The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to one. He advanced towards it, trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.
"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point," said Scrooge, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that may be only?"
Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.
"Men"s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge; "but if the course be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!"
The Spirit was immovable as ever.
Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went, and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, EBENEZER SCROOGE.
"Am _I_ that man who lay upon the bed?" he cried, upon his knees.
The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again.
"No, Spirit! Oh, no, no!"
The finger still was there.
"Spirit!" he cried, tight clutching at its robe, "hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope!"
For the first time the hand appeared to shake.
"Good Spirit," he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it, "your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. a.s.sure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!"
The kind hand trembled.
"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"
In his agony he caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.
Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom"s hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.
STAVE FIVE.
THE END OF IT.
Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own. The room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the time before him was his own, to make amends in!
"I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. "The spirits of all three shall strive within me. Oh, Jacob Marley! Heaven and the Christmas time be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees!"
He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.
"They are not torn down," cried Scrooge, folding one of his bed-curtains in his arms, "they are not torn down, rings and all. They are here--I am here--the shadows of the things that would have been may be dispelled. They will be! I know they will!"
His hands were busy with his garments all this time, turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.
"I don"t know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath, and making a perfect Laoc.o.o.n of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A Merry Christmas to everybody! A Happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here!
Whoop! Hallo!"
He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing there, perfectly winded.
"There"s the saucepan that the gruel was in!" cried Scrooge, starting off again, and going round the fireplace. "There"s the door by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered! There"s the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present sat! There"s the window where I saw the wandering Spirits! It"s all right, it"s all true, it all happened. Ha, ha, ha!"
Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most ill.u.s.trious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!
"I don"t know what day of the month it is!" said Scrooge. "I don"t know how long I"ve been among the spirits. I don"t know anything. I"m quite a baby. Never mind. I don"t care. I"d rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop!
Hallo here!"
He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the l.u.s.tiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell. Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash! Oh, glorious, glorious!
Running to the window, he opened it and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to--golden sunlight; heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious! Glorious!
"What"s to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him.
"Eh?" returned the boy, with all his might of wonder.
"What"s to-day, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge.
"To-day!" replied the boy. "Why, Christmas Day."
"It"s Christmas Day!" said Scrooge to himself. "I haven"t missed it.
The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow!"
"Hallo!" returned the boy.
"Do you know the poulterer"s, in the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge inquired.
"I should hope I did," replied the lad.
"An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they"ve sold the prize turkey that was hanging up there?--not the little prize turkey--the big one?"
"What, the one as big as me?" returned the boy.
"What a delightful boy!" said Scrooge. "It"s a pleasure to talk to him.
Yes, my buck!"
"It"s hanging there now," replied the boy.
"Is it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy it."
"Walk-er!" exclaimed the boy.
"No, no," said Scrooge, "I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell "em to bring it here, that I may give them the direction where to take it.
Come back with the man and I"ll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes and I"ll give you half-a-crown!"
The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half so fast.