Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - A Christmas Carol Part 2 - A Christmas Story Reading

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Starting point is 00:00:46 please go to sleepcove.com slash support. That's sleepcove.com slash support. If you can't support the show right now, please subscribe with a bell to get alerts on all new free content thank you have you ever gazed in wonder at the great pyramid have you marvelled at the golden face of Tudankhamun

Starting point is 00:01:16 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. Dave 2. The first of three spirits. When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark by looking out of the bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his chamber.

Starting point is 00:02:02 He was endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened for the hour. To his great astonishment, the heavy bell went on from six to seven and then from seven to eight, and regularly up to twelve, then stopped. Twelve. It was past two when he went to bed. The clock was wrong.

Starting point is 00:02:29 An icicle must have got into the works. Twelve. He touched the spring of his repeat. Peter to correct the most preposterous clock, its rapid little pulse beat 12 and stopped. Why isn't it possible? said Scrooge that I can't have slept through the whole day and far into another night. It isn't possible that anything has happened to the sun, and this is 12 at noon. The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of the bed and groped his way to the window. He was obliged to rub the frost off with a sleeve of his dressing gown

Starting point is 00:03:08 before he could see anything and could see very little then. All he could make out was that it was still very foggy and extremely cold and that there was no noise of people running to and fro and making a great stir as there unquestionably would have been if night had beaten off bright day and taken possession of the world.

Starting point is 00:03:31 This was a great relief because three days after sight of this first exchange, pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge of his order, and so forth, would have been a mere United States security if there were no days to count by. Scrooge went to bed again, and thought and thought and thought it was over and over and over,

Starting point is 00:03:55 and could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more perplexed he was, and the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he thought. Marley's ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream,

Starting point is 00:04:15 his mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first position and presented the same problem to be worked all through. Was it a dream or not? Scrooge lay in the state until the chime had gone three-quarters more

Starting point is 00:04:31 when he remembered, on a sudden that the ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell told one. He resolved to lie awake until the hour was past and considering that he could do no more to sleep than to go to heaven, this was perhaps the wisest resolution in his power. The quarter was so long

Starting point is 00:04:54 that he was more than once convinced he must have sunk into a doze unconsciously and missed the clock. at length it broke upon his listening ear. Ding dong. A quarter past, said Scrooge counting. Ding dong. Half past, said Scrooge.

Starting point is 00:05:16 Ding dong. A quarter to it, said Scrooge. Ding dong. The hour itself, said Scrooge triumphantly. And nothing else. He spoke before the hour bell sounded. which it did with a deep, dull, hollow, melanchony one. Light flashed up into the room upon the instant.

Starting point is 00:05:41 The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recombat attitude, found himself face to face with the un-earthly visitor who drew them, as close to it as I am to you now, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. 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,

Starting point is 00:06:25 was white as if with age, and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it, and the tenderest blue was on the skin. The arms were very long and muscular, the hands the same as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet were most delicately formed like those upper members bear. 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 singular contradiction of that wintry emblem, 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.

Starting point is 00:07:24 In its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its harm. 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 distinctiveness. Being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with 20 legs, now with a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body,

Starting point is 00:08:03 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. Are you the spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me? As Scrooge?

Starting point is 00:08:25 I am. The voice was soft and gentle, singlearily low, as if instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance. Who and what are you, Scrooge demanded. I am the ghost of Christmas past. Long past, inquired Scrooge, observant of its dwarf's stature. No, your past. Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why.

Starting point is 00:08:55 If anybody could have asked him, but he had a special desire to see the spirit in his cap and begged him to be covered. What? exclaimed the ghost. Would you so soon put out, with the worldly hands the light I give, it is not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap and forced me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow? Scrooge reverently disclaimed all in attention to offend or any knowledge. of having willfully bonneted the spirit at any period of his life.

Starting point is 00:09:33 He then made bold to inquire what business brought him here. Your welfare, said the ghost. Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help 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, Your reclamation then, take care.

