Loading summary
Transcript35 lines
- [00:04]
Narrator
The Merry Beggars at relevant radio present episode 10 Christmas.
- [00:30]
Charles Dickens
The Hour itself and nothing else, said Scrooge. Yet he spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, dull, hollow melancholy. One light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside. I tell you by a hand, not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, and Scrooge, starting up into a half recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them. It was a strange figure, like a child, yet not so like a child as like an old man viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view and being diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age, and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular, and the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were like those of the upper members, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white, and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand, and in a singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright, clear jet of light, by which all this was visible, and which was doubtless the occasion of its using in its duller moments a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another, and what was light one instant at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness, being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with 20 legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body, of which dissolving parts no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away, and in the very wonder of this, it would be itself again, distinct and clear as ever.
- [02:58]
Ebenezer Scrooge
Are you the spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?
- [03:04]
Ghost of Christmas Past
I am.
- [03:05]
Charles Dickens
The voice was soft and gentle, singularly low, as if, instead of being so close beside him it were at a distance.
- [03:12]
Ebenezer Scrooge
Who and what are you?
- [03:15]
Ghost of Christmas Past
I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.
- [03:19]
Ebenezer Scrooge
Long past?
- [03:20]
Ghost of Christmas Past
No, your past, perhaps.
- [03:24]
Charles Dickens
Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have asked him, but he had a special desire to see the spirit in his cap.
- [03:31]
Ebenezer Scrooge
Spirit, cover your head with that cap of yours just for a moment.
- [03:36]
Ghost of Christmas Past
What would you so soon put out with worldly hands? The light I give. Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap and force me through the whole train of years to wear it low upon my brow?
- [03:52]
Ebenezer Scrooge
I don't remember bonneting you in any period of my life, but I did not intend to offend you, Good Spirit. What brings you here, Spirit?
- [04:02]
Ghost of Christmas Past
Your welfare.
- [04:04]
Charles Dickens
Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help but thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately.
- [04:14]
Ghost of Christmas Past
Your reclamation then. Take heed, rise and walk with me.
- [04:26]
Charles Dickens
It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes. The bed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below freezing. That he was clad but lightly in his slippers, dressing gown and nightcap, and that he had a cold upon him at the time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was not to be resisted. He rose, but finding that the spirit made towards the window, clasped his robe in supplication.
- [04:53]
Ebenezer Scrooge
I am a mortal and liable to fall.
- [04:56]
Ghost of Christmas Past
Bear but a touch of my hand there on your heart, and you shall be upheld in more than this.
- [05:03]
Charles Dickens
As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall and stood upon an open country road with fields on either hand. The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold, wintry day with snow upon the ground.
- [05:24]
Ebenezer Scrooge
Good heaven. I was bred in this place. I was a boy here.
- [05:31]
Charles Dickens
Scrooge clasped his hands together and looked about him. The spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch, though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man's sense of feeling. He was conscious of a thousand odors floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and joys and cares long, long forgotten.
- [05:53]
Ghost of Christmas Past
Your lip is trembling. And what is that upon your cheek?
- [05:58]
Charles Dickens
Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was a pimple, and begged the ghost to lead him where he would.
- [06:04]
Ghost of Christmas Past
You recollect the way remember it.
- [06:07]
Ebenezer Scrooge
I could walk it blindfold.
- [06:10]
Ghost of Christmas Past
Strange to have forgotten it for so many years. Let us go on.
- [06:17]
Charles Dickens
They walked along the road, screwed, recognizing every gate and post and tree, until a little market town appeared in the distance with its bridge, its church and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in country gigs and carts driven by farmers. All these boys were in great spirits and shouted to each other until the broad fields were so full of merry music that the crisp air laughed to hear it.
- [06:50]
Ghost of Christmas Past
They have no consciousness of us.
- [06:53]
Charles Dickens
The jocund travelers came on, and as they came, Scrooge knew and named them everyone.
- [06:59]
Ebenezer Scrooge
Why, that's Tom and James. James Littleton there with his younger brother William. And there, there's Charles with Edward.
- [07:09]
Charles Dickens
Why was he rejoiced beyond our bounds to see them? Why did his cold eye glisten and his heart leap up as they went past? Why was he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry Christmas as they parted at crossroads and byways for their several homes? What was Merry Christmas to Scrooge out upon Merry Christmas? What good had it ever done to him?
- [07:31]
Ghost of Christmas Past
The school is not quite deserted. A solitary child neglected by his friends is left there still.
- [07:40]
Charles Dickens
Scrooge said he knew it and he sobbed.
- [07:48]
Narrator
Subscribe@adventwithscrooge.com for the next episode of A Christmas Carol and download a free companion guide with activities, questions and coloring pages. Subscribe for free at adventwithscrooge.com adventwithscrooge.com.