Scrooge woke in the middle of a loud snore. He sat up in bed and knew that the clock had struck one again. He was ready to meet the second spirit. But when he began to wonder which curtain it would draw aside, he felt cold and nervous. He pushed all the curtains back himself and lay down again, watching the room.

He was prepared for almost any strange sight. He was not prepared for nothing. The clock struck one, but no spirit appeared. Five minutes passed, then ten, then fifteen. Still nothing came. All the while, a bright red light filled the room. At first Scrooge thought it might be a fire. Then he wondered whether the light was coming from the next room.

He got up and shuffled to the door. As his hand touched the lock, a voice called his name and told him to enter. He obeyed.

It was his own room, but it had changed. The walls and ceiling were covered with holly, mistletoe, and ivy. Berries glowed among the leaves. A great fire burned in the chimney. On the floor was a heap of food: turkeys, geese, meat, sausages, pies, puddings, oysters, chestnuts, apples, oranges, pears, and bowls of punch. On this throne of food sat a cheerful giant holding a glowing torch.

“Come in!” the spirit said. “Come in and know me better!”

Scrooge entered timidly. The spirit wore a loose green robe trimmed with white fur. Its chest and feet were bare, and a wreath of holly with shining icicles rested on its head. Its face was open and kind.

“I am the Ghost of Christmas Present,” it said. “Look upon me.”

Scrooge looked. He had never seen anything like this spirit.

“Have you never walked with my younger brothers?” the spirit asked. “I am very young myself.”

Scrooge said he did not think he had.

“More than eighteen hundred brothers,” the spirit said.

Scrooge muttered that it must be a tremendous family to provide for.

The spirit rose. Scrooge said that he had learned a lesson from the first spirit and wanted to learn from this one too.

“Touch my robe,” the spirit said.

Scrooge held it fast. The food, the fire, and the room vanished. They were standing in the streets on Christmas morning.

The weather was cold and snowy. People were clearing snow from their roofs and pavements. Boys laughed as the snow fell into the road. Shops were open, and their windows were full of fruit, nuts, and other Christmas foods. People hurried about with baskets, sometimes leaving purchases behind and running back for them. Even the shopkeepers seemed cheerful.

Church bells called people to services. Others carried their dinners to bakers' shops to be cooked. The spirit stood beside a baker's doorway and sprinkled something from his torch on the dinners as they passed. When two people began to quarrel after bumping into each other, he sprinkled them too. Their good temper returned. They said it was a shame to quarrel on Christmas Day.

Scrooge asked whether the spirit's torch had a special flavor.

“Yes,” the spirit said. “My own.”

“Would it apply to any kind of dinner?”

“To any kindly given. To a poor one most.”

“Why to a poor one most?”

“Because it needs it most.”

Scrooge then accused the spirit of wanting to close the places where poor people could enjoy a meal. The spirit protested. Scrooge explained that some people had tried to do this in the spirit's name. The spirit said that people who acted with pride, hatred, envy, or selfishness were not speaking for him. Scrooge promised to remember that.

They went on into the suburbs. The spirit could fit into small rooms as easily as large halls. He led Scrooge to Bob Cratchit's home.

Mrs. Cratchit was laying the table with her daughter Belinda. Peter Cratchit was helping with the potatoes. The two younger children came running in, excited about the smell of the goose. Martha, who had been working, arrived late. Her mother kissed her and told her to warm herself.

The children hid Martha so that Bob would be surprised. Bob came in carrying Tiny Tim. The boy had a crutch and an iron frame supporting his limbs. Bob asked where Martha was. His wife said she was not coming. Bob's spirits fell. Martha could not bear to disappoint him, so she came out and ran into his arms.

Bob asked how Tiny Tim had behaved. He said the boy had been good and thoughtful. On the way home, Tim had hoped that people would see him in church. He thought it might remind them of the miracles that healed the lame and the blind. Bob's voice trembled as he told this. He also said that Tim was growing stronger.

The family gathered for dinner. They had a goose, potatoes, apple sauce, and gravy. The goose was small, but everyone admired it. Mrs. Cratchit brought in the pudding, blazing with brandy and decorated with holly. Bob said it was the greatest success of her married life. No one admitted that the pudding was small for such a large family.

After dinner, Bob served a hot drink in two tumblers and a cup without a handle. He proposed a toast to the family. Tiny Tim said, “God bless us every one!”

Bob held the boy's hand. Scrooge watched with an interest he had never felt before.

“Spirit,” he said, “will Tiny Tim live?”

The spirit answered that he saw a vacant place by the chimney and a crutch without an owner. If the future did not change, the child would die.

Scrooge begged the spirit to say that Tim would be spared.

The spirit repeated Scrooge's own words: if Tim was likely to die, he had better do it and decrease the surplus population. Scrooge hung his head. The spirit told him not to decide who should live or die. He might be less fit to live than many poor people.

Then Bob Cratchit proposed a toast to Scrooge. Mrs. Cratchit became angry. She said she would like to give Scrooge a piece of her mind. Bob reminded her that it was Christmas and the children were present. She agreed to drink his health for Bob's sake and for the day's sake, not for his. The children drank after her, but without their usual pleasure. Tiny Tim did not care for the toast at all.

The family soon became cheerful again. Bob talked about a possible job for Peter. Martha described her work at a milliner's. Tiny Tim sang a song about a lost child traveling in the snow. The family was poor, but they were happy together.

As evening came, the spirit showed Scrooge homes where people were preparing dinners and welcoming visitors. Miners on a bleak moor sang around a fire. Men in a lighthouse wished each other a merry Christmas. On a ship, sailors thought of home and remembered people they cared for.

Then Scrooge heard a familiar laugh. It was his nephew Fred. He was in a bright room with his wife and friends. They were laughing about Scrooge's claim that Christmas was a humbug.

Fred said that Scrooge's wealth did no good to anyone. He did not make himself comfortable with it or help others. Fred was sorry for him. He meant to keep inviting him every year, even if Scrooge refused. He thought that repeated kindness might change Scrooge's feelings.

The company played music and games. Fred's wife played the harp. One tune reminded Scrooge of the music he had heard as a child at school. He softened as he remembered the first spirit's visit.

In a guessing game, Fred thought of an animal. The others asked questions. It was a live animal, rather disagreeable, that lived in London and sometimes talked. Fred laughed so hard that he had to stand up. One of the women guessed that it was Scrooge. Everyone admired the answer.

Fred proposed a toast to his uncle. He wished him a merry Christmas and a happy new year, even though Scrooge would not accept the wish from him. Scrooge wanted to thank them, but the spirit took him away before he could stay.

They saw many more homes. The spirit brought cheer to sick rooms, poor households, and places of hardship. He could not enter where people had shut him out.

As they traveled, Scrooge noticed that the spirit was growing older. His hair was turning gray.

“Are spirits' lives so short?” Scrooge asked.

“My life upon this globe is very brief,” the spirit said. “It ends tonight, at midnight.”

The bells were ringing a quarter to twelve.

Scrooge looked at the spirit's robe. Something was protruding from it. He asked whether it was a foot or a claw. The spirit said that there was flesh on it. He brought out two children.

They were a boy and a girl, thin, ragged, and miserable. They clung to the spirit's robe.

“Look here,” the spirit said. “This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.”

Scrooge asked whether they had any refuge or resource.

The spirit turned on him with his own words: “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”

The bell struck twelve. Scrooge looked around, but the spirit had gone. He remembered Marley's warning about the third spirit. Then he saw a solemn figure, draped and hooded, moving toward him like a mist along the ground.