Description

A BUDGET OF CHRISTMAS TALES

200 pages 

Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his
burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner.
Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put
his hand to.
Old Marley was dead as a door-nail.
Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he
were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole
administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner.
And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an
excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnized it with an
undoubted bargain.
The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no
doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can
come of the story I am going to relate.
Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterward, above the
warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley.