Dec. 5, 2022
A Christmas Carol, Stave II
This is the second chapter of the epic Christmas ghost story, A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens back in 1843. In this chapter, he is confronted by the Ghost of Christmas Past, and is shown the shadows of what were.
All voices done by the narrator, J.C. Rede.
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Transcript
WEBVTT
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Hi everyone.
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And welcome to episode 25 of forward into the past.
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I'm JC.
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Rede, your host and narrator.
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And today, we're jumping right back into that enduring Christmas staple, a Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens way back in 1843.
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As you probably know the popularity of Christmas trees soared when queen Victoria's husband, the German born prince Albert introduced his home country's tradition of decorating a fir tree on Christmas Eve.
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The engraving from 1848, that's five years after the story was written, which showed Victoria and Albert and their family decorating a Christmas tree made great Britain, and soon after the United States, Apply this now cherished tradition in our holiday.
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Traditionally candles, strings of popcorn, and fruits were used to decorate.
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Over time.
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Electric lights took over for candles, glass, and eventually plastic ornaments were used instead of fruits and tinsel began to be used around the same time in the early 19 hundreds as Christmas tree decorations.
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Prior to this.
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It was mainly used to decorate figurines and nativity scenes.
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The legend of how tinsel and Garland began to be used as decorations stems back to a European folk tale that may have developed in Germany, Poland, or Ukraine, depending on who you ask.
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There are variants of this tale, but they mostly center around a poor family who, after cutting down a small tree for Christmas were sad because they had nothing to decorate the tree with.
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As was customary in their village, all of the animals were brought into admire the tree.
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Except for spiders, which the mother was afraid of.
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After everyone had gone to sleep, Saint nicholas invited the spiders to admire the little tree because he had felt sorry for them, that they were excluded from the family custom.
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The little spider scurried all over the tree, leaving bits of webbing everywhere.
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When the family woke up the next day.
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They were surprised to see the webbing around the tree had collected bits of do overnight.
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Making the tree sparkle and shine.
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In gratitude, they created tensile garlands to recreate that beautiful surprise.
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To this day, spiders are considered good luck on a Christmas tree and plastic spiders are still hidden in Christmas trees in many European countries.
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And with that, we begin the second stave of a Christmas Carol.
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Which has been edited for time.
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A Christmas Carol stave two.
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The first of the three spirits.
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When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark that looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber.
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He was endeavoring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes when the chimes of a neighboring church.
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Struck the four quarters.
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So he listened for the hour.
00:03:02.551 --> 00:03:11.551
To his greatest astonishment, the heavy bell went on from six to seven and from seven to eight and regularly up to 12, then stopped.
00:03:12.301 --> 00:03:15.602
12, it was past two when he went to bed.
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The clock was wrong, an icicle must have got into the works.
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12.
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He touched the spring of his repeater to correct this most preposterous clock.
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It's rapid little pulse beat twelve and stopped.
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Why it isn't possible said Scrooge, that I can have slept through a whole day and far into another night.
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It is impossible that anything has happened to the sun.
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And this is 12 at noon.
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The idea being an alarming one.
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He scrambled out of bed and groped his way to the window.
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He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing gown before he could see anything.
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And could see very little then.
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All he could make out was that it was still very foggy and extremely cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and fro and making a great stir as there unquestionably would have been if night had beaten off bright day and taken possession of the world.
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Scrooge went to bed again and thought and thought and thought it over and over.
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And could make nothing of it.
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The more he thought the more perplexed he was and the more he endeavored not to think.
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The more he thought.
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Marley's ghost bothered him exceedingly.
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Every time he resolved within himself after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream.
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His mind flew back again, like a strong spring released to its first position and presented the same problem to be worked all through.
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Was it a dream or not?
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Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters more, when he remembered on a sudden that the ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one.
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He resolved to lie awake until the hour was past.
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And then considering that he could do no more go to sleep, then go to heaven.
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This was perhaps the wisest solution in his power.
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The quarter was so long that he, more than once convinced he must have sunk into a doze unconsciously and missed the clock.
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At length.
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It broke upon his listening ear.
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Uh, quarter past said Scrooge counting.
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Half past.
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said Scrooge.
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A quarter to it.
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Said Scrooge.
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The hour itself.
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Said Scrooge, triumphantly and nothing else.
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He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, dull hollow melancholy.
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Light flashed up in the room upon the instant and the curtains of his bed were drawn.
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The curtains of his bed, were drawn aside I tell you by a hand, not the curtains at his feet, not the curtains at his back, but those two, which his face was addressed.
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The curtains of his bed were drawn aside and Scrooge starting up into a half recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them.
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As close to it as I am now to you and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.
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It was a strange figure, like a child yet, not so like a child as like an old man viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view and being diminished to a child's proportions.
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It's hair, which hung about its neck and down its back was white as if with age.
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And yet the face had not a wrinkle in it.
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And the tenderest bloom was on the skin.
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The arms were very long and muscular.
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The hands, the same as if it's hold were of uncommon strength.
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It's legs and feet.
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Most delicately formed were like the upper members bare.
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It wore a tunic of the purest white and round its waste was bound.
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A lustrous belt.
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The sheen of which was beautiful.
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It held a branch of fresh green Holly in its hand.
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And in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem.
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Had its dress trimmed with summer flowers.
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But the strangest thing about it was that from the crown of its head, there sprung a bright, clear jet of light.
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By which all this was visible, which was doubtless the occasion of its using in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.
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Are you the spirit, sir, who's coming was foretold to me.
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Asked Scrooge.
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I am.
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The voice was soft and gentle singularly low as if, instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.
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Who and what are you.
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Scrooge demanded.
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I am the ghost of Christmas past.
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Long past.
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Inquired Scrooge observant of its dwarfish stature.
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No.
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Your past.
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Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have asked him, but he had a special desire to see the spirit in its cap and begged him to be covered.
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What exclaimed the ghost.
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Would you so soon put out with worldly hands, the light I give, is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap and forced me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow.
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Scrooge reverently disclaimed, all intention to offend or any knowledge of having willfully bonnetted the spirit at any period of its life.
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He then made bold to inquire what business brought him there.
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Your welfare.
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Said the ghost.
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Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end.
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The spirit must have heard him thinking for, it said immediately.
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Your reclamation then.
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Take heed.
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It put out it's strong hand as it spoke and clasped him gently by the arm.
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Rise and walk with me.
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It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour would not adapted to pedestrian purposes.
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That bed was warm and the thermometer a long way below freezing that he was clad, but lightly in his slippers, dressing gown and nightcap and that he had a cold upon him at that time.
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The grasp though gentle is a woman's hand was not to be resisted.
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He rose, but finding that the spirit made towards the window clasped it's robe in supplication.
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I am mortal Scrooge remonstrated, and liable to fall.
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Bear, but a touch of my hand there.
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Said the spirit laying upon its heart.
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And you shall be upheld in more than this.
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As the words were spoken.
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They passed through the wall and stood upon an open country road with fields on either hand.
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The city had vanished entirely, not a vestige of it was to be seen.
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The darkness and the mist had vanished with it for, it was a clear cold winter day.
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With the snow up on the ground.
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Good heaven.
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Said Scrooge clasping his hands together.
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As he looked about him.
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I was bred in this place.
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I was a boy here.
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The spirit gazed upon him mildly.
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It's gentle touch, though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man's sense of feeling.
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He was conscious of a thousand odors floating in the air.
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Each one, connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and joys and cares long, long forgotten.
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Your lip is trembling.
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said the ghost.
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And what is that upon your cheek?
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Scrooge muttered with an unusual catching in his voice.
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That it was a pimple.
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And he begged the ghost to lead him where he would.
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You recollect the way.
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Inquired the spirit.
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Remember it cried Scrooge with ferver.
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I could walk it blindfold.
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Strange to have forgotten it for so many years.
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Observed the ghost.
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Let us go on.
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They walked along the road, Scrooge recognizing every gate and post and tree.
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Until a little market town appeared in the distance with its bridge it's church and winding river.
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Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their back, who called to other boys in country, gigs and carts driven by farmers.
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All these boys were in great spirits and shouted to each other until the broad fields were so full of Merry music that the crisp air laughed to hear it.
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These are, but shadows of the things that have been said, the ghost.
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They have no consciousness of us.
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The jocund travelers came on and as they came, Scrooge knew and named them everyone.
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Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them?
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Why did his cold eye glisten and his heart leap up as they went past.
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Why was he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry Christmas as they parted at cross roads and byways for their several homes.
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What was Merry Christmas to Scrooge.
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Out upon Merry Christmas.
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What good had it ever done him?
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The school is not quite deserted.
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said the ghost.
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A solitary child neglected by his friends is left there still.
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Scrooge said he knew it.
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And sobbed.
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They left the high road by a well remembered lane and soon approached the mansion of dull red brick with a little weathercock surmounted copula on the roof and a bell hanging on it.
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It was a large house, but one of broken fortunes for the spacious offices were little used.
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Their walls were damp and mossy, their windows broken and their gates decayed.
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They went the ghost and Scrooge.
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Across the hall to a door at the back of the house.
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It opened before them and disclosed a long bare melancholy room made barer still by lines of plane deal forms and desks.
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At one of these, a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire, and Scrooge sat down upon a form.
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And wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used to be.
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The spirit touched him on the arm and pointed to his younger self intent upon his reading.
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Suddenly a man in foreign garments, wonderfully real and distinct to look at stood outside the window with an ax stuck in his belt and leading by the bridle and ass Laden with wood.
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Why it's Ali Baba.
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Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy.
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It's dear old, honest Alli Baba.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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I know.
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One Christmas time when yonder solitary child was left here all alone.
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He did come for the first time, just like that.
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Poor boy.
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And, and Valentine and his wild brother, Orson.
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There they go.
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And, and what's his name who was put down in the drawers asleep at the gate of Damascus.
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Don't you see him?
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And, and the sultans groom turned upside down by the genie.
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There he is upon his head.
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Serve him right.
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I'm glad of it.
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What business had, he to be married to the princess.
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To hear a Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature upon such subjects in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying and to see his heightened, excited face.
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Would've been a surprise to his business friends in the city.
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Indeed.
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Then with a rapidity of transition, very foreign to his usual character, he said in pity for his former self.
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Poor boy.
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And cried again.
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I wish.
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Scrooge muttered putting his hand in his pocket and looking about him after drying his eyes with his cuff.
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Oh, but it's too late now.
00:14:59.977 --> 00:15:00.817
What is the matter?
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Ask the spirit.
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Nothing.
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Said Scrooge, nothing.
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There, there was a boy singing a christmas Carol at my door last night.
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I should like to have given him something.
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That's all.
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The ghost smiled thoughtfully and waved its hand saying as it did so.
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Let us see another Christmas.
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Scrooges former self grew larger at the words.
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And the room became a little darker and more dirty.
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The panels shrunk.
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The windows cracked fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling and the naked laths were shown instead.
00:15:34.748 --> 00:15:38.557
But how all this was brought about Scrooge knew no more than you do.
