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Now here in the darkness he felt that the moment had come, and sat a little closer, for he knew that the boy would speak of his own accord. A bullet over their heads glanced off, knocking down a lump of frozen turf. "Hullo, old gravedigger," said the other, "don't get too fresh." "Might as well make an end of it now," said Maxime. "That's what they all seem to want."
After passing down several paths, bordered with cypress trees, by the side of many tombs, the Jew and the gravedigger arrived, at a little glade, situated near the western wall of the cemetery. The night was so dark, that scarcely anything could be seen.
"Yes, three stones as a signal," replied the gravedigger shuddering, and wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. With considerable remains of vigor, notwithstanding his great age, Samuel availed himself of the broken surface of the low wall, and climbing over it, soon disappeared. The gravedigger returned home with hasty strides.
From time to time he walked to the window, which was half open, for the air was close and heavy. A misty rain was falling from an empty sky, and the daylight was beginning to fail. The tombstones below were wet, the treed were dripping, the churchyard was desolate. In a corner under the wall lay the angular wooden lid which is laid by a gravedigger over an open grave.
A third man came up he seemed to be the gravedigger and he heard the three discussing how long they might have to wait for the parson. "The time's just about up, isn't it?" said the driver, taking out his watch. "Ay, the clerk said he'd be here by now," agreed the gravedigger, and blew his nose.
The sexton and gravedigger was nothing to my father; and he had a look about his eye to be sure there was a reason for it that you'd think he was up all night crying; though it's little indulgence he took that way. "Well, of all Mr. Callaghan's men, there was none so great a favorite as my father. The neighbors were all fond of him. "'A kind crayture, every inch of him! the women would say.
"Hullo!" he exclaimed. "You're the gravedigger, ain't you?" "Yes, sir," replied "Downy" sedately, as his original profession probably inculcated. "That were my humble calling, sir." "Why did you give it up, eh?" "Trade got slack, sir." "How was that?" "Porchmouth's too healthy a place, sir," answered the man, as grave as a judge.
While I was musing amidst these scenes in the mood of Hamlet, two old men, as my little ghost called them, appeared on the scene to answer to the gravedigger and his companion. They christened a mountain or two for me, "Kearnsarge" among the rest, and revived some old recollections, of which the most curious was "Basil's Cave."
Drumtochty gave itself to a "beerial" with chastened satisfaction, partly because it lay near to the sorrow of things, and partly because there was nothing of speculation in it. "Ye can hae little rael pleesure in a merrige," explained our gravedigger, in whom the serious side had been perhaps abnormally developed, "for ye never ken hoo it will end; but there's nae risk about a 'beerial."
This he took in good part from us; but one evening after drill, as he was crossing the yard, a hussar cried out: "Halloo, Gravedigger! help me to drag in these bundles of straw." Zébédé, turning about, replied: "My name is not Gravedigger, and you can drag in your own straw. Do you take me for a fool?" Then the other cried in a still louder tone: "Conscript, you had better come, or beware!"
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