A Christmas Carol Script, Summaries of Music

Download A Christmas Carol Script and more Summaries Music in PDF only on Docsity! A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 1 A Christmas Carol, Play version adapted by Frederick Gaines This adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was first produced by the Children’s Theatre Company of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts in November 1968. The script was edited by Linda Walsh Jenkins with the assistance of Carol K Metz. Cast of Characters: Fred, Scrooge’s nephew Ebenezer Scrooge Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s clerk Gentleman Visitor Warder Sparsit, Scrooge’s servant Cook Charwoman Jacob Marley Second Spirit, the Spirit of Christmas Present Mrs. Cratchit Tiny Tim Peter Cratchit Boy Girl Coachman Ben Benjamin Jack Walton Young Scrooge Fan, Scrooge’s sister Fezziwig Young Ebenezer Dick Wilkins Sweetheart of Young Ebenezer Sequence of Scenes: Scene i—Scrooge in His Shop Scene ii—Scrooge Goes Home Scene iii—The Spirit of Christmas Past Scene iv—The Spirit of Christmas Present Scene v—The Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come Scene vi— Scrooge’s Conversion Notes on the Play: Ebenezer Scrooge, obsessed with solitude and greed, collides in a nightmare with his own youth and his lost love. In Frederick Gaines’s theatrical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s story, Scrooge is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come in A Christmas Carol, by Frederick Gaines 2 scenes that flow rapidly from one to the next, activated by the setting. Carolers sing fragments of joyous Christmas songs in the corners of Scrooge’s mind, and a little girl with a doll accompanies him on the street and joins him on his dream-journey. The visiting spirits of Christmas force Scrooge to confront people and scenes from his life that remind him of his friendlessness – he even sees his home and his future corpse being rifled by his own servants. Finally, he awakens to the reality of Christmas morning and discovers the joy of giving, loving, and caring for others. The play is designed to be produced on a simply mounted, nonrealistic setting. A high platform that serves as Scrooge’s bed is at a downstage right. The space under it forms the entrance to Scrooge’s office. A series of stairs and ramps makes a curving sweep from the bed across the upstage area and slopes down to a chair-high platform at left center. The set is painted black and is hung with dark textured fabrics at the back and sides. The props include: candles, lanterns, the little girl’s doll, and platters of food and bowls of drink for Fezziwig’s party. The set furnishings include: Scrooge’s writing desk, the Cratchits’ armchair, and chandeliers for the parties. The costumes, based on fashions of the nineteenth-century London, provide color and texture against the abstract setting. Scene i. Scrooge in His Shop The play begins amid a swirl of street life in Victorian London. Happy groups pass; brightly costumed carolers and families call out to one another and sing “Joy to the World” softly as the children talk. Bob Cratchit, a clerk who works in Scrooge’s office, comes in. He takes some coal from the mound and puts it into a small bucket. Scrooge’s nephew Fred enters, talks with the children, gives them coins, and sends them away with a “Merry Christmas.” A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 2 FRED: A Merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you! SCROOGE: Bah! Humbug! FRED: Christmas is a humbug, Uncle? I hope that’s meant as a joke. SCROOGE: Well, it’s not. Come, what is it you want? Don’t waste all day, Nephew. FRED: I only want to wish you a Merry Christmas, Uncle. Don’t be cross. SCROOGE: What else can I be when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out with Merry Christmas! What’s Christmas to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older but not an hour richer. If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. FRED: Uncle! SCROOGE: Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mine. FRED: But you don’t keep it. SCROOGE: Then leave it alone then, much good it may do you. Much good it has ever done you. FRED: There are many things from which I might have found enjoyment by which I have not profited, I daresay, Christmas among the rest. And though it has never put a scrap of gold in my pocket, I