After tea, they had some music. For they were a musical family, and knew what they were about, when they sang 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 have learned to whistle it in two minutes), which had been familiar to eh child who had 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.
But they didn’t devote the whole evening to music. After a while they played at forfeits; for it is good to be children sometimes; and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. Stop! There was first a game of blind-man’s buff. Of course there was. And I no more believe Topper was really blind man than I believe he had eyes in his boots. Ny opinion is, that it was a done thing between him and Scrooge’s nephew; and that the Ghost of Christmas present knew it. The way he went after that plump sister in the lace tucker, was an outrage on the credulity of human nature. Knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling over the chairs, bumping against the piano, smothering himself among the curtains, wherever she went, there went he. He always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn’t catch anybody else. If you had fallen against him, as some of them did, and stood there; he would have made a feint of endeavouring to seize you, which would have been an affront to your understanding; and would instantly have sidled off in the direction of the pump sister. She often cried out that it wasn’t fair; and it really was not. But when at last, he caught her; when, in spite of all her silken rustlings, and her rapid flutterings past him, he got her into a corner whence there was no escape, then his conduct was most execrable. For his pretending not to know her; his pretending that it was necessary to touch her head-dress, and further to assure himself of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her finger, and a certain chain about her neck; was vile, monstrous! No doubt she told him her opinion of it when, another blind-man being in his office, they were so very confidential together, behind the curtains.
Scrooge’s niece was bot one of the blind-man’s buff party, but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool, in a snug corner, where the Ghost and Scrooge were close behind her. But she joined in the forfeits, and loved her love to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet. Likewise at the game of How, When, and Where, she was very great, and to the secret joy of Scrooge’s nephew beat her sisters hollow; though they were sharp girls, too, as Topper could have told you. There might have been twenty people there, young and old, but they all played, and so did Scrooge; for wholly forgetting in the interest he had in what was going on, that his voice made no sound in their ears, he sometimes came out with his guess quite loud, and very often guessed right, too; for the sharpest needle, best Whitechapel, warranted not to cut in the eye, was not sharper than Scrooge: blunt as he took it in his head to be.
The Ghost was greatly pleased to find him int his mood, and looked upon him with such favour that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay until the guests departed. But this the Ghost said could not be done.
“Here’s a new game,” said Scrooge. “One half hour, Spirit, only one!”
It was a game called Yes and No, where Scrooge’s nephew had to think of something, and the rest must find out what; he only answering to their questions yes or no as the case was. The brisk fire of questioning to which eh was exposed, elicited from him that he was thinking of an animal, a live animal, rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal that growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and lived in London, and walked about the streets, and wasn’t made a show of, and wasn’t led by anybody, and didn’t live in a menagerie, and was never killed in a market, and was not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, or a tiger, or a dog, or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every fresh question that was put to him, the nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter; and was so inexpressibly tickled, that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp. At last the plump sister, falling into a similar state, cried out:
“I have found it out! I know what it is, Fred! I know what it is!”
“What is it?” cried Fred.
“It’s your Uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge!”
Which it certainly was. Admiration was the universal sentiment, though some objected that the reply to “Is it a bear?” ought to have been “Yes”; inasmuch as an answer in the negative was sufficient to have diverted their thoughts from Mr. Scrooge, supposing they had ever had any tendency that way.
“He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure,” said Fred, “and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. Here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment; and I say Uncle Scrooge!”
“Well! Uncle Scrooge!” they cried.
“A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man, whatever he is!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “He wouldn’t have it from me, but he may have it, nevertheless. Uncle Scrooge!”
Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return, and thanked them in an inaudible speech, if the Ghost had given him time. But the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his nephew; and he and the Spirit were once again upon their travels.
This is likely to get skipped by filmmakers, too, except in films which want to have another jab at Ebenezer Scrooge. Some find in it an excuse to have another sort of party than that at Fezziwig’s, a private gathering from some lost novel of Jane Austen. (The characters in Stewart do seem to have wandered in from Pride and Prejudice, or, less anachronistically, perhaps the Barretts of Wimpole Street.) Several versions do throw in some of the games, but other matters are ignored. Fred seems to be living fairly well for someone his uncle described as “poor enough”. (In Owen, at least, the party is held in the home of his fiancee’s parents.) And no one notices what Dickens was hinting about Fred’s immediate family from the fact that Mrs. Fred is not allowed to join in a rough game of blind-man’s buff. (Perhaps Dickens was too subtle here: something he is seldom accused of being.)
The scene is skipped entirely in March, Magoo, Haddrick, Matthau, and McDuck, while sim II gives us only the Toast.
