The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed,and groped his way to the window.He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown 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. This was a great relief, because "three days after sight of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order," and so forth, would have become 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 over and over and over,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,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 this state until the chime had gone three quarters more,when he remembered, on a sudden,that the Ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one.He resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed;and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to Heaven,this was perhaps the wisest resolution in his power.
The quarter was so long,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.
"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 now did with a deep, dull, hollow,melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the instant,and the curtains of his bed were drawn.
The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you,by a hand. Not the curtains at his feet,nor the curtains at his back,but those to which his face was addressed.The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge,starting up into a half-recumbent attitude,found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them:as close to it as I am now to you,and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.
It was a strange figure--like a child:yet not so like a child as like an old man,viewed through some supernatural medium,which gave him the appearance of having receded from the view,and being diminished to a child's proportions.Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back,was white as if with age;and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it,and the tenderest bloom was on the skin.The arms were very long and muscular;the hands the same,as if its hold were of uncommon strength.Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were,like those upper members, bare.It wore a tunic of the purest white;and round its waist was bound a lustrous belt,the sheen of which was beautiful.It held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and,in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem,had its dress trimmed with summer flowers.But the strangest thing about it was,that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light,by which all this was visible;and which was doubtless the occasion of its using,in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap,which it now held under its arm.
Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness,was not its strangest quality.For as its belt sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another,and what was light one instant,at another time was dark,so the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness:being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg,now with twenty legs,now a pair of legs without a head,now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts,no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away.And in the very wonder of this,it would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever.
"Are you the Spirit, sir,whose coming was foretold to me?" asked Scrooge.
"I am!"
The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly 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 dwarfish stature.
"No. Your past."
Perhaps, Scrooge could not have told anybody why,if anybody could have asked him;but he had a special desire to see the Spirit in his cap;and begged him to be covered.
"What!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you so soon put out,with worldly hands, the light I give?Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap,and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow!"
Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any knowledge of having wilfully "bonneted" the Spirit at any period of his life. He then made bold to inquire what business brought him there.
"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 heed!"
It put out its strong hand as it spoke,and clasped him gently by the arm.
"Rise!and walk with me!"
It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that 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 a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated,"and liable to fall."
"Bear but a touch of my hand there," said the Spirit,laying it upon his heart,"and you shall be upheld in 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 had entirely vanished.Not a vestige of it was to be seen.The darkness and the mist had vanished with it,for it was a clear, cold, 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 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?" inquired the Spirit.
"Remember it!" cried Scrooge with fervour;"I could walk it blindfold."
"Strange to have forgotten it for so many years!" observed the Ghost. "Let us go on."