Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - A Christmas Carol by the Fireside - part three

Starting point is 00:00:01 Have you ever gazed in wonder at the Great Pyramid? Have you marvelled at the golden face of Tudankhamun? Or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti? If you have, you'll probably like The History of Egypt podcast. Every week, we explore tales of this ancient culture. The history of Egypt is available wherever you get your podcasting fix. Come, let me introduce you to the world of ancient Egypt. Stave 3

Starting point is 00:00:39 The second of three spirits Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore And sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together Scrooge had no occasion to be told That the bell was again upon the stroke of one He felt that he was restored to consciousness In the right nick of time For the special purpose of holding a conference

Starting point is 00:01:03 With the second messenger Dispatched to him through Jesus Jacob Marley's intervention, but finding that he turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of his sharp curtains this new spectre would draw back. He put them everyone aside with his own hands and lying down again established a sharp lookout all round the bed, for he wished to challenge the spirit on the moment of his appearance and did not wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous. Gentlemen of the free and easy sort,

Starting point is 00:01:38 who plume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time of day, express this wide range of their capacity for the adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch and toss to manslaughter, between which opposite extremes, no doubt their lives are tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects,

Starting point is 00:02:01 without venturing for Scrooge, quite as hardly as this, I don't mind calling on you to believe that he was ready for a good, broad range of strange appearances, and that nothing between a baby and rhinoceros would have astonished him very much. Now being prepared for almost anything, he was not by any means prepared for nothing, and consequently, when the bell struck one and no shape appeared, he was taken with a violent fit of trembling. five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet nothing came. All this time he lay upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy light

Starting point is 00:02:44 which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour, and which being only light was more alarming than a dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant, or would it be at, and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be. might be at that very moment an interesting case of spontaneous combustion, without having the consolation of knowing it. At last, however, he began to think, as you or I would have thought at first, for it is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it,

Starting point is 00:03:22 and would unquestionably have done it too, at last. I say he began to think that the source and secret of this ghosty light, might be in the adjoining room. From whence on further tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea, taking full possession of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to the door. The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange voice called him by his name, and bade him enter. He obeyed. It was his room. There was no doubt about it, but it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls and ceilings were so hung with living green That it looked a perfect grove

Starting point is 00:04:06 From every part of which bright gleaming berries glistened The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe and ivy Reflected back the light As if so many little mirrors had been scattered there And such a mighty blaze Went roaring up the chimney As that dull petrification of a hearth had never known in Scrooge's time, or marlies,

Starting point is 00:04:31 often many and many a winter season gone. Heaped up on the floor to form a kind of throne were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince pies, plum puddings, barrels of oysters, red hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth cakes and seething bowls of punch that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy state upon the couch there sat a Johnny giant, glorious to see,

Starting point is 00:05:11 who bore a glowing torch in shape not unlike Plenty's horn, and held it up, high up, to shield its light on Scrooge as he came peeping round the door. "'Come in!' exclaimed the ghost. "'Come in and know me, must. better man. Scrooge entered timidly and hung his head before this spirit. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been, and though the spirit's eyes were clear and kind, he did not like to meet them. I am the ghost of Christmas present, said the spirit. Look upon me. Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple green robe or mantle bordered with white fur,

Starting point is 00:05:57 This garment hung so loosely on the figure that its capacious breast was bare as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by any artifice. Its feet observable beneath the ample folds of the garment were also bare, and on its head it wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles. Its dark brown curls were long and free, free as its genial face. its sparkling joy, its open hand, its cheery voice, its unconstrained demeanour and its joyful air. Girded round its middle was an antique scabbard, but no sword was in it, and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.

Starting point is 00:06:46 You have never seen the like of me before, it's glimed the spirit. Never, Scrooge made to answer it. Have you never walked forth with your usual? younger members of my family, meaning for I am very young, my elder brothers born in these later years, pursued the phantom. I don't think I have, said Scrooge. I'm afraid I have not. Have you had many brothers' spirit? More than 1800, said the ghost. A tremendous family to provide for, muttered Scrooge, the ghost of Christmas present rose. Spirit.

