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    A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol
    A Christmas Carol
    Ebook104 pages1 hour

    A Christmas Carol

    By Charles Dickens

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is one of the classic heart warming Christmas stories that have delighted readers for decades. "A Christmas Carol" is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold and bitter miser who despises Christmas and everything about it. When the ghost of his old partner Jacob Marley and then three additional ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve he finally learns of the true spirit of Christmas.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9781596253964
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens (1812-1870) var þekktur enskur skáldsagnahöfundur og samfélagsgagnrýnandi, almennt talinn einn af merkustu rithöfundum Viktoríutímans. Dickens fæddist í Portsmouth á Englandi og upplifði erfiða æsku, sem einkenndist af fjárhagserfiðleikum, sem síðar hafði áhrif á mikið af skrifum hans. Dickens öðlaðist frægð með raðmyndasögum og varð þekktur fyrir hæfileika sína til að sameina húmor, mikla félagslega athugun og djúpt mannlegar persónur. Verk hans varpa ljósi á baráttu fátækra, galla stofnanakerfa og mikið misræmi á milli þjóðfélagsstétta í Englandi á 19. öld. Í dag er Dickens ekki aðeins fagnað fyrir sannfærandi frásagnir heldur einnig fyrir varanleg áhrif hans á bókmenntir og samfélag.

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    Reviews for A Christmas Carol

    4/5

    5,101 ratings206 reviews

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    • 4/5
      He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.
      It is hardly a surprise that the holiday arrived this year without my falling into the mood. Overwork and unseasonable weather has left me jarred -- quite removed from the trappings of the spirit. My wonderful wife bought me one of them there smartphones -- so I could join the century. I was simply pleased to be with her on a rainy morning with the thought of the trip to my family weighing rather ominously. I survived it all and actually enjoyed myself. I did not read Mr. Dickens there.

      We came home and enjoyed Chinese take-away and it was then that I turned again to the Christian charm of social justice by means of poltergeists: spectral redemption. There are sound reasons why this tale has proliferated since its inception.
    • 5/5
      This is the way to enjoy this story – having Tim Curry read it to you. He does an absolutely fabulous job and it was just a total delight.

      For the story – I love how creepy yet still uplifting the author was able to keep the story. He has really had you feeling for past Ebenezer. I would have liked more about Bob Cratchit because he always seems so much more developed as a character in the cinematic versions of the story. I kind of missed that.

      Tim Curry gives this story a fabulous feel and it keeps you listening to very end. He gives each character a distinct voice and really does the creepy justice. Great way to enjoy a classic.
    • 5/5
      Such a pleasure to read these lovely words! You may know the story, but until you read Charles Dickens’ own words you haven’t truly experienced the magic.
    • 5/5
      This was brilliant, Patrick Stewart does an excellent job portraying the different characters.
    • 5/5
      This is a great performance of a wonderful classic.

      I think there are few people who don't know the story: Ebenezer Scrooge, tight-fisted businessman who calls Christmas a humbug and has no use for charity or kindness, goes home on Christmas Eve, and is visited by the ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley. Marley warns him of the fate he has been forging for himself by caring only for business and not for other people, but promises him he has one last chance at salvation.

      He will be visited by three spirits: the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Be. Scrooge is not delighted at this news, but it's not a choice for him. The spirits are coming.

      Tim Curry animates the characters with power, flexibility, and control. We feel the chill of Scrooge's office, and rooms, and heart, and correspondingly the warmth of his nephew's home and heart, as well as Bob Cratchit's home, heart, and family. We hear, and thereby see and feel, the hardships of Victorian London, as well as its life and color.

      This is a great way to enjoy this wonderful classic of the Christmas season.

      Recommended.

      I received this book free as a member of the Ford Audiobook Club.
    • 5/5
      Every year at Christmas the kids and I reread A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens but this year I won a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Illustated by Francine Haskins and  Afterword by Kyra E. Hicks on Library Thing. This popular classic was not changed it was wonderfully illustrated with contemporary line drawings as it brings all of the characters to life as Black Victorians. The Afterword highlights over 100 African Americans, Black British and Canadian actors that have performed A Christmas Carol over the last century demonstrating this story belongs to everyone. Review also posted on Instagram @borenbooks, Library Thing, Go Read, Goodreads/StacieBoren, Amazon, and my blog at readsbystacie.com
    • 5/5
      A book that stands the test of time and I read this with the approach of Christmas! A very enjoyable book even if you know exactly what is going to happen, worth worth it and it is quite a small book.
    • 5/5
      I recently received a new version of a great classic, A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens. This particular version is illustrated by Francine Haskins with an afterword by Kyra E. Hick. This version has wonderful illustrations that belong in everyone's collection. Thank you to Kyra E. Hick for bringing this to my attention so that I may share it. Francine Haskins brings to live a Christmas Carol for ALL to enjoy regardless of where we live.
    • 5/5
      No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.
      This was surprisingly quite funny! The narration was done in that particular style that seems to have been largely abandoned by modern authors: third-person told from a first-person non-character narrator. I love this style! Many of my favorite classics (Peter Pan, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc) are told in this style, and it always lends itself a storybook quality that is sorely lacking in today's literature.

