A Christmas Carol Marley's Ghost

A Christmas Carol Marley's Ghost. " Man of the worldly mind !" replied the Ghost, " do you believe in me or not ?" " I do," said Scrooge. " I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me ?" " It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.

It is doomed to wander through the world—oh, woe is me !—and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!"

Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain, and wrung its shadowy hands.

" You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. " Tell me why V

'' I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. " I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you f"

Scrooge trembled more and more.

" Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, " the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself ? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain !"

Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable : but he could see nothing.

" Jacob," he said, imploringly. " Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob."

" I have none to give," -the Ghost replied. " It comes from other regions, Ebenczer Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you what I would. A very little more, is all permitted to mc. I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house—mark me!—in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole and weary journeys lie before me!"

Title: A Christmas carol in prose: being a ghost story of Christmas. Author: Charles Dickens. Publisher: Little, Brown, 1920. Original from: the University of Virginia. Digitized: Jul 7, 2009. Length: 166 pages, Art by: John Leech (29 August 1817 – 29 October 1864 in London) was an English caricaturist and illustrator.

This Image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1924 are now in the public domain.