Starting point is 00:07:27 said Scrooge submissively. Conduct me where you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learned a lesson which is working now. Tonight, if you have ought to teach me, let me profit by it. Touch my robe. Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast. Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, poultry,

Starting point is 00:07:57 brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, fruit and punch, all vanished instantly. So did the room, the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning, where, for the weather was severe, the people made a rough but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the top of the top of the, of their houses, whence it was mad delight to the boys to see it coming plumping down into the road below, and splitting into artificial little snowstorms. Their house fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground, which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows

Starting point is 00:08:53 by the heavy wheels of carts and wagons. Furrows that crossed and recrossed each other hundreds of times were the great streets branched off and made intricate channels hard to trace than the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was gloomy and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist, half thawed, half frozen,

Starting point is 00:09:17 whose heavier particles descended in a shower of suttery atoms if all the chimneys in Britain had, in one consent caught fire, and were blazing away to their dear heart's content. There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet there was an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain, for the people who were shoveling away on the house-tops with jovial

Starting point is 00:09:47 and full of glee, calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball, better-natured missile, far than many a worldly jest, laughing heartily if it went right or not less heartily, if it went wrong. The poultryous shops were still half full, and the fruitiers were radiant in their glory.

Starting point is 00:10:13 There were great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentleman, lolling at the doors and tumbling out into the streets in their apolletic opulence. There were ruddy, brown-faced, broad-girth Spanish onions, shining in the fatness of their growth like Spanish fries and winking from their shelves in wanton slyness at the girls as they went by

Starting point is 00:10:40 and glanced them early at the hung up mistletoe. There were pears and apple, clustered high in blooming pyramids. There were bunches of grapes made in the shopkeeper's benevolence to dangle from conspicuous hooks that people's mouths might water gratis as they passed. While there were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, and recalling in their fragrance,

Starting point is 00:11:08 ancient walks among the woods and pleasant shuffling ankle deep through withered leaves. There were Norfolk biffins, squat and swarthy, setting off the yellow of the oranges and lemons, and in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner. The very gold and silver fish set forth among these choice fruits in a bowl, though members of a dull and stagnant bloody grace appeared to know that there was something going on,

Starting point is 00:11:42 and to a fish went gasping round and round their little world in slow and passionless excitement the grosses oh the grossest nearly closed with perhaps two shutters down all one but through those gaps such glimpses it was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound or that the twine and roller parted company so briskly or that the canisters will rattle down up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended sense of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon, so long and straight, and the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted, with malted sugar, as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint and subsequently bilious, nor was it that the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in modest tartness through their highly decorated boxes,

Starting point is 00:12:52 or that everything was good to eat, and in its Christmas dress, but the customers were also hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day that they tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them and committed hundreds of the like mistakes in the best humour possible while the grocer and his people were so frank and fresh

Starting point is 00:13:19 that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own. They were worn outside for general inspection and for Christmas doors to peck at if they chose. But soon the steeples called good people all to church and chapel

Starting point is 00:13:37 and away they came, flocking through the streets and their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. And at the same time, they emerge from scores of by-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people carrying their dinners to the baker's shop. The sight of these poor revellers appeared to interest the spirit very much, for he stood with Scrooge beside him in a baker's doorway, and taking off the covers, as their bear is passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch. And it was a very uncommon kind of torch. For once or twice, when they were angry, words between some dinner carriers who had jostled each other,

Starting point is 00:14:20 he shed a few drops of water on them from it, and their good humour was restored directly. For they said it was ashamed to quarrel upon Christmas Day, and so it was. God love it. So it was. In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up, and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker's oven, where the pavement smoked as if stones were cooking too. Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your torch? As Scrooge, there is, my own. Would is applied to any kind of dinner or dinner, or

Starting point is 00:15:03 this day, asked Scrooge, to any kindly given to a poor one most. Why to a poor one most? Asked Scrooge, because it needs it most. Spirit, said Scrooge, after a moment's thought, I wonder you, of all the beings and the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent enjoyment. I, cried the spirit, you would deprive them on their means of dining every seventh day, often the only day in which they can be said to dine at all, said Scrooge, wouldn't you? I, cried the spirit, you seek to close these places on the seventh day, said Scrooge, and it comes to the same thing. I seek, exclaim the spirit. Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your name, or at least of that of your family, said Scrooge.

