public example of him."

Before the time of the Burke and Hare murders Snecky's father was sent
round Thrums to proclaim the startling news that a grave in the
kirkyard had been tampered with. The "resurrectionist" scare was at
its height then, and the patriarch, who was one of the men in Thrums
paid to watch new graves in the night-time, has often told the story.
The town was in a ferment as the news spread, and there were fierce
suspicious men among Hobart's hearers who already had the rifler of
graves in their eye.

He was a man who worked for the farmers when they required an extra
hand, and loafed about the square when they could do without him. No
one had a good word for him, and lately he had been flush of money.
That was sufficient. There was a rush of angry men through the "pend"
that led to his habitation, and he was dragged, panting and terrified,
to the kirkyard before he understood what it all meant. To the grave
they hurried him, and almost without a word handed him a spade. The
whole town gathered round the spot--a sullen crowd, the women only
breaking the silence with their sobs, and te children clinging to their
gowns. The suspected resurrectionist understood what was wanted of
him, and, flinging off his jacket, began to reopen the grave.
Presently the spade struck upon wood, and by and by part of the coffin
came in view. That was nothing, for the resurrectionists had a way of
breaking the coffin at one end and drawing out the body with tongs.
The digger knew this. He broke the boards with the spade and revealed
an arm. The people convinced, he dropped the arm savagely, leapt out
of the grave and went his way, leaving them to shovel back the earth
themselves. There was humour in the old family as well as in their
lodger. I found this out slowly. They used to gather round their peat
fire in the evening, after the poultry had gone to sleep on the kitchen
rafters, and take off their neighbours. None of them ever laughed; but
their neighbours did afford them subject for gossip, and the old man
was very sarcastic over other people's old-fashioned ways. When one of
the family wanted to go out he did it gradually. He would be sitting
"into the fire" browning his corduroy trousers, and he would get up
slowly. Then he gazed solemnly before him for a time, and after that,
if you watched him narrowly, you would see that he was really moving to
the door. Another member of the family took the vacan