g the dead long after burial grew from a
necessity. The funeralizing of a departed kinsman or friend was
published from the pulpit. The bereaved family set a day, months or even
a year in advance, for the purpose of having the preacher eulogize their
beloved dead. "Come the third Sunday in May next summer," a mountain
preacher could be heard in mid winter publishing the occasion. "Brother
Tom's funeral will be held here at Christy Creek church house."

The word passed. One told the other and when the appointed Sunday rolled
around the following May, friends and kin came from far and near,
bringing their basket dinner, for no one family could have prepared for
the throng. Together, when they had eaten their fill, they gathered
about the grave house to weep and mourn and sing over "Brother Tom,"
dead and gone this long time.

The grave house was a crude structure of rough planks supported by four
short posts, erected at the time of the burial to shelter the dead from
rain and snow and scorching wind.

Many a one, having warning of approaching death, named the preacher he
wished to preach his funeral, even naming the text and selecting the
hymns to be sung.

As the service moved along after the singing of a doleful hymn, the
sobbing and wailing increased. The preacher eulogized the departed,
praising his many good deeds while on earth, and urged his hearers on to
added hysteria with, "Sing Brother Tom's favorite hymn, Oh, Brother,
Will You Meet Me!"

Sobs changed to wailing as old and young joined in the doleful dirge:

Oh, brother, will you meet me,
Meet me, meet me?
Oh, brother, will you meet me
On Canaan's far-off shore.

It was a family song; so not until each member had been exhorted to meet
on Canaan's shore did the hymn end--each verse followed of course with
the answer:

Oh, yes, we will meet you
On Canaan's far-off shore.

By this time the mourners were greatly stirred up, whereupon the
preacher in a trembling, tearful voice averred, "When I hear this
promising hymn it moves deep the spirit in me, it makes my heart glad.
Why, my good friends, I could shout! I just nearly see Brother Tom over
yonder a-beckoning to me and to you. He ain't on this here old troubled
world no more and he won't be. Will Brother Tom be here when the peach
tree is in full blowth in the spring?"

"No!" w