Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-16
for it you'd think yourself ill-used. I'll b,
houpdrb

bound!'
The clerk smiled family.
And yet" said Scrooge. you don't think
me ill-used. when pay days wages 70,
no work"
The clerk observed that 1t was only once
year A., .x,u,. ~, ,,.,,,u . ,,,.. -,
every twenty-fifth Of December" said
Scrooge, buttoning his greatcoat to the chin
But 1 suppose you must have the whole
day. Be here all the earlier next morning. "
The clerk promised that he would; and
Scroose walked out with q growl. The ONCE
was closed In twtnkling. and the clerk.
with the long ends Of his white comforter
dangling below his waist (for he boas,ed nc
greatcoaD. went down a slide on Cornnill
at the end Of a lane Of boys. twenty times
In honor of its being Christmas eve and
then ran home to Camden 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 belonged to his deceased partner
They were a gloomy suite Of rooms, in a
lowering pile of buildings up yard, where
1t had so little business to be that one could
scarcely help fancying 1t must have run
there when 1t was q young house, playing
hide-and-seek with other houses, and Fave
forgotten the way out again. 1t was old
enough now. and dreary enough: for nobody
lived in 1t but Scrooge, the other rooms be-
ing all let out as offices.
Now. It is a fact. that there was nothing
at all particular about the knocker on the
door, except that 1t was very large. 1t is
also a fact that Scrooge had seen it night
and morning, during his whole residence In
that place; also that Scrooge has as little
of what is called fancy about him as any
man in the city of London.
And yet 1t happened that Scrooge, having
his key in the lock of the door, saw In the
knocker, without its undergoing any inter
mediate process Of change-not a knocker
but Marley's face.
Marley's facet 1t was not in impenetrable
shadow as the other objects in the yard
were, but had a dismal light about it. II
was not angry or ferocious, but looked at
Scrooge as Marley used to look, with ghost
ly spectacles turned UP on its ynostly fore
head The hair was curiously stirred. as II
by breath or hot air; and. though the eyes
were wide open, they were perfectly motion
less.
AS Scrooge looked nxedly at this phenome-
non, 1t was a knocker again.
To say that he was not startled, or that
his blood was not conscious of a terrible
sensation to which 1t had been stranger
from infancy, would be untrue. But he put
his hand upon the key he had relinquished.
turned it sturdily. walked In. and lighted
his candle.
He did pause, with a moments irresolu..
ton, before he shut the door; and
he did look cautiously behind II
first, as IL he half expected 70 Dc termed
with the sight of Marley's pigtail sticking
out into the hall. But there was nothing on
the back of the door, except the screws and
nuts that held the knocker on, SO ne SAID
pooh, poohp' and closed 1t with bang.
The sound resounded through the mouse
like thunder. Every room ABOVE ana every
cask in the wine merchants cellars below
appeared to have q separate peal or echoes
of its own. Scrooge was not a man to be
frightened by echoes. He fastened the door
and walked across the hall and up the
stairs, slowly, too. trimming his candle as
he went.
Up Scrocge went, not caring a button for
that Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked
1t. But before he shut his heavy door he
walked through his rooms to see that all
was right. He had just recollection enough
of the face to desire to do that.
Sitting room, bed room, lumber room-all
as they should be. Nobody under the table;
nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the
CRATE: spoon and basin ready, and the little
saucepan of Cruel (Scrooge had a cold in his
head upon the hob. Nobody under the bed
nobody in the closet; nobody In his dressing
gown, which was hanging up in a suspicious
attitude against the wall.
Quite satisfied, he closed his door and
locked himself in: double-locked himself in.
which was not his custom Thus secured
against surprise he took off his crayat p,,t
night cap and sat down before the fire TO
take his Cruel.
After several turns he sat down again
As he threw his head back in the chair his
glance happened to rest upon a bell a dis
used bell that hung in the ROOM and com
municated for some purpose. now forgot
ten, with a chamber in the highest story of
the building. 1t was with great astonish
ment and with a strange. inexplicable dread
that, as ne looked. he saw the bell begin 10