m, let him go out when he fancied it, though
always with a little anxiety for him lest he should meet with some
accident. In this anxiety, however, all the neighbours took a share, so
that he was well watched, and more carefully guarded than he knew, on
his way down to the shore and back again, Abel Twitt himself often
giving him an arm on the upward climb home.

"You'll have to do some of that for me soon!" said Helmsley on one of
these occasions, pointing up with his stick at the board over Twitt's
door, which said "Good Grave-Work Guaranteed:"

Twitt rolled his eyes slowly up in the direction indicated, smiled, and
rolled them down again.

"So I will,--so I will!" he replied cheerfully--"An I'll charge ye
nothin' either. I'll make ye as pretty a little stone as iver ye
saw--what'll last too!--ay, last till th' Almighty comes a' tearin' down
in clouds o' glory. A stone well bedded in, ye unnerstan'?--one as'll
stay upright--no slop work. An' if ye can't think of a hepitaph for
yerself I'll write one for ye--there now! Bible texes is goin' out o'
fashion--it's best to 'ave somethin' orig'nal--an' for originality I
don't think I can be beat in these parts. I'll do ye yer hepitaph with
pleasure!"

"That will be kind!" And Helmsley smiled a little sadly--"What will you
say of me when I'm gone?"

Twitt looked at him thoughtfully, with his head very much on one side.

"Well, ye see, I don't know yer history,"--he said--"But I considers ye
'armless an' unfortunate. I'd 'ave to make it out in my own mind like.
Now Timbs, the grocer an' 'aberdashery man, when 'is wife died, he
wouldn't let me 'ave my own way about the moniment at all. 'Put 'er
down,' sez 'e--'Put 'er down as the Dearly-Beloved Wife of Samuel
Timbs.' 'Now, Timbs,' sez I--'don't ye go foolin' with 'ell-fire! Ye
know she wor'nt yer Dearly Beloved, forbye that she used to throw wet
dish-clouts at yer 'ed, screechin' at ye for all she was wuth, an' there
ain't no Dearly Beloved in that. Why do ye want to put a lie on a stone
for the Lord to read?' But 'e was as obst'nate as pigs. 'Dish-clouts or
no dish-clouts,' sez 'e, 'I'll 'ave 'er fixed up proper as my
Dearly-Beloved Wife for sight o' parson an' neighbours.' 'Ah, Sam!' sez
I--'I've got ye! It's for parson an' neighbours ye want the hepitaph,
an' not for the Lord at all! Well, I'll do it if so be yer wish it, but
I won't take the 'sponsibility of it at the Day o' Judgment.' 'I don't
want ye to'--sez 'e, q