The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

Charles Dickens' The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time is the fifth and last of Dickens' Christmas novellas. The story is about the spirit of the holidays harking back to the first of the series, A Christmas Carol. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain centers around a Professor Redlaw, a chemistry teacher who often broods over wrongs done him and grief from his past life and those close to him. He is haunted by a spirit who proposes to Redlaw that he can allow him to "forget the sorrow, wrong, and trouble you have known...to cancel their remembrance..." Redlaw is hesitant at first, but finally agrees. However, before the spirit vanishes it imposes an additional consequence: "The gift that I have given you, you shall give again, go where you will."