1 A CHRISTMAS CAROL

     2 A Ghost Story of Christmas

     3 

     4 by Charles Dickens

     5 

     6 STAVE I:  MARLEY'S GHOST

     7 

     8 MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt

     9 whatever about that. The register of his burial was

    10 signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,

    11 and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and

    12 Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he

    13 chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a

    14 door-nail.

    15 

    16 Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my

    17 own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about

    18 a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to

    19 regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery

    20 in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors

    21 is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands

    22 shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You

    23 will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that

    24 Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

    25 

    26 Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did.

    27 How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were

    28 partners for I don't know how many years. Scrooge

    29 was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole

    30 assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and

    31 sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully

    32 cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent

    33 man of business on the very day of the funeral,

    34 and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

    35 

    36 The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to

    37 the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley

    38 was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or

    39 nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going

    40 to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that

    41 Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there

    42 would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a

    43 stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts,

    44 than there would be in any other middle-aged

    45 gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy

    46 spot--say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance--

    47 literally to astonish his son's weak mind.

    48 

    49 Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name.

    50 There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse

    51 door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as

    52 Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the

    53 business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley,

    54 but he answered to both names. It was all the

    55 same to him.

    56 

    57 Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind-stone,

    58 Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,

    59 clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint,

    60 from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire;

    61 secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The

    62 cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed

    63 nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his

    64 eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his

    65 grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his

    66 eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low

    67 temperature always about with him; he iced his office in

    68 the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.

    69 

    70 External heat and cold had little influence on

    71 Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather

    72 chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he,

    73 no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no

    74 pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't

    75 know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and

    76 snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage

    77 over him in only one respect. They often "came down"

    78 handsomely, and Scrooge never did.

    79 

    80 Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with

    81 gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you?

    82 When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored

    83 him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him

    84 what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all

    85 his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of

    86 Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to

    87 know him; and when they saw him coming on, would

    88 tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and

    89 then would wag their tails as though they said, "No

    90 eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!"

    91 

    92 But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing

    93 he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths

    94 of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance,

    95 was what the knowing ones call "nuts" to Scrooge.

    96 

    97 Once upon a time--of all the good days in the year,

    98 on Christmas Eve--old Scrooge sat busy in his

    99 counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy

   100 withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside,

   101 go wheezing up and down, beating their hands

   102 upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the

   103 pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had

   104 only just gone three, but it was quite dark already--

   105 it had not been light all day--and candles were flaring

   106 in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like

   107 ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog

   108 came pouring in at every chink and keyhole, and was

   109 so dense without, that although the court was of the

   110 narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms.

   111 To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring

   112 everything, one might have thought that Nature

   113 lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.

   114 

   115 The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open

   116 that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a

   117 dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying

   118 letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's

   119 fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one

   120 coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept

   121 the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the

   122 clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted

   123 that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore

   124 the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to

   125 warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being

   126 a man of a strong imagination, he failed.

   127 

   128 "A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried

   129 a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's

   130 nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was

   131 the first intimation he had of his approach.

   132 

   133 "Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"

   134 

   135 He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the

   136 fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was

   137 all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his

   138 eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.

   139 

   140 "Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's

   141 nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure?"

   142 

   143 "I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What

   144 right have you to be merry? What reason have you

   145 to be merry? You're poor enough."

   146 

   147 "Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What

   148 right have you to be dismal? What reason have you

   149 to be morose? You're rich enough."

   150 

   151 Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur

   152 of the moment, said, "Bah!" again; and followed it up

   153 with "Humbug."

   154 

   155 "Don't be cross, uncle!" said the nephew.

   156 

   157 "What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I

   158 live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas!

   159 Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas

   160 time to you but a time for paying bills without

   161 money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but

   162 not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books

   163 and having every item in 'em through a round dozen

   164 of months presented dead against you? If I could

   165 work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot

   166 who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips,

   167 should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried

   168 with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"

   169 

   170 "Uncle!" pleaded the nephew.

