Original subtitles

Merry Christmas!

Beggars. Beggars beg.

Always begging.

Begging to have something for nothing.

Perhaps mankind should begin charging interest on kindness.

And what, pray tell, is your experience with kindness, Mr. Marty?

I recall only once when I agreed to partner with you.

I don't know how many years ago.

21.

Is that so?

Feel free to consult your records, but my attention to detail is precisely the

reason that our doors have stayed open for all these years.

Well, no doubt work ethic is your most valuable attribute. I will have you know

that you are the only human being that I will permit to speak to me in such a

manner.

As if I required your permission.

Sorry to interrupt.

I'll put the kettle on for you both.

Headed home?

Already? Young Cratchit?

Yes, Mr. Marley, if that's suitable.

Unless perhaps...

There's more pressing work to be done.

No, no.

You may begin again bright and early.

Oh, but tomorrow's Christmas.

Well, you see, my youngest son, he's... None of our concern.

It's a personal matter.

And if you have any mind to one day rise above your role as Clark...

You shall keep it as such.

Yes, Mr. Marley.

Right, I'll be here. Oh, and I put the kettle on. Yes, you've said that

already.

You repeat yourself often.

I try not to, sir.

Perhaps try harder.

Of course, sir.

Good luck.

And good luck to you, Mr Scrooge.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas is for children now.

Not for men of value and business.

Indeed.

Let us warm ourselves with a new tea and gin. Three toasts to another year made

prosperous by those too poor and too blind to settle their debts.

Oh, for the poor!

Oh, for the poor!

A little Christmas cheer.

A little something for a cold man to... Look at it.

Bloody fool.

Jacob?

Jacob?

He says, are there any words you wish to say?

No.

Was he a friend of yours in life?

He was my partner in business.

So, a mighty lost it.

If his death must be placed in a letter, then yes, I suppose the lost column

would be a progress.

Please continue.

Not a very popular chat, though.

No man of value ever is.

Good day gentlemen.

On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day, and all the angels in heaven shall sing. On

Christmas Day in their awning, and all the souls on earth shall sing.

Morning,

Bob. Merry Christmas, Uncle Ebenezer.

Christmas a humbug? You don't mean that.

Oh, I do.

It's freezing in here.

You could catch a death.

But I guess you'd carry your own low temperature.

What right have you to be so merry?

What reason do you have to be so morose?

Good cheer does not help to balance a ledger.

And what is Christmas time anyway but a time for finding also the year older?

One step closer to the gale and not one hour.

richer. If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with many

placements on their lips should be boiled in their own pudding, buried with

a stick of holly through their heart.

Keep Christmas in your own way. Let me keep it in mine.

But you don't keep it. Let me leave it alone then. Uncle, I'm afraid you missed

the point.

Tis a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time.

The only one I know of in the long calendar year when men and women open

their hearts freely and think of people below them as if they really were fellow

passengers on life's journey and not another race of creatures.

Though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe the

holiday has done me good and will do me good. So I say, God bless it.

And just what do you think you're doing then?

One more sound from you, and you will keep Christmas by losing your situation.

Now, if you have come to ask me for something, spit it out so that I may

deny you and return to my obligations.

Dine with us tonight.

It'll be a great joy for my wife and I.

No.

But why?

I don't wish to. Why on earth did you marry that penniless woman anyway?

Because I fell in love.

You fell in love.

Good afternoon.

Uncle, please.

I want nothing from you. I ask nothing of you. Can't we just be friends?

I don't need friends.

Especially not the likes of you.

Well, I'm sorry. I do not understand what makes you this way.

We never had any quarrel in which I have been a party, but I braved the trek here

in the spirit of kindness, and despite your rebuke, I shall keep my humor to

the last.

So with that, I say to you again, Merry Christmas!

And Happy New Year!

Let

him

stop by.

What?

Have I the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge or Mr. Marley? Mr. Marley is

dead.

We have no doubt his generosity is registered in the surviving partner. At

this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge, it's usually desirable to make

some slight provisions for the poor and the destitute.

Are there no prisons?

The union workhouses, they are still in operation, are they not?

I'm... Afraid so.

