_Bridget._ Faith, I'll git the owld woman out of the way. (_To_ TOM.) Whist, come away! (_Takes hold of him, and shakes him._) The misthress will be the death of yez. Coome! _Tom_ (_aside_). Away wid yez! _Bridget._ Away wid yerself, or there'll be throuble whin the misthress claps her eye onto yez. Coome, coome! (_Pulling her._) _Mrs. Candor._ Yes, Patience, I think it best you should close your connection with the school at once. (_Turns to_ TOM.) But who is this? _Bridget._ If yez plaise, she's a cousin of mine from County Cob-Cob—something; and, if yez plaise, she's a fortune-teller. _Tom._ Af yez plaise, would I tell yez fate, misthress? _Mrs. Candor._ No: let me tell yours. Boys that deceive their elders will never come to good. _Tom_ (_jumps up, and throws off cloak and bonnet_). Discovered! _Girls_ (_in chorus_). It's Tom! Oh, it's Tom! _Bridget._ Well, I niver! 'Pon my sowl! I dhouted the accint of his muther-tongue. County Cob-Cob! Oh, yez a gay desaver! _Tom._ It was the gruel, aunt. It flew to my head. _Mrs. Candor._ Oh, you scamp! Pack up your bag, and off to school at once: you have made a fine disturbance here. _Tom._ I meant no harm, aunt. I was anxious to come home to taste your mince-pies; eh, Bridget? _Bridget._ It's a greedy epicae yez are, anyhow. _Tom._ Your tongue and pickles. You wouldn't give me time to explain, and I was so homesick! Let me stay my time out. _Girls_ (_in chorus_). Oh, do, Mrs. Candor, do! _Mrs. Candor._ No: back you go. You've given me a fright, made me travel a mile to the doctor's, and set my school in commotion. No, sir; back you go. I'll have no thorns among my roses. _Tom._ Ah! but I removed the thorns, aunt. I think I'll get back, though. 'Twill be such an item for the papers!—"Romantic episode at Rosebush Institute." _Mrs. Candor._ Would you ruin me? _Tom._ Then don't send me away hungry. Stuff me with mince-pies, so that I can't utter a word, and the world shall never know how a homesick youth proved that love, in the halls of learning, is but a Thorn among the Roses. _Curtain._ A CHRISTMAS CAROL. [Arranged as an entertainment from Dickens's Christmas Story.] CHARACTERS. EBENEZER SCROOGE. JACOB MARLEY, the shadow. FRED, Scrooge's nephew. BOB CRATCHIT. TINY TIM. BOY. THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST. THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT. THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS TO COME. COSTUMES. SCROOGE. Rusty suit of black; gray wig.