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He only knew that it was quite correct that everything had happened so that there he was alone again, when all the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays.
00:15:50.437 --> 00:15:59.048
He was not reading now, but walking up and down, despairingly Scrooge looked at the ghost and with a mournful shaking of his head.
00:15:59.677 --> 00:16:01.538
Glanced anxiously toward the door.
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It opened.
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And a little girl, much younger than the boy came darting in and putting her arms around his neck and often kissing him, addressed him as her.
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Dear, dear brother.
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I have come to bring you home.
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dear brother said the child clapping her tiny hands and bending down to laugh.
00:16:20.437 --> 00:16:22.538
To bring you home, home, home.
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Home little fan.
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Returned the boy.
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Yes said the child brimful of glee.
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Home for good and all home for ever and ever.
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Father is so much kinder than he used to be that homes like heaven.
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He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed, that I was not afraid to ask him once more, if you might come home and he said, yes, you should.
00:16:46.827 --> 00:16:50.998
And sent me in a coach to bring you, and you are to be a man.
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Said the child opening her eyes.
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And are never to come back here, but first we're to be together all the Christmas long and have the merriest time in all the world.
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You are quite a woman, little fan.
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Exclaimed the boy.
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She clapped her hands and laughed and tried to touch his head, but being too little laughed again and stood on tiptoe to embrace him.
00:17:12.548 --> 00:17:19.307
Then she began to drag him in her childish eagerness toward the door and he nothing loath to go accompanied her.
00:17:20.278 --> 00:17:23.488
Always a delicate creature whom a breath might've withered.
00:17:23.698 --> 00:17:26.847
Said the ghost, but she had a large heart.
00:17:27.278 --> 00:17:29.438
So she had cried Scrooge.
00:17:29.647 --> 00:17:30.298
You're right.
00:17:30.758 --> 00:17:33.337
I will not gainsay it spirit, God forbid.
00:17:34.198 --> 00:17:35.577
She died, a woman.
00:17:36.028 --> 00:17:39.087
said the ghost and had, as I think children.
00:17:39.458 --> 00:17:41.438
One child Scrooge returned.
00:17:42.367 --> 00:17:42.817
True.
00:17:43.387 --> 00:17:45.057
Your nephew said the ghost.
00:17:46.107 --> 00:17:49.137
Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind and answered briefly.
00:17:49.468 --> 00:17:49.857
Yes.
00:17:51.688 --> 00:17:54.748
Although they had but that moment left the school behind them.
00:17:55.077 --> 00:18:06.557
They were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city where shadowy passengers passed and repassed, where shadowy carts and coaches battle for the way and all the strife and tummult of a real city were.
00:18:07.377 --> 00:18:10.827
It was made plain enough by the dressing of shops that here too.
00:18:11.067 --> 00:18:12.778
It was Christmas time again.
00:18:13.048 --> 00:18:15.807
But it was evening and the streets were lighted up.
00:18:16.212 --> 00:18:20.803
The ghost stopped at a certain warehouse store and asked Scrooge if he knew it.
00:18:21.383 --> 00:18:23.143
Know it! Said Scrooge.
00:18:23.502 --> 00:18:24.873
Was I apprenticed here?
00:18:25.353 --> 00:18:26.252
They went in.
00:18:26.722 --> 00:18:29.269
At the site of an old gentleman in a Welch wigs.
00:18:29.269 --> 00:18:36.343
Sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller, he must have knocked his head against the ceiling.
00:18:36.792 --> 00:18:44.593
Scrooge cried in great excitement, Why It's old Fezziwig, bless his heart it's Fezziwig alive again.
00:18:45.073 --> 00:18:50.403
Old Fezziwig laid down his pen and looked up at the clock, which pointed to the hour of seven.
00:18:50.823 --> 00:18:53.823
He rubbed his hands, adjusted his capacious waistcoat.
00:18:53.873 --> 00:19:02.303
Laughed all over himself from his shoes to his organ of benevolence and called out in a comfortably oily, rich fat jovial voice.
00:19:02.813 --> 00:19:04.303
Yo-Ho there, Ebenezer!.
00:19:04.583 --> 00:19:05.002
Dick.
00:19:05.259 --> 00:19:10.838
Scrooges former self now grown a young man came briskly in accompanied by his fellow Prentice.
00:19:11.358 --> 00:19:13.068
Dick Wilkins to be sure.
00:19:13.229 --> 00:19:14.608
Said Scrooge to the ghost.
00:19:15.239 --> 00:19:15.808
Bless me.
00:19:15.808 --> 00:19:16.108
Yes.
00:19:16.409 --> 00:19:17.308
There he is.
00:19:17.578 --> 00:19:19.199
Oh, he was very much attached to me.
00:19:19.229 --> 00:19:19.739
Was Dick.
00:19:20.098 --> 00:19:21.778
poor DIck! Dear dear.
00:19:22.679 --> 00:19:24.179
Yo ho my boys.
00:19:24.378 --> 00:19:26.778
Said Fezziwig, no more work tonight.
00:19:26.778 --> 00:19:30.588
Christmas Eve, Dick Christmas, Ebenezer, let's have the shutters up.
00:19:30.798 --> 00:19:36.199
Cried old Fezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands before a man can say, Jack Robinson.
00:19:36.848 --> 00:19:39.189
You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it.
00:19:39.608 --> 00:19:47.528
The charged into the street with the shutters 1, 2, 3, had them up in their places, four five, six barred them and pinned them 7, 8, 9.
00:19:47.588 --> 00:19:51.729
And came back before you could have got to 12, panting like race horses.
00:19:52.169 --> 00:19:52.949
Highly hoe.
00:19:53.499 --> 00:19:57.628
cried old Fezziwig skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility.
00:19:58.199 --> 00:20:00.838
Clear away my lads and let's have lots of room here.
00:20:01.068 --> 00:20:03.249
Hily-ho, Dick! Chirrup Ebenezer.
00:20:03.818 --> 00:20:04.568
Cleared away.
00:20:04.838 --> 00:20:09.519
There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away or couldn't have cleared away with old Fezziwig looking on.
00:20:09.939 --> 00:20:11.019
It was done in a minute.
00:20:11.318 --> 00:20:15.838
Every moveable was packed off as if it were dismissed from public life forever more.
00:20:16.348 --> 00:20:17.759
The floor was swept and watered.
00:20:17.909 --> 00:20:19.108
The lamps were trimmed.
00:20:19.348 --> 00:20:28.229
Fuel was heaped upon the fire and the warehouse was as snug and warm and dry and bright as a ballroom, as you would desire to see upon a winter's night.
00:20:28.557 --> 00:20:36.267
In came a Fiddler with a music book and went up to the lofty desk and made an orchestra of it and tuned like 50 stomach aches.
00:20:36.807 --> 00:20:37.737
In came, Mrs.
00:20:37.767 --> 00:20:53.396
Fezziwig one vast substantial smile in came the three miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable, in came the six young followers whose hearts they broke, in came all the young men and women employed in the business in came the housemaid with her cousin, the baker.
00:20:53.576 --> 00:20:57.017
In came the cook with her brother's particular friend, the milkman.
00:20:57.406 --> 00:21:02.116
In came the boy from over the way who was suspected of not having board enough from his master.
00:21:02.196 --> 00:21:08.287
Trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door, but one, who was proved to have her ears pulled by her mistress.
00:21:08.737 --> 00:21:19.866
In they all came, one after another, some shyly, some baldly some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling in, they all came any how and every, how.
00:21:20.247 --> 00:21:22.686
Away they all went 20 couple at once.
00:21:22.866 --> 00:21:29.886
Hands, half round and back again, the other way down the middle up again, round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping.
00:21:29.936 --> 00:21:32.696
Old top couple, always turning up in the wrong place.
00:21:32.817 --> 00:21:34.616
New top couple, starting off again.
00:21:34.616 --> 00:21:39.987
As soon as they got there all top couples at last and not a bottom one to help them.
00:21:40.406 --> 00:21:46.886
When this result was brought about old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance cried out well done.
00:21:47.156 --> 00:21:55.576
And the Fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of Porter, especially provided for that purpose, but scorning rest upon his reappearance.
00:21:55.727 --> 00:21:57.707
He instantly began again, though.
00:21:57.707 --> 00:22:07.846
There were no dancers yet as if the other Fiddler had been carried home, exhausted on a shutter and he were a brand new man resolved to beat him out of sight or perish.
00:22:08.477 --> 00:22:20.752
There were more dances and there were forfeits and more dances and there was cake and there was negus and there was a great piece of cold roast and there was a great piece of cold boiled and there were mince pies and plenty of beer.
00:22:21.502 --> 00:22:33.962
But the great effect of the evening came after the roast and boiled when the Fiddler an artful dog mind the sort of man who knew his business better than you, or I could have told him struck up, sir, Roger, DeCoverley.
00:22:34.752 --> 00:22:37.762
Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs.
00:22:37.762 --> 00:22:38.423
Fezziwig.
00:22:38.813 --> 00:22:45.113
Top couple too, with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them three or four and 20 pair of partners.
00:22:45.472 --> 00:22:50.893
People who are not to be trifled with people who would dance and had no notion of walking.
00:22:51.353 --> 00:22:57.323
But if there had been twice as many Ah, four times! Old Fezziwig would have been a match for them.
00:22:57.472 --> 00:22:58.583
And so would Mrs.
00:22:58.583 --> 00:23:00.262
Fezziwig as to her.
00:23:00.563 --> 00:23:04.163
She was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term.
00:23:04.522 --> 00:23:07.762
If that's not high praise, tell me higher and I'll use it.
00:23:08.333 --> 00:23:11.363
A positive light appeared to issue from fizzy wigs calves.
00:23:11.692 --> 00:23:20.752
They shown in every part of the dance like moons, you couldn't have predicted at any given time, what would have become of them next, and when old Fezziwig and Mrs.
00:23:20.782 --> 00:23:29.873
Fezziwig had gone through the dance, advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and curtsy corkscrew thread the needle, and back again to your place.
00:23:30.292 --> 00:23:31.163
Fezziwig cut.
00:23:31.432 --> 00:23:31.853
Cut.
00:23:31.913 --> 00:23:38.353
So deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs and came up on his feet again, without a stagger.
00:23:39.762 --> 00:23:43.843
When the clock had struck 11, this domestic ball broke up.
00:23:44.292 --> 00:23:44.742
Mr.
00:23:44.742 --> 00:23:45.192
And Mrs.
00:23:45.192 --> 00:23:56.532
Fezziwig took their stations one on either side the door and shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas.
00:23:57.192 --> 00:24:01.932
When everybody had retired, but the two apprentices, they did the same to them.
00:24:02.143 --> 00:24:10.063
And thus the cheerful voices died away and the lads were left to their beds, which were under a counter in the back shop.
00:24:10.452 --> 00:24:15.073
During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a man out of his wits.
00:24:15.403 --> 00:24:17.472
His heart and soul were in the scene.
