In this part of the novel, the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to visit the home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, on Christmas Day. In time the bells ceased, and the bakers were shut up; and yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these dinners and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet above each baker’s oven; where the pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too. She was very pretty: exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled, surprised-looking, capital face; a ripe little mouth , that seemed made to be kissed -- as no doubt it was; all kinds of good little dots about her chin, that melted into one another when she laughed; and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature’s head. Altogether she was what you would have called provoking, you know; but satisfactory.

Cratchit Family - Lightbulbrevision The Cratchit Family - Lightbulbrevision

If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race,” returned the Ghost, “will find him here. What then? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”Bob’s voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty. No, no! There’s father coming,” cried the two young Cratchits, who were everywhere at once. “Hide, Martha, hide!” A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man, whatever he is!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “He wouldn’t take it from me, but may he have it, nevertheless. Uncle Scrooge!” In the future shown to Scrooge, Tiny Tim has died, and his family is in mourning. Despite her grief, Mrs. Cratchit uses a cheerful voice to speak of her husband and of Tiny Tim. This juxtaposition of her grief and cheer indicates that she always tries to protect and take care of her family, despite her struggle. Mrs. Cratchit puts on a brave face and stays strong for her family, which takes a toll on her, as her voice falters with grief when she speaks of Tiny Tim. Mrs. Cratchit is only human; despite her unwavering strength and happiness, she tries to present herself to her family. Lesson Summary Oh, a wonderful pudding! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing.

A Christmas Carol (Grades 9–1) York Notes

What has ever got your precious father then?” said Mrs. Cratchit. “And your brother, Tiny Tim! And Martha warn’t as late last Christmas Day by half-an-hour?” Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are.’ said Mrs Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal. It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,’ was the Spirit’s sorrowful reply. `Look here.’ More shame for him, Fred!” said Scrooge’s niece, indignantly. Bless those women; they never do anything by halves. They are always in earnest.

Oh, I have!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “I am sorry for him; I couldn’t be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill whims! Himself, always. Here, he takes it into his head to dislike us, and he won’t come and dine with us. What’s the consequence? He don’t lose much of a dinner.” They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!” Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings, fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly . So did the room, the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning, where (for the weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of their houses, whence it was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the road below, and splitting into artificial little snow-storms. Use italics (lyric) and bold (lyric) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part Well! Never mind so long as you are come,” said Mrs. Cratchit. “Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!”

Stave Three, pages 47–53: Christmas at the Cratchits The

I have known him walk with—I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder, very fast indeed.'" This family consists of Bob Cratchit, Mrs. Cratchit, and their six children. They have Martha, Peter, Tiny Tim, Belinda, and two younger children who remain unnamed in the story. They are a family of meager means filled with love for one another. Spirit,’ said Scrooge, after a moment’s thought,’ I wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us, should desire to cramp these people’s opportunities of innocent enjoyment.’

Comments

Belinda Cratchit is the second oldest daughter of the family. She is referred to as "Miss Belinda" two of the three times she is mentioned by name in the text. She helps her mother prepare for and clean up after Christmas dinner. After tea. they had some music. For they were a musical family, and knew what they were about, when they sung a Glee or Catch , I can assure you: especially Topper, who could growl away in the bass like a good one, and never swell the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over it. Scrooge’s niece played well upon the harp; and played among other tunes a simple little air (a mere nothing: you might learn to whistle it in two minutes), which had been familiar to the child who fetched Scrooge from the boarding-school, as he had been reminded by the Ghost of Christmas Past. When this strain of music sounded, all the things that Ghost had shown him, came upon his mind; he softened more and more; and thought that if he could have listened to it often, years ago, he might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his own happiness with his own hands, without resorting to the sexton’s spade that buried Jacob Marley. Spirit,” said Scrooge submissively, “conduct me where you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt a lesson which is working now. To-night, if you have aught to teach me, let me profit by it.” As good as gold,’ said Bob,’ and better. Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.’ Scrooge encounters the second of the three Spirits: the enormous, jolly, yet sternly blunt Ghost of Christmas Present. The Ghost shows him the Chistmases of his nephew and of the poor but loving Cratchit family. The Ghost also reveals two allegorical children hidden in his robes: Ignorance and Want.