Starting point is 00:09:58 heed. It put out its strong hand as it spoke and clasped him gently by the arm. Rise up and walk with me. It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour was not adapted to pedestrian purposes, that 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 that 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. I am immortal, Scrooge remonstrated, and liable to fall. There but a touch of my hand there, said the spirit, laying it upon his heart, and you shall

Starting point is 00:10:54 be upheld him more than this. As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall and stood upon an open country road, with fields on either hand. The city entirely vanished, not a vest of it was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished with it, for it was a clear cold winter day, with snow upon the ground. Good heaven, said Scrooge, clasping his hands together as he looked about him, I was bred in this place. I was a boy here. 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 odours floating in the air. Each one connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and joys and cares long, long forgotten. Your lip is

Starting point is 00:11:50 trembling, said the ghost, and what is that upon your cheek? Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was a pimple, and begged the ghost to lead him where he would. You recollect the way? Inquire the spirit. Remember it, cried Scrooge with further. I could walk it blindfold. Strange to have forgotten it for so many years, observed the ghost. Let us go on. They walked to like. on the road, Scrooge recognising 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

Starting point is 00:12:38 gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All of these boys were in great spirits and shouted to each other until the broad fields was so full of merry music that the crisp air laughed to hear it. These are but shadows of things that have been, said the ghost. They have no consciousness of us. The travellers came on and as they came Scrooge knew and named everyone. Why he so rejoiced beyond all 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? The school is not quite deserted,

Starting point is 00:13:33 said the ghost. A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still. Scrooge said he knew it and sobbed. They left the high road by a well-remembered lane and soon approached a mansion of dull red brick with a little wevelcock surmounted copula on the roof and a bell hanging in it. It was a large house but one of the broken fortunes, for the spacious officers were little used, their walls were damp and mossy, their windows broken and their gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables And the coach-houses and sheds were run over with grass Nor was it more attentive of its ancient state within

Starting point is 00:14:18 For entering the Drury Hall and glancing through the open doors of many rooms They found them poorly furnished, cold and vast There was an earthy saviour in the air A chilly bareness in the place Which associated itself somehow With too much getting up by candlelight and not too much to eat. They went, a ghost and Scrooge across the hall, to a door at the back of the house.

Starting point is 00:14:48 It opened before them and disclosed a long, bare, melanchony room made Bearer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire, and Scrooge sat down upon a form and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be. Not a latent echo in the house, Not a squeak and scuffle From the mouse behind the pallowing Not a drip from the half-thawed water spout

Starting point is 00:15:18 In the dull yard behind Not a sigh among the leafless boughs Of one despondent popular Not the idle swinging Of an empty storehouse door No, not a clicking in the fire But fell upon the heart of Scrooge With a softening influence

Starting point is 00:15:36 And gave a freer passage to his tears. The spirit touched him on the arm and pointed to his younger self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man in foreign garments, wonderfully real and distinct, to look at stood outside the window with an axe struck in his belt and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood. Why, it's Alibaba! Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. It's dear old honest Alibaba. Yes, yes, I know. One Christmas time when yonder solitary child was left here all alone, he did come for the first time just like that. Poor boy and Valentine, said Scrooge and his wild brother Orson.

Starting point is 00:16:27 There you go. And what's his name? Who will put down in his drawers asleep and the gate of Damascus? Don't you see him? And the Sultan's groom turned upside down by the gate. Gennie. There he is upon his head. Serve him right. I'm glad of it. What business had he to be married to the princess? To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on sub-subjects in the most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying, and to see his heightened and excited

Starting point is 00:17:00 face would have been a surprise to his business friends in the city indeed. There's the parrot, cried Scrooge Green body and yellow tail With a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head There he is Paul Robin Crusoe He called him

Starting point is 00:17:18 When he came home again After sailing round the island Poor Robin Crusoe Where have you been, Robin Crusoe The man thought he was dreaming But he wasn't It was the parrot you know There goes Friday

Starting point is 00:17:31 Running for his life to the little creek helloa hoop hello then with a rapidity of transformation very foreign to his usual character he said in pity for his former self poor boy and cried again i wish scrooge muttered putting his hand in his pocket and looking about him after drying his eyes with his cuff but it's too late now what is the matter asked the spirit nothing said scrooge Scrooge, nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should like to have him given him something. That's all. The ghost smiled thoughtfully and waved its hand, saying as it did so, Let us see another Christmas.

Starting point is 00:18:23 Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the room became a little darker and more dirty. Their panels shrunk, the windows cracked, fragments of plastic, had fell out of the ceiling and the naked laths was shown instead. But how all this was brought about, Scrooge knew no more than you do. He only knew that it was quite correct that everything had happened so that there he was alone when all the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays. He was not reading now but walking up and down despairingly. Scrooge looked at the ghost with a mournful shaking of his head. glanced anxiously towards the door.

