A Christmas Carol: The End of It

Yes! The bedpost was his own, the bed was his own, the room was his own, and best of all, the time ahead was his own to make things right.“I will live in the Past, the Present and the Future!” cried Scrooge as he scrambled out of bed. “Oh, Jacob Marley! Heaven and Christmas be praised for this!”“I don’t know what to do!” he laughed and cried at the same time. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy!”

He threw open the window to clear, bright, cold air and the ringing of church bells, and called down to a boy in the street, “What’s today?”“Today? Why, it’s Christmas Day!” said the boy. “I haven’t missed it!” said Scrooge to himself. “The Spirits have done it all in one night.”He sent the boy to the shop around the corner to buy the prize turkey — not the little one, but the big one, as big as the boy himself — and promised him money for running fast.“I’ll send it to Bob Cratchit’s!” he whispered, rubbing his hands and laughing. “He won’t know who sent it. It’s twice the size of Tiny Tim!”

Dressed in his best clothes, he walked out into the streets, smiling so pleasantly at everyone that strangers said, “Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!”When he met one of the gentlemen who had asked him for money for the poor, he took him by both hands, asked his pardon, and whispered a sum into his ear.“Lord bless me! My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?” cried the gentleman. “Not a penny less,” said Scrooge. “A great many back-payments are included in it.”

In the afternoon he walked past his nephew’s door a dozen times before he found the courage to knock.“Fred! It’s I, your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in?” Fred was so happy that he nearly shook his uncle’s arm off, and it was a wonderful party, with wonderful games and wonderful happiness.

The next morning Scrooge was early at the office, hoping to catch Bob Cratchit coming in late — and Bob was eighteen and a half minutes late.“What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?” growled Scrooge in his old voice. “I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore I am about to raise your salary!”“A merry Christmas, Bob!” he said, clapping him on the back. “I’ll raise your salary and help your struggling family. Make up the fires, Bob Cratchit!”

Scrooge was better than his word, and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father.Some people laughed to see how much he had changed, but he let them laugh, for his own heart was laughing, and that was quite enough for him.It was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive did. And so, as Tiny Tim said, God bless Us, Every One!