Charles Dickens | Ever Afterwards

Scrooge was early at the office next morning. Oh, if he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That was the thing he had set his heart upon.And he did it; yes he did! The clock struck nine.No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. He was a full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. 

Bob Cratchit's hat was off before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock.

“Hallo! What do you mean by coming here at this time of day.”

“I am very sorry, sir. I am behind my time.”

“You are? Yes. I think you are.  Step this way, if you please.”

“It's only once a year, sir. It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir.”

“Now, I'll tell you what, my friend. I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore... and therefore I am about to raise your salary!”

Bob trembled.

 

“A merry Christmas, Bob! A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, 

than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit.”

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. 

Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them. 

His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him. He had no further interaction with Spirits, 

but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle ever afterwards; and it was always said of him 

that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!