Chippings with a Chisel (From "Twice Told Tales")

The narrator recounts spending time on an island and befriending an elderly tombstone carver whose shop and work prompt reflections on burial customs and the varieties of grave markers in local cemeteries. Descriptions contrast imported, ornate monuments with roughly hewn stones inscribed by grieving relatives, and the carver's pragmatic cheerfulness guides vignettes of customers commissioning memorials. Anecdotes include a woman who preserves a youthful love through a symbolic carving, a man ordering matching stones for multiple deceased spouses, and a sailor reserving space for his own name, all illustrating how mourning, affection, and habit shape commemorative art. The account meditates on memory, mortality, and the craft of engraving remembrance.