["[Event happened on 2024-01-01 The user is reading a book]\n<User> STAVE TWO\n\nTHE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS\n\n\nWhen Scrooge awoke it was so dark, that, looking out of bed, he could\nscarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque walls of his\nchamber. He was endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret\neyes, when the chimes of a neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened for the hour. To his great astonishment, the heavy bell went on from six to seven, and\nfrom 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\nhave got into the works. Twelve! He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most preposterous\nclock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve, and stopped. \"Why, it isn't possible,\" said Scrooge, \"that I can have slept through a\nwhole day and far into another night. It isn't possible that anything\nhas happened to the sun, and this is twelve at noon!\" The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed, and groped his\nway to the window. He was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve\nof his dressing-gown before he could see anything; and could see very\nlittle then. All he could make out was, that it was still very foggy and\nextremely cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and\nfro, and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been if\nnight had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the world. This was a great relief, because \"Three days after sight of this First\nof Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order,\" and so forth,\nwould have become a mere United States security if there were no days to\ncount by. Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought it over\nand over, and could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more\nperplexed he was; and, the more he endeavoured not to think, the more he\nthought. Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved within\nhimself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his mind flew\nback again, like a strong spring released, to its first position, and\npresented the same problem to be worked all through, \"Was it a dream or\nnot?\" Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters more,\nwhen he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned him of a\nvisitation when the bell tolled one. He resolved to lie awake until the\nhour was passed; and, considering that he could no more go to sleep than\ngo to Heaven, this was, perhaps, the wisest resolution in his power. The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he must\nhave sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock. At length it\nbroke upon his listening ear. \"Ding, dong!\" \"A quarter past,\" said Scrooge, counting. \"Ding, dong!\" \"Half past,\" said Scrooge. \"Ding, dong!\" \"A quarter to it,\" said Scrooge. \"Ding, dong!\" \"The hour itself,\" said Scrooge triumphantly, \"and nothing else!\" He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep,\ndull, hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the\ninstant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a hand. Not the\ncurtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his back, but those to which\nhis face was addressed. The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and\nScrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face\nto face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am\nnow to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow. It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a child as like\nan old man, viewed through some supernatural medium, which gave him the\nappearance of having receded from the view, and being diminished to a\nchild's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its\nback, was white, as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in\nit, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were very long and\nmuscular; the hands the same, as if its hold were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately formed, were, like those upper\nmembers, bare. It wore a tunic of the purest white; and round its waist\nwas bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held a\nbranch of fresh green holly in its hand: and, in singular contradiction\nof that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But\nthe strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there\nsprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible; and\nwhich was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a\ngreat extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm. Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing steadiness,\nwas _not_ its strangest quality. For, as its belt sparkled and\nglittered, now in one part and now in another, and what was light one\ninstant at another time was dark, so the figure itself fluctuated in its\ndistinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with\ntwenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a\nbody: of which dissolving parts no outline would be visible in the dense\ngloom wherein they melted away. And, in the very wonder of this, it\nwould be itself again; distinct and clear as ever. \"Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?\" asked\nScrooge. \"I am!\" The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if, instead of being\nso close beside him, it were at a distance. \"Who and what are you?\" Scrooge demanded. \"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.\" \"Long Past?\" inquired Scrooge; observant of its dwarfish stature. \"No. Your past.\" Perhaps Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have\nasked him; but he had a special desire to see the Spirit in his cap; and\nbegged him to be covered. \"What!\" exclaimed the Ghost, \"would you so soon put out, with worldly\nhands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those\nwhose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years\nto wear it low upon my brow?\" Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any knowledge\nof having wilfully \"bonneted\" the Spirit at any period of his life. He\nthen made bold to inquire what business brought him there. \"Your welfare!\" said the Ghost. Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not help thinking that\na night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The\nSpirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately:\n\n\"Your reclamation, then. Take heed!\" It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him gently by the\narm. \"Rise! and walk with me!\" It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the weather and the\nhour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes; that bed was warm, and\nthe thermometer a long way below freezing; that he was clad but lightly\nin his slippers, dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold\nupon him at that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was\nnot to be resisted. He rose: but, finding that the Spirit made towards\nthe window, clasped its robe in supplication. \"I am a mortal,\" Scrooge remonstrated, \"and liable to fall.\" \"Bear but a touch of my hand _there_,\" said the Spirit, laying it upon\nhis heart, \"and you shall be upheld in more than this!\" As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall, and stood upon\nan open country road, with fields on either hand. The city had entirely\nvanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. The darkness and the mist\nhad vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with the\nsnow upon the ground. \"Good Heaven!\" said Scrooge, clasping his hands together as he looked\nabout him. \"I was bred in this place. I was a boy here!\" The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch, though it had been\nlight and instantaneous, appeared still present to the old man's sense\nof feeling.\n\n<System> Please remember what the user reads on 2024-01-01, save the details within the book, and retain a summary of the book the user has read so far.", "[Event happened on 2024-01-03 The user is reading a book]\n<User> He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air,\neach one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and\ncares long, long forgotten! \"Your lip is trembling,\" said the Ghost. \"And what is that upon your\ncheek?\" Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice, that it was a\npimple; and begged the Ghost to lead him where he would. \"You recollect the way?\" inquired the Spirit. \"Remember it!\" cried Scrooge with fervour; \"I could walk it blindfold.\" \"Strange to have forgotten it for so many years!\" observed the Ghost. \"Let us go on.\" [Illustration: _\"You recollect the way?\" inquired the spirit. \"Remember\nit!\" cried Scrooge with fervour; \"I could walk it blindfold. \"_]\n\nThey walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every gate, and post,\nand tree, until a little market-town appeared in the distance, with its\nbridge, its church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen\ntrotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other\nboys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were\nin great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields were\nso full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it. \"These are but shadows of the things that have been,\" said the Ghost. \"They have no consciousness of us.\" The jocund travellers came on; and as they came, Scrooge knew and named\nthem every one. Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them? Why\ndid his cold eye glisten, and his heart leap up as they went past? Why\nwas he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other Merry\nChristmas, as they parted at cross-roads and by-ways for their several\nhomes? What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? Out upon merry Christmas! What good had it ever done to him? \"The school is not quite deserted,\" said the Ghost. \"A solitary child,\nneglected by his friends, is left there still.\" Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed. They left the high-road by a well-remembered lane, and soon approached a\nmansion of dull red brick, with a little weather-cock surmounted cupola\non the roof and a bell hanging in it. It was a large house, but one of\nbroken fortunes: for the spacious offices were little used, their walls\nwere damp and mossy, their windows broken, and their gates decayed. Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables; and the coach-houses and\nsheds were overrun with grass. Nor was it more retentive of its ancient\nstate within; for, entering the dreary hall, and glancing through the\nopen doors of many rooms, they found them poorly furnished, cold, and\nvast. There was an earthly savour in the air, a chilly bareness in the\nplace, which associated itself somehow with too much getting up by\ncandle-light, and not too much to eat. They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the\nback of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare,\nmelancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and\ndesks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and\nScrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as\nhe had used to be. Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle from the mice\nbehind the panelling, not a drip from the half-thawed water-spout in the\ndull yard behind, not a sigh among the leafless boughs of one despondent\npoplar, not the idle swinging of an empty storehouse door, no, not a\nclicking in the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with softening\ninfluence, and gave a freer passage to his tears. The Spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his younger self,\nintent upon his reading. Suddenly a man in foreign garments: wonderfully\nreal and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe\nstuck in his belt, and leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood. \"Why, it's Ali Baba!\" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. \"It's dear old\nhonest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know. One Christmas-time when yonder\nsolitary child was left here all alone, he _did_ come, for the first\ntime, just like that. Poor boy! And Valentine,\" said Scrooge, \"and his\nwild brother, Orson; there they go! And what's his name, who was put\ndown in his drawers, asleep, at the gate of Damascus; don't you see him? And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down by the Genii: there he is upon\nhis head! Serve him right! I'm glad of it. What business had _he_ to be\nmarried to the Princess?\" To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such\nsubjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; and\nto see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to\nhis business friends in the City, indeed. [Illustration: _\"Why, it's Ali Baba!\" Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. \"It's dear old honest Ali Baba. \"_]\n\n\"There's the Parrot!\" cried Scrooge. \"Green body and yellow tail, with\na thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is! Poor Robin Crusoe he called him, when he came home again after sailing\nround the island. 'Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin\nCrusoe?' The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't. It was the\nParrot, you know. There goes Friday, running for his life to the little\ncreek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!\" Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character,\nhe said, in pity for his former self, \"Poor boy!\" and cried again. \"I wish,\" Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking\nabout him, after drying his eyes with his cuff: \"but it's too late now.\" \"What is the matter?\" asked the Spirit. \"Nothing,\" said Scrooge. \"Nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas\nCarol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something:\nthat's all.\" The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand: saying, as it did so,\n\"Let us see another Christmas!\" Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the room became a\nlittle darker and more dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked;\nfragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling, and the naked laths were\nshown instead; but how all this was brought about Scrooge knew no more\nthan you do. He only knew that it was quite correct: that everything had\nhappened so; that there he was, alone again, when all the other boys had\ngone home for the jolly holidays. He was not reading now, but walking up and down despairingly. Scrooge\nlooked at the Ghost, and, with a mournful shaking of his head, glanced\nanxiously towards the door. It opened; and a little girl, much younger than the boy, came darting\nin, and, putting her arms about his neck, and often kissing him,\naddressed him as her \"dear, dear brother.\" \"I have come to bring you home, dear brother!\" said the child, clapping\nher tiny hands, and bending down to laugh. \"To bring you home, home,\nhome!\" \"Home, little Fan?\" returned the boy. \"Yes!\" said the child, brimful of glee. \"Home for good and all. Home for\never and ever. Father is so much kinder than he used to be, that home's\nlike Heaven! He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to\nbed, that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home;\nand he said Yes, you should; and sent me in a coach to bring you. And\nyou're to be a man!\" said the child, opening her eyes; \"and are never to\ncome back here; but first we're to be together all the Christmas long,\nand 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,\nbeing too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace him. Then she began to drag him, in her childish eagerness, towards the door;\nand he, nothing loath to go, accompanied her. A terrible voice in the hall cried, \"Bring down Master Scrooge's box,\nthere!\"\n\n<System> Please remember what the user reads on 2024-01-03, save the details within the book, and retain a summary of the book the user has read so far.", "[Event happened on 2024-01-04 The user is reading a book]\n<User> and in the hall appeared the schoolmaster himself, who glared on\nMaster Scrooge with a ferocious condescension, and threw him into a\ndreadful state of mind by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed him\nand his sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best parlour\nthat ever was seen, where the maps upon the wall, and the celestial and\nterrestrial globes in the windows, were waxy with cold. Here he produced\na decanter of curiously light wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake,\nand administered instalments of those dainties to the young people: at\nthe same time sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of\n\"something\" to the postboy who answered that he thanked the gentleman,\nbut, if it was the same tap as he had tasted before, he had rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by this time tied on to the top of the\nchaise, the children bade the schoolmaster good-bye right willingly;\nand, getting into it, drove gaily down the garden sweep; the quick\nwheels dashing the hoar frost and snow from off the dark leaves of the\nevergreens like spray. \"Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered,\" said\nthe Ghost. \"But she had a large heart!\" \"So she had,\" cried Scrooge. \"You're right. I will not gainsay it,\nSpirit. God forbid!\" \"She died a woman,\" said the Ghost, \"and had, as I think, children.\" \"One child,\" Scrooge returned. \"True,\" said the Ghost. \"Your nephew!\" Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, \"Yes.\" Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, they were\nnow in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers passed\nand repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and\nall the strife and tumult of a real city were. It was made plain enough,\nby the dressing of the shops, that here, too, it was Christmas-time\nagain; but it was evening, and the streets were lighted up. The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked Scrooge if he\nknew it. \"Know it!\" said Scrooge. \"Was I apprenticed here?\" They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig, sitting\nbehind such a high desk, that if he had been two inches taller, he must\nhave knocked his head against the ceiling, Scrooge cried in great\nexcitement:\n\n\"Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it's Fezziwig alive again!\" Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the clock, which\npointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his hands; adjusted his\ncapacious waistcoat; laughed all over himself, from his shoes to his\norgan of benevolence; and called out, in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat,\njovial voice:\n\n\"Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!\" Scrooge's former self, now grown a young man, came briskly in,\naccompanied by his fellow-'prentice. \"Dick Wilkins, to be sure!\" said Scrooge to the Ghost. \"Bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached to me, was Dick. Poor Dick! Dear,\ndear!\" \"Yo ho, my boys!\" said Fezziwig. \"No more work to-night. Christmas-eve,\nDick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up,\" cried old\nFezziwig with a sharp clap of his hands, \"before a man can say Jack\nRobinson!\" You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it! They charged into\nthe street with the shutters--one, two, three--had 'em up in their\nplaces--four, five, six--barred 'em and pinned 'em--seven, eight,\nnine--and came back before you could have got to twelve, panting like\nrace-horses. \"Hilli-ho!\" cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the high desk with\nwonderful agility. \"Clear away, my lads, and let's have lots of room\nhere! Hilli-ho, Dick! Chirrup, Ebenezer!\" Clear away! There was nothing they wouldn't have cleared away, or\ncouldn't have cleared away, with old Fezziwig looking on. It was done in\na minute. Every movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from\npublic life for evermore; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps\nwere trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire; and the warehouse was as\nsnug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room as you would desire to\nsee upon a winter's night. In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and\nmade an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomachaches. In came Mrs.\nFezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs,\nbeaming and lovable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they\nbroke. In came all the young men and women employed in the business. In\ncame the housemaid, with her cousin the baker. In came the cook, with\nher brother's particular friend the milkman. In came the boy from over\nthe way, who was suspected of not having board enough from his master;\ntrying to hide himself behind the girl from next door but one, who was\nproved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress. In they all came,\none after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some\nawkwardly, some pushing, some pulling; in they all came, any how and\nevery how. Away they all went, twenty couple at once; hands half round\nand back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round and\nround in various stages of affectionate grouping; old top couple always\nturning up in the wrong place; new top couple starting off again as soon\nas they got there; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one to help\nthem! When this result was brought about, old Fezziwig, clapping his\nhands to stop the dance, cried out, \"Well done!\" and the fiddler plunged\nhis hot face into a pot of porter, especially provided for that purpose. But, scorning rest upon his reappearance, he instantly began again,\nthough there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had been\ncarried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a bran-new man\nresolved to beat him out of sight, or perish. There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and\nthere was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of Cold\nRoast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were\nmince-pies, and plenty of beer. But the great effect of the evening came\nafter the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind! The\nsort of man who knew his business better than you or I could have told\nit him!) struck up \"Sir Roger de Coverley.\" Then old Fezziwig stood out\nto dance with Mrs. Fezziwig. Top couple, too; with a good stiff piece of\nwork cut out for them; three or four and twenty pair of partners; people\nwho were not to be trifled with; people who _would_ dance, and had no\nnotion of walking. But if they had been twice as many--ah! four times--old Fezziwig would\nhave been a match for them, and so would Mrs. Fezziwig. As to _her_, she\nwas worthy to be his partner in every sense of the term. If that's not\nhigh praise, tell me higher, and I'll use it. A positive light appeared\nto issue from Fezziwig's calves. They shone in every part of the dance\nlike moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any given time, what would\nbecome of them next. And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone\nall through the dance; advance and retire, both hands to your partner,\nbow and curtsy, cork-screw, thread-the-needle, and back again to your\nplace; Fezziwig \"cut\"--cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink with his\nlegs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger. When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up. Mr. and Mrs.\nFezziwig took their stations, one on either side the door, and, shaking\nhands with every person individually as he or she went out, wished him\nor her a Merry Christmas. When everybody had retired but the two\n'prentices, they did the same to them; and thus the cheerful voices died\naway, and the lads were left to their beds; which were under a counter\nin the back-shop.