"In an old abbey town, down in this part of the country,
a long, long while ago- so long, that the story must be a true
one, because our great grandfathers implicitly believed it- there
officiated as sexton and grave-digger in the church yard, one
Gabriel Grub. It by no means follows that because a man is a sexton,
and constantly surrounded by emblems of morality, therefore he
should be a morose and melancholy man; your undertakers are the
merriest fellows in the world, and I once had the honour of being
on intimate terms with a mute, who in private life, and off duty,
was as comical and jocose a little fellow as ever chirped out
a devil-may-care song, without a hitch in his memory, or drained
off a good stiff glass of grog without stopping for breath. But
notwithstanding these precedents to the contrary, Gabriel grub
was an ill-conditioned, cross grained, surly fellow- a morose
and lonely man, who consorted with nobody but himself, and an
old wicker bottle which fitted into his large deep waistcoat pocket;
and who eyed each merry face as it passed him by, with such a
deep scowl of malice and ill humour, as it was difficult to meet
without feeling something the worse for.
"A little before twilight one Christmas eve, Gabriel shouldered
his spade, lighted his lantern, and betook himself towards the
old churchyard, for he had got a grave to finish by next morning,
and feeling very low he thought it might raise his spirits perhaps,
if he went on with his work at once. As he wended his way, up
the ancient street, he saw the cheerful light of the blazing fires
gleam through the old casements , and heard the loud laugh and
cheerful shouts of those who were assembled around them; he marked
the bustling preparations for next day's good cheer, and smelt
the numerous savoury odours consequent thereupon, as they steamed
up from the kitchen windows in clouds. All this was gall and wormwood
to the heart of Gabriel Grub; and as groups of children, bounded
out of the houses, tripped across the road, and were met, before
they could knock at opposite door, by half a dozen curly-headed
little rascals who crowded around them as they flocked up stairs
to spend the evening in their Christmas games, Gabriel smiled
grimly, and clutched the handle of his spade with a firmer grasp,
as he thought of measles, scarlet-fever, thrush, hooping cough,
and a good many other sources of consolation beside.
"In this happy frame of mind, Gabriel strode along, returning
a short, sullen growl to the good-humoured greetings of such of
his neighbors as now and then passed him, until he turned into
the dark lane which led to the churchyard. Now Gabriel had been
looking forward to reaching the dark lane, because it was, generally
speaking, a nice gloomy mournful place, into which the town's
people did not much care to go, except in broad day-light, and
when the sun was shining; consequently he was not a little indignant
to hear a young urchin roaring out some jolly song about a merry
Christmas, in this very sanctuary, which had been called Coffin
Lane ever since the days of the old abbey, and the time of the
shaven headed monks. As Gabriel walked on, and the voice drew
nearer, he found it proceeded from a small boy, who was hurrying
along, to join one of the little parties in the old street, and
who, partly to keep himself company, and partly to prepare himself
for the occasion, was shouting out the song at the highest pitch
of his lungs. So Gabriel waited until the boy came up, and then
dodged him into a corner, and rapped him over the head with his
lantern five or six times, just to teach him to modulate his voice.
And as the boy hurried away with his hand to his head, singing
quite a different sort of tune, Gabriel Grub chuckled very heartily
to himself, and entered the church yard, locking the gate behind
him.
"He took off his coat, set down his lantern, and getting
into the unfinished grave, worked at it for an hour or so, with
right good will. But the earth was hardened with the frost, and
it was no very easy manner to break it up, and shovel it out;
and although there was a moon, it was a very young one, and shed
little light upon the grave, which was in the shadow of the church.
At any other time, these obstacles would have made Gabriel Grub
very moody and miserable, but he was so well pleased with having
stopped the small boy 's singing, that he took little heed of
the scanty progress he had made, and looked down into the grave
when he had finished work for the night, with grim satisfaction,
murmuring as he gathered up his things-
Brave lodgings for one, brave lodgings for one,
A few feet of cold earth, when life is done;
A stone at the head, a stone at the feet,
A rich, juicy meal for the worms to eat;
Rank grass over head, and damp clay around,
Brave lodgings for one, these, in holy ground!
" 'Ho! ho!' laughed Gabriel Grub, as he sat himself down
on a flat tombstone which was a favourite resting place of his;
and drew forth his wicker bottle. ' A coffin at Christmas- a Christmas
Box. Ho! ho! ho!'
" 'Ho! ho! ho!' repeated a voice which sounded close behind
him.
