"'This,' s'I, 'is a friend o' mine. She's goin' to do up Jennie's hair
from her City photograph.'

"Then I hustled 'Leven into the parlour where Jennie was layin' under
the soft lavender cloth. Nobody was in there but a few flowers, sent
early. An' it was a west window an' open, an' the sky all sunset--like
the End. 'Leven hung back, but I took her by the hand an' we went an'
looked down at Jennie in that nice, gentlin', after-supper light--'Leven
in Jennie's shroud an' neither of 'em knew it.

"An' all out o' the air somethin' says to me, Now--_now_--like it will
when you get so's you listen. I always think it's like the Lord had
pressed His bell somewheres for help in His housekeepin'--oh, because
_how_ He needs it!

"So I says, ''Leven, you never see anybody dead before. What's the
differ'nce between her an' you?'

"'She can't move,' 'Leven says, starin' down.

"'Yes, sir,' s'I, 'that's it. She's through doin' the things she was
born to do, an' you ain't.'

"With that 'Leven looks at me.

"'I _can't_ do nothin',' she says again.

"'Why, then,' says I, brisk, 'you're as good as dead, an' we'd best bury
you, too. What do you think the Lord wants you 'round for?'

"An' she didn't say nothin', only stood fingerin' the shroud she wore.

"'Here,' s'I, then, 'is the comb. Here is Jennie's picture. The pins is
in her hair. Take it down an' do it over. _There's_ somethin' to do an'
ease her mother about Jennie not lookin' natural.'

"An' with that I marched myself out an' shut the door.

"Mis' Toplady an' Mis' Holcomb was high-eyebrows on the other side of
it, an' they come at me like _tick_ lookin' for _tock_.

"'Well,' s'I, 'it _is_ Jennie's shroud she's wearin'. But I guess we'll
hev to bury 'Leven in it to get it underground. _I_ won't tell her.'

"I give 'em to understand as much as I wanted they should know,--not
includin' exactly how I met 'Leven. An' we consulted, vague an'
emphatic, like women will. There wasn't time to make another one an' do
it up an' all. An' anyway, I was bound not to let the poor thing know
what she'd done. The others hated to, too--I donno if you'll know how we
felt? I donno but mebbe you sense things like that better when you live
in a little town.

"'Well said!' Mis' Amanda bursts out after a while, 'I'm reg'lar put to
it. I can scare up an excuse, or a meal, or a church entertainment on as
short notice as any, but I declare if I ever trumped up a shroud. An'
you know an'