self, for he stood alone. No one shook hands with him now. He had
crept out of his bed to stand by his dead friend. The places of chief
mourners were assigned to Baboon and the dog, and Billie Piper. Whether
these places were given because Baboon and Billie were the only present
friends of the deceased, or whether the dog quietly asserted a right
that no one cared to dispute, is not certain. Most likely it was one of
those things that naturally, and therefore correctly, adjust themselves.

When these bearded men in blue shirts rested their burden at the open
grave, they looked at each other, and there was an unpleasant pause.
Perhaps they thought of the Christian burial-service in other lands, and
felt that something was wanting. At last Baboon stole up close to the
head of the grave, hesitated, lifted and laid aside his old slouch hat,
and looking straight down into the earth, said, in a low and helpless
way:

"Earth to earth and dust to dust!"--hesitated again and then continued:
"The mustard and the clover seed are but little things, and no man
can tell the one from the other; yet bury them in the uttermost
parts of the earth, and each will bring its kind perfect and
beautiful,--and--and--man is surely more than a little seed--and--and;"
here he quite broke down, and knelt and kissed the face of the dead.

The men looked away for a while, as if to objects in the horizon, and
then, without looking at each other, or breaking silence, lowered the
unshapely box, caught up the spades, and found a relief in heaping the
grave.

Then the Coroner, as in duty bound, or, as he expressed it, "as required
by the law in such cases made and provided," directed his attentions to
a search for the buried treasure.

Yeast-powder boxes, oyster-cans, and sardine-boxes, old boots and
quicksilver tanks, were carried out to the light and inspected, without
results. "In the straw of the bunk," said the Coroner;--and blankets,
bunk, and straw were carried out to the sun; but not an ounce of gold.

To make sure against intrusion of the ill-disposed, the unwearied
Coroner slept on the spot. The next day the hearth was taken up
carefully, piece by piece, but only crickets clad in black, and little
pink-eyed mice met the eager eyes of the men. At last some one suggested
that as the hard-baked earthen floor was the last place in which one
would look for hidden treasures, that was probably the first and only
place in which the Gopher had buri