“ ‘What do you do here on Christmas Eve?’ said the goblin sternly.

“ ‘I came to dig a grave, Sir,’ stammered Gabriel Grub.

“ ‘What man wanders among graves and churchyards on such a night as this?’ cried the goblin.

“ ‘Gabriel Grub! Gabriel Grub!’ screamed a wild chorus of voices that seemed to fill the churchyard. Gabriel looked fearfully round⁠—nothing was to be seen.

“ ‘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 that perhaps 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?’ said the goblin.

“ ‘Gabriel Grub! Gabriel Grub!’ exclaimed the wild voices again.