   171 

   172 "Nephew!" returned the uncle sternly, "keep Christmas

   173 in your own way, and let me keep it in mine."

   174 

   175 "Keep it!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you

   176 don't keep it."

   177 

   178 "Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much

   179 good may it do you! Much good it has ever done

   180 you!"

   181 

   182 "There are many things from which I might have

   183 derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare

   184 say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the

   185 rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas

   186 time, when it has come round--apart from the

   187 veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything

   188 belonging to it can be apart from that--as a

   189 good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant

   190 time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar

   191 of the year, when men and women seem by one consent

   192 to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think

   193 of people below them as if they really were

   194 fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race

   195 of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore,

   196 uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or

   197 silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me

   198 good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

   199 

   200 The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded.

   201 Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety,

   202 he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark

   203 for ever.

   204 

   205 "Let me hear another sound from you," said

   206 Scrooge, "and you'll keep your Christmas by losing

   207 your situation! You're quite a powerful speaker,

   208 sir," he added, turning to his nephew. "I wonder you

   209 don't go into Parliament."

   210 

   211 "Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us to-morrow."

   212 

   213 Scrooge said that he would see him--yes, indeed he

   214 did. He went the whole length of the expression,

   215 and said that he would see him in that extremity first.

   216 

   217 "But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?"

   218 

   219 "Why did you get married?" said Scrooge.

   220 

   221 "Because I fell in love."

   222 

   223 "Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if

   224 that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous

   225 than a merry Christmas. "Good afternoon!"

   226 

   227 "Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before

   228 that happened. Why give it as a reason for not

   229 coming now?"

   230 

   231 "Good afternoon," said Scrooge.

   232 

   233 "I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you;

   234 why cannot we be friends?"

   235 

   236 "Good afternoon," said Scrooge.

   237 

   238 "I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so

   239 resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I

   240 have been a party. But I have made the trial in

   241 homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas

   242 humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!"

   243 

   244 "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.

   245 

   246 "And A Happy New Year!"

   247 

   248 "Good afternoon!" said Scrooge.

   249 

   250 His nephew left the room without an angry word,

   251 notwithstanding. He stopped at the outer door to

   252 bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk, who,

   253 cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge; for he returned

   254 them cordially.

   255 

   256 "There's another fellow," muttered Scrooge; who

   257 overheard him: "my clerk, with fifteen shillings a

   258 week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry

   259 Christmas. I'll retire to Bedlam."

   260 

   261 This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had

   262 let two other people in. They were portly gentlemen,

   263 pleasant to behold, and now stood, with their hats off,

   264 in Scrooge's office. They had books and papers in

   265 their hands, and bowed to him.

   266 

   267 "Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the

   268 gentlemen, referring to his list. "Have I the pleasure

   269 of addressing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley?"

   270 

   271 "Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years,"

   272 Scrooge replied. "He died seven years ago, this very

   273 night."

   274 

   275 "We have no doubt his liberality is well represented

   276 by his surviving partner," said the gentleman, presenting

   277 his credentials.

   278 

   279 It certainly was; for they had been two kindred

   280 spirits. At the ominous word "liberality," Scrooge

   281 frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials

   282 back.

   283 

   284 "At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,"

   285 said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than

   286 usually desirable that we should make some slight

   287 provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer

   288 greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in

   289 want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands

   290 are in want of common comforts, sir."

   291 

   292 "Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.

   293 

   294 "Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down

   295 the pen again.

   296 

   297 "And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge.

   298 "Are they still in operation?"

   299 

   300 "They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish

   301 I could say they were not."

   302 

   303 "The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour,

   304 then?" said Scrooge.

   305 

   306 "Both very busy, sir."

   307 

   308 "Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first,

   309 that something had occurred to stop them in their

   310 useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to

   311 hear it."

   312 

   313 "Under the impression that they scarcely furnish

   314 Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,"

   315 returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring

   316 to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink,

   317 and means of warmth. We choose this time, because

   318 it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt,

   319 and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down

   320 for?"

   321 

   322 "Nothing!" Scrooge replied.