believe it has done me good and will do me good, and I say God bless it! SCROOGE: Bah! FRED: Don’t be angry, Uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow. SCROOGE: I’ll dine alone, thank you. FRED: But why? SCROOGE: Why? Why did you get married? FRED: Why, because I fell in love with a wonderful girl. SCROOGE: And I fell in love with being alone. Good afternoon. FRED: Nay, Uncle, but you never came to see me before I was married. Why give it as a reason for not coming now? SCROOGE: Good afternoon. FRED: I am sorry with all my heart to find you so determined; but I have made the attempt to honor Christmas, and I’ll keep that good spirit to the last. So, a Merry Christmas, Uncle. SCROOGE: Good Afternoon! FRED: And a Happy New Year! A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 5 SCROOGE: Then off, off. CRATCHIT: Yes, sir! Merry Christmas, Sir! SCROOGE: Bah! (As soon as Cratchit opens the door, the sounds of the street begin, very bright and loud. Cratchit is caught up in a swell of people hurrying down the street. Children pull him along to the top of an ice slide, and he runs and slides down it, disappearing in darkness as the stage suddenly is left almost empty. Scrooge goes around the room blowing out candles, talking to himself.) Christmas Eve. Carolers! Bah! There. Another day. (He opens his door and peers out.) Black, very black. Now where are they? (The children are heard singing carols for a moment) Begging pennies for their songs, are they? Oh boy! Scene ii. Scrooge Goes Home SCROOGE: Hold it quiet! There. Off now. That’s it. High. Black as pitch. The house of Ebenezer Scrooge. Yes, here’s the key. (He turns the key toward the door, and the face of Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s deceased business partner, swims out of the darkness. Scrooge watches, unable to speak. He fumbles for a match, lights the lantern, and swings it toward the figure, which melts away. Pause. Scrooge fits the key in the lock and turns it as the door suddenly is opened from the inside by the porter, Sparsit. Scrooge is startled, then recovers.) Sparsit? SPARSIT: Yes, sir? SCROOGE: Hurry, hurry. The door…close it. SPARSIT: Did you knock, sir? SCROOGE: Knock? What matter? Here, light me up the stairs. SPARSIT: Yes, sir (He leads Scrooge up the stairs. They pass the cook on the way. Scrooge brushes by here, stops, looks back, and leans toward him.) COOK: Something to warm you, sir? Porridge? SCROOGE: Wha…? No. No, nothing. COOK: (Waiting for her Christmas coin) Merry Christmas, sir. (Scrooge ignores the request and the cook disappears. Mumbling, Scrooge follows Sparsit.) SCROOGE: (Looking back after the cook is gone) Fright a man nearly out of his life…Merry Christmas…bah! SPARSIT: Your room, sir. SCROOGE: Hmm? Oh yes, yes. And good night. SPARSIT: (Extending his hand for his coin) Merry Christmas, sir. SCROOGE: Yes, yes…(He sees the outstretched hand; he knows what Sparsit wants and is infuriated.) out! Out! (He closes the door after Sparsit, turns toward his chamber, and discovers the charwoman—a woman hired to do cleaning—directly behind him) CHARWOMAN: Warm your bed for you, sir? SCROOGE: What? Out! Out! A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 6 CHARWOMAN: Aye, sir. (She starts for the door. Marley’s voice is heard mumbling something unintelligible.) SCROOGE: What’s that? CHARWOMAN: Me, sir? Not a thing, sir. SCROOGE: Then, good night. CHARWOMAN: Good night. (She exits and Scrooge pantomimes shutting the door behind her. The voice of Marley over an offstage microphone whispers and reverberates: “Merry Christmas, Scrooge!” silence. Scrooge hears the voice but cannot account for it. He climbs up to open a window and looks down. A cathedral choir singing “O Come, All Ye Faithful” is heard in the distance. Scrooge listens a moment, shuts the window, and prepares for bed. As soon as he has shut the sound out of his room, figures appear; they seem to be coming down the main aisle of a church, bearing gifts to the living nursery. The orchestra plays “O Come, All Ye Faithful” as the procession files out. Scrooge, ready for bed, warms himself before the heap of coals. As he pulls his nightcap from a chair, a small hand bell tumbles off onto the floor. Startled, he picks it up and rings it for reassurance; an echo answers it. Scrooge escapes to his bed; the bell sounds grow to a din, incoherent as in a dream, then suddenly fall