介绍： When Scrooge awoke, he lay in bed, endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes. The Bell told twelve, but it was past two when he went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have got into.
斯克鲁奇醒来时，躺在床上，努力用他像雪貂一样锐利的眼睛透过黑暗看去。教堂的钟声响了，一直敲到十二下；但他...

介绍： When Scrooge awoke, he lay in bed, endeavouring to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes. The Bell told twelve, but it was past two when he went to bed. The clock was wrong. An icicle must have got into.
斯克鲁奇醒来时，躺在床上，努力用他像雪貂一样锐利的眼睛透过黑暗看去。教堂的钟声响了，一直敲到十二下；但他上床那时候已经两点多了。钟不准。一定是冰凌掉到机件里面去了。
‘Could it have slept through a whole day and night? Perhaps something had happened to the sun, and it was twelve at noon!’
“我不可能睡了整整一天，又睡到第二天夜里呀。难道是太阳出了毛病，现在是中午十二点钟？”
Lying behind the curtains of his bed, he thought of his encounter with Marley's ghost. Thought, and thought, and thought it over and over, and could make nothing of it. The more he thought, the more perplexed he was, ‘Was it a dream or not?’
斯克鲁奇躺在帐子后的床上，想起遇到马利的鬼魂。他左思右想，想了又想，还是理不出头绪来。他越想越糊涂：“这究竟是不是一场梦呢？”
Then he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one.
他突然想起，鬼魂跟他说过，钟敲一点的时候，会有精灵上门。
‘Ding, dong! A quarter past Twelve.’
“叮，咚！十二点一刻。”
‘Ding, dong! Half-past!’
“叮，咚！十二点半。”
‘Ding, dong! A quarter to One!’
“叮，咚！一点差一刻。”
‘Ding, dong! One!’
“叮，咚！一点整。”
‘The hour itself, and nothing else!’
“整一个钟头到了，啥事都没有！”
Happens suddenly, the church clock tolled a deep, dull, hollow melancholy One, shaking the room.
就在这时，钟“当”地响了一声，声音深沉滞重，空洞悲凉，响彻房间。
Scrooge sat up with his knees at his chest, and watched in terror as the curtains of his bed were slowly drawn aside by a hand. Yes, a hand.
斯克鲁奇坐起来，把膝盖放在胸前，惊恐地看着他床上的帐子被一只手给拉到了一边。是的，一只手在拉帐子。
And Scrooge found himself face to face with a very strange figure, like a child: yet not so much like a child as like an old man, diminished to a child's proportions. Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was white as if with age; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it.
斯克鲁奇发现这张脸就在他的面孔旁边，它就像个小孩儿：不过，说它像小孩儿，还不如说它更加像老头儿合适，慢慢缩成像小孩儿那样大。它的头发披在脖子四周，垂到了背脊上，头发雪白，仿佛已经上了年纪；可是脸上却没有一丝皱纹。
But that was not the strangest thing. The figure fluctuated: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body.
而这并不是最奇怪的。它的形体也不断变化；它一会儿看上去只有一条胳膊，一会儿只有一条腿，一会儿看上去有二十条腿，一会儿只有两条腿却没有脑袋，一会儿只有脑袋却没有躯体。
'Who, and what are you?'
“您是谁，您又是干什么的呢？”
‘I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.’
“我是‘过去的圣诞节的精灵’。”
‘Long Past?’
“很遥远的过去吗？”
‘Your past.’
“是你的过去。”
‘What business brings you here?’
“您来这儿究竟有何贵干。”
‘Your welfare!’
“是为你好！”
Scrooge could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard him thinking, for it said immediately:
斯克鲁奇但心里却禁不住嘀咕说，那还不如让他不受打扰好好睡上一夜的觉呢。他这个心思一定给精灵看出来了，因为它立刻就说：
‘Your salvation, then. Give me your hand.’
“那么，是为了让你改过自新。把你的手伸过来。”
The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand, was not to be resisted. The spirit drew Scrooge towards the window.
他轻轻抓住他的胳膊，那只手尽管像女人那么轻柔，但却不容抗拒。精灵把斯克鲁奇拉到窗户边。
‘Spirit, I am mortal and liable to fall.’
“精灵，我是个凡人，飞不起来。”
‘Bear but a touch of my hand there,’ said the Spirit. As the words were spoken, they passed not through the window, but through the wall.
“只要让我的手在这地方碰一下，”精灵说。话还没说完，他们就从墙壁而不是窗户穿了过去。
Scrooge in his slippers, a night gown, a night cap. But where were they, the yard, the other buildings. The city itself had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it was to be seen. 
斯克鲁奇只穿着拖鞋、晨衣和睡帽。他们到了哪呢？这里有庭院，还有其他建筑。城市完全不见了。没有留下一点儿痕迹。
The darkness and the fog had vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold night and with snow upon the ground. And they stood upon an open country road with frosty fields on either side.
黑暗和雾气也同城市一起消失了，冬日的晚上天气晴朗寒冷，地上积着雪。他们站在一条开阔的乡间道路上，路两边都是寒冷的田地。
‘Good Heavens, Spirit,’ cried Scrooge, ‘I know this place. I grew up here as a boy. I was born here.’
“天哪，精灵，”斯克鲁奇说，“我知道这个地方，我是在这个地方长大的呀。我就出生在这儿啊！”