e. We saw the dead man's
eldest son, of whom he had told us in the summer with such pride. He had
shown his respect for his father as best he could, by a black band on
his hat and a pair of black cotton gloves a world too large for him. He
looked so sad, and cried bitterly as he stood alone at the head of the
people. His aunt was next, with a handkerchief at her eyes, fully equal
to the proprieties of the occasion, though I fear her grief was not so
heartfelt as her husband's, who dried his eyes on his coat-sleeve again
and again. There were perhaps twenty of the mourners, and there was much
whispering among those who walked last. The minister and some others
fell into line, and the procession went slowly down the slope; a strange
shadow had fallen over everything. It was like a November day, for the
air felt cold and bleak. There were some great sea-fowl high in the air,
fighting their way toward the sea against the wind, and giving now and
then a wild, far-off ringing cry. We could hear the dull sound of the
sea, and at a little distance from the land the waves were leaping high,
and breaking in white foam over the isolated ledges.

The rest of the people began to walk or drive away, but Kate and I stood
watching the funeral as it crept along the narrow, crooked road. We had
never seen what the people called "walking funerals" until we came to
Deephaven, and there was something piteous about this; the mourners
looked so few, and we could hear the rattle of the wagon-wheels. "He's
gone, ain't he?" said some one near us. That was it,--_gone_.

Before the people had entered the house, there had been, I am sure, an
indifferent, business-like look, but when they came out, all that was
changed; their faces were awed by the presence of death, and the
indifference had given place to uncertainty. Their neighbor was
immeasurably their superior now. Living, he had been a failure by their
own low standards; but now, if he could come back, he would know
secrets, and be wise beyond anything they could imagine, and who could
know the riches of which he might have come into possession?

To Kate and me there came a sudden consciousness of the mystery and
inevitableness of death; it was not fear, thank God! but a thought of
how certain it was that some day it would be a mystery to us no longer.
And there was a thought, too, of the limitation of this present life; we
were waiting there, in company with the people, the great sea, and th