`` You have never seen the like of me before ! '' exclaimed the Spirit . `` Never , '' Scrooge made answer to it . `` Have never walked forth with the younger members of my family ; meaning -LRB- for I am very young -RRB- my elder brothers born in these later years ? '' pursued the Phantom . `` I do n't think I have , '' said Scrooge . `` I am afraid I have not . Have you had many brothers , Spirit ? '' `` More than eighteen hundred , '' said the Ghost . `` A tremendous family to provide for , '' muttered Scrooge . The Ghost of Christmas Present rose . `` Spirit , '' said Scrooge submissively , `` conduct me where you will . I went forth last night on compulsion , and I learnt a lesson which is working now . To-night , if you have aught to teach me , let me profit by it . '' `` Touch my robe ! '' Scrooge did as he was told , and held it fast . Holly , mistletoe , red berries , ivy , turkeys , geese , game , poultry , brawn , meat , pigs , sausages , oysters , pies , puddings , fruit , and punch , all vanished instantly . So did the room , the fire , the ruddy glow , the hour of night , and they stood in the city streets on Christmas morning , where -LRB- for the weather was severe -RRB- the people made a rough , but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music , in scraping the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings , and from the tops of their houses , whence it was mad delight to the boys to see it come plumping down into the road below , and splitting into artificial little snow-storms . The house-fronts looked black enough , and the windows blacker , contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the roofs , and with the dirtier snow upon the ground ; which last deposit had been ploughed up in deep furrows by the heavy wheels of carts and waggons ; furrows that crossed and recrossed each other hundreds of times where the great streets branched off ; and made intricate channels , hard to trace , in the thick yellow mud and icy water . The sky was gloomy , and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist , half thawed , half frozen , whose heavier particles descended in a shower of sooty atoms , as if all the chimneys in Great Britain had , by one consent , caught fire , and were blazing away to their dear hearts ' content .
There was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town , and yet was there an air XXXXX cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to diffuse in vain .
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