Which is why some of us are endeavouring to raise funds to buy the unprivileged

some meat and drink and other forms of warmth.

How is a time above all else?

Want is keenly felt and abundance rejoices.

What shall I put you down for?

Nothing. You wish to be left anonymous?

I wish to be left alone.

I support the establishments I mentioned.

They cost me enough.

Those who are badly off must go there. There are many who would rather die than

go there.

Well, if they would rather die, then they'd better do it and decrease the

surplus population.

But if you gentlemen would appease my curiosity, how much of these charitable

donations have ended up lining your silken pockets?

Five tailored waistcoats.

Abundance rejoices deed.

Oh, well, thank you. I didn't know all that.

You can always depend on Scrooge and Marley. Or nothing!

Fuck, this is pea soup.

Not the weather one hopes for on Christmas.

You'll be wanting the full day tomorrow, I suppose.

If convenient, sir.

It isn't convenient.

And it is not fair.

It's just what's here, sir. Poor excuse for picking the man's pocket every 25th

of December.

Now this is a world of charlatans and slingers, and especially ravenous on

holidays.

My mother often said, just because there are rotten apples, that does not

preclude the existence of good fruit.

Did she?

Just the sort of liar a woman would feed her child.

Right then, I suppose you may have the day tomorrow.

However, you will be here all the earlier the next morning.

Of course I'm going to say her name. And murder you, girl.

Oh.

You listen to me, you are wasting your efforts!

I intentionally keep nothing but a ceiling in this house.

Here we go!

Leave me in peace, please!

Please!

Shamosa!

Where are you?

Didn't I?

I was your partner.

It can't be.

How is that possible?

Why do you doubt your senses?

Say, who are they?

It is dead.

Death is at all now.

That's why I'm here.

Notwithstanding.

Yes, you are quite particular for a ghost.

Well, if it is indeed really you, can you sit?

Do you believe in me or not?

How it is I appear in a shape that you can see.

I'm in a tower.

I walk unfettered by time, shackled to the chain I forged in life.

Made link by link, yard by yard, and

with my own fever, I wore it unseen.

Till the day of my death, do you know the weight and length of the chain you

bear yourself?

Yours is a ponderous chain.

Jacob.

Oh, Jacob Marley.

You were my dearest friend.

Would you speak up to me?

I have long to give.

I am doomed to wander the world like so many others and witness what we cannot

share, but might have shared, honest, and turned to happiness.

My spirit never walked beyond our carting house, never rode beyond the

narrow limits of our money-changing hole, and now,

acclaimed.

eternal price.

Mark me, I have come here tonight to warn you.

You still have the chance and

hope of escaping my fate.

How?

You will be haunted by three spirits.

You can assume the path I tread.

And that is the Jon Snow animation.

Look to see me no more.

For your own... For God's sake, Ebenezer, remember what has passed

between us.

Oh, my God.

Dream, terrible, heinous dream.

Who or what are you?

I am the ghost of Christmas past.

What business fix you here?

Your welfare.

A nice rest wouldn't trump my welfare.

Rise and take my hand.

Walk with me into the past.

Let us see if it is as you remember.

No, no, no, I will not.

Take my hand.

I will not!

I will not leave this bed!

Do you hear me?

See?

Very well.

When I remove this blanket, that will be back in my bed. It's like it's dug in

and dug.

Simple as that.

Please, please.

I know this place.

I was a child here.

It's my old school.

I was like that here.

The school is not quite yet deserted.

Spirit? Spirit?

Young man?

find your schoolmaster.

Young man, I'm speaking to you. Have you no manners at all?

No.

A solitary, forgotten boy left lonesome and neglected while others make to

leave for Christmas.

What species of devilry is this?

That is to myself, young girl.

He was a boy.

There is no comfort in this memory.

Shall we sink shadows of this place?

Why are you here?

We've come to bring you home.

Forever.

We?

Fathers. Just there.

Don't fret.

He's changed his ways.

You'll see.

He's agreed to bring you back for good this time.

He has?

Oh, Ebenezer. Home will be like heaven again.

How I've missed you so.

I missed you too.

Come.

Home for Christmas.

Your sister was

a delicate creature who died a young woman.

Too young.