00:24:17.653 --> 00:24:19.182
And with his former self.
00:24:19.512 --> 00:24:26.442
He corroborated, everything remembered, everything, enjoyed everything and underwent the strangest agitation.
00:24:27.163 --> 00:24:41.262
It was not until now when the bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned from them, that he remembered the ghost and became conscious that it was looking full upon him while the light upon its head burnt very clear.
00:24:41.762 --> 00:24:47.373
A small matter, said the ghost to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.
00:24:48.242 --> 00:24:48.992
Small?
00:24:49.032 --> 00:24:49.932
Echoed Scrooge.
00:24:50.722 --> 00:24:59.153
The spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig, and when he had done so said.
00:24:59.613 --> 00:25:00.932
Why is it not.
00:25:01.472 --> 00:25:05.762
He has spent, but a few pounds of your mortar money, three or four, perhaps.
00:25:06.212 --> 00:25:08.942
Is that so much that he deserves that praise?
00:25:09.192 --> 00:25:16.252
It isn't that said Scrooge heated by the remark and speaking unconsciously, like his former, not his latter self.
00:25:16.563 --> 00:25:17.823
It isn't that spirit.
00:25:18.093 --> 00:25:33.423
He has the power to render us happy or unhappy to make our service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil say that as power lies in words, and looks in things so slight and insignificant, that it is impossible to add and count them up.
00:25:33.512 --> 00:25:34.202
What then.
00:25:34.682 --> 00:25:38.432
The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.
00:25:38.952 --> 00:25:41.323
He felt the spirits glance and stopped.
00:25:41.762 --> 00:25:42.633
What is the matter?
00:25:42.771 --> 00:25:43.612
Asked the ghost.
00:25:44.606 --> 00:25:45.507
Nothing particular.
00:25:46.150 --> 00:25:47.380
Something, I think.
00:25:47.430 --> 00:25:48.539
The ghost insisted.
00:25:48.970 --> 00:25:49.359
No.
00:25:49.380 --> 00:25:49.990
said Scrooge.
00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:50.470
No.
00:25:51.109 --> 00:25:54.769
I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now that that's all.
00:25:55.450 --> 00:25:58.990
His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance to the wish.
00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:03.849
And Scrooge and the ghost again, stood side by side in the open air.
00:26:04.490 --> 00:26:05.750
My time grows short.
00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:07.670
Observed the spirit quick.
00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:14.019
This was not addressed to Scrooge or to anyone whom he could see, but it produced an immediate effect.
00:26:14.470 --> 00:26:16.750
For again, Scrooge saw himself.
00:26:17.529 --> 00:26:20.319
He was older now a man in the prime of life.
00:26:21.069 --> 00:26:24.549
His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years.
00:26:24.970 --> 00:26:28.140
But it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice.
00:26:28.990 --> 00:26:38.230
There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which showed the passion that has taken root and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.
00:26:39.180 --> 00:26:40.259
He was not alone.
00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:44.130
But sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning dress.
00:26:44.549 --> 00:26:50.430
In whose eyes that were tears, which sparkled in the light that shown out of the ghost of Christmas past.
00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:52.380
It matters little.
00:26:52.539 --> 00:26:53.890
She said softly to you.
00:26:53.890 --> 00:26:54.759
Very little.
00:26:55.480 --> 00:26:57.250
Another idol has displaced me.
00:26:57.970 --> 00:27:02.140
And if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do.
00:27:02.619 --> 00:27:04.660
I have no just cause to grieve.
00:27:05.799 --> 00:27:06.400
Huh, what.
00:27:06.730 --> 00:27:08.619
What idol has displaced you.
00:27:08.710 --> 00:27:09.369
He rejoined.
00:27:09.730 --> 00:27:10.730
A golden one.
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:13.140
This is the evenhanded dealing of the world.
00:27:13.430 --> 00:27:13.920
he said.
00:27:14.460 --> 00:27:21.569
There's nothing on which it is so hard as poverty, and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth.
00:27:21.964 --> 00:27:23.494
You fear the world too much.
00:27:23.595 --> 00:27:24.795
She answered gently.
00:27:25.174 --> 00:27:30.394
All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach.
00:27:31.055 --> 00:27:38.525
I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one until the master passion gain engrosses you have I not.
00:27:39.025 --> 00:27:43.765
What then he retorted, even if I have grown so much, wiser what then?
00:27:44.305 --> 00:27:45.805
I am not changed towards you.
00:27:46.474 --> 00:27:47.434
She shook her head.
00:27:48.454 --> 00:27:48.934
Am I.
00:27:49.335 --> 00:27:51.164
Our contract is an old one.
00:27:51.555 --> 00:28:00.494
It was made when we were both poor and content to be so until in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry.
00:28:01.184 --> 00:28:03.255
You are changed.
00:28:03.384 --> 00:28:05.424
When it was made, you were another man.
00:28:05.625 --> 00:28:06.404
I was a boy.
00:28:06.744 --> 00:28:07.734
He said impatiently.
00:28:08.384 --> 00:28:11.204
Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are.
00:28:11.454 --> 00:28:12.204
She returned.
00:28:12.835 --> 00:28:13.555
I am.
00:28:14.275 --> 00:28:18.265
That which promised happiness when we were one in heart is fraught with misery.
00:28:18.265 --> 00:28:19.440
Now that we are too.
00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:23.460
How often and how keenly I have thought of this, I will not say.
00:28:24.210 --> 00:28:27.839
It is enough that I have thought of it and can release you.
00:28:28.529 --> 00:28:30.180
Have I ever sought release.
00:28:30.670 --> 00:28:31.349
In words.
00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:31.980
No.
00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:32.700
Never.
00:28:33.109 --> 00:28:33.799
In what then?
00:28:34.430 --> 00:28:38.359
In a changed nature in an altered spirit in another atmosphere of life.
00:28:38.359 --> 00:28:40.309
Another hope as its great end.
00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:44.930
In everything that made my love of any worth or value in your site.
00:28:45.589 --> 00:28:47.480
If this had never been between us.
00:28:47.859 --> 00:28:51.980
said the girl looking mildly, but with steadiness upon him, Tell me.
00:28:52.789 --> 00:28:55.609
Would you seek me out and try to win me now?
00:28:57.019 --> 00:28:57.200
Huh.
00:28:57.930 --> 00:28:58.910
Ah, no.
00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:02.859
He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition in spite of himself.
00:29:03.220 --> 00:29:04.630
But he said with a struggle.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:05.630
You think not.
00:29:06.210 --> 00:29:08.279
I would gladly think otherwise if I could.
00:29:08.609 --> 00:29:09.240
She answered.
00:29:09.329 --> 00:29:10.140
Heaven knows.
00:29:10.710 --> 00:29:15.450
When I have learned a truth like this, I know how strong and irresistible it must be.
00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:33.529
But if you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, Can I even believe that you would choose a dowerless, girl, you who, in your very confidence with her weigh everything by gain or choosing her if for a moment, you were false enough to your one guiding principle to do so.
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:37.759
Do I not know what your repentance and regret would surely follow.
00:29:38.809 --> 00:29:39.380
I do.
00:29:39.980 --> 00:29:43.670
And I release you with a full heart for the love of him.
00:29:44.150 --> 00:29:45.049
Who you once were.
00:29:45.950 --> 00:29:50.000
He was about to speak, but with her head turned from him, she resumed.
00:29:50.839 --> 00:29:55.039
You may, the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will.
00:29:55.039 --> 00:29:56.900
I have pain in this.
00:29:57.410 --> 00:30:01.880
A very, very brief time and you will dismiss the recollection of it gladly.
00:30:02.269 --> 00:30:03.920
As an unprofitable dream.
00:30:04.339 --> 00:30:06.430
From which it happened well that you awoke.
00:30:07.549 --> 00:30:09.950
May you be happy in the life you've chosen.
00:30:10.789 --> 00:30:12.569
She left him and they parted.
00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:18.140
Spirit, said Scrooge, show me no more conduct me home.
00:30:18.140 --> 00:30:19.910
Why do you delight to torture me?
00:30:20.609 --> 00:30:23.609
One shadow more exclaimed the ghost.
00:30:23.730 --> 00:30:24.779
No more cried.
00:30:24.809 --> 00:30:25.170
Scrooge.
00:30:25.170 --> 00:30:25.799
No more.
00:30:26.019 --> 00:30:27.210
I don't wish to see it.
00:30:27.210 --> 00:30:28.410
Show me no more.
00:30:28.900 --> 00:30:34.402
But the relentless ghost pinioned him in both his arms and forced him to observe what happened next.
00:30:34.862 --> 00:30:40.791
They were in another scene and place a room, not very large or handsome, but full of comfort.
00:30:41.392 --> 00:30:43.904
Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful young girl.
00:30:43.904 --> 00:30:47.365
So like the last one that Scrooge believed it to be the same.
00:30:47.816 --> 00:30:49.705
Until he saw her.
00:30:50.006 --> 00:30:53.125
Now a comely matron sitting opposite her daughter.
00:30:53.935 --> 00:31:01.226
The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous for, there were more children there than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count.
00:31:01.526 --> 00:31:11.536
And unlike the celebrated, heard in the poem, there were not 40 children Conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting himself like 40.
00:31:12.346 --> 00:31:16.635
The consequences were uproarious beyond belief, but no one seemed to care.
00:31:16.965 --> 00:31:21.915
On the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily and enjoyed it very much.
00:31:22.066 --> 00:31:27.786
And the latter soon, beginning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most ruthlessly.
00:31:28.395 --> 00:31:30.526
What would I not have given to be one of them?
00:31:30.836 --> 00:31:31.046
Though.
00:31:31.046 --> 00:31:32.486
I never could have been so rude.
00:31:32.486 --> 00:31:33.865
No, no, I wouldn't.
00:31:33.865 --> 00:31:37.945
For all the wealth of the world have crushed that braided hair and torn it down.
00:31:38.125 --> 00:31:41.336
And for the precious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off.
00:31:41.365 --> 00:31:44.125
God bless my soul to save my life.
00:31:44.875 --> 00:31:49.796
As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did bold young brood, I couldn't have done it.
00:31:50.195 --> 00:31:55.256
I should have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment and never come straight again.
00:31:55.526 --> 00:32:06.925
And yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips to have questioned her, that she might have opened them to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes and never raised a blush.
00:32:07.286 --> 00:32:12.955
To have let loose waves of hair, an inch of which would have been a keepsake beyond price.
00:32:13.286 --> 00:32:15.086
In short, I should have liked.
00:32:15.145 --> 00:32:22.405
I do confess to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been mad enough to know its value.
00:32:22.915 --> 00:32:46.556
But now a knocking at the door was heard and such a rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and plundered dress was born towards it in the center of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time to greet the father who came home, attended by a man Laden with Christmas toys and presents, then the shouting and the struggling and the onslaught that was made on this defenseless porter.
00:32:46.996 --> 00:32:52.875
The scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his pockets, despoil him of brown paper parcels.
