In Prose

[adapted]

by
Charles Dickens

Stave One
Marley’s Ghost

Marley was dead. This was certain. Many men signed the paper at his burial. Scrooge signed it too. Marley had been dead for seven years.

Scrooge and Marley had been business partners. After Marley died, the business kept the name “Scrooge and Marley.” Scrooge did not change it. He answered to both names. It made no difference to him.

Scrooge was a hard and cold man. He loved money and cared for nothing else. No warmth could warm him. No cold could chill him. People did not stop him in the street. Beggars did not ask him for help. Even dogs pulled their owners away when they saw him coming. Scrooge liked this. He wanted to be alone.

It was Christmas Eve. Scrooge sat in his counting-house. It was very cold and dark. Fog filled the streets. His clerk worked in a small room near him. The clerk had a tiny fire. Scrooge kept the coal box in his own room, so the clerk could not take more coal.

“A merry Christmas, uncle!” said a cheerful voice. It was Scrooge’s nephew.

“A merry Christmas, uncle!”

“Bah!” said Scrooge. “Humbug!”

The nephew smiled. He said Christmas was a kind and happy time. He said it was a time when people opened their hearts. He invited Scrooge to dinner the next day.

Scrooge refused. He said Christmas was a time for paying bills without money and growing older without becoming richer. He told his nephew to keep Christmas in his own way.

The nephew left, still wishing him a Merry Christmas.

Soon two gentlemen came into the office. They asked for money for the poor. They wanted to buy food and warmth for people in need.

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.

“There are many prisons,” one man said.

“And the workhouses?” asked Scrooge.

“They are still open.”

“Then that is enough,” said Scrooge. “I do not make merry at Christmas, and I cannot pay to make lazy people merry. If they would rather die, they should do it and reduce the extra people.”

The gentlemen left. Scrooge went back to his work.

At last he closed the office. He allowed the clerk to have Christmas Day off, but he was not pleased. The clerk thanked him and hurried home to his family.

Scrooge ate dinner alone and went home. He lived in the old rooms that had belonged to Marley. The building was dark and quiet.

When Scrooge put his key in the door, he looked at the knocker. For a moment, it changed. He saw Marley’s face. It was pale and strange. Then it was a knocker again. Scrooge said, “Humbug,” and went inside.

He walked through his rooms. Everything was in its place. He locked the door and sat by the fire with a bowl of thin soup.

As he sat there, he saw a bell begin to move. It rang loudly. Then he heard a heavy chain dragging on the floor below. The sound came up the stairs and stopped outside his door.

The door opened. A figure came into the room. It was Marley’s Ghost. He wore the clothes he had worn in life. A long chain was wrapped around his body. The chain was made of cash-boxes, keys, locks, and heavy money bags. His body was transparent.

Scrooge was afraid, but he tried to laugh. He said the ghost was only something he ate for dinner.

The Ghost gave a terrible cry and shook his chain. Scrooge fell to his knees.

The Ghost gave a terrible cry and shook his chain.

“Why do you trouble me?” Scrooge asked.

“In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley,” said the Ghost. “I wear the chain I made in life. I made it link by link by caring only for money. You are making your own chain now.”

Scrooge trembled.

“Business was my only care,” said the Ghost. “But mankind should have been my business. Kindness and charity should have been my business.”

The Ghost said he had no rest. He walked the earth and saw people he could not help.

“I am here to warn you,” he said. “You still have a chance to escape my fate.”

Scrooge began to hope.

“You will be visited by Three Spirits,” said Marley’s Ghost.

Scrooge was afraid. “Could they not come all at once?” he asked.

The Ghost said the first Spirit would come the next night at one o’clock. The second would come the night after. The third would come on the third night at twelve.

After he spoke, the Ghost moved to the window. It opened. Scrooge heard sad cries in the air. Many other ghosts floated outside. They all wore chains. They tried to help the living, but they could not.

Marley’s Ghost joined them and disappeared into the night.

Scrooge closed the window. The door was still locked. Everything was as before.

He tried to say “Humbug,” but he felt weak and tired. He went to bed without undressing and fell asleep at once.

Stave Two
The First of the Three Spirits

Scrooge woke in deep darkness. He heard the church clock strike twelve. He was confused. He had gone to bed after two. How could it be twelve again?

He waited for one o’clock. At last the bell struck One. At that moment, a bright light filled the room. The curtains of his bed were pulled aside.

A strange figure stood there. It looked like a child, but also like an old man. Its hair was white, yet its face was young. It wore a white robe and held a branch of green holly. A clear light shone from its head.

“Are you the Spirit whose coming was told to me?” Scrooge asked.

“I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.”

“Long past?” said Scrooge.

“No. Your past.”

The Spirit told him to rise and walk with it. They passed through the wall and stood on a country road. It was cold and bright. Snow lay on the ground.

“I know this place,” said Scrooge. “I was a boy here.”

They walked to a large old school. Inside, a lonely boy sat by a small fire, reading.

They walked to a large old school.