{"id":31684,"date":"2020-11-28T21:26:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T04:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?page_id=31684"},"modified":"2020-11-28T22:56:38","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T05:56:38","slug":"memories-of-boyhood","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/dickens-in-days\/memories-of-boyhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 7 – Memories of Boyhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dickens<\/a>\u201cGood Heaven!\u201d said Scrooge, clasping his hands together, as he looked about him. \u201cI was bred in this place. I was a boy here!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch, though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man\u2019s sense of feeling<\/a>. He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long, long, forgotten!<\/p>\n

\u201cYour lip is trembling,\u201d said the Ghost. \u201cAnd what is that upon your cheek?\u201d<\/p>\n

Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was a pimple; and begged the Ghost to lead him where he would.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou recollect the way?\u201d inquired the Spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember it!\u201d cried Scrooge with fervour; \u201cI could walk it blindfold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStrange to have forgotten it for so many years!\u201d observed the Ghost. \u201cLet us go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every gate, and post, and tree; until a little market-town appeared in the distance, with its bridge, its church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields were so full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it!<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are but shadows of the things that have been,\u201d said the Ghost. \u201cThey have no consciousness of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge knew and named them every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them! Why did his cold eye glisten, and his heart leap up as they went past! Why was he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry Christmas<\/a>, as they parted at cross-roads and bye-ways, for their several homes! What was merry Christmas<\/a> to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas<\/a>! What good had it ever done to him?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe school is not quite deserted,\u201d said the Ghost. \u201cA solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.<\/p>\n

They left the high-road, by a well-remembered lane, and soon approached a mansion of dull red brick, with a little weathercock-surmounted cupola, on the roof, and a bell hanging in it. It was a large house, but one of broken fortunes; for the spacious offices were little used, their walls were damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables; and the coach-houses and sheds were over-run with grass. Nor was it more retentive of its ancient state, within; for entering the dreary hall, and glancing through the open doors of many rooms, they found them poorly furnished, cold, and vast. There was an earthy savour in the air, a chilly bareness in the place, which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by candle-light, and not too much to eat.<\/p>\n

They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be.<\/p>\n

Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle from the mice behind the panelling, not a drip from the half-thawed water-spout in the dull yard behind, not a sigh among the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar, not the idle swinging of an empty store-house door, no, not a clicking in the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with a softening influence, and gave a freer passage to his tears.<\/p>\n

The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his younger self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man, in foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, it\u2019s Ali Baba!\u201d Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. \u201cIt\u2019s dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know! One Christmas<\/a> time, when yonder solitary child was left here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy! And Valentine,\u201d said Scrooge, \u201cand his wild brother, Orson; there they go! And what\u2019s his name, who was put down in his drawers, asleep, at the Gate of Damascus; don\u2019t you see him! And the Sultan\u2019s Groom turned upside down by the Genii; there he is upon his head! Serve him right. I\u2019m glad of it. What business had he to be married to the Princess!\u201d<\/p>\n

To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; and to see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to his business friends in the city, indeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s the Parrot!\u201d cried Scrooge. \u201cGreen body and yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is! Poor Robin Crusoe, he called him, when he came home again after sailing round the island. \u2018Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin Crusoe?\u2019 The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn\u2019t. It was the Parrot, you know. There goes Friday, running for his life to the little creek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, \u201cPoor boy!\u201d and cried again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish,\u201d Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes with his cuff: \u201cbut it\u2019s too late now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the matter?\u201d asked the Spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing,\u201d said Scrooge. \u201cNothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas<\/a> Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand: saying as it did so, \u201cLet us see another Christmas<\/a>!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cGood Heaven!\u201d said Scrooge, clasping his hands together, as he looked about him. \u201cI was bred in this place. I was a boy here!\u201d The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch, though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man\u2019s sense of feeling. He was conscious of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":31663,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"pageWithContainerAndSidebar.php","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":18,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31684","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31684\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}