2. Marley’s Ghost

1. Humbug!

Scrooge has finally left his office on the evening of Christmas Eve. It is the seventh anniversary of the death of his business partner, Jacob Marley.

A Christmas Carolby Charles Dickens

Retold by Kieran McGovern

2

Home

Scrooge ate his melancholy dinner in his usual

melancholy tavern. After reading all the

newspapers, he spent the rest of the evening

working on his accounts. Then he went home to

bed.

He lived a gloomy suite of rooms, in a

gloomy old building that had once belonged to

his dead partner. Nobody lived there but

Scrooge. The other rooms were let out as offices

and there was also a wine cellar below

Fog and frost surrounded the black old

gateway of the house. The yard was very dark

and gloomy. Even Scrooge, who knew its every

stone, had to grope with his hands, to find his

way to the front door.

Scrooge put his key in the lock. As he did

so, the knocker suddenly became Marley's face.

3

Marley's face.

Marley’s face! There was a dismal light

about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar, but

was not angry or ferocious.

It looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look:

with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly

forehead. Though the eyes were wide open, they

were perfectly motionless

As Scrooge at this stared at this horrible

apparition, it became a knocker again.

Startled but resolute, Scrooge turned the

key firmly. He walked in, and lit his candle.

He did pause before he shut the door. And

he did look behind it first, as if half-expecting to

see Marley's pigtail sticking out into the hall.

4

But there was nothing on the back of the

door, except the screws and nuts that held the

knocker on.

'Bah!' said Scrooge and closed it with a

bang.

 The sound echoed through the house like

thunder.

Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by

echoes. He walked across the hall and slowly

up the stairs.

Up Scrooge went, not caring about the poor

light given by his candle. Darkness is cheap,

and Scrooge liked it.

But before he shut his heavy door, he

walked through his rooms to see that all was

right.

Double Locked

He looked in the sitting-room and the bedroom.

Everything was normal. Nobody was under the

table. Nobody was under the sofa. A small fire

was in the grate.

5

On the table his spoon and basin were

ready. There was also a little saucepan of gruel

upon the hob.

Nobody was under the bed or in the closet.

Nobody was in his dressing-gown,

which was hanging up against the

wall. Everything was as usual.

Scrooge closed his door, and

double-locked himself in. Feeling

safer, he put on his dressing-

gown, slippers, and nightcap.

Then he sat down before the

fire to take his gruel.

It was a very small fire for

such a bitter night. He needed to sit close to it,

before he could extract any warmth from such a

handful of fuel.

He tried not to think about Marley.

A ghost?

'Humbug!' said Scrooge; and walked across the

room.

After several turns, he sat down again. As

he threw his head back in the chair, he glanced

6

at an old unused bell, which hung in the room.

To his great astonishment it began to swing.

It scarcely made a sound at first; but soon it

rang out loudly. So did every bell in the house.

This might have lasted half a minute, or a

minute, but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased

as they had begun, together. They were

succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down

below.

It sounded like someone was

dragging a heavy chain over the

casks in the wine-merchant's

cellar below.

Then he heard the cellar-door fly open. This

was followed by a much louder sound; starting

on the floors below; then coming up the stairs;

then coming straight towards his door.

'It's humbug still!' said Scrooge. 'I won't

believe it.'

His colour changed though, when it came on

through the heavy door, and passed into the

room before his eyes.

It was Marley's ghost.

7

I know him! Marley's ghost!

The same face: the very same. Marley in his

usual clothes. A long chain, made of cash-

boxes, keys and padlocks, wound about him

like a tail.

His body was transparent; so that

Scrooge, looking through his waistcoat, could

see the two buttons on his coat behind.

Was this really Marley? Scrooge saw him

standing there before him but did not want to

believe his eyes.

'What do you want with me?' said Scrooge,

cold as ever.

'Much.'

It was Marley's voice, no doubt about it.

'Who are you?'

'Ask me who I was.'

8

'Who were you then?' said Scrooge, raising

his voice. 'In life I was your partner, Jacob

Marley.'

'Can you-can you sit down?' asked Scrooge,

looking doubtfully at him.

'I can.'

'Do it, then.'

"Marley's Ghost."

The ghost sat down on the

opposite side of the fireplace.

'You don't believe in me,' said the

Ghost.

'I don't,' said Scrooge.

'Why do you doubt what you can see?'

'Because,' said Scrooge, 'a slight disorder of

the stomach can play with my mind. You may

be an undigested bit of beef or a crumb of

cheese. There's more of gravy than of grave

about you, whatever you are!'

