Marley was dead. There is no doubt about it. He had been dead for seven years. Ebenezer Scrooge was his only friend and his business partner, and he was at his funeral.

Scrooge was a cold, hard old man. He was very rich, but he never gave money to anybody. He loved only his money. He was mean, selfish and unfriendly. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, “How are you, my dear Scrooge?” Even dogs moved away from him.

On Christmas Eve, Scrooge was working in his office. It was cold, dark and foggy outside. His clerk, Bob Cratchit, was copying letters in a small, cold room. Scrooge gave him only fifteen shillings a week and a tiny fire.

Suddenly Scrooge's nephew, Fred, came in. He was a cheerful young man with a red face from the cold. “A merry Christmas, Uncle! God save you!”

“Bah!” said Scrooge. “Humbug! Christmas is nonsense!” Fred invited him to Christmas dinner, but Scrooge said no.

After Fred left, two gentlemen came in. They were collecting money for poor people at Christmas. “Many thousands of people have no food and no warm clothes,” they said.

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge. “Are there no workhouses? Let them go there.”

“Many people would rather die than go there,” said one gentleman.

“Then they should die,” said Scrooge, “and decrease the surplus population.” The gentlemen left.

At closing time, Bob Cratchit asked for Christmas Day free. Scrooge agreed, but he was angry about it.

That night, Scrooge went home to his dark, empty house. When he put his key in the door, he saw something strange: the knocker on the door had the face of Marley! A moment later it was a knocker again.

Scrooge ate a little soup by a small fire in his room. Suddenly all the bells in the house began to ring. Then he heard heavy chains coming up the stairs. The door opened, and a ghost came through it. It was Marley's ghost. He was wearing a long chain made of cash boxes, keys, locks and heavy purses.

“Why do you wear that chain?” asked Scrooge, shaking.

“I made this chain in my life,” said the ghost, “link by link, with every selfish thing I did. Your chain is even longer and heavier, Ebenezer. I am here to warn you. You still have a chance to escape my fate. Three spirits will visit you. The first will come tomorrow when the bell strikes one.”