'Think so?' said the undertaker in a tone which half admitted and half disputed the probability of the event.
'Of course, of course,' replied the undertaker; 'and if I don't get a profit upon this or that particular article, why, I make it up in the long-run, you see--he!
"My friend," said the
Undertaker Who Was a Member of a Trust, "this is a most hateful and injurious scheme.
All the men and maids of the house, the old women of the Alms House, whom the elder Sir Pitt had cheated out of a great portion of their due, the parish clerk's family, and the special retainers of both Hall and Rectory were habited in sable; added to these, the undertaker's men, at least a score, with crapes and hatbands, and who made goodly show when the great burying show took place--but these are mute personages in our drama; and having nothing to do or say, need occupy a very little space here.
A woman or two, and three or four undertaker's men, the best whom Southampton could furnish, dressed in black, and of a proper stealthy and tragical demeanour, had charge of the remains which they watched turn about, having the housekeeper's room for their place of rendezvous when off duty, where they played at cards in privacy and drank their beer.
When the place was packed full the
undertaker he slid around in his black gloves with his softy soother- ing ways, putting on the last touches, and getting people and things all ship-shape and comfortable, and making no more sound than a cat.
"I quite understand, sir," said the
undertaker, "you don't want any show and that--I'm not a believer in ostentation myself, mind you--but you want it done gentlemanly-like.
Others, who had no claim to be privately informed, made inquiries of the
undertaker's foreman, who said he understood the gentleman objected to large funerals.
The
undertaker had certainly done his work well, for the room was turned into a small chapelle ardente.
It reminded me too painfully of that San Francisco
undertaker who used to go to sick-beds with his watch in his hand and time the corpse.
Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the
undertaker will be sorry.
"Nothing, except that the head
undertakers shall ride together, as is usual.
Let not the government of the plantation, depend upon too many counsellors, and
undertakers, in the country that planteth, but upon a temperate number; and let those be rather noblemen and gentlemen, than merchants; for they look ever to the present gain.
Day by day unions and more unions voted their support to the socialists, until even Ernest laughed when the
Undertakers' Assistants and the Chicken Pickers fell into line.
They were the dead of the Indian villages, carried by the Ganges to the level of the sea, and which the vultures, the only
undertakers of the country, had not been able to devour.
