Instead of soft turf and springy heather , he met great patches of flat limestone rock , just like ill-made pavements , with deep cracks between the stones and ledges , filled with ferns ; so he had to hop from stone to stone , and now and then he slipped in between , and hurt his little bare toes , though they were tolerably tough ones ; but still he would go on and up , he could not tell why . What would Tom have said if he had seen , walking over the moor behind him , the very same Irishwoman who had taken his part upon the road ? But whether it was that he looked too little behind him , or whether it was that she kept out of sight behind the rocks and knolls , he never saw her , though she saw him . And now he began to get a little hungry , and very thirsty ; for he had run a long way , and the sun had risen high in heaven , and the rock was as hot as an oven , and the air danced reels over it , as it does over a limekiln , till everything round seemed quivering and melting in the glare . But he could see nothing to eat anywhere , and still less to drink . The heath was full of bilberries and whimberries ; but they were only in flower yet , for it was June . And as for water ; who can find that on the top of a limestone rock ? Now and then he passed by a deep dark swallow-hole , going down into the earth , as if it was the chimney of some dwarfs house underground ; and more than once , as he passed , he could hear water falling , trickling , tinkling , many many feet below . How he longed to get down to it , and cool his poor baked lips ! But , brave little chimney-sweep as he was , he dared not climb down such chimneys as those . So he went on and on , till his head spun round with the heat , and he thought he heard church-bells ringing a long way off . `` Ah ! '' he thought , `` where there is a church there will be houses and people ; and , perhaps , some one will give me a bit and a sup . '' So he set off again , to look for the church ; for he was sure that he heard the bells quite plain . And in a minute more , when he looked round , he stopped again , and said , `` Why , what a big place the world is ! '' And so it was ; for , from the top of the mountain he could see -- what could he not see ? Behind him , far below , was Harthover , and the dark woods , and the shining salmon river ; and on his left , far below , was the town , and the smoking chimneys of the collieries ; and far , far away , the river widened to the shining sea ; and little white specks , which were ships , lay on its bosom . Before him lay , spread out like a map , great plains , and farms , and villages , amid dark knots of trees . They all seemed at his very feet ; but he had sense to see that they were long miles away . And to his right rose moor after moor , hill after hill , till they faded away , blue into blue sky .
But XXXXX him and those moors , and really at his very feet , lay something , to which , as soon as Tom saw it , he determined to go , for that was the place for him .
Before Behind at between from in of off over to