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 to warm them . The City clocks had only just gone three , but it was quite dark already -- it had not been light all day -- and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices , like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air . The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole , and was so dense without , that , although the court was of the narrowest , the houses opposite were mere phantoms . To see the dingy cloud come drooping down , obscuring everything , one might have thought that nature lived hard by and was brewing on a large scale . The door of Scrooge 's counting-house was open , that he might keep his eye upon his clerk , who in a dismal little cell beyond , a sort of tank , was copying letters . Scrooge had a very small fire , but the clerk 's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal . But he could n't replenish it , for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room ; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel , the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part . Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter , and tried to warm himself at the candle ; in which effort , not being a man of strong imagination , he failed . `` A merry Christmas , uncle ! God save you ! '' cried a cheerful voice . It was the voice of Scrooge 's nephew , who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach . `` Bah ! '' said Scrooge . `` Humbug ! ''
He had so heated himself with rapid walking XXXXX the fog and frost , this nephew of Scrooge 's , that he was all in a glow ; his face was ruddy and handsome ; his eyes sparkled , and his breath smoked again .
To along as by in into like on outside upon