Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/376

302 802 POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF

like the voices of many choristers singing to the mighty swell of the old church organ — a strain that seemed borne to the sexton's ears upon a gentle wind, and to die away as its soft breath passed onward — but the burden of the reply was still the same, * Gabriel Grub I Gabriel Grub T

"* The goblin grinned a broader grin than before, as he said, * Well, Gabriel, what do you say to t'his ? '

" The sexton gasped for breath.

" * What do you think of this, Gabriel?' said the goblin, kicking up his feet in the air on either side the tombstone, and looking at the turned-up points with as much complacency as if he had been con- templating the most fashionable pair of Wellingtons in all Bond Street.

" * It's — it's— very curious, Sir,' replied the sexton, half dead with fright, * very curious, and very pretty, but I think I'll go back and finish my work. Sir, if you please.'

" ' Work ! ' said the goblin, * what work ? '

" ' The grave, Sir, making the grave,' stammered the sexton.

'* * Oh, the grave, eh ? ' said the goblin, * who makes graves at a time when all other men are merry, and takes a pleasure in it ? '

" Again the mysterious voices replied, ' Gabriel Grub ! Gabriel Grub I'

" * I'm afraid my friends want you, Gabriel,' said the goblin, thrusting his tongue further into his cheek than ever — and a most astonishing tongue it was — ^ I'm afraid my friends want you, Gabriel,' said the goblin.

" * Under favour. Sir,* replied the horror-struck sexton, * I don't think they can, Sir ; they don't know me, Sir ; I don't think the gentle- men have ever seen me. Sir.'

" * Oh yes they have^' replied the goblin ; * we know the man with the sulky face and the grim scowl, that came down the street to-night, throwing his evil looks at the children, and grasping his burying spade the tighter. We know the man that struck the boy in the envious malice of his heart, because the boy could be merry, and he could not. We know him, we know him.*

" Here the goblin gave a loud shrill laugh, that the echoes returned twenty fold, and throwing his legs up in the air, stood upon his head, or rather upon the very point of his sugar-loaf hat, on the narrow edge of the tombstone, from whence he threw a summerset with extraordinary agility, right to the sexton's feet, at which he planted himself in the attitude in which tailors generally sit upon the shop-board.

" ' I — I — am afraid I must leave you. Sir,* said the sexton, making tj an effort to move.

" * Leave usT said the goblin, ' Gabriel Grub going to leave u?;^ Ho! ho! ho!'

" As the goblin laughed, the sexton observed for one instant a bril-^ j liant illumination within the windows of the church, as if the wholej building were lighted up ; it disappeared, the organ pealed forth a livelyj air, and whole troops oT goblins, the very counterpart of the first oneJ poured into the churchyard, and began playing at leap-frog with thej tombstones, never stopping for an instant to take breath, but overinf