Editing A Christmas Carol (section)

===Stave one===
''A Christmas Carol'' opens on a bleak, cold Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of [[Ebenezer Scrooge]]'s business partner, [[Jacob Marley]]. Scrooge, an ageing [[miser]], dislikes Christmas and refuses a dinner invitation from his nephew Fred. He turns away two men seeking a donation to provide food and heating for the poor and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid [[clerk]], [[Bob Cratchit]], Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom.

That night Scrooge is visited at home by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth entwined by heavy chains and money boxes forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has a single chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and must listen or be cursed to carry much heavier chains of his own.