To his great astonishment , the heavy bell went on from six to seven , and from seven to eight , and regularly up to twelve ; then stopped . Twelve ! It was past two when he went to bed . The clock was wrong . An icicle must have got into the works . Twelve ! He touched the spring of his repeater , to correct this most preposterous clock . Its rapid little pulse beat twelve , and stopped . `` Why , it is n't possible , '' said Scrooge , `` that I can have slept through a whole day and far into another night . It is n't possible that anything has happened to the sun , and this is twelve at noon ! '' The idea being an alarming one , he scrambled out of bed , and groped his way to the window . He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown before he could see anything ; and could see very little then . All he could make out was , that it was still very foggy and extremely cold , and that there was no noise of people running to and fro , and making a great stir , as there unquestionably would have been if night had beaten off bright day , and taken possession of the world . This was a great relief , because `` Three days after sight of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order , '' and so forth , would have become a mere United States security if there were no days to count by . Scrooge went to bed again , and thought , and thought , and thought it over and over , and could make nothing of it . The more he thought , the more perplexed he was ; and , the more he endeavoured not to think , the more he thought . Marley 's Ghost bothered him exceedingly . Every time he resolved within himself , after mature inquiry , that it was all a dream , his mind flew back again , like a strong spring released , to its first position , and presented the same problem to be worked all through , `` Was it a dream or not ? '' Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters more , when he remembered , on a sudden , that the Ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one . He resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed ; and , considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to Heaven , this was , perhaps , the wisest resolution in his power .
The quarter was so long , XXXXX he was more than once convinced he must have sunk into a doze unconsciously , and missed the clock .
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