The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door and asked Scrooge if he knew it Know it said Scrooge Was I apprenticed here Scrooge cried in great excitement Why it s old Fezziwig Bless his heart it s Fezziwig alive again Old Fezziwig called out in a comfortable oily rich fat jovial voice Yo ho there Ebenezer Dick Scrooge s former self now grown a young man came briskly in accompanied by his fellow prentice Dick Wilkins to be sure said Scrooge to the Ghost Bless me yes There he is He was very much attached to me was Dick Poor Dick Dear dear Yo ho my boys said Fezziwig No more work to night Christmas Eve Dick Christmas Ebenezer Let s have the shutters up cried old Fezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands before a man can say Jack Robinson Hilli ho cried old Fezziwig skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility Clear away my lads and let s have lots of room here Hilli ho Dick Chirrup Ebenezer A small matter said the Ghost to make these silly folks so full of gratitude Small echoed Scrooge The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig and when he had done so said Why Is it not He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money three or four perhaps Is that so much that he deserves this praise It isn t that said Scrooge heated by the remark and speaking unconsciously like his former not his latter self It isn t that Spirit He has the power to render us happy or unhappy to make our service light or burdensome a pleasure or a toil Say that his power lies in words and looks in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count em up what then The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune What is the matter asked the Ghost Nothing particular said Scrooge Something I think the Ghost insisted No said Scrooge no I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now That s all My time grows short observed the Spirit Quick He was not alone but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning dress in whose eyes there were tears which sparkled in the light that shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past It matters little she said softly To you very little Another idol has displaced me and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come as I would have tried to do I have no just cause to grieve What Idol has displaced you he rejoined A golden one This is the even handed dealing of the world he said There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth You fear the world too much she answered gently All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one until the master passion Gain engrosses you Have I not What then he retorted Even if I have grown so much wiser what then I am not changed towards you She shook her head Am I Our contract is an old one It was made when we were both poor and content to be so until in good season we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry You are changed When it was made you were another man I was a boy he said impatiently Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are she returned I am That which promised happiness when we were one in heart is fraught with misery now that we are two How often and how keenly I have thought of this I will not say It is enough that I have thought of it and can release you Have I ever sought release In words No Never In what then In a changed nature in an altered spirit in another atmosphere of life another Hope as its great end In everything that made my love of any worth or value in your sight If this had never been between us said the girl looking mildly but with steadiness upon him tell me would you seek me out and try to win me now Ah no He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition in spite of himself But he said with a struggle You think not I would gladly think otherwise if I could she answered Heav