   323 

   324 "You wish to be anonymous?"

   325 

   326 "I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you

   327 ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer.

   328 I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't

   329 afford to make idle people merry. I help to support

   330 the establishments I have mentioned--they cost

   331 enough; and those who are badly off must go there."

   332 

   333 "Many can't go there; and many would rather die."

   334 

   335 "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had

   336 better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

   337 Besides--excuse me--I don't know that."

   338 

   339 "But you might know it," observed the gentleman.

   340 

   341 "It's not my business," Scrooge returned. "It's

   342 enough for a man to understand his own business, and

   343 not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies

   344 me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!"

   345 

   346 Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue

   347 their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed

   348 his labours with an improved opinion of himself,

   349 and in a more facetious temper than was usual

   350 with him.

   351 

   352 Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that

   353 people ran about with flaring links, proffering their

   354 services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct

   355 them on their way. The ancient tower of a church,

   356 whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down

   357 at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall, became

   358 invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the

   359 clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if

   360 its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there.

   361 The cold became intense. In the main street, at the

   362 corner of the court, some labourers were repairing

   363 the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier,

   364 round which a party of ragged men and boys were

   365 gathered: warming their hands and winking their

   366 eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug

   367 being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed,

   368 and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness

   369 of the shops where holly sprigs and berries

   370 crackled in the lamp heat of the windows, made pale

   371 faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers' and grocers'

   372 trades became a splendid joke: a glorious pageant,

   373 with which it was next to impossible to believe that

   374 such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything

   375 to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the

   376 mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks

   377 and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's

   378 household should; and even the little tailor, whom he

   379 had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for

   380 being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up

   381 to-morrow's pudding in his garret, while his lean

   382 wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.

   383 

   384 Foggier yet, and colder. Piercing, searching, biting

   385 cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped

   386 the Evil Spirit's nose with a touch of such weather

   387 as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then

   388 indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The

   389 owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled

   390 by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs,

   391 stooped down at Scrooge's keyhole to regale him with

   392 a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of

   393 

   394         "God bless you, merry gentleman!

   395          May nothing you dismay!"

   396 

   397 Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action,

   398 that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to

   399 the fog and even more congenial frost.

   400 

   401 At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house

   402 arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his

   403 stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant

   404 clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out,

   405 and put on his hat.

   406 

   407 "You'll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?" said

   408 Scrooge.

   409 

   410 "If quite convenient, sir."

   411 

   412 "It's not convenient," said Scrooge, "and it's not

   413 fair. If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you'd

   414 think yourself ill-used, I'll be bound?"

   415 

   416 The clerk smiled faintly.

   417 

   418 "And yet," said Scrooge, "you don't think me ill-used,

   419 when I pay a day's wages for no work."

   420 

   421 The clerk observed that it was only once a year.

   422 

   423 "A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every

   424 twenty-fifth of December!" said Scrooge, buttoning

   425 his great-coat to the chin. "But I suppose you must

   426 have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next

   427 morning."

   428 

   429 The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge

   430 walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a

   431 twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends of his

   432 white comforter dangling below his waist (for he

   433 boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill,

   434 at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in

   435 honour of its being Christmas Eve, and then ran home

   436 to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play

   437 at blindman's-buff.

   438 

   439 Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual

   440 melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and

   441 beguiled the rest of the evening with his

   442 banker's-book, went home to bed. He lived in

   443 chambers which had once belonged to his deceased

   444 partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a

   445 lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so

   446 little business to be, that one could scarcely help

   447 fancying it must have run there when it was a young

   448 house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses,

   449 and forgotten the way out again. It was old enough

   450 now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but

   451 Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices.

   452 The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew

   453 its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands.

   454 The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway

   455 of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of

   456 the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the

   457 threshold.

   458 

   459 Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all

   460 particular about the knocker on the door, except that it

   461 was very large. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had

   462 seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence

   463 in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what

   464 is called fancy about him as any man in the city of

   465 London, even including--which is a bold word--the

   466 corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be

   467 borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one

   468 thought on Marley, since his last mention of his

   469 seven years' dead partner that afternoon. And then

   470 let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened

   471 that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door,

   472 saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate

   473 process of change--not a knocker, but Marley's face.

