Chapter IX: Stave TWO

_Lively music. Curtain rises, showing_ SCROOGE'S _office, as
before_. SCROOGE _sitting in chair, looking at back stage, the
curtains of which are drawn, disclosing the_ GHOST OF CHRISTMAS
PRESENT, _who sits upon a seat covered with red, his right arm
leaning upon a barrel. In his lap is a bowl of steaming punch; in
his left hand, a torch [red fire, such as is used in tableaux,
placed in a hollow at the end of a stick, will produce the desired
effect]; round him are strewn articles, such as are given for
presents. After a few seconds_, CHRISTMAS PRESENT _rises, and
comes forward. The curtains close._

_Spirit._ Look up, look up, and know me better, man. I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon me. (SCROOGE _slowly rises, and moves round him, looking closely at him. Music continues. This is to give an opportunity to set the stage for the next picture._) You have never seen the like of me before?

_Scrooge._ Never.

_Spirit._ Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family; meaning (for I am very young) my elders born in these later years?

_Scrooge._ I don't think I have. I'm afraid I have not. Have you had
many brothers, Spirit?

_Spirit._ More than eighteen hundred.

_Scrooge._ A tremendous family to provide for. Spirit, show me what you will. Last night I learnt a lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.

_Spirit._ Look well upon the pictures I disclose.

[SPIRIT _retires_ R., SCROOGE, L.

(_Curtains open, disclosing_ "BOB CRATCHIT'S _Christmas_." _Table_, C., _covered with white cloth; plates_. L. _of table sits_ MARTHA, _a young lady about eighteen; brown dress, white collar and cuffs; hair neatly arranged. Beside her, a boy of ten; jacket, with an enormous dickey and black cravat; his hands raised and clasped._ R. _of table, a boy, with a large ruffled collar; his fork in his mouth. Next him, a girl of eight, with her spoon thrust into her mouth. At the farther corner of table_, R., _sits_ BOB CRATCHIT, _with_ TINY TIM _sitting upon his knee_. MRS. CRATCHIT, _dressed in plaid, stands at back of table, holding in both hands a plate bearing a plum-pudding, rather small, with a bunch of holly stuck in the top of it, and alcohol blazing around it. All eyes are fixed upon the pudding. Expression upon the faces joyful and expectant. Music lively._)

_Scrooge._ It's my clerk, Bob Cratchit.

_Spirit._ Ay, Bob Cratchit, who pockets on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost of Christmas Present blesses his four-roomed house with the sprinklings of his torch.

_Bob Cratchit_ (_raising a cup_). A merry Christmas to us all, my dears!
God bless us!

_All_ (_in picture_). God bless us!

_Tiny Tim._ God bless us, every one! (_Curtain closes._)

_Scrooge._ Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.

_Spirit._ I see a vacant seat 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.

_Scrooge._ No, no! Oh, no, kind Spirit; say he will be spared.

_Spirit._ If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other of my race will find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

_Scrooge._ My very words, when I was asked to give a trifle for the
poor!

_Spirit._ Man,—if man you be in heart, not adamant,—forbear that wretched cant until you have discovered what the surplus is, and where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be, that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless, and less fit to live, than this poor man's child.

_Scrooge._ He must live! he must live! Poor Bob! poor Bob!

_Spirit._ Come; look upon another picture.

(_Music lively. Curtain rises upon picture of "Blind Man's Buff at_ NEPHEW FRED'S." _Characters in full evening costume,—gentlemen, white vests and white ties, black clothes; ladies, rich and tasty. In the_ C. _stands a gentleman, blindfolded, leaning forward, groping with his hands, the right hand just touching a young lady, who is half turned from him, but who is looking back with a smile upon her face. Beside her stands a gentleman with his finger upon his lip. Behind the blindfolded gentleman_, NEPHEW FRED, _with his head thrown back, his mouth open, as though laughing. On the_ L., _a young lady, leaning forward, with her fan to her lips; next her, a gentleman, holding the blindfolded gentleman by the coat-tail, his other hand upon his side, his head thrown back, and mouth open, as though laughing. A boy in front of the party, on his knees, with finger pointing up to the blindfolded gentleman._)

_Scrooge._ Fred's house!

_Spirit._ Ay, your nephew, making merry. If you listen, you will hear him say of his Uncle Scrooge, "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, year after year, and saying, 'Uncle Scrooge, how are you?'"

_Scrooge._ And I refused his invitation,—I refused it! I couldn't do it again, if I had the chance. O Fred, Fred! A merry Christmas, and God bless you!

(_Front curtain descends quickly._)