Starting point is 00:16:03 there are some upon this earth of yours, return the spirit, who lay claim to know us, who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us,

Starting point is 00:16:21 and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived, remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us. Scrooge promised that he would, and they went on, invisible as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town. It was a remarkable quality of the ghost, which Scrooge had deserved at the bakers,

Starting point is 00:16:44 that notwithstanding his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place with ease, and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like a supernatural creature as it was possible he could have done in any lofty hall. and perhaps it was the pleasure the good spirit had in showing off this power of his, or else it would have been his own kind, generous hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor men that led him straight to Scrooge's clerks. For there he went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe, and on the threshold of the door their spirit smiled,

Starting point is 00:17:25 and stopped to bless Bob Cratchett's dwelling with the sprinkling of his talk. porch. Think of that. Bob had 15 Bob a week himself. He pocketed on Saturdays for 15 copies of his Christian name, and yet the ghost of Christmas present blessed his full-room house. Then up rose Mrs. Cratchett, Cratchett's wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but braven ribbons, which are cheap and made a goodly show for sixpence, as she Laid the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchett, second of her daughters, also braven ribbons, while Master Peter Cratchett plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and getting the corners of his monstrous shirt-collar, Bob's private property,

Starting point is 00:18:19 conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the day. Into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable parks. And now two smaller cratchets, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the bakers they had smelt the goose, and known it for their own, and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young cratches danced about the table and exalted Master Peter Cratchett to the skies, while he, not proud, although his collars nearly choked him, blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up, not. locked loudly at the saucepan lid to be let out and peeled. What has ever got into your precious father, then? said Mrs. Cratchit, and your brother, Tiny Tim, and Martha, want as late as last Christmas, by half an hour. Here's Martha Mother, said a girl, appearing as she spoke.

Starting point is 00:19:21 Here's Martha Mother, cried the two young Cratchits. Hurrah! There's such a goose, Martha! Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how long! late you are, said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnetful her with a fissious seal. We yield a deal of work to finish up last night, replied the girl, and had to clear away this morning, mother. Well, never mind, so long as you are come, said Mrs. Cratchit, sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm Lord bless ye. No, no, there's father coming. cried the two young cratchets,

Starting point is 00:20:03 who were everywhere at once. Hide, Martha, hide. So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, and at least three feet of comforter, exclusively of the fringe, hanging down before him,

Starting point is 00:20:18 and his threadbare clothes, darned up and brushed to look seasonable, and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch and had his limbs supported by an iron, frame. Why, where's our Martha? cried Bob Cratchett looking around. Not coming, said Mrs. Cratchit.

Starting point is 00:20:40 Not coming, said Bob, with a sudden declension in his high spirits, for he had been Tim's blood horse all the way from the church, and had come home rampant. Not coming upon Christmas Day. Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, as if it were only a joke, so she came out premature, from behind the closet door and ran into his arms, where the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim and bore him off into the wash-house that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper. And how did Little Tim behave? asked Mrs Cratchit, while she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart's content. As good as gold, said Bob, and better.

Starting point is 00:21:28 somehow he gets thoughtful and sitting by himself so much he thinks the strangest things you've ever heard he told me coming home that he hoped the people saw him in the church because he was a cripple and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see his active little crutch was heard upon the floor and back came tiny tim before another word was spoken

Starting point is 00:21:58 escorted by his brother and sister to his stool before the fire, and while Bob, turning up his cuffs, as if, poor fellow, they were capable of being made more shabby, compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round, and put it on the hob to simmer. Master Peter, with the two ubiquitous young cratchets, went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession. Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose, the rarest of all birds, a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course, and in truth it was something very like it in the house.

Starting point is 00:22:43 Mrs Cratchit made the gravy, ready beforehand in a little saucepan, hissing hot, Master Peter mashed the potatoes, with incredible vigour, Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple sauce, Martha, dusted the hot plates. Bob took tiny tin beside him, in a tiny corner at the table, and the two young cratchets set chairs for everyone, not forgetting themselves, and mountain guard upon their posts

Starting point is 00:23:13 crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be held. At last the dishes were set upon, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast.

Starting point is 00:23:35 But when she did, and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all around the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young Cratchets, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried, hurrah. There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe there ever was such a goose cooked

Starting point is 00:24:00 Its tenderness and flavour size and cheapness were the themes of universal admiration Eat out by apple sauce and mashed potatoes It was a sufficient dinner for the whole family Indeed as Mrs Cratchett said With great delight surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish

Starting point is 00:24:20 They hadn't ate it all at last Yet everyone had enough and the youngest Cratchett's in particular were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows, but now the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchett, left the room alone, too nervous to bear witness, to take the pudding up, and bring it in. Suppose it should not be done enough. Suppose it should break in turning out. Suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the backyard and stolen it,

Starting point is 00:24:52 while they were merry with the goose, a supposition, at which the two young Cratchits became livid. All sorts of horrors were supposed. Hello, a great deal of steam. The pudding was out of the copper. A smell like washing day. But the cloth, a smell like an eating house and a pastry cooks next door to each other, were the lawn dresses next door to that. That was the pudding. In half a minute, Mrs Cratchett entered, flushed, but smilingly proud, with the pudding, like a a speckled cannonball so hard and firm, blazing in half of half a quatern of ignited brandy, and bedite with Christmas holly, stuck into the top. Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchett said,

Starting point is 00:25:39 and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchett since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchett said that now the weight was off her mind. She would confess she had her doubts about the quantity of flour, Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any cratchit would have blushed a hint at such a thing. At last the dinner was all done. The cloth was cleared, the hearth was swept, the fire was made up. The compound in the jug being tasted and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table and a shovel full of chestnuts. on the fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the half, in what Bob Cratchett called a circle, meaning half a wand, and at Bob Cratchett's elbow, stood the family display of glass, two tumblers, and a custard top without a handle. These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden goblets would have done, and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and cracked noisily.

Starting point is 00:26:55 Then Bob proposed, A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us all. Which all the family re-echoed. God bless us, everyone, said Tiny Tim, the last of all. He sat very close to his father's side upon his little stool. Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child and wished to keep him by his side,

Starting point is 00:27:20 and dreaded that he might be taken from him. Spirit, said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before. Tell me if Tiny Tim will live. I see a vacant seat, replied the ghost, in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved, if these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die. No, no, said Scrooge. Oh no, kind spirit, say he will be spared.

Starting point is 00:27:55 If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other of my race, return the ghost, will find him here. What then? He will be like to die. He'd better do it and decrease the surplus population. Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the spirit and was overcome with penitence and grief. man said the ghost if man you be in heart not adamant forbear that wicked can't until you have discovered what the surplus is and where it is

Starting point is 00:28:31 will you decide what men shall live and what men shall die it may be that in the sight of heaven you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child oh god to hear the insect of heaven you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child oh god to hear the insect of the insect of the the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust. Scrooge bent before the ghost's rebuke and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground, but he raised them speedily on hearing his own name. "'Mr Scrooge,' said Bob, "'I give you, Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast.' "'The founder of the feast indeed,' cried Miss. Mrs. Cratchit, reddening. I wish I had him here. I'd give him a peace of my mind to feast upon,

