FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  
into a laugh. "Let the charwoman alone to be the first!" cried she who had entered first. "Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here's a chance! If we haven't all three met here without meaning it!" "You couldn't have met in better place. You were made free of it long ago, you know; and the other two ain't strangers. What have you got to sell? What have you got to sell?" "Half a minute's patience, Joe, and you shall see." "What odds then! What odds, Mrs. Dilber?" said the woman. "Every person has a right to take care of themselves. _He_ always did! Who's the worse for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose." Mrs. Dilber, whose manner was remarkable for general propitiation, said, "No, indeed, ma'am." "If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a wicked old screw, why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself." "It's the truest word that ever was spoke; it's a judgment on him." "I wish it was a little heavier judgment, and it should have been, you may depend upon it, if I could have laid my hands on anything else. Open that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value of it. Speak out plain. I'm not afraid to be the first, nor afraid for them to see it." Joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of opening the bundle, and dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff. "What do you call this? Bed-curtains!" "Ah! Bed-curtains! Don't drop that oil upon the blankets, now." "_His_ blankets?" "Whose else's, do you think? He isn't likely to take cold without 'em, I dare say. Ah! You may look through that shirt till your eyes ache; but you won't find a hole in it, nor a threadbare place. It is the best he had, and a fine one too. They'd have wasted it by dressing him up in it, if it hadn't been for me." Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. "Spirit! I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my own. My life tends that way now. Merciful Heaven, what is this?" The scene had changed, and now he almost touched a bare, uncurtained bed. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon this bed; and on it, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this plundered unknown man. "Spirit, let me see some tendernes
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
judgment
 

bundle

 

blankets

 
Spirit
 

curtains

 

Dilber

 

afraid

 

opening

 

dragged

 

convenience


greater

 
tendernes
 

unknown

 
chance
 
couldn
 

plundered

 

threadbare

 

meaning

 

changed

 

touched


Heaven

 

Merciful

 

uncurtained

 

straight

 

rising

 
wasted
 

dressing

 

unwept

 

unhappy

 

uncared


horror

 

Scrooge

 
listened
 

dialogue

 

unwatched

 

propitiation

 

general

 

manner

 

remarkable

 

laundress


wanted
 
natural
 

entered

 

wicked

 

minute

 
suppose
 

patience

 
person
 
things
 

undertaker