Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-25

lantern, all well whitened by the last night
frost, scattered on the ground. The ston,
on which he had first seen the goblin
seated. stood bolt upright before him, ant
the grave at which he had worked the
night before was not far off. At first ht
began to doubt the reality of his adventures
but the acute pain in his shoulders when he
attempted to rise, assured him that the
kicking of the COLLINS was certainly not
ideal! He was staggered again. by observ-
ing no traces of footsteps in the snow on
which the COLLINS had played at leap-frog
with the gravestOnes, but he speedily ac-
counted for this circumstance, when he re-
membered that being spirits, they would
leave no visible impression behind them.
SO Gabriel Grub got on his feet as we'll as
he could for the pain in his back; and
brushing the frost off his coat, put it on,
| and turned his face towards the town.
but he was an altered man, and he
could not bear the thought of returning to
place where his repentance would be
scoffed at,and his reformation disbelieved.
He hesitated a few moments, and then
turned away to wander where he might
and seek his bread elsewhere.
1.-THE lantern, the spade and the wicker
bottle, were found that day in the church
yard. There were great many specula-
lions about the sections fate at first, but it
was speedily determined that he had been
carried away by the COLLINS; and there
were not wanting some very credible wit
nesses who had distinctly seen him whisked
through the air on the back of chestnut
horse, blind of one eye, with the hind
quarters of a lion, and the tail of bear.
At length all this was devoutly believed;
and the new sexton used to exhibit to the
curious for q trifing emolument, good
sized piece of the church weathercock
which had been accidentally kicked off by
the aforesaid horse in his aerial flight, and
picked up by himself in the church-yard,
year or two afterwards.
Unfortunately these stories were some
what disturbed by the unlocked for reap
Pearance of Gabriel Grub himself, some
ten years afterwards, ragged, contented.
rheumatic old man. He told his story to
The clergyman, and also to the mayor: and
III course of time it began to be received
as a matter of history, in which form it has
continued down to this very day. The be-
levers in the weathercock tale, having
misplaced their confidence cnce we're not
easily prevailed upon to part with it again,
so they looked as wise as they could.
shrugged their shoulders, touched their
foreheads, and murmured something about
Gabriel Grub's having drunk all the Hol-
lands, and then fallen asleep on the fat
tombstone; and they affected to explain
what he supposed he had witnessed in the
goblin's cavern, by saying that he had seen
the world and grown wiser. But this opin-
ion, which was by no means popular one
at any time, gradually died off: and be the
matter how it may, as Gabriel Grub was
afflicted with rheumatism to the end of his
days, this story has at least one moral-if
lit each no better one-and that is if a man
turns sulky and drinks by himself at Christ
mas time, he may make up his mind to be
not bit the better for it, let the spirits be
ever SO good, or let them be even as many
degrees beyond proof, as those which Cab
riel Grub saw, in the COLLINS CAVERN