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3: THE FIRST OF THE THREE The quarter hour was so long, that he was
more than once convinced he must have sunk
SPIRITS into a doze and missed the clock. At length it
broke upon his listening ear.
When Scrooge awoke it was so dark that, look-
ing out of bed, he could scarcely distinguish the ‘Ding, dong!’
window from the walls of his chamber. He was
endeavouring to pierce the darkness when the ‘A quarter past,’ said Scrooge, counting.
chimes of a neighbouring church struck the four
quarters. So he listened for the hour. ‘Ding, dong!’

To his great astonishment the heavy bell went ‘Half past!’ said Scrooge.
on from six to seven, and from seven to eight,
and regularly up to twelve; then stopped. ‘Ding, dong!’
Twelve! It was past two when he went to bed.
‘A quarter to it,’ said Scrooge.
‘Why, it isn’t possible,’ said Scrooge, ‘that I
can have slept through a whole day and far ‘Ding, dong!’
into another night.’ He scrambled out of bed,
and groped his way to the window. All he could ‘The hour itself,’ said Scrooge, triumphantly,
make out was that it was still very foggy and ‘and nothing else!’
extremely cold.
He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which
He went over to bed again and thought, and it now did with a deep, dull, hollow, melan-
thought, and thought it over and over - and choly one. Light flashed up in the room upon
could make nothing of it. Every time he re- the instant, and the curtains of his bed were
solved within himself that it was all a dream, his drawn aside by a hand and Scrooge, starting
mind flew back to its first position and present- up, found himself face to face with an unearthly
ed the same problem to be worked all through, visitor.
‘Was it a dream or not?’
It was a strange figure - like a child, yet not so
Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had like a child as like an old man, viewed through
gone three quarters more, when he remem- some supernatural medium, which gave him
bered that the Ghost had warned him of a the appearance of having diminished to a
visitation when the bell tolled one. He resolved child’s proportions. Its hair, which hung about
to lie awake until the hour was past; and, con- its neck and down its back, was white as if
sidering that he could not go to sleep, this was with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle
perhaps the wisest resolution in his power. in it. It wore a tunic of the purest white and
round its waist was bound a lustrous
belt, the sheen of which was

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 School Radio

A Christmas Carol - 3: The first of the three spirits

beautiful. It held a branch of fresh green holly a long way below freezing; the grasp, though
in its hand. But the strangest thing about it was, gentle as a woman’s hand, was not to be re-
that from the crown of its head there sprung sisted. Scrooge rose: but finding that the Spirit
a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was made towards the window, clasped its robe in
visible. supplication.

‘Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was fore- ‘I am mortal,’ Scrooge remonstrated, ‘and liable
told to me?’ asked Scrooge. to fall.’

‘I am!’ ‘Let me touch my hand there,’ said the Spirit,

laying it upon his heart, ‘and you shall be up-
The voice was soft and gentle, as if, instead held!’
of being so close beside him, it were at a dis-
tance. As the words were spoken, they passed
through the wall...and stood upon an open
‘Who...and what are you?’ Scrooge demanded. country road, with fields on either side. The
city had entirely vanished. The darkness and
‘I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.’ the mist had vanished with it, for it was a clear,
cold, winter day, with snow upon the ground.
‘Long past?’ inquired Scrooge. ‘Good Heaven!’ said Scrooge, clasping his
hands together, as he looked about him. ‘I
‘No. Your past.’ know this place. I was a boy here!’

Scrooge then made bold to inquire what busi- Scrooge was conscious of a thousand
ness brought him there. thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long,
long, forgotten.
‘Your welfare!’ said the Ghost.
‘Your lip is trembling,’ said the Ghost.
Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but
could not help thinking that a night of unbroken Scrooge muttered, and begged the Ghost to
rest would have been more conducive to that lead him where he would.
end. The Spirit must have heard him thinking,
for it said immediately: ‘You recollect the way?’ inquired the Spirit.

‘Your reclamation, then. Take heed!’ ‘Remember it!’ cried Scrooge with fervour; ‘I
could walk it blindfold.’
It put out its hand as it spoke, and clasped
Scrooge gently by the arm. ‘Strange to have forgotten it for so many years!’
observed the Ghost. ‘Let us go on.’
‘Rise! and walk with me!’
They walked along the road; Scrooge
It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead recognising every gate, and post,
that the bed was warm and the thermometer and tree; until a little market