Starting point is 00:29:25 and I hope you'd have a good appetite for it. "'My dear,' said Bob, the children, Christmas Day!' "'It should be Christmas Day, I am sure,' said she, on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard and feeling man as a Mr. Scrooge. You know he is Robert. Nobody knows it better than you do. poor fellow. My dear, was Bob's mild answer, Christmas Day? I'll drink as health for your sake and the days, said Mrs Cratchit, not for his, long life to him, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. He'll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt. The children drank the toast

Starting point is 00:30:11 after her. It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness. Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn't care two pence for it. Scrooge was the ogre of the family. The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for a full five minutes. After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the baleful being done with. Bob Cratchett told them how he had a situation in his eye for Master Peter, who would bring in, if obtained full five and sixpence weekly. The two young cratchets laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man of business, and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars as if he was deliberating what particular investments he should

Starting point is 00:31:06 favour when he came into the receipt of the bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliners, then told them what kind of work she had to do. and how many hours she worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie, a bed in tomorrow morning, for a good long rest, tomorrow being a holiday, she passed at home. Also how she had seen a countess and her lord some days before, and how the Lord was much about as tall as Peter, at which Peter pulled up his collar so high that you couldn't have seen his head if you had been there. All this time, the chestnuts and the jug went round and round,

Starting point is 00:31:47 And by and by they had a song about a lost child travelling in the snow from Tiny Tim, who had a plaintive little voice and sang it very well indeed. There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not a handsome family. They were not well dressed. Their shoes were far from being waterproof. Their clothes were scanty, and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbrokers. but they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another

Starting point is 00:32:19 and contented with the time and when they faded and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the spirit's torch at parting Scrooge had his eye upon them and especially on Tiny Tim until the last By this time it was getting dark and snowing pretty heavily and as Scrooge and the spirit went along the streets

Starting point is 00:32:41 the brightness of the roaring fires in kitchens and parlours and all sorts of rooms were wonderful. Here the flickering of the blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot plates baking through and through before the fire, and deep red curtains ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness. There all the children of the house were running out into the snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles, aunts, and to be the first to greet them.

Starting point is 00:33:12 Here again were shadows on the window, of guests assembling, and there were a group of handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted, and nor chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some near neighbour's house, where, woe upon the single man who saw the mentor, artful witches well they knew it, in a glow. But if you were judged from the numbers of people on their way to friendly gatherings, you might have thought that no one was at home to give their welcome when they got there. Instead of every house expecting company and piling up its fires half chimney high, blessings on it how the ghost exalted, how it bared its breadth of breast and opened its capacious palm and floated on,

Starting point is 00:34:00 outpouring with a generous hand, its bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach. The very lamplighter who ran on before dotting the dusky street with specks of light, and who dressed to spend the evening somewhere laughed out loudly as the spirit passed, though little Kend the lab-lighter that he had any company but Christmas. And now, without a word of warning from the ghost, they stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial place of giants, and water spread itself wherever so it listed, or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner,

Starting point is 00:34:47 and nothing grew but moss and furs, and coarse-ranked grass. Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery red, which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a sullen eye, and frowning lower, lower yet, was lost in the thick gloom of darkest night. Where is this place? asked Scrooge. A place where miners live Who labour in the bowels of the earth Return the spirit

Starting point is 00:35:18 But they know me See A light shone from the window of a hut And swiftly they advanced towards it Passing through the wall of mud and stone And found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire An old old man

Starting point is 00:35:36 And a woman with their children And their children's children and another generation beyond that, all decked out gaily in their holiday attire. The old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the howling of the wind upon the barren waist, was singing them a Christmas song. It had been a very old song when he was a boy. From time to time they all joined in the chorus. So surely as they raised their voices, the old man got quite blithed and loud, and so surely as they stopped his vigour sank again.

Starting point is 00:36:12 The spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his robe, and passing above the moor, sped whither. Not to see, to see, de Scrooge's horror looking back, he saw the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks behind him, and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water,

Starting point is 00:36:34 as if it rolled and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it had worn and fiercely tried to undermine the earth. Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed, a wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse.

