Ebenezer Scrooge was a mean, grumpy old man. He hated laughter, and sunshine, and
parties. He hated everyone and everything!
He even hated Christmas.
Children playing in the streets
made him frown. Carolers singing on every corner made him snarl. And most of
all, he hated it when anyone tried to be nice to him, and said "Merry
Christmas!" or "God bless you!" as he stomped by.
"Bah, humbug!"
he would yell, and shove them aside.
In fact, there was only one thing
that Mr. Scrooge did like, and that was money.
It's true that Mr. Scrooge worked
hard for his money. But he was very selfish. He never gave a penny to the poor
people begging for a scrap of bread. He kicked at the blind men huddled in alleys.
When anyone tried to ask him for money, he chased them away or hit them!
"Christmas is a waste of time
and money!" he told his nephew, Fred, on Christmas Eve. "I hate
Christmas!"
"Oh, Uncle!" Fred
laughed. "Surely you don't mean that! Christmas is a happy time! Won't
you come have dinner with us tomorrow afternoon?"
"I will not!" Scrooge
said. "Humbug on you and your Christmas!"
That night, Mr. Scrooge got a
terrible fright! Four eerie ghosts came to see him!
The first ghost to appear was Bob
Marley, Scrooge's old business partner, who had died seven years ago.
Marley looked very unhappy, because
he was covered in heavy iron chains. "Each of these chains is my punishment for
something bad that I did while I was alive!" he told Scrooge, who was huddling in his
big chair, shaking with fear. "If you don't stop being so mean and hateful, you
will wear heavy chains when you die, too!"
Scrooge did not want to believe Bob
Marley. "You are nothing but a crazy dream!" he said. "Nothing
bad will happen to me."
Marley laughed, and it was a
horrible sound. Scrooge was very frightened. "Ebenezer Scrooge,"
Marley said, "there is still time for you to change your ways! Tonight you will
be haunted by three more ghosts! The first will come at one o'clock! If you
learn from him, you may yet be saved!"
With that, Bob Marley vanished.
Scrooge stared around the room, but
he was alone again. He decided that Bob Marley and the awful chains must have been a
dream, after all. "Bah, humbug!" he said, scowling at the fire.
"Bah!"
And he stomped off to his bed.
But when one o'clock came, Scrooge was still wide awake. So he heard the church bell
ring. And he saw the curtains on his bed slowly pull apart.
A glowing ghost was standing by his
bed. Scrooge stared at the ghost in surprise. Its face was young, like a
child, but it had long white hair like an old man. It was carrying a branch of green
holly, and had a big cap on its head.
"Come with me, Ebenezer
Scrooge," the ghost said. And before Scrooge could pull away, it took him by
the hand and led him to the window.
Outside, the snow was falling, and
it was freezing cold. Poor Scrooge was only dressed in his bathrobe and slippers!
But he didn't feel the cold or the snow as he and the ghost floated through the
window.
Suddenly the city and the dark
night vanished! Scrooge found himself standing on a dirt road in the country.
"I recognize this place!" he said to the ghost. "I lived here when I
was a boy!"
The ghost took him to an old
schoolhouse, and they looked in through the window. A lonely little boy was sitting
in the classroom, studying a book, while the other children ran around outside and played
in the field.
"I am the Ghost of Christmas
Past," the ghost told Scrooge. "That little boy is you, Ebenezer Scrooge.
He can't see us because these are things that happened a long, long time ago."
The ghost took Scrooge to more
places, more times from his past. He saw his pretty sister, Fan, who had died right
after his nephew, Fred, was born. He saw his first employer, Mr. Fezziwig, at their
festive annual Christmas party. And he saw Belle, the beautiful girl he had loved
when he was young.
"Enough!" Scrooge finally
begged the ghost. "These memories are so sad! Please, take me back
home!"
"Very well," the ghost
said. And suddenly Scrooge found himself back in his dark bedroom. He fell
across his bed and was fast asleep in moments.
The church bell rang again. It was two o'clock.
Scrooge woke up with a gasp.
There was a bright light glowing from the next room.
"Perhaps the second ghost has
come to see me," he thought with a nervous shiver. Rising, he tugged his
bathrobe a little tighter and stepped back into his slippers. Then he slowly opened
the door.
