Songs flush with purple bloom the rye, Touched by his hand, the wayside weed Beside the stream Is clothed with beauty; gorse and grass He sings of love, whose flame illumes The treacherous undertow and stress At moments, wrestling with his fate, Above the tavern door, lets fall But still the music of his song 5 10 15 20 Are Manhood, Freedom, Brotherhood, Between the words. And then to die so young and leave Is this, than wandering up and down, For now he haunts his native land He sits beside each ingle nook, His presence haunts this room to-night, From that far coast. Welcome beneath this roof of mine! Dear guest and ghost! Ayr (âr): the home of Burns, a seaport town of Scotland.—laverock (lā'věr-ok): the lark. gorse a thorny shrub, bearing a yellow flower, common on the hills of Great Britain. brushwood: it was customary in the old days to hang a branch for a sign over a tavern door. Hence the proverb, "Good wine needs no bush."-ingle nook: chimney corner. OLD SCROOGE CHARLES DICKENS CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) was one of the great English novelists. His books are full of interest and humor, and helped to bring about better laws and conditions for the poor. Among his best known books are "David Copperfield," “Pickwick Papers,” "Nicholas Nickleby," and "Oliver Twist." NOTE. "A Christmas Carol," from which this selection is taken, is the best known of Dickens's short stories. It tells how a hard, miserly old man was changed to a generous and kindly one. This is the beginning of the story. Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt 10 whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail. 15 Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole 20 residuary legatee, his sole friend, his sole mourner. Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name, however. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door, Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge and sometimes Marley. He answered to both names. It was all the same to him. Oh, but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, 5 was Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! External heat and cold had little influence on him. No warmth could warm, no cold could chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its pur10 pose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect, they often "came down" handsomely, and Scrooge never did. 15 Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle; no children asked him what it was o'clock; no man or woman ever once in all his life 20 inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, "No eye at all is better than 25 an evil eye, dark master!" But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, |