HILLSBOROUGH--A bell clanged softly, then louder and louder, warning Scrooge that he was about to be haunted by the ghost of his former business partner.

"It's humbug still! I won't believe it," whined Allan Gurganus, as Scrooge, pom-pom swinging down the side of his plaid night cap.

"Ask me who I was," demanded Michael Malone, holding out his arms as if they were wrapped with heavy chains.

"In life, I was your partner, Jacob Marley."

The two men -- both Hillsborough residents and authors -- paired up Thursday evening to perform a holiday reading for the Hillsborough Literary Association.

Their dramatic reading of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," in English garb and accents, drew several chuckles from the audience filling the sanctuary of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Hillsborough.

Switching among several different hats and a bonnet, Malone read in character the parts of Marley, Scrooge's nephew, Bob Cratchit and a maid.

From incorrigibly grouchy to bewildered to drunkenly joyful, Gurganus was Scrooge.

"We're both great Dickens and Twain fans," Gurganus said. "It's a way of paying homage to the masters."

The two selected readings from Dickens and Twain last year as a fund-raiser for the Hospice of Raleigh, then decided to repeat it for the Literary Association event.

They realized last year that Dickens was quite popular and re-tooled the performance to include more of "A Christmas Carol" this year. They still squeezed in a little Twain by opening with his review of a Dickens public reading in New York.

"I think we get better every year," Gurganus said.

The Hillsborough Literary Association was active in the 19th century and revived five years ago. Now the group holds a half dozen or so events a year to raise money for the Burwell School Historic Site.

Located on North Churton Street in Historic Hillsborough, the 2-acre school site features the restored home of the Rev. Robert Burwell and his wife, Margaret Anna Robertson Burwell. They ran a school for girls there from 1837 to 1857.

Mary Jewell, a Hillsborough resident and UNC speech pathologist, was one of the roughly 130 people who came to hear the reading, despite the cold, rainy night.

"It's nice to meet with friends this time of year," Jewell said.