00:32:53.236 --> 00:33:00.016
Hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round the neck, pommel his back and kick his legs in irrepressible affection.
00:33:00.766 --> 00:33:05.596
The shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package was received.
00:33:05.806 --> 00:33:18.046
The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying pan into its mouth and was more than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious Turkey glued onto a wooden platter.
00:33:18.705 --> 00:33:23.715
The immense relief of finding this false alarm, the joy and gratitude and ecstasy.
00:33:24.135 --> 00:33:26.326
They were all indescribable alike.
00:33:27.016 --> 00:33:37.635
It is enough that by degrees, the children and their emotions got out of the parlor and by one stair at a time up to the top of the house where they went to bed.
00:33:37.846 --> 00:33:39.256
And so subsided.
00:33:40.365 --> 00:33:52.066
And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his own fireside.
00:33:52.665 --> 00:33:58.006
And what he thought that such another creature quite as graceful and as full of promise, might've called him father.
00:33:58.486 --> 00:34:01.185
And been a springtime in the Haggard winter of his life.
00:34:01.786 --> 00:34:03.796
His sight grew very dim indeed.
00:34:04.336 --> 00:34:04.786
Belle.
00:34:05.296 --> 00:34:07.546
Said the husband turning to his wife with a smile.
00:34:08.056 --> 00:34:10.456
I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon.
00:34:10.925 --> 00:34:11.735
Who was it?
00:34:12.596 --> 00:34:15.076
Guess! How can I?
00:34:15.286 --> 00:34:16.746
Tut, I don't know.
00:34:16.856 --> 00:34:19.635
She added in the same breath, laughing as he laughed.
00:34:20.505 --> 00:34:21.675
Mr Scrooge.
00:34:22.335 --> 00:34:23.175
Mr Scrooge.
00:34:23.175 --> 00:34:27.916
It was, I passed his office window and as it was not shut up.
00:34:27.965 --> 00:34:29.556
And he had a candle inside.
00:34:29.795 --> 00:34:31.626
I could scarcely help seeing him.
00:34:32.436 --> 00:34:38.376
His partner lies upon the point of death I hear, and there he sat alone, quite alone in the world.
00:34:38.376 --> 00:34:39.126
I do believe.
00:34:39.945 --> 00:34:42.215
Spirit said Scrooge in a broken voice.
00:34:42.306 --> 00:34:43.806
Remove me from this place.
00:34:44.356 --> 00:34:47.536
I told you these were shadows of the things that have been.
00:34:47.596 --> 00:34:48.376
Said the ghost.
00:34:48.766 --> 00:34:51.166
They are what they are, do not blame me.
00:34:51.646 --> 00:34:53.726
Remove me! Scrooge exclaimed.
00:34:53.846 --> 00:34:55.106
I cannot bear it.
00:34:55.686 --> 00:35:03.206
He turned upon the ghost and seeing that it looked upon him with a face in which in some strange way, there were fragments of all the faces.
00:35:03.206 --> 00:35:05.065
It had shown him wrestled with it.
00:35:05.726 --> 00:35:06.476
Leave me.
00:35:06.746 --> 00:35:09.115
Take me back haunt me no longer.
00:35:09.596 --> 00:35:29.896
In the struggle if that can be called a struggle in which the ghost with no visible resistance of its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed that its light was burning high and bright, and dimly connected that with its influence over him, he seized the extinguisher cap and by a sudden action pressed down upon its head.
00:35:30.306 --> 00:35:34.476
The spirit dropped beneath it so that the extinguisher covered its whole form.
00:35:34.715 --> 00:35:43.985
But though Scrooge pressed down with all his force, he could not hide the light, which streamed from under it in an unbroken flood upon the ground.
00:35:44.646 --> 00:35:51.365
He was conscious of being exhausted and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness and further of being in his own bedroom.
00:35:51.965 --> 00:36:01.326
He gave the cap, a parting squeeze in which his hand relaxed and had barely time to reel to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep.
00:36:02.806 --> 00:36:05.835
Well, that concludes the second stave of a Christmas.
00:36:05.835 --> 00:36:06.255
Carol.
00:36:06.735 --> 00:36:08.385
I hope you're enjoying it so far.
00:36:09.135 --> 00:36:12.545
If I can ask all my listeners for a favor or two at this time.
00:36:13.445 --> 00:36:20.286
First, if you are able to please leave a review of the show in general, this goes a long way for the show.
00:36:20.525 --> 00:36:22.806
As far as visibility on all the different platforms.
00:36:23.315 --> 00:36:25.835
It also helps with the search engines and that kind of thing.
00:36:26.465 --> 00:36:30.576
It doesn't need to be lengthy of a few words or even a star rating helps.
00:36:31.056 --> 00:36:32.346
I really would appreciate it.
00:36:33.005 --> 00:36:44.646
Secondly, if you enjoy the show and I hope you are, please consider becoming a supporter of the show by becoming a bronze, silver, or gold level monthly supporter on buy me a coffee.
00:36:45.456 --> 00:36:52.746
On most of the podcast platforms, there is a link that says support the show, and this will take you to my, buy me a coffee page.
00:36:53.795 --> 00:36:56.346
It's like Patrion, but with a different company.
00:36:57.186 --> 00:37:02.315
There's also a nice link on the podcast website forward into the past podcast.com.
00:37:03.215 --> 00:37:11.076
Believe it or not, I'm currently recording this podcast on my personal laptop and it would be nice to have a dedicated computer for this podcast.
00:37:11.525 --> 00:37:15.155
So, if you can please donate or become a supporter.
00:37:15.755 --> 00:37:18.246
A huge, thanks to my regular listeners out there.
00:37:18.545 --> 00:37:21.036
My little podcast is growing quite quickly.
00:37:21.615 --> 00:37:22.965
Well, as always folks.
00:37:23.085 --> 00:37:24.525
I've rambled long enough.
00:37:24.965 --> 00:37:27.215
And once again, Thanks for listening.
00:37:27.516 --> 00:37:29.226
Keep sharing the stories.
00:37:29.525 --> 00:37:31.115
And be a good human.
00:37:31.775 --> 00:37:32.706
Bye for now.
00:00:00.484 --> 00:00:01.235
Hi everyone.
00:00:01.625 --> 00:00:05.464
And welcome to episode 25 of forward into the past.
00:00:06.004 --> 00:00:06.815
I'm JC.
00:00:06.815 --> 00:00:08.615
Rede, your host and narrator.
00:00:08.945 --> 00:00:18.515
And today, we're jumping right back into that enduring Christmas staple, a Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens way back in 1843.
00:00:19.504 --> 00:00:32.195
As you probably know the popularity of Christmas trees soared when queen Victoria's husband, the German born prince Albert introduced his home country's tradition of decorating a fir tree on Christmas Eve.
00:00:32.884 --> 00:00:49.215
The engraving from 1848, that's five years after the story was written, which showed Victoria and Albert and their family decorating a Christmas tree made great Britain, and soon after the United States, Apply this now cherished tradition in our holiday.
00:00:49.994 --> 00:00:54.375
Traditionally candles, strings of popcorn, and fruits were used to decorate.
00:00:55.034 --> 00:00:55.755
Over time.
00:00:55.844 --> 00:01:08.144
Electric lights took over for candles, glass, and eventually plastic ornaments were used instead of fruits and tinsel began to be used around the same time in the early 19 hundreds as Christmas tree decorations.
00:01:08.625 --> 00:01:09.465
Prior to this.
00:01:09.704 --> 00:01:13.575
It was mainly used to decorate figurines and nativity scenes.
00:01:14.234 --> 00:01:25.694
The legend of how tinsel and Garland began to be used as decorations stems back to a European folk tale that may have developed in Germany, Poland, or Ukraine, depending on who you ask.
00:01:26.295 --> 00:01:37.995
There are variants of this tale, but they mostly center around a poor family who, after cutting down a small tree for Christmas were sad because they had nothing to decorate the tree with.
00:01:38.745 --> 00:01:43.844
As was customary in their village, all of the animals were brought into admire the tree.
00:01:44.385 --> 00:01:47.564
Except for spiders, which the mother was afraid of.
00:01:48.224 --> 00:01:57.825
After everyone had gone to sleep, Saint nicholas invited the spiders to admire the little tree because he had felt sorry for them, that they were excluded from the family custom.
00:01:58.484 --> 00:02:03.015
The little spider scurried all over the tree, leaving bits of webbing everywhere.
00:02:03.555 --> 00:02:05.444
When the family woke up the next day.
00:02:05.685 --> 00:02:10.814
They were surprised to see the webbing around the tree had collected bits of do overnight.
00:02:11.205 --> 00:02:13.455
Making the tree sparkle and shine.
00:02:13.965 --> 00:02:18.944
In gratitude, they created tensile garlands to recreate that beautiful surprise.
00:02:19.514 --> 00:02:28.694
To this day, spiders are considered good luck on a Christmas tree and plastic spiders are still hidden in Christmas trees in many European countries.
00:02:29.175 --> 00:02:33.314
And with that, we begin the second stave of a Christmas Carol.
00:02:33.334 --> 00:02:35.343
Which has been edited for time.
00:02:38.343 --> 00:02:40.174
A Christmas Carol stave two.
00:02:40.443 --> 00:02:42.183
The first of the three spirits.
00:02:43.611 --> 00:02:52.472
When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark that looking out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber.
00:02:53.072 --> 00:02:58.051
He was endeavoring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes when the chimes of a neighboring church.
00:02:58.322 --> 00:02:59.852
Struck the four quarters.
00:03:00.301 --> 00:03:01.741
So he listened for the hour.
00:03:02.551 --> 00:03:11.551
To his greatest astonishment, the heavy bell went on from six to seven and from seven to eight and regularly up to 12, then stopped.
00:03:12.301 --> 00:03:15.602
12, it was past two when he went to bed.
00:03:15.991 --> 00:03:19.231
The clock was wrong, an icicle must have got into the works.
00:03:19.741 --> 00:03:20.431
12.
00:03:21.542 --> 00:03:25.771
He touched the spring of his repeater to correct this most preposterous clock.
00:03:26.551 --> 00:03:29.521
It's rapid little pulse beat twelve and stopped.
00:03:30.632 --> 00:03:37.562
Why it isn't possible said Scrooge, that I can have slept through a whole day and far into another night.
00:03:37.921 --> 00:03:40.741
It is impossible that anything has happened to the sun.
00:03:40.741 --> 00:03:42.692
And this is 12 at noon.
00:03:43.271 --> 00:03:44.981
The idea being an alarming one.
00:03:45.342 --> 00:03:48.162
He scrambled out of bed and groped his way to the window.
00:03:48.972 --> 00:03:53.801
He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing gown before he could see anything.
00:03:54.491 --> 00:03:56.292
And could see very little then.
00:03:57.102 --> 00:04:12.671
All he could make out was that it was still very foggy and extremely cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and fro and making a great stir as there unquestionably would have been if night had beaten off bright day and taken possession of the world.
00:04:13.391 --> 00:04:18.101
Scrooge went to bed again and thought and thought and thought it over and over.
