wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable, List of postmodifying adjectives, vivid image of the horrid children, "This boy is Ignorance.