Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1910-12-16

-"~~0 gyman, the clerk,
the undertaken and the chief mourner.
Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge's name
was good upon change for anything
he chose to put his hand to. Old Mar
ley was as dead as a doornail.
Mind, l don't mean to say that l
know of my own knowledge what there
is particularly dead about a doornail.
l might have been inclined myself to
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 doornail.
Scrooge knew he was dead? OF
course he did. How could it 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 it 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 a tight listed 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 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 and
| ctn n, hn; 20
stones to warm them The city clocks
had only just gone 8. but it was quite
dark already.
The door of Scrooge's counting house
was open that he might keep his eye
upon his clerk, who in a dismal little
cell beyond, sort Of tank, was copy
ing letters Scrooge had a very small
fire, but the clerks fire was so very
much smaller that 1t looked like one
coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for
Scrooge kept the coal box in his own
room. and so surely as the clerk came
In with the shovel the master predict
ed that it would be necessary for them
to part. wherefore the clerk put on
his white comforter and tried to warm
himself at the candle, In which effort
not being man of a strong imagina
ton. he failed.
"a merry Christmas, uncle! Goo
save your cried a cheerful voice. II
was the voice of Scrooge's nephew
who came upon him so quickly thai
this was the first intimation he haG
Of his approach.
Bah" said Scrooge. "Humbugv
He had so heated himself with rapi(
walking in the fog and frost. this
nephew of Scrooge's, that he was al
In a glow. His face was ruddy anC
handsome.
christmas humbug, uncleP' salt
Scrooges nephew. "You don't meal
that, l am sure"
II do" said Scrooge. Merry Christ
mas! What right have you to be mer
ryl What reason have you to be mer
ry"
Come. them" returned the nephey
gayly. what right have you to b
dismalY'
Scrooge, having no better answe
ready, on the spur of the moment sal
"Bahp again and followed it up wit
"Humbugv'
"Uncle" pleaded the nephew.
Nephew" returned the uncle sterr
ly, "keep Christmas in your own wa
and let me keep 1t In mine"
Keep it?" repeated Scrooge's nepi
ew. "But you don't keep It."
at eft me leave N alone then" sal
Scrooge. "Much good may II do yol