My angel is all caught up in the holiday spirit. No matter what I say, she insists I take the time to enjoy the tree lights and sing Christmas carols. She even wants me to paint a winter landscape. She reminds me to be kind, patient and generous of spirit. She says, “Remember Scrooge? Of course! Who can forget the miser who turns into a kind and giving soul?
A Christmas Carol is the classic Christmas Story by Charles Dickens that so many of us love to read at this time of year. It reminds us to have have joy and peace in our hearts and to be kind all year long.
Scrooge, was a squeezing, scraping, clutching old miser. He hated Christmas, and said it was nothing but “humbug.” Well, we all know the truth don’t we? What ever you celebrate during the Holiday Season – it is a time for sharing and charing and giving. And that is what life is all about isn’t it?
Here are the last two pages from the original book, A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens, pp115-116 (public domain-from the Library of Congress)
But he was early at the office next morning. Oh, he was early there. If he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That was the thing he had set his heart upon.
And he did it’ yes, he did! The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. He was a full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the tank. His hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to overtake nine o’clock.
“Hollo!” growled Scrooge, in his accustomed voice, as near as he could feign it. “What do you mean by comin here at this time of day?”
“I am very sorry, sir,” said Bob. “I am behind my time.”
“You are?” repeated Scrooge. “Yes. I think you are. Step this way, sir if you please.”
“It’s only once a year, sir,” pleaded Bob, appearing from the tank. “It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir.”
“Now, I’ll tell you what, my friend,” said Scrooge; “I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore,” he continued, leaping from his stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the tank again—” and therefore I am about to raise your salary!”
Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. He had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and a strait waistcoat.
“A Merry Christmas Bob!” said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back.
“A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year. I’ll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!”
Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive form. His own heart laughed; and that was quite enough for him.
He had no further intercourse with spirits, but lived upon the total abstinence principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us every one!
The End
If you click this: “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, written 1911, you can read the book and enjoy all the illustrations.
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