Stave two. Scrooge encounters the first of the three spirits as foretold to him by his deceased partner Jacob Marley during his ghostly visitation in Stave 1. The first is the Spirit of Christmas Past. The Spirit takes Scrooge to visit the familiar Christmases of his past all but forgotten by his latter greedy hum bug self. Revisiting old places and seeing old friends and family sparks their remembrance and softens his heart, melting his icy disposition enough that he sheds tears and questions his actions upon the previous day toward his nephew, his clerk and the boy caroling at his counting house door.