man from head to foot.

"Come! come! You're curious as a Spaniard. A Spaniard asked me the
same question, but in secret. I'm going to say to you what I said to
him: the curate ordered it."

"Oh! and what did you do with the body?"

"The devil! if I didn't know you, I should take you for the police. The
curate told me to bury it in the Chinese cemetery, but it's a long way
there, and the body was heavy. 'Better be drowned,' I said to myself,
'than lie with the Chinese,' and I threw it into the lake."

"No, no, stop digging!" interrupted the younger man, with a cry of
horror, and throwing down his spade he sprang out of the grave.

The grave-digger watched him run off signing himself, laughed, and
went to work again.

The cemetery began to fill with men and women in mourning. Some
of them came for a moment to the open grave, discussed some matter,
seemed not to be agreed, and separated, kneeling here and there. Others
were lighting candles; all began to pray devoutly. One heard sighing
and sobs, and over all a confused murmur of "requiem aeternam."

A little old man, with piercing eyes, entered uncovered. At sight
of him some laughed, others frowned. The old man seemed to take no
account of this. He went to the heap of skulls, knelt, and searched
with his eyes. Then with the greatest care he lifted the skulls one
by one, wrinkling his brows, shaking his head, and looking on all
sides. At length he rose and approached the grave-digger.

"Ho!" said he.

The other raised his eyes.

"Did you see a beautiful skull, white as the inside of a cocoanut?"

The grave-digger shrugged his shoulders.

"Look," said the old man, showing a piece of money; "it's all I have,
but I'll give it to you if you find it."

The gleam of silver made the man reflect. He looked toward the heap
and said:

"It isn't there? No? Then I don't know where it is."

"You don't know? When those who owe me pay, I'll give you more. 'Twas
the skull of my wife, and if you find it----"

"It isn't there? Then I know nothing about it, but I can give you
another."

"You are like the grave you dig," cried the old man, furious. "You
know not the value of what you destroy! For whom is this grave?"

"How do I know? For a dead man!" replied the other with temper.

"Like the grave, like the grave," the old man repeated with
a dry laugh. "You know neither what you cast out nor what you
keep. Dig! dig!" And he went toward the gate.

Meanwhile the gra