00:04:18.552 --> 00:04:19.961
And could make nothing of it.
00:04:20.622 --> 00:04:25.572
The more he thought the more perplexed he was and the more he endeavored not to think.
00:04:25.872 --> 00:04:26.742
The more he thought.
00:04:27.822 --> 00:04:30.341
Marley's ghost bothered him exceedingly.
00:04:31.182 --> 00:04:35.682
Every time he resolved within himself after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream.
00:04:36.341 --> 00:04:43.901
His mind flew back again, like a strong spring released to its first position and presented the same problem to be worked all through.
00:04:44.771 --> 00:04:46.661
Was it a dream or not?
00:04:47.331 --> 00:04:57.982
Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters more, when he remembered on a sudden that the ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one.
00:04:59.122 --> 00:05:02.062
He resolved to lie awake until the hour was past.
00:05:02.541 --> 00:05:05.901
And then considering that he could do no more go to sleep, then go to heaven.
00:05:06.262 --> 00:05:09.802
This was perhaps the wisest solution in his power.
00:05:11.031 --> 00:05:18.502
The quarter was so long that he, more than once convinced he must have sunk into a doze unconsciously and missed the clock.
00:05:19.401 --> 00:05:19.822
At length.
00:05:20.211 --> 00:05:21.831
It broke upon his listening ear.
00:05:24.021 --> 00:05:26.331
Uh, quarter past said Scrooge counting.
00:05:28.101 --> 00:05:29.002
Half past.
00:05:29.391 --> 00:05:30.052
said Scrooge.
00:05:31.581 --> 00:05:32.362
A quarter to it.
00:05:33.021 --> 00:05:33.742
Said Scrooge.
00:05:35.002 --> 00:05:36.322
The hour itself.
00:05:36.711 --> 00:05:39.172
Said Scrooge, triumphantly and nothing else.
00:05:40.432 --> 00:05:46.851
He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, dull hollow melancholy.
00:05:48.982 --> 00:05:53.932
Light flashed up in the room upon the instant and the curtains of his bed were drawn.
00:05:54.327 --> 00:06:03.718
The curtains of his bed, were drawn aside I tell you by a hand, not the curtains at his feet, not the curtains at his back, but those two, which his face was addressed.
00:06:04.257 --> 00:06:15.627
The curtains of his bed were drawn aside and Scrooge starting up into a half recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them.
00:06:16.228 --> 00:06:21.237
As close to it as I am now to you and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.
00:06:22.468 --> 00:06:37.077
It was a strange figure, like a child yet, not so like a child as like an old man viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view and being diminished to a child's proportions.
00:06:37.708 --> 00:06:42.927
It's hair, which hung about its neck and down its back was white as if with age.
00:06:43.348 --> 00:06:45.807
And yet the face had not a wrinkle in it.
00:06:46.288 --> 00:06:48.538
And the tenderest bloom was on the skin.
00:06:49.437 --> 00:06:51.627
The arms were very long and muscular.
00:06:51.778 --> 00:06:56.007
The hands, the same as if it's hold were of uncommon strength.
00:06:56.788 --> 00:06:57.958
It's legs and feet.
00:06:58.168 --> 00:07:02.348
Most delicately formed were like the upper members bare.
00:07:03.208 --> 00:07:06.507
It wore a tunic of the purest white and round its waste was bound.
00:07:06.507 --> 00:07:07.588
A lustrous belt.
00:07:07.827 --> 00:07:09.658
The sheen of which was beautiful.
00:07:10.257 --> 00:07:13.348
It held a branch of fresh green Holly in its hand.
00:07:13.617 --> 00:07:17.127
And in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem.
00:07:17.608 --> 00:07:20.278
Had its dress trimmed with summer flowers.
00:07:20.848 --> 00:07:28.468
But the strangest thing about it was that from the crown of its head, there sprung a bright, clear jet of light.
00:07:28.978 --> 00:07:39.028
By which all this was visible, which was doubtless the occasion of its using in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.
00:07:39.827 --> 00:07:43.788
Are you the spirit, sir, who's coming was foretold to me.
00:07:44.024 --> 00:07:44.985
Asked Scrooge.
00:07:46.185 --> 00:07:46.875
I am.
00:07:47.985 --> 00:07:55.214
The voice was soft and gentle singularly low as if, instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.
00:07:56.235 --> 00:07:58.154
Who and what are you.
00:07:58.574 --> 00:07:59.535
Scrooge demanded.
00:08:00.165 --> 00:08:02.625
I am the ghost of Christmas past.
00:08:03.095 --> 00:08:03.964
Long past.
00:08:04.194 --> 00:08:06.839
Inquired Scrooge observant of its dwarfish stature.
00:08:07.829 --> 00:08:08.310
No.
00:08:08.850 --> 00:08:09.779
Your past.
00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:20.149
Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have asked him, but he had a special desire to see the spirit in its cap and begged him to be covered.
00:08:20.809 --> 00:08:22.488
What exclaimed the ghost.
00:08:22.968 --> 00:08:35.719
Would you so soon put out with worldly hands, the light I give, is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap and forced me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow.
00:08:36.359 --> 00:08:44.308
Scrooge reverently disclaimed, all intention to offend or any knowledge of having willfully bonnetted the spirit at any period of its life.
00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:47.729
He then made bold to inquire what business brought him there.
00:08:48.448 --> 00:08:49.499
Your welfare.
00:08:50.038 --> 00:08:50.849
Said the ghost.
00:08:52.109 --> 00:08:59.458
Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end.
00:09:00.149 --> 00:09:02.908
The spirit must have heard him thinking for, it said immediately.
00:09:03.298 --> 00:09:04.708
Your reclamation then.
00:09:04.918 --> 00:09:05.759
Take heed.
00:09:06.308 --> 00:09:10.568
It put out it's strong hand as it spoke and clasped him gently by the arm.
00:09:11.198 --> 00:09:13.239
Rise and walk with me.
00:09:13.889 --> 00:09:19.469
It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour would not adapted to pedestrian purposes.
00:09:19.678 --> 00:09:29.639
That bed was warm and the thermometer a long way below freezing that he was clad, but lightly in his slippers, dressing gown and nightcap and that he had a cold upon him at that time.
00:09:30.509 --> 00:09:34.649
The grasp though gentle is a woman's hand was not to be resisted.
00:09:35.158 --> 00:09:41.038
He rose, but finding that the spirit made towards the window clasped it's robe in supplication.
00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:45.328
I am mortal Scrooge remonstrated, and liable to fall.
00:09:46.019 --> 00:09:48.479
Bear, but a touch of my hand there.
00:09:48.698 --> 00:09:50.769
Said the spirit laying upon its heart.
00:09:51.308 --> 00:09:54.188
And you shall be upheld in more than this.
00:09:54.818 --> 00:09:55.899
As the words were spoken.
00:09:56.198 --> 00:10:02.408
They passed through the wall and stood upon an open country road with fields on either hand.
00:10:03.038 --> 00:10:07.389
The city had vanished entirely, not a vestige of it was to be seen.
00:10:08.168 --> 00:10:12.698
The darkness and the mist had vanished with it for, it was a clear cold winter day.
00:10:13.149 --> 00:10:14.739
With the snow up on the ground.
00:10:15.249 --> 00:10:16.359
Good heaven.
00:10:16.469 --> 00:10:18.503
Said Scrooge clasping his hands together.
00:10:18.503 --> 00:10:19.373
As he looked about him.
00:10:19.732 --> 00:10:21.413
I was bred in this place.
00:10:21.802 --> 00:10:22.942
I was a boy here.
00:10:23.327 --> 00:10:25.248
The spirit gazed upon him mildly.
00:10:25.668 --> 00:10:32.008
It's gentle touch, though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man's sense of feeling.
00:10:32.538 --> 00:10:35.207
He was conscious of a thousand odors floating in the air.
00:10:35.388 --> 00:10:41.567
Each one, connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and joys and cares long, long forgotten.
00:10:42.097 --> 00:10:43.418
Your lip is trembling.
00:10:43.807 --> 00:10:44.528
said the ghost.
00:10:45.038 --> 00:10:47.077
And what is that upon your cheek?
00:10:47.648 --> 00:10:50.258
Scrooge muttered with an unusual catching in his voice.
00:10:50.587 --> 00:10:52.118
That it was a pimple.
00:10:52.567 --> 00:10:55.477
And he begged the ghost to lead him where he would.
00:10:56.048 --> 00:10:57.307
You recollect the way.
00:10:57.707 --> 00:10:58.628
Inquired the spirit.
00:10:59.347 --> 00:11:01.798
Remember it cried Scrooge with ferver.
00:11:02.018 --> 00:11:03.707
I could walk it blindfold.
00:11:04.158 --> 00:11:06.768
Strange to have forgotten it for so many years.
00:11:07.097 --> 00:11:07.937
Observed the ghost.
00:11:08.567 --> 00:11:09.378
Let us go on.
00:11:10.638 --> 00:11:15.498
They walked along the road, Scrooge recognizing every gate and post and tree.
00:11:15.857 --> 00:11:21.557
Until a little market town appeared in the distance with its bridge it's church and winding river.
00:11:22.217 --> 00:11:30.618
Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their back, who called to other boys in country, gigs and carts driven by farmers.
00:11:31.268 --> 00:11:39.841
All these boys were in great spirits and shouted to each other until the broad fields were so full of Merry music that the crisp air laughed to hear it.
00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:44.171
These are, but shadows of the things that have been said, the ghost.
00:11:44.860 --> 00:11:46.931
They have no consciousness of us.
00:11:48.490 --> 00:11:54.130
The jocund travelers came on and as they came, Scrooge knew and named them everyone.
00:11:55.091 --> 00:11:57.910
Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them?
00:11:58.571 --> 00:12:02.801
Why did his cold eye glisten and his heart leap up as they went past.
00:12:03.041 --> 00:12:10.977
Why was he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry Christmas as they parted at cross roads and byways for their several homes.
00:12:11.967 --> 00:12:14.008
What was Merry Christmas to Scrooge.
00:12:14.697 --> 00:12:15.927
Out upon Merry Christmas.
00:12:16.197 --> 00:12:17.937
What good had it ever done him?
00:12:18.628 --> 00:12:20.577
The school is not quite deserted.
00:12:20.998 --> 00:12:21.658
said the ghost.
00:12:22.258 --> 00:12:26.937
A solitary child neglected by his friends is left there still.
00:12:27.638 --> 00:12:28.957
Scrooge said he knew it.
00:12:29.677 --> 00:12:30.427
And sobbed.
00:12:31.317 --> 00:12:41.398
They left the high road by a well remembered lane and soon approached the mansion of dull red brick with a little weathercock surmounted copula on the roof and a bell hanging on it.
00:12:42.057 --> 00:12:48.357
It was a large house, but one of broken fortunes for the spacious offices were little used.
00:12:48.538 --> 00:12:53.577
Their walls were damp and mossy, their windows broken and their gates decayed.
