WHEN ICICLES HANG BY THE WALL. 1 When icicles hang by the wall And Dick the shepherd blows his nail And milk comes frozen home in pail, Tu-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. 2 When all aloud the wind doth blow And coughing drowns the parson's saw And Marian's nose looks red and raw, Tu-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. HELPS TO STUDY. This song is found in the comedy "Love's Labour's Lost," and is the second part of a song of four stanzas. The first and second stanzas are descriptive of spring and introduce the song of the cuckoo. The third and fourth stanzas are given here. SCROOGE'S CHRISTMAS CHARLES DICKENS Once upon a time-on Christmas Eve-old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their 5 breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement-stones to warm them. The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who, in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, 10 but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white com15 forter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed. "A Merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his 20 approach. "Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!" He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. "Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure." "I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're 30 poor enough." "Come, then," returned the nephew, gayly. "What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough." Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said, "Bah!” again; and followed it up with "Hum5 bug." "Don't be cross, uncle," said the nephew. "What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas? What's Christmas time to you but a time 10 for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,” said Scrooge, indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 15 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!" "Uncle!" pleaded the nephew. "Nephew!" returned the uncle, sternly, "keep Christmas in 20 your own way, and let me keep it in mine." 25 "Keep it!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you don't keep it." "Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!" "There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew: "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the 30 only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has 35 never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that 10 15 it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!" The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded: becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and 5 extinguished the last frail spark forever. "Let me hear another sound from you," said Scrooge, "and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation." "You're quite a powerful speaker, Sir," he added, turning to his nephew. "I wonder you don't go into Parliament.” "Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow." "Good afternoon," said Scrooge. "I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?" "Good afternoon," said Scrooge. "I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humor to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!" "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge. "And A Happy New Year!" "Good afternoon !" said Scrooge. His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. He stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was, was warmer than 25 Scrooge; for he returned them cordially. "There's another fellow," muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: "my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I'll retire to Bedlam." This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two 30 other people in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in their hands, and bowed to him. "At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said one of the gentlemen, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually 35 desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor 5 and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, Sir." "Are there no prisons ?" asked Scrooge. "Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the again. pen "And the Union workhouses ?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation ?" "They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could 10 say they were not." "Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it." "Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian 15 cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for ?" "Nothing!" Scrooge replied. 20 "You wish to be anonymous ?" "I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry 'myself at Christmas, and I can't afford to make idle people 25 merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there." 30 "Many can't go there; and many would rather die." "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labors with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him. At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. 35 With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly |