Stave 1: Marley's Ghost
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt
whatever just about that. The register of his burial was
signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker,
and the chief mourner. Niggard signed it. And
Scrooge's name was nice upon `Change, for thing he
chose to put his hand to.
Old Bob marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my
own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about
a door-nail. I mightiness have been inclined, myself, to
regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery
in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors
is in the simile; and my unholy hands
shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You
will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that
Marley was as d