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A Christmas Carol A GHOST STORY ' (By Charles Dickens)

- (‘Continued from page 4)

upon merry Christmas ! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for find-

.|‘ng yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time

for balancing your books and having evefi item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,” said Scrooge indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry, Christmas,’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”

“Uncle!” pleaded the nephew. _ '

“Nephew!" returned the uncle, sternly, “keep Christ- mas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.”

“Keep it!” repeated Scrooge’s nephew. “But you don’t kee it-”’ '

p“Let me leave it alone, then,” said Scrooge, “Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!"

“There are many thing from which I might have de- rived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," re- turned the nephew: “Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and-origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that-as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long cal- endar of the year, when men and ‘women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passen- gers to the grave, and not another race of creatures hound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded: be- coming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark forever.

“Let me hear another sound from you,” said Scrooge. "and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation.” "You're quite a powerful speaker, Sir,” he added, turning to his nephew. “I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.”

“Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow.”

Scrooge said that he would see lIlm—Y¢5, llldeelrlle did. He went the whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that extremity first.

“But why?” cried Scrooge’s nephew. “Why?”

"Why did you get married?" said Scrooge.

“Because I fell in love.” <

“Because you fell in love!” growled Scrooge, as if that were the only one thin in the world more ridiculous than a me Christmas. “ ood afternoon!” , .

“ ay, uncle, but you never came to see me before-that happened, Why give it as a reason for not coming now?" . “Good afternoon," said Scrooge.

“I want nothing from you; I ask nothing from you; why cannot we be friends?" ., ‘

“Good'afternoon," said Scroogd .

“I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So a Merry Christmas, uncle!”

“Good afternoon!” said Scrooge.

“And a Hall!!!’ New Year!”

“Good afternoon!” said Scrooge.

His nephew left the room without an angry word, not- withstanding. He stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was. was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned them cordially.

“There’s another fellow,” muttered Scrooge, who over- heard him: “my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and i! wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I’ll ictire to Bedlam.”

This lunatic, in letting Scrooge’s nephew out, had let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with-their hats off, in Scrooge’s office. They had books and papers in their hands. null bowed to him.

“Scrooge and Marley's, I believe,” said one of the gen- ilcmen, referring to his list. “Have I”the pleasure of ad- dressing Mr, Scrooge, or Mr. Marley? ”

“Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years, "Scrooge replied. “He died sevn years ago, this very night.

“We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his surviving partner,” said the gentleman, presenting his credentials. _

It certainly was; for they had been twfl K111111110 spirits. At the ominous word “liberality,” Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back.

“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said ilic gentleman, taking up a pen. “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time, Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of ,thousands are in want of common comforts. Sir.”

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge. 3 h “Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman. lBYlHB 00W" t e eii . rain.

HAndmtlie ‘Union workhouses?” demanded 3010089- “Are thcy still in operation?”

“They are. Still," returned the gentleman, “i wish I could say they were not.” _

“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour. then?” said Scrooge. S_ , _

“ - , ir.’

“ghtlhlvsvlillsbillfsiliiid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.

“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude, returned the gentleman “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy tile Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. we choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?" -

"Nothing!" Scrooge rollllfll- _

"You wish to be anonymous?”

“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what 1 wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I dent-

s

‘ make myself merry at Christmas, and I can't afford to

support the establish-

liske idle-people merry. I hell? 10 and. "m" who

ments I have mentioned the! cost enollll" nre badly off must go ere. ~ ‘ “Mam, can», go were; nndwpiany would rallied" dies" d Y “If they would rather die, said Scroulo. 011d I ‘__ cotter do it, lmildecijem tau zurpluspolilllltlllll- B"! "f- . ., , g “$155353 fn°§|:;?|nizv_lbg 00525011 the llntieinsn. h "It's ‘ubt my business,” Scroofl Tehmml- "l" 6110112 .- for a mull to understand his own businesh N"! 110$ l0 l0‘ 4,3,“ w“! ca“ mplvs. "Minc- oceuuies me constantly. norms. castles-st

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the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and

.went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had once

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EHE CHARLOTTETOWN GUARDIAN

Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his la- oours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him. _

Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickenedso, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their serv-' ices to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slyly down at Scrooge out of a gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibra- tions afterwards’ as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. The cold became intense. In the main street at the corner of the court, some labourers were re-

beef. -

- Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have

nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with a Christmas caroli but at the first sound of

God bless you, merry gentleman!

