NOTABLE DEPARTURES FROM ORIGINAL STORY:

In #7, Scrooge does not fall asleep.

In #14, that doesn't happen.


The author wrote, immediately preceding the supposed due date:


It's not due according to two,
So this idea I must imbue,
  Into my brain,
  To stay sane,
So I don't come to school in a tutu.

----- STAVE I -----
 

There was once a very mean, old man

So cheap he would put no money in anyone's donation can

  His name was Ebenezer

  His Christmases grew ever cheaper

On Christmas cheer there was basically a ban

 

There was once a dreary eve of the twenty-five

With Mister Ebenezer, frustrated but alive

  His employee wanted the next day free

  Bob Cratchet, his name, did all but fill Scrooge with holiday glee

Scrooge asked Bob to come in at five


Then there came two donation collecters who preached:

"Blessed are those who give to the poor their reach!"

  It was a portly pair in charge

  (By the way, portly means large!)

Scrooge sent them off with an empty can and a speech

 
Soon after that, but still the same day
Fred, his own nephew, was seen coming in to say:
  "Uncle, uncle, would you eat with us tomorrow?"
  "No, kid, for it is another's soul I would have to borrow"
Scrooge had ways like that of keeping happiness at bay

Now wait, a break in our story there must be
For once in Scrooge's business there was not one and not three
  Jacob Marley was once his partner in the accounting house
  It's too bad that seven years ago today this flame was doused
So now Scrooge is alone--whatever that means to thee
 

Going home, Scrooge looked at his door knocker

He noticed his dead partner's face on his house's locker

  Jacob Marley was to the day dead exactly 7 years

  But that night the dead would be causing some fears

Scrooge just went to his room and sat in his rocker


Asleep Scrooge fell, only to be woken

Thrown from dreamland by Marley and his chain of tokens

  Marley's ghost wore a chain with weight for every misdeed

  It had cashboxes, keys, and padlocks--many indeed

Marley had lots of habits he now wishes he'd broken

Marley said Scrooge would be unhappy for a time that is long

If in the life he is still living, he did not right all his wrongs

  If Marley could go back, he would fix his mistakes

  Scrooge did not yet understand, and did not undertake

Marley said: "Three more ghosts will haunt you before the night is gone!"


----- STAVE II -----

In the night Scrooge encountered a ghost
About the size of a child, 4 feet tall at most
  This was the ghost of things that have been
  The Ghost of Christmas Past, as we know him
He will go places a-many from here to the coast


First the Ghost took Scrooge to a very small town
Scrooge grew up here, oh there was never a frown
  He visited his school and saw his friends
  He watched and enjoyed, but then remembered the ends
After reliving his past, he felt really down


And then Scrooge and the Ghost went to a boyhood home

Home to none other than Mr. Heart Of Stone

  Ebenezer's emotions welled up in his heart

  As he himself enjoyed Christmas, playing his part

Something since his childhood has chilled him to the bone

After seeing his family and seeing his friends

He saw his old mentor, his old business he tends

  Fezziwig was his name, accounting his life

  Scrooge he did train, forever cursing with strife

Scrooge became miserly at this point of his life's bends

Then all of a sudden, Scrooge was engaged to be wed!

How happy, how merry, what a rush through the head!

  Her name was Belle, she was pretty as could be

  But she dumped Mr. Scrooge on account of his greed

Mr. Scrooge, about then, might as well have been dead


After seeing all that, Scrooge grew very mad
Watching his past, himself a young lad
  He begged the Ghost to take him back
  The ghost decided to cut some slack

So Scrooge found himself at his pad


----- STAVE III -----

Knowing there was another ghost to see
Scrooge looked around his house to be
  Sure he would notice
  Even a fly's eye out of focus
So wow did he see the ghost the size of a tree

The Ghost of Plenty was he, indeed

Of Christmas Present, he himself decreed

  He was surrounded with eatings

  He had green-colored sheetings

In eating he did succeed

The Green Giant showed Scrooge the cheer of the day

Of the Christmas spirit making people happy in every way

  The Cratchet family on Bob's day home

  Was merry making with a purse of only stones
Scrooge was impressed with how many were gay today!


Scrooge went to Fred's party after all

And when there, he simply had a ball

  Even though he was as invisible as a ghost

  He had so much fun! I'd say the most!
Now Scrooge wished he had said yes to Fred's call

 

After knowing of all the holiday cheer

Of all the happiness this one day of the year

  Scrooge found one family not so cheery

  In fact, the air collapsed into more of a "dreary"
As Scrooge learned the Cratchets' fear


Tiny Tim Cratchet was nearing his death

Perhaps even breathing his very last breath

  Scrooge asked the Ghost if Tiny Tim would live

  But the Ghost said Tim needed what Scrooge couldn't give
According to the present then, the future is death

----- STAVE IV -----

 

The third and last ghost was clad in black

His presence, to Scrooge, in the head was a smack

  The Ghost of Christmas Future, scary to see

  Fortold the future: how things turn out to be

If only this ghost had spoke, but it was speech he did lack

 

Ebenezer visited people discussing his death

From brokers to borrowers to those on last breath

  Everyone he saw was happy to find

  That old Scrooge was no longer among our kind
There were no missers of Scrooge's last breath


The Ghost nextly takes Scrooge to somewhere sad

The Cratchets house, oh no! Too bad!

  Tiny Tim had died hours before
  The family as a whole was saddened and wore
The silence of the Ghost almost made him seem glad

Scrooge, disturbed greatly to find Tiny Tim dead
Almost screamed, "Can I wake him up from his bed?"
  But Scrooge knew he would get no answer
  From this Ghost of Christmas disaster

And so the Ebenezer heart was of lead

The last straw, though, was when he saw a grave

With only the following inscribed in a stave:

  "Scrooge, Ebenezer"

  "-- Who was an old weezer"

With the last part by hand in stone saved
25

 

Overcome by emotion, Scrooge broke down

He asked the Ghost

 

Scrooge begged for mercy, asked just for a chance

Won

  ghost exploded (not really)

?

 

----- STAVE V -----


This was all in one night, and nothing was real

The spirits themselves only appeared to deal

  In fears and tragedy

  But in reality
Everyone was having their Christmas morning meal

 

Ebenezer Scrooge at this point in time

Was feeling guilty for all the other reason and rhyme

  So for the Cratchets a turkey that won a prize

  For alone the factor of its size

Did Scrooge buy for the Cratchets in their prime

Scrooge ran by chance into an earlier guy

A portly gentlemen who he earlier passed on by

  Scrooge signed a paper

  And the poor's fortune grew greater

Scrooge had never felt better, without a lie

When he got to work, he decided to play a game at his gate

He pretended to be angry at Bob when he came in late

  "You're 18.5 minutes late, Cratchet"

  "So I'll raise your salary up a ratchet"

To Bob that was all Scrooge said to change Tim's fate

It was like Scrooge became a father to Tim

They would play and learn and enjoy the trim 

  Of next year's Christmas tree

  When EVERYONE was filled with holiday glee

Suddenly, the chances of Tiny Tim's death were slim