      The story itself was something I am at this point extremely familiar with, as it has permeated all corners of Western civilization at this point, but still, there were some things that are often excluded in most adaptations, such as the children of mankind: "They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware of them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased." (Except for that one with Jim Carrey, but it added that weird chase scene.) Those parts not oft-explored were really interesting and added a great deal of meaning to the story.

      I am quite glad I read this. This was my first Dickens experience and it has fully convinced me that I really need to read more classics! Time to read them instead of watching their BBC Masterpiece Classics adaptations!

      "There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the Spirit, "who claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us, and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived."
    • 5/5
      Wonderful illustrations by PJ Lynch sets this edition above the others. The full page illustrations throughout the book helps bring the story alive with the scenes of Victorian England.
    • 4/5
      Great classic story!
    • 1/5
      A Christmas Carol is a story I've seen I don't know how many adaptations for. I recently watched the one from Doctor Who, which was excellent, but there are a lot of good ones, and it's a good story. A bit overused and overrated, but good.

      This is the first time I read the original story, and I have to say I came away sorely disappointed. This is one of those cases where the best adaptations have something that the original story just doesn't. It seems to me that some of the adaptations give Scrooge a better reason for being a dickhead than the original story did. Here he was lonely and poor as a child, and that's pretty much it. I guess that's reason enough to be a dickhead? Sure, why not. It doesn't help that we fly right through the familiar treks of the story so fast and with no time to breathe that nothing sinks in or carries weight. Scrooge's lonely childhood is summed up in a vague sentence about him being neglected by his friends. How the hell am I supposed to give two shits about his already incredibly generic rough childhood if they don't even stop to focus on the details that make it unique to him?

      This is the first time I've read Dickens, and I really do not care for his writing style one bit, which definitely put a damper on any enjoyment I might have had . It rarely evokes emotion or vivid imagery and is just...oddly worded and structured. Here's an example:
      In the struggle, if that can be called a struggle in which the Ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary, Scrooged observed that its light was burning high and bright; and dimly connecting that with its influence over him, he seized the extinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head.
      I honestly don't understand how someone living today can enjoy a book that's written this way. I'm sure it was great in it's time and everything, but it's just so counter to how prose has evolved since then. It's superfluous, redundant, and overwrought.

