e-irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping up against the piano,
smothering himself amongst the curtains, wherever she went, there went
he! He always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch anybody
else. If you had fallen up against him, (as some of them did) on
purpose, he would have made a feint of endeavoring to seize you, which
would have been an affront to your understanding, and would instantly
have sidled off in the direction of the plump sister. She often cried
out that it wasn't fair; and it really was not. But when at last, he
caught her; when, in spite of all her silken rustlings, and her rapid
flutterings past him, he got her into a corner whence there was no
escape; then his conduct was the most execrable. For his pretending not
to know her; his pretending that it was necessary to touch her
head-dress, and further to assure himself of her identity by pressing a
certain ring upon her finger, and a certain chain about her neck; was
vile, monstrous! No doubt she told him her opinion of it when, another
blind-man being in office, they were so very confidential together,
behind the curtains.

Scrooge's niece was not one of the blind-man's buff party, but was made
comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in a snug corner where
the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her. But she joined in the
forfeits, and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the
alphabet. Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where, she was very
great, and, to the secret joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat her sisters
hollow: though they were sharp girls too, as Topper could have told you.
There might have been twenty people there, young and old, but they all
played, and so did Scrooge; for, wholly forgetting in the interest he
had in what was going on, that his voice made no sound in their ears, he
sometimes came out with his guess quite loud, and very often guessed
right, too; for the sharpest needle, warranted not to cut in the eye,
was not sharper than Scrooge; blunt as he took it in his head to be.

The Ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood, and looked upon
him with such favor, that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay
until the guests departed. But this the Spirit said could not be done.
The whole scene passed off; and he and the Spirit were again upon their
travels.

Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they visited, but
always with a happy end. The Spirit stood beside sick bed