Humbug Holiday by Tony Abbott Page B

the life you have chosen—”
    â€œThank you! I shall be!” snapped Scrooge.
    â€œAnd a merry Christmas to you, Ebenezer—”
    â€œHumbug!” he said, then stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
    â€œSo,” I said to old Scrooge, “is this where you learned to slam doors?”
    â€œSpirit, take me from this place!” Scrooge demanded.
    â€œI have told you, these are shadows of the things that have been,” said the spirit softly. “Do not blame me if they are unpleasant to you. We shall see more!”
    â€œNo!” said Scrooge. Then his eyes flashed as he saw that the spirit’s light was burning high and bright. “So, your brightness means you have power over me? Then I will put that light out! And you will haunt me no more!”
    â€œNo!” said Frankie. “Don’t mess with ghosts!”
    But Scrooge seized the big cone-shaped extinguisher hat that the spirit carried with him, and pressed it down suddenly upon the ghost’s head. “There!”
    The ghost dropped beneath it, so that the cone covered his head. But even Scrooge couldn’t hide the spirit’s light. It shone all over the ground under the cap.
    â€œFrankie, let’s help the ghost!” I said.
    Together we seized the cone and tried to pull it back off the nice spirit’s head, but Scrooge was too strong for even the three of us. Soon the struggle was over.
    The spirit’s light went out.
    Things went misty and dark for an instant, then we were in Scrooge’s room again.
    â€œThat was not good,” I said. “Not good at all.”
    â€œHumbug!” shouted Scrooge. Then, exhausted from his struggle, he breathed heavily and fell onto his bed.
    In a moment, he was deep asleep.
    It being too dark to read, and too cold to stay awake, and seeing that not much would happen until Scrooge woke up, Frankie curled up in the chair and I tumbled onto the sofa. Like Scrooge, I was fast asleep before my head hit the cushions.

Chapter 11
    â€œGrrrr-sss! Grrrr-sss!” Someone was snoring big time.
    â€œGrrrr-sss! Grrrr-sss!” It was really annoying.
    â€œDevin—wake up!”
    â€œGrrrr-snf-snk —what?” I woke up just in time to hear the church bell chime a deep single BONG!
    Scrooge bolted up out of bed. “Was that all a dream, or did it actually happen? Did we really travel in the past with a spirit?”
    â€œI’m pretty sure we did,” said Frankie. “And I’m not sure you should have treated the ghost like that.”
    â€œRight,” I added. “There are probably rules for dealing with ghosts with lights on their heads, and I’m sure snuffing out the light is not at the top of the list.”
    Scrooge frowned. “Perhaps, but now it’s time for our second messenger. And let me say, nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros would surprise me very much—oh, dear, look at that!”
    It was then that we noticed a powerful red light streaming under the door to Scrooge’s sitting room.
    Even as we noticed the light, a deep and echoey voice boomed, “Come in! Come in!”
    We all stared at one another, but for some reason, we all did what the huge voice said. I think we were too scared not to.
    Scrooge slid from bed, wrapped his robe tight around him, put on his slippers, and went to the door. Frankie was second. I was last.
    We opened the door to an astounding sight.
    Frankie gasped. “Someone remodeled last night!”
    It was true. Scrooge’s dingy little sitting room was completely changed. The walls and ceiling were hung so thickly with evergreen garlands that it looked like a forest in there. Bright, gleaming holly trees filled the corners of the room, and their red berries flashed and twinkled in the light of a roaring blaze in the fireplace.
    Heaped up on the floor to make a weird kind of throne were plump turkeys, geese, chunks of beef, strings of