A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens
adapted by Katherine Cooper
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, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his then 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.
One Christmas Eve, Scrooge was at work with his clerk , Bob Cratchit, when his nephew Fred came in to wish him a "Merry Christmas". Scrooge said "Bah Humbug" and sent him away. Some people came in collecting money for charity . Scrooge would not give them money, he told them the poor could go to prisons or workhouses if they needed a place to stay. The men told Scrooge that some people would rather die; Scrooge replied "If they'd rather die, then they better do it, and decrease the surplus population ."
When it was time to leave, Bob Cratchit asked for the next day off for Christmas. He told Scrooge that all the other businesses would be closed and so there would be no one to do business with; Scrooge said "a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December , but I suppose you must have the whole day. But be here all the earlier the next morning ."
That night on his way home, Scrooge saw a face in his door knocker, it was the face of his former partner Marley! Later that evening, while Scrooge was eating dinner, Marley's ghost appeared to him. Scrooge could not believe it, he thought that maybe it was because of an upset stomach . He told the ghost "there is more of gravy than of grave about you!" The ghost told Scrooge that he was not a nice person and that he would be forced to walk on earth wearing the chains he forged in life . He told Scrooge he would be haunted by 3 ghosts!
The first ghost to visit Scrooge was the Ghost of Christmas Past . She took Scrooge to the schoolhouse he attended as a child. She reminded him that he was often left alone there. She then took him to the place where he had his first job. He saw parties that he attended and remembered that his first boss, Mr. Fezziwig, had been a kind person who care a great deal for his fellow man. She showed him that his girlfriend broke up with him because he was more worried about money and business than her. Scrooge got mad at the ghost. He told her to show him no more. The ghost said "these are the shadows of things that have been, that they are what they are, do not blame me!"
The second ghost to visit Scrooge was the Ghost of Christmas Present. The ghost showed Scrooge his nephew's house. His nephew and his wife were playing games and making jokes about Scrooge. The spirit took him to the home of Bob Cratchit. He showed him that Bob Cratchit's son, Tiny Time, was sick. Even though they were poor, The Cratchit family was happy because they had each other. Scrooge asked the ghost if Tiny Tim would live and the ghost said "I see a vacant seat in the poor chiminey-corner, and a crutch with out an owner carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die."
The third ghost to visit Scrooge was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The ghost showed Scrooge that Bob Cratchit was sad because Tiny Tim died. The ghost showed Scrooge people trying to sell things they took from someone who had already died.The ghost finally showed him a gravestone and on it was the name, Ebeneezer Scrooge.
After the visit from the last ghost, Scrooge woke up and it was Christmas Morning. He was so happy that he did not miss Christmas. He promised to remember the past, present and future always. He bought a goose and sent it to the Cratchit's house for their dinner. And to Tiny Time, who did not die, Scrooge became like a second father. He went to his nephew's house to celebrate Christmas. It was said afterwards that Scrooge was as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city had ever known. It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowlege. And so as Tiny Tim observed, "God bless us, everyone!"
Citations
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