00:12:54.447 --> 00:12:56.158
They went the ghost and Scrooge.
00:12:56.427 --> 00:12:59.067
Across the hall to a door at the back of the house.
00:12:59.577 --> 00:13:09.207
It opened before them and disclosed a long bare melancholy room made barer still by lines of plane deal forms and desks.
00:13:10.107 --> 00:13:16.827
At one of these, a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire, and Scrooge sat down upon a form.
00:13:17.278 --> 00:13:21.477
And wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used to be.
00:13:23.067 --> 00:13:28.317
The spirit touched him on the arm and pointed to his younger self intent upon his reading.
00:13:29.097 --> 00:13:41.217
Suddenly a man in foreign garments, wonderfully real and distinct to look at stood outside the window with an ax stuck in his belt and leading by the bridle and ass Laden with wood.
00:13:41.998 --> 00:13:44.337
Why it's Ali Baba.
00:13:44.788 --> 00:13:46.408
Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy.
00:13:46.648 --> 00:13:49.467
It's dear old, honest Alli Baba.
00:13:49.498 --> 00:13:49.888
Yes.
00:13:50.038 --> 00:13:50.398
Yes.
00:13:50.398 --> 00:13:51.057
I know.
00:13:51.508 --> 00:13:55.197
One Christmas time when yonder solitary child was left here all alone.
00:13:55.557 --> 00:13:58.288
He did come for the first time, just like that.
00:13:58.857 --> 00:13:59.607
Poor boy.
00:14:00.118 --> 00:14:03.847
And, and Valentine and his wild brother, Orson.
00:14:03.868 --> 00:14:04.587
There they go.
00:14:04.798 --> 00:14:09.677
And, and what's his name who was put down in the drawers asleep at the gate of Damascus.
00:14:09.918 --> 00:14:10.998
Don't you see him?
00:14:11.508 --> 00:14:15.018
And, and the sultans groom turned upside down by the genie.
00:14:15.408 --> 00:14:16.758
There he is upon his head.
00:14:17.028 --> 00:14:17.957
Serve him right.
00:14:18.227 --> 00:14:19.128
I'm glad of it.
00:14:19.577 --> 00:14:22.217
What business had, he to be married to the princess.
00:14:22.748 --> 00:14:33.038
To hear a Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature upon such subjects in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying and to see his heightened, excited face.
00:14:33.488 --> 00:14:36.368
Would've been a surprise to his business friends in the city.
00:14:36.398 --> 00:14:37.177
Indeed.
00:14:38.048 --> 00:14:45.278
Then with a rapidity of transition, very foreign to his usual character, he said in pity for his former self.
00:14:46.057 --> 00:14:47.107
Poor boy.
00:14:47.738 --> 00:14:48.668
And cried again.
00:14:49.388 --> 00:14:50.138
I wish.
00:14:50.798 --> 00:14:55.898
Scrooge muttered putting his hand in his pocket and looking about him after drying his eyes with his cuff.
00:14:56.587 --> 00:14:58.388
Oh, but it's too late now.
00:14:59.977 --> 00:15:00.817
What is the matter?
00:15:01.028 --> 00:15:01.927
Ask the spirit.
00:15:03.128 --> 00:15:03.548
Nothing.
00:15:03.868 --> 00:15:05.067
Said Scrooge, nothing.
00:15:06.207 --> 00:15:09.927
There, there was a boy singing a christmas Carol at my door last night.
00:15:10.888 --> 00:15:12.327
I should like to have given him something.
00:15:12.687 --> 00:15:13.467
That's all.
00:15:14.288 --> 00:15:17.977
The ghost smiled thoughtfully and waved its hand saying as it did so.
00:15:18.248 --> 00:15:20.107
Let us see another Christmas.
00:15:20.528 --> 00:15:23.107
Scrooges former self grew larger at the words.
00:15:23.707 --> 00:15:26.738
And the room became a little darker and more dirty.
00:15:27.548 --> 00:15:28.748
The panels shrunk.
00:15:28.957 --> 00:15:34.508
The windows cracked fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling and the naked laths were shown instead.
00:15:34.748 --> 00:15:38.557
But how all this was brought about Scrooge knew no more than you do.
00:15:39.248 --> 00:15:49.447
He only knew that it was quite correct that everything had happened so that there he was alone again, when all the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays.
00:15:50.437 --> 00:15:59.048
He was not reading now, but walking up and down, despairingly Scrooge looked at the ghost and with a mournful shaking of his head.
00:15:59.677 --> 00:16:01.538
Glanced anxiously toward the door.
00:16:02.798 --> 00:16:03.307
It opened.
00:16:03.758 --> 00:16:11.677
And a little girl, much younger than the boy came darting in and putting her arms around his neck and often kissing him, addressed him as her.
00:16:12.008 --> 00:16:13.177
Dear, dear brother.
00:16:14.467 --> 00:16:15.727
I have come to bring you home.
00:16:15.727 --> 00:16:20.077
dear brother said the child clapping her tiny hands and bending down to laugh.
00:16:20.437 --> 00:16:22.538
To bring you home, home, home.
00:16:23.077 --> 00:16:24.067
Home little fan.
00:16:24.368 --> 00:16:25.207
Returned the boy.
00:16:25.648 --> 00:16:28.227
Yes said the child brimful of glee.
00:16:28.528 --> 00:16:31.498
Home for good and all home for ever and ever.
00:16:32.008 --> 00:16:35.937
Father is so much kinder than he used to be that homes like heaven.
00:16:36.418 --> 00:16:46.528
He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed, that I was not afraid to ask him once more, if you might come home and he said, yes, you should.
00:16:46.827 --> 00:16:50.998
And sent me in a coach to bring you, and you are to be a man.
00:16:50.998 --> 00:16:52.707
Said the child opening her eyes.
00:16:53.008 --> 00:17:00.177
And are never to come back here, but first we're to be together all the Christmas long and have the merriest time in all the world.
00:17:00.817 --> 00:17:02.707
You are quite a woman, little fan.
00:17:03.158 --> 00:17:04.087
Exclaimed the boy.
00:17:04.958 --> 00:17:11.887
She clapped her hands and laughed and tried to touch his head, but being too little laughed again and stood on tiptoe to embrace him.
00:17:12.548 --> 00:17:19.307
Then she began to drag him in her childish eagerness toward the door and he nothing loath to go accompanied her.
00:17:20.278 --> 00:17:23.488
Always a delicate creature whom a breath might've withered.
00:17:23.698 --> 00:17:26.847
Said the ghost, but she had a large heart.
00:17:27.278 --> 00:17:29.438
So she had cried Scrooge.
00:17:29.647 --> 00:17:30.298
You're right.
00:17:30.758 --> 00:17:33.337
I will not gainsay it spirit, God forbid.
00:17:34.198 --> 00:17:35.577
She died, a woman.
00:17:36.028 --> 00:17:39.087
said the ghost and had, as I think children.
00:17:39.458 --> 00:17:41.438
One child Scrooge returned.
00:17:42.367 --> 00:17:42.817
True.
00:17:43.387 --> 00:17:45.057
Your nephew said the ghost.
00:17:46.107 --> 00:17:49.137
Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind and answered briefly.
00:17:49.468 --> 00:17:49.857
Yes.
00:17:51.688 --> 00:17:54.748
Although they had but that moment left the school behind them.
00:17:55.077 --> 00:18:06.557
They were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city where shadowy passengers passed and repassed, where shadowy carts and coaches battle for the way and all the strife and tummult of a real city were.
00:18:07.377 --> 00:18:10.827
It was made plain enough by the dressing of shops that here too.
00:18:11.067 --> 00:18:12.778
It was Christmas time again.
00:18:13.048 --> 00:18:15.807
But it was evening and the streets were lighted up.
00:18:16.212 --> 00:18:20.803
The ghost stopped at a certain warehouse store and asked Scrooge if he knew it.
00:18:21.383 --> 00:18:23.143
Know it! Said Scrooge.
00:18:23.502 --> 00:18:24.873
Was I apprenticed here?
00:18:25.353 --> 00:18:26.252
They went in.
00:18:26.722 --> 00:18:29.269
At the site of an old gentleman in a Welch wigs.
00:18:29.269 --> 00:18:36.343
Sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller, he must have knocked his head against the ceiling.
00:18:36.792 --> 00:18:44.593
Scrooge cried in great excitement, Why It's old Fezziwig, bless his heart it's Fezziwig alive again.
00:18:45.073 --> 00:18:50.403
Old Fezziwig laid down his pen and looked up at the clock, which pointed to the hour of seven.
00:18:50.823 --> 00:18:53.823
He rubbed his hands, adjusted his capacious waistcoat.
00:18:53.873 --> 00:19:02.303
Laughed all over himself from his shoes to his organ of benevolence and called out in a comfortably oily, rich fat jovial voice.
00:19:02.813 --> 00:19:04.303
Yo-Ho there, Ebenezer!.
00:19:04.583 --> 00:19:05.002
Dick.
00:19:05.259 --> 00:19:10.838
Scrooges former self now grown a young man came briskly in accompanied by his fellow Prentice.
00:19:11.358 --> 00:19:13.068
Dick Wilkins to be sure.
00:19:13.229 --> 00:19:14.608
Said Scrooge to the ghost.
00:19:15.239 --> 00:19:15.808
Bless me.
00:19:15.808 --> 00:19:16.108
Yes.
00:19:16.409 --> 00:19:17.308
There he is.
00:19:17.578 --> 00:19:19.199
Oh, he was very much attached to me.
00:19:19.229 --> 00:19:19.739
Was Dick.
00:19:20.098 --> 00:19:21.778
poor DIck! Dear dear.
00:19:22.679 --> 00:19:24.179
Yo ho my boys.
00:19:24.378 --> 00:19:26.778
Said Fezziwig, no more work tonight.
00:19:26.778 --> 00:19:30.588
Christmas Eve, Dick Christmas, Ebenezer, let's have the shutters up.
00:19:30.798 --> 00:19:36.199
Cried old Fezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands before a man can say, Jack Robinson.
00:19:36.848 --> 00:19:39.189
You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it.
00:19:39.608 --> 00:19:47.528
The charged into the street with the shutters 1, 2, 3, had them up in their places, four five, six barred them and pinned them 7, 8, 9.
00:19:47.588 --> 00:19:51.729
And came back before you could have got to 12, panting like race horses.
00:19:52.169 --> 00:19:52.949
Highly hoe.
00:19:53.499 --> 00:19:57.628
cried old Fezziwig skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility.
00:19:58.199 --> 00:20:00.838
Clear away my lads and let's have lots of room here.
00:20:01.068 --> 00:20:03.249
Hily-ho, Dick! Chirrup Ebenezer.
00:20:03.818 --> 00:20:04.568
Cleared away.
00:20:04.838 --> 00:20:09.519
There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away or couldn't have cleared away with old Fezziwig looking on.
00:20:09.939 --> 00:20:11.019
It was done in a minute.
00:20:11.318 --> 00:20:15.838
Every moveable was packed off as if it were dismissed from public life forever more.
