SCROOGE and MARLEY (Deceased) by Paul Curtis (the first e reader .txt) 📕

office was closed in the merest twinkling of an eye
And the clerk in the spirit of the season bad the office goodbye
With the ends of his white comforter dangling below his waist
He made his way home to Camden Town with great haste
Stopping only to take turns with a group of boys on a slide
Only about twenty times at the end of the lane near Cheapside


VERSE 8 – A VERY UNEXPECTED VISITOR


Ebeneezer Scrooge took his melancholy dinner alone
In his usual melancholy tavern “The Regents Throne”
And after all the daily newspapers had been duly read
Scrooge buttoned up his coat and went home to bed
He lived in the chambers, which were once the property
Of his deceased friend and partner Mr. Jacob Marley
They were a gloomy suite of rooms in a crumbling pile
Tucked away in a back alley Close to the square mile
It was old, dreary and but for Scrooge nobody lived in it
As all the other rooms all being used as offices to be let
The fog and frost hung about the doorway of the building
So That Scrooge could only find the keyhole by feeling
Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular
About the knocker on the door neither strange or peculiar
Except that it was large and in the form of a lion’s head
It was in all other respects it was quite usual as I said
It’s a fact, that Scrooge had seen it night and morning
From his first day there to the last and every one during
Bearing in mind that Scrooge had not thought in any way
Of Marley since mention of his dead partner earlier that day
So then how could it happen that Scrooge, key in the door
Saw in the knocker, Marleys face who wasn’t alive anymore
Not an angry face but looked as he did before he was dead
With ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead
Moments past As Scrooge looked hard at this phenomenon
And then it was a knocker again and Marleys face was gone
To say that he was not startled or scared would be untrue
He unlocked the door and entered what else was he to do
He did pause for a moment before he shut the door
And he did look cautiously behind it but did no more
There were only screws and nuts to hold the knocker
So he said "Pooh, pooh!" and slammed it like thunder
He fastened the door, and walked slowly across the hall
And up the stairs lit by his candle careful not to fall
The staircase was so wide and gloomy, as the light was dim
He notioned he saw hearse and six white horses ahead of him
Scrooge dismissed it a trick of the light or lack of it
And continued slowly up the huge stair case to the summit
It would have been easy to have had the entrance lit
But the Darkness is cheap, and Mr. Scrooge liked it
Nonetheless before he shut and bolted his heavy door
He walked through his suite of rooms just to make sure
Nobody was under the bed or behind the door there
Nobody was under the table or indeed under the sofa
Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in
Thus secured against surprise he began his undressing
Putting on his slippers, nightcap and his dressing-gown
He prepared to take supper by the fire where he sat down
On a bitter night it was a very low fire with little fuel
Scrooge sat very close to the fire to while he took his gruel
The fireplace was paved with tiles adorned with pictures
They were many and varied and illustrated the Scriptures
Out of one of these pictures Marleys head was seen to zoom
"Humbug!" said Scrooge and got up to pace the room
After several turns, he sat down again and his gaze fell
In the direction of a dusty corner and an old disused bell
It was with great astonishment, and with a strange dread
He saw this bell start swinging as he sat gazing ahead
It swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound
But soon every bell in the house rang loudly echoing around
This might have lasted a minute, but it seemed like an hour
Then the bells ceased just as they had begun, together
They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below
Scrooge thought maybe chains dragging but he didn’t know
Then he heard the noise coming up the stairs much louder
Then coming straight towards his door louder and louder
"It's humbug still!" shouted Scrooge. "I won't believe it."
His color changed though and he was scared more than a bit
When, without a pause, it came on through the heavy door
Passing into the room before his eyes then moving no more
Scrooge thought its Marley in his usual waistcoat not dead
From his tights and boots even to the hair upon his head
The chain he drew was clasped about his middle it went
It was long, and wound about him like tail of a serpent
It was made of cash-boxes, keys, and had padlocks on
And ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in iron
His body was transparent, so that Scrooge, observing him
And looking through him could see the wall though dim
Scrooge thought this is Marley but he is decidedly dead
From his tights and boots even to the hair upon his head
He looked at the phantom but no matter what his mind says
He was still incredulous, and fought against his senses
Said Scrooge caustically "What do you want with me?"
“Much!" said the unmistakable voice of Jacob Marley
"Who are you?" Ebeneezer Scrooge asked hesitantly
"Why not ask me who I was." Replied the entity