   474 

   475 Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow

   476 as the other objects in the yard were, but had a

   477 dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark

   478 cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked

   479 at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly

   480 spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The

   481 hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air;

   482 and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly

   483 motionless. That, and its livid colour, made it

   484 horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the

   485 face and beyond its control, rather than a part of

   486 its own expression.

   487 

   488 As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it

   489 was a knocker again.

   490 

   491 To say that he was not startled, or that his blood

   492 was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it

   493 had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue.

   494 But he put his hand upon the key he had relinquished,

   495 turned it sturdily, walked in, and lighted his candle.

   496 

   497 He did pause, with a moment's irresolution, before

   498 he shut the door; and he did look cautiously behind

   499 it first, as if he half expected to be terrified with the

   500 sight of Marley's pigtail sticking out into the hall.

   501 But there was nothing on the back of the door, except

   502 the screws and nuts that held the knocker on, so he

   503 said "Pooh, pooh!" and closed it with a bang.

   504 

   505 The sound resounded through the house like thunder.

   506 Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant's

   507 cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal

   508 of echoes of its own. Scrooge was not a man to

   509 be frightened by echoes. He fastened the door, and

   510 walked across the hall, and up the stairs; slowly too:

   511 trimming his candle as he went.

   512 

   513 You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-and-six

   514 up a good old flight of stairs, or through a bad

   515 young Act of Parliament; but I mean to say you

   516 might have got a hearse up that staircase, and taken

   517 it broadwise, with the splinter-bar towards the wall

   518 and the door towards the balustrades: and done it

   519 easy. There was plenty of width for that, and room

   520 to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge

   521 thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before

   522 him in the gloom. Half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of

   523 the street wouldn't have lighted the entry too well,

   524 so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with

   525 Scrooge's dip.

   526 

   527 Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that.

   528 Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before

   529 he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms

   530 to see that all was right. He had just enough recollection

   531 of the face to desire to do that.

   532 

   533 Sitting-room, bedroom, lumber-room. All as they

   534 should be. Nobody under the table, nobody under

   535 the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin

   536 ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had

   537 a cold in his head) upon the hob. Nobody under the

   538 bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown,

   539 which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude

   540 against the wall. Lumber-room as usual. Old fire-guard,

   541 old shoes, two fish-baskets, washing-stand on three

   542 legs, and a poker.

   543 

   544 Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked

   545 himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his

   546 custom. Thus secured against surprise, he took off

   547 his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and

   548 his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take

   549 his gruel.

   550 

   551 It was a very low fire indeed; nothing on such a

   552 bitter night. He was obliged to sit close to it, and

   553 brood over it, before he could extract the least

   554 sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel.

   555 The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch

   556 merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint

   557 Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures.

   558 There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters;

   559 Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending

   560 through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams,

   561 Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats,

   562 hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts;

   563 and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came

   564 like the ancient Prophet's rod, and swallowed up the

   565 whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at first,

   566 with power to shape some picture on its surface from

   567 the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would

   568 have been a copy of old Marley's head on every one.

   569 

   570 "Humbug!" said Scrooge; and walked across the

   571 room.

   572 

   573 After several turns, he sat down again. As he

   574 threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened

   575 to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the

   576 room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten

   577 with a chamber in the highest story of the

   578 building. It was with great astonishment, and with

   579 a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he looked, he

   580 saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly in

   581 the outset that it scarcely made a sound; but soon it

   582 rang out loudly, and so did every bell in the house.

   583 

   584 This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute,

   585 but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased as they had

   586 begun, together. They were succeeded by a clanking

   587 noise, deep down below; as if some person were

   588 dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the

   589 wine-merchant's cellar. Scrooge then remembered to have

   590 heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as

   591 dragging chains.