"Gabriel paused in some alarm, in the act of raising the
wicker bottle to his lips, and looked round. The bottom of the
oldest grave about him, was not more still and quiet, than the
churchyard in the pale moonlight. The cold hoar frost glistened
on the tomb stones, and sparkled like rows of gems among the stone
carvings of the old church. The snow lay hard and crisp upon the
ground, and spread over the thickly-strewn mounds of earth, so
white and smooth a cover, that it seemed as if corpses lay there,
hidden only by their winding sheets. Not the faintest rustle broke
the profound tranquillity of the solemn scene. Sound itself appeared
to be frozen up, all was so cold and still.
" 'It was the echoes,' said Gabriel Grub, raising the bottle
to his lips again.
" 'It was not,' said a deep voice.
"Gabriel started up, and stood rooted to the spot with astonishment
and terror; for his eyes rested on a form which made his blood
run cold.
"Seated on an upright tombstone, close to him, was a strange
unearthly figure, whom Gabriel felt at once, was no being of this
world. His long fantastic legs which might have reached the ground,
were cocked up, and crossed after a quaint, fantastic fashion;
his sinewy arms were bare, and his hands rested on his knees.
On his short round body he wore a close covering, ornamented with
small slashes; and a short cloak dangled at his back; the collar
was cut into curious peaks, which served the goblin in lieu of
ruff or neckerchief, and his shoes curled up at the toes into
long points. On his head he wore a broad-brimmed sugar loaf hat,
garnished with a single feather. The hat was covered with white
frost, and the goblin looked as if he sat on the same tombstone
very comfortably, for two or three hundred years. He was sitting
perfectly still; his tongue was put out, as if in derision; and
he was grinning at Gabriel Grub with such a grin as only a Goblin
could call up.
" 'It was not the echoes,' said the goblin.
"Gabriel Grub was paralysed, and could make no reply.
" 'What do you do here on Christmas eve?' said the goblin
sternly.
" 'I came to dig a grave Sir,' stammered Gabriel Grub.
" 'What man wanders around graves and churchyards on such
a night as this?' said the goblin.
" 'Gabriel Grub! Gabriel Grub!' screamed a wild chorus of
voices that seemed to fill the church-yard. Gabriel looked fearfully
round- nothing was to be seen.
" 'What have you got in that bottle?' said the goblin.
" 'Hollands, Sir,' replied the sexton, trembling more than
ever; for he had bought it of the smugglers, and he thought that
perhaps his questioner might be in the excise department of the
goblins.
" 'Who drinks Hollands alone, and in a church-yard, on such
a night as this?' said the goblin.
" 'Gabriel Grub! Gabriel Grub!' exclaimed the wild voices
again.
"The goblin leered maliciously at the terrified sexton, and
then raising his voice, exclaimed-
" 'And who, then, is our fair and lawful prize?'
"To this inquiry, the chorus replied in a strain that sounded
like the voices of many choristers singing in 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! Gabriel Grub!'
"The goblin grinned a broader grin than before, as he said,
'Well, Gabriel, what do you say to this?'
"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 of the tombstone,
and looking at the turned up points with as much complacency as
if he had been contemplating 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 pleasure in
it?'
"Again the mysterious voices replied, 'Gabriel Grub! Gabriel
Grub!'
" '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 gentlemen 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 who 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 up on the very point of his sugar-loaf
hat, on the narrow edge of the tombstone, from which he threw
a somerset 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 an effort to move.
" 'Leave us!' said the goblin, 'Gabriel Grub going to leave
us. Ho!ho!ho!'
"As the goblin laughed, the sexton observed for one instant
a brilliant illumination within the windows of the church, as
if the whole building were lighted up; it disappeared, the organ
pealed forth a lively air, and whole troops of goblins, the very
counterpart of the first one, poured into the churchyard, and
began playing at leap-frog with the tombstones, never stopping
for an instant to take breath, but overing the highest among them,
one after the other, with the most marvelous dexterity. The first
goblin was a most astonishing leaper, and none of the others could
come near him; even in the extremity of his terror the sexton
could not help observing, that while his friends were content
to leap over the common-sized gravestones, the first one took
the family vaults, iron railings and all, with as much ease as
if they had been so many street posts.
"At last the game reached to a most exciting pitch; the organ
played quicker and quicker, and the goblins leaped faster and
faster, coiling themselves up, rolling head over heels upon the
ground, and bounding over the tombstones like foot-balls. The
sexton's brain whirled round with the rapidity of the motion he
beheld, and his legs reeled beneath him, as the spirits flew before
his eyes, when the goblin king suddenly darted towards him, laid
his hand upon his collar, and sank with him through the earth.
"When Gabriel Grub had had time to fetch his breath, which
the rapidity of his descent had for the moment taken away, he
found himself in what appeared to be a large cavern, surrounded
on all sides by crowds of goblins, ugly and grim; in the centre
of the room, on an elevated seat, was stationed his friend of
the churchyard; and close beside him stood Gabriel Grub himself,
without the power of motion.
