The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1910-12-29

-oN~ gyman, the clerk
the undertaken and the chief mourner
Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge's nam,
was good upon change for anything
he chose to put his hand to. Old Mar
ley was as dead as doornail
Mind, | don't mean to say that
know Of my own knowledge what there
is particularly dead about doornail
/ might have been inclined Ayself te
regard coffin nail as the deadest piece
Of iron mongery in the trade. But the
wisdom of our ancestors IS in the
simile, and my unhallowed hands shall
not disturb it or the country's done for
You will therefore permit me to re-
peat emphatically that Marley was as
dead as doorpdIl.
Scrooge knew he was deadF OF
course he did. How could 1t be 9th,
erwise? Scrooge and he were part.
ners for 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 1t stood years aft
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 tight f1sted hand
at the grindstone. Scrooge-a squeez-
Ing. wrenching, grasping. scraping,
clutching, covetons old sinner. hard
and sharp as flint. from which nc
steel had ever struck out generous
fire; secret and self contained and
solitary as an oyster. The cold within
him froZe his old features. nipped his
pointed nose, shriveled his cheek. stiff.
ened 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 carried 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
weather. foggy withal. and he could
hear the people in the court outside
go wheeling up and down. beating
their hands upon their breasts anG
stamping their feet upon the pavement
stones to warm them. The city clocks
had only just gone 3. but it was quite
dark already.
The door of Scrooge's counting house
was open that he might keep his eye
cell beyond. q sort of tank, was copy
ing 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 replenish it. fol
Scrooge kept the coal box in his owl
room. and so surely as the clerk came
In with tHe shovel the master predict
ed that it would be necessary for then
to part, wherefore the clerk put OF
his white comforter and tried to warn
himself at the candle. in which effort
not being a man of q strong imagina
ton, be failed
"A merry Christmas, uncle! Coz
save your cried q cheerful voice.
was the voice of Scrooge's nephew
who came upon him so quickly tha
this was the first tntimation he ha(
Of his approach.
"Bahw said Scrooge- "Humbugp'
! He had so heated himself with rapit
walking In the fog and frost. thi
nephew Of Scrooge's. that he was al
in a glow. His face was ruddy ant
handsome.
Christmas a humbug, uncle" sai'
Scrooge's nephew. You don't meal
that, / am sure"
81 do" said Scrooge. Merry Christ
mas! What right have you to be mer
TYP What reason have you to be mer
E~
"Come, them" returned the nephew
gayly. What right have you to b.
dismalP'
Scrooge. having no better answe
ready, on the spur of the moment sail
"Bahr' again and followed it up witt
"Humbugr'
"Uncler" pleaded the nephew.
| Nephew" returned the uncle stern
~, keep Christmas in your own wa.
and let me keep 1t in mine"
Keep it?" repeated Scrooge's neph
ew. But you don't keep it."
LET me leave 1t alone. then" sail
scrooge. Much good may 1t do you
Much good il has ever done your
There are many things from which
/ might have derived good by which
l have not profited. dare say" return
ed the nephew. christmas among the
rest But | am sure l have alway,
thought of Christmas time when 1t has
come round-apart from the yeneratior