but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone , Scrooge ! a squeezing , wrenching , grasping , scraping , clutching , covetous , old sinner ! Hard and sharp as flint , from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire ; secret , and self-contained , and solitary as an oyster . The cold within him froze his old features , nipped his pointed nose , shrivelled his cheek , stiffened his gait ; made his eyes red , his thin lips blue ; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice . A frosty rime was on his head , and on his eyebrows , and his wiry chin . He carried his own low temperature always about with him ; he iced his office in the dog-days ; and did n't thaw it one degree at Christmas . External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge . No warmth could warm , no wintry weather chill him . No wind that blew was bitterer than he , no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose , no pelting rain less open to entreaty . Foul weather did n't know where to have him . The heaviest rain , and snow , and hail , and sleet could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect . They often `` came down '' handsomely and Scrooge never did . Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say , with gladsome looks , `` My dear Scrooge , how are you ? When will you come to see me ? '' No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle , no children asked him what it was o'clock , no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place , of Scrooge . Even the blind men 's dogs appeared to know him ; and , when they saw him coming on , would tug their owners into doorways and up courts ; and then would wag their tails as though they said , `` No eye at all is better than an evil eye , dark master ! '' But what did Scrooge care ? It was the very thing he liked . To edge his way along the crowded paths of life , warning all human sympathy to keep its distance , was what the knowing ones call `` nuts '' to Scrooge . Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year , on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house .
It was cold , bleak , biting weather : foggy withal : and he could hear the people in the court outside go wheezing up and down , beating their hands upon their breasts , and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones XXXXX warm them .
as at from into on over than to up within