But not too young to bear a child.

And yet you keep him at a distance.

Her loss pardoned you.

If you know so much, tell me, upon my death will she and I be reunited?

I cannot see the future, only the past.

Little prophet I yield.

Tis my penance, for I did not honour the time I was gifted.

What else do you remember of this day?

I remember that in the moment...

Young fan spoke the truth, but home was only heaven for a short while, and then

hell again.

You nearly froze to death, hiding in that water.

Perhaps you would have, if not for the only source of warmth you knew.

Stop.

No. You have not the right to see this. Not any of it.

My life is not for entertainment.

Enough, I said.

This nightmare has run its course.

Your nightmare has just begun.

And what is it you expect of me?

To change my ways?

Simply because you rubbed my nose in what has gone by?

Yes, I'm free!

My father was flawed.

There were very hard times.

There were big liars. Famine.

No one was able to get it from him. You may try to close your eyes to the

past, but it shall not close its eyes to you.

Life has always been a cruel, miserable affair.

Do you not recognise the sadness of this scenario?

I do.

And?

Well, much can be accomplished in silence, which I had in abundance until

a moment ago.

No more work tonight.

It's Christmas Eve, and the party's already in full swing. Why aren't you

there then? Oh, believe me, I was.

But our dear employer Fezziwig, he's gotten it into his head that even a

lowly apprentice such as yourself should still be having a bit of fun.

He instructed that someone go and fetch you from your dreary existence.

Did he?

He did indeed.

And I bet him all the umbrellas in London that I could be the one to

deliver you.

And how exactly do you plan on doing that?

Simple.

Bell is also in attendance.

As his clerk, I always thought he'd be an old man, but seeing him now, it's

remarkable how young he was.

How young we all were.

Such a small matter to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.

It's not small at all.

He has only spent but a few pounds of your mortal money.

It's not about that. It's about to render us happy or nappy to make our

service light.

Perhaps you'd like to say a few words to your own folk?

What is the matter?

You tell me.

Where did all of Fezziweig's generosity get him?

Made his times with a knife to the belly.

Come

and

dance with me.

Who is that?

That is Belle.

I've not had the courage to speak her name in many years.

And what was she to you?

For a time.

Everything.

recall the substance of what we were speaking, but I remember it feeling more

important than my own breath.

How fortunate we were to have found one another in such a crowded world.

And far too innocent to realize just how precious it all was.

And once you're done with these, I will replenish you with an all-new

assortment.

Even during the duties of my employment, I could not help remember her gentle

image.

What is that?

A lock of her hair.

She gifted me.

I would run it between my fingers whenever I was away from her.

I so admired her passion.

When I had to work late, she would do the very same.

Sneak into my shabby little flat and craft her stories.

Dream her magnificent dreams.

Always very eager to tell me about them the second that I walked through the

door.

Must wait, reality sooner or later.

Last point?

I gather they would be called something other than dreams, if not.

Despite my absence at home, my work was impeccable.

I rose in the ranks, much quicker than expected.

I showed them all, my father, my so-called peers,

all those who ever doubted me. I was willing to pay any cost to be a success,

which I did.

It may matter little to you, very little, but another idol has displaced

me. What idol?

A golden one.

I hope it comforts you in times I would have tried to do. Nothing will change a

man more tightly than poverty. I'm simply striving to ensure our security.

Why do you not see that? I see that you only focus on the shadow and never the

sun. I cannot live that way. You fear the world too much. You know nothing of

it. You live in your imagination.

And yet I have still witnessed your noble aspirations fall off one by one.

Our contract was an old one. It was made when we were both poor and content to be

so. You were another man then. I was a boy.

How often I have thought this I will not say, but it is enough to know that I

have thought it.

I release you.

I've never sought release.

In words, no.

In what, then?

In a changed nature, a hardened spirit.

Your own feelings tell you so, I know they do.

If you were free today, would you still seek me out and try to win me now? Am I

really to believe that you would choose a dowerless girl, you who weigh

everything by gain?

Do I not know that repentance and regret would surely follow?

I release you.

With a full heart and for the love of who you once were.

Well, that's most decent of you.

I shall forever cherish our time together.