silent. Scrooge sits up in bed, listens, hears the chains of Marley coming up the stairs. Scrooge reaches for the bell pull to summon Sparsit. The bell responds with a gong, and Marley appears. He and Scrooge face one another.) SCROOGE: What do you want with me? MARLEY: (In a ghostly, unreal voice.) Much. SCROOGE: Who are you? MARLEY: Ask who I was. SCROOGE: Who were you? MARLEY: In life, I was your partner, Jacob Marley. SCROOGE: He’s Dead. MARLEY: Seven years this night, Ebenezer Scrooge. SCROOGE: Why do you come here? MARLEY: I must. It is commanded me. I must wander the world and see what I can no longer share, what I would not share when I walked where you do. SCROOGE: And must go thus? MARLEY: The chain? Look at it, Ebenezer, study it. Locks and vaults and golden coins. I forged it, each link, each day when I sat in these chairs, commanded these rooms. Greed, Ebenezer Scrooge, wealth. Feel them, know them. Yours was as heavy as this I wear seven years ago and you have labored to build it since. SCROOGE: If you’re here to lecture, I have no time for it. It is late, the night is cold. I want comfort now. A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 7 MARLEY: I have none to give. I know not how you see me this night. I did not ask it. I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day. I am commanded to bring you a chance, Ebenezer. Heed it! SCROOGE: Quickly then, quickly. MARLEY: You will be haunted by three spirits. SCROOGE: (Scoffing) Is that the chance? MARLEY: Mark it. SCROOGE: I do not choose to. MARLEY: (Ominously) Then you will walk where I do, burdened by your riches, your greed. SCROOGE: Spirits mean nothing to me. MARLEY: (Slowly leaving) Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls one, the second the next night at the same hour, the third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve has ended. Look to see me no more. I must wander. Look that, SCROOGE: Jacob…Don’t leave me! ...Jacob! Jacob! MARLEY: Goodbye, Ebenezer. (At Marley’s last words a funeral procession begins to move across the stage. A boy walks in front; a priest follows, swinging a censer; sounds of mourning and the suggestion of church music are heard. Scrooge calls out, “Jacob, don’t leave me!” as if talking in the midst of a bad dream. Scrooge pulls shut the bed curtains. The bell sounds are picked up. The clock begins to chime, ringing the hours. Scrooge sits up in bed and begins to count the chimes.) SCROOGE: Eight…nine…ten…eleven…it can’t be…twelve. Midnight? No, not twelve. It can’t be. I haven’t slept the whole day through. Twelve? Yes, yes, twelve noon. (He hurries to the window and looks out.) Black. Twelve midnight. (Pause) I must get up. A day wasted. I must get down to the office. (Two small chimes are heard.) Quarter past. But it just rang twelve. Fifteen minutes haven’t gone past, not so quickly. (Again two small chimes are heard) a quarter to one. The spirit… It’s to come at one. (He hurries to his bed as the chimes ring again) One. Scene iii. The Spirit of Christmas Past The hour is struck again by a large street clock and the first spirit appears. It is a figure dressed to look like a little girl’s doll. SCROOGE: Are you the spirit whose coming was foretold to me? FIRST SPIRIT: I am. SCROOGE: Who and what are you? FIRST SPIRIT: I am the Ghost of Christmas Past. SCROOGE: Long past? FIRST SPIRIT: Your past. SCROOGE: Why are you here? A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 10 FEZZIWIG: Yo ho, my boys! No more work tonight. Christmas Eve, Dick! Christmas, Ebenezer! Let’s have the shutters up before a man can say Jack Robinson! (The music continues. Chandeliers are pulled into position, and mistletoe, holly, and ivy are draped over everything by bustling servants. Dancers fill the stage fro Fezziwig’s wonderful Christmas party. In the midst of the dancing and the laughter servants pass back and forth through the crowd with huge platters of food. At a pause in the music, young Ebenezer, who is dancing, calls out.) YOUNG EBENEZER: Mr. Fezziwig, sir, you’re a wonderful master! SCROOGE and YOUNG EBENEZER: A wonderful master! SCROOGE: (Echoing the phrase) A wonderful master! (The music changes suddenly and the dancers jerk into distorted postures and then begin to move in slow motion. The celebrants slowly exit, performing a ghoulish dance to the jarring sounds.) FIRST SPIRIT: Just because he gave us a party? It was very