00:20:16.348 --> 00:20:17.759
The floor was swept and watered.
00:20:17.909 --> 00:20:19.108
The lamps were trimmed.
00:20:19.348 --> 00:20:28.229
Fuel was heaped upon the fire and the warehouse was as snug and warm and dry and bright as a ballroom, as you would desire to see upon a winter's night.
00:20:28.557 --> 00:20:36.267
In came a Fiddler with a music book and went up to the lofty desk and made an orchestra of it and tuned like 50 stomach aches.
00:20:36.807 --> 00:20:37.737
In came, Mrs.
00:20:37.767 --> 00:20:53.396
Fezziwig one vast substantial smile in came the three miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable, in came the six young followers whose hearts they broke, in came all the young men and women employed in the business in came the housemaid with her cousin, the baker.
00:20:53.576 --> 00:20:57.017
In came the cook with her brother's particular friend, the milkman.
00:20:57.406 --> 00:21:02.116
In came the boy from over the way who was suspected of not having board enough from his master.
00:21:02.196 --> 00:21:08.287
Trying to hide himself behind the girl from next door, but one, who was proved to have her ears pulled by her mistress.
00:21:08.737 --> 00:21:19.866
In they all came, one after another, some shyly, some baldly some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling in, they all came any how and every, how.
00:21:20.247 --> 00:21:22.686
Away they all went 20 couple at once.
00:21:22.866 --> 00:21:29.886
Hands, half round and back again, the other way down the middle up again, round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping.
00:21:29.936 --> 00:21:32.696
Old top couple, always turning up in the wrong place.
00:21:32.817 --> 00:21:34.616
New top couple, starting off again.
00:21:34.616 --> 00:21:39.987
As soon as they got there all top couples at last and not a bottom one to help them.
00:21:40.406 --> 00:21:46.886
When this result was brought about old Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance cried out well done.
00:21:47.156 --> 00:21:55.576
And the Fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of Porter, especially provided for that purpose, but scorning rest upon his reappearance.
00:21:55.727 --> 00:21:57.707
He instantly began again, though.
00:21:57.707 --> 00:22:07.846
There were no dancers yet as if the other Fiddler had been carried home, exhausted on a shutter and he were a brand new man resolved to beat him out of sight or perish.
00:22:08.477 --> 00:22:20.752
There were more dances and there were forfeits and more dances and there was cake and there was negus and there was a great piece of cold roast and there was a great piece of cold boiled and there were mince pies and plenty of beer.
00:22:21.502 --> 00:22:33.962
But the great effect of the evening came after the roast and boiled when the Fiddler an artful dog mind the sort of man who knew his business better than you, or I could have told him struck up, sir, Roger, DeCoverley.
00:22:34.752 --> 00:22:37.762
Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs.
00:22:37.762 --> 00:22:38.423
Fezziwig.
00:22:38.813 --> 00:22:45.113
Top couple too, with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them three or four and 20 pair of partners.
00:22:45.472 --> 00:22:50.893
People who are not to be trifled with people who would dance and had no notion of walking.
00:22:51.353 --> 00:22:57.323
But if there had been twice as many Ah, four times! Old Fezziwig would have been a match for them.
00:22:57.472 --> 00:22:58.583
And so would Mrs.
00:22:58.583 --> 00:23:00.262
Fezziwig as to her.
00:23:00.563 --> 00:23:04.163
She was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term.
00:23:04.522 --> 00:23:07.762
If that's not high praise, tell me higher and I'll use it.
00:23:08.333 --> 00:23:11.363
A positive light appeared to issue from fizzy wigs calves.
00:23:11.692 --> 00:23:20.752
They shown in every part of the dance like moons, you couldn't have predicted at any given time, what would have become of them next, and when old Fezziwig and Mrs.
00:23:20.782 --> 00:23:29.873
Fezziwig had gone through the dance, advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and curtsy corkscrew thread the needle, and back again to your place.
00:23:30.292 --> 00:23:31.163
Fezziwig cut.
00:23:31.432 --> 00:23:31.853
Cut.
00:23:31.913 --> 00:23:38.353
So deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs and came up on his feet again, without a stagger.
00:23:39.762 --> 00:23:43.843
When the clock had struck 11, this domestic ball broke up.
00:23:44.292 --> 00:23:44.742
Mr.
00:23:44.742 --> 00:23:45.192
And Mrs.
00:23:45.192 --> 00:23:56.532
Fezziwig took their stations one on either side the door and shaking hands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas.
00:23:57.192 --> 00:24:01.932
When everybody had retired, but the two apprentices, they did the same to them.
00:24:02.143 --> 00:24:10.063
And thus the cheerful voices died away and the lads were left to their beds, which were under a counter in the back shop.
00:24:10.452 --> 00:24:15.073
During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a man out of his wits.
00:24:15.403 --> 00:24:17.472
His heart and soul were in the scene.
00:24:17.653 --> 00:24:19.182
And with his former self.
00:24:19.512 --> 00:24:26.442
He corroborated, everything remembered, everything, enjoyed everything and underwent the strangest agitation.
00:24:27.163 --> 00:24:41.262
It was not until now when the bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned from them, that he remembered the ghost and became conscious that it was looking full upon him while the light upon its head burnt very clear.
00:24:41.762 --> 00:24:47.373
A small matter, said the ghost to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.
00:24:48.242 --> 00:24:48.992
Small?
00:24:49.032 --> 00:24:49.932
Echoed Scrooge.
00:24:50.722 --> 00:24:59.153
The spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig, and when he had done so said.
00:24:59.613 --> 00:25:00.932
Why is it not.
00:25:01.472 --> 00:25:05.762
He has spent, but a few pounds of your mortar money, three or four, perhaps.
00:25:06.212 --> 00:25:08.942
Is that so much that he deserves that praise?
00:25:09.192 --> 00:25:16.252
It isn't that said Scrooge heated by the remark and speaking unconsciously, like his former, not his latter self.
00:25:16.563 --> 00:25:17.823
It isn't that spirit.
00:25:18.093 --> 00:25:33.423
He has the power to render us happy or unhappy to make our service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil say that as power lies in words, and looks in things so slight and insignificant, that it is impossible to add and count them up.
00:25:33.512 --> 00:25:34.202
What then.
00:25:34.682 --> 00:25:38.432
The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.
00:25:38.952 --> 00:25:41.323
He felt the spirits glance and stopped.
00:25:41.762 --> 00:25:42.633
What is the matter?
00:25:42.771 --> 00:25:43.612
Asked the ghost.
00:25:44.606 --> 00:25:45.507
Nothing particular.
00:25:46.150 --> 00:25:47.380
Something, I think.
00:25:47.430 --> 00:25:48.539
The ghost insisted.
00:25:48.970 --> 00:25:49.359
No.
00:25:49.380 --> 00:25:49.990
said Scrooge.
00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:50.470
No.
00:25:51.109 --> 00:25:54.769
I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now that that's all.
00:25:55.450 --> 00:25:58.990
His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance to the wish.
00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:03.849
And Scrooge and the ghost again, stood side by side in the open air.
00:26:04.490 --> 00:26:05.750
My time grows short.
00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:07.670
Observed the spirit quick.
00:26:08.599 --> 00:26:14.019
This was not addressed to Scrooge or to anyone whom he could see, but it produced an immediate effect.
00:26:14.470 --> 00:26:16.750
For again, Scrooge saw himself.
00:26:17.529 --> 00:26:20.319
He was older now a man in the prime of life.
00:26:21.069 --> 00:26:24.549
His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years.
00:26:24.970 --> 00:26:28.140
But it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice.
00:26:28.990 --> 00:26:38.230
There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which showed the passion that has taken root and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.
00:26:39.180 --> 00:26:40.259
He was not alone.
00:26:40.680 --> 00:26:44.130
But sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning dress.
00:26:44.549 --> 00:26:50.430
In whose eyes that were tears, which sparkled in the light that shown out of the ghost of Christmas past.
00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:52.380
It matters little.
00:26:52.539 --> 00:26:53.890
She said softly to you.
00:26:53.890 --> 00:26:54.759
Very little.
00:26:55.480 --> 00:26:57.250
Another idol has displaced me.
00:26:57.970 --> 00:27:02.140
And if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do.
00:27:02.619 --> 00:27:04.660
I have no just cause to grieve.
00:27:05.799 --> 00:27:06.400
Huh, what.
00:27:06.730 --> 00:27:08.619
What idol has displaced you.
00:27:08.710 --> 00:27:09.369
He rejoined.
00:27:09.730 --> 00:27:10.730
A golden one.
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:13.140
This is the evenhanded dealing of the world.
00:27:13.430 --> 00:27:13.920
he said.
00:27:14.460 --> 00:27:21.569
There's nothing on which it is so hard as poverty, and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth.
00:27:21.964 --> 00:27:23.494
You fear the world too much.
00:27:23.595 --> 00:27:24.795
She answered gently.
00:27:25.174 --> 00:27:30.394
All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach.
00:27:31.055 --> 00:27:38.525
I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one until the master passion gain engrosses you have I not.
00:27:39.025 --> 00:27:43.765
What then he retorted, even if I have grown so much, wiser what then?
00:27:44.305 --> 00:27:45.805
I am not changed towards you.
00:27:46.474 --> 00:27:47.434
She shook her head.
00:27:48.454 --> 00:27:48.934
Am I.
00:27:49.335 --> 00:27:51.164
Our contract is an old one.
00:27:51.555 --> 00:28:00.494
It was made when we were both poor and content to be so until in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry.
00:28:01.184 --> 00:28:03.255
You are changed.
00:28:03.384 --> 00:28:05.424
When it was made, you were another man.
00:28:05.625 --> 00:28:06.404
I was a boy.
00:28:06.744 --> 00:28:07.734
He said impatiently.
00:28:08.384 --> 00:28:11.204
Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are.
00:28:11.454 --> 00:28:12.204
She returned.
00:28:12.835 --> 00:28:13.555
I am.
00:28:14.275 --> 00:28:18.265
That which promised happiness when we were one in heart is fraught with misery.
00:28:18.265 --> 00:28:19.440
Now that we are too.
00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:23.460
How often and how keenly I have thought of this, I will not say.
00:28:24.210 --> 00:28:27.839
It is enough that I have thought of it and can release you.
00:28:28.529 --> 00:28:30.180
Have I ever sought release.
00:28:30.670 --> 00:28:31.349
In words.
00:28:31.559 --> 00:28:31.980
No.
00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:32.700
Never.
00:28:33.109 --> 00:28:33.799
In what then?
00:28:34.430 --> 00:28:38.359
In a changed nature in an altered spirit in another atmosphere of life.
00:28:38.359 --> 00:28:40.309
Another hope as its great end.
00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:44.930
In everything that made my love of any worth or value in your site.
00:28:45.589 --> 00:28:47.480
If this had never been between us.
00:28:47.859 --> 00:28:51.980
said the girl looking mildly, but with steadiness upon him, Tell me.