Starting point is 00:36:56 Great heaps of seaweed clung to its base, and stormbirds, born of the wind, one might suppose, a sea-weed of the water rose and fell about it, like the waves they skimmed. But even here, two men who watched the light had made a fire, that through the loophole in the thick stone wall shed out a ray of brightness on the awful sea. Joining their horny hands over the rough table and which they sat, they wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog and one of them, the elder two,

Starting point is 00:37:32 with his face all damage and scarred with hard weather, as the figurehead of an old ship might be, struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale in itself. Again the ghosts sped up above the bleak and black sea, on and on being far away as he told Scrooge from any shore they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the helsman at the wheel, the lookout in the bow, the officers who had the watch, dark ghostly figures in their several stations. But every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought,

Starting point is 00:38:14 or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas day, with homeward hopes belonging to it, and every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, who had a kinder word for another on that day, then on any day in the year, year and had shared to some extent in its festivities and had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and he had known that they were delighted to remember him. It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the moaning of the wind and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss whose depths were secrets as profound as death.

Starting point is 00:38:58 It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while thus engaged, to hear a hearty laugh. It was much greater surprise to Scrooge to recognise it as his own nephews, and to find himself in a bright, dry, gleaming room, with a spirit standing smiling by his side, and looking at the same nephew with a provingly affability. Ha ha! ha! laughed Scrooge's nephew. Ha, ha, ha. If you should happen by any likely chance to know a man more blessed and a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can say is I should like to know him too, introduce him to me, and I'll cultivate his acquaintance.

Starting point is 00:39:41 It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, and while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there's nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour. When Scrooge's nephew laughed in this way, holding his sides, rolling his head and twisting his face into the most extravagant contortions, Scrooge's niece, by marriage, laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled friends, being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily. Ha ha ha ha ha. He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live, cried Scrooge's nephew. He believed it too. More shame for him, Fred, said Scrooge's niece indignantly.

Starting point is 00:40:27 Bless those women, they never do anything by halves. They are always in earnest. She was very pretty, exceedingly pretty, with a dimpled, surprised-looking capital face, a ripe little mouth that seemed made to be kissed, and in no doubt it was, all kinds of good little dots about her chin that melted into one another when she laughed

Starting point is 00:40:51 and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature's head. Altogether, she was what you would have called provokingly, you know, but satisfactory too. Oh, perfectly satisfactory. He's a comical old fellow, said Scrooge's nephew. That's the truth, and not so pleasant as he might be, and whether his offences carry their own punishment. I have nothing to say against him. I'm sure he's very rich, Fred, hinted Scrooge's niece,

Starting point is 00:41:21 At least you always tell me so. What of that, my dear, said Scrooge's nephew. His wealth is of no use to him. He don't do any good with it. He don't make himself comfortable with it. He hasn't the satisfaction of thinking, that he is ever going to benefit us with it. I have no patience with him, observed Scrooge's niece.

Starting point is 00:41:46 Scrooge's niece's sisters and all the other ladies expressed the same opinion. Oh, I have, said Scrooge's nephew. I am sorry for him. I couldn't be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims, himself always? Here he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won't come and dine with this.

Starting point is 00:42:09 What's the consequence? He don't lose much of a dinner. Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner, interrupted Scrooge's niece. everyone else said the same, and they must be allowed to have been competent judges, because they had just had dinner, and with a dessert upon the table, were clustered round the fire by lamplight. Well, I'm very glad to hear it, said Scrooge's nephew, because I hadn't great faith in these young housekeepers. What do you say, Topper?

Starting point is 00:42:40 Topper had clearly got his eye upon one of Scrooge's niece's sisters, for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched out who had no right to express an opinion on the subject, whereat Scrooge's niece's sister, the plump one with the lace-tucker, not the one with the roses, blushed. Don't go on, Fred, said Scrooge's niece, clapping her hands. He never finishes what he begins to say. He's such a ridiculous fellow.