small. SCROOGE: Small! FIRST SPIRIT: He spent a few pounds of your “mortal” money, three, four at the most. Is that so much that he deserves this praise? SCROOGE: But it wasn’t the money. He had the power to make us happy, to make our service light or burdensome. The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune. That’s what…a good master is. FIRST SPIRIT: Yes? SCROOGE: No, no, nothing. FIRST SPIRIT: Something, I think. SCROOGE: I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now, that’s all. FIRST SPIRIT: But this is all in your past. Your clerk Cratchit couldn’t be here. SCROOGE: No, no, of course not, an idle thought. Are we done? FIRST SPIRIT: (Motioning for the waltz music to begin) Nearly. SCROOGE: (Hearing the waltz and remembering it) Surely it’s enough. Haven’t you tormented me enough? (Young Ebenezer is seen waltzing with his sweetheart.) FIRST SPIRIT: I only show the past, what it promised you. Look. Another promise. SCROOGE: Oh. Oh, yes. I had forgotten…her. Don’t they dance beautifully? So young, so young. I would have married her if only… SWEETHEART: Can you love me, Ebenezer? I bring no dowry into my marriage, only me, only love. It is no currency that you can buy and sell with, but we can live with it. Can you? (She pauses, then returns the ring Scrooge gave her as his pledge.) I release you, Ebenezer, for the love of the man you once were. Will that man win me again, now that he is free? SCROOGE: (Trying to speak to her) If only you had held me to it. You should not have let me go. I was young, I did love you. A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 11 SWEETHEART: (Speaking to Young Ebenezer) We have never lied to one another. May you be happy in the life you have chosen. Good-bye. (She runs out. Young Ebenezer slowly leaves.) SCROOGE: No, no, it was not meant that way…! FIRST SPIRIT: You cannot change now what you would not change then, I am your mistakes, Ebenezer Scrooge, all of the things you could have done and did not. SCROOGE: Then leave me! I have done with them. I shall live with them. As I have, as I do; as I will. FIRST SPIRIT: There is another Christmas, seven years ago, when Marley died. SCROOGE: No! I will not see it, I will not! He dies. I could not prevent it. I did not choose for him to die on Christmas Day. FIRST SPIRIT: And when his day was chosen, what did you do then? SCROOGE: I looked after his affairs. FIRST SPIRIT: His business. SCROOGE: Yes! His business! Mine! It was all I had, all that I could do in this world. I have nothing to do with the world to come after. FIRST SPIRIT: Then I will leave you. SCROOGE: Not yet! Don’t leave me here! Tell me what I must do! What of the other spirits? FIRST SPIRIT: They will come. SCROOGE: And you? What of you? FIRST SPIRIT: I am always with you. (Scrooge numbly heads to bed. Signal the chiming of Scrooge’s bell. Scrooge sits upright in bed as he hears the chimes.)SCROOGE: One minute until one. No one here. No one’s coming. (A larger clock strikes one o’ clock.) Scene iv. The Spirit of Christmas Present A light comes on. Scrooge becomes aware of it and goes slowly to it. He sees the second spirit, the Spirit of Christmas Present, who looks like Fezziwig. SCROOGE: Fezziwig! SECOND SPIRIT: Hello, Scrooge. SCROOGE: But you can’t be…not Fezziwig. SECOND SPIRIT: Do you see me as him? SCROOGE: I do. SECOND SPIRIT: And hear me as him? A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 12 SCROOGE: I do. SECOND SPIRIT: I wish I were the gentleman, so as not to disappoint you. SCROOGE: But you’re not…? SECOND SPIRIT: No, Mr. Scrooge. You have never seen the like of me before. I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. SCROOGE: But… SECOND SPIRIT: You see what you will see, Scrooge, no more. Will you walk out with me this Christmas Eve? SCROOGE: But I am not yet dressed. SECOND SPIRIT: Take my tails, dear boy, we’re leaving. SCROOGE: Wait! SECOND SPIRIT: What is it now? SCROOGE: Christmas Present, did you say? SECOND SPIRIT: I did. SCROOGE: Then we are traveling here? In this town? London? Just down there? SECOND SPIRIT: Yes, yes, of course. SCROOGE: Then could we walk? Your flying is…well, too sudden for an old man. Well? SECOND SPIRIT: It’s your Christmas, Scrooge; I am only the guide. SCROOGE: (Puzzled) Then we can walk? (The spirit nods.) Where are you guiding me to? SECOND SPIRIT: Bob Cratchit's. SCROOGE: My clerk? SECOND SPIRIT: You did want to