Starting point is 00:19:07 It opened, and her little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting in, and putting her arms around his neck, and often kissing him, addressed him as her, Dear, dear brother. I have come to bring you home, dear brother, said the child, clapping her tiny hands and bending down to laugh, to bring you home, home, home, home, little fan, returned the boy. Yes, said the child. bringing of glee. Home for good and all. Home forever and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that homes like heaven. He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed,

Starting point is 00:19:49 that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home, and he said yes, you should, and he sent me in a coach to bring you, and you'll to be a man, said the child, opening her eyes, and are never to come back here. But first, We're to be together all the Christmas long and have the merriest time in all the world. You're quite a little woman, little fan, exclaimed the boy. She clapped her hands unlaught and tried to touch his head, but being too little laughed again and stood on tiptoe to embrace him. Then she began to drag him in her childish eagerness towards the door,

Starting point is 00:20:28 and he, nothing loth to go, accompanied her. A terrible voice in the hall cried, bring down Master Scrooge's box there, and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared at Master Scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and threw him into a dreadful state of mind by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed him and his sister into the various old well of shivering best parlour that ever was seen, where the maps upon the wall and the celestial and terrestrial globes in the windows were waxy, with cold. Here he produced a canter of curiously light wine and a block of curiously heavy cake

Starting point is 00:21:11 and administered installments of those dainties to the young people. At the same time, sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of something to the postboy, who once said that he thanked the gentleman, but if it was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk, being by this time tied onto the top of the chase, the children, bade the schoolmaster goodbye, write willingly, and getting into it, drove gaily down the garden sweep, the quick wheels dashing the hoar frost and snow from the dark leaves of the evergreens-like spray. Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered, said the ghost, but she had a large

Starting point is 00:21:55 heart. So she had, cried Scrooge, you're right, I will not gainshe it spirit, God forbid. She died a woman, said the ghost. And had, as I think, children? One child, Scrooge returned. True, said the ghost, your nephew. Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind, and answered briefly yes. Although they had but the moment left the school behind them,

Starting point is 00:22:25 they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city where shadowy passengers passed and repassed, where shadowy cars and coaches battled for the way and all the strife and tumult of a real city were. It was plain enough by the dressing of the shops that here too it was Christmas time again but it was evening and the streets were lighted up. The ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door

Starting point is 00:22:53 and asked Scrooge if he knew it. Know it? said Scrooge. Was I apprenticed here? They went in. At the sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig, sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller, he must have knocked his head against the ceiling. Scrooge cried in great excitement. Why, it's old fezziwig!

Starting point is 00:23:19 Bless his heart, it's Feziwig alive again. Old Fezziwig laid down his pen and looked up at the clock, which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands, adjusted his capetive. pacious waistcoat, laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence, and called out an uncomfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice. Yo-ho there, Ebenezer, Dick! Scroo's former self, now groan a young man, came briskly in, accompanied by his fellow apprentice.

Starting point is 00:23:55 Dick Wilkins, to be sure, said Scrooge to the ghost. Bless me, yes, there he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Poor Dick, dear, dear. Yo-ho-ho, my boys, said Fuzzywig. No more work tonight. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer.

Starting point is 00:24:15 Let's have the shutters up, cried old Fuzzywig, with a sharp clap of his hands, before a man can say Jack Robinson. You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it. They charged into the street with the shutters. One, two, three, Had them up in their places, 456, Bairdum and pinned them 7-8-9,

Starting point is 00:24:37 and came back before you you could have got to 12, panting like race-horses. Hilly-ho, cried Fuzzywig, skipping down from the high desk with wonderful agility. Clear away, my lads, and let's have a lot of room here. Hilly-ho, Dick, Chirub, Ebenezer. Clear away, there was nothing that wouldn't have cleared away or couldn't have cleared away with old fizzy wig looking on. It was done in a minute.

Starting point is 00:25:05 Every movable was packed off as if it were dismissed from public life forevermore. The door was swept and watered, the lamps were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire, and the warehouse was as snug and warm and dry and brighter ballroom as you desired to see upon a winter's night. In came a fiddler with a music book, and went up to the lofty desk and made an orchestra of it and tuned like 50 stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Feziewig, one vast substantial smile.

Starting point is 00:25:41 In came the three Miss Fizzywigs, beaming and lovable. In came the six young followers who hearts they broke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In came the housemaid with her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular friend, the milkman. In came the boy from over the way, who was suspected of not having bored enough from his master, trying to hide himself behind the girl from next all but one, who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress.