But the memory of what has passed makes me believe that you will have pain in

this for a very brief moment and then dismiss the recollection gladly as yet

another unprofitable dream.

May you be happy in the life that you've chosen.

What are you doing?

What are you doing?

You fool!

You go after her and you get enough.

You will regret this moment for the rest of your miserable life.

He can't hear.

Sometimes in life, it is better to break than to fall.

Take me home. I wish to see no more of this.

It is far too painful to bear all of it.

You must not look away.

So take me back.

I cannot go back.

I belong to the past.

But it's not where I belong!

Take me home, I say! Hold me!

You're late.

What?

You are late.

Shut up, my good man.

Do you know me?

Because I'm sure that I would have remembered someone.

I don't recognize your accent.

Whereabouts are you from?

Here and now, it's a...

They're here and now.

Familiar, aren't they?

Stralatins and swindlers.

They should be boiled in their own pudding and buried with a stick of holly

for their heart.

What say you?

I've lost track of time and I must be on my way. Tomorrow is Christmas after all.

So it is.

So it is.

So it is.

The ghost of Christmas present.

I should have gathered.

I do not think I wish to know you.

You're welcome to take your chances out there with them.

I'm good all night!

God,

what is this?

We need not shiver out here in cold.

for something that I see daily from the warmth of my ring-tail.

Elizabeth, it is not about him, nor you.

Who is it about him?

Him. Of course it was her.

Don't you dare.

reminds us that our Lord was born not in gilded halls,

but in a lowly stable among the beasts

and straw.

He who found no place to lay his head came here not to

receive, but to give.

So shall we hope.

It's easy to forget that titles, wealth, admiration

are not proper measures for a man's worth.

We often think that if we can only earn a little more, climb a little higher...

What is wrong with the boy?

Do you not know his name?

Why would I know the name of my lost child?

But from what we loosen from our... Walls we build to protect

ourselves become the very... Right, I get the point. Sit.

If you have more to show me than there doesn't belong, sit down.

I don't like it here.

Shut up!

We follow our law.

We turn our...

for life in service of our Lord intended.

At this time, let us kneel in silent prayer.

What are you doing?

The damn crutch keeps falling to pieces.

Here, let me.

No, I've got it.

What's troubling you?

Tim.

Somehow he says the strangest things you've ever heard.

He told me, kind of, that he hoped the people at the church saw him because he

was a cripple.

And it might be pleasant for them to remember a Christmas who made lame

beggars walk the blind man's sea.

If I can have one wish,

it's that God heard our song that will not disappear.

I adore you and the children, and I'm so sorry.

It's not enough.

You're a hard worker, Robert.

A good man. And was it a man or two?

Our family.

Us.

You've always done everything asked of you to rise your way up through the

ranks. Perhaps in the new year you can speak to Mr Scrooge.

A rise as long overdue.

Would he really not entertain it after all this time? He'd consider treasonous

to his own standardness. If this is how he... He treats his line of faithful

punk like a shadow to think of the hate reserved for those he owes nothing.

What an odious, stingy heart. I've seen the man. I despise him.

We'll see our way through.

We always do.

We love each other.

Who has often been that ready?

then Merry Christmas, darling.

I do not hate Cratchit.

As a matter of fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

I employ him, do I not?

He's a very good worker, he's very thorough, but that is only a requirement

of his position.

Is it now?

Yes.

What would you know?

You're not even of his world.

You cannot appreciate the challenges that confront a businessman.

Cratchit should be very grateful for his employment.

Besides, I was never given a raise for doing what was asked of me.

I will not apologize for my well-earned success.

But must you be so cruel about it?

It is not your wealth that is despised. But, Isa, what is it then?

Your greed. That which you label greed is very simply prudence.

There was something I've said that struck you as humorous.

I was marveling at how long your chains might be.

What is your purpose? If not to help me avoid that very fate.

Purpose? My purpose was forfeited long ago. I merely show you what there is to

be seen. Whether you learn from it or not, it is of no consequence to me. I

toss and turn over your well-being as you do for your clock.

Please, one moment.

The crippled boy.

Will he overcome his deficiencies?

I see a vacant seat in a poor chimney corner and a crutch without an owner

carefully preserved.