talk to him? (Scrooge pauses, uncertain how to answer.) Don’t worry, Scrooge, you won’t have to. SCROOGE: (Trying to change the subject, to cover his error) Shouldn’t be much of a trip. With fifteen bob a week, how far off can it be? SECOND SPIRIT: A world away, Scrooge, at least that far. (Scrooge and the spirit start to step off a curb when a funeral procession enters with a child’s coffin, followed by the poorhouse children, who are singing.) That is the way to it, Scrooge. (The procession follows the coffin offstage; Scrooge and the spirit exit after the procession. As they leave, the lights focus on Mrs. Cratchit and her children. Mrs. Cratchit sings as she puts Tiny Tim and the other children to bed, all in one bed. She pulls a dark blanket over them.) MRS. CRATCHIT: (Singing) A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 15 SECOND SPIRIT: (Again imitating Scrooge) Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? (Tenderly to the children) Come. It’s Christmas Eve. (He leads them offstage.) Scene v. The Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come Scrooge is entirely alone for a long moment. He is frightened by the darkness and feels it approaching him. Suddenly he stops, senses the presence of the third spirit, turns toward him, and sees him. The spirit is bent and cloaked. No physical features are distinguishable. SCROOGE: You are the third. (The spirit says nothing.) The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. (The spirit says nothing.) Speak to me. Tell me what is to happen—to me, all of us. (The spirit says nothing.) Then show me what I must see. (The spirit points. Light illuminates the shadows of Scrooge’s house.) I know it. I know it too well, cold and cheerless. It is mine. (The cook and the charwoman are dimly visible in Scrooge’s house.) What is…? There are thieves! There are thieves in my rooms! (He starts forward to confront them, but the spirit beckons for him to stop.) I cannot. You cannot tell me that I must watch them and do nothing. I will not. It is mine still. (He rushes into the house to claim his belongings and to protect them. The two women do no notice his presence.) COOK: He ain’t about, is he? (The charwoman laughs.) Poor ol’ Scrooge ‘as met ‘is end. (She laughs with the charwoman.) CHARWOMAN: An’ time for it, too; ain’t been alive indeed for half his life. COOK: But the Sparsit’s nowhere, is he…? SPARSIT: (Emerging from the blackness.) Lookin’ for someone, ladies? (The cook shrieks, but the charwoman treats the matter more practically, anticipating competition from Sparsit.) CHARWOMAN: There ain’t enough but for the two of us! SPARSIT: More ‘an enough…if you know where to look. COOK: Hardly decent is what I’d say, hardly decent, the poor old fella hardly cold and you’re thievin’ his wardrobe. CHARWOMAN: There’s no time for that. (Sparsit acknowledges Scrooge for the first time, gesturing toward him as if the living Scrooge were the corpse. Scrooge stands as if rooted to the spot, held there by the power of the spirit.) SPARSIT: He ain’t about to bother us, is he? CHARWOMAN: Ain’t he a picture? COOK: If he is, it ain’t a happy one. (They laugh.) SPARSIT: Ladies, shall we start? (The three of them grin and advance on Scrooge.) Cook? COOK: (Snatching the cuff links from the shirt Scrooge wears.) They’re gold, ain’t they? SPARSIT: The purest, madam. CHARWOMAN: I always had a fancy for that nightcap of his. My old man could use it. (She takes the nightcap from Scrooge’s head. Sparsit playfully removes Scrooge’s outer garment, the coat or cloak that he has worn in the previous A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 16 scenes.) SPARSIT: Bein’ a man of more practical tastes, I’ll go for the worsted and hope the smell ain’t permanent. (The three laugh.) Cook, we go round again. COOK: Do you think that little bell he’s always ringing at me is silver enough to sell? (The three of them move toward the nightstand, and Scrooge cries out.) SCROOGE: No more! No more! (As the spirit directs Scrooge’s attention to the tableau of the three thieves standing poised over the silver bell, Scrooge bursts out of the house, clad only in his nightshirt.) I cannot. I cannot. The room is…too like a cheerless place that is familiar. I won’t see it. Let us go from here. Anywhere. (The spirit directs his attention to the Cratchit house; the children are sitting together near Mrs. Cratchit, who is sewing