Starting point is 00:26:18 In they all came one after another, some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pudding, in they all came Anyhow and every how Away they all went 20 couple at once Hands half round and back again the other way

Starting point is 00:26:37 Down the middle up again Round and round In various stages of affectionate groupie Old top couple Always turning up in the wrong place New top couple starting off again as soon as they got there All top couples at last

Starting point is 00:26:53 And not a bottom one to help them When this result was brought about old Feziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance, cried out, Well done! And the fiddler plunged his hot face into a pot of porter, especially provided for that purpose. But scorning rest upon his reappearance, he instantly began again,

Starting point is 00:27:14 though there were no dancers left, as if the other fiddler had been carried home, exhausted on a shutter, and he were a brand-new man, resolved to beat him out of sight or perish. There were more dancers and there were forfeits, and more dancers, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of cold roast, and there was a great piece of cold boiled, and there were mince pies and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came after the roast and boiled, when the fiddler, an artful dog mind, the sort of man who knew his business, better than you or I, could have told it to him, struck up, Sir Roger de Covilly. Then old Feziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fuzzywig.

Starting point is 00:28:01 Top couple too, with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them, three or four and twenty pair of partners, people who were not to be trifled with, and people who would dance and had no notion of walking. But if they had been twice as many, our four times, old Fessiewig would have been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fessiewig,

Starting point is 00:28:24 As to her, she was worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. If that's not high praise, tell me higher and I'll use it. A positive light appeared to issue from Fezzywig's calves. They shone in every part of the dance like moons. You couldn't have predicted at any time what would have become of them next. And when old Fuzzywig and Mrs Fessie Wig had gone all through the dance, advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow, courtesy, corkscrew, thread and needle, and back again to your place, Feziwig cut, cut so deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again with outer stagger.

Starting point is 00:29:09 When the clock struck eleven, the domestic ball broke up. Mr and Mrs. Feziewig took their stations, one on either side of the door, and shaking hands with every person individually, as he, or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired, but the two prentices, he did the same to them, and thus the cheerful voices died away, and the lads were left to their beds, which were under a counter in the back shop. During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a man out of his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former self. He corroborated everything, remembered as.

Starting point is 00:29:52 everything, enjoyed everything, and underwent the stranger's agitation. It was not until now when the bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned from them, and that he remembered the ghost and became conscious that it was looking full upon him while the light upon its head burnt very clear. A small matter, said the ghost, to make these silly fools so full of gratitude, small echoed Scrooge the spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fizzywig and when he had done so said why it is not he has spent a few pounds of your mortal money three or more perhaps is that so much that he deserves this praise it isn't that said Scrooge heated by the remark and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter self. It isn't that spirit. He has the power to render his happy or unhappy

Starting point is 00:30:58 to make our service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks, in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count him up. What then? The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.

Starting point is 00:31:20 He felt the spirit's glance and stopped. What is the matter? Ask the ghost. Nothing particular, said Scrooge. Something, I think. The ghost insisted. No, said Scrooge. No, I should like to be able to say a word or two

Starting point is 00:31:38 to my clerk just now. That's all. His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance to the wish. And Scrooge and the ghost, stood side by side in the open air. My time grows short, observed the spirit, quick. This was not addressed to Scrooge or to anyone whom he could see,

Starting point is 00:32:01 but it produced an immediate effect, for again Scrooge saw himself. He was older now, a man in the prime of his life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years, but it had begun to wear the same. signs in care and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye which showed the passion that had taken root and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall. He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a morning dress, who whose eyes

Starting point is 00:32:39 were with tears which sparkled in the light that shone out of the ghost of Christmas past. It matters little, she said softly, to you very little. Another idol has displaced me, and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to, I have no just cause to grieve. What idol has displaced you, he rejoined. A golden one, she said. This is the even-handed dealing of the world. He said, there is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty.

Starting point is 00:33:15 and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth. You fear the world too much, she answered gently. All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of his sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one until the master passion gain engrosses you. Have I not? What then? he retorted. Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then, I am not changed towards you. She shook her head.

