A Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Past

When Scrooge woke, the church bell was striking twelve, and he lay awake in the dark, waiting for the hour when Marley had said the first spirit would come.At last the bell rang out a deep, sad ONE, light flashed up in the room, and a hand pulled back the curtains of his bed.The visitor was a strange figure, small like a child but with long white hair like an old man, and a bright, clear light shone up from the top of its head.

“I am the Ghost of Christmas Past,” it said in a soft, gentle voice. “Long past?” asked Scrooge. “No. Your past.”The Ghost took him gently by the arm, and together they passed straight through the wall and out onto a country road covered in snow.“Good heavens!” cried Scrooge, his lip trembling. “I grew up in this place. I was a boy here!”

Happy boys rode past on ponies, shouting “Merry Christmas!” to each other, and Scrooge knew every one of them by name.“These are only shadows of the things that have been,” said the Ghost. “They cannot see us.”Then it led him to an old school, where one lonely boy sat reading by a weak fire, left behind while everyone else went home for Christmas.Scrooge sat down and wept to see his poor forgotten self, and he quietly wished he had given something to the boy who sang a carol at his door the night before.

In the next Christmas, his little sister Fan ran in, threw her arms around him, and cried, “I have come to bring you home, dear brother!”“She always had a large heart,” said the Ghost. “She died a young woman, and had one child — your nephew.” Scrooge answered only “Yes,” and looked uneasy.

Next they stood in a warehouse where young Scrooge had worked as an apprentice, and his kind old master, Mr. Fezziwig, was throwing a Christmas Eve party for everyone.There was music, dancing, cake and laughter, and at eleven o’clock Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig shook every guest’s hand and wished them a merry Christmas.“He spent only a few pounds,” said the Ghost. “It isn’t that,” said Scrooge. “The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”Then he stopped, and admitted that he would like to say a word or two to his own clerk just now.

The last shadow showed Scrooge as a younger man, sitting beside a young woman named Belle, whose eyes were full of tears.“Another idol has taken my place in your heart,” she said softly. “A golden one.” And because he loved money more than her, she set him free.“Spirit, show me no more!” cried Scrooge. He pushed the Ghost’s cap down over its light with all his strength, and fell into a heavy sleep in his own bed.