Bob Cratchit is Scrooge's clerk and works in unpleasant conditions without complaint. He obeys Scrooge's rules and is timid about asking to go home to his family early on Christmas Eve.

It is cold, biting weather and Scrooge is in his 'counting-house' with his eye on his clerk, Bob Cratchit. Scrooge's nephew - Fred - enters and invites his uncle to Christmas dinner the following ...