" 'Cold to-night,' said the king of the goblins, 'very cold.
A glass of something warm here.'
"At this command, half a dozen officious goblins, with a
perpetual smile upon their faces, whom Gabriel Grub imagined to
be courtiers, on that account, hastily disappeared, and presently
returned with a goblet of liquid fire, which they presented to
the king.
' 'Ah!' said the goblin, whose cheeks and throat were quite transparent,
as he tossed down the flame, 'This warms one, indeed: bring a
bumper of the same, for Mr. Grub.'
"It was in vain for the unfortunate sexton to protest that
he was not in the habit of taking anything warm at night; for
one of the goblins held him while another poured the blazing liquid
down his throat, and the whole assembly screeched with laughter
as he coughed and choked, and wiped away the tears which gushed
plentifully from his eyes, after swallowing the burning draught.
" 'And now,' said the king, fantastically poking the taper
corner of his sugar-loaf hat into the sexton's eye, and thereby
occasioning him the most exquisite pain-'And now, show the man
of misery and gloom a few of the pictures from our own great storehouse.'
"As the goblin said this, a thick cloud which obscured the
further end of the cavern, rolled gradually away, and disclosed,
apparently at a great distance, a small and scantily furnished,
but neat and clean apartment. A crowd of little children were
gathered round a bright fire, clinging to their mother's gown,
and gambolling round her chair. The mother occasionally rose,
and drew aside the window-curtain as if to look for some expected
object; a frugal meal was ready spread upon the table, and an
elbow chair was placed near the fire. A knock was heard at the
door: the mother opened it, and the children crowded round her,
and clapped their hands for joy, as their father entered. He was
wet and weary, and shook the snow from his garments, as the children
crowded round him, seizing his cloak, hat, stick, and gloves,
with busy zeal, ran with them from the room. Then as he sat down
to his meal before the fire, the children climbed about his knee,
and the mother sat by his side, and all seemed happiness and comfort.
"But a change came upon the view, almost imperceptibly. The
scene was altered to a small bed-room, where the fairest and youngest
child lay dying; the roses had fled from his cheek, and the light
form his eye; and even as the sexton looked upon him with an interest
he had never felt or known before, he died. His youngest brothers
and sisters crowded round his little bed, and seized his tiny
hand, so cold and heavy; but they shrunk back from its touch,
and looked with awe on his infant face; for calm and tranquil
as it was, and sleeping in rest and peace as the beautiful child
seemed to be, they saw that he was dead, and they knew that he
was an angel looking down upon, and blessing them, from a bright
and happy Heaven.
"Again the light cloud passed across the picture, and again
the subject changed. The father and mother were old and helpless
now, and the number of those about them was diminished more than
half; but content and cheerfulness sat on every face, and beamed
in every eye, as they crowded round the fireside, and told and
listened to old stories of earlier and bygone days. Slowly and
peacefully the father sank into the grave, and, soon after, the
sharer of all his cares and troubles followed him to a place of
rest and peace. The few, who yet survived them, knelt by their
tomb, and watered the green turf which covered it with their tears;
then rose and turned away, sadly and mournfully, but not with
bitter cries, or despairing lamentations, for they knew that they
should one day meet again; and once more they mixed with the busy
world, and their content and cheerfulness were restored. The cloud
settled upon the picture, and concealed it from the sexton's view.
"'What do you think of that?' said the goblin, turning his
large face towards Gabriel Grubs.
"Gabriel murmured out something about its being very pretty,
and looked somewhat ashamed, as the goblin bent his fiery eyes
upon him.
" 'You a miserable man!' said the goblin in a tone of excessive
contempt. 'You!' He appeared disposed to add more, but indignation
choked his utterance, so he lifted up one of his very pliable
legs, and flourishing it above his head a little, to insure his
aim, administered a good sound kick to Gabriel Grub; immediately
after which, all the goblins in waiting crowded round the wretched
sexton, and kicked him without mercy, according to the established
and invariable custom of courtiers upon earth, who kick whom royalty
kicks, and hug who royalty hugs.
" 'Show him some more,' said the king of the goblins.
"At these words the cloud was again dispelled, and a rich
and beautiful landscape was disclosed to view- there is just such
another to this day, within half a mile of the old abbey town.
The sun shone from out of the clear blue sky, the water sparkled
beneath his rays, and the trees looked greener, and the flowers
more gay, beneath his cheering influence. The water rippled on,
with a pleasant sound, the trees rustled in the light wind that
murmured among their leaves, the birds sang upon the boughs, and
the lark carolled on high, her welcome to the morning. Yes, it
was morning, the bright, balmy morning of summer; the minutest
leaf, the smallest blade of grass, was instinct with life. The
ant crept forth to her daily toil, the butterfly fluttered and
basked in the warm rays of the sun; myriads of insects spread
their transparent wings, and revelled in their brief but happy
existence. Man walked forth, elated with the scene; and all was
brightness and splendour.
