1 This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two other people in.
2 I don't make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford to make idle people merry.
3 It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's.
4 The ways were foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched; the people half naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly.
A Christmas Carol By Charles DickensContextHighlight In 4 THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS 5 Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names.
6 He had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and a strait-waistcoat.
7 And at the same time there emerged, from scores of by-streets, lanes, and nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners to the bakers' shops.
A Christmas Carol By Charles DickensContextHighlight In 3 THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS 8 But soon the steeples called good people all to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces.
A Christmas Carol By Charles DickensContextHighlight In 3 THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS 9 Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way.
10 The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and, walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile.
11 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 breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them.
12 But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on their way to friendly gatherings, you might have thought that no one was at home to give them welcome when they got there, instead of every house expecting company, and piling up its fires half-chimney high.
A Christmas Carol By Charles DickensContextHighlight In 3 THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS 13 All he could make out was, that it was still very foggy and extremely cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and fro, and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been if night had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the world.
A Christmas Carol By Charles DickensContextHighlight In 2 THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS 14 He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows; and found that everything could yield him pleasure.
15 For, the people who were shovelling away on the housetops were jovial and full of glee; calling out to one another from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious snowball--better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest--laughing heartily if it went right, and not less heartily if it went wrong.
A Christmas Carol By Charles DickensContextHighlight In 3 THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS 16 Here he produced a decanter of curiously light wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake, and administered instalments of those dainties to the young people: at the same time sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of "something" to the postboy who answered that he thanked the gentleman, but, if it was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had rather not.
A Christmas Carol By Charles DickensContextHighlight In 2 THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS