Blogsy Babbles

     Scrooge bent before the Ghost’s rebuke, and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground.  But he raised them speedily, on hearing his own name.

     “Mr. Scrooge!” said Bob; “I’ll give you Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast!”

     “The Founder of the Feast indeed!” cried Mrs. Cratchit, reddening, “I wish I had him here.  I’d give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he’d have a good appetite for it.”

     “My dear,” said Bob, “the children; Christmas Day.”

     “It should be Christmas Day, I am sure,” said she “on which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge.  You know he is, Robert!  Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow!”

     “My dear,” was Bob’s mild answer, “Christmas Day.”

     “I’ll drink his health for your sake and the Day’s,” said Mrs. Cratchit, “not for his.  Long life to him!  A merry Christmas and a happy new year!—he’ll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt!”

     The children drank the toast after her.  It was the first of their proceedings which had no heartiness in it.  Tiny Tim drank it last of all, but he didn’t care twopence for it.  Scrooge was the Ogre of the family.  The mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not dispelled for full five minutes.

     After it had passed away, they were ten times merrier than before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful being done with.  Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his eye for master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full five-and-sixpence weekly.  The two young Cratchits laughed tremendously at the idea of Peter’s being a man of business; and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his collars, as if he were deliberating what particular investments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income.  Martha, who was a poor apprentice at a milliner’s, then told them what kind of work she had to do, and how many hours she worked at a stretch, and how she meant to lie a-bed tomorrow morning for a good long rest; tomorrow being a holiday she passed at home.  Also how she had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how the lord was “much as tall as Peter”; at which Peter pulled his collars so high that you couldn’t have seen his head had you been there.  All this time the chestnuts and the jug went round and round; and bye and bye they had a song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim; who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed.

     There was nothing of high mark in this.  They were not a handsome family; they were not well-dressed; their shoes were far from being water-proof; their clothes were scanty; and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside of a pawnbroker’s.  But they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit’s torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.

     The screenwriters often move this scene around, or combine it with the “God bless us” toast, but few omit it entirely.  There’s too much going on.  Mrs. Cratchit gets her big speech (and Dickens indulges a practice for making women the voice of reason in this story)  Our opinion of Bob Cratchit as one of those “No, everything’s all right, really” sort is confirmed.  And we get to twist the knife just a wee bit more in Ebenezer Scrooge.

     Hicks has the dialogue much as written.  The toast is drunk with no great willingness.  Tiny Tim, at request, sings “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, since the experts have never quite figured out what song Dickens had in mind when he wrote the passage.  (Still, there are so many songs about children lost in the snow/forest/jungle/big city/darkness/high weeds that it might be a version of any of those.)

     Owen accomplishes a major shift by having Mrs. Cratchit propose the toast to Mr. Scrooge.  “And here’s to next Christmas, may it bring us luck.  And may Mr. Scrooge give your father a raise!”  Martha and Bob, the only ones who know Bob has been sacked, look somber.  “And a merry Christmas to Mr. Scrooge!” Nob says, “I can drink to that.”  Scrooge is much abashed by all this.  “And now a story!”  Bob prepares to tell the children a story; Scrooge is eager to hear it.  “It’s about Aladdin!” he tells the Ghost, “And the magic lamp!”  After some coaxing, the Ghost is able to tear him away.

     In Sim I, Peter brings in the gin punch, and has some actual lines.  We hear the bit about Peter’s possible job.  The “God bless us” toast make Scrooge look rueful; his face really drops when the next toast is proposed, even before the family starts to boo and shout objections.  Thoroughly miserable, he turns to go, but the Ghost stops him.  The speeches are delivered more or less as written, and the lack of enthusiasm when the toast is finally drunk is obvious.  The scene fades in smoke.

     March omits this toast.

     Magoo pushes this scene to the very end, just before Scrooge appears, in the flesh, at the Cratchit household.  Some of the dialogue is omitted, but the toast is drunk with a thorough lack of enthusiasm.  Bob reproves the children, asking them to do justice to the day and to this marvelous turkey they are about to eat (having no idea that the reviled Founder of the Feast sent it.)

     Haddrick keeps the dialogue as written through “My dear!  Christmas Day!” when Bob adds “I’m sure Mr. Scrooge is a good man under hs hard front.  After all, he is a businessman.”  “And his business is making people unhappy,” comes the reply.  Then Mrs. Cratchit delivers her line about Scrooge being very merry and very happy, she’s sure.  “Are you very merry and happy?” the Ghost asks Mr. Scrooge.  “After that, I have cause to be.  But I’m not.”  “Why is that so?”  Scrooge explains he is unhappy for worrying about Tiny Tim; he now inquires about the boy’s future, as explained in the last chapter.

     Sim II omits the scene.

     In Finney, Bob toasts Tiny Tim for the fortune he’s made caroling, and joins this to a toast to Mr. Scrooge, naming them as the two individuals whose industry and generosity have provided the feast.  Mrs. Cratchit and the others thump their cups on the table, refusing to drink the toast.  “What are you trying to do?” Mrs. Cratchit demands, “Ruin our Christmas?”  “But his money paid for the goose, my dear.”  “No, YOUR money paid for the goose, my dear.”  “But he paid me the money.”  :because you earned it.”  She points out that Bob hasn’t had any raise in eight years.  “My dear, Mr. Scrooge assures me times are hard.”  “For you they are, not for himself.”  Bob, digging in his heels, insists, “Nonetheless, he is the founder of our feast and we SHALL drink to him.”  Mrs. Cratchit is not intimidated.  “The Founder of the Feast indeed!”  We return to our regularly scheduled dialogue through “My dear!  Christmas Day!”, with a modest embellishment in her opinion that a piece of her mind would give Mr. Scrooge indigestion for a month.  She finally turns to the others and announces, “Children, we shall drink to your father and Tiny Tim.  And for the sake of your father, I’ll even drink to that old miser Mr. Scrooe.  Long life to him and to us all.”  “A merry Christmas to us all.”  Now we can move to the God bless us every one toast, and the song “The Beautiful Day” from Tiny Tim.

     Matthau omits the scene.  It exists in McDuck only as the mournful look on Mrs. Cratchit’s face when Tiny Tim suggests thanking Mr. Scrooge for all the wunnerful food.

     Scott seems impatient to leave; when the pudding has arrived and been approved by the head of the household, he is glad to be finished.  The Ghost detains him.  “Just one more ceremonious moment.  Look!”  Bob kisses his wife under the mistletoe, and then proposes a toast to Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast.  The children rise slowly to drink it, and Mrs. Cratchit sits down hard, to deliver the “Founder of the Feast indeed!” speech.  “My dear, have some charity.”  She thinks this over.  “Very well, I’ll drink his health for your sake and the Day’s” and so forth.  Everyone drinks as if they are imbibing some vile medicine.  Scrooge points out that Bob made a good point: without him, there would have been no Christmas feast.  “My head for business furnished him employment.”  “Is that all you’ve learned by watching this family on Christmas Day?”  “No.  Not all.  But one must speak up for oneself, for one’s life.”  The family have a better time with the toast out of the way, and start singing “The Wassail Song”.  “We have some time left,” says the Ghost, “Tale my robe.”  They look toward the window, and a bright light.

     Caine hears Bob say “Mr. Scrooge,” and walks through the wall to answer.  Bob is proposing thr toast; his wife objects, going on to say “I would give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I bet he would choke on it.”  “:Choke!” agree Bettina and Belinda.  “My der.  The children.  Christmas Day.”  Mrs. Cratchit is a bit flustered at having vented unpleasant opinions on Christmas Day.  “Oh.  Well, I suppose that on the blessed day of Christmas, one must drink to the health of Mr. Scroooooooge, even though he is odious.”  Belinda and Bettina nod.  “Stingy.”  Bettina and Belinda nod.  “Wicked.”  Bettina and Belinda nod.  “And unfeeling.”  Bettina and Belinda nod.  Scrooge looks up anxiously at the Ghost.  Mrs. Cratchit goes on, “And badly dressed.”  Bettina and Belinda gasp in horror at how far their mother is going.  “And….”  Tim breaks in with “To the Founder of the Feast!  Mr. Scrooge!”  His mother relents.  “To Mr. Scrooge!  He’ll be very merry and very happy, I have no doubt.”  “No doubt!” snap the twins.  “Mmmm,” says their father, not perfectly convinced of the sincerity of the toast.  “Cheers.”  Now Tiny Tim sings “Bless Us All”; the family chime in.  Tim ends with a coughing fit, badly frightening Scrooge.  The Ghost draws him away, and Dickens reads us the closing line of the text.

      Curry has the toast to Mr. Cratchit, and then a toast to Mr. Scrooge, which becomes an excuse to reprise the song “Random Acts of Kindness”, this time phrasing it to explain how much happier we are with each other than Scrooge is with all his money.  Scrooge grumb;es, “I provide them with an income, and this is how they treat me.”

     Stewart begins with Bob proposing the toast; Mrs. Cratchit is stunned.  “Did you say Scrooge, Founder of the Feast?”  “Well, my dear….”  The written dialogue appears now, starting with “Founder of the Feast indeed!”; Bob recoils under the impact of “odious, stingy” and the other adjectives.  When convinced to go ahead with the toast, Mrs. Cratchit rushes through the words to get them out of her mouth all the faster.  “A nice gesture,” the Ghost remarks, But Mrs. Cratchit hasn’t finished.  “He’ll be about as merry as a graveyard on a wet Sunday.”  The Ghost laughs; Scrooge is offended.  Tim sings “Silent Night”; his brother looks grave.  The Ghost draws Scrooge outdoors.

      He sat very close to his father’s side, upon his little stool.  Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him.

     “Spirit,” said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, “tell me if Tiny Tim will live.”

     “I see a vacant seat,” replied the Ghost, “in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved.  If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die.”

     “No, no,” said Scrooge.  “Oh no, kind Spirit!  Say he will be spared.”

     “If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race,” returned the Ghost, “will find him here.  What then?  If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

      Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.

     “Man,” said the Ghost, “if man you be in heart, not adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered What the surplus is, and Where it is.  Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die?  It may be, that in the light of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child.  Oh God!  to hear the insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!”

      And here we smack Scrooge right between the eyes.  In most versions, the Ghost doesn’t come right out and give the message as “You don’t care what happens to other people; this is what ha[p[pens to other people.  Of you hadn’t been obsessed by on taking care of yourself, this odd and thoughtful child might not be near death.”  In some versions, to be sure, we give another twist of the knife by making Tim the only one aside from Bob to stick up for Scrooge during the Toast.  (To do that, of course, they have to put the next segment before this one.)

     Hicks watches Tim lean on the crutch, looking up at Bob.  “Spirit, tell me that Tiny Tim will live.”  The conversation continues much as written; when Scrooge recognizes the quote, he murmurs “Me own words.”  The Spirit goes on with that magnificent final speech, but leaves out the insect on the leaf image.

     Owen puts this scene before dinner.  He asks about Tim, is answered, and says “No, no: surely he’ll be spared.”  “With the kind of care that money could buy, who could tell?  But Bob Cratchit has no money.  Not even a position, I’ve heard.  If all this remains unaltered by the future, next Christmas will not find Tiny Tim here.”  Scrooge then hears himself being quoted, and turns to stare at the Spirit.

     Sim I puts this all between church and dinner, presenting it much as written, except that the Spirit does not repeats the line about shadows being unaltered, as he does in the text.  He merely asks, “Why?  If he be like to die, he’d better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”  Scrooge’s head jerks on recognizing this remark.

     March has to nag to get an answer.  “Will Tiny Tim live?”  “My life on this globe is very brief; it ends tonight.”  “Will Tiny Tim live?”  “I see a vacant seat in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved.  These shadows may be altered only by the Spirit of the Future.”  “Well, where do I find the Spirit of the Future?”  “Look within yourself, for if you continue as you are, the answer is there before you.”  Scrooge thinks this over, but when he turns to ask a question, the Spirit is gone.  Scrooge, looking around, suddenly stops and stares straight ahead in horror.

     Rathbone asks, “Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.”  “I see an empty chair by the chimney corner.  If these shadows remain unaltered, no brother of mine will find him here.”  Scrooge protests, but the Spirit replies, “I am the Present.  I cannot answer for the Future.”  Scrooge is of a mind to argue, but the Spirit cuts him off by saying he has another house from Scrooge to see.

     Magoo demands, “What’s wrong with that boy, the tiny one?”  “I see a vacant seat in the chimney corner, and a crutch carefully preserved.  If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, the child will die.”  Scrooge has a flashback of himself delivering the “If they be like to die” speech.  This act of the play closes on this, and the curtain falls.

     Haddrick brings this in after the Toast.  “Yon child.  Tiny Tim.  Tell me if Tiny Tim will live.”  “I see a vacant seat in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved.  If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.”  “Is there no chance he’ll live?”  “If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none other of my race will find him here.  What of it?  If he be likely to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”  “You use my own words against me.”  “You used the words.  Only you can undo them.”  “There is nothing I can do.”  “There is.  But you’ll have to find out the hard way.”  “The hard way?”  “My time is nigh.  Come!”

     Sim II does not give us much of the Cratchits, but their financial situation is indicated by how much they are bundled up, even indoors; there is much coughing, too, though they’re right up next to the fire.  Scrooge, eyes cast down, asks if Tiny Tim will live.  The Ghost replies, also giving him a quick vision of the empty chimney corner.  Scrooge’s eyes widen.  “No no.”  “What of it?  If he be like to die, he had better do it….”  “Don’t!”  “And decrease the surplus population.”  He goes through the whole insect on the leaf speech, his eyes raised to Heaven, his voice one of sorrow.

     In Finney, the toast before this and the one after are combined and given first; Scrooge and the Ghost walk from the house.  “What an unpleasant child!” cries the Ghost.  “There are few things more nauseating to see than a happy family enjoying themselves at Christmas.  Do you not agree?”  Scrooges knows he is being baited, but responds, “I think Bob Cratchit’s really quite fond of me.”  “So’s his wife: couldn’t you tell?”  “She doesn’t really know me.”  “That is one of the few things wherein Fate has blessed her.”  Scrooge walks on before asking “What will become of the child?”  The Ghost stops.  “What’s this?  Concern over a sick child?  Have you taken leave of your senses?”  “Don’t mock me, Spirit.  Is the child very sick?  Not that it’s of any great importance to me whether he is or not, but is he?”  “Well, of course, he’s sick.”  “You mean he’s seriously ill?’  the Spirits answers with only a gaze of deep solemnity.  “Will he live?  Well, WILL he?”  “What does it matter to you, Ebenezer Scrooge?  If he is going to die, then he’d better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”  Scrooge does not reply.

     In Matthau, Tim, running to Martha with his toy soldier, trips and falls.  Scrooge cannot intervene, and becomes distraught at this.  “Is there no way I can help him?”  “It is, perhaps, too late.”  We break off here to take Scrooge to his nephew’s party, but we return later to the Cratchits’, where Scrooge asks “What of that other child, so tiny he seems little more than a babe himself?”  “I see a vacant seat in the chimney corner, and a little crutch without an owner, carefully preserved.”  “Oh, dear God, let it not be!”  Scrooge falls across the vacant seat, calling “This cannot be!”  “Why not?” says the Ghost, “Who cares?”  Scrooge is astonished by this, which leads to the song “One Little Boy”, in which the ghost argues the case for Tim’s demise, forcing Scrooge to retort that one life DOES matter.  There is a line about decreasing the surplus population, a line which Scrooge has not, in this version, actually uttered.  He does admit to having thought it, though, and is ashamed of it.

     In McDuck, Tim, still looking at all the food, says “We must thank Mr. Scrooge.”  Mrs. Cratchit looks sorrowful, but says nothing.  “What’s wrong with that kind lad?”  “Much, I’m afraid.  If these shadows remain unchanged, I see an empty chair where Tiny Tim once sat.”  Tim, having observed that his father’s plate is nearly empty, offers some of his own food.  “You mean…Tim will….”  But the Spirit has vanished.  Scrooge cries out to him, demanding to know more about Tim.

     Scott steps to the table to peer at Tim as the boy eats.  The dialogue proceeds much as written, save that the Ghost sees “an empty seat at this table.”  Scrooge smiles a bit on hearing himself quoted, and says “You use my own words against me.”  Nodding, the Spirit laughs and replies, “Yes.  So perhaps in the future you’ll hold your tongue.”  He delivers a fierce “insect on the leaf” speech.

      In Caine, we get the Toast first, and the song “Bless us All,” closing i=with another of Tim’s coughing fits.  “Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.”  “That is the Future.  My realm is in the present.”  The Ghost speaks with an effort, he is already going gray.  “However, I see a vacant seat by the chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner.  If these shadows remain unaltered, I believe the child will die.  But what then?  If he is going to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population!”  Scrooge turns, with a stricken, “Oh, Spirit!”  He turns to look with fear at the Cratchits again.  Dickens himself then gives us the paragraph (yet to come in the text) which closes the Cratchit section of the book.

     Curry also has the Toast first.  While the rest of the family clears the table, Tim hobbles to the fire and picks up a copy of Robinson Crusoe.  “Look familiar?” asks the Ghost.  Scrooge sees a vision of himself as a child.  Bob and his wife now go through the material about Tim hoping the people saw him in church ending with “People would be thankful for their good fortune.”  Scrooge murmurs “I am.”  “What?”  Instead of answering the Ghost, Scrooge moves in to look over Tim’s shoulder, enjoying Robinson Crusoe with him.  “A remarkable boy,” he says, “But so frail.  Spirit, tell me if Tiny Tim will live.”  The Ghost grows grey.  “I see an empty seat in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner.  If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.”  There is a vision of the empty stool.  “Oh no, Spirit!  Tell me he will be spared!”  “Well, if he’s going to die, he had better do it, and so decrease the surplus population, right?”  “I didn’t mean….”  “Next time,” the Ghost instructs him, “Find out who the surplus is.  Remember, Scrooge, no one is worthless or unfit to live.”  The “God bless us, every one” toast comes in here, and Bob observes how glad he is to be in the bosom of his family.  Scrooge mourns, “I wish I had a family to be with.”  The Ghost says he does, silly man, and whisks him to Fred’s party.

     Stewart, having asked earlier if Tiny Tim would live, watches him drink the “God bless us every one” toast and demands, “Is there no chance that the boy will be spared?”  “Not if the future remains unaltered.”  “Hmmmmm?”  “But so what if it happens?  If he is going to die, he had better do it quick, and decrease the surplus population.”  Scrooge pulls himself up on hearing the quote, and takes it like a boy being scolded.  The Ghost delivers the “Insect n the Leaf” speech with real feeling.

FUSS FUSS FUSS #15: When Does the Old Man Melt?