   592 

   593 The cellar-door flew open with a booming sound,

   594 and then he heard the noise much louder, on the floors

   595 below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight

   596 towards his door.

   597 

   598 "It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I won't believe it."

   599 

   600 His colour changed though, when, without a pause,

   601 it came on through the heavy door, and passed into

   602 the room before his eyes. Upon its coming in, the

   603 dying flame leaped up, as though it cried, "I know

   604 him; Marley's Ghost!" and fell again.

   605 

   606 The same face: the very same. Marley in his pigtail,

   607 usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on

   608 the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts,

   609 and the hair upon his head. The chain he drew was

   610 clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound

   611 about him like a tail; and it was made (for Scrooge

   612 observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks,

   613 ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.

   614 His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, observing him,

   615 and looking through his waistcoat, could see

   616 the two buttons on his coat behind.

   617 

   618 Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no

   619 bowels, but he had never believed it until now.

   620 

   621 No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he

   622 looked the phantom through and through, and saw

   623 it standing before him; though he felt the chilling

   624 influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very

   625 texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head

   626 and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before;

   627 he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.

   628 

   629 "How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.

   630 "What do you want with me?"

   631 

   632 "Much!"--Marley's voice, no doubt about it.

   633 

   634 "Who are you?"

   635 

   636 "Ask me who I was."

   637 

   638 "Who were you then?" said Scrooge, raising his

   639 voice. "You're particular, for a shade." He was going

   640 to say "to a shade," but substituted this, as more

   641 appropriate.

   642 

   643 "In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley."

   644 

   645 "Can you--can you sit down?" asked Scrooge, looking

   646 doubtfully at him.

   647 

   648 "I can."

   649 

   650 "Do it, then."

   651 

   652 Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know

   653 whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in

   654 a condition to take a chair; and felt that in the event

   655 of its being impossible, it might involve the necessity

   656 of an embarrassing explanation. But the ghost sat

   657 down on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he

   658 were quite used to it.

   659 

   660 "You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost.

   661 

   662 "I don't," said Scrooge.

   663 

   664 "What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of

   665 your senses?"

   666 

   667 "I don't know," said Scrooge.

   668 

   669 "Why do you doubt your senses?"

   670 

   671 "Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them.

   672 A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may

   673 be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of

   674 cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of

   675 gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

   676 

   677 Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking

   678 jokes, nor did he feel, in his heart, by any means

   679 waggish then. The truth is, that he tried to be

   680 smart, as a means of distracting his own attention,

   681 and keeping down his terror; for the spectre's voice

   682 disturbed the very marrow in his bones.

   683 

   684 To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence

   685 for a moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very

   686 deuce with him. There was something very awful,

   687 too, in the spectre's being provided with an infernal

   688 atmosphere of its own. Scrooge could not feel it

   689 himself, but this was clearly the case; for though the

   690 Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair, and skirts,

   691 and tassels, were still agitated as by the hot vapour

   692 from an oven.

   693 

   694 "You see this toothpick?" said Scrooge, returning

   695 quickly to the charge, for the reason just assigned;

   696 and wishing, though it were only for a second, to

   697 divert the vision's stony gaze from himself.

   698 

   699 "I do," replied the Ghost.

   700 

   701 "You are not looking at it," said Scrooge.

   702 

   703 "But I see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding."

   704 

   705 "Well!" returned Scrooge, "I have but to swallow

   706 this, and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a

   707 legion of goblins, all of my own creation. Humbug,

   708 I tell you! humbug!"

   709 

   710 At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook

   711 its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise, that

   712 Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself

   713 from falling in a swoon. But how much greater was

   714 his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage

   715 round its head, as if it were too warm to wear indoors,

   716 its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast!

   717 

   718 Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands

   719 before his face.

   720 

   721 "Mercy!" he said. "Dreadful apparition, why do

   722 you trouble me?"

   723 

   724 "Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do

   725 you believe in me or not?"

   726 

   727 "I do," said Scrooge. "I must. But why do spirits

   728 walk the earth, and why do they come to me?"

