“Are there no prisons?“ asked Scrooge… ”And the Union Workhouses?”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge “then they had better do it and decrease the surplus population!“
No warmth could warm, nor wintry weather chill him
A solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still
Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer!
But, they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time
“I see a vacant seat,” replied the ghost, “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.”
“No, no,” said Scrooge, “Oh no, kind Spirit! Say he will be spared.”
“But most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see written Doom, unless the writing is erased.”
“My little, little child!” cried Bob. “My little child!”
“Spirit!” he cried, tight clutching at its robe,”Hear me! I am not the man I was!” For the first time, the hand appeared to shake.
“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the future!” Scrooge repeated
“Not a farthing less. A great many back-payments are including in it, I assure you. Will you do me that favour?”
Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father.
“And therefore I am about to raise your salary!”
“I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody!”