     When does the power of Christmas to make us feel for others infect Scrooge?  The textuial Scrooge shows signs of softening early on, at his old school.  The fact that he weeps for the young Ebenezer hardly counts: he is, after all, just feeling sorry for himself.  But at the end, when he is wishing he had given the caroler at his door something, he is obviously picking up an idea.  By the time he meets Christmas present, he admits it, and Dickens observes that this is a humbler Scrooge than before.

     Filmmakers often alter this.  Obviously suspense will grow if Scrooge keeps refusing to listen.  This does run the risk of making audiences feel that the only thing that matters to the old geezer is the sight of his own tombstone.

     I have listed our Scrooges in the order they thaw.

     Curry, an especially hardhearted old miser to start with, wishes he’d been kind to the caroler.  He backslides a bit later, it is true, but the change has started.  The later visions seem to be working at his grumpiness as much as anything else.

     Hicks is very meek on meeting Christmas Present, actually using the line about Christmas past having taught him a lesson which is working in him now.

     Sim I is thawed by the visions of the past, but becomes despondent, frequently noting that he is too old to change his ways.

     Sim II is similarly very meek when he meets Christmas present, admitting the Ghost may have something to teach him; Rathbone is similarly inclined.

     Caine weeps during the breakup scene with Belle, and is hardly the same person afterward.  He laughs cheerfully with the Ghost of Christmas present, and admits that he may not have understood about Christmas.  The Cratchit dinner completes the change.

      Whenever Owen shows signs of relenting. Christmas Past pushes matters too far, freezing him up again.  He seems to understand that he has changed for the worse, and utterly refuses to look at any more visions of his past.  The Ghost of Christmas Present, a little less likely to lecture, accomplishes the transformation.

     March shows few signs of melting beyond enjoying the Fezziwig party, and Christmas present’s song.  He is not rendered wholly human until Tiny Tim’s song at the Christmas table.

      Magoo, merely puzzled by the Cratchits’ happiness, also seems to wait for Tiny Tim to convince him.

      Matthau, seeing Tiny Tim fall, rushes to catch him, showing that he has thought for others by now.  The recollection of his unkindness to Fred reduces him to tears.

     McDuck seems merely to regret his past, feeling sorry for himself.  But his concern for Tim’s future means, when he finds himself abandoned by the Spirit and standing in the snow while wearing only his nightshirt and slippers, he is more distraught about Tim’s situation than his own.

     Finney does wish he’d given the carolers something, but the sense of guilt makes him colder and grumpier.  He smiles while under the influence of the Milk of Human Kindness, but goes on snarling at the world and at Christmas.  Fred’s Christmas party is what makes the difference; he seems honestly to be considering what he “might have shared, and turned to happiness”.  His genuine regret when the Ghost of Christmas present departs indicates that he now attaches some importance to the holiday.

     Stewart is troubled by the visions of the past, particularly what they mean to his treatment of Fred, but he hasn’t especially changed.  He allows that he was happy with Belle, and at Fezziwig’s, but time changes people and those old days are gone now.  He greets Christmas Present as an unpleasant ordeal to be gotten through.  Fred’s Christmas party is what really starts to warm him up; the games and his sister’s favorite tune show Christmas to be of some value.

     Scott LEARNS things as he goes along but treats his experiences as information to be added to his knowledge of the world, not reasons for changing his philosophy or world view.  He declines even to admit he might have made some mistakes until he is abandoned by Christmas present.

     Haddrick shows not the slightest sign of relenting before he asks about Tim; he softened not a jot in the past, considering everyone he saw there, including himself, as a fool.  The Ghost of Christmas present ends by being disgusted with him (though he is at least thinking about things he never thought of before) and it takes the idea of dying unmourned to really melt THIS Ebenezer.

INTERLUDE

     In Matthau, Tiny Tim, having recovered from his stumble, tells Martha about the children next door, who claim there is no Santa Claus, and say his wooden soldier is no more than a clothespin his father painted.

     Martha sings “Yes, There Is a Santa Claus”, heavily inspired by “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus”.  We watch the ghost of Christmas present turn into Santa Claus.  (We also see bob Cratchit painting the clothespin.)  Mrs. Cratchit brings the dinner into this with “And yes,  there is a goose”.  Later, there is a toast, with glasses of punch, ending with “God bless us, every one.”

     “And how did little Tim behave?” asked Mrs. Cratchit, when she had rallied Bob on his credulity and Bob had hugged his daughter to his heart’s content.

     “As good as gold,” said Bob, “and better.  Somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard.  He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.”

     Bob’s voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty.

     His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted by his brother and sister to his stool before the fire; and while Bob, turning up his cuffs—as f, poor fellow, these were capable of being made more shabby—compounded some hot mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round and round and put it on the hob to simmer; Master Peter, and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession.

     Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course, and in truth, it was something very like it in that house.  Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, left they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped.  At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said,  It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah!

     There never was such a goose.  Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked.  Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration.  Eked out by the apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of bone upon the dish), they hadn’t ate it all at last!  Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows!  But now, the plates being changed by Miss Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone—too nervous to bear witnesses—to take the pudding up, and bring it in.

      Suppose it should not be done enough!  Suppose it should break in turning out!  Suppose someone should have got over the wall of the back-yard, and stolen it, while they were merry with the goose: a supposition at which the two young Cratchits became livid!  All sorts of horrors were supposed.

     Hallo!  A great deal of steam!  The pudding was out of the copper.  A smell like washing-day!  That was the cloth.  A smell  like an eating-house, and a pastry-cook’s next to each other, with a laundress’s next door to that!  That was the pudding.  In half a minute, Mrs. Cratchit entered: flushed, but smiling proudly, with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quatern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top.

     Oh, a wonderful pudding!  Bob Cratchit said, and calmly, too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage.  Mrs. Cratchit said now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had had her doubts about the quantity of flour.  Everybody had something to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family.  Any Cratchit would have blushed to hint at such a thing.

     At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up.  The compound in the jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts on the fire.  Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one; and at Bob Cratchit’s elbow stood the family display of glass; two tumblers, and a custard-cup without a handle.

     These held the hot stuff from the jug, however, as well as golden goblets would have done; and Bob served it out with beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fire sputtered and crackled noisily.  Then Bob proposed:

      “A Merry Christas to us all, my dears.  God bless us!”

     Which all the family re-echoed.

     “God bless us every one!” said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

     Dinner at the Cratchits’ was one of the high points of Dickens’s public readings of the Carol: audiences rose to their feet and cheered when the pudding finally reached the table.

     This sequence, and those which immediately follow, are frequently mixed, matched, and otherwise rearranged.  Film-makers want to move the story along, and we really CANNOT sit and watch the family devour an entire goose (not to mention the mashed potatoes and applesauce.)  You need “How did Tim behave in church?” at the start and “God bless us every one” at the end; since Tim is a hard act to follow, you can toss all the other Cratchit material in wherever it fits in between these.

     In Hicks, a knock on the door proclaims the arrival of the goose.  The children rush to it while Mrs. Cratchit ushers Bob to the fire.  She takes his comforter while Bob brings his slippers.  They discuss Tim’s behavior in church; both have to look away when Bob says he thinks Tim is growing stronger.  His wife replies, “I wish I could believe you, Bob, but I’m afraid.”  The goose is ushered in now by the little Cratchits.  “There never was such a goose!” Bob declares, “There never will be such a goose.”  Preparations move quickly while he predicts that its flavor will exceed all expectations.  He mentions the applesauce and the mashed potatoes, and the family set to.  The scene jumps to the end of the meal.  These are the least elegant Cratchits on film: a stubby candle sits on the table, and we watch one the girls wiping her mouth on the tablecloth.  ”And even now we haven’t eaten it all,” crows Mrs. Cratchit, tapping a bone on the platter.  They laugh.  Scrooge chuckles, which the Ghost observes.  “I envy them,” Scrooge admits.  Now Bob Notes “Regarding the momentous question: pudding.”  There is a tumult; he further observes that his wife looks pale, maybe, and nervous.  She says she prays all will be well with the pudding.  She and Tim go to fetch it while the other Cratchits clear away and wash the dishes.  Bob troubles the children with horrible suppositions regarding the pudding while Tim, in the next room, lights the brandy.  Bob dims the lights as the pudding arrives, flaming; he pronounces it a beautiful pudding.  “A Merry Christmas to us all,  my dears!” he exclaims, dishing it out.  “God bless us all!” cry his children.  “Good bless us all!” says Tim, who, exhausted by all this adventure, leans heavily on his crutch.  He raises his eyes to his father.

     In Owen, Bob and Martha have moved into the kitchen to mix the punch.  Martha senses something is wrong.  Closing the door so the others won’t hear, Bob admits that he has been sacked by Mr, Scrooge, but asks her not to mention it to her mother.  They move into a very well-appointed dining room, airy and nicely furnished.  Peter is sent for the goose, which shortly appears on the table.  Everyone eyes it hungrily; Tim can’t keep his hands still for all the excitement.  “There never was such a goose!”  Mother carves, and we fade to the finish of the meal.  “We haven’t eaten it all at last!”  Bob suggests the possible theft of the pudding as a joke to Tim; an anxious wait follows.  One of the girls give bulletins from the kitchen door; by the time the pudding arrives, Scrooge’s face is as alive with anticipation as any of the others.  Mrs. Cratchit serves the pudding around, taking none herself.  Martha forces a spoonful on her.  The Spirit repeatedly beams his light on the family.  The two toasts—blessing us from this segment and the founder of the feast from the next—are blended.

      In Sim I, we get a bit of Martha’s speech from the previous segment, and then the discussion of Tim’s behavior in church.  Immediately after Bob fails to convince himself that Tim is growing stronger every day, we insert the “Will Tiny Tim live?” sequence.  The arrival of the pudding is discussed; we then cut to the empty table and the punch.

      When March fades in at the Cratchits’, they are singing the Ghost’s song themselves, decorating their light, airy front room while preparing food.  Peter, a tall young man, is snitching bits of this and that; the goose is roasting on a spit.  They borrow the riddle game from Fred’s party; Scrooge plays along eagerly but is offended by the solution.  Bob repeats “He said Christas was a humbug!”  While the children finish trimming the Christmas tree, the parents discuss Tim’s behavior in church; Bob tries to convince himself “He’ll see many a Christmas after us.”  Mrs. Cratchit finds the cheer fantasy of this devastating; even Bob mutters “A few more shillings a week.”  Mrs. Cratchit tries to cheer him up, saying “A cheerful heart is the best healer.”  Tim sets the star on top of the tree and then sings “God Bless Us, Every One”.  Scrooge is transfixed.  (I hate to complain, by the way, but what in the WORLD is Tim wearing?)

     In Rathbone, all the Cratchit scenes are compressed into a kind of medley.  Bob sets Tim by the fire and compliments Martha on her mashing of the potatoes.  The Cratchits go into raptures at having a whole goose to themselves.  (The bird involved is the size of a modest chicken.)  Four of them pull up to the table now; Bob cries, “Three cheers for the Cratchits!”  They appear to have completely forgotten about Tim, who is still sitting by the fire, and now asks if he can come to the table.  Bob, unabashed, lifts the boy and brings him over.  Bob then says grace and suggests that God bless them; Tim augments the toast as in the text.

     Magoo’s Mrs. Cratchit brushes away a tear as Bob discusses Tim’s behavior in church.  The smallest of Cratchit dinners—basically bread and soup—is set out as everyone sings “Razzleberry Dressing” (officially known as “The Lord’s bright Blessing”.)  This is a rousing little number completely at odds with Dickens’s uncomplaining Cratchits.  (On the other hand, Dickens gives them more food.)  In any case, the young Cratchits are quickly convinced that being together is better than having a lot of stuff at Christmas.  The song concludes with a request that “God bless us, every one!”

     In Haddrick, Bob concludes the discussion of Tim’s behavior in church with “As good as gold.  He’ll see many a Christmas yet, I’m sure.”  Tim doesn’t look it; as Peter goes off with the two little Cratchits to fetch dinner, a fragile, dispirited Tim slumps by the fire.  Scrooge, meanwhile, asks how such a dull and rational fellow as Cratchit can become so irrational this night.  “He is with his family, and they make him happy.”  “They make him poor, that’s for certain.  But poverty seems to weigh light enough on him.”  “It’s Christmas!”  “But they have nothing to celebrate Christas wth!”  “It is the spirit of the evening that makes small things great and inadequate things seem beautiful.”  “I don’t understand you.”  “That is why you are here.”  Scrooge insists he need no such intangibles to make things meaningful.  “Now, take money…..”  “You do that often enough.  I don’t want to hear about it.”  The family sit down to what Scrooge has called a sad, inadequate dinner; his is now amazed to watch them enjoy it.  “Bless my soul!”  “That is our intention, Ebenezer Scrooge.  I think we may be achieving it.  Slowly.”

