A shrewd gentlewoman who kept a tavern in the town was anxious to obtain two or three gravestones for the deceased members of her family , and to pay for these solemn commodities by taking the sculptor to board . Hereupon a fantasy arose in my mind of good Mr. Wigglesworth sitting down to dinner at a broad , flat tombstone carving one of his own plump little marble cherubs , gnawing a pair of crossbones and drinking out of a hollow death 's - head or perhaps a lachrymatory vase or sepulchral urn , while his hostess 's dead children waited on him at the ghastly banquet . On communicating this nonsensical picture to the old man he laughed heartily and pronounced my humor to be of the right sort . `` I have lived at such a table all my days , '' said he , `` and eaten no small quantity of slate and marble . '' `` Hard fare , '' rejoined I , smiling , `` but you seemed to have found it excellent of digestion , too . '' A man of fifty or thereabouts with a harsh , unpleasant countenance ordered a stone for the grave of his bitter enemy , with whom he had waged warfare half a lifetime , to their mutual misery and ruin . The secret of this phenomenon was that hatred had become the sustenance and enjoyment of the poor wretch 's soul ; it had supplied the place of all kindly affections ; it had been really a bond of sympathy between himself and the man who shared the passion ; and when its object died , the unappeasable foe was the only mourner for the dead . He expressed a purpose of being buried side by side with his enemy . `` I doubt whether their dust will mingle , '' remarked the old sculptor to me ; for often there was an earthliness in his conceptions . `` Oh yes , '' replied I , who had mused long upon the incident ; `` and when they rise again , these bitter foes may find themselves dear friends . Methinks what they mistook for hatred was but love under a mask . '' A gentleman of antiquarian propensities provided a memorial for an Indian of Chabbiquidick -- one of the few of untainted blood remaining in that region , and said to be a hereditary chieftain descended from the sachem who welcomed Governor Mayhew to the Vineyard . Mr. Wiggles-worth exerted his best skill to carve a broken bow and scattered sheaf of arrows in memory of the hunters and warriors whose race was ended here , but he likewise sculptured a cherub , to denote that the poor Indian had shared the Christian 's hope of immortality . `` Why , '' observed I , taking a perverse view of the winged boy and the bow and arrows , `` it looks more like Cupid 's tomb than an Indian chief 's . '' `` You talk nonsense , '' said the sculptor , with the offended pride of art . He then added with his usual good-nature , `` How can Cupid die when there are such pretty maidens in the Vineyard ? '' `` Very true , '' answered I ; and for the rest of the day I thought of other matters than tombstones . At our next meeting I found him chiselling an open book upon a marble headstone , and concluded that it was meant to express the erudition of some black-letter clergyman of the Cotton Mather school . It turned out , however , to be emblematical of the scriptural knowledge of an old woman who had never read anything but her Bible , and the monument was a tribute to her piety and good works from the orthodox church of which she had been a member . In strange contrast with this Christian woman 's memorial was that of an infidel whose gravestone , by his own direction , bore an avowal of his belief that the spirit within him would be extinguished like a flame , and that the nothingness whence he sprang would receive him again .
Mr. XXXXX consulted me as to the propriety of enabling a dead man 's dust to utter this dreadful creed .
Christian Hereupon Indian Wiggles-worth Wigglesworth digestion earthliness gravestones mourner right