\n\n<System> Please remember what the user reads on 2024-01-04, save the details within the book, and retain a summary of the book the user has read so far.", "[Event happened on 2024-01-07 The user is reading a book]\n<User> During the whole of this time Scrooge had acted like a man out of his\nwits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former self. He\ncorroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and\nunderwent the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when the bright\nfaces of his former self and Dick were turned from them, that he\nremembered the Ghost, and became conscious that it was looking full upon\nhim, while the light upon its head burnt very clear. \"A small matter,\" said the Ghost, \"to make these silly folks so full of\ngratitude.\" \"Small!\" echoed Scrooge. The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were\npouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig; and, when he had done\nso, said:\n\n\"Why! Is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money:\nthree or four, perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?\" \"It isn't that,\" said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking\nunconsciously like his former, not his latter self. \"It isn't that,\nSpirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our\nservice light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power\nlies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it\nis impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives\nis quite as great as if it cost a fortune.\" He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped. \"What is the matter?\" asked the Ghost. \"Nothing particular,\" said Scrooge. \"Something, I think?\" the Ghost insisted. \"No,\" said Scrooge, \"no. I should like to be able to say a word or two\nto my clerk just now. That's all.\" His former self turned down the lamps as he gave utterance to the wish;\nand Scrooge and the Ghost again stood side by side in the open air. \"My time grows short,\" observed the Spirit. \"Quick!\" This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom he could see, but\nit produced an immediate effect. For again Scrooge saw himself. He was\nolder now; a man in the prime of life. His face had not the harsh and\nrigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care\nand avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye,\nwhich showed the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of\nthe growing tree would fall. He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning\ndress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in the light that\nshone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past. \"It matters little,\" she said softly. \"To you, very little. Another idol\nhas displaced me; and, if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come\nas I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.\" \"What Idol has displaced you?\" he rejoined. \"A golden one.\" \"This is the even-handed dealing of the world!\" he said. \"There is\nnothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it\nprofesses to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!\" \"You fear the world too much,\" she answered gently. \"All your other\nhopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid\nreproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until\nthe master passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?\" \"What then?\" he retorted. \"Even if I have grown so much wiser, what\nthen? I am not changed towards you.\" She shook her head. \"Am I?\" \"Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor, and\ncontent to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly\nfortune by our patient industry. You _are_ changed. When it was made you\nwere another man.\" \"I was a boy,\" he said impatiently. \"Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are,\" she\nreturned. \"I am. That which promised happiness when we were one in heart\nis fraught with misery now that we are two. How often and how keenly I\nhave thought of this I will not say. It is enough that I _have_ thought\nof it, and can release you.\" \"Have I ever sought release?\" \"In words. No. Never.\" \"In what, then?\" \"In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of\nlife; another Hope as its great end. In everything that made my love of\nany worth or value in your sight. If this had never been between us,\"\nsaid the girl, looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him, \"tell me,\nwould you seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!\" He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition in spite of\nhimself. But he said, with a struggle, \"You think not.\" \"I would gladly think otherwise if I could,\" she answered. \"Heaven\nknows! When _I_ have learned a Truth like this, I know how strong and\nirresistible it must be. But if you were free to-day, to-morrow,\nyesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless\ngirl--you who, in your very confidence with her, weigh everything by\nGain: or, choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your\none guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repentance and\nregret would surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart,\nfor the love of him you once were.\" He was about to speak; but, with her head turned from him, she resumed. \"You may--the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will--have\npain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the\nrecollection of it gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it\nhappened well that you awoke. May you be happy in the life you have\nchosen!\" She left him, and they parted. \"Spirit!\" said Scrooge, \"show me no more! Conduct me home. Why do you\ndelight to torture me?\" \"One shadow more!\" exclaimed the Ghost. \"No more!\" cried Scrooge. \"No more! I don't wish to see it. Show me no\nmore!\" But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and forced him\nto observe what happened next. They were in another scene and place; a room, not very large or\nhandsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful\nyoung girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same,\nuntil he saw _her_, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more\nchildren there than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count;\nand, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty\nchildren conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting\nitself like forty. The consequences were uproarious beyond belief; but\nno one seemed to care; on the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed\nheartily, and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to\nmingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most\nruthlessly. What would I not have given to be one of them! Though I\nnever could have been so rude, no, no! I wouldn't for the wealth of all\nthe world have crushed that braided hair, and torn it down; and, for the\nprecious little shoe, I wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul! to save my life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did, bold\nyoung brood, I couldn't have done it; I should have expected my arm to\nhave grown round it for a punishment, and never come straight again. And\nyet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have\nquestioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked upon the\nlashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose\nwaves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price: in\nshort, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest\nlicence of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value. But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a rush immediately\nensued that she, with laughing face and plundered dress, was borne\ntowards it in the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time\nto greet the father, who came home attended by a man laden with\nChristmas toys and presents.\n\n<System> Please remember what the user reads on 2024-01-07, save the details within the book, and retain a summary of the book the user has read so far.", "[Event happened on 2024-01-08 The user is reading a book]\n<User> Then the shouting and the struggling, and\nthe onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter! The scaling him,\nwith chairs for ladders, to dive into his pockets, despoil him of\nbrown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round the\nneck, pummel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! The\nshouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package\nwas received! The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in\nthe act of putting a doll's frying-pan into his mouth, and was more than\nsuspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden\nplatter! The immense relief of finding this a false alarm! The joy, and\ngratitude, and ecstasy! They are all indescribable alike. It is enough\nthat by degrees, the children and their emotions got out of the parlour,\nand, by one stair at a time, up to the top of the house, where they went\nto bed, and so subsided. And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, when the master of\nthe house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her\nand her mother at his own fireside; and when he thought that such\nanother creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might have\ncalled him father, and been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his\nlife, his sight grew very dim indeed. \"Belle,\" said the husband, turning to his wife with a smile, \"I saw an\nold friend of yours this afternoon.\" \"Who was it?\" \"Guess!\" \"How can I? Tut, don't I know?\" she added in the same breath, laughing\nas he laughed. \"Mr. Scrooge.\" \"Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office window; and as it was not shut\nup, and he had a candle inside, I could scarcely help seeing him. His\npartner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe.\" \"Spirit!\" said Scrooge in a broken voice, \"remove me from this place.\" \"I told you these were shadows of the things that have been,\" said the\nGhost. \"That they are what they are, do not blame me!\" \"Remove me!\" Scrooge exclaimed. \"I cannot bear it!\" He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon him with a face\nin which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces it\nhad shown him, wrestled with it. \"Leave me! Take me back! Haunt me no longer!\" In the struggle--if that can be called a struggle in which the Ghost,\nwith no visible resistance on its own part, was undisturbed by any\neffort of its adversary--Scrooge observed that its light was burning\nhigh and bright; and dimly connecting that with its influence over him,\nhe seized the extinguisher cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down\nupon its head. The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher covered its\nwhole form; but, though Scrooge pressed it down with all his force, he\ncould not hide the light, which streamed from under it in an unbroken\nflood upon the ground. He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an irresistible\ndrowsiness; and, further, of being in his own bedroom. He gave the cap a\nparting squeeze, in which his hand relaxed; and had barely time to reel\nto bed before he sank into a heavy sleep.\n\n<System> Please remember what the user reads on 2024-01-08, save the details within the book, and retain a summary of the book the user has read so far."]
[{"question": "Summarize the content of the book I read from 2024-01-01 to 2024-01-08", "answer": "Scrooge, Marley\u2019s ghost, Ghost of Christmas Past, Fan, Fezziwig, Belle, Scrooge\u2019s nephew, schoolboys, schoolhouse, childhood home, wintry country road, warehouse, apprenticeship, Christmas Eve party, clerk, pursuit of money, greed, regret, reclamation, welfare, memory, shadows of former selves, dilapidated schoolhouse, caroling boy, Fezziwig\u2019s gift of happiness, broken romance, Belle\u2019s family, office, exhaustion, bed-curtains, flash of light, cap over Ghost\u2019s head, six until twelve, one at night, father\u2019s kindness, schoolmaster, time travel, emotional transformation"}]