   729 

   730 "It is required of every man," the Ghost returned,

   731 "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among

   732 his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that

   733 spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so

   734 after death. It is doomed to wander through the

   735 world--oh, woe is me!--and witness what it cannot

   736 share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to

   737 happiness!"

   738 

   739 Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain

   740 and wrung its shadowy hands.

   741 

   742 "You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell

   743 me why?"

   744 

   745 "I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost.

   746 "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded

   747 it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I

   748 wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?"

   749 

   750 Scrooge trembled more and more.

   751 

   752 "Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the

   753 weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself?

   754 It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven

   755 Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since.

   756 It is a ponderous chain!"

   757 

   758 Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the

   759 expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty

   760 or sixty fathoms of iron cable: but he could see

   761 nothing.

   762 

   763 "Jacob," he said, imploringly. "Old Jacob Marley,

   764 tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!"

   765 

   766 "I have none to give," the Ghost replied. "It comes

   767 from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed

   768 by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor

   769 can I tell you what I would. A very little more is

   770 all permitted to me. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I

   771 cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked

   772 beyond our counting-house--mark me!--in life my

   773 spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our

   774 money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before

   775 me!"

   776 

   777 It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became

   778 thoughtful, to put his hands in his breeches pockets.

   779 Pondering on what the Ghost had said, he did so now,

   780 but without lifting up his eyes, or getting off his

   781 knees.

   782 

   783 "You must have been very slow about it, Jacob,"

   784 Scrooge observed, in a business-like manner, though

   785 with humility and deference.

   786 

   787 "Slow!" the Ghost repeated.

   788 

   789 "Seven years dead," mused Scrooge. "And travelling

   790 all the time!"

   791 

   792 "The whole time," said the Ghost. "No rest, no

   793 peace. Incessant torture of remorse."

   794 

   795 "You travel fast?" said Scrooge.

   796 

   797 "On the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost.

   798 

   799 "You might have got over a great quantity of

   800 ground in seven years," said Scrooge.

   801 

   802 The Ghost, on hearing this, set up another cry, and

   803 clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of

   804 the night, that the Ward would have been justified in

   805 indicting it for a nuisance.

   806 

   807 "Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the

   808 phantom, "not to know, that ages of incessant labour

   809 by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into

   810 eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is

   811 all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit

   812 working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may

   813 be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast

   814 means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of

   815 regret can make amends for one life's opportunity

   816 misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!"

   817 

   818 "But you were always a good man of business,

   819 Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this

   820 to himself.

   821 

   822 "Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands

   823 again. "Mankind was my business. The common

   824 welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance,

   825 and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings

   826 of my trade were but a drop of water in the

   827 comprehensive ocean of my business!"

   828 

   829 It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were

   830 the cause of all its unavailing grief, and flung it

   831 heavily upon the ground again.

   832 

   833 "At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said,

   834 "I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of

   835 fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never

   836 raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise

   837 Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to

   838 which its light would have conducted me!"

   839 

   840 Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the

   841 spectre going on at this rate, and began to quake

   842 exceedingly.

   843 

   844 "Hear me!" cried the Ghost. "My time is nearly

   845 gone."

   846 

   847 "I will," said Scrooge. "But don't be hard upon

   848 me! Don't be flowery, Jacob! Pray!"

   849 

   850 "How it is that I appear before you in a shape that

   851 you can see, I may not tell. I have sat invisible

   852 beside you many and many a day."

   853 

   854 It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered,

   855 and wiped the perspiration from his brow.

   856 

   857 "That is no light part of my penance," pursued

   858 the Ghost. "I am here to-night to warn you, that you

   859 have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A

   860 chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer."

   861 

   862 "You were always a good friend to me," said

   863 Scrooge. "Thank'ee!"

   864 

   865 "You will be haunted," resumed the Ghost, "by

   866 Three Spirits."

   867 

   868 Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the

   869 Ghost's had done.

   870 

   871 "Is that the chance and hope you mentioned,

   872 Jacob?" he demanded, in a faltering voice.

   873 

   874 "It is."

   875 

   876 "I--I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge.