What a sight met his eyes!
Food was piled up everywhere! Turkeys and pies and puddings were stacked up like a
huge throne. And on top of the throne was a huge giant of a ghost! Its long
cloak was green and trimmed with fur, and it wore a sword at its waist.
The ghost lifted a big torch above
its head as Scrooge edged into the room. "Come in!" it said with a jolly
laugh. "Come in, and know me better! I am the Ghost of Christmas
Present!"
Scrooge looked at the ghost's head.
It was wearing a wreath of holly like a green crown, and long icicles were hanging
from it. "I have never seen anyone like you!" he admitted.
"Ebenezer Scrooge," the
big ghost said, "touch my robe, and I will take you where you should go this
night."
Scrooge knew that he had to obey.
A moment later, he and the ghost were standing in the middle of the street.
It was Christmas morning. And
everyone around them was laughing and having fun. Children were throwing snowballs,
and people were calling to each other as they passed on the streets.
Scrooge and the ghost passed shops
filled with eager, happy people. Everywhere they went, a special kind of happiness
seemed to fill the air.
Next, the ghost took Scrooge to the
home of Bob Cratchit, his poor clerk. The Cratchits lived in a very small house,
barely big enough for them and their children. Because Scrooge was so greedy, and
hardly paid Bob Cratchit at all for his work, they had very little money.
So Scrooge was amazed to see how
happy they looked, as they ate some potatoes and a scrawny old goose. "How can
they be so happy," he asked the ghost, "when they are so poor? And their
little boy, Tiny Tim, is a cripple, he has to walk with a crutch! Will he live,
spirit?"
The ghost slowly shook its head.
"I see an empty chair, and a crutch with no owner," it said.
"If the future is not changed, the child will die."
Scrooge was horrified.
"There must be something that can be done!" he cried.
Suddenly Bob Cratchit raised his
glass. "A toast," he said, "to Mr. Scrooge! Without him, we
would never have this food to eat!"
Scrooge felt very guilty that he'd
been so greedy all his life. Bob Cratchit and his family deserved more than he had
ever given them. And he didn't want poor little Tiny Tim to die.
"Come, Ebenezer Scrooge,"
the ghost said. "We must visit another home."
Scrooge touched the ghost's robe
again, and Bob Cratchit's home vanished. Suddenly they were standing in his nephew
Fred's house.
Fred and his pretty wife were
having a party for their friends. Everyone was having such a good time that even
Scrooge began to enjoy himself. He forgot that no one could see or hear him as he
tried to answer their guessing games.
Finally Fred raised his glass above
his head. "My Uncle Scrooge calls Christmas a humbug!" he laughed.
"But I say, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man!"
Before Scrooge could respond, the
ghost whisked him off to other places. They visited hospitals, jails, even dark
alleys where the beggars lived. And everywhere they went, the ghost sprinkled
goodwill on them, and made them happy, because it was Christmas Day.
"I never knew that people
could be so happy when they have so little!" Scrooge said, shaking his head in
confusion.
"Remember that!" said the
ghost...and it vanished into the night.
Ebenezer Scrooge stood alone in the street. No one could see or hear him.
He knew that the last ghost would
be the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. And he was afraid, because the future was
unknown, and grim.
When the church bell rang three
times, he braced himself...because a dark, shrouded figure was gliding out of the mist
toward him. "Are you the Ghost of Christmas Future?" he asked in a shaky
voice.
The spirit didn't say a word.
It simply raised one hand and pointed down the street.
Scrooge began to tremble.
"I know that you are here to teach me something, spirit," he said.
"Lead me where I need to go."
The dark ghost took Scrooge to the
market, where several men were gathered in a circle. They were talking about someone
who had died the previous night.
"It'll be a cheap
funeral," one of them said. "He didn't have any friends."
"What about all his
money?" another asked. "He was very rich."
The first man laughed.
"No one knows. He didn't give it to me, that's for sure!"
Next, the ghost took Scrooge to a
very poor part of town. Rats were running through the streets, and little children
were digging through piles of trash for scraps of food.
