A Christmas Carrol

                        'You are?' repeated Scrooge. 'Yes. I think you are. Step this way, sir, if you please.'

                        'It's only once a year, sir,' pleaded Bob, appearing from the Tank. 'It shall not be repeated. I was
                        making rather merry yesterday, sir.'

                        'Now, I'll tell you what, my friend,' said Scrooge, 'I am not going to stand this sort of thing any
                        longer. And therefore,' he 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. He had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge
                        down with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and a strait- waistcoat.

                        '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 endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will
                        discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up
                        the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, 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. 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 he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he
                        was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some
                        people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be
                        blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have
                        the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed; and that was quite enough for him.

                        He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived 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
                        observed, God bless Us, Every One!

                        THE END

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