"Who were you then?" said Scrooge with irritation
"You're very particular indeed spirit, for an apparition
"In life I was your partner,” said the spirit “Jacob Marley"
At this scrooge turned paler and his legs turned to jelly
"Can you -- can you sit down?" he asked his old partner
"I can,” said Marley surprised at the question
"Do it then." Scrooge instructed with apprehension
"You don't believe in me," observed the ghost Marley
"I do not,” said Scrooge spitting out the words defiantly
"What evidence would you want to have of my reality
Beyond that of your senses?" asked the strange entity
"I don't know," said Scrooge replying to the question
"Why do you doubt your own senses?" asked the apparition
"Because” said Scrooge “the slightest thing affects them
A slight disorder of the stomach makes cheats of them
You may be an undigested bit of beef quite possibly
Or a blob of mustard, a crumb of cheese, or piccalilli
A fragment of an underdone potato should I continue
There's certainly more of gravy than of grave about you”
Scrooge was very pleased indeed with his little jest
But he still worried about offending his uninvited guest
"You see this toothpick?" Ebeneezer Scrooge then said
"I do," Jacob Marley answered without moving his head
"You are not looking at it" Scrooge pointed out
"But I see it" said the Ghost "without any doubt"
"Well I have but to swallow without hesitation
And I’ll be plagued goblins all of my own creation
Its all a Humbug” said scrooge “Humbug I tell you!”
At this the spirit raised up causing a terrible to do
Shaking his chains as well as wailing and screaming
Poor Scrooge could just hide behind his chair shaking
"Mercy!" Scrooge pleaded "why do you trouble me?"
"Do you believe in me or not?" shouted Marley
"I do," said Scrooge. "I must oh yes spirit I do”
“But why do spirits walk the earth tell me I beg you”
"It is required of every man that the spirit within
Him should walk far abroad among his fellowmen
But if the spirits do not go forth during their life time
They are condemned to do so after deaths chime”
Again the spirit raised up causing a terrible to do
Shaking his chains screaming as well as wailing too
“Wandering and witnessing what they cannot share
But might have shared on earth bringing happiness there"
"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?"
"I wear the chain I forged in life," was the ghosts reply
"I forged this chain link by link, and yard by yard
Made of my own free will and toiled on very hard”
“The chain that you wear yourself” he said in monotone
“Was as full and as heavy and as long as my own
Seven Christmas Eves ago you’ve labored on it since
Now it is a truly ponderous chain" he saw scrooge wince
Scrooge glanced about him and could see nothing
"Jacob Speak comfort to me Jacob!" he said imploring
"I have no comfort to give," replied Jacob Marley
"That comes from other regions and ministers than me
“My spirit never walked beyond our office so help me
Never roamed beyond our money changing hole you see”
"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob”
"Business!" cried the Ghost "Mankind was my business
The common welfare was my business and forbearance
My business should have been charity mercy and benevolence
The poor should have counted in my business dealings”
Scrooge was horrified my his old partners rantings
"Hear me!" cried the Ghost. "My time is nearly gone"
"I will," said Scrooge "please lets just have it done”
"How I appear before you in the form I cannot say
I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day"
Scrooge found the idea was not at all an agreeable one
And shivered at the very thought of being spied upon
"I am here to-night to warn you” Marley began to dictate
“That you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate”
Scrooge replied "You were always a good friend to me"
"You will be haunted," resumed the Ghost, "by spirits Three"
On hearing this news made Scrooges temples throb
"Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?"
Ebeneezer demanded, in a faltering voice "It is yes"
"I -- I think I'd rather not," said Scrooge in distress
"Without their visits," Jacob Marley's Ghost said
"You cannot hope to shun the dreadful path I tread”
“Ebeneezer expect the first of the visitors to come”
Marley continued “tomorrow, when the bell tolls one"
"Jacob Couldn't I take all three of them together”
Scrooge suggested nervously “and have it all over”
"Expect the second at the same hour on the next night
The third upon the next night on the stroke of midnight”
Jacob Marley wailed “Look to see me no more Ebeneezer”
“And look at what has passed between us and remember”
After these words, the spectre backed slowly away
With each step the window inched up a little way
When Marley reached the window it was wide open
And he beckoned Ebeneezer Scrooge to join him then
When they were within two paces of each other
Marley's Ghost held up its hand to stop him coming closer
Scrooge suddenly became aware of a mournful sound
Marley's went out the window hovering above the ground
Jacobs ghost was joined by a throng of other spectre's
They had chains and scrooge knew some of these others
Marley and the other spirits and the voices faded together
And they then just disappeared into the misty weather
Scrooge then closed the window in against