New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-12-25

such weather as that, instead of using his ia
miliar weapons, then indeed he would have
roared to lusty purpose The owner CT one
scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the
hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs,
stopped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale
him with Christmas carol but at the first
sound Of
y God bless you merry gentleman -
May nothing you dismayW
Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy Of
action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving
the keyhole to the fog and even more congeniai
frost
At length the hour of shutting up the count
ing-house arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge
dismonnted from his stool, and tacitly admitted
the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank,
who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put
"You'll want all day tomorrow, suppose p
said Scrooge
"Ifquite convenient, sir" a..
" It's not convenient said scrooge, " and it's
not fair. Ii was to stop half-a-crown for it,
you'd think yourself i'll used, I'll be bound'"'
The clerk smiled family.
7 'sAnd yeti said Scrooge, "you don't think
me ill-used, when pay days wages for no
work.
The clerk observed that it was only once
year.
ga poor excuse for picking mans pocket
every twenty fifth of December ," said Scrooge,
buttoniug bis great coat to the chin. !" But
suppose you must have the whole day. Be here
all the earlier next morning! ''
The clerk promised that he would and
Scrooge walked out with a growl The Office
was closed in twinkling and the clerk, with
the long ends of his white comforter dangling
below his waist (for he boosted no great-coat,)
went down slide on Cornhill, at the end Of a
lane of boys, twenty times, in honor Of its being
Chrstmas-eve, and then ran home to Chandler
Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blind
mans buff.
Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his
usual melancholy tavern; and having read all
the newspapers, and beguiled the rest Of the
evening with his bankers book, went home to
bed He lived in chambers which had once be-
longed to his deceased partner. They were a
gloomy suite Of rooms, in a lowering pile of
buildings upa yard, where it had so little bust
ness to be, that one could scarcely help fancy
ing it must have run there when it was young
house, playing at hide and seek with other
houses, and have forgotten the way out again.
1t was old enough now, and dreary enough, for
nobody lived in il but Scrooge, the other rooms
being all let out as Offices The yard was so
dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every
stone, was fain to grope with his hands. The
fog and frost so hung about the black old gate
way the house, that it seemed as if the Genius
of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on
the threshold.
Now, it is fact that there was nothing at all
particular about the knocker on the door, ex-
cept that it was very large. 1t is also a fact,
that Scrooge had seen it night and morning
during his whole residence in that place; and
that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy
about him as any man in the city of London,
even including-whieh is bold word-the cor.
poration, alderman and livery. Let it also be
borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed
one thought on Marty, since his last mention
Of his seven-year dead partner that afternoon.
And then let any man explain to me, if he can,
how it happened that Scrooge, having his key
in the lock Of the door. saw in the knocker,
without its undergoing any intermediate pro-
cess of change-not knocker, but Marley's
face.
Marley's face 1t was not in impenetrable
shadow as the other objects in the yard we're,
but had dismal light about it, like.a bad lob
ster in dark cellar. 1t was not angry or fe-
rocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used
to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up upon
its ghostly forehead. The hair was curously
stirred, as if by breath or hot air; and though
the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly
motionless. That, and its livid color, made il
horrible: but its horror seemed to be, in spite
of the face and beyond its control, rather than
a part of its own expression. Gst@
AS Scrooge looked fxedly at this phenomenon
it was knocker again. a'.t n. ID
To say that he vas not startled, or that his
blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation
| to which it had been stranger from infancy
would be untrue. But he put his hand upor
| the key he had relinquished turned it sturdily
walked in, and lighted his candle
| lie did pause, with moments irresolution
| before he shut the door; and he did look eau.
tiousy behind at first, as if he half Elk pected tC
| be terrified with the sight of Marley's pig tai
| sticking out into the hall. But there was no.
thing on the back of the door, except the screws
and nuts that held the knocker on SO he said
ssPooh, pooh y and closed it with bang.
| The sound resounded through the house like
| thunder. Every room above, and every cask
in the wine merchants cellar below, appeared
to have separate peal of echoes of its own
Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by
echoes. He fastened the door, and walked
across the floor, and up the stails-sloWly, too
trimming his candle as he went.
| You may talk vaguely about driving coach.
and-six up good old fight of stairs, or through
| a bad young Act of Parliament; but mean te
| say you might have got hearse up that stair
case and takeu it broadwise, with the splinter
| bar towards the wall, and the door towards
the balustrades; and done it easy There was
plenty of width for that, and room to spare
which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge
| thought he saw a locomotive hearse go ng or
before him in the gloom. Half dozen gas
| lamps out of one street wouldn't have lighted
the entry too we'll, so you may suppose that ii
was pretty dark with Scrooge's Dip
Up Scrooge went, not caring button 10,
that darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it
But before he shut his heavy door, he walkec
through his rooms to see that all was right. HI
had just enough recollection of the face to de-
| sire to do that.
Sitting room, bedroom, lumber room, All
as they should be. Nobody under the table
nobody under the sofa; n small fire in tn,
CRATE; spoon and basin ready; and the littl'
saucepan (Scrooge had cold in his head) upol
| the hob. Nobody under the bed nobody il
the closet; nobody in his dressing gown, which
Was hanging up in suspicious attitude agains
the wall. Lumber room as usual. Old fire
guard, old shoes, two fish baskets, washing
stand on three legs, and poker.
Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locke,
himself in; double locked himself in, which wa
not his custom. Thus secured against SURF T Sc
he took off his crayat, put on his dressing gov,
and slippers, and his nightcap, and sat dow
before the fire to take his cruel.
1t was very low fire indeed nothing OF
such bitter night. He was obliged to sit clos
| to it, and brood over it, before he could extrac
the least sensation Of warmth from such hand
full of fuel. The fireplace was an old one, bull
by some Dutch merchant long ago, and pave
all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed t
1 illustrate the Scriptures There were Cain
and Abels; Pharaoh's daughters, Queens G