Scrooge did not make many jokes. Nor did

he feel, in his heart, like joking now. He did it to

calm his terror.

'You see this toothpick.' said Scrooge.

9

'I do,' replied the Ghost.

'You are not looking at it,' said Scrooge.

'But I see it,' said the Ghost.

'Humbug, I tell you,' said Scrooge 'Humbug!'

Why are you in chains?

At this the spirit shook its chain and made a

terrible noise. Scrooge held on tight to his chair.

To his horror, the ghost was taking off the

bandage round its head. Now its lower jaw

dropped down upon its breast.

Scrooge fell upon his knees,

and held his hands before his

face.

'Mercy!' he said. 'Why do you trouble me?'

Do you believe in me or not?' replied the

Ghost.

'I do,' said Scrooge. 'I must. But why are you

in chains?'

‘It was like this seven Christmas Eves ago.

'Jacob!' said Scrooge. 'Old Jacob Marley. Tell

me more! Speak comfort to me, Jacob.'

10

'I have none to give,' the Ghost replied. 'I

cannot stay. I cannot linger anywhere. I must

walk the earth.'

'Seven years dead,' said Scrooge. 'And

travelling all the time?'

'The whole time,' said the Ghost. 'No rest, no

peace. Incessant torture of remorse.'

'You travel fast?' said Scrooge.

'Like the wind,' replied the Ghost.

'You might have travelled further in seven

years,' said Scrooge.

The Ghost made another cry in the dead

silence of the night.

Warning

'But you were always a good man of business,

Jacob,' said Scrooge.

'Business!' cried the Ghost. 'Mankind was

my business. Mercy was my business. The

common welfare was my business.’

It held up its chain and flung it heavily upon

the ground again.

11

'At this time of year,' the spectre said, 'I

suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of

fellow-beings with my eyes turned down?'

Scrooge was very unhappy to hear the

spectre talking like this. He shivered, and wiped

the perspiration from his brow.

'Hear me!' cried the Ghost. 'My time is

nearly gone.'

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

me, Jacob!'

'I am here to-night to warn you,’ said the

ghost. ‘You still have a chance and hope of

escaping my fate.'

'You were always a good friend to me,' said

Scrooge. 'Thank you.'

'You will be haunted,' resumed the Ghost,

'by Three Spirits.'

Three Spirits

Scrooge's face fell.

'Is that the chance and hope you mentioned,

Jacob?' he asked.

'It is.'

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

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'Without their visits,' said the Ghost, 'you

cannot avoid the path I tread. Expect the first

tomorrow, when the clock strikes one.'

'Couldn't I take them all at once, Jacob?'

said Scrooge.

'Expect the second on the next night at the

same hour. The third will come the next night

on the last stroke of twelve. And remember

what has passed between us!'’

The spectre took its bandage from the table.

It bound it round its head, as before. Then it

walked backward from him.

At every step it took, the window raised itself

a little until it was wide open.

Marley departs

The spectre beckoned Scrooge to approach,

which he did. When he was within two paces, it

held up its hand, warning him to come no

nearer. Scrooge stopped.

A terrible wailing sound began. The spectre,

after listening for a moment floated out upon

the bleak, dark night.

Scrooge went to the window and looked out.

13

The air was filled with spectres. Every one of

them wore chains like

Marley's Ghost.

Eventually the spirit

voices faded together; and the

night became as it had

been.

Scrooge closed the window, and examined

the door by which the Ghost had entered. It

was double-locked, as he had locked it with his

own hands. The bolts were undisturbed.

He tried to say

'Humbug!' but stopped.

Instead he went straight

to bed, without

undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant.

End of Stave 1

Vocabulary

Accounts - financial documents

Bandage - cloth used to protect wound

Beckoned - gesture with hand

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Casks - large containers for wine

Faded - grew softer

Flung - throw with force

Gloomy/dismal – dark, depressing

Gruel – thin poor quality porridge

Haunted - visited by a ghost

Humbug – rubbish, nonsense

Linger - not rush, wait in a place

Mercy - forgiveness/kindness

Melancholy – joyless, without cheer, gloomy

Remorse - regret for doing wrong

Resolute - determined to continue

Shivered - feel cold or fear

Spirit/Spectre/Apparition/Phantom – ghost

Startled - shocked, scared, very surprised

Strikes - hits, mechanical sound in clock

Wailing - like the sound of a baby crying

Welfare - looking after the needs of the poor

A glossary, comprehension exercises, key quotes and other learning activities related to this text here:

3: Ghost of Christmas Past