`` Putting it on him to be buried in , to be sure , '' replied the woman with a laugh . `` Somebody was fool enough to do it , but I took it off again . If calico a n't good enough for such a purpose , it is n't good enough for anything . It 's quite as becoming to the body . He ca n't look uglier than he did in that one . '' Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror . As they sat grouped about their spoil , in the scanty light afforded by the old man 's lamp , he viewed them with a detestation and disgust which could hardly have been greater , though they had been obscene demons , marketing the corpse itself . `` Ha , ha ! '' laughed the same woman when old Joe , producing a flannel bag with money in it , told out their several gains upon the ground . `` This is the end of it , you see ! He frightened every one away from him when he was alive , to profit us when he was dead ! Ha , ha , ha ! '' `` Spirit ! '' said Scrooge , shuddering from head to foot . `` I see , I see . The case of this unhappy man might be my own . My life tends that way now . Merciful Heaven , what is this ? '' He recoiled in terror , for the scene had changed , and now he almost touched a bed : a bare , uncurtained bed : on which , beneath a ragged sheet , there lay a something covered up , which , though it was dumb , announced itself in awful language . The room was very dark , too dark to be observed with any accuracy , though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse , anxious to know what kind of room it was .
A pale light , rising in the outer air , fell straight upon the bed : and on it , plundered and bereft , unwatched , unwept , uncared XXXXX , was the body of this man .
If about beneath for from in of than though with