Stave 2, Question 1

Read the excerpt below. Look up the bold words. Explain the "business" that brings The Ghost of Christmas Past to visit Scrooge.


'I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.' 

'Long Past?' inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish stature. 

'No. Your past.'  

...

[Scrooge] then made bold to inquire what business brought him there. 

'Your welfare!' said the Ghost. 

Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but 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: 

'Your reclamation, then. Take heed!' (Dickens, 19)