   877 

   878 "Without their visits," said the Ghost, "you cannot

   879 hope to shun the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow,

   880 when the bell tolls One."

   881 

   882 "Couldn't I take 'em all at once, and have it over,

   883 Jacob?" hinted Scrooge.

   884 

   885 "Expect the second on the next night at the same

   886 hour. The third upon the next night when the last

   887 stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. Look to see

   888 me no more; and look that, for your own sake, you

   889 remember what has passed between us!"

   890 

   891 When it had said these words, the spectre took its

   892 wrapper from the table, and bound it round its head,

   893 as before. Scrooge knew this, by the smart sound its

   894 teeth made, when the jaws were brought together

   895 by the bandage. He ventured to raise his eyes again,

   896 and found his supernatural visitor confronting him

   897 in an erect attitude, with its chain wound over and

   898 about its arm.

   899 

   900 The apparition walked backward from him; and at

   901 every step it took, the window raised itself a little,

   902 so that when the spectre reached it, it was wide open.

   903 

   904 It beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did.

   905 When they were within two paces of each other,

   906 Marley's Ghost held up its hand, warning him to

   907 come no nearer. Scrooge stopped.

   908 

   909 Not so much in obedience, as in surprise and fear:

   910 for on the raising of the hand, he became sensible

   911 of confused noises in the air; incoherent sounds of

   912 lamentation and regret; wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and

   913 self-accusatory. The spectre, after listening for a moment,

   914 joined in the mournful dirge; and floated out upon the

   915 bleak, dark night.

   916 

   917 Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his

   918 curiosity. He looked out.

   919 

   920 The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither

   921 and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they

   922 went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's

   923 Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments)

   924 were linked together; none were free. Many had

   925 been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He

   926 had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white

   927 waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to

   928 its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist

   929 a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below,

   930 upon a door-step. The misery with them all was,

   931 clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in

   932 human matters, and had lost the power for ever.

   933 

   934 Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist

   935 enshrouded them, he could not tell. But they and

   936 their spirit voices faded together; and the night became

   937 as it had been when he walked home.

   938 

   939 Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door

   940 by which the Ghost had entered. It was double-locked,

   941 as he had locked it with his own hands, and

   942 the bolts were undisturbed. He tried to say "Humbug!"

   943 but stopped at the first syllable. And being,

   944 from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues

   945 of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or

   946 the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of

   947 the hour, much in need of repose; went straight to

   948 bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the

   949 instant.

   950 

   951 

   952 STAVE II:  THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS

   953 

   954 WHEN Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that looking out of bed,

   955 he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from

   956 the opaque walls of his chamber. He was endeavouring to

   957 pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the chimes of a

   958 neighbouring church struck the four quarters. So he listened

   959 for the hour.

   960 

   961 To his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from

   962 six to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to

   963 twelve; then stopped. Twelve! It was past two when he

   964 went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have

   965 got into the works. Twelve!

   966 

   967 He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most

   968 preposterous clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve:

   969 and stopped.

   970 

   971 "Why, it isn't possible," said Scrooge, "that I can have

   972 slept through a whole day and far into another night. It

   973 isn't possible that anything has happened to the sun, and

   974 this is twelve at noon!"

   975 

   976 The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed,

   977 and groped his way to the window. He was obliged to rub

   978 the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown before he

   979 could see anything; and could see very little then. All he

   980 could make out was, that it was still very foggy and extremely

   981 cold, and that there was no noise of people running to and fro,

   982 and making a great stir, as there unquestionably would have been

   983 if night had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the

   984 world.  This was a great relief, because "three days after sight

   985 of this First of Exchange pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his

   986 order," and so forth, would have become a mere United States'

   987 security if there were no days to count by.

   988 

   989 Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and thought

   990 it over and over and over, and could make nothing of it.  The more he

   991 thought, the more perplexed he was; and the more he endeavoured

   992 not to think, the more he thought.

   993 

   994 Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he resolved

   995 within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all a dream, his

   996 mind flew back again, like a strong spring released, to its first

   997 position, and presented the same problem to be worked all through,

   998 "Was it a dream or not?"

