Nobody under the table , nobody under the sofa ; a small fire in the grate ; spoon and basin ready ; and the little saucepan of gruel -LRB- Scrooge had a cold in his head -RRB- upon the hob . Nobody under the bed ; nobody in the closet ; nobody in his dressing-gown , which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall . Lumber-room as usual . Old fire-guard , old shoes , two fish baskets , washing-stand on three legs , and a poker . Quite satisfied , he closed his door , and locked himself in ; double locked himself in , which was not his custom . Thus secured against surprise , he took off his cravat ; put on his dressing-gown and slippers , and his nightcap ; and sat down before the fire to take his gruel . It was a very low fire indeed ; nothing on such a bitter night . He was obliged to sit close to it , and brood over it , before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel . The fire-place was an old one , built by some Dutch merchant long ago , and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles , designed to illustrate the Scriptures . There were Cains and Abels , Pharaoh 's daughters , Queens of Sheba , Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather beds , Abrahams , Belshazzars , Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats , hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts ; and yet that face of Marley , seven years dead , came like the ancient Prophet 's rod , and swallowed up the whole . If each smooth tile had been a blank at first , with power to shape some picture on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts , there would have been a copy of old Marley 's head on every one . `` Humbug ! '' said Scrooge ; and walked across the room . After several turns he sat down again . As he threw his head back in the chair , his glance happened to rest upon a bell , a disused bell , that hung in the room , and communicated , for some purpose now forgotten , with a chamber in the highest story of the building . It was with great astonishment , and with a strange , inexplicable dread , that , as he looked , he saw this bell begin to swing . It swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a sound ; but soon it rang out loudly , and so did every bell in the house . This might have lasted half a minute , or a minute , but it seemed an hour . The bells ceased , as they had begun , together . They were succeeded by a clanking noise , deep down below , as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant 's cellar .
Scrooge then remembered XXXXX have heard that ghosts in haunted houses were described as dragging chains .
If across as by of on over that to with