Starting point is 00:43:09 Scrooge's nephew reveled in another laugh, and as it was impossible to keep the infection off, though the plump sister tried hard to, with aromatic vinegar. His example was unanimously followed. I was only going to say, said Scrooge's nephew, that the consequences of taking a dislike to us and not making merry with us

Starting point is 00:43:29 is, as I think, that he loses some pleasant moments, which could do him no harm. I am sure he loses pleasanter companions that he can find in his own thoughts, either in his mouldy old office or his dusty chambers. I mean to give him the same chance every year whether he likes it or not, for I pity him. He may rail at Christmas till he dies, but he can't help thinking better of it. I defy him if he finds me going there in good temper,

Starting point is 00:43:59 year after year, and saying, Uncle Scrooge, how are you? If it only puts him in the vein to leave his pure clerk fifty pounds, that's something, and I think I shook him yesterday. It was there turn to laugh now at the notion of his shaking Scrooge, but being thoroughly good-names, and not much caring what they laughed at, so they laughed at any rate. He encouraged them in their merriment, and passed the bottle joyously. After tea they had some music,

Starting point is 00:44:29 for they were a musical family, and they knew what they were about, and they sung a glee or catch. I can assure you, especially topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over. for it. Scrooge's niece played well upon the heart and played among other tunes a simple little air,

Starting point is 00:44:54 and mere nothing you might learn to whistle in two minutes, which had been familiar to the child who fetch Scrooge from the boarding school, as he'd been reminded by the ghost of Christmas past. When this strain of music sounded, all the things the ghost had shown him came upon his mind. He softened more and more and thought if he could have listened to his. it often, years ago, he might have cultivated the kindness of life for his own happiness with his own hands, without resorting to the sexton spade that buried Jacob Marley. And they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After a while they played at forfeits, for it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty founder was a child himself.

Starting point is 00:45:43 There was first a game at Blyman's Buff. Of course there was. And I no more believe Topper was really blind than I believe he had eyes in his boots. My opinion is that it was a done thing between him and Scrooge's nephew and that the ghost of Christmas present knew it. The way he went after that plump sister in the lace-tucker was an outrage on the credulity of human nature,

Starting point is 00:46:11 knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping against the piano, smothering himself among the curtains. Wherever she went, there he went. He always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch anybody else. If you had fallen up against him, as some of them did, on purpose, he would have made a feint of endeavouring to seize you,

Starting point is 00:46:35 which would have been an affront to your understanding and would instantly have been sidled off in the direction of the plump sister. She often cried out that it wasn't fair, and it really was not, but when at last he caught her, when, in spite of her silking rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, he got into a corner whence there was no escape, then his conduct was the most excreable. For his pretending not to know her, his pretending that it was necessary to touch her headdress, and further to assure himself of her identity by pressing a curtain ring upon her finger and a certain chain around her neck was vile, monstrous.

Starting point is 00:47:15 No doubt she told him her opinion of it, when, another blind man being in office, they were so very confidential together behind the curtains. Scrooge's niece was not one of the blind man buff's party, but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool in a snug corner where the ghost and Scrooge were close behind her, but she joined in the forfeits and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet.

Starting point is 00:47:42 Likewise at the game of how when and where she was very great, and to the secret joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat her sister's hollow, though there were sharp girls too, as Topper would have told you. There might have been 20 people there, young and old,

Starting point is 00:47:58 but they all played, and so did Scrooge, but wholly forgetting in the interest he had in what was going on, that his voice made no sound in their ears. He sometimes came out with a guest quite, loud, and very often quite right too. For the sharpest needle, best white chapel, warranted not to cut in the eye, was not sharper than Scrooge blunt as he took in his head to be. The ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood, and looked upon him with such favour

Starting point is 00:48:28 that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay until the guests departed. But this, the spirit said, could not be done. Here is a new game, said Scrooge. Only half an hour, spirit, only one. It was a game called yes and no, where Scrooge's nephew had to think of something and the rest might find out what. He only answering to their questions yes or no, as the case was. The brisk fire of the questioning to which he was exposed elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a live animal, rather than a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in London, and walked about the streets, and was it made a show off, and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live in a maranjury,

Starting point is 00:49:19 and was never killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a bull, or a cow, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. And every fresh question that was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter and was so inexpressibly tickled that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp. At last the plump sister, falling into a similar state, cried out, I found it out, I know what it is, Fred, I know what it is. What is it? cried Fred. It's your uncle Scrooge, which it certainly was. admiration was the universal sentiment though some objected that the reply to is it a bear ought to have been yes in so much as an answer in the negative was sufficient to have diverted thy thoughts from mr scrooge supposing they had ever had any tendency that way he has given us plenty of merriment i am sure said fred and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment, and I say, Uncle Scrooge.

Starting point is 00:50:34 Well, Uncle Scrooge, they all cried. A Merry Christmas, and a happy new year to the old man. Whatever he is, said Scrooge's nephew. He wouldn't take it from me, but may he have it nevertheless. Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return and thanks them in an audible speech if the ghost had given him time. But the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word,

Starting point is 00:51:06 spoken by his nephew, and he and the spirit were again upon their travels. Much they saw and far they went, and many homes they visited, but always with a happy end. The spirit stood beside sick beds, and they were cheerful, on foreign lands, and they were close at home, by street. struggling men, and they were patient in their greater hope, by poverty, and it was rich, in armhouse, hospital, and jail, in miseries every refuge, where vain men, in his little authority, had made fast the door and barred the spirit out, he left his blessing, and taught Scrooge his precepts. It was a long night, if it were only a night, but Scrooge had his

Starting point is 00:51:52 dance of this, because the Christmas holidays appeared to be condensed into the space of time they passed together. It was strange too that while Scrooge remained unaltered in his outward form, the ghost grew older, clearly older. Scrooge had observed this change, but never spoke of it, until they left a children's 12th night party when looking at the spirit, as they stood together in an open place, he noticed that its hair was grey. Our spirits' lives. Our spirits' lives. so short as Scrooge? My life upon this globe is very brief, replied the ghost. It ends tonight.

Starting point is 00:52:31 Tonight, cried Scrooge, tonight at midnight, hark, the time is drawing near. The chimes were ringing the three quarters past eleven at the moment. Forgive me if I'm not justified in what I ask, said Scrooge, looking intently at the spirit's robe. But I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?

Starting point is 00:52:59 It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it, said the spirit's soulful reply. Look here. From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children, wretched, object, frightful, hideous and miserable. They knelt down at its feet and clung upon the outside of its garment. Oh man, look here, look here down here, exclaimed the ghost.

Starting point is 00:53:28 There was a boy and girl, yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish, but prostrate too in their humidity, where graceful youth should have filled their features out and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand like that of age, had pinched and twisted them and pulled them into shrill. threads. Where angels might have sat and throamed, devils lurked and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to her lives such enormous magnitude.

Starting point is 00:54:26 Spirit, are they yours? Scrooge could say no more. They are man's, said the spirit, looking down upon them, and they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy's ignorance. This girl is want. Beware them both and all their degree. But most of all, beware this boy, for his brow I have seen written which is doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it, cried the spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. Slander those who tell it ye, admit it for your fictitious purposes, and make it worse, and bide the end. Have you no refuge or resource? cried Scrooge. Are there no prisons? said the spirit.

Starting point is 00:55:17 turning on him for the last time with his own words. Are there no workhouses? The bell struck twelve. Scrooge looked about him for the ghost and saw it not. As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes beheld a solemn phantom, draught and hooded, coming like a mist along the ground.

Starting point is 00:55:47 towards him.

Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - A Christmas Carol by the Fireside - part three

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