SCROOGE and MARLEY (Deceased) by Paul Curtis (the first e reader .txt) 📕

/> And everyone was decked out gaily in holiday attire
The oldest man led them in the Christmas singing
As loud and hearty at the end as in the beginning
Then they passed through the mud wall once more
To once again stand upon the grim desolate moor
The Spirit and Scrooge did not however tarry here
They sped away with Scrooge tried to hide his fear

To Scrooge's horror they flew off across the dark sea
Looking back, he saw the last of the land fading quickly
Below were ragged rocks pounded by thundering waves
There treachery sending many men to watery graves
Built on this reef of sunken rock and out cropping
There stood a solitary lighthouse to warn all shipping
But even out here, the two men who watched the light
Had made a fire and were making merry on the holy night
Again the Ghost sped on, above the black heaving sea
On until far from shore they saw a ship blown fiercely


They lighted on the ship and stood beside the helmsman
Who fought with the wheel watched by a midshipman
But every man of them as against the wind they fought
Hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought
Or spoke to a companion of some bygone Christmas Day
And every man on board spoke in a much friendlier way
Then the ship suddenly faded away and the wind died
And laughter pervaded as they stood under a city sky


VERSE 6 – A VISIT TO FRED’S

They stood outside a house were laughter emanated
Then he and the spirit into the house they permeated
It was a bright, dry, gleaming room met their view
To his surprise the laughter came from his nephew
Scrooge stood with the Spirit who was smiling happily
Looking at Scrooge’s nephew with approving affability
"Ha, ha!" laughed Scrooge's nephew. "Ha, ha, ha!"
It would be hard to find a man to laugh heartier
If a man more blessed in a laugh than his nephew
Existed then Scrooge would want to know him too
His head rolled and he shook his ample proportions
And twisted his face into extravagant contortions
Scrooge's niece, by marriage, laughed as heartily as he
And their assembled friends also roared out lustily
"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" "He said that,” cried his nephew
Christmas was a humbug, as I live! He believed it too."
"More shame for him, Fred." said his wife indignantly
Scrooge forgave her, as she was exceedingly pretty
With a dimpled peaches and cream complexion
And a smile that gave her the sunniest disposition
"He's a comical old fellow," said Fred Affectionately
"That’s the truth: and not so pleasant as he might be.
However, his offenses carry their own punishment,
And I have nothing to say against him in testament"
Then his wife said "I'm sure he is very rich, Fred,"
"At least you always tell me that is so." She hinted
Fred said to her in reply "What of that, my dear?"
"His wealth is of absolutely no use to him at all I fear”
Fred continued “He doesn't do any good with it.
And he doesn't make himself comfortable with it.
He hasn't even the satisfaction of thinking so far
That he is ever going to benefit us with it" ha, ha, ha!
"I have no patience with him," Scrooges niece said
Her sisters, and the ladies, expressed the same to Fred
"Oh, I have” Fred said to everyone with some pride
I’m sorry for him I couldn't be angry with him if I tried
After all who is it who really suffers by his ill whim?”
Answering his own question Fred said “always Him”
Here, uncle scrooge takes it into his head to dislike us,
And he won't come and dine with us every Christmas.
And the result? He misses out on a moderate dinner"
Fred said to the room smiling broadly like a sinner
"I think he loses out on a very good dinner, indeed"
Interrupted his wife and everyone in the room agreed
"Well. I'm very glad to hear it," he said of his slurs
"Because I lack faith in these young housekeepers”
Pausing for a hearty laugh “What do you say, Topper?"
Topper clearly had his eye on the little plump sister
He answered what a wretched outcast was a bachelor
With no right to an opinion on the subject set before
His obvious admiration went from hair to her boots
Where upon the plump niece blushed to her roots
"Do go on, Fred," his wife said with hands clapping
Scrooge's nephew reveled in another fit of laughing
He stifled the laugh and said, "I was only going to say”
That the consequence of his taking dislike to us this way
And not making merry with us, is, that he loses many
Pleasant moments, which could do him no harm surely.
Losing pleasanter companions than he can find ever
In his thoughts, either in his office or his chamber
So I mean to give him the same chance every year,
Whether he likes it or not, for I pity my uncle dear.
He may rail at Christmas all he likes until he dies
But year after year I will continue till he complies”
The festivities continued with the happy company
Merriment abounded and the bottle passed joyously
After tea they had music with songs about the piano
Fred wife played well on the harp tunes from long ago
With the music scrooge recalled what he had seen
What the Ghost had shown him and where he’d been
It all came upon his mind all what had gone before
And with the gay music he softened more and more
But they didn't devote the whole evening to music
Topper was encouraged to perform a magic trick
Then they played parlor games for amusement
First blind mans bluff caused such great merriment
With topper clearly cheating as pursued high and low
The plump sister catching her beneath the mistletoe
Blind-man’s buff was not the game for scrooges niece
But was comfortably in a corner safe and in peace
With footstool and large comfy chair in a snug corner
Where the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her
But she however excelled when she joined in forfeits
And warmed scrooges heart and raised his spirits
She beat them all hollow from her large comfy chair
And Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where
There might have been twenty people there present
Young and old, but they all joined in the merriment
Even Scrooge, who forgot he wasn’t there at the party
And shouted the answers ever more loud and hearty
But despite Scrooge quite often getting the answers
Often very loudly his voice made no sound in their ears
This didn’t bother him and he didn’t think it to be rude
The Ghost was very pleased to find him in this mood
Scrooge intimated that he would be broken hearted
If he were not allowed to stay until the guests departed
But this the Spirit told Scrooge could not be done
"One more game," said Scrooge. "Please Spirit, only one."
So they stayed for one more Game called Yes and No
And when the game was over it was time for them to go
Before Scrooges eyes the room before him unravels
And he and the Spirit were again upon their travels.


