LITMIR.BIZ

      It was a graveyard of the old-fashioned Western kind. It was on a hill, about a mile and a half from the village. It had a crazy board fence around it, which leaned inward in places, and outward the rest of the time, but stood upright nowhere. Grass and weeds grew rank over the whole cemetery. All the old graves were sunken in, there was not a tombstone on the place; round-topped, worm-eaten boards staggered over the graves, leaning for support and finding none. "Sacred to the memory of" So-and-So had been painted on them once, but it could no longer have been read, on the most of them, now, even if there had been light.

      A faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it might be the spirits of the dead, complaining at being disturbed. The boys talked little, and only under their breath, for the time and the place and the pervading solemnity and silence oppressed their spirits. They found the sharp new heap they were seeking, and ensconced themselves within the protection of three great elms that grew in a bunch within a few feet of the grave.

      Then they waited in silence for what seemed a long time. The hooting of a distant owl was all the sound that troubled the dead stillness. Tom's reflections grew oppressive. He must force some talk. So he said in a whisper:

      "Hucky, do you believe the dead people like it for us to be here?"

      Huckleberry whispered:

      "I wisht I knowed. It's awful solemn like, ain't it?"

      "I bet it is."

      There was a considerable pause, while the boys canvassed this matter inwardly. Then Tom whispered:

      "Say, Hucky—do you reckon Hoss Williams hears us talking?"

      "O' course he does. Least his sperrit does."

      Tom, after a pause:

      "I wish I'd said Mister Williams. But I never meant any harm. Everybody calls him Hoss."

      "A body can't be too partic'lar how they talk 'bout these-yer dead people, Tom."

      This was a damper, and conversation died again.

      Presently Tom seized his comrade's arm and said:

      "Sh!"

      "What is it, Tom?" And the two clung together with beating hearts.

      "Sh! There 'tis again! Didn't you hear it?"

      "I—"

      "There! Now you hear it."

      "Lord, Tom, they're coming! They're coming, sure. What'll we do?"

      "I dono. Think they'll see us?"

      "Oh, Tom, they can see in the dark, same as cats. I wisht I hadn't come."

      "Oh, don't be afeard. I don't believe they'll bother us. We ain't doing any harm. If we keep perfectly still, maybe they won't notice us at all."

      "I'll try to, Tom, but, Lord, I'm all of a shiver."

      "Listen!"

      The boys bent their heads together and scarcely breathed. A muffled sound of voices floated up from the far end of the graveyard.

      "Look! See there!" whispered Tom. "What is it?"

      "It's devil-fire. Oh, Tom, this is awful."

      Some vague figures approached through the gloom, swinging an old-fashioned tin lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable little spangles of light. Presently Huckleberry whispered with a shudder:

      "It's the devils sure enough. Three of 'em! Lordy, Tom, we're goners! Can you pray?"

      "I'll try, but don't you be afeard. They ain't going to hurt us. 'Now I lay me down to sleep, I—'"