A Christmas Carol Page #4

- Without hardly any trouble at all.

- Wasn't Mr. Scrooge angry?

- Well, you might say he was...

- and you might say he wasn't.

- Meaning what, Bob?

Meaning I got the day off and we don't

want to talk about Mr. Scrooge tonight.

Come here, you monkeys,

and see what I've got.

Chestnuts!

Marley!

Humbug.

- Who are you?

- Ask me who I was.

Who were you then?

In life, I was your partner, Jacob Marley.

Well...

- what do you want?

- Much.

- You don't believe in me?

- I don't.

What proof would you have of my reality

beyond that of your own senses?

- I don't know.

- Why do you doubt your senses?

Because a little thing affects them.

A slight disorder of the stomach

makes them liars.

You may be an undigested bit of beef,

a blot of mustard, or a crumb of cheese.

Humbug, I tell you. Humbug!

Silence!

10:
00 and all's well.

Watch! There's an intruder in my room.

- Right up, sir. Law and order.

- Here's my key. Make haste.

Good.

We'll soon see how real you are.

I made this visit for your welfare,

Ebenezer Scrooge.

- In here.

- Right-o.

There he is. Out with him!

Your intruder seems to have extruded,

if I may say so, governor.

He was here when I opened the door.

He was a spirit. Someone I know.

Of course, a spirit.

A great night for spirits, sir,

of one sort or another.

Meaning, governor,

we wouldn't mind a bit of spirit ourselves.

You may leave!

Indigestion, that's what it was.

Out with you!

Sorry we couldn't be of any assistance,

governor.

Perhaps the next spirits you have, we can.

Man of the worldly mind.

- Now do you believe in me?

- I do. I must.

But why? Why do you trouble me?

It is required of every man that the spirit

within him should walk abroad...

among his fellow men.

If that spirit goes not forth in life,

it must do so after death.

- You are bound in heavy chains.

- I wear the chain I forged in life.

Is its pattern strange to you?

The chain you will bear

was full as heavy and as long as this...

seven Christmas Eves ago.

It must be a ponderous chain by now.

Jacob. Old Jacob Marley...

- have you no comfort for me?

- None.

And none for myself.

In life, my spirit never walked beyond...

the narrow limits

of our money-changing hole...

and weary journeys lie before me.

- You travel fast?

- On the wings of the wind.

You must have covered a great quantity

of ground in seven years.

Captive, bound, and double-ironed.

No space of regret can make amends

for the wasted opportunities of one life.

Poor and ignorant Scrooge.

Yet, such was I.

But you were always

a good man of business, Jacob.

Business. Mankind was my business.

The common welfare was my business.

Charity, mercy, forbearance,

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