First would come, moving with slow feet and drooping head, the old
gray horse and time worn phaeton of the minister; and they would feel
a little strange and somewhat hurt because the man of God, who usually
greeted them so cheerily, would not notice them as he passed. But the
sadness in their hearts would be forgotten the next moment as they
gazed, with excited interest and whispered exclamations, at the
shining, black, hearse with its beautiful, coal black, horses that,
stepping proudly, tossing their plumed heads, and shaking the tassels
on the long nets that hung over their glossy sides, seemed to invite
the admiration that greeted them. And then, through the glass sides of
the hearse, the boy and the girl, with gasps of interest, would
discover the long black coffin half hidden by its load of flowers; or,
perhaps, the hearse, the horses, and the coffin, would all be snow
white which, the little girl thought, was prettiest of all. Then would
follow the long line of carriages, filled with people who wore their
Sunday clothes; and the boy and the girl, recognizing a friend or
acquaintance, here and there, would wonder to themselves how it would
seem to be riding in such a procession. One by one, they would count
the vehicles and recall the number in the last funeral they had
watched; gleefully triumphant, if this procession were longer than the
last; scornfully disappointed, if it were not so imposing. And then,
when the last carriage had gone up the hill on the other side of the
creek and had disappeared from sight among the trees that half hid the
church, they would wait for the procession to reappear after the
services and would watch it crawling slowly along the distant road on
its way to the cemetery.
And the next day they would play a funeral.
Even as they had played a wedding, they would play a funeral. Only,
they played a wedding but that once, while they played funerals many,
many, times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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