acting strangely enough during the last few days,--it is time for
us to retract. It has really gone far when we can dig up, each his
own grandfather, to make way for a railroad; when in order that
our loads may be carried more easily forward, we can violate the
resting-place of the dead. For is not overhauling our churchyard
the same as making it yield us food? What has been buried there in
Jesus' name, shall we take up in the name of Mammon? It is but
little better than eating our progenitors' bones."

"That is according to the order of nature," said Lars dryly.

"Yes, the nature of plants and animals," replied Canute.

"Are we not then animals?" asked Lars.

"Yes, but also the children of the living God, who have buried our
dead in faith upon Him; it is He who shall raise them, and not
we."

"Oh, you prate! Are not the graves dug over at certain fixed
periods anyway? What evil is there in that it happens some years
earlier?" asked Lars.

"I will tell you! What was born of them yet lives; what they built
yet remains; what they loved, taught, and suffered for is all
around us and within us; and shall we not, then, let their bodies
rest in peace?"

"I see by your warmth that you are thinking of your grandfather
again," replied Lars; "and will say it is high time you ceased to