" You a miserable man!' said the king of the goblins, in
a more contemptuous tone than before. And again the king of the
goblins gave his leg a flourish; again it descended on the shoulders
of the sexton; and again the attendant goblins imitated the example
of their chief.
"Many a time the cloud went and came, and many a lesson it
taught to Gabriel Grub, who although his shoulders smarted with
pain from the frequent application of the goblin's feet thereunto,
looked on with an interest which nothing could diminish. He saw
that men who worked hard, and earned their scanty bread with lives
of labour, were cheerful and happy; and that to the most ignorant,
the sweet face of nature was a never-failing source of cheerfulness
and joy. He saw those who had been delicately nurtured, and tenderly
brought up, cheerful under privations, and superior to suffering
that would have crushed many of a rougher grain, because they
bore within their own bosoms the materials of happiness, contentment
and peace. He saw that women, the tenderest and most fragile of
all God's creatures, were the oftenest superior to sorrow, adversity,
and distress; and he saw that it was because they bore in their
own hearts an inexhaustible well-spring of affection and devotedness.
Above all, he saw that men like himself, who snarled at the mirth
and cheerfulness of others, were the foulest weeds on the fair
surface of the earth; and setting all of the good of the world
against the evil, he came to the conclusion that it was a very
decent and respectable sort of world after all. No sooner had
he formed it, than the cloud which had closed over the last picture,
seemed to settle on his senses, and lull him to repose. One by
one, the goblins faded from his sight, and as the last one disappeared,
he sunk into sleep.
"The day had broken when Gabriel Grub awoke, and found himself
lying at full length on the flat grave stone in the churchyard,
with the wicker bottle lying empty by his side, and his coat,
spade, and lantern, all well whitened by the last night's frost,
scattered on the ground. The stone on which he had first seen
the goblin seated, stood bolt upright before him, and the grave
at which he had worked, the night before, was not far off. At
first he began to doubt the reality of his adventures, but the
acute pain in his shoulders when he attempted to rise, assured
him that the kicking of the goblins was certainly not ideal.
He was staggered again by observing no traces of footsteps in
the snow on which the goblins had played at leap-frog with the
grave-stones, but he speedily accounted for the circumstance when
he remembered that being spirits, they would leave no visible
impression behind them. So Gabriel Grub got on his feet as well
as he could, for the pain in his back; and brushing the frost
off his coat, put it on, and turned his face towards the town.
"But he was an altered man, and he could not bear the thought
of returning to a place where his repentance would be scoffed
at, and his reformation disbelieved. He hesitated for a few moments;
and then turned away to wander where he might, and seek his bread
elsewhere.
"The lantern, the spade, and the wicker bottle, were found
that day in the churchyard. There was a great many speculations
about the sexton's fate at first, but it was speedily determined
that he had been carried away by the goblins; and there were not
wanting some very credible witnesses who had distinctly seen him
whisked through the air on the back of a chestnut horse, blind
of one eye, with the hind quarters of a lion, and the tail of
a bear. At length, all this was devoutly believed; and the new
sexton used to exhibit to the curious for a trifling of emolument,
a good sized piece of the church weathercock which had been accidentally
kicked off by the aforesaid horse in his aerial flight, and picked
up by himself in the churchyard, a year or two afterwards.
"Unfortunately these stories were somewhat disturbed by the
unlooked-for re-appearance of Gabriel Grub himself, some ten years
afterwards, a ragged, contented, rheumatic old man. He told his
story to the clergyman, and also to the mayor; and in course of
time it began to be received as a matter of history, in which
form it has continued down to this very day. The believers in
the weathercock tale, having misplaced their confidence once were
not easily prevailed upon to part with it again, so they looked
as wise as they could, shrugged their shoulders, touched their
foreheads, and murmured something about Gabriel Grub's having
drunk all the Hollands, and then fallen asleep on the flat tombstone;
and they affected to explain what he supposed he had witnessed
in the goblin's cavern by saying that he had seen the world, and
grown wiser. But the opinion, which was by no means a popular
one at any time, gradually died off; and be the matter how it
may, as Gabriel Grub was afflicted with rheumatism to the end
of his days, this story has at least one moral if it teaches no
better one-and that is, that if a man turns sulky and drinks by
himself at Christmas time, he may make up his mind to be not a
bit the better for it, let the spirits be ever so good, or let
them be even as many degrees beyond proof, as those which Gabriel
Grub saw, in the goblin's cavern."
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