a christmas carol(圣诞赞歌)-3

length it broke upon his listening ear."Ding, dong!""A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting."Ding, dong!""Half past," said Scrooge."Ding, dong!""A quarter to it," said Scrooge. "Ding, dong!""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 flashed up in the room upon theinstant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not thecurtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which his facewas addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge,starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face withthe unearthly visitor 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 anold man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him theappearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to achild'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 thetenderest 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 and21--------------------------------------- 22A CHRISTMAS CAROLfeet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. Itwore a tunic of the purest white, and round its waist was bound a lustrousbelt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green hollyin its hand; and, in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had itsdress trimmed 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, bywhich all this was visible; and which was doubtless the occasion of itsusing, in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it nowheld under its arm.Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasingsteadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt sparkled andglittered now in one part and now in another, and what was light oneinstant, at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in itsdistinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now withtwenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body:of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloomwherein they melted away. And in the very wonder of this, it would beitself again; distinct and clear as ever.`Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me.' askedScrooge.`I am.'The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if instead of being soclose 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 couldhave asked him; but he had a special desire to see the Spirit in his cap; andbegged him to be covered.`What.' exclaimed the Ghost,' would you so soon put out, with worldlyhands, the light I give. Is it not enough that you are one of those whosepassions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years towear it low upon my brow.'22--------------------------------------- 23A CHRISTMAS CAROLScrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or anyknowledge of having wilfully bonneted the Spirit at any period of hislife. 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 thinkingthat 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 spoke, and clasped him gently by thearm.`Rise. and walk with me.'It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather andthe hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that bed was warm, andthe thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly inhis slippers, dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon himat that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was not to beresisted. He rose: but finding that the Spirit made towards the window,clasped his robe in supplication.`I am mortal,' Scrooge remonstrated, `and liable to fall.'`Bear but a touch of my hand there,' said the Spirit, laying it upon hisheart,' and you shall be upheld in more than this.'As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stoodupon an open country road, with fields on either hand. The city hadentirely vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The darkness and themist had vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with snowupon the ground.`Good Heaven!' said Scrooge, clasping his hands together, as helooked 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 beenlight and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man's sense offeeling. He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, eachone connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and careslong, long, forgotten.`Your lip is trembling,' said the Ghost. `And what is that upon your23--------------------------------------- 24A CHRISTMAS CAROLcheek.'Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was apimple; 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 winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen trottingtowards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys incountry gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were in greatspirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields were so full ofmerry music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it.`These are but shadows of the things that have been,' said the Ghost.`They have no consciousness of us.'The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge knew andnamed them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to seethem. Why did his cold eye glisten, and his heart leap up as they went past.Why was he filled with gladness when he heard them give each otherMerry Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for theirseveral homes. What was merry Christmas to Scrooge. Out upon merryChristmas. 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.They left the high-road, by a well-remembered lane, and soonapproached a mansion of dull red brick, with a little weathercock-surmounted cupola, on the roof, and a bell hanging in it. It was a largehouse, but one of broken fortunes; for the spacious offices were little used,their walls were damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their gatesdecayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables; and the coach-housesand sheds were over-run with grass. Nor was it more retentive of itsancient state, within; for entering the dreary hall, and glancing through the24--------------------------------------- 25A CHRISTMAS CAROLopen doors of many rooms, they found them poorly furnished, cold, andvast. There was an earthy savour in the air, a chilly bareness in the place,which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by candle-light,and not too much to eat.They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at theback 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 Scroogesat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used tobe.Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle from the micebehind the panelling, not a drip from the half-thawed water-spout in thedull yard behind, not a sigh among the leafless boughs of one despondentpoplar, not the idle swinging of an empty store-house door, no, not aclicking in the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with a softeninginfluence, and gave a freer passage to his tears.The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his younger self,intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man, in foreign garments: wonderfullyreal and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe stuck inhis belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood.`Why, it's Ali Baba.' Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. `It's dear old honestAli Baba. Yes, yes, I know. One Christmas time, when yonder solitarychild was left here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that.Poor boy. And Valentine,' said Scrooge,' and his wild brother, Orson; therethey go. And what's his name, who was put down in his drawers, asleep, atthe Gate of Damascus; don't you see him. And the Sultan's Groom turnedupside down by the Genii; there he is upon his head. Serve him right. I'mglad of it. What business had he to be married to the Princess.'To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on suchsubjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; andto see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to hisbusiness friends in the city, indeed.`There's the Parrot.' cried Scrooge. `Green body and yellow tail, with athing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is. Poor25--------------------------------------- 26A CHRISTMAS CAROLRobin Crusoe, he called him, when he came home again after sailinground the island. `Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, RobinCrusoe.' The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't. It was theParrot, you know. There goes Friday, running for his life to the little creek.Halloa. Hoop. Hallo.'