      The weird thing is, I have no idea if it's just a product of the time, or if it's unique to Dickens. I have thoroughly enjoyed quite a lot of books from the 1800s, ala Sherlock Holmes, H.G. Wells, etc. Those books are a joy to read. They are easy to read. Their prose is clear, and elegant. Sure, they still show some signs of that older style of writing, but it's never a blockade like it is here. It never impedes forward progress, or makes comprehension/immersion any more difficult than reading modern prose would be. Those are from the 1880s or later, however, and this book was written in 1843. Perhaps that 37 year gap holds a much wider difference in prose style than I think it should? I've read plenty of books from the 1950s that seem almost contemporary, but I have no idea if that's a fair comparison. Either way, it's not much fun to read now. Not much fun at all. Bah Humbug!
    • 5/5
      Inhaltsangabe:Ebener Scrooge ist ein reicher Kaufmann, der aus ärmlichen Verhältnissen stammt. Seit dem Tod seines Geschäftsparnters Marley ist er noch geiziger, noch kaltherziger und garstiger geworden. Und die Weihnachtszeit ist ihm sowieso ein Greuel, denn das bedeutet, das sein Kommis Cratchit einen bezahlten freien Tag bekommt.Doch am Abend vor Weihnachten bekommt Scrooge plötzlich Besuch: Den Geist von Marley. Marley kündigt ihm den Besuch von drei Geistern an: den Geist der vergangenen, der gegenwärtigen und zukünftigen Weihnacht. Und Marley mahnt ihn, sich sehr bald zu ändern, denn sonst würde ihm das gleiche Schicksal ereilt wie ihm.Mit schlotternden Knien erwartet Scrooge die Geister und macht sich mit ihnen auf eine Reise, die ihn für immer verändern.Mein Fazit:Eine bezaubernde Weihnachtsgeschichte, die heute traditionell einfach nicht mehr fehlen darf, weder als Buch noch im Fernsehen. Schon mehrfach verfilmt, strahlt die Geschichte immer wieder eine Botschaft aus: Es ist Weihnachten, habe Mitleid, praktiziere Nächstenliebe und schieb den Groll beiseite.Charles Dickens bedient sich dabei einer sehr bildlichen Sprache, beweist zuweilen trockenen Humor und zeigt ohne mahnenden Zeigefinger die Mißstände in der zwei-Klassen-Gesellschaft auf, die damals in England herrschten und im Grunde zeitlos überall bis heute vorherrschen. Deshalb hat diese Geschichte ihren wahren Charakter bis heute nicht verloren und kann noch viele weitere Generationen zu Weihnachten erzählt werden.Dies ist eigentlich eher eine Kindergeschichte, aber ich denke, auch -oder gerade- Erwachsene haben etwas davon. Ich kann es immer wieder empfehlen. Trotz der an einigen Stellen holprigen Sprache (ist ja auch schon 160 Jahre alt) kann man es ganz gut verstehen.Von mir bekommt das Buch 4,5 von 5 Sternchen.Anmerkung: Die Rezension stammt aus Dezember 2009.Veröffentlicht am 22.12.15!
    • 5/5
      All time favorite Christmas book. Dickens understood man's greed and avarice and disregard for society's downtrodden. Yet even while knowing so much of his fellow man Dickens still believes that humanity can change and their is hope in even the hardest of hearts. Dickens introduces the character of Scrooge, a man who has become so caught-up in the almighty dollar that he has forgotten about his fellow man. But Dickens sends Scrooge a second (and a first and third !) in the form of three ghosts - The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Through their visits Scrooge discovers what he has forgotten (perhaps never known) - that love and kindness make even the worst of situations bearable. I think that Scrooge's nephew Fred is Dickens alternate ego. After reading Dickens writing I always feel like I have been to that England that Dickens knew. I can taste the hot chestnuts, the plum pudding, and the roasted goose; smell the stink of the over-crowded city, and feel the awe and wonder Tiny Tim must have felt while going to the cathedral for Christmas service and when he and his father came home to a beautiful big Christmas goose. I wish everyone could read this book and have their hearts open to the joy of giving and their minds open to miracles.
    • 3/5
      Being my first Dickens, I won't be shying away from him just yet, but I figured I'd start with a short one first. Most of us already know the story of A Christmas Carol. There are so many adaptations of it in the modern world that it's hard to escape it. When looking at the story itself, I might think to have given it almost 5 stars. But that's not all that goes into writing a book. If I had the option, I would have cut a majority of what was written into this book. Dickens seems to like listing off anything and everything, whenever he can. When establishing the setting of a scene, he wrote on and on about various things, but by the time he got back to moving the story forward, I'd given up on caring where it was set anymore. At least the dialogue was strong enough.

      So I'm torn between the story and the writing style for this one, and I predict it'll be the case in any future Dickens I try out. I might be surprised though. Time will tell. Maybe the thick books I have on my shelf isn't the author being long winded and stretching out a story for no reason. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.
    • 5/5
      From Gutenberg, the 1843 edition, with John Leech illustrations. I decided to watch as many visual versions of the story as I could this year (on #11 as I type this - the oldest surviving adaptation, a 1901 short ... gotta love the internet), and I realized that I'd not read this since I was 13, so forty years is long enough.

      I give five stars for inspiring so many adaptations. That and so pretty good writing. "The dealings of my rade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" And things weren't much different in 1843 England than from today's tea partiers and FoxNews watchers: Dickens named a creature hidden in the robes of Christmas Present "Ignorance", crying "...but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom..."

      Trivium point I had long forgotten: Cratchit's name isn't mentioned until Christmas Present.
    • 5/5
      Dickens eminently accesible, immortal masterpiece.
    • 3/5
      Uiteraard erg melo en wat belegen, maar toch mooi. Licht dantesk van opbouw
    • 5/5
      Who does not know the story? This is my fourth time through A Christmas Carol and each time reveals something new. I am currently in the midst of reading God and Charles Dickens: Recovering the Christian Voice of a Classic Author by Gary Colledge, and this time through the Christian references were much more poignant. The illustrations in this edition were a very nice addition, and it is nice to see a standard Kindle edition with them. The book would always get 5 stars, and the Kindle version does as well.
    • 5/5
      There's not much to say about this book that hasn't already said by many others (and said better than I am capable of). Obviously, it's a great book. It's a classic for a reason. That said, this was my first foray into Dickens, and two things struck me about this book:

      1.) I was genuninely shocked to realize that Dickens had a sense of humor! I chuckled out loud a couple of times. For some reason, I expected this to be a very serious book, and it really was not.

      2.) I was also genuninely shocked by how closely the movie adaptations follow the book...something that never happens. Granted, this is such a short book, it's easy to remain true to it. But even the Mickey Mouse version is pretty darn accurate!

      It was a great read for our December bookclub meeting...festive AND short. Glad I finally got around to reading this one.
    • 5/5
      *** This was a reread. I originally read this book many years ago, and have seen and heard numerous variations since. This time around I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jim Dale, who can do no wrong in my eyes ears.
    • 5/5
      A well-known and famous Christmas Classic written by the master wordsmith. This is a great book to read at Christmas time.
    • 4/5
      Maybe my favorite Dickens. Almost all of the things that make him great, and almost none of the things that occasionally make him tedious.
    • 4/5
      Everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol - it has been told a thousand times in a thousand different ways and it says a lot about the power of the original text that it can be re-interpreted so often yet people still find it fresh.

      The reinterpretations never stray too far from the general concept (in fact I'd say the Muppets version surprisingly was one of the most loyal versions of the story - bonus points to Kermit & co!) so basically it comes down to whether you like the story of not. I'm a sucker for redemption & ghosts and all those themes so I enjoy it but I know that some people find the whole thing a little gloomy.

      Regardless, this is a classic for a reason and, especially at Christmas, well worth a read.
    • 5/5
      I try to reread this one every year at Christmas, though I'm a little late with it this year. It is just as wonderful each time.
    • 5/5
      A friend of mine (Thanks, Carmen) had sent me an article about Dickens that said the perfect age to introduce this author to a child is 12. I'm not sure if I agree with the article - Dickens can be wordy and his books don't have a chance of competing with the action packed stories that our young adults are reading today. But, I love Dickens and I want my 12 year old son to love him also, so I decide that A Christmas Carol would be the perfect story to enjoy together as a family, especially since the audio version I have is narrated by Jim Dale.

      We were not disappointed! This book was not only filled with humor and charm, but also preached a valuable lesson on the true meaning of Christmas - without being too preachy. But, what really surprised me was how much this book touched me. Let's face it. It's December 5th, I have not started my holiday shopping, and I was beginning to get a little panicked. But nowhere in this classic Christmas story, does Dickens talk about Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or internet shopping vs buying local. The lesson Ebeneezer Scrooge learns from the Christmas Ghosts is that the holiday is a time to connect and enjoy family and friends. What a good reminder for us all!
    • 5/5
      This wasn't so very far off from the movie editions of this story. Not too many books can claim to be more closely or more accurately followed in the movies than this one has been. Still, I enjoyed the book tremendously and I am very happy to have read it now. Jim Dale gave an amazing performance as he always does. The man is phenomenal. Not enough can be said about him. He's a credit to the written word, plain and simple.
    • 5/5
      Completed my annual reading of the tale. Now ready to keep Christmas in my heart another year.
    • 4/5
      A classic holiday tale that I had failed to read all these years! Upon picking it up I assumed it would be boring and dull, given that we simply all know this story by heart. Surprisingly it wasn't that at all! It was alive and interesting in ways I didn't expect, and of course the language and writing style is so beautiful that I could enjoy anything written by him.
    • 5/5
      My partner used to read this out loud to our children each year. The children...well, they protested. But we love it, every plummy word.

    Book preview

    A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

    A CHRISTMAS CAROL

    BY CHARLES DICKENS

    A Digireads.com Book

    Digireads.com Publishing

    Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-2516-6

    Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-59625-396-4

    This edition copyright © 2011

    Please visit www.digireads.com

    CONTENTS

    PREFACE

    STAVE ONE. MARLEY'S GHOST

    STAVE TWO. THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS

    STAVE THREE. THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS

    STAVE FOUR. THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS

    STAVE FIVE. THE END OF IT

    PREFACE

    I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

    Their faithful Friend and Servant, C. D.

    December, 1843.

    STAVE ONE. MARLEY'S GHOST

    Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

    Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

    Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

    The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot—say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance—literally to astonish his son's weak mind.

    Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

    Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.

    External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often 'came down' handsomely, and Scrooge never did.

    Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, 'My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?' No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, 'No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!'

    But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call 'nuts' to Scrooge.

    Once upon a time—of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve—old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already—it had not been light all day—and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.

    The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed.

    'A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!' cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach.

    'Bah!' said Scrooge, 'Humbug!'

    He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.

    'Christmas a humbug, uncle!' said Scrooge's nephew. 'You don't mean that, I am sure?'

    'I do,' said Scrooge. 'Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough.'

    'Come, then,' returned the nephew gaily. 'What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough.'

    Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said 'Bah!' again; and followed it up with 'Humbug.'

    'Don't be cross, uncle!' said the nephew.

    'What else can I be,' returned the uncle, 'when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every 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 Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.'

    'Keep it!' repeated Scrooge's nephew. 'But you don't keep it.'

    'Let me leave

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