     Sim II gives us only the discussion of Tim’s behavior in church.  Scrooge lowers his eyes, abashed, at being reminded of who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.  We skip ahead to the family gathered around the fireside; Tim sings one line of “The Little Boy lost in the Snow” and then we bless us, every one.

     Finney watches the goose and the punch being prepared.  Bob is quite over the top enjoying the preparations; everyone else seems to enjoy how much he enjoys them.  The goose is not much larger than Bob’s two hands.  Tim and a brother return from carol-singing, having earned tenpence ha’penny.  Tim is toasted as a breadwinner by his father, which takes us to the next scene.

     In Matthau, Tim proceeds to a teeny Christmas tree and exclaims at Santa Claus’s generosity.  “Not at all like Mr. Scrooge,” says one of his sisters.  Everyone else boos at the mention of the name, but Tim tells them not to think unkindly of Mr. Scrooge: not at Christmas.  “Why not?  It’s his thinking that keeps us poor.”  Bob, skipping around in the text, joins Tim by saying “Now, Mr. Scrooge is the founder of the feast.”  “:Feast?” his wife demands.  “With a goose no bigger than a canary bird?”  Scrooge turns to the Ghost and demands, “Must I listen?”  :Surely you’re not surprised.”  Surprised or not, Scrooge is stricken.  “Oh, instead of docking Bob, why didn’t I give him exytra for Christmas?”  Tim hobbles off to get his new toy, a wooden soldier.  Mrs. Cratchit admits that sometimes she loses hope that Tim will ever get well, and wishes they had the money to see him cured.  Bob replies that Tim has the hope and faith he needs.  In fact, in church, he said he hoped the people saw him, and so forth, at last, from the original text.

     All we get of this from McDuck is Tim exclaiming, “Look at all the wunnerful things to eat!”

     In Scott, Bob remarks on Tim’s behavior in church, but Scrooge is watching the two children escort Tim from the room.  “Look at how they support him!”  “What did you say?” the Ghost inquires.  “Nothing.  It’s….  Nothing.”  Mrs. Cratchit looks tragic when Bob notes how Tim is growing stronger every day.  “Yes, Bob.  I’m sure you’re right.  He is getting stronger.”  In every version, Mrs. Cratchit declines to believe this, but here you can tell from Bob’s face that he knows she doesn’t.  He tells her, clutching the crutch to him, that the important things is that they’re all JHERE.  Pulling a later section out of the text, Bob reveals that he has a position in mind for Master Peter, working for Mr. Scrooge’s nephew, Fred Halliwell.  Scrooge is affronted: who would hire a child at such an exorbitant salary?  Fred must be doing it to spit him.  The goose comes to the table and is much praised.  Bob carves this goose; he also says grace, to which Scrooge says “Amen.”  “Did you say something?”  “No.”  “I thought I heard….”  “I said nothing.”  “Oh.”  The family dines.  “A very small goose,” Scrooge observes.  “It is all Bob Cratchit can afford.”  Scrooge is offended again.  “Berry Christmas to us all!”  “And God bless us, every one!”  Bob is much struck by Tim’s addition of this.

     In Caine, Tim is so excited by the feast that he begins to cough.  His mother makes him sit down, and asks how he h=behaved in church.  Bob tells her, his voice breaking.  “A remarkable child,” says Scrooge.  The food is spread out on the table and they set to.  Scrooge observes, “Such a meagre feast.”  “But very much appreciated.”  Scrooge will not be comforted.  “O pay Bob such a small amount.”  Then he hears his name, and we are brought to the toasts.

     In Curry, we hear how Tim behaved in church, but Scrooge is confused by “As good as gold.  No, better.”  “There’s something better than gold?” he demands.  We move quickly to empty plates and the Toast.

     In Stewart, we are told how Tim behaved in church as Bob tries to ease his shoulders.  Mrs. Cratchit replies to who made lame beggars walk and blind men see by saying “Not many remember that.  You can count on it.”  Bob says he thinks Tim is growing stronger; Martha seconds this notion.  The goose is brought to the table and Mother carves; there is a decent attempt to reproduce the text on screen.  They joke with Tim about the food; Scrooge injects “Will Tiny Tim live?” at this point.  Meanwhile, the Cratchits have arrived at worrying whether the pudding is all right.  Martha helps her mother lift it out of the copper; lighting the brandy produces a tiny flame.  There is much business as Bob takes the first taste; Mrs. Cratchit’s relief when he pronounces judgement is profound.  The Ghost explains to Scrooge “There’s nothing wrong with that pudding except that it’s a very small pudding for such a large family.”  Scrooge replies that nobody complained.  “Any Cratchit would blush to even hint at such a thing.”  We proceed to “God bless us, every one!”

     Scrooge promised that he would’; and they went on, invisible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town.  It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which Scrooge had observed at the baker’s) that notwithstanding his gigantic size, he could accommodate himself to any place with ease; and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like a supernatural creature, as it was possible he could have done in any lofty hall.

     And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind, generous, hearty nature, and his sympathy with all poor men, that led him straight to Scrooge’s clerk’s; for there he went, and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe; and on the threshold of the door the Spirit smiled, and stopped to bless Bob Cratchit’s dwelling with the sprinkling of his torch.  Think of that!  Bob had but fifteen ‘Bob’  a-week himself: he pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name; and yet the Ghost of Christas Present blessed his four-roomed house!

     Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit’s wife, dressed out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make goodly show for six-pence; and she left the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her daughters, also brave in ribbons; while Master Peter Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and getting the corners of his monstrous shirt-collar (Bob’s private property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the day) into his mouth, rejoice to find himself so gallantly attired, and yearned to show his lenen in the fashionable parks.  And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in, screaming that outside the baker’s they had smelt the goose, and known it for their own; and basking in luxurious thoughts of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about the table, and exalted Master Peter to the skies, while he (not proud, although his collars nearly choked him) blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up, knocked loudly at the saucepan-lid to be let out and peeled.

     “What ever has got your previous father then,” said Mrs. Cratchit, “And your brother, Tiny Tim, and Martha warn’t this late last Christmas Day by half-an-hour!”

     “Here’s Martha, mother!” said a girl, appearing as she spoke.

