`` I made it link by link , and yard by yard ; I girded it on of my own free-will , and of my own free-will I wore it . Is its pattern strange to you ? '' Scrooge trembled more and more . `` Or would you know , '' pursued the Ghost , `` the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself ? It was full as heavy and as long as this , seven Christmas-eves ago . You have laboured on it since . It is a ponderous chain ! '' Scrooge glanced about him on the floor , in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms of iron cable , but he could see nothing . `` Jacob ! '' he said imploringly . `` Old Jacob Marley , tell me more ! Speak comfort to me , Jacob ! '' `` I have none to give , '' the Ghost replied . `` It comes from other regions , Ebenezer Scrooge , and is conveyed by other ministers , to other kinds of men . Nor can I tell you what I would . A very little more is all permitted to me . I can not rest , I can not stay , I can not linger anywhere . My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house -- mark me ; -- in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole ; and weary journeys lie before me ! '' It was a habit with Scrooge , whenever he became thoughtful , to put his hands in his breeches pockets . Pondering on what the Ghost had said , he did so now , but without lifting up his eyes , or getting off his knees .
`` You must have been very slow about it , Jacob , '' Scrooge observed XXXXX a business-like manner , though with humility and deference .
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