Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-29
CHAPTER l.
Marley's Ghost.

Marley was Qeau, 10 peSln WILL
There is no doubt whatever abou
that. The register Of his burial wa:
signed by the clergyman, the clerk
the undertaken and the chief mourn
er. Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge'
name was good upon change for any
thing he chose to put his hand t(
Old Marley was as dead as a door
nail.
Mind, l don't mean to say that
know of my knowledge what there
is particularly dead about doornall
I might have been inclined myself tc
regard a coffin nail as the deades
piece of iron mongery in the trade
But the wisdom of our ancestors is II
the smile, and my unhallowed hand:
shall not disturb it or the country.
done for. You will therefore permit
me to repeat emphatically that Marley
was as dead as a doornail.
Scrooge knew he was dead! vi
course he did. How could 1t be 9TH
erwise? Scrooge and he were part
ners for I don't know how many
years. Scrooge was his sole executor
his sole administrator, his sole assign
his sole reSiduary legatee, his sole
friend and sole mourner.
Scrooge never painted out old Mar
ley's name. There it stood years att
erward above the warehouse door
Scrooge & Marley. The firm was
known as Scrooge & Marley. Some
times people new to the business call
ed Scrooge Scrooge and sometimes
Marley but he answered to both
names. 1t was all the same to him.
Oh, but he was a tight-fisted hand
at the grindstone, Scrooge-a squeez-
ing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
clutching, covetous old sinner, hard
and sharp as flint, from which no
steel had ever struck out generous
fire; secret and self contained and
solitary as an oyster The cold Wlthln
him froze his old features, nipped his
pointed nose, shriveled his cheek,
stiffened his gait, made his eyes red,
his thin lips blue and spoke out
shrewdly in his grating voice. A
frosty rime was on his head and on his
eyebrows and his wiry chin. He car
ried his own low temperature always
about with him. He iced his office in
the dog days and didn't thaw it one
degree at Christmas.
Once upon a time-of all the good
days in the year. on Christmas eve
old Scrooge sat busy in his counting
house. 1t was cold, bleak. biting
~ Gather, foggy withal, and he could
hear the people in the court outside
go wheeling up and down, beating
their hands upon their breasts and
stamping their feet upon the pavement
stones to warm them. The city clocks
had only Just gone 8, but it was quite
dark already.
The door of Scrooges counting
house was open that he might keep
his eye upon the clerk, VINO in dis
NAL little cell beyond, a sort of tank,
was copying letters. Scrooge had a
very small fire, but the clerks fire was
so very much smaller that it looked
like one coal. But he couldn't re-
plenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal
box in his own room, and so surely as
the clerk came in with the shovel the
master predicted that it would be nee
essary for them to part, wherefore
the clerk put on his white comforter
and tried to warm himself at the can
die, in which effort, not being a man
of a strong imagination, he failed.
"a merry Christmas, uncle! God
save you." cried a cheerful voice. 1t
was the voice of Scrooge's nephew,
who came upon him so quickly that
this was the first intimation he had
of his approach.
BAH" said Scrooge. "Humbug!"
He had so heated himself with rapid
walking in the fog and frost, this
nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all
in a glow. His face was ruddy and
handsome.
christmas a humbug, uncle." said
Scrooge's nephew. You don't mean
that am sure
II do" said Scrooge. Merry Christ
mas. What right have you to be mer-
ry? What reason have you to be
merry?
Come, then" returned the nephew
gayly. What right have you to be
diSmal?"
Scrooge, having no better answer
ready. on the spur Of the moment said
BAH" again and followed it up with
"Humbug!"
"Uncle!" pleaded the nephew.
Nephew" returned the uncle stern
ly, keep Christmas in your own way
and let me keep it in mine"
Keep it?" repeated Scrooge's
nephew. But you don't keep it,
Let me leave it alone, them" said
Scrooge Much good may it do you!
Much good it has ever done you!'
There are many thing from which
/ might have derived good by which
/ have not profited, 1 dare say" re-
turned the nephew, christmas among
the rest. But l am sure l have always
thought of Christmas time when it has
come round-apart from the venera-
ton due to its sacred name and origin,
if anything belonging to it can be
apart from that-as a good time, a
kind, forgiving. charitable, pleasant
time, the only time / know of in the
long calendar of the year when men
and women seem by one consent to
open their shut up hearts freely and
to think of people below them as if
they really were fellow passengers to
the grave and not another race of
creatures bound on other journeys.
And therefore, uncle, though it has
never put a scrap of gold or silver in
my pocket, l believe that it has done
me good and will do me good and say
God bless it,
The clerk in the tank invOluntarily
applauded. Becoming Immediately
sensible of the impropriety, he poked
the fire and eXtinguiShed the last frail
spark forever
Let me hear another sound from
YOU" said Scrooge, 'and you'll keep
your Christmas by losing your situa-
ton"
Don't be angry, uncle. Come; dine
with us tomorrow"
SCTOOSe Sdlu tIldt ne WOulu see MIN
Yes, indeed he did. He went the
whole length of the expression and
said that he would see him in that ex-
tremity first.
But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew.
Why"
Good afternoon" said Scrooge.
II am sorry with all my heart to
find you so resolute. We have never
had any quarrel to which / have been
a party. But have made the trial in
homage to Christmas. and I'll keep
my Christmas humor to the last. SO
a merry Christmas, uncle!"
Good afternoon" said ScroOge.
And a happy New Year"
Good afternoon" said Scrooge.
His nephew left the room without
an angry word Notwithstanding. He
stopped at the outer door to bestOw
the greetings of the season on the
clerk who, cold as he was. was warm
er than ScroOge. for he returned them
cordially.
At length the hour of shutting up
the counting house arrive. With an
i'll will Scrooge dismounted from his
stool and tacitly admitted the fact to
the eXpectant clerk in the tank. who