'I have been afraid to go near it; for I am not often down in that part of the church, and do not know the ground.' 'Come down with me,' said the old man.

'I have known it from a boy.
Come!' They descended the narrow steps which led into the crypt, and paused among the gloomy arches, in a dim and murky spot.
'This is the place,' said the old man.

'Give me your hand while you throw back the cover, lest you should stumble and fall in.

I am too old--I mean rheumatic--to stoop, myself.' 'A black and dreadful place!' exclaimed the child.
'Look in,' said the old man, pointing downward with his finger.
The child complied, and gazed down into the pit.
'It looks like a grave itself,' said the old man.
'It does,' replied the child.
'I have often had the fancy,' said the sexton, 'that it might have been dug at first to make the old place more gloomy, and the old monks more religious.

It's to be closed up, and built over.' The child still stood, looking thoughtfully into the vault.
'We shall see,' said the sexton, 'on what gay heads other earth will have closed, when the light is shut out from here.