VERSE 7 – ABROAD AGAIN


Much they saw, and far they went, people to attend
Many homes they visited, but always a happy end
The Spirit stood by sick beds, and they were cheerful
Comforting the old and frail and those who were fearful
On foreign lands, and at home; beside struggling men,
Those patient in their hope; by poverty, and rich again
In almshouse, hospital, workhouse treadmill and jail
In misery's every refuge where people try and fail
Where vain man in his little brief authority no doubt
Had not made fast the door and barred the Spirit out
He left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.
And not lost on scrooge were the spirits concepts
It was a long night, if only a night which he doubted
Scrooge had now seen his error and his heart shouted
It was strange, that while Scrooge appeared unaltered
The Ghost grew older, clearly and his voice faltered.
Scrooge had seen this change, but never spoke of it,
Until leaving a children's party he addressed the spirit
"Are spirits' lives so short?" he asked gravely his host
"My life on this globe, is very brief," replied the Ghost
"It ends to-night." It said and scrooge said "To-night!"
"My time upon this earth ends To-night at midnight
The time draws near." He said neath the clock tower
“Hark!” and the chimes rang a quarter to the hour
“Forgive me for asking” said scrooge in puzzlement
He was looking intently at the spirits long garment
"But I see something strange down there on the floor
Protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?"
"It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,"
Was its sorrowful reply. "Look here." Said the spirit
From the folds of its robe, it brought two creatures
Children, wretched, abject, with frightful features
They knelt down at its feet, and clung on in fear
"Oh, Man, look here! Look, look, down here!"
Exclaimed the Ghost. Scrooge was embarrassed
It was a boy and girl though it was not obvious
"Spirit, are they yours?" Scrooge could say no more.
"They are Man's," it said looking at them on the floor
"Appealing from their fathers they cling to me there
This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. So beware”
His voice was grave and solemn and held no joy
“Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy
For on his brow I see that the word doom is written
Unless the writing be erased beware these children
If you deny it!" it stretched its hand toward the city
And the spirit cried "Slander those who tell it to ye.
Admit it for your factious purposes, or defend
And then make it worse. And you will abide the end."
"Have they no refuge or resource?" Scrooge cried.
"Are there no prisons?" ironically the Spirit replied,
"Are there no workhouses?" for the very last time
Using his own words on him at the midnight chime
At the stroke of the bell scrooge looked all about
But the ghost was gone he was alone without doubt
As the last stroke ceased he lifted up his eyes to see
He suddenly remembered the prediction of Marley
And beheld a solemn draped and hooded apparition
Coming, like a mist along the ground, in his direction

STAVE
4
THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS

VERSE 1 – THE PHANTOM OF THE FUTURE

The Phantom approached slowly, gravely, silently
When it came, Scrooge bent down upon his knee
For the very air which this spirit moved through
It seemed to scatter gloom and mystery in his view
The phantom was shrouded in a deep black uniform
Which concealed its head and face its limbs and form
And left nothing visible save one outstretched hand
Scrooge managed to summon up the courage to stand
It was not easy to separate the figure from the