Began His Address As Follows:--
"My Sorrowing Friends, When We Look Into This Grave--Six Feet Long And
Six Feet Deep, When We Look At This Dark Coffin, When We Think Of This
Body Which Is Going To Decay, We Naturally, My Dear Friends, Say To
Ourselves, 'Here Lies A Man Of Riches, Of Great Riches.' But Let Us
Search The Depths Of Our Own Hearts. For Where Is Now The Glitter Of
That Wealth Which Dazzles The Eyes Of So Many? Where Is Now The
Influence Which To Us, Short-Sighted Mortals, Appears To Attach To
Earthly Prosperity? Here In This Dark Tomb, Six Feet Long And Six Feet
Deep, It Is Buried From Our Sight.
"Oh, My Friends! Let Us Learn The Lesson Which Is Taught By This Silent
Tomb. Here All Is Finished, Here Is The End Of All Inequality, Which Is,
After All, But The Result Of Sin. Here, In The Calm Peace Of The
Chapter 23 Pg 148
Churchyard, They Rest Side By Side, Rich And Poor, High And Low, All
Alike Before The Majesty Of Death. All That Is Perishable On Earth Is
Swept Aside Like A Used Garment. Six Feet Of Earth, That Is All; It Is
The Same For Each One Of Us."
The Gentle Spring Breeze Breathed On The Silk Banners Of The Various
Guilds, Lifting The Heavy Folds Out From The Staff, And Making A Glad
Rustle In The Silk. And The Same Breeze Also Carried The Words Over The
Cemetery, To The Old Crones Who Were Sitting On The Tombstones, And The
Girls And Women Who Were Grouped Along The Slope. Yes, Even To The Far
Distant Edge Of The Cemetery Did The Wind Bear The Eloquent Discourse,
So That The Words Could Be Distinctly Heard At The Grave In Which
Marianne Was About To Be Laid. And Those Words About Equality And The
Evanescence Of Worldly Wealth, Were Indeed Words Of Comfort For The
Poor, As Well As For The Rich. But Those Who Stood By Marianne'S Grave
Scarcely Listened To Them--Not Even Torpander, Who Stood Gazing Intently
At His Solitary Wreath, Which Lay On The Simple Coffin.
Woodlouse Was Guiltless Of Inattention, For He Could Not Hear; But
Instead, He Made His Observations And Gave Vent To His Philosophical
Reflections As Was His Wont.
There Lay, In The Gravelly Heap Which Had Been Thrown Up From The Grave,
A Few Bones And Skulls. The Story Was, That That Part Of The Churchyard,
Which Was Especially Devoted To The Poor, Had Been A Burying-Place At
Some Former Period, And The Graves Which Had Not Been Paid For For
Twenty Years Were, After The Lapse Of That Time, Again Made Use Of,
According To The Rule And Custom Of The Church. It Was Thus No Unusual
Thing To Find Coffins While A New Grave Was Being Dug, Which Fell To
Pieces Under The Spade. The Bodies Had Been Packed Closely, And Often
Several Had Been Placed In The Same Grave.
It Was, However, A Scandal That The Bones Should Be Allowed To Lie Out
In The Light Of Day, Until The New Corpse Came To Be Buried. Abraham The
Sexton Had His Orders, To Take Such Bones At Once To The House Which Was
Appointed For Them, And Which Was A Mere Shed In One Corner Of The
Cemetery, Where It Was Left To Each Skull To Discover The Bones
Belonging To It As Best It Might. But When Any Of The Officials Found
Fault With Abraham For His Neglect, He Would Stand Leaning On His Spade,
And Cocking His Red Nose Knowingly On One Side, Would Answer With A
Smile, "Well, You See, What Are We To Do? The Poor Are Just As Much
Trouble In death As They Are In Life. They Never Will Die Like
Respectable People, One By One, Now And Again; But They All Die At The
Same Time, You See, And Then Come Out Here And Want To Get Buried.
Particularly All Through The Winter, When The Ground Is Hard, And Then
In The Early Spring, What Are We To Do? It Is Really Too Bad. Yes, At
Those Seasons They Bring Such Shoals Of Children--Ah, Preserve Us From
The Children!--Yes, And Grown-Up People Too, For That Matter; And They
All Want Graves Just At The Wrong Time Of Year! They Always Choose The
Wrong Time! It Would Not Be So Bad If One Could Only Skimp The
Measurements A Bit; But, You See, No One Is So Particular As The Poor
About The Measurements. Six Feet Long And Six Feet Deep--They Will Have
It, Never An Inch Less. And So, You See, It Is Not Always So Easy To Get
These Bones Out Of Sight In Time For One Of These Pauper Funerals. No,
No! It Is Quite True What I Say. The Poor Are Just As Much Trouble In
Death As They Are In Life!"
Chapter 23 Pg 149
There Was Once A New Manager Of The Cemetery Who Wished To Get Rid Of
Abraham, Who Caused General Indignation When He Went Tumbling About
Tipsy Among The Graves. But The Dean Said, "What Is To Become Of The
Poor Man? He Will Remain As A Burden Either To You Or To Me; And
Besides, He Has Been With Us As Long As I Have Been Here, And I Have
Always Been Able To Bear With His Sad Infirmity. It Would Really Go To
My Heart To Drive Him Away." And So The Public Were Content To Keep
Abraham As An Evidence Of Dean Sparre'S Kindness Of Heart.
As Woodlouse Stood Looking At The Bones, He Was Absorbed In
Philosophical Meditation, And He Could Not Help Thinking That There Was
A Sort Of Air Of Defiance In The Grin, With Which One Of The Skulls
Returned His Gaze. It Struck Him That This Skull Might Perhaps Be
Thinking How Peaceful It Was To Rest Here In The Sacred Earth Of The
Churchyard. But Surely It Was Just As Peaceful Over There In The House
In Which The Bones Were Placed; And If Neither Church Nor Provost,
Chaplain Nor Sexton, Gravedigger Nor Organist, Bell-Ringer Nor Acolyte,
No, Not One Of Them Had Got His Due, It Was Quite Impossible That It
Should Be Otherwise. And When He Came To Consider Further, He Thought
That He Could Discover In These Bare Bones And These Bleached Skulls, An
Expression He Knew Only Too Well In Life;
