till you have turned up every other in the ground.' And I have always
obeyed him."

"And what was the reason of such a singular prohibition?" asked
Hammond.

"My father knew," said the grave-digger, "and he told me the reason
too; but since we are under the republic, we have given up remembering
those old-world legends, as we used to. The newspapers keep us from
talking in the chimney-corner; and so things go out of our minds. An
old man, with his stories of what he has seen, and what his great-
grandfather saw before him, is of little account since newspapers came
up. Stop--I remember--no, I forget,--it was something about the grave
holding a witness, who had been sought before and might be again."

"And that is all you know about it?" said Hammond.

"All,--every mite," said the old grave-digger. "But my father knew, and
would have been glad to tell you the whole story. There was a great
deal of wisdom and knowledge, about graves especially, buried out
yonder where my old father was put away, before the Stamp Act was
thought of. But it is no great matter, I suppose. People don't care
about old graves in these times. They just live, and put the dead out
of sight and out of mind."

"Well; but what have you done with the headstone?" said the Doctor.
"You can't have eaten it up."

"No, no, Doctor," said the grave-digger, laughing; "it would crack
better teeth than mine, old and crumbly as it is. And yet I meant to do