a coat. Peter reads by the light of the coals.) PETER: “And he took a child and set him in the midst of them.” MRS. CRATCHIT: (Putting her hand to her face.) The light tires my eyes so. (Pause.) They’re better now. It makes them tired to try to see by firelight, and I wouldn’t show reddened eyes to your father when he comes home for the world. It must be near his time now. PETER: Past it, I think, but he walks slower than he used to, these last few days, Mother. MRS. CRATCHIT: I have known him to walk with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder very fast indeed. (She catches herself, then hurries on.) But he was very light to carry and his father loved him, so that it was no trouble, no trouble. (She hears Bob Cratchit approaching.) Smiles, everyone, smiles. BOB CRATCHIT: (Entering.) My dear, Peter… (He greets the other children by their real names.) How is it coming? MRS. CRATCHIT: (Handing him the coat.) Nearly done. BOB CRATCHIT: Yes, good, I’m sure that it will be done long before Sunday. MRS. CRATCHIT: Sunday! You went today then, Robert? BOB CRATCHIT: Yes. It’s…it’s all ready. Two o’clock. And a nice place. It would have done you good to see how green it is. But you’ll see it often. I promised him that, that I would walk there on Sunday…often. MRS. CRATCHIT: We mustn’t hurt ourselves for it, Robert. BOB CRATCHIT: No. No, he wouldn’t have wanted that. Come now. You won’t guess who I’ve seen. Scrooge’s nephew, Fred. And he asked after us and said he was heartily sorry and to give his respect to my good wife. How he ever knew that, I don’t know. MRS. CRATCHIT: Knew what, my dear? BOB CRATCHIT: Why, that you were a good wife. PETER: Everybody knows that. BOB CRATCHIT: I hope that they do. “Heartily sorry,” he said, “for your good wife, and if I can be of service to you in any way—“ and he gave me his card—“that’s where I live”—and Peter, I shouldn’t be at all surprised if he got you a position. A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens 17 MRS. CRATCHIT: Only hear that, Peter! BOB CRATCHIT: And then you’ll be keeping company with some young girl and setting up for yourself. PETER: Oh, go on. BOB CRATCHIT: Well, it will happen, one day, but remember, when that day does come—as it must—we must none of us forget poor Tiny Tim and this first parting in our family. SCROOGE: He died! No, no! (He steps back and the scene disappears; he moves away from the spirit.) Scene vi. Scrooge’s Conversion SCROOGE: Because he would not…no! You cannot tell me that he has died, for that Christmas has not come! I will not let it come! I will be there…It was me. Yes, yes, and I knew it and couldn’t look. I won’t be able to help. I won’t. (Pause.) Spirit, hear me. I am not the man I was. I will not be that man that I have been for so many years. Why show me all of this if I am past all hope? Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me. Let the boy live! I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will 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 that I am not too late! (Blackout. When the lights come up again, Scrooge is in bed. The third spirit has disappeared. Scrooge awakens and looks around his room.) The curtains! They are mine and they are real. They are not sold. They are here. I am here; the shadows to come may be dispelled. They will be. I know they will be. (He dresses himself hurriedly.) I don’t know what to do. I’m as light as a feather, merry as a boy again. Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! A Happy New Year to all the world! Hello there! Whoop! Hallo! What day of the month is it? How long did the spirits keep me? Never mind. I don’t care. (He opens the window and calls to a boy in the street below.) What’s today? BOY: Eh? SCROOGE: What’s the day, my fine fellow? BOY: Today? Why, Christmas Day! SCROOGE: It’s Christmas Day! I haven’t missed it! The spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything hey like. Of course they can. Of course they can save Tim. Hallo, my fine fellow! BOY: Hallo! SCROOGE: Do you know the poulterers in the next street at the corner? BOY: I should hope I do. SCROOGE: An intelligent boy. A remarkable boy. Do you know whether they’ve sold the prize turkey that was hanging up there? Not the little prize; the big one. BOY: What, the one as big as me? SCROOGE: What a delightful boy! Yes, my bucko! BOY: It’s hanging there now. SCROOGE: It is? Go and buy it.