Three people entered a dirty shop
with big bags in their arms, and Scrooge followed them. While he watched, they
spread out what they'd brought, and showed it to the man who owned the store.
One of the thieves had brought some
pens and pencils, and a man's ring. The second had several pairs of fine clothing, a
pair of boots, and some towels. The third had brought a large roll of bedcurtains.
"He's dead now," the
thieves told the store owner. "He won't need them anymore. Nasty old man,
no one's sorry that he died!"
Scrooge began to tremble.
"Spirit," he whispered, "why are you showing me this? What am I to
learn?"
Without warning, the ghost took him
away from the ugly little shop, and into a cold bedroom in someone's big house.
Scrooge knew it was the home of the man who had died, but he was too afraid to look at the
man's face.
"Please, spirit," he
begged, "if anyone in the city is sorry that this lonely man died, will you take me
there?"
The spirit took him to Bob
Cratchit's house. But the Cratchit family was not laughing or celebrating anymore.
Tiny Tim had died, too, and they were very sad. Bob Cratchit began to cry
when he told his other children about visiting the Tiny Tim's grave. Then he tried
to smile, and told them about meeting with Fred, Mr. Scrooge's nephew. Fred had
promised to help them somehow.
"Who was the man who died,
spirit?" Scrooge asked.
Still the ghost said nothing, but
it pointed away from the house, and Scrooge slowly followed it until they came to the
graveyard. Then Scrooge saw his own name on a gravestone, and he knew that he was
the lonely, hated man who had died alone in that cold bedroom.
"Please tell me that I can
change the future!" he begged the dark ghost. "I'm not the man I was!
I swear that I'll change! I won't be mean and greedy anymore!"
The ghost did not answer him.
"Please, spirit!" Scrooge
cried, and grabbed at the spirit's black cloak.
But the ghost was gone.
Scrooge was back in his own bedroom, clutching at his curtains.
Scrooge was still alive...and he really had changed. He felt happy inside, for the
first time in his life!
Outside, the sun was shining.
Scrooge ran to the window and threw it open. A young boy was running by on
the street below him. "Boy!" he yelled. "Stop a minute!"
The boy knew how mean Mr. Scrooge
was, and he was afraid that he'd done something wrong. But he stopped and looked up.
"Yes, sir?" he asked.
"What day is it, boy?"
Mr. Scrooge yelled.
The boy could hardly believe his
ears. "Why, it's Christmas Day, sir!" he called back.
Scrooge was delighted!
"Christmas Day! I haven't missed it! The spirits did it all in one
night!" he laughed to himself.
Then he leaned back out the window.
"Boy, do you know of the store down the street with the huge turkey in the
window?"
"Of course I do, sir!"
the boy said.
Scrooge threw the boy a purse full
of coins. "Go buy it, and I'll give you a reward!" he laughed.
The boy ran down the street.
Scrooge laughed again, and started getting dressed. "I'll send that turkey to
Bob Cratchit's house," he decided. "It's even bigger than Tiny Tim!
They'll be so surprised! Oh, and I must give them presents, too!"
When the boy returned with the
turkey, Scrooge sent him off to Bob Cratchit's house. Then he went down the streets,
greeting everyone and wishing them a Merry Christmas.
Finally he reached his nephew's
house. "I'm inviting myself to supper!" he said when young Fred opened the
door. "May I come in?"
Fred and his pretty young wife were
surprised to see Mr. Scrooge, but they made him feel welcome, and he had a wonderful time.
The next morning, he decided to
spring a wonderful surprise on Bob Cratchit. He pretended to be very angry because
Bob was a few minutes late to work...but then he raised Bob's salary and promised to take
proper care of his family!
Mr. Scrooge and Tiny Tim became
very close friends, and Mr. Scrooge paid for special doctors to care for the little boy.
And so Tiny Tim lived, and learned to walk without his crutch, and he was able to
run and play like other children.
Ebenezer Scrooge was a
changed man. He gave money to the poor, and was kind to beggars, and learned to love
the people around him. And from that time on, it was always said of Scrooge that he
was a man who knew how to keep Christmas well.
And so, as Tiny Tim said on that
special Christmas morning:
"God bless us! God bless us, every
one!"
Adaptation by:
Jo Grant
