Christmas Carol 60 recto

60

For the first time the hand appeared to shake.

“Good Spirit,” he pursued, as down upon the ground he [shivered] with fell before it. “Your
nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these
shadows you have shewn me, by an altered life!”

The kind hand trembled. more and more.

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three
shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh
tell me, I may change sponge away the writing on this stone!”

In his agony, he caught the sp[e] spectral hand. It sought to free
itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit,
stronger yet, repulsed him.

Holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his [fate] fate reversed, he
saw a [movement] change to the place an alteration in the phantom’s hood and
dress. It [sh] shrunk, [coll] collapsed, ??? and dwindled down into a bedpost., which
he knew to be his own