But , if you had judged from the numbers of people on their way to friendly gatherings , you might have thought that no one was at home to give them welcome when they got there , instead of every house expecting company , and piling up its fires half-chimney high . Blessings on it , how the Ghost exulted ! How it bared its breadth of breast , and opened its capacious palm , and floated on , outpouring , with a generous hand , its bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach ! The very lamp-lighter , who ran on before , dotting the dusky street with specks of light , and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere , laughed out loudly as the Spirit passed , though little kenned the lamp-lighter that he had any company but Christmas . And now , without a word of warning from the Ghost , they stood upon a bleak and desert moor , where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about , as though it were the burial-place or giants ; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed ; or would have done so , but for the frost that held it prisoner ; and nothing grew but moss and furze , and coarse , rank grass . Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery red , which glared upon the desolation for an instant , like a sullen eye , and , frowning lower , lower , lower yet , was lost in the thick gloom of darkest night . `` What place is this ? '' asked Scrooge . `` A place where Miners live , who labour in the bowels of the earth , '' returned the Spirit . `` But they know me . See ! '' A light shone from the window of a hut , and swiftly they advanced towards it . Passing through the wall of mud and stone , they found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire . An old , old man and woman , with their children and their children 's children , and another generation beyond that , all decked out gaily in their holiday attire . The old man , in a voice that seldom rose above the howling of the wind upon the barren waste , was singing them a Christmas song ; it had been a very old song when he was a boy ; and from time to time they all joined in the chorus . So surely as they raised their voices , the old man got quite blithe and loud ; and , so surely as they stopped , his vigour sank again . The Spirit did not tarry here , but bade Scrooge hold his robe , and , passing on above the moor , sped whither ? Not to sea ? To sea . To Scrooge 's horror , looking back , he saw the last of the land , a frightful range of rocks , behind them ; and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water , as it rolled and roared , and raged among the dreadful caverns it had worn , and fiercely tried to undermine the earth .
Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks , some league or so from shore , XXXXX which the waters chafed and dashed , the wild year through , there stood a solitary lighthouse .
among as by for from if of on through without