A Christmas Carol Chapter 1 | Marley’s Ghost (Part 2)
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. 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!" cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation Scrooge had of his approach.
"Bah!" said Scrooge; "humbug!"
"Christmas a humbug, uncle! You don't mean that, I am sure?"
"I do. 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, and not an hour richer. If I had my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding!"
"Uncle!"
"Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine."
"Keep it! But you don't keep it."
"Let me leave it alone, then. Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!"
"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that, -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time. Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow.”
