The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-12-25
BY Charles Dickens

enousHt tnaC no one was at home
to give them welcome when they
got there, instead of every house
expecting company, and piling up
its fires half-chimney. high. Bless
, ings on it, how the Ghost exulted!
How it barred its breadth of breast.
and opened it's capacious palm,
and floated on, outpouring. with a
generous hand, its bright and harm
less mirth on everything within its
reach! The very lamplighter, who
ran on before, dotting the dusky
streets with specks of light, and
who was dressed to spend the even
ing somewhere, laughed out loudly
as the Spirit passed, though little
kenned the lamplighter that he had
| any company but Christmas,
And now, without word of
warning from the Ghost, they stood
upon a bleak and desert moor,
where INDUSTRIOUS masses of rude
stone were cast about. as though it
were the burial place of giants; and
water spread itself wheresoever it
listed; or would have done SO, but
for the frost that held it prisoner;
and nothing grew but moss and
| furze, and coarse, rank grass. Down
in the west the setting sun had left
streak of fiery red, which glared
upon the desolation for an instant,
| like sullen eye, and frowning low
err, lower, lower yet, was lost in
the thick gloom of darkest night.
What place is this?" asked
Scrooge.
"A place where Miners live, who
labor in the bowels of the earth, !"
returned the Spirit. But they
know me. See!"
of the hut, and swiftly they adj
vanced toward it. Passing through
the wall of mud and stone. they
found cheerful company assem-
bled round glowing fire. An old,
old man and woman, with their
children, and their children's chill.
dren, and another generation be-
yond that, all decked out gaily in
, their holiday attire. The old man.
in IA voice that seldom rose above
the bowling of the wind upon the
barren waste, was singing them a
Christmas song; it had been very
old song when he was a boy; and
from time to time they all Joined
in the chorus. So surely as they
raised their voices, the old man got
quite blithe and loud; and so sure
ly as they stopped, his vigor sank
again.
The Spirit did not tarry here, but
babe Scroogs hold his robe, and
passing on above the moor, sped
whittier? Not to sea? To sea. To
Scrooge's horror, looking back. he
saw the last of the land, fright
full range of rocks. behind them;
and his ears were deafened by the
| laundering of water. as it rolled,
and roared, and ragged among the
dreadful caverns it had worn, and
! fiercely tried to undermine the
earth.
Built upon dismal reef of sun
ken rocks, some league or so from
shore, on which the waters chafed
and dashed, the wild year through,
there stood a solitary lighthouse.
/ Great heaps of seaweed chung to
it's base, and m-birds-Eorn OF
the wind one might suppose, as
seawe ed OF the water-rose and
fell about it, like the waves they
SKINNED.
But even here, two men who
watched the light had made fire,
that through the loophole in the
thick stone wall shed out ray of
| brightness on the awful sea. Join
ing their horny hands over the
rough table at which they sat, they
wished each other Merry Christ
mas in their can of grog; and one
of them-the elder. too, with his
face all damaged and SCARED with
hard weather, as the figurehead of
an old ship might be-struck up
sturdy song that was like gale in
itself.
Again the Ghost sped on. above
the black and heaving sea-on, on
until, being far away, as he told
Scrooge, from any shore, they
lighted on ship. They stood be-
side the helmsman at the wheel,
the lookout in the bow, the officers
who had the watch; dark, ghostly
| figures In their several stations;
but every man among them
hummed Christmas tune, or had
a Christmas thought, or spoke be-
| low his breath to his companion OF
some bygone Christmas day. with
homcward hopes belonging to it.
And every man on board. waking or
sleeping, good or bad, had had u
kinder word for one another on
that day than on any day in the
year; and had shared to some ex-
tent in its festivities; and had re
membered those he cared for at
a distance, and had known that
they delighted to remember him.
1t was a graet surprise to
Scrooge, while listening to the
moaning Of the wind, and thinking
what solemn thing it was to move