`` I have come to bring you home , dear brother ! '' said the child , clapping her tiny hands , and bending down to laugh . `` To bring you home , home , home ! '' `` Home , little Fan ? '' returned the boy . `` Yes ! '' said the child , brimful of glee . `` Home for good and all . Home for ever and ever . Father is so much kinder than he used to be , that home 's like Heaven ! He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed , that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home ; and he said Yes , you should ; and sent me in a coach to bring you . And you 're to be a man ! '' said the child , opening her eyes ; `` and are never to come back here ; but first we 're to be together all the Christmas long , and have the merriest time in all the world . '' `` You are quite a woman , little Fan ! '' exclaimed the boy . She clapped her hands and laughed , and tried to touch his head ; but , being too little , laughed again , and stood on tiptoe to embrace him . Then she began to drag him , in her childish eagerness , towards the door ; and he , nothing loath to go , accompanied her . A terrible voice in the hall cried , `` Bring down Master Scrooge 's box , there ! '' and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster himself , who glared on Master Scrooge with a ferocious condescension , and threw him into a dreadful state of mind by shaking hands with him . He then conveyed him and his sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best parlour that ever was seen , where the maps upon the wall , and the celestial and terrestrial globes in the windows , were waxy with cold .
Here he produced a decanter of curiously light wine , and a block of curiously heavy cake , and administered instalments of those dainties to the young people : at the same time sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of `` something '' to the postboy who answered that he thanked the gentleman , but , XXXXX it was the same tap as he had tasted before , he had rather not .
To for if in like than that towards upon with