`` Come , then , '' returned the nephew gaily . `` What right have you to be dismal ? What reason have you to be morose ? You 're rich enough . '' Scrooge , having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment , said , `` Bah ! '' again ; and followed it up with `` Humbug ! '' `` Do n't be cross , uncle ! '' said the nephew . -LSB- Illustration : `` A Merry Christmas , uncle ! God save you ! '' cried a cheerful voice . -RSB- `` What else can I be , '' returned the uncle , `` when I live in such a world of fools as this ? Merry Christmas ! Out upon merry Christmas ! What 's Christmas-time to you but a time for paying bills without money ; a time for finding yourself a year older , and not an hour richer ; a time for balancing your books , and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you ? If I could work my will , '' said Scrooge indignantly , `` every idiot who goes about with ` Merry Christmas ' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding , and buried with a stake of holly through his heart . He should ! '' `` Uncle ! '' pleaded the nephew . `` Nephew ! ''
returned the uncle sternly , `` keep Christmas in your own way , and let me keep it XXXXX mine . ''
If Scrooge holly in months of on to with year