oolishly fears that even money
may be tainted. It's a preposterous situation. Generosity is a drug on
the market, and gratitude can't be had at any reasonable price."

"Yes," I said, "you are quite right, public sentiment has changed.
Gratitude is not so easily won as it was in your day, and it takes
longer to transform a clutching, covetous old sinner into a serviceable
philanthropist. But I do not think, Scrooge, that the Christmas Spirit
has really vanished. He is only a little chastened and subdued by the
Spirit of Democracy."

"I don't see what Democracy has to do with it," said Scrooge. "I'm sure
that nobody ever accused me of being an aristocrat. What I am troubled
about is the decay of gratitude. If I give a poor fellow a shilling, I
ought to be allowed the satisfaction of having him remove his hat and
say, 'Thank'ee, sir,' and he ought to say it as if he meant it. The
heartiness of his thanksgiving is half the fun. It makes one feel good
all over."

"But," I answered, "if the fellow happens to have a good memory he may
recall the fact that yesterday you took two shillings from him, and he
may think that the proper response to your sudden act of generosity is,
'Where's that other shilling?' That's what the Spirit of Democracy puts
him up to. It's not so polite, but you must admit that it goes right to
the point."

"I don't like it," said Scrooge.

"I thought you wouldn't. There are a great many people who don't like
it. It's a twitting on facts that takes away a good deal of the pleasure
of being generous."

"I should say it did," grumbled Scrooge. "It makes you feel mean just
when you are most sensitive. Just think how I should have felt if, when
I gave Bob Cratchit a dig in the waistcoat and told him that I had
raised his salary, he had taken the opportunity to ask for back pay. It
would have been most inopportune."

"You owed it to him, didn't you?"

"Yes, I suppose I did, if you choose to put it that way. But Bob
wouldn't have put it that way; he wouldn't take such liberties. He took
what I gave him; and when I gave him more than he expected, he was all
the happier, and so was I. That's what made it all seem so nice and
Christmasy. We were not thinking about rights and duties; it was all
free grace."

"Now, Scrooge, you are getting at the point. There is no concealing the
fact that the Spirit of Democracy makes himself unpleasant sometimes. He
breaks up the old pleasant relations existing not onl