May nothing you dismay! Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that

even more congenial frost.

arrived. With an iii-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who‘in'stantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat.

“You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?” said. Scrooge.

“If quite convenient, Sir.”

“It's not convenient,” said Scrooge, “and it's not fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you'd think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?” -

The clerk smiled faintly. _

“And yet," said Scrooge, “you don’t think me ill-used, when I pay a day’s wages for no work.”

The clerk observed that it was only once a year.

“A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth‘ of December!” said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. “But I suppose you must have the whole day, Be here all the earlier next morning!” '

The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a twink- ling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his white com- fortei- dangling below hiswaist (for he boasted no great- coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman's-buff. - _

Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual mel- ancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his bankeifs-book,

belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had no business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and have forgotten the way out again. It was old enough now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being let out as offices. The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands. The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold,

Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particu- lar aboutthe knocker on the door, except that it was very large. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the City of London, even including- which is a bold word-the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not

liestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven-years'-dead partner that afternoon/And then let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his kcy in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change, not a knocker, but Marley’s face.

Marley's face. I_t was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in‘ the yard were, but had a dismal light about it like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air; and though the eyes were wide open ,they were prfectly motionless, That, and its- livid colour, inade it horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its control, rather than a part of its own_ex- pression.

As Scrooge looked aknocker again.

To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been o stranger from infancy, would be untrue. But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished, turned it sturdily, walked in, and lighted his candle. /

He did pause, with a momentsirresolution, befo e he shut the door; and he did look cautiously behind it irst, as if he half-expected to be terrified, with -the sight of Marley's pigtall sticking out into ‘the hall. But. there was nothing on the back of the door, except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on; so he said “Pooh, pooh!”

and closccl it with a bang. ' . -

The sound resounded through the house like thunder. Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant's cellars below, appeared to have a separate poll of echoes of its own, Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes. lie‘ fastened the door, and walked across the hall, and up the stairs: slowly too: trimming his candle as he went.

You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-anii-six up a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad young Act

‘fixedly at this phenomenon, it was

of hrliunnnti but I 0.1"! to uz-zou null l!!! not o > .' ' . '

roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young ‘

At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house n‘

I

5209199110

M17. Stock — ‘w? Exchange

a r-ziii id nil Con»!!! £802,321? ofylllontrfiul ii-tock exchnnil and Curb Market)

Ma rk eta A t A Glance ‘

(Canadian Prom) Toronto and Montreal-Indus- ,i:rlal stocks closed lower. froronto Mines-Lower.

New York-Stocks closed lower.

pairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a Si???“ __ 1 gffgfi”wh”t d“? 1 3'8 m brazier, round which a party of ragged men and boys were all-nun. ' New Yohkcouon W; whim- gathered: warming their hands and winking their eyes f,,,'§,‘§‘{§,°,'_'_ lower; coffee higher; sugar un- before .the blaze in rapture. The water-plug being left in (flu 085110211 '4' 000118110?

solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed, and turned Si: d“... $11M if?“ iii’ to misanthropic ice, The brightness of the shops, where m“ “d” _ _, 12 1w .-.'

holly sprigs and berries crackledin the lamp heat of the l:'g"r§l°"" " 4 iii! {L w Jeuaneou‘ windows, made pale faces ruddy as they passed. Poiilter- llggzuil-Fiiif" ' a w)’; (c nl'__'lumnw)

ers’ and grocers’ trades became a splendid joke: a glorious Rf Q1117.“ 1 i.“ '14 MONTREAL, Dec. 17- ‘ pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe ""1"" - - -~ ‘f, ‘ff Wheat. nor no a a3.

that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything illtilinfifif." " 1014 10% gll-léell‘ Odw o“: g7“-