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 lookingabout 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 aChristmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given himsomething: 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 room becamea little darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked;fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were showninstead; but how all this was brought about, Scrooge knew no more thanyou do. He only knew that it was quite correct; that everything hadhappened so; that there he was, alone again, when all the other boys hadgone 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 towards the door.It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting in,and putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing him, addressed himas her `Dear, dear brother.'`I have come to bring you home, dear brother.' said the child, clappingher 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 good and all. Home,for ever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home's26--------------------------------------- 27A CHRISTMAS CAROLlike Heaven. He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going tobed, 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. Andyou're to be a man.' said the child, opening her eyes,' and are never tocome back here; but first, we're to be together all the Christmas long, andhave the merriest time in all the world.'`You are quite a woman, little Fan.' exclaimed the boy.She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried to touch his head; butbeing too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace him. Thenshe 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 appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared onMaster Scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and threw him into adreadful state of mind by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed himand his sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best-parlour that everwas seen, where the maps upon the wall, and the celestial and terrestrialglobes in the windows, were waxy with cold. Here he produced a decanterof curiously light wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake, andadministered instalments of those dainties to the young people: at the sametime, sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of something to thepostboy, who answered that he thanked the gentleman, but if it was thesame tap as he had tasted before, he had rather not. Master Scrooge's trunkbeing by this time tied on to the top of the chaise, the children bade theschoolmaster good-bye right willingly; and getting into it, drove gailydown the garden-sweep: the quick wheels dashing the hoar-frost and snowfrom off the dark leaves of the evergreens like spray.`Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered,' saidthe 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,' Scrooge returned.`True,' said the Ghost. `Your nephew.'27--------------------------------------- 28A CHRISTMAS CAROLScrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, `Yes.'Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, theywere now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengerspassed and repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battle 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; butit was evening, and the streets were lighted up.The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge ifhe knew it.`Know it.' said Scrooge. `Was I apprenticed here.'They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig, sittingbehind such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller he must haveknocked 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, whichpointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; adjusted his capaciouswaistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shows to his organ ofbenevolence; 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.`Dick Wilkins, to be sure.' said Scrooge to the Ghost. `Bless 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. ChristmasEve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer. Let's have the shutters up,' cried oldFezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands,' before a man can say JackRobinson.'You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it. They chargedinto the street with the shutters -- one, two, three -- had them up in theirplaces -- four, five, six -- barred them and pinned then -- 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, with28--------------------------------------- 29A CHRISTMAS CAROLwonderful agility. `Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room here.Hilli-ho, Dick. Chirrup, Ebenezer.'Clear away. There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, orcouldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in aminute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from publiclife for evermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps weretrimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as snug,and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room, as you would desire to seeupon 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 cameMrs Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three MissFezziwigs, beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whosehearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in thebusiness. In came the housemaid, with her cousin, the baker. In came thecook, with her brother's particular friend, the milkman. In came the boyfrom over the way, who was suspected of not having board enough fromhis 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 they allcame, one after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, someawkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all came, anyhow andeveryhow. Away they all went, twenty couple at once; hands half roundand back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round andround in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple alwaysturning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off again, as soonas they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help them.When this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his hands tostop the dance, cried out,' Well done.' and the fiddler plunged his hot faceinto a pot of porter, especially provided for that purpose. But scorning rest,upon his reappearance, he instantly began again, though there were nodancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been carried home, exhausted, ona shutter, and he were a bran-new man resolved to beat him out of sight, orperish.There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances,29--------------------------------------- 30A CHRISTMAS CAROLand there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece ofCold Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there weremince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening cameafter the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind. The sortof 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 dancewith Mrs Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff piece of work cutout for them; three or four and twenty pair of partners; people who werenot to be trifled with; people who would dance, and had no notion ofwalking.But if they had been twice as many -- ah, four times -- old Fezziwigwould 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 nothigh praise, tell me higher, and I'll use it. A positive light appeared to issuefrom 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 becomeof them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs Fezziwig had gone allthrough the dance; advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow andcurtsey, corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to your place;Fezziwig cut -- cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with his legs, andcame upon his feet again without a stagger.When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. Mr and MrsFezziwig took their stations, one on either side of the door, and shakinghands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him orher a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two prentices,they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died away, and thelads 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 hiswits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former self. Hecorroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed everything, andunderwent the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when the brightfaces of his former self and Dick were turned from them, that he