Come back with the man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes, and I'll give you half a 995 crown!"

The boy was off like a shot.

"I'll send it to Bob Cratchit's! He sha'n't know who sends it. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to Bob's will be!"

The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one; but write it he did, somehow, and went down stairs to open the street door, ready for the coming of the poulterer's man.

910

It was a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapped 'em short off in a minute, 915 like sticks of sealing-wax.

Scrooge dressed himself "all in his best," and at last got out into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and, walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one 920 with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humored fellows said, "Good-morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!" And Scrooge said often afterwards that, of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.

In the afternoon, he turned his steps towards his nephew's house.

He passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and knock. But he made a dash, and did it.

925

"Is your master at home, my dear?" said Scrooge to the girl. 930 (Nice girl! Very.)

"Yes, sir."

"Where is he, my love?"

"He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress."

"He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand already on the 935 dining-room lock. "I'll go in here, my dear."

"Fred!"

"Why, bless my soul !" cried Fred, "who's that?"

"It's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will

you let me in, Fred?"

He

Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier.

His

940

niece looked just the same.

So did Topper when he came. So did the plump sister, when she came. So did every one when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, 945 won-der-ful happiness!

But he was early at the office next morning. Oh, he was early there. If he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That was the thing he had set his heart upon.

And he did it. The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter 950 past. No Bob. Bob was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank.

Bob's hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, 955 as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock.

"Hallo!" growled Scrooge, in his accustomed voice, as near as he could feign it. "What do you mean by coming here at

this time of day?"

"I am very sorry, sir. I am behind my time." "You are? Yes. I think you are. Step this way, if you please."

"It's only once a year, sir. It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir."

960

"Now, I'll tell you what, my friend. I am not going to stand 965 this sort of thing any longer. And therefore," Scrooge continued, leaping from his stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the Tank again-" and therefore I am about to raise your salary!"

Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler.

970

"A merry Christmas, Bob!" said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very 975 afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy a second coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!"

Relate in your own

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-947-978. But... Cratchit! words the little drama between Scrooge and Bob Cratchit.

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. 980 He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him; but his own heart laughed, and that was quite enough for him.

985

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived in that respect upon the Total-Abstinence Principle ever afterwards; and it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim ob- 990 served, God Bless Us, Every One!

LITERARY ANALYSIS.—979–991. In these two paragraphs which words are of Anglo-Saxon, and which of classical, origin?

[INTRODUCTION.-The following note was prefixed by Mr. Lowell to the first edition of the Vision of Sir Launfal (Cambridge, 1848): "According to the mythology of the Romancers, the San Greal, or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus partook of the last supper with his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea, and remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration for many years, in the keeping of his

lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but one of the keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Grail disappeared. From that time it was a favorite enterprise of the knights of Arthur's court to go in search of it. Sir Galahad was at last successful in finding it, as may be read in the seventeenth book of the Romance of King Arthur. Tennyson has made Sir Galahad the subject of one of the most exquisite of his poems."]

PRELUDE TO PART FIRST.

1. Over his keys the musing organist,
Beginning doubtfully and far away,
First lets his fingers wander as they list,

And builds a bridge from Dreamland for his lay:
Then, as the touch of his loved instrument

Gives hope and fervor, nearer draws his theme,
First guessed by faint auroral flushes sent
Along the wavering vista of his dream.

2. Not only around our infancy

Doth heaven with all its splendors lie;
Daily, with souls that cringe and plot,
We Sinais climb and know it not.

5

10

LITERARY ANALYSIS.—I-4. Over... lay. Periodic or loose? Change into the prose order.

4. builds... Dreamland. Express this aerial thought in your own words. What is the figure of speech?

5-8. Then... dream. Analyze this proposition.

9, 10. Not... lie. Cite the passage from Wordsworth (Intimations of Immortality) to which this passage is an allusion.

12. We Sinais climb.

What is the figure of speech?

17-20. Its ... sea. Point out the examples of personification in this passage. What is the thought expressed in lines 17, 18? What is the meaning of "age's" as here used?

18. benedicite (Lat.), literally, be thou blessed: hence, a blessing.

20