Christmas Carol


MARLEY´S GHOST
Scrooge lived alone in rooms in a gloomy old house that had belonged to Jacob Marley. He was putting his key in the door when he noticed the big, old fashioned knocker. There was something different about it tonight. It was... Marley´s face!

Marley´s face was a dismal shade of green. Ghostly spectacles were perched on its forehead, and it´s hair moved gently, as if a breeze were stirring it, as Scrooge stared, it turned back into a knocker again.

Scrooge was not frightened, he did not believe in ghosts. He entered the house, lit his candle and went up the wide staircase. He told himself firmly that Marley had been dead for seven years.

Upstairs everything was as usual. A saucepan of porridge was on the hob, by a small coal fire. Scrooge put on his slippers, dressing gown and nightcap, and sat down to his porridge, but first he made sure the door was locked.

There were pictures of Bible characters on the tiles around the fireplace - Cain and Abel, the Queen of Sheba, Abraham and Isaac. To Scrooge, they all bore the eerie look of Jacob Marley.

´Humbug!´said Scrooge.

Just the a bell high above the fireplace began to swing to and fro. It had not been used for years, but it began to ring loudly. Then came a clanking noise, deep in the house, as if someone were dragging a heavy chain up from the cellar.

´Humbug!´said Scrooge.´I won´t believe it!´

But the cellar door opened and the noise came up the stairs and into the room. The flame in the fire leapt up, so it to cry out in alarm, ´I know him! Marley´s ghost!

And there was Marley, wearing his usual waistcoat and tight trousers, A chain was wound round his waist, made of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, account books and metal purses. Scrooge could see right through Marley´s body to the two buttons on the back of his coat.

´You don´t believe in me,do you?´said the Ghost.

´I don´t´, said Scrooge.´You could be the result of an upset stomach, Perhaps you´re a crumble of a cheese, or an undigested bit of beef!

The ghost took no notice of Scrooge´s feeble joke. Instead, it gave a frightful cry and rattled its chain. ´I made this chain in life, link by link and yard by yard,´it said. You have had seven years more, so yours is much longer.´

Scrooge looked down, but saw nothing.

I only though about money. I lost so many chances to do good, sighed the Ghost.

But you were a good businessman, Jacob!

´Business! Human beings were my business! I neglected them, and this is my punishment.

´Why have you come to me?´asked Scrooge.

´To warn you, so that you can escape my fate. You will be visited by three Spirits. The first will come to you as the church clock strikes one.´

And the Ghost wrapped its chain round its arm and walked backwards towards the window, which opened wide. The Ghost floated out into the night air.

Scrooge heard sad cries, and saw that the sky was full of figures like Marley. They were crying out and trying to reach the suffering human beings they had not helped while they were alive.

Suddenly Scrooge felt very tired. He crept into bed and fell asleep right away.



Vocabulary