If these shadows remain unaltered, the child will die.

If he'd be like to die, he'd better do it and decrease the surplus population.

Maybe, sir.

If a person's worth decides who lives and dies, you may

be less valuable than that poor child in there.

More worthless and less fit to live than millions like him.

So say you.

Not only me.

Come along.

Then he said Christmas was a humbug, as I live.

He believed it too.

Oh, he is a comical old fellow.

However, his offences carry their own punishment.

For a punished soul, he is very rich.

At least you tell me so.

Yeah, but there's more to life than money. His wealth is of no use. He

doesn't do any good with it. He doesn't even make himself comfortable.

Shame on that man.

Fred won't say it, but I will. He is a pickled old skinflint.

I have no patience for him. Nor I with you, you frivolous ninny. Who suffers by

his ill wills? Himself, always.

Well, he misses a very good dinner.

And I'm held greatly by this delicious wine. What sympathy am I meant to find

listening to people slander me behind my back? Honestly, I just feel sorry for

him. I mean, he fears getting close to anyone.

You go on, Fred.

I was just saying that, uh... What was I saying? He never finishes what he begins

to say.

Don't worry, it'll come to you. Your uncle's office. It's the counting house

on Cornhill Street, yes? It has that mouldy old sign out the front.

Scrooge and, um... Marley?

What is it?

Marley. Yes, that's it. Who's Marley?

Marley. It's his old partner.

Dead now seven years.

Really? How ghoulish, then, to keep the sign as such. It's macabre. I guess

that's the perfect word for it. Macabre.

There's nothing macabre about it. He was my partner. He was my friend.

And it happens to be the name of a very well-established business.

I don't understand.

Why wouldn't you just change it?

Right. I remember now what I was going to say.

then do enlighten us i mean to give him the same chance every year whether he

likes it or not because he's family and while he may rail at christmas till the

day he dies he can't help thinking better of it he finds me going there

year after year and saying uncle scrooge how are you showing him he has more than

himself to rely on i do believe i almost succeeded today yeah

almost

Hence the extra play setting.

Sounds as if you had a better chance of dining with a ghost.

Maybe if you borrowed money from him, he could be something. Ah, yes, punctual

for debts, just not for dinner.

Well, perhaps you're right.

I love you, but sometimes you are too good. How you can continue to make

excuses for that man and endure such rejection, I will never understand.

What sin do you believe you committed to give yourself such a penance?

None at all, only that... There's ought to be a ritual.

I know my dear mother would have wanted me to.

And he's my one and last true connection to her.

To Uncle Scrooge, then.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, wherever you are.

To Uncle Scrooge.

And Molly.

May he rest in peace.

What are you doing in here?

Is there something wrong with you?

My time on this globe is brief.

I would have loved to have tasted those treacle tarts in there and so many other

things.

Us blood's life's so short.

Please do forgive me for what I am bound to ask of you.

I would very much like to see one more person from my life.

Someone who once meant a great deal to me.

If you are able...

There's still some time left.

Let us see where you are.

What are we doing in the debtor's prison?

This is not the place I wish to be seen.

Are you sure?

Everyone carries a debt they cannot pay.

You are no different.

All of these women and children, are they

real? Or are they shadows?

They are real.

This is where they reside.

You are gravely mistaken, sir. Oh, Ebenezer, open your eyes!

Look around!

You delight in the idea of prisons for those whose purses fall short. But

you never set foot in one yourself to see their true nature.

Christmas Eve, helping the less fortunate.

Bye.

Merry Christmas to us all, my dears.

God bless us.

God bless us.

Everyone.

I see the flame of humanity

still flickers within you.

Am I not being too late to redeem yourself after all?

May I treat you to it?

That would be very kind.

But it would be waste.

Our journey together has reached its end.

What are those awful sounds from beneath

your coat?

Come closer.

what you've ignored.

What?

Who are they?

They are man's, but they cling to me, appealing from their fathers.

The boy is ignorance, the girl is want.

They are the sins of men who I can no longer endure.

No workhouses.

Spirit? Spirit?

Whatever you are, I know that you're here.

You are the ghost of Christmas yet to come.

I fear you, Mother Inspector, I have seen.

