Nobody ever stopped him in the street to ask in happy voices My dear Scrooge how are you When will you come to see me No beggars asked him for anything No children asked the time Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him When they saw him coming they tugged their owners into doorways But what did Scrooge care It was the very thing he liked Once upon a time on Christmas Eve old Scrooge sat in his countinghouse It was bitter outside He could hear people in the outside court stamping their feet upon the pavement to get warm Although it was only three o’clock it was already dark The entire day had been dark and dank Candles flickered in the windows The fog was so thick that you couldn’t make out the houses across the street They were mere phantoms The door of Scrooge’s countinghouse was open He wanted to keep an eye on his clerk 6
Scrooge had a small fire but the clerk’s fire was much smaller It was so much smaller that it was almost out The clerk couldn’t replenish his fire because Scrooge kept the coal box in his own room What choice did the clerk have but to put on his white comforter and try to warm himself with a candle A merry Christmas Uncle God save you cried a cheerful voice It was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew Bah said Scrooge Humbug You don’t mean that Uncle said his nephew I do said Scrooge Merry Christmas What right have you to be merry You’re poor enough Come then said the nephew happily What right do you have to be so dismal You’re rich enough Scrooge had the only answer he could think of Bah humbug 8
Don’t be angry Uncle What else can I be when I live in a world of fools Merry Christmas What’s Christmas to you but a time for paying bills without money A time for finding yourself a year older A time for balancing the books If I had my way everyone who wished a merry Christmas would be boiled in his or her own pudding Then he’d be buried with a stake of holly through his heart Uncle pleaded the nephew Nephew Scrooge shot back Keep Christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mine What good has Christmas ever done you Keep it repeated Scrooge’s nephew But you don’t keep it Let me leave it alone then said Scrooge Christmas is a good time A kind forgiving charitable pleasant time The only time I know of all year when men and women open their hearts freely and help those below them 9
