They spread right and left. Felix, who did not for the instant comprehend that "war out" meant "clear away," had much ado to save his horse; for the boulder came with a rush, bringing with it half a ton of rubble, thud on the ground, which trembled. "Aw, here a' be!" "This be uz yod!" [head.] "Warn this be uz chine!" holding up a part of the vertebrae. "He wur a whopper, you!" "The gyeaunt Goliar', I'll warn," said the aged man on the bank. "Don't disturb the skeleton!" cried Felix, anxious to make scientific notes of the interment; whether the grave was "orientated," or the knees drawn up to the chin; but in the scramble for the bones his voice was unheeded, and the skeleton was disjointed in an instant. The bones were as light as pith, ready to crumble to pieces and little better than dust, yet still retaining, as it were, a sketch of human shape. "Drow um in this here," said the landlord, as the buzz subsided, and holding out a stable-bucket which he had fetched. So skull and femur, radius and ulna--all the relics of poor humanity--were "chucked" indiscriminately into the stable-bucket. "A' warn a' wur buried in th' time o' Judges," said Jim. "Um set up stwuns for memorials, doan't you mind? Thuck sarsen be all five hunderd weight." "Mebbe a' fowght Julius Caesar," said the aged man on the bank above. "I've heard tell as Julius wur a famous hand a' back-swording. You med see as uz skull wur cracked with a pistol-bullet--one of thaay ould vlint-locks--and here be th' trigger-guard." From the disturbed earth above he picked up a small crooked piece of brass, which might or might not have been connected with the interment. It passed from hand to hand, till the landlord, rubbing it on his sleeve, found some letters. "Paason ull tell uz what it means," said he, giving it to Felix, who spelt out slowly, as he removed the clinging particles of earth. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "G.a.u.d.e.a.m.u.s." "What be thuck?" "`Let us rejoice.'" "Sartinly." "My friends," said Felix solemnly, "this is a fragment from an ancient Roman trumpet--a trumpet sounding to us from the tomb. Let us rejoice in the certainty of the life to come." "I be main dry," said the blacksmith. "Mebbe you'll stand us a quart, paason?" said Jim, touching his forelock. "Will you sell me this little piece of brass?" said Felix. "Aw, you med take un; he bean't no vallee to we." Felix gave them half-a-crown for the relic, and rode on slowly, while the group adjourned to the inn to drink it, leaving the donkey, their tools, and the bucket by the roadside among the thistles. "I knaws it bean't nothing but the trigger-guard of one of them ould hoss-pistols," the patriarch persisted, "them vlint-locks with brass-barrels--I minds um."