is in the and my hands shall not disturb it or the country s done for you will therefore permit me to repeat emphatically that was as dead as a door nail knew he was dead of course he did how could it e otherwise and he were partners for i don t know how many years was his sole his sole his sole his sole his sole friend and sole and even was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event but that he was an excellent man of business on a christmas the very day of the funeral and it with an bargain the mention of s funeral brings me back to the point i started from there is no doubt that was dead this must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story i am going to relate if we were not perfectly convinced that i s father died before play began there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night in an wind upon his own than there would be in any other middle aged gentleman turning out dark in a say saint paul s churchyard for instance � literally to astonish his son s weak mind never painted out old s name there it stood years afterwards above the door and the firm was known as and sometimes people new to the business called and sometimes but he answered to both names it was all the same to him oh but he was a tight hand at the grasping clutching sinner hard and sharp as flint from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire secret and self contained and solitary as an the cold within him his old features his pointed nose his cheek his gait his eyes red his thin lips blue and spoke out in his grating voice a frosty was on his head and on his eyebrows and his chin he carried his own low temperature always about with him he his office in the dog days and didn t it one degree at christmas external heat and cold had little influence on no warmth could warm nor wintry weather chill him no wind that blew was than he no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose no rain less open to entreaty foul weather didn t know where to have him the heaviest rain and ghost snow and hail and could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect they often came down handsomely and never did nobody ever stopped him in the street to say with looks my dear how are you when will you come to see me no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle no children asked him what it was o clock no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place of even the s dogs appeared to know him and when they saw him coming on would their owners into and up courts and then would wag their tails as though they said no eye at all is better than an evil eye dark master but what did care it was the very thing he liked to edge his way along the crowded paths of life warning all human sympathy to keep its distance was what the knowing ones call nuts to once upon a of all the good days in the year on christmas old sat busy in his counting house it was cold bleak biting weather withal and he could hear the people in the court outside go up and down beating their hands upon their breasts and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them the city had only just gone three but it was quite dark already it had not been light all day and candles were in the windows of the neighboring offices like ruddy upon the palpable brown air the fog came pouring in at every and and was dense without that although the court was of the the houses opposite were mere to see the dingy cloud come drooping down everything one might have thought that nature lived hard by and was on a large scale the door of s counting house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk who in a dismal little cell beyond a christmas a sort of was letters had a very fire but the clerk s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal but he couldn t it for kept the box in his own room and so surely as the clerk came in with the the master predicted that it would be necessary ll r them to part wherefore the clerk put hi hb white com and tried to warm himself at the candle in which not being a man of a strong imagination he a merry christmas uncle save you cried a ful voice the voice of s nephew who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his said he had so heated himself with the rapid walking in the fog and frost this nephew of s that he was all in a glow his face was ruddy and handsome his eyes sparkled and his breath smoked again christmas a uncle said s nephew you don t mean that i m sure i do said merry christmas what right have you to be merry what reason have you to be merry you re poor enough come then returned the nephew gaily what right have you to be dismal what reason have you to be you re rich enough having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment said again and followed it up with don t be cross uncle said the nephew what else can i be returned the uncle when i live in such a world of 