And Harry, he patted me on the back, and told me to cheer up and not
to cry, and to be a good girl; and presently, my handkerchief being
wet through, I stopped, and then John, he said--

'We'll bring it home to her yet, Harry, my boy. I'll get an order to
have poor old father exhumed, and the doctors shall tell us how much
of the arsenic that cursed old hag gave him.'

IV I don't know what you have to do to get an order to open up a
grave and look at the poor dead person after it is once put away,
but, whatever it was, John knew and did it.

We didn't tell any one except our dear old parson who buried the old
man; and he listened to all we had to say, and shook his head and
said, 'I think you are wrong--I think you are wrong,' but that was
only natural, him not liking to see his good work disturbed. But he
said he would be there.

Now, no one was told of it, and yet it seemed as if every one for
miles round knew more than we did about it.

Afore the day come, old Mrs. Jezebel up at the farm, she met me one
day, and she says, 'You're a pretty puss, aren't you, howking up my
poor dear deceased husband's remains before they're hardly cold?
Much good you'll do yourself. You'll end in the workhouse, my fine
miss, and I shall come to see you as a lady visitor when you're
dying.'

I tried to get past her, but she wouldn't let me. 'I wish you joy o'