Starting point is 00:33:53 Am I? Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until in good season we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed when it was made you were another man. I was a boy, he said impatiently. your own feelings tell you that you are not what you are she returned i am that which promised happiness when we were one in heart is fraught with misery now that we are too how often and how keenly have i thought of this i will not say it is enough that i have thought of it and can release you have i ever sought release in words no never in what then in a change nature, in an altered spirit, in another atmosphere of life, another hope as its great end,

Starting point is 00:34:52 in everything that made my love of any worth or value in your sight. If this had never been between us, said the girl, looking mildly but with steadiness upon him, tell me, would you seek me out and try and win me now? Oh no. He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in spite of himself, but he said with a struggle, You think not. I would gladly think otherwise if I could, she answered. Heaven knows, when I have learned a truth like this,

Starting point is 00:35:28 I know how strong and irresistible it must be, but if you were free today, tomorrow, yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a doweless girl? you who in your very confidence with her weigh everything by gain or choosing her if for a moment you are false enough to your one guiding principle to do so so I do not know that your repentance

Starting point is 00:35:56 and regret would surely follow I do and I release you with full heart for the love of him you once were he was about to speak but with her head turned from him she resumed. You may, the memory of what is past half, makes me hope you will, have pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you would dismiss the recollection of it. Gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you awoke,

Starting point is 00:36:29 may you be happy in the life that you have chosen. She left him and they parted. Spirit, said Scrooge, show me no more. conduct me home, why do you delight to torture me? One shadow more, exclaimed the ghost, No more, cried Scrooge, no more, I don't wish to see it, show me no more. But the relentless ghost pinioned him in both arms and forced him to observe what happened next. They were in another place and seen, a room not very large or handsome but full of comfort.

Starting point is 00:37:08 Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same, until he saw her. Now a comely matron sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more children there than Scrooge, in his agitated state of mind, could count, and like the celebrated heard in the poem that there were not forty-year. children conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting itself like 40. The consequences were uproarerous beyond belief, but no one seemed to care. On the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily and enjoyed it very much, and the latter, soon beginning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most ruthlessly. What would I am not

Starting point is 00:38:05 given to be one of them? Though I never. could have been so rude, no, no. I wouldn't, for the wealth of all the world, have crushed that braided hair and torn it down, and for the precious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off. God bless my soul, to save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport as they did, bold young brood, I couldn't have done it. I should have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment and never come straight again. And yet I should have dreary liked it. I own to have touched her lips,

Starting point is 00:38:44 to have questioned her that she might have opened them, to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush, to have let loose waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price. In short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest license of a child,

Starting point is 00:39:05 and yet have been man enough to know its value. But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and plundered dress was born towards it, the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time to greet the father, who came home attended by a man

Starting point is 00:39:27 laden with Christmas toys and presents. Then the shouting and the struggling, and the onslaught that was made, on the defenseless porter. The scaling him with the chairs for ladders to dive into his pockets, despoil him of brown paper parcels, hold on tight by his cravat,

Starting point is 00:39:47 hug him round his neck, pommel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection. The shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package was received. The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll's frying pan into his mouth and was more than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey glued on a wooden platter.

Starting point is 00:40:14 The immense relief of finding this a false alarm, the joy and gratitude and ecstasy, they are all indescribable alike. It is enough that by degrees the children and their emotions got out of the parlour and by one stare at a time up to the top of the house, where they went to bed, and so subsided. And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her and a mother at his own fireside, and when he thought that such another creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might have called him father, and been a springtime in the haggard winter of his life,

Starting point is 00:41:01 his sight grew very dim indeed. Bell, said the husband, turning to his wife with a smile. I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon. Who was it? Guess. How can I touch? Don't I know? She added in the same breath, laughing as he left. Mr. Scrooge, it was. I passed his office window, and as it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside, I could scarcely help seeing him.

Starting point is 00:41:31 His partner lies upon the point of death I hear And there he says alone Quiet alone in the world I do believe Spirit said Scrooge in a broken voice Remove me from this place I told you that these were shadows of the things that have been Said the ghost But they are what they are

Starting point is 00:41:53 Do not blame me Remove me Scrooge exclaimed I cannot bear it He turned upon the the ghost and seeing that it looked upon him with a face in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces they had shown him wrestled with it leave me take me back haunt me no longer in the struggle if that can be called a struggle in which the ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary scrooge observed that its life

Starting point is 00:42:31 was burning high and bright and dimly connecting with its influence over him. He seized the extinguisher cap and by all sudden action pressed it down upon its head. The spirit dropped beneath it so that the extinguisher covered its whole form but though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he could not hide their light, which streamed from under it in an unbroken flood upon the ground. He was conscious of being exhausted And overcome by an irresistible drowsiness And further of being in his own bedroom

Starting point is 00:43:06 He gave the cap a parting squeeze In which his hand relaxed And he had barely time to reel to bed Before he sank into a heavy sleep Thank you.

Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - A Christmas Carol Part 2 - A Christmas Story Reading

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