Discovery in the Churchyard

It was the children who found it. Ten-year-old Billy Walker and little Tommy Jenkins, or "Billy's Shadow," as the neighbors playfully called him, came running out from the churchyard. Their clothes were dirty, as usual, but in this case the pair bore on their bare feet and trouser cuffs the unmistakable wet mud stains that one could only have acquired on the banks of the Old Creek that flowed softly through the town. The boys were often discovered making mischief and exploring places they had been told were off limits, and to see the two of them run was far from a seldom spectacle. What was rare in this case were the high pitched squeals emitting from their mouths and their wide-eyed, tear-lined faces.

"One of the skel'tons in the churchyard!" cried Billy. "One of 'em's come up! One of 'em's come up!"

Billy's mother, a more devout Christian than most, had scolded her only son dozens of times for playing in the cemetery behind the church. She warned him against running about on hallowed ground, lest he be struck down by the good Lord for his trespass. She hid none of her disapproval about what she deemed a sinful act, and made the boy promise each time to keep to the fields behind their home. He swore obedience constantly, though not once in earnest.

Billy, the only boy among five children, was naturally adventurous. Lacking brothers, he was forced to be outgoing in order to develop friendships with the other boys. He had developed his moxie into an aura that his playmates found irresistible, and he was seen as the courageous leader of his troop. Light hair, sharp blue eyes and a rosy, athletic complexion foreshadowed the striking gentleman into which this handsome lad would grow. Publicly, he was well-spoken and polite, and he was wildly popular with both his peers and their mothers.

Tommy Jenkins, on the other hand, was born to be a lackey. He was the youngest of six, and the fifth son born to his parents, and endured many of the typical pangs and distresses that are universal among last-borns. He spent the early part of his life either maligned by his siblings or coddled by his mother. She, too, had preached against playing in the churchyard, saying that Tommy ought not gambol about above the heads of the departed, lest one of them become annoyed and drag him below the ground. The lesson of showing respect for the dead was the same as Mrs. Walker's, though the teaching method a bit more garish.

The child's social role had evolved into something similar to his home life. By chance, there happened to be a plethora of nine and ten-year-old boys in town, followed by a gap, and then Tommy, who was seven. His closest brother had reached fourteen, old enough to be apprenticed, and this left Tommy with little else to do but follow Billy Walker and his crew, to be either teased or protected given the boys' fancy on any given day.

The smallish youngster with the unkempt black hair idolized the tribe's ringleader, and Billy, having been denied a younger brother of his own, took a shine to the tag-along. Billy relished his role as hero, and treated Tommy as much a brother and student as he did a sidekick. He would bring Tommy with him on what he referred to as his "most dangerous 'scursions," seeking to simultaneously toughen and impress his pupil.

Therefore, for Jonas Howard to see the two of them together running toward him on that balmy summer afternoon was hardly a surprise. It was strictly their shouts and terrified appearance that drew his consternation.

"We seen one'a the bodies down at the Old Creek," panted Billy Walker, arriving at the place where Mr. Howard was standing. "It come up and tried to snatch us. It musta not liked that we was playin' down there."

Mr. Howard, an attorney, was momentarily at a loss for words. He searched the panic stricken face of the young boy, then looked at Tommy, who only whimpered as he looked at the ground through shut eyelids. Regaining his poise, Mr. Howard addressed the older child. "Young man, you know the churchyard is no place for you to be causing trouble-"