"A coffin at Christmas! A Christmas box. Ho! ho! ho!"

"Ho! ho! ho!" repeated a voice close beside him.

"It was the echoes," said he, raising the bottle to his lips again.

"It was not," said a deep voice.

Gabriel started up and stood rooted to the spot with terror, for his
eyes rested on a form that made his blood run cold.

Seated on an upright tombstone close to him was a strange, unearthly
figure. He was sitting perfectly still, grinning at Gabriel Grubb with
such a grin as only a goblin could call up.

"What do you here on Christmas Eve?" said the goblin, sternly.

"I came to dig a grave, sir," stammered Gabriel.

"What man wanders among graves on such a night as this?" cried the
goblin.

"Gabriel Grubb! Gabriel Grubb!" screamed a wild chorus of voices that
seemed to fill the churchyard.

"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 his questioner might be
in the excise department of the goblins.

"Who drinks Hollands alone, and in a churchyard on such a night as
this?"

"Gabriel Grubb! Gabriel Grubb!" exclaimed the wild voices again.

"And who, then, is our lawful prize?" exclaimed the goblin, raising his
voice.

The invisible chorus replied, "Gabriel Grubb! Gabriel Grubb!"

"Well, Gabriel, what do you say to this?" said the goblin, as he grinned
a broader grin than before.

The sexton gasped for breath.

"What do you think of this, Gabriel?"

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

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

"The grave, sir."

"Oh! the grave, eh? Who makes graves at a time when other men are merry,
and takes a pleasure in it?"

Again the voices replied, "Gabriel Grubb! Gabriel Grubb!"

"I'm afraid my friends want you, Gabriel," said the goblin.

"Under favor, sir," replied the horror-stricken sexton, "I don't think
they can; they don't know me, sir; I don't think the gentlemen have ever
seen me."

"Oh! yes, they have. 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."

Here the goblin gave a loud, shrill laugh which the echoes returned
twenty-fold.

"I--I am afraid I must leave you, sir," said the sexton, making an
effort to move.