Two versions substitute music for the games. Sim I’s group dances a polka behore the scene fades away in smoke. In Curry, Fred explains<”This is a song my mother and her brother Ebenezer used to perform at home…when their father was not there.” They produce a sort of Music Hall tongue twister song called “Santa’s Sooty Suit.” It is hearty and nonsensical, and the guests roar away at it, having no trouble with the intricate lyrics. Scrooge capers wildly, and when told it is time to leave, protests that he was just starting to enjoy himself.
Two games in the text interest filmmakers: the Blind-Man’s Buff, and Yes and No. Few versions contain both, and some introduce a new variation of one or the other.
Hicks turns Yes and No into a rather silly riddle game. When the answer is revealed, one old fellow falls on the floor laughing. The camera draws back to show us the whole group through the flames in the fireplace; a huge face (the Ghost’s?) is superimposed, laughing.
In Owen, Blind-Man’s Buff is suggested, but first there is a toast to Ebenezer Scrooge, who makes people feel so happy by contrast. Fred and “Tom” have fixed the ensuing game between them. As Tom begins to play, Fred and his fiancée pull back behind the curtains into the window seat intended in the text for another engaged couple. Scrooge would like to watch what they get up to there, but the Ghost pulls him away, reminding him, “But you don’t like Christmas: it’s a time for fools!” “I won’t go with you. I’m going to stay. I’m going to stay, I tell you!” “Don’t be a fool, man! You don’t like Christmas!” “But I do! I do like Christmas! I love Christmas!” He laughs, and is laughing in bed as the scene ends.
Rathbone watches Fred recap the riddle game as it has proceeded to this point; it is not badly done. A lady guesses the correct answer, and everyone laughs. Fred proposes a toast, “A Merry Christmas to the old man, whatever he is!”
The Spirit calls Finney over for another sip of the Milk of Human Kindness; the Spirit himself chomps a chicken leg. Mrs. Fred plays, and the guests dance Scrooge marking time. He knows the tune–”December the Twenty-Fifth”—saying he used to sing it as a lad. The guests then play a game of “The Minister’s Cat” (a game similar to the one Dickens mentions, of admiring one’s love with letters of the alphabet.) Scrooge jumps around the circle of players, prompting them, approving their answers, and calling to the Spirit to witness the progress of the game. The Ghost, yawning, dozes off. Scrooge even joins the reception line at the end of the party, thanking the guests as they leave, for having given him a wonderful tome. He recalls Fezziwig’s parties, and Fred’s mother, and Isabel. He reprises Isabel’s song, and grows morose at the thought of all he has cut himself off from.
Scott has a brief argument with the Ghost over whether the gests are happy because of each other’s company, or the free food and drink. The guests play “Similes”, in which Fred calls out the first part of a phrase—Proud as a—and the player has five seconds to come up with the proper finish (Peacock.) Scrooge is a bit superior to games, ut shows by his expression that he is paying attention; he snaps at the Ghost for speaking so loudly he can’t hear the game. There is a bit of business over “Tight as”, when Fred refuses to allow his wife’s answer of “Uncle Scrooge’s purse-strings”. In the end, Scrooge admits Fred’s conduct of the game shows some intelligence, and “as for the laughter at my expense, I’m inclined to overlook it in view of the general gaiety.” The Ghost tells him they have another stop to make. As they move on, another round of Similes begins. “As silent as….” “I know! The grave!”
Caine watches Fred call “We’ve had the plum pudding and sung the carols: what now, my lovelies?” His guests call for a game. Scrooge asks “Do people play games at Christmas?” “I love games!” the Ghost cries. The game of Yes and No begins as described, but moves toward “an unwanted animal.” Fred heartily enjoys the suggestions of a leech or a rat. Scrooge pays along with enthusiasm, but is devastated when the answer is revealed, and asks to see no more.
Stewart and the Ghost leave the room through the piano, causing the strings to reverberate. They are outside, but Scrooge can hear the guests back inside starting a game. “It’s been a long time since…. Let’s stay a little.” The Ghost’s expression is blank; he seems genuinely anxious to move on. But they move back inside, and both laugh at the spectacle of Blind-Man’s Buff, Scrooge pointing out to the Ghost that Topper is cheating. Topper finishes by catching his intended beneath the mistletoe; everyone calls for a kiss, and the Ghost calls to Scrooge to depart. They are on the way out when Mrs. Fred strikes up a tune. Scrooge stops in the snow. “Wait, Spirit. I need to hear….that was my sister’s favorite tune.” “Fran.” “Yes>” The Ghost nods approval, but still seems impatient. He starts away, saying “You should have accepted Fred’s invitation to dine.” Scrooge looks at him; he goes on, “For Fran’s sake, if not for yours.” Scrooge’s “I should” is more question than answer. The Ghost tells him, “We still have much to do.”
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