Page:Tales of the Dead.djvu/132

 ptoms of returning life being perceptible in the sexton, they still remained.

“God be praised!” exclaimed the sexton awaking; “he is at length restored to rest!”

“Who, old dad?” said the colonel.

“Our late schoolmaster.”

“What then, that head was actually his?”

“Alas! if you will only promise not to be angry with me, I will confessIt was his.”

The colonel then asked him how the idea of disturbing the schoolmaster’s corpse in particular came into his head.

“Owing to a diabolical boldness. It is commonly believed, that when a child speaks to the head of its deceased parent at the midnight hour, the head comes to life again. I was anxious to prove the fact, but shall never recover from its effects: happily, however, the head is actually restored to rest.”

They asked him how he knew it. He answered, that he had seen it all the while he was in a state of lethargy; that as the clock struck one, his wife had finished re-interring the head in its grave. And he described in the most minute manner how she held it.

The curiosity of the company assembled was so much excited by witnessing these inexplicable events, that they awaited the return of the servant