CHRISTMAS AND THE WINTER WORLD 299 



Bob Cratchit, his clerk, a playful dig in the ribs and a 

 rise in pay. It was Dr. Crothers, I believe, who first 

 suggested that it would have been rather embarrassing 

 for Scrooge (and incidentally, we may add, for Dickens) 

 if Bob, instead of showing a very proper lower-middle- 

 class gratitude, had demanded all the back pay which 

 Scrooge, by this act, had confessed was really his due 

 in other words, if he had demanded justice, not charity. 

 The longer I live, the more I am learning the truth of 

 a statement once made to me by the best man I have 

 ever known, and the truest Christian, a man who lit- 

 erally gives half of his time and nearly half of his income 

 to the salvation of the sinful, the homeless, the outcast. 

 "Charity," he said, "is the most abominable word in 

 the English language." 



I once knew a New York woman of wealth and social 

 position to argue against socialism on the ground that 

 socialism strove to abolish the rich and poor alike. 

 "And without the poor," she said, "we can have no 

 charity, which is at the very basis of Christianity." 



I was amazed at her words, nor have I quite recovered 

 yet, for I have been realizing more and more that be- 

 hind a vast deal of our Christmas literature lurks, in 

 reality, this very spirit. And we have been calling 

 this thing, which, when stripped of its gloss, its senti- 

 mentalities, its glad holiday wrappings, is so appal- 

 ling, the Spirit of Christmas! After all, isn't it the 

 spirit behind even the beloved "Carol"? I am afraid 