   999 

  1000 Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three quarters

  1001 more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned

  1002 him of a visitation when the bell tolled one.  He resolved to lie

  1003 awake until the hour was passed; and, considering that he could

  1004 no more go to sleep than go to Heaven, this was perhaps the

  1005 wisest resolution in his power.

  1006 

  1007 The quarter was so long, that he was more than once convinced he

  1008 must have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and missed the clock.

  1009 At length it broke upon his listening ear.

  1010 

  1011 "Ding, dong!"

  1012 

  1013 "A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting.

  1014 

  1015 "Ding, dong!"

  1016 

  1017 "Half-past!" said Scrooge.

  1018 

  1019 "Ding, dong!"

  1020 

  1021 "A quarter to it," said Scrooge.

  1022 

  1023 "Ding, dong!"

  1024 

  1025 "The hour itself," said Scrooge, triumphantly, "and nothing else!"

  1026 

  1027 He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a

  1028 deep, dull, hollow, melancholy ONE.  Light flashed up in the room

  1029 upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.

  1030 

  1031 The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a

  1032 hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his

  1033 back, but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains

  1034 of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a

  1035 half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the

  1036 unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now

  1037 to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.

  1038 

  1039 It was a strange figure--like a child: yet not so like a

  1040 child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural

  1041 medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded

  1042 from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions.

  1043 Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was

  1044 white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in

  1045 it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were

  1046 very long and muscular; the hands the same, as if its hold

  1047 were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most delicately

  1048 formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It wore a tunic

  1049 of the purest white; and round its waist was bound

  1050 a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It held

  1051 a branch of fresh green holly in its hand; and, in singular

  1052 contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress trimmed

  1053 with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about it was,

  1054 that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear

  1055 jet of light, by which all this was visible; and which was

  1056 doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments, a

  1057 great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.

  1058 

  1059 Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increasing

  1060 steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt

  1061 sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another,

  1062 and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so

  1063 the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a

  1064 thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs,

  1065 now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a

  1066 body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible

  1067 in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the

  1068 very wonder of this, it would be itself again; distinct and

  1069 clear as ever.

  1070 

  1071 "Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to

  1072 me?" asked Scrooge.

  1073 

  1074 "I am!"

  1075 

  1076 The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if

  1077 instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.

  1078 

  1079 "Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded.

  1080 

  1081 "I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."

  1082 

  1083 "Long Past?" inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish

  1084 stature.

  1085 

  1086 "No. Your past."

  1087 

  1088 Perhaps, Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if

  1089 anybody could have asked him; but he had a special desire

  1090 to see the Spirit in his cap; and begged him to be covered.

  1091 

  1092 "What!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you so soon put out,

  1093 with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough

  1094 that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and

  1095 force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon

  1096 my brow!"

  1097 

  1098 Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend

  1099 or any knowledge of having wilfully "bonneted" the Spirit at

  1100 any period of his life. He then made bold to inquire what

  1101 business brought him there.

  1102 

  1103 "Your welfare!" said the Ghost.

  1104 

  1105 Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not

  1106 help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been

  1107 more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard

  1108 him thinking, for it said immediately:

  1109 

  1110 "Your reclamation, then. Take heed!"

  1111 

  1112 It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him

  1113 gently by the arm.

  1114 

  1115 "Rise! and walk with me!"

  1116 

  1117 It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the

  1118 weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes;

  1119 that bed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below

  1120 freezing; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers,

  1121 dressing-gown, and nightcap; and that he had a cold upon him at

  1122 that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand,

  1123 was not to be resisted. He rose: but finding that the Spirit

  1124 made towards the window, clasped his robe in supplication.

  1125 

  1126 "I am a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to fall."

  1127 

  1128 "Bear but a touch of my hand there," said the Spirit,

  1129 laying it upon his heart, "and you shall be upheld in more

  1130 than this!"

  1131 

  1132 As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall,

  1133 and stood upon an open country road, with fields on either

  1134 hand. The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it

  1135 was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished