SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1920,
2]
BE HAPPY.
(Cominted from Page 184)
STAVE FOUR.
THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS.
+
Lead on, spirit!"
it is precious time to me, I know The phantom moved away no it had come towards him. Scrooge followed in the shidow of its dress which bore him up, he thought, and carried him along,
They scarcely seemed to enter the city; for the city rather seemed to spring up about them, and encompass The phantom slowly, gravely,them of its own act Bat (here they silently approached. When it came were, in the heart of it; on "Change, near him, Scrooge beat down upon amongst the merchants; who hurried l's knee; for in the very air through which this spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.
It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and lett nothing of
THE CHINA MAIL.
27
again, thinking that the explanation shops and houses wretched; the had already spoken threw her bundle me for another renny, and made it us when he was dead! Ha, ha, ba!" ways were foul and narrow; the While he did this, the woman who "That's your account. If you asked from him when he was alive, to profit
might lie here.
Far in this den of Infamous resort,
ing from head to foot, see, the The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way, now. Merciful Heaven, what is this!"
He knew these men, also, perfectly people half-naked, dranken, slipshod, on the ficor and sat down in a flaunt an open question, I'd repent of being "Spirit!" said Scrooge, shudder They were men of business, very ugly. Alleys and archways, bike so ing manner on a stool; crossing her so liberal, and knock off half-2- wealthy, and of great importance, many cesspools, disgurged their elbows on her knees, and looking crown." He had made a point always of offences of smell, and dirt, and life, with a bold defiance at the other "And now undo my bundle. Joe," standing well in their esteem in a upon the straggling streets; and the two.
said the first woman. "What odds then! What odds, business point of view, that is: whole quarter reeked with crime..
Joe went down on his knees for strictly in a business point of view.
with filth, and misery.
Mrs. Dilber? said the woman. the greater convenience of opening Every person has a fight to take it, and having unfastend a great Bow are you?" said one.
care of themseves. He always did!" many knots, dragged out a large and
"That's true, indeed!" said the heavy roll of some dark stuff. laundress. "No man more so.”
What do you call this?" said "Why then, don't stand staring as Joe. "Bed-curtains!"\\\ if you was afraid, woman; who's the
Ah!" returned wiser? We're not going to pick bales laughing and leaning forward on her in each other's, coats. I suppose?"
crossed arms. "Bed-curtains!" "No, indeed!" said Mrs. Dilber and the man together. "We should hope
"How are you?" returned other.
"Old
the
last,
the
"Well!" said the first. up and down, and chinked the money Scratch has got his own at in their pockets, and conversed in hey?"
groups, and locked at their watches,So I am told," returned and trified thoughtfully with their second: Cold, isn't it ?” great gold seals; and so forth, as Scrooge had seen them often.
there was a low-browed, beeting shop, below a perit-house roof, where Iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal, were bought. Upon the Bloor within, were piled up heaps of rusty keys, nails, chains, tiles, scales, weights, and refuse iron of all kinds. "Seasonable for Christmas time. Secrets that few world like to scruti- You're not a skater, I suppose?"
aise were bred and hidden to moun "No. No.
Something else to tains of unseemly rags, masses of not.” knot of business men. Observing, think of. Good-morning!'
corrupted fat, and sepulchres of that the hand was pointed to them,“ Not another word. That was their bones. Sitting in among the wares
partlog
made of old bricks, was a gray- Scrooge was at first inclined to be haired rascal, nearly seventy years of surprised that the spirit should attach, age; who had screened himself from importance to conversations appar the cold air without, by a fowsy ently so trivial; but feeling assured curtaining of miscellaneous tatters, that they must have some hidden hang upon a line; and smoked his purpose, he set himself to consider pipe in all the luxury of calm retire
it visible save one outstretched hand. The spirit stopped beside one little But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the
the Woman,
had changed, and now he almost He recoiled in terror, for the scape touched a bed bare, uncurtained bed-on which, beneath a ragged sheat, there lay a something covered up, which, though it was darab, as. pounced itself in awful language.
The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any accuracy, though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse, anxious to know what kind of room it was.
A pale light, rising in the octer air, plundered and bereft, watched, fell straight upon the bed; and on it,
aight, and separate it from the dark. Scrooge advanced to listen to their meeting, their conversation, and their be deait in. by a charcoal stove, like these? Not a dead man, I sup- tune," said Joe, "and you'l certainly unwept, uncared for, was the body
ness by which it was surrounded.
He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him, and that 'its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. He knew no were, for the spirit neither spoke nor moved.
"I am in the presence of the Ghost! of Christmas Yet To Come:** said Sercoge.
talk.
"No," said a great fat man with a monstrous chin. "I don't know much about it, either way. I only know he's dead."
When did he die? Inquired
another.
"Last night, I believe," ・・
Why, what was the matter with him? asked a third, taking a vast but quantity of snuff out of a very large "I thought he'd never
The spirit answered cot pointed onward with its hand.
"You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before, us," Scrooge pursued. **Is that so, spirit ? ”
50
snuff-box.
die,"
#
¦
ment.
"You don't mean to say you took 'em down, rings and all, with him lying there?" said Joe. "Very well, then!" cried the wo
“Yes, I do,” replied the woman. man. That's enough. Who's the "Why not?" worse for the loss of a few things. You were born to make your for pose."
* do it," "No, indeed," said Mrs. Dilber, I certainly shan't held my hand, of this man. Laughing
"If he wanted to keep 'em after he reaching it out, for the sake of such tom. Its steady hand was pofated to when I can get anything in it by Scrooge glanced towards the phan. was dead, a wicked old screw pura man as he was, I promise you, Joe," the head. The cover was so cat natural in his lifetime. If he had drop that oil upon the blankets, ing of it, the motion of a finger woon sued the woman, "why wasn't, he returned the woman coody. "Don'tlessly adjusted that the slightest rais
been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself.""
"It's the truest word that ever was spoke," said Mrs. Dilber. judgment on him.
"It's a
now."
Scrooge's part, would have disclosed His blankets?" asked Joe." the face. He thought of it. felt how "Whose else's do you think?" easy it would be to do, and longed to replied the woman. "He isn't likely do it; but had no more power to I to take cold without 'em, I dare say." | withdraw the veil than to dismiss the
"I hope he didn't die of anything spectre at his side.
what it was likely to be. They could scarcely be supposed to have any Scrooge and the phantom came bearing on the death of Jacob, his into the presence of this man, just old partner, for that was past, and as a woman with a heavy bundle this ghost's province was the fatore. slank into the shop. But she had Nor could he think of any one im scarcely entered, when another "God knows," said the fret, with mediately connected with himself to woman, similarly laden, came in too; yawn
whom he could apply them. But and she was closely followed by a What has be done with his nothing doubting that to whoso man in faded black, who was no less ment," replied the woman; and it Ping in his work, and looking up-
"I wish it was a little heavier judg. catching? Eh?" said old Joe, stop- Oh, cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death money?" asked a red-faced gentle-ever they applied they had some startled by the sight of them, than should have been, you may depend! Don't you be afraid of that." with such terrors as thou hast at thy [set up thine altar here, and dress it The upper portion of the garment man with a pendulous excrescence latent moral for his own improve they had been upon the recognition upon it, if I could have laid my hands returned the woman. was contracted for an instant in its ca the end of bis nose, that shock meat, he resolved to treasure up of each other.
"I ain't so command; for this is thy dominion! folds, as if the spirit had inclined its like the gills of a turkey-cock. every word he heard, and everything of blank astonishment, in which the old Joe, and let me know the value about him for such things, if he did.oured dead, thou canst not turn one After a short period on any thing else. Open that bundle, fond of his company that I'd loiter But of the loved, revered, and hor head. That was the only answer he
I haven't heard, said the man he saw; and especially received.
with the large chin, yawning again the shadow of himself when it them, they all three burst into a afraid to be the first, nor afraid for shirt till your eyes ache; but you one feature odious. It is not that observe old man with the pipe had joined of i Speak ont plain. I'm not Ah! You may look through that hair to thy dread purposes, or make Although well used to ghostly."Left it to his company, perhaps. He appeared. For he had an expecta-laugh. company by this time, Strage basn't left it me. That's all I know. tion that the conduct of his future
them to see it. We knew pretty well won't find a hole in it, nor a thread the hand is heavy, and will fill down, feared the silent shape
"Let the charwoman alone to be that we were helping ourselves, be- bare place. It's the best he had, and when released; it is not that the This pleasantry was received with self would give him the clue be the first!" cried she who had entered fore we met here, I believe. It's no a fine one too. They'd have wasted heart and pulse are still; but that the much that 'his legs trembled a general laugh.
missed, and would reader the solu-first "Let the laundress alone to be sin. Open the bundle. Joe." beneath him, and be found that he
"It's likely to be a very cheap tion of these riddles easy. “
it, if it hadn't been for me."
hand was open, generous, and true; could hardly stand when he prepared funeral," said the same speaker ; "for
What do you call wasting of it?" the heart brave, warm, and tender; . to follow it. The spirit aused a upon my life I don't know of any for his own image; but another man bere, old Joe, here's a chance! If in faded black, mounting the breach!
He looked about in that very place the second; and let the undertaker's
But the gallantry of her friends asked old Joe. min alone to be the third. Look would not allow of this; and the man
and the pulse a man's. Strike, Str moment, as observing his condition, body to go to it. Suppose we make stond in his accustomed corner, and we haven't all three met here with first, produced his plunder. It was
"Putting it on him to be buried is, dow, strike! And see his good deeds and giving him time to recover. up a party and volunteer ? **
though the clock pointed to his usual out meaning it!"
to be sure," replied the woman with springing from the wound, to som But Scrooge was all the worse for "I don't mind going if a lunch is time of day for being there, he saw
not exteńsive. A seal or two, a, laugh. Somebody was fool the world with life immortal! this. It thrilled him with a vague provided," observed the gentlemanno Eikeness of himself among the
"You couldn't have met in a bet pencil-case, a pair of sleeve-buttons, enough to do it, but I took it off No voire pronounced these words uncertain horror, to know that behind with the excrescence on his nose multitudes that poured in through ter place," said old Joe, removing his and a brooch of no great value were again. If calico ain't good enough in Scrooge's ears, and yet he heard the dusky shroud, there were ghostly But I must be fed, if I make one." the porch. It gave him little surprise, pipe from his mouth. Come into all. They were severally examined for such a purpose, it isn't good them when he looked upon the bed. eyes intently fixed upon him, while Another laugh.
however; for he had been revolving the parlour. You were made free of and appraised by old Joe, who chaik-enough for anything. It's quite as he, though be stretched his own to "Well, I am the most disinterested in his mind a change of life, and it long ago, you know; and the othered the sums he was disposed to give becoming to the body. He can't thought, if this man could be the atmost, could see nothing but a among you, after all," said the first thought and hoped he saw his new two ain't strangers Stop till I shut for each, upon the wall, and added look uglier than he did in that one." raised up now, what would be his foremost thoughts? Avarice, hard- spectral band and one great heap of speaker,
for I never wear black born resolutions carried out in this. the door of the shop. Ab! How it them up into a total when be found Scrooge listened to this dialogue dealing, griping cares? They have black.
glares, and I never eat lunch. But
As they sat grouped! "Ghost of the future!" he ex- I'll offer to go, if anybody else the phantom, with its outstretched bit of metal in the place as its own
Quiet and dark beside him stood / skreeks! There ain't auch a rusty that there was nothing more to come-bout their spoil, in the scanty light brought him to a rich end, truly!
"That's your account,” said Joe,
He lay, in the dark, empty house, claimed, "I fear you more than any will. When I come to think of hand. When he roused himself from hinges, I believe; and I'm sure there's "and I wouldn't give another six afforded by the old man's lamp, he spectre I have seen. But as I know it, I'm not at all sure that I wasn't his thoughtful quest, he fancied from no such old bones bere, as mine. pence, if I was to be boiled for not viewed them with a detestation and with not a man, a woman, or a child, your purpose is to do me good, and his most particular friend for the turn of the band, and its situation Ha ha! We're all suitable to our doing it. Who's next?"
disgust, which could hardly have to say he was kind to me in this of as I hope to live to be another man we used to stop and speak whenever in reference to himself, that the calling; we're well matched. Come Mrs. Dilber was next. Sheets and been greater, though they had been that, and for the memory of one kind from what I was, I am prepared to we met. Bye, bye!"
unseen eyes were looking at him into the parlour. Come into the towels, a little wearing apparel, two obscene demons, marketing the word I will be kind to him A cat was tearing at the door, and there bear you company, and do it with a Speakers and listeners strolled keenly. It made him shudder, and parlour."
old-fashioned silver teaspoons, a pair corpse itself. thankful heart. Will you not speak away, and tuixed with ether groups feel very cold.
was a sound of gnawing rats beneath The parlour was the space behind
the bearth stone. What they wanted to me?
Scrooge knew: the men, and looked į They left the busy scene, and went the screen of rags, the old man raked
in the room of death, and wh they It gave him no reply. The hand towards the spirit for an explanation into an obscure part of the toga. the fire together with an old starrod,
were 50 restless and disturbed. was pointed straight before them. The phantom glided on into a where Scrooge had never penetrated and having trimmed his smoky lamp
Scrooge did not dare to think. "Lead on!" said Scrooge-
"Lead street. Its finger pointed to two before, although he recognised its (for it was night) with the stem of on! The night is waning fast, and persons meeting. Scrooge listened situation, and its bad repute. The his pipe, put it in his mouth again.
a
in horror.
of sugar-tongs, and a few boots. Her Ha, hal" laughed the same wo account was stated on the wall in man, when old Joe, producing a fan the same manger.
nel bag with mony in it, told" I always give too much to ladies,out their several gains upon the It's a weakness of mine, and that's ground. This is the end of it, you the way I ruin myself,” said old Joe.' see. He frightened every one away
(Continued on Page 28.)
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