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 School Radio

A Christmas Carol - 3: The first of the three spirits

town appeared in the distance, with its bridge, They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across
its church, and winding river. Some shaggy the hall, to a door at the back of the house.
ponies now were seen trotting towards them It opened before them, and disclosed a long,
with boys upon their backs, who called to other bare, melancholy room, made barer still by
boys in carts driven by farmers. All these boys lines of plain benches and desks. At one of
were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble
until the broad fields were so full of merry fire; and Scrooge sat down upon a bench, and
music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it. wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used
to be.
‘These are but shadows of the things that have
been,’ said the Ghost. ‘They have no con- The Spirit touched him on the arm, and point-
sciousness of us.’ ed to his younger self, intent upon his reading.
Suddenly a man, in foreign garments, wonder-
The merry travellers came on; and as they fully real and distinct to look at, stood outside
came, Scrooge knew and named them every the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and
one. Why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to leading an ass laden with wood by the bridle.
see them! Why did his cold eye glisten, and his
heart leap as they went past! Why was he filled ‘Why, it’s Ali Baba!’ Scrooge exclaimed in
with gladness when he heard them give each ecstasy. ‘It’s dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes,
other Merry Christmas, as they parted at cross- I know! One Christmas time, when this solitary
roads and bye-ways, for their several homes! child was left here all alone, he did come, just
What was merry Christmas to Scrooge? What like that. And Valentine,’ said Scrooge, ‘and his
good had it ever done to him? wild brother, Orson; there they go!’

‘The school is not quite deserted,’ said the To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness
Ghost. ‘A solitary child, neglected by his of his nature on such subjects, in a most ex-
friends, is left there still.’ traordinary voice between laughing and crying;
and to see his heightened and excited face;
Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed. would have been a surprise to his business
friends in the city, indeed.
They left the high-road, by a well-remembered
lane, and soon approached a mansion of dull Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign
red brick. It was a large house, but one of bro- to his usual character, he said, in pity for his
ken fortunes; for the spacious rooms were little former self, ‘Poor boy!’ and cried again.
used, their walls were damp and mossy, their
windows broken, and their gates decayed. ‘I wish,’ Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in
Entering the dreary hall, and glancing through his pocket, and looking about him, after drying
the open doors of many rooms, they found his eyes with his cuff: ‘but it’s too late now.’
them poorly furnished, cold, and vast. There
was an earthy smell in the air, a chilly bareness ‘What’s the matter?’ asked the Spirit.
in the place, which associated itself somehow
with too much getting up by candlelight, and ‘Nothing,’ said Scrooge. ‘Nothing.
not too much to eat. There was a boy singing a

School Radio www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio © BBC 2016

 School Radio

A Christmas Carol - 3: The first of the three spirits

Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should all Christmas long, and have the merriest time
like to have given him something: that’s all.’ in all the world.’

The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its She clapped her hands and laughed, and tried
hand: saying as it did so, ‘Let us see another to touch his head; but being too little, laughed
Christmas!’ again, and stood on tiptoe to embrace him.
Then she began to drag him, in her childish
Scrooge’s former self grew larger at the words, eagerness, towards the door.
and the room became a little darker and more
dirty. The panels shrunk, the windows cracked A voice in the hall cried. ‘Bring down Master
and fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling. Scrooge’s box, there!’ and in the hall appeared
But how all this was brought about, Scrooge the schoolmaster himself, who showed young
knew not. He only knew that there he was, Scrooge and his sister into the parlour. Here
alone again, when all the other boys had gone he produced a decanter of curiously light wine,
home for the jolly holidays. and a block of curiously heavy cake and, at the
same time, sent out a servant to offer a glass of
He was not reading now, but walking up and something to the postboy.
down despairingly. Scrooge looked at the
Ghost, and with a mournful shaking of his Master Scrooge’s trunk being by this time tied
head, glanced anxiously towards the door. to the top of the coach, the children bade the
schoolmaster good-bye right willingly; and get-
It opened; and a little girl, much younger than ting into it, drove gaily down the garden-sweep,
the boy, came darting in, and putting her arms the quick wheels dashing the frost and snow
about his neck, and often kissing him, ad- from the dark leaves of the evergreens like
dressed him as her ‘Dear, dear brother.’ spray.

‘I have come to bring you home, dear brother!’ ‘Always a delicate creature, your sister,’ said
said the child, clapping her tiny hands, and the Ghost. ‘But she had a large heart!’
bending down to laugh. ‘To bring you home,
home, home!’ ‘So she had!’ cried Scrooge. ‘You’re right, I will
not deny it!’
‘Home, little Fan?’ returned the boy.
‘She died a woman,’ said the Ghost, ‘and had,
‘Yes!’ said the child, brimful of glee. ‘Home, for as I think, children.’
good and all. Home, for ever and ever.
Father is so much kinder than he used to be. ‘One child,’ Scrooge returned.
He spoke so gently to me one dear night when
I was going to bed, that I was not afraid to ask ‘True,’ said the Ghost. ‘Your nephew!’
him once more if you might come home; and he
said Yes, you should; and sent me in a coach Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and
to bring you. And you’re to be a man!’ said the answered briefly, ‘Yes.’
child, opening her eyes, ‘and you are never to
come back here; but first, we’re to be together

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