" A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another 'I', Bob Cratchit!"
- "Make up the fires " a symbol of the growing warmth and kindness between the two
- This is the final act of atonement
- Scrooge is being genuine and promises to raise his salary and help Bob's family
- He treats Bob in the way he was once treated by Fezziwig with respect and friendship
- Contrast from Stave 1 "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart."