{"id":31706,"date":"2020-11-28T21:49:06","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T04:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?page_id=31706"},"modified":"2020-11-28T23:01:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T06:01:49","slug":"the-grave","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/dickens-in-days\/the-grave\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 18 – The Grave"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dickens<\/a>The Spirit stopped; the hand was pointed elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe house is yonder,\u201d Scrooge exclaimed. \u201cWhy do you point away?\u201d<\/p>\n

The inexorable finger underwent no change.<\/p>\n

Scrooge hastened to the window of his office, and looked in. It was an office still, but not his. The furniture was not the same, and the figure in the chair was not himself. The Phantom pointed as before.<\/p>\n

He joined it once again, and wondering why and whither he had gone, accompanied it until they reached an iron gate. He paused to look round before entering.<\/p>\n

A churchyard. Here, then; the wretched man whose name he had now to learn, lay underneath the ground. It was a worthy place. Walled in by houses; overrun by grass and weeds, the growth of vegetation\u2019s death, not life; choked up with too much burying; fat with repleted appetite. A worthy place!<\/p>\n

The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. He advanced towards it trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,\u201d said Scrooge, \u201canswer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?\u201d<\/p>\n

Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.<\/p>\n

\u201cMen\u2019s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,\u201d said Scrooge. \u201cBut if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spirit was immovable as ever.<\/p>\n

Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, Ebenezer Scrooge.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cAm I that man who lay upon the bed?\u201d he cried, upon his knees.<\/p>\n

The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, Spirit! Oh no, no!\u201d<\/p>\n

The finger still was there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpirit!\u201d he cried, tight clutching at its robe, \u201chear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope!\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first time the hand appeared to shake.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood Spirit,\u201d he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: \u201cYour nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!\u201d<\/p>\n

The kind hand trembled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will honour Christmas<\/a> in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!\u201d<\/p>\n

In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.<\/p>\n

Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom\u2019s hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.<\/p>\n

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

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

The Spirit stopped; the hand was pointed elsewhere. \u201cThe house is yonder,\u201d Scrooge exclaimed. \u201cWhy do you point away?\u201d The inexorable finger underwent no change. Scrooge hastened to the window of his office, and looked in. It was an office still, but not his. The furniture was not the same, and the figure in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":31663,"menu_order":18,"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":53,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31706","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31706","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=31706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31706\/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=31706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}