We and the World, Part I

rpse; that wainscoat face must be o' top of the stairs; that fellow's almost in a fright (that looks as if he were full of some strang

aintance of the old miser of Walnut-tree Fa

oking as its master. One eye was yellow and the other was blue, which gave it a strange, u

we reckoned fair enough, considering his size, and that the cat had to be saved somehow. The poor thing's forepaws were so much hurt

ra mut

e good boys, and I hoped he would have asked us to go in, but he did not, though we linge

indignantly. "We don't want an

cally, and putting the sixpence carefully

a parlour-and I took advantage of a backward movement on his part to move one shallow s

an old woman, and that cat had lived with me in the days when this house was built, I should have been hanged, or burned as a witch. Twelve men would have done

serve on a jury." After which he banged the door in our faces, and Jem caught hold of my jacket and cried, "Oh! h

d some months afterwards, and, strange to re

robation of his neighbours than that of providing for what undertakers call "a first-class funeral." The good custom of honouring the departed, and committing their bodies to the earth with care and respect, was carried, in our old-fashioned neighbourhood, to a point at which what began in reverence ended in wha

furniture, and he gave no festivities

backs; especially when the interest is heightened by a touch of gloom, or perfected by the addition of some personal importance in the m

sed of being unable to amuse ourselves, and of listening to our elders. It was perhaps fortunate for

ur whole

less imi

had so far profited by what we had overheard among our elders, that I had caught up some phrases which I was rather proud of displaying, and that I quite

d to be the undertaker; but the happy thought struck me of putting my wheelbarrow alongside of the

Jem's and mine. Three yards was the correct length of the black silk scarves which it was the custom in the neighbourhood to send to dead people's friends; but the old miser's funeral-scarves were a whole yard longer, and of such stiffly ribbed silk that Mr. So

livered three separate envelopes at the door, and they looked like letters from some bereaved giant. The envelopes were twenty inches by fourteen, and made of cartridge-paper; the black border was two inches

vilized notions, women were not allowed to appear at funerals), and I do not think she perceived anything odd in our appearance. She was very gentle, and approved of everything that was considered right by the people she was used to, and s

ulty-and followed my father, our hearts beating with pride, and my mother and the maids watching us from the door. We arrived quite half-an-hour earlier than we need have done, but the lane was already crowded with complimentary carriages, and curious bystanders, before whom we held our heads and hatbands up; and the scent of the wild roses was lost for that day in a

was so conscientious! I held my handkerchief as well as I could with my gloves; but I contrived t

ere bidden to the feast did not fail to obey the ancient precept, and speak well of the dead. The tables (they were rickety) literally groaned under the weight of eatables and

iged to him; though the pale-faced man said quite crossly-"Is there any special reason for crowding the room with children, who are not even relatives of the deceased?" which made us feel so much ash

where I could read the trial of a man who murdered somebody twenty-five years before, but I never got to the end of it, for it went on behind a very fat man who sat next to me, and he leaned back all the time and hid it. Jem sat on a little footstool, and fell asleep with his head on my k

uneral. After our legacies were known about they were so cross that we managed to scramble through the window, and wandered round the garden. As we sat under the trees we could hear high words within, and by and by all the men came out and talked in a

come out with them; "'left to her as a sign of sympathy, if not an act of reparation.'

re in his senses,"

hat's what I say," sa

's what I say, too,

id the third. "He must have had money, and the law

his cat," he added, looking

ure, and everything of every sort therein contained." And the lawyer coming up at that moment,

hed, the fat man got

r, sir," he said, "and we

as eccentric, my dear sir, very eccentric; but eccentricity

who had left me a minute or two before, came running back and said: "Jack! Do come and look in at the parlour window. That

when we stood by the open window with our hands over our mouths to keep us from laughing,

ear us, for he was talking to himself, and we heard

either he nor any one else disputed the old miser's will. Jem and I each opened

, being quite unable to tolerate the follies of his fellow-creatures, and the antics and absurdities which were necessary to entertain them, he had much plea

th the undertaker, and those who got a yard more than usual of such very good black silk, and those who were able to remember what they had had for dinner,

ood. Who was she? What was she like? What was

eplied. She was "a quiet, genteel-looking sort of a grey-haired widow l

nd many folk were ready to be civil t

might think of it at a low rent, he'd be glad of the field for his horse. Wha

l there, and that was how Walnut-tr