‘to do. The Lord Mayor in the stronghold of the mi hty 5° C“ P" ' ' ' ' ' ' ' " “ ’ °° n '

Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and buflers w“ o! C“ ' ' ' ' ' ' I " m‘ w)‘ lnllftiinlpm‘ WM“ pawn“ to keep Christmas as a Lord -Mayor’s household should; anxio- Flour seconds???-

vnd even ‘the little tailor whom he had fined five shillings “m” “km 5‘ ‘

on the previous Monday ,for being drunk and bloodthirsty Bk of C," - - - - - - - » - ~ 33% f? ,,,§,‘§;",,‘_’§{,‘_“°’ when plums’ in the streets, stirred up_toniorrow’s pudding in his garrelt, ill‘. ‘if: lllinliiééiii in": ill Flour white corn $4.60.

while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the gill; cD,-u~__:" fill,“ m“ w“ fins‘

Shorts ton 822.25.

Middlings ton 827.25.

Rolled oats bag 90 lbs 82.75. Hay no 2 per ton carlots 810.00- Clieese no 1 Ont white 11. Cheese Ont col 11 1-2.

Butter 35 1-4 to 1-2.

Eggs in cartons A 1 large 50-51. Eggs A 1 medium 42.

New Y0 :3: Curb,

(Canadian —Prcss) Close

35 5-3 Eggs A 1 pullets 39-40. _ s5 3.4 Eggs A large 44-45. . 2 1-4 Eggs A medium 36. 13 5-3 Eggs A pullets 33-34. .. z 1-2 Exes B lurso 80-31- m iaond Share .. 14 v-a Essa B medium 58-19- Ford of Can A . . . . . . . .. 25 1-4 Elms C 27-20- Gulf Oil . .. 701-2 lgglutoeo 90's P E I into 81-30 to . 60 1-4 - - _ a0 3.g 90's P E I, eobblers 81.25-81.30. 35 3.4 90's P E I mts 81.20-81.25. 3 5.3 90's P E I mts 81.15 to 81.20 21 14 80's N. B. 000111915 ‘115-‘110. Un L and P A 2 5-3 00's Que mts 81-05 to 81-10- Un L and P Pfd .. 22 1-8 50's Que cobbler: 90 to $1.00-

hearse up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall, and the door towards the halustrades: and done it easy. There was plenty of width for that, and room to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on

before him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of 00mm

the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well, so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge’s dip.

Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that: dark- ness is. cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. He ‘had just enough recollection of the face to desire to do that.

Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they should be. Nobody under the table; nobody under the sofa; a. small fire in the grate; spoon and basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his head) upon the hob. Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard, old shoes, two fish-baskets, wash- ing-stand on three legs, and a poker. -

Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus secured against surprise, he took off his .cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and his nightcap, and sat down_before the fire to take his gruel,

It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a bitter night. I-Ie was obliged to sit close to it,.and brood over it, before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel. The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to il- lustrate the Scriptures. There were Cains and ' Abels, Pharaohs’ daughters, Queens of Sheba, Angelic mess- cngers descending through the air on clouds like feather- beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in .butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophet's rod, and swallowed up the whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at first, with power to shape some picture on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would have been a copy of old Marley's head on every one.

“Humbug!” said Scrooge; and walked across the room.

After several turns he sat down again. As he threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest story of the building. It was with great astonishment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house. _

This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased as they had begun, together. They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below; as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant’s cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains.

The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound, and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight towards his door. ~

“It's humbug still!” said Scrooge, "I won't believe it.”

His colour changed though, when, without a pause, it came in through the heavy door, and passed into the oom before his eyes. Upon its coming in, the dying f ame leaped up, as though it cried “I know him! Marley's ghost!” and fell again.

The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights, and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it wssimade (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash- boxes, Ii s, padlocks, lodgers, deeds, and heavy purses wroughteln steel. His body was transparent; so that sci-ooze, obmrving him, and looking through his waist- coat, could see two buttons-on his coat behind.

had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now.

No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its quill-cold 92h: and who. the my. torture. n Q0. folild