Digger couldn't believe his rotten luck. When he took the job last winter, he had heard rumors that the cemetery was haunted -- that the citizens of Masonville had reported hearing the sounds of laughter emanating from the tree tops, had seen ghostly shapes appearing behind tombstones, and had witnessed freshly dug graves magically filling back up almost as soon as they were dug. Digger did not believe in the supernatural, and he had not given much credence to these reports, but after this summer he was beginning to wonder. This was the thirteenth grounds keeper he'd lost this summer. Maybe the cemetery really was haunted.
There had to be a way to maintain the cemetery lawn, and as caretaker he certainly couldn't be expected to do it himself. He considered his alternatives. He called the Career Development Center at Masonville University (MU) to see if there were any college students that would be willing to take on the task of mowing the cemetery lawn during their summer break. He spoke with Joe B. Hunter, who said, "I don't think any of the students would be interested in doing this, but I'll put a note up on the bulletin board." What Joe was really thinking was that Mr. Graves was out of his mind if he thought MU students, or any other citizen of Masonville, would work in that haunted graveyard.