00:28:52.789 --> 00:28:55.609
Would you seek me out and try to win me now?
00:28:57.019 --> 00:28:57.200
Huh.
00:28:57.930 --> 00:28:58.910
Ah, no.
00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:02.859
He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition in spite of himself.
00:29:03.220 --> 00:29:04.630
But he said with a struggle.
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:05.630
You think not.
00:29:06.210 --> 00:29:08.279
I would gladly think otherwise if I could.
00:29:08.609 --> 00:29:09.240
She answered.
00:29:09.329 --> 00:29:10.140
Heaven knows.
00:29:10.710 --> 00:29:15.450
When I have learned a truth like this, I know how strong and irresistible it must be.
00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:33.529
But if you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, Can I even believe that you would choose a dowerless, girl, you who, in your very confidence with her weigh everything by gain or choosing her if for a moment, you were false enough to your one guiding principle to do so.
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:37.759
Do I not know what your repentance and regret would surely follow.
00:29:38.809 --> 00:29:39.380
I do.
00:29:39.980 --> 00:29:43.670
And I release you with a full heart for the love of him.
00:29:44.150 --> 00:29:45.049
Who you once were.
00:29:45.950 --> 00:29:50.000
He was about to speak, but with her head turned from him, she resumed.
00:29:50.839 --> 00:29:55.039
You may, the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will.
00:29:55.039 --> 00:29:56.900
I have pain in this.
00:29:57.410 --> 00:30:01.880
A very, very brief time and you will dismiss the recollection of it gladly.
00:30:02.269 --> 00:30:03.920
As an unprofitable dream.
00:30:04.339 --> 00:30:06.430
From which it happened well that you awoke.
00:30:07.549 --> 00:30:09.950
May you be happy in the life you've chosen.
00:30:10.789 --> 00:30:12.569
She left him and they parted.
00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:18.140
Spirit, said Scrooge, show me no more conduct me home.
00:30:18.140 --> 00:30:19.910
Why do you delight to torture me?
00:30:20.609 --> 00:30:23.609
One shadow more exclaimed the ghost.
00:30:23.730 --> 00:30:24.779
No more cried.
00:30:24.809 --> 00:30:25.170
Scrooge.
00:30:25.170 --> 00:30:25.799
No more.
00:30:26.019 --> 00:30:27.210
I don't wish to see it.
00:30:27.210 --> 00:30:28.410
Show me no more.
00:30:28.900 --> 00:30:34.402
But the relentless ghost pinioned him in both his arms and forced him to observe what happened next.
00:30:34.862 --> 00:30:40.791
They were in another scene and place a room, not very large or handsome, but full of comfort.
00:30:41.392 --> 00:30:43.904
Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful young girl.
00:30:43.904 --> 00:30:47.365
So like the last one that Scrooge believed it to be the same.
00:30:47.816 --> 00:30:49.705
Until he saw her.
00:30:50.006 --> 00:30:53.125
Now a comely matron sitting opposite her daughter.
00:30:53.935 --> 00:31:01.226
The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous for, there were more children there than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count.
00:31:01.526 --> 00:31:11.536
And unlike the celebrated, heard in the poem, there were not 40 children Conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting himself like 40.
00:31:12.346 --> 00:31:16.635
The consequences were uproarious beyond belief, but no one seemed to care.
00:31:16.965 --> 00:31:21.915
On the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily and enjoyed it very much.
00:31:22.066 --> 00:31:27.786
And the latter soon, beginning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most ruthlessly.
00:31:28.395 --> 00:31:30.526
What would I not have given to be one of them?
00:31:30.836 --> 00:31:31.046
Though.
00:31:31.046 --> 00:31:32.486
I never could have been so rude.
00:31:32.486 --> 00:31:33.865
No, no, I wouldn't.
00:31:33.865 --> 00:31:37.945
For all the wealth of the world have crushed that braided hair and torn it down.
00:31:38.125 --> 00:31:41.336
And for the precious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off.
00:31:41.365 --> 00:31:44.125
God bless my soul to save my life.
00:31:44.875 --> 00:31:49.796
As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did bold young brood, I couldn't have done it.
00:31:50.195 --> 00:31:55.256
I should have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment and never come straight again.
00:31:55.526 --> 00:32:06.925
And yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips to have questioned her, that she might have opened them to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes and never raised a blush.
00:32:07.286 --> 00:32:12.955
To have let loose waves of hair, an inch of which would have been a keepsake beyond price.
00:32:13.286 --> 00:32:15.086
In short, I should have liked.
00:32:15.145 --> 00:32:22.405
I do confess to have had the lightest license of a child, and yet to have been mad enough to know its value.
00:32:22.915 --> 00:32:46.556
But now a knocking at the door was heard and such a rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and plundered dress was born towards it in the center of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time to greet the father who came home, attended by a man Laden with Christmas toys and presents, then the shouting and the struggling and the onslaught that was made on this defenseless porter.
00:32:46.996 --> 00:32:52.875
The scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his pockets, despoil him of brown paper parcels.
00:32:53.236 --> 00:33:00.016
Hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round the neck, pommel his back and kick his legs in irrepressible affection.
00:33:00.766 --> 00:33:05.596
The shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package was received.
00:33:05.806 --> 00:33:18.046
The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying pan into its mouth and was more than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious Turkey glued onto a wooden platter.
00:33:18.705 --> 00:33:23.715
The immense relief of finding this false alarm, the joy and gratitude and ecstasy.
00:33:24.135 --> 00:33:26.326
They were all indescribable alike.
00:33:27.016 --> 00:33:37.635
It is enough that by degrees, the children and their emotions got out of the parlor and by one stair at a time up to the top of the house where they went to bed.
00:33:37.846 --> 00:33:39.256
And so subsided.
00:33:40.365 --> 00:33:52.066
And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his own fireside.
00:33:52.665 --> 00:33:58.006
And what he thought that such another creature quite as graceful and as full of promise, might've called him father.
00:33:58.486 --> 00:34:01.185
And been a springtime in the Haggard winter of his life.
00:34:01.786 --> 00:34:03.796
His sight grew very dim indeed.
00:34:04.336 --> 00:34:04.786
Belle.
00:34:05.296 --> 00:34:07.546
Said the husband turning to his wife with a smile.
00:34:08.056 --> 00:34:10.456
I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon.
00:34:10.925 --> 00:34:11.735
Who was it?
00:34:12.596 --> 00:34:15.076
Guess! How can I?
00:34:15.286 --> 00:34:16.746
Tut, I don't know.
00:34:16.856 --> 00:34:19.635
She added in the same breath, laughing as he laughed.
00:34:20.505 --> 00:34:21.675
Mr Scrooge.
00:34:22.335 --> 00:34:23.175
Mr Scrooge.
00:34:23.175 --> 00:34:27.916
It was, I passed his office window and as it was not shut up.
00:34:27.965 --> 00:34:29.556
And he had a candle inside.
00:34:29.795 --> 00:34:31.626
I could scarcely help seeing him.
00:34:32.436 --> 00:34:38.376
His partner lies upon the point of death I hear, and there he sat alone, quite alone in the world.
00:34:38.376 --> 00:34:39.126
I do believe.
00:34:39.945 --> 00:34:42.215
Spirit said Scrooge in a broken voice.
00:34:42.306 --> 00:34:43.806
Remove me from this place.
00:34:44.356 --> 00:34:47.536
I told you these were shadows of the things that have been.
00:34:47.596 --> 00:34:48.376
Said the ghost.
00:34:48.766 --> 00:34:51.166
They are what they are, do not blame me.
00:34:51.646 --> 00:34:53.726
Remove me! Scrooge exclaimed.
00:34:53.846 --> 00:34:55.106
I cannot bear it.
00:34:55.686 --> 00:35:03.206
He turned upon the ghost and seeing that it looked upon him with a face in which in some strange way, there were fragments of all the faces.
00:35:03.206 --> 00:35:05.065
It had shown him wrestled with it.
00:35:05.726 --> 00:35:06.476
Leave me.
00:35:06.746 --> 00:35:09.115
Take me back haunt me no longer.
00:35:09.596 --> 00:35:29.896
In the struggle if that can be called a struggle in which the ghost with no visible resistance of its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooge observed that its light was burning high and bright, and dimly connected that with its influence over him, he seized the extinguisher cap and by a sudden action pressed down upon its head.
00:35:30.306 --> 00:35:34.476
The spirit dropped beneath it so that the extinguisher covered its whole form.
00:35:34.715 --> 00:35:43.985
But though Scrooge pressed down with all his force, he could not hide the light, which streamed from under it in an unbroken flood upon the ground.
00:35:44.646 --> 00:35:51.365
He was conscious of being exhausted and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness and further of being in his own bedroom.
00:35:51.965 --> 00:36:01.326
He gave the cap, a parting squeeze in which his hand relaxed and had barely time to reel to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep.
00:36:02.806 --> 00:36:05.835
Well, that concludes the second stave of a Christmas.
00:36:05.835 --> 00:36:06.255
Carol.
00:36:06.735 --> 00:36:08.385
I hope you're enjoying it so far.
00:36:09.135 --> 00:36:12.545
If I can ask all my listeners for a favor or two at this time.
00:36:13.445 --> 00:36:20.286
First, if you are able to please leave a review of the show in general, this goes a long way for the show.
00:36:20.525 --> 00:36:22.806
As far as visibility on all the different platforms.
00:36:23.315 --> 00:36:25.835
It also helps with the search engines and that kind of thing.
00:36:26.465 --> 00:36:30.576
It doesn't need to be lengthy of a few words or even a star rating helps.
00:36:31.056 --> 00:36:32.346
I really would appreciate it.
00:36:33.005 --> 00:36:44.646
Secondly, if you enjoy the show and I hope you are, please consider becoming a supporter of the show by becoming a bronze, silver, or gold level monthly supporter on buy me a coffee.
00:36:45.456 --> 00:36:52.746
On most of the podcast platforms, there is a link that says support the show, and this will take you to my, buy me a coffee page.
00:36:53.795 --> 00:36:56.346
It's like Patrion, but with a different company.
00:36:57.186 --> 00:37:02.315
There's also a nice link on the podcast website forward into the past podcast.com.
00:37:03.215 --> 00:37:11.076
Believe it or not, I'm currently recording this podcast on my personal laptop and it would be nice to have a dedicated computer for this podcast.
00:37:11.525 --> 00:37:15.155
So, if you can please donate or become a supporter.
00:37:15.755 --> 00:37:18.246
A huge, thanks to my regular listeners out there.
00:37:18.545 --> 00:37:21.036
My little podcast is growing quite quickly.
00:37:21.615 --> 00:37:22.965
Well, as always folks.
00:37:23.085 --> 00:37:24.525
I've rambled long enough.
00:37:24.965 --> 00:37:27.215
And once again, Thanks for listening.
00:37:27.516 --> 00:37:29.226
Keep sharing the stories.
00:37:29.525 --> 00:37:31.115
And be a good human.
00:37:31.775 --> 00:37:32.706
Bye for now.
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