It was Christmas Eve. Ebenezer Scrooge was in his office, the office of Scrooge and Marley. His clerk poor Bob Cratchit, was working. Suddenly, Scrooge's young nephew came into the office.
"Hello uncle. Merry Christmas!"he said happily. "Do you want to come and have Christmas dinner with us tomorrow?"
"Christmas?" Scrooge replied. "Bah! Humbug!" Scrooge hated Christmas and he refused his nephew's invitation for dinner on Christmas Day.
His nephew went away. Later two men came to the office, asking for money for the poor.
"Bah! Are there no prisons for these people?" Scrooge refused to give even a penny.
Then, when it was time to close the office, Bob Cratchit asked for the day off, because it was Christmas.
"All right," Scrooge said, "but be here early the next morning!"
That evening Scrooge was sitting in front of his fire at home when suddenly, he saw a ghost in front of him. "who are you?" Scrooge asked nervously.
"In life, I was Jacob Marley, your partner. I am wearing these chains and I can never be in peace, because when I lived, I only thought about money. But I am here to help you. You have a chance to escape my terrible destiny. Tonight three ghosts will visit you." Then the ghost of Marley disappeared.
Scrooge went to bed and fell asleep. But in the night he woke up. The figure of a strange old man appeared near his bed.
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past. Of your past," it told Scrooge. The ghost took Scrooge to scenes of Christmases from the past. In one scenes Scrooge saw himself as a boy at school. He was reading a book. All the other boys bad gone home for Christmas. In another scene Scrooge saw himself as a young man. He was talking to his girlfriend, who he didn't marry because she didn't have any money. Scrooge began to feel sadder and sadder.
"Stop! Show me no more!" he cried. Finally the ghost brought him home and Scrooge fell asleep again. Later that night, Scrooge woke up again.
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look at me!" said the second ghost, laughing. He was a large man with a beard, wearing a green robe. He took Scrooge to the house of Bob Cratchit and his family. It was cold in the house and Bob and his family were sitting around a very small Christmas pudding.
"What a wonderful pudding. Merry Christmas everyone!" cried Bob.
Scrooge felt sad, because he could see how poor the Cratchits were. Bob's smallest child, Tiny Tim, was weak and ill. The ghost finally took Scrooge to a very poor area of London. There were two poor children out in the street.
"Can't we do something to help these children?" he asked the ghost, who repeated what Scrooge had said before.