A Sexton answers the Pastor’s question !!

A clerical gentleman remarkable for preaching many Sundays from one text, had nearly fun through the year from these words, ‘Peter’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever.’

The church bell tolled one morning earlier than usual.  The minister dispatched a servant to enquire who was dead.

The sexton pretended real ignorance, but returned for answer ‘That he believed it was Peter’s wife’s mother, as she had been sick for a long time!’

                                             (Liberator, May 14, 1841, pg 3)