`` You might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years , '' said Scrooge . The Ghost , on hearing this , set up another cry , and clanked its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night , that the Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance . `` Oh ! captive , bound , and double-ironed , '' cried the phantom , `` not to know that ages of incessant labour , by immortal creatures , for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed ! Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere , whatever it may be , will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness ! Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life 's opportunities misused ! Yet such was I ! Oh , such was I ! '' `` But you were always a good man of business , Jacob , '' faltered Scrooge , who now began to apply this to himself . `` Business ! '' cried the Ghost , wringing its hands again . `` Mankind was my business . The common welfare was my business ; charity , mercy , forbearance , and benevolence were , all , my business . The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business ! '' It held up its chain at arm 's length , as if that were the cause of all its unavailing grief , and flung it heavily upon the ground again . `` At this time of the rolling year , '' the spectre said , `` I suffer most . Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down , and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode ? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me ? '' Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre going on at this rate , and began to quake exceedingly . `` Hear me ! ''
XXXXX the Ghost .
Were conducted cried going got held know make misused turned