     “Here’s Martha, mother!” cried the two young Cratchits.  “Hurrah!  There’s SUCH a goose, Martha!”

     “Why, bless my heart alive, my dear, how late you are!” said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet for her, with officious zeal.

     “We’d a deal of work to finish up last night,” replied the girl, “and had to clear away this morning, Mother!”

      “Well!  Never mind as long as you’ve come,” said Mrs. Cratchit.  “Sit down before the fire, my dear, and have a warm, Lord bless ye!”

     “No no!  There’s father coming,” cried the two young Cratchits, who were everywhere at once.  “Hide, Martha, hide!”

     So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father, with at least three feet of his comforter exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before him; and his thread-bare clothes darned up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder.  Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame!

     “Why, where’s our Martha?” cried Bob Cratchit, looking around.

     “:Not coming,” said Mrs. Cratchit.

     “Not coming!” said Bob, with a sudden declension of his high spirits; for he had been Tim’s blond horse all the way from church, and had come home rampant.  “Not coming upon Christmas Day!”

     Martha didn’t like to see him disappointed, of it were only in a joke; so she came out prematurely from behind the closet door, and ran into his arms, while the two young Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off to the wash-house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the copper.

     We come to what it, for many people, the point of the whole show: the home of the Cratchits.  Bob Cratchit is finally given a name and, with it, a house and a family.  These are fairly warm and cosy, in the pictures: virtually every version gives us Mrs. Cratchit in the kitchen, and Tiny Tim riding Bob’s shoulder.  Martha’s little trick is frequently included, and the food is often on full view.  Sometimes the goose cooks here and sometimes at the baker’s: either way, the kitchen is the center of activity.

     Hicks begins with Bob and Tim travelling along the streets, Tim on Bob’s shoulder.  The scene is festive, with people playing in the snow, and more snow falling.  Bob buys Tim a small toy boat from a street vendor, and we jump ahead into the kitchen to wait for them to join us.  The two small Cratchits rush in, exclaiming that they’ve smelled the goose and knew it was theirs because the smell was so delicious.  They begin to dance  around celebrating “A happy goose! A happy goose!”  Mrs. Cratchit wonders whatever has happened to their precious father and Tiny Tim, but is distracted by the entrance of Martha, a solid older teen with an amiable face.  Martha explains how much work there was to clear away.  She is urged to have a warm, but her younger siblings bustle her over to hide behind her own coat, which the front door conceals when it opens.  Bob is suitable stunned to learn she isn’t coming, and thoroughly gratified when she takes pity on him and comes out from behind the door to throw her arms around him.

     Owen and the Spirit watch Bob carry Tim home.  Jumping ahead in the text, Scrooge asks if Tiny Tim will live.  Oblivious to this, Bob and Tim get home, Tim crying “Whoa!” and Bob replying “Whoa it is”  The two small Cratchits having smelled the goose, have hidden martha in the closet.  She peeks out, takes pity on her father, and appears, to his great relief.

     Sim I watches Bob come home with Tim on one shoulder.  We jump to the kitchen, where it is Mrs. Cratchit who urges Martha to hide behind the scullery door.  The scene proceeds much as described, even unto Peter’s positively monstrous collar.

     March omits the scene.

     Rathbone and the Spirit come to a window shrouded in fog.  “Your clerk Bob Cratchit’s house,” the Spirit informs him.  Scrooge peeks in to watch Bob and peter and Tim come home.  There is none of the byplay with Martha.

     Magoo assures the Spirit he’s never seen this place, and at length demands to know why they’re here.  “These people mean nothing to me.”  When he learns who they are, he is amazed at how happy the family can be on so little money.  The Spirit replies that their happiness is based on something unfamiliar to Scrooge.  “Love.”  Mrs. Cratchit is just demanding “What is keeping you father and your brother, Tiny Tim?” when those two enter.

     Haddrick is more knowledgeable, telling the Ghost, “This is where my clerk lives: fellow named Bob Cratchit.”  The remark is made about four room and fifteen shillings.  “That is why I’m here,” the Spirit explains.  Scrooge seems surprised: “To bless this lowly place?”  “Of course! Because what seems lowly to you and what seems lowly to me are obviously different things.”  The children dash in, declaring they smelled the goose at the baker’s.  Peter snitches a little food.  Bob and Tim are shown on their way home, discussing the church service.  Scrooge takes snuff, as he has been doing earlier, and again fails to sneeze.  He asks the ghost why he can’t get a good sneeze to clear his head, and is told he’s too mean to give away even a good sneeze.  His values are confused: take that sovereign he constantly rubs.  “This is the first sovereign I ever made.”  But soon, the Ghost says, he will have worn it away, and will have lost it.  Better to use it for some good purpose.  Meanwhile, Martha a slightly younger version of her mother, hides behind a door until she can come out again to surprise her father.  Peter, by the way, wears a cap in this version, and a modern-looking necktie.)

     In Sim II, we watch Bob and Tim gallop home.  The children cry “Hoorah!  Father’s home!  Father’s home!”  Much of the rest is omitted.

      The Ghost and Finney crash into a snowdrift; Finney is sober again, and indignant, demanding to know where they are.  The Ghost informs him that they are outside the lavish home of one Robert Cratchit, Esquire, who owes the opulence  of his home and the magnificence of his Christmas dinner to the high principles and generosity of his employer.  “I’ll look in the window,” state Scrooge.  “It will cost you nothing, which I’m sure will be good news to you.”  “Will they be able to see me?”  “No, which I feel sure will be good news to them.”  Scrooge says he could use another drink of the Milk of Human kindness; the Ghost tells him it will be better for him to see things as they are, rather confusing the metaphor.  Scrooge looks in at a very low, dark, kitchen; Bob is already there.

      Matthau looks in at a fat Mrs. Cratchit who is very busy about the kitchen; when she hears a sound from the front room, she says to herself, “The children and Bob home from church.”  The twins rush in, crying that the goose may be small, but they could smell it all the way up the street.  “Where are your father and Tiny Tim?”  “Who wants to know?” calls Bob.  Tim asks about the pudding; his mother tells him it is “bubbling and singing away in its copper pot as if it was a Christmas caroler.”

     McDuck demands “Why did you bring me to this old shack?”  The Ghost explains, and he peers through the window.  “What’s that cooking?  A canary?  Surely they have more food than that.  Look on the fire!”  The ghost studies a bubbling pot.  “That’s your laundry.”

