1 Marley’s Ghost Marley was dead There is no doubt about that The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman the clerk the undertaker and the chief mourner Even Scrooge had signed it Old Marley was dead as a doornail Scrooge knew he was dead Of course he did How could it be otherwise Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years Scrooge was his sole administrator His sole friend His sole mourner But even Scrooge wasn’t sad at Marley’s funeral The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the beginning Marley was dead If you don’t believe that then nothing wonderful can come of the story I am about to tell 4
Scrooge never painted over Marley’s name There it stood years afterward above the warehouse door Scrooge and Marley Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge Sometimes they called him Marley It didn’t matter He’d answer to both names It was all the same to him Oh But Scrooge was a tightfisted hand at work He was a squeezing wrenching grasping clutching old sinner The cold within him froze his old features It nipped his pointed nose and shriveled his cheek It stiffened his gait It made his eyes red and his thin lips blue A frosty ice was on his head eyebrows and wiry chin He carried his own low temperature about with him He iced his office in the dog days and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas No warmth could warm him No wintry weather could chill him No wind that blew was bitterer than he Scrooge was fouler than the foulest weather 5
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to ask in happy voices My dear Scrooge how are you When will you come to see me No beggars asked him for anything No children asked the time Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him When they saw him coming they tugged their owners into doorways But what did Scrooge care It was the very thing he liked Once upon a time on Christmas Eve old Scrooge sat in his countinghouse It was bitter outside He could hear people in the outside court stamping their feet upon the pavement to get warm Although it was only three o’clock it was already dark The entire day had been dark and dank Candles flickered in the windows The fog was so thick that you couldn’t make out the houses across the street They were mere phantoms The door of Scrooge’s countinghouse was open He wanted to keep an eye on his clerk 6
