A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Stave 4 Page 6

This pleasantry was received with a general laugh.

“It's likely to be a very cheap funeral,” said the same speaker; “for, upon my life, I don't know of anybody to go to it. Suppose we make up a party, and volunteer?”

“I don't mind going if a lunch is provided,” observed the gentleman with the excrescence on his nose. “But I must be fed if I make one.”

Another laugh.

“Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all,” said the first speaker, “for I never wear black gloves, and I never eat lunch. But I'll offer to go if anybody else will. When I come to think of it, I'm not at all sure that I wasn't his most particular friend; for we used to stop and speak whenever we met. Bye, bye!”