     We pass with Scott through the torch and find ourselves in Camdentown.  “Do you know this house?” inquires the Ghost.  “No, I can’t say I do.”  “It is the house of Bob Cratchit.”  “Is it?  He does very well on fifteen bob a week.”  Scrooge demurs when told to go in, saying he’d hate to intrude, and is told that they shall be unable to see or hear him, as in the last ghost’s visions.  Inside, Peter is snitching food.  The two small Cratchits rush in, exclaiming at how beautiful the goos smells.  Mrs. Cratchit tells them to go with Martha and butter the bread…thinly.  Bob and Tim enter; Tim is carried off to listen to the pudding.

     Caine comes here after his visit to Fred.  “Why have we come to this odd corner of the town?”  “It’s Christmas here, too, you know!”  Dickens gives us an abbreviated version of the “Perhaps it was the Spirit’s own generous nature” speech, and we peek in at one of the few blonde Mrs. Cratchits, standing with her back to us.  (She also has a first name, Emily.)  Rizzo manages to fall down the chimney onto the goose roasting on a spit; the goose is smaller than he is.  Mrs. Cratchit snitches a few chestnuts; when confronted by her twin daughters, she replies that she was merely tasting them.  Scrooge and the Spirit then turn to watch the entrance of Bob and Tim, singing.

     Curry has to be dragged into the house by the Spirit.  Jolly children are enjoying themselves in a large, airy kitchen.  The lady of the house asks Martha wherever are her father and Tiny Tim.  Scrooge demands “Who ARE these people?”  The Ghost won’t tell him.  Bob and Tim enter; Scrooge is struck by this revelation.  “The Cratchits? I had no idea Bob lived so humbly.”  “What did you think, with the wage you pay him?”

     Stewart demands, “Where are we going now, Spirit?”  He is startled to learn they are going to Bob Cratchit’s home, and is given a lecture about that fifteen bob a week.  Mrs. Cratchit and the four middle children are working and singing merrily in the kitchen.  Martha enters, explaining how she had to work late.  “She sounds a very hard-working young girl,” notes Scrooge.  “She has to be,” replies the Spirit, the reproof in his tone surprising Scrooge.  The children hide Martha in the scullery.  Bob and Tim gallop home; Tim cries “Whoa!”  “I didn’t know Cratchit had a crippled son,” Scrooge remarks; the Ghost snaps “Why didn’t you ask?”  Martha is gradually released from the scullery, to her father’s relief.

FUSS FUSS FUSS #14: Assorted Cratchits

     The people who delve into these things see the Cratchits as a fictionalized version of young Charles Dickens’s home, with Peter Cratchit as a self-portrait.  (Tiny Tim is felt to be a merging of his nephew Henry with the older of Dickens’s two brothers named Fred.)  He is not specific about their age or aspect, save when he describes their clothes.  He doesn’t even give names to the fourth and fifth children: in the Lionel Barrymore radio version, even the Ghost of Christmas present refers to them as “two little Cratchits”.

     In general, the earlier the movie, the older the Cratchits; even Tim gets tinier as we go on.  Animated versions are likely to cut back on the number of Cratchits: makes for less complex drawings.

     Hicks’s Mrs. Cratchit is a woman in late middle age, with six children.  (“A round half dozen” Bob calls them, earlier, mentioning three boys and three girls.)  Martha, Belinda, and Peter are all teenagers, though some critics put Martha in her 20s.  Tim, who looks nine or ten, wears a leg brace.

     Owen’s Mrs. Cratchit is a lively older o=woman; her children are all ten or over.  Tim, who wears a brace on one leg, is fully two-thirds as tall as his parents.

     Sim  I gives us an older Mrs. Cratchit with five children well along in years: Peter, Martha, Mary, Belinda, and Tim.  Tim is going to be taller than his parents in a year or two.

     March begins a trend to younger Cratchits.  The two little Cratchits, both girls in this version, are barely older than Tim.  In fact, since this is possibly the tallest Tiny Tim ever, they may even be younger than he is.  There are five children: Peter, Belinda, Susan (Suzy), Martha, and Tim.

     Rathbone shows us a cheerful youngish Mrs. Cratchit who has only three children: Martha, Peter, and Tim.

     Magoo gives us a plump Mrs. Cratchit, who wears a bonnet.  She has four children: Martha, who is considerably taller and older than the others, a rather short brother Peter in high collars, an intermediate child who may be a girl, and Tim.

     Haddrick has a plump older Mrs. Cratchit with four children evenly spaced in age: Martha, Peter, Belinda, and Tim.

     Sim II has one of the oldest and plumpest Mrs. Cratchits, positively on a par with Mrs. Fezziwig, with five children of whom we don’t see much: Peter is the oldest and Tim, who seems to be six or seven, is the youngest.

     Matthau presents us with a plump Mrs. Cratchit who has four children: Martha, Peter, Belinda, and Tim.  This is probably the youngest collection of Cratchits: atypically, all but Tim are blond.

     Finney begins a trend toward Mrs. Cratchits of streamline design: she is younger, too, so her children are correspondingly younger as well.  Tim is stated to be just seven years old.  The room being rather dark, it is difficult to count the children, but there seem to be three girls and two boys: Martha, Peter, Belinda, Cathy, and Tim.

     McDuck brings us Minnie Mouse with three little mice, a boy, a girl, and a Tim.

     Scott gives us a slender Mrs. Cratchit.  Tim is six or seven, his immediately older siblings not so much older.  There are five rather well-dressed children; the girls wear bonnets.  Peter, Martha, and Tim are three of the children; the others are listed in the credits as “Little Boy Cratchit” and “Little Girl Cratchit”.  (The dialogue will refer to this latter sometimes as Belinda and sometimes as Alice.)

     Caine gives us Miss Piggy, of course, and four children: Peter and Tim are frogs like their father while the twins Belinda and Bettina are pigs.

      Curry’s Mrs. Cratchit is slim, robust, and reasonably well-dressed.  There are four children: Martha, the oldest, is a slim teen.  Then come Peter, a girl with no name, and Tim, who must be seven or thereabouts.

     Stewart has a similarly slim, healthy Mrs. Cratchit, who has six children.  There are three teenagers—Peter, Martha, and Belinda—and three younger children, the two little Cratchits, not much older than Tim, and Tim himself.  Tim’s tininess is not infinite; this is the only Bob Cratchit shown trying to ease a sore neck and shoulders after setting Tim down.