`` What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your own senses ? '' `` I do n't know , '' said Scrooge . `` Why do you doubt your senses ? '' `` Because , '' said Scrooge , `` a little thing affects them . A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats . You may be an undigested bit of beef , a blot of mustard , a crumb of cheese , a fragment of an underdone potato . There 's more of gravy than of grave about you , whatever you are ! '' Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes , nor did he feel in his heart by any means waggish then . The truth is , that he tried to be smart , as a means of distracting his own attention , and keeping down his terror ; for the spectre 's voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones . To sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence , for a moment , would play , Scrooge felt , the very deuce with him . There was something very awful , too , in the spectre 's being provided with an infernal atmosphere of his own . Scrooge could not feel it himself , but this was clearly the case ; for though the Ghost sat perfectly motionless , its hair , and skirts , and tassels were still agitated as by the hot vapour from an oven . `` You see this toothpick ? '' said Scrooge , returning quickly to the charge , for the reason just assigned ; and wishing , though it were only for a second , to divert the vision 's stony gaze from himself . `` I do , '' replied the Ghost . `` You are not looking at it , '' said Scrooge . `` But I see it , '' said the Ghost , `` notwithstanding . '' `` Well ! '' returned Scrooge , `` I have but to swallow this , and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of goblins , all of my own creation . Humbug , I tell you ; humbug ! ''
At this the spirit raised a frightful cry , and shook its chain XXXXX such a dismal and appalling noise , that Scrooge held on tight to his chair , to save himself from falling in a swoon .
Because as at by in of that though to with