But I trust your purpose is to do me good.

So I am prepared to bear your company this night, this waning.

Time has become very precious to me.

Lethal spirit.

Goodbye, Eddie. Always.

Come into the parlor. Shut the door.

Stop standing there staring like you was afraid, Mrs. Dilber.

Adore me.

Don't go asking when I've got things. No judgment.

Every person has a right to look out for themselves during difficult times if

they expect to survive.

That's right. He always did.

He was the worst for the loss of a few things.

Not a dead man, I suppose.

Stinking as he was. A nastier man never drew breath. The wicked old screw.

I'm sure his words that ever was spoke.

A proper judgment.

I wish it were a heavier judgment.

Would have been.

If I could have laid my hands on him.

Got anything else? I'll do.

His bedsheets.

Hope he didn't die of anything catching.

They could use a wash.

His bed curtains too.

You don't mean to tell me you took these down, rings and all, while the bastard

was still lying there.

Why not?

He wasn't using them.

If he'd been more natural in his lifetime, he'd have had somebody to look

after him before he was struck with death.

Instead of lying there alone, gasping out his last.

This is I.

His presence I've described.

Do you not speak because the future is already of listen?

If so...

Show me what becomes of me.

What has happened here?

Filth everywhere.

I will never allow myself to live this way.

Never might have believed that this is my fate.

What is the use to show me these abominations if I am powerless to change

them?

Gentlemen,

I

appreciate you convening here at this late hour despite the holiday.

Well, you're certainly intrigued by the mysterious last-minute invitation.

I even remember being turned away in this fairy office years ago by its

proper owner. This is... When did he pass?

Yesterday morning, I believe.

Oh, dear.

And what was the matter with him?

Oh, God, no. I thought he'd never die.

I recall him being a most uncouth man.

Yes. That is the perfect word for him.

Uncouth. Yeah.

What business could you possibly have in my office?

All I'll say is it's likely to be a very cheap funeral, for upon my life, I can't

think of anybody to go to it.

That's neither here nor there, gentlemen. Instead, let us get down to

the business at hand.

Now, the law clearly states that in the absence of a will, a person's accounts

must pass to the closest living relative. But what if there was a will

for Mr. Scrooge?

One that his nephew wasn't aware of.

One that donated his fortunes elsewhere.

And what if I hadn't come upon it?

Just in the nick of time.

Turns out Mr.

Scrooge was a generous soul after all. That's unfortunate.

It's as he intended to leave everything to our charity.

How lucky that you located this document when you did. Call it a Christmas

miracle. I gather that under the circumstances, the finder's fee would be

appreciated. Good, yes. If you were to follow what is customary, then half

would be most appropriate.

Half?

There's no need to fall out over this. Half it is.

Well,

what a delightful surprise.

Yeah, yeah. Let's go for a celebration, shall we? Oh, what a smelly life, yeah.

I know a delightful public house around the corner.

Is it not as it's supposed to be?

Smith, I wish this had worked better.

If he was ever in need of a love, surely he would have come to me.

Or was it I who brought you here?

Such a good and honest man.

Not it's entire family.

Where is it?

Where is the little boy with the gravity?

Tim?

This is wrong.

I'm so sorry, Bob.

Please forgive me, Bob. This world can be such a miserable place, and I realize

now how I made it all the more so.

I'm so very sorry.

I should have helped you.

I could have helped you.

I will live in the past, the present, the future.

And I will be thankful for every breath, for every second of it.

I will not shun all that I have learned this night.

I beg of you, grant me the grace to prove

that I'm no longer the man I once was.

It's Uncle Ebenezer! Help me!

I'm sorry for everything.

It's too late.

Here, then, is where the toll ends.

And I am truly forsaken.

Then you will show me your face.

So that I may finally look dead.

Of course, it's always been you.

I now know who you truly are.

Why can you not see me for who I truly could be?

I was once good.

And I know that I can be again.

Please, speak to me.

Speak to me!

Shame on that.

All he had to do to change this was... Too late now.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm not dead, I'm not dead.

My bed curtains, they're not torn down.

I'm here.

I'm here.

My bed is here.

And they just, they're still tired.

You can see me.

Well, of course I can.

Of course you can.

That's because I'm alive.

Tell me, what day is today?

Today? Yeah.

Well, it's Christmas Day.

So I haven't missed it.

Are you all right, sir?

Oh, yes. Oh, yes, I am. I am now.

I'm alive!

I don't know what to do.

Where does it begin?

Hello! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you, Teresa!

Do you know what I said?

I said, mark me, young lad.

One must be red in tooth and claw in our line of work.

There's no favor in fellowship, not when profit's concerned.

That is so interesting.

Oh! Ah!

What the blazing?

Are you hurt?

You'll never get away with it.

I shall be watching you.

And if you're not careful, so will the spirit.

What's that, man?

Nobody. Nobody at all.

I'm perfectly fine.

Hello, sweetheart.

This was just delivered for you.

What is it?

My own book?

How peculiar.

Who is it from?

He didn't say.

It was accompanied by a note.

Read it to me.

You were always wise to focus on the sun and never the shadows.

I now understand the importance of your words.

My deepest congratulations on your novel and the most profitable life.

He lacks a signature.

Any notion as to who it could be?

Pardon me, madam. I was wondering if my nephew was about.

Yes, sir.

I hope I'm not interrupting.

Bless my soul.

What a surprise.

I brought a gift.

I was not quite sure what was being given at this time of year, or any time

of year for that matter, but a friend of mine had longed for a goose such as

this, and...

I'm afraid it was not meant to be, so I thought it fitting for you

and your lovely wife.

My lovely wife.

Darling, have you seen the wish?

Good morning, Mr Scrooge.

Ebenezer, please.

A gift from my uncle.

Most generous.

Um, don't let us keep you.

I know you must have work obligations.

There is nothing as important as this. I came here this morning because, you

see, I would like to... apologize.

Clara.

Forgive me. I do not know where that sound came from.

It's quite all right. I deserve it.

I am a... what was it?

A pickled old...

Skinflint.

How did you... It is of no matter.

I only hope it is not too late.

Too late?

What I wish to say, Fred,

is Merry Christmas.

Merry what?

Sir,

I beg your pardon.

Is it no longer a humbug?

Far from it.

I realize that I've been little better than a stranger to you for all these

years.

And I know that my sister would be quite disappointed at my

behavior.

But it is just that you remind me so much of her.

And it's always been rather difficult for me to see her in you.

You possess her generous nature, Fred. You even have her smile.

You know so much more about her than I ever did.

I know this.

She would be very proud of you.

And that was the brightest of lights.

She was all that was good and decent.

And that is normal.

to say that you did not have a taste for the mischief, because I can tell you

tales. I'd very much like to hear them.

As would I.

Uncle, I hate to ask, but what made you finally

come to your senses in such a way?

Merry Christmas to us all my dears.

God bless us.

God bless us!

What is it, Tim?

What do you see?

I'm very sorry, sir, but I won't blink.

It shall not be repeated. Yeah, well, punctuality is quite important, but I

wish to address another topic. This morning, I have been made aware that

your youngest son, his health is less than robust.

He's strong in spirit, sir. Quite right, quite right.

But that said, I have made some inquiries.

There is a doctor who will see your boy, and he comes with the highest of

recommendation.

I mean no offense, Mr. Scripture, but I'm not so far gone that I require

charity.

Which is exactly why you will be handling the bill yourself with your

well-earned, well-increased...

Wages. Well,

permit me to show you something.

I've decided that this moldy old sign has served its purpose and

must be replaced.

Only the new one shall read.

Scrooge and Cratchit.

I beg your pardon, do you know anyone more qualified for the job?

I don't. Not who I am.

You are a good man, Bob Cratchit.

I am not proud of the way that I've run this establishment, nor of my behavior

towards you all of these years.

No excuse, but I promise you, things will be different.

Well, then that's that.

I beg I tend to the cow.

When you're done, transfer your things to your new desk so we may toast to a

prosperous future.

Yours, Matt.

Oh, pardon me, sir.

I see him, isn't he?

He's the one who asked you so many questions.

He will no doubt get his justice.

It's rather biting out here, is it not?

Would you like to come in for some tea?

If it's not too much trouble.