"An' ye want me t' do for yer dead what ye'd do for mine, 'Liza?"
"Aye, aye, Anna, yer God's angel to yer frien's."
"Go an' fetch 'Liza Conlon, Jane Burrows and Marget Houston!" was Anna's order to Jamie.
The women came at once. The plan was outlined, the labor apportioned and they went to work. Jamie went for the carpenter and hired William Gainer to dig the grave. Eliza Conlon made the shroud, Jane Burrows and Anna washed and laid out the corpse, and Mrs. Houston kept Eliza in Anna's bed until the preliminaries for the wake were completed.
"Ye can go now, Mrs. Houston," Anna said, "an' I'll mind 'Liza."
"The light's gone out o' m' home an' darkness fills m' heart, Anna, an' it's the sun that'll shine for m' no more! Ochone, ochone!"
"'Liza dear, I've been where ye are now, too often not t' know that aanything that aanybody says is jist like spittin' at a burnin' house t' put it out. Yer boy's gone—we can't bring 'im back. Fate's cut yer heart in two an' oul Docther Time an' the care of God are about the only shure cures goin'."
"Cudn't the ministher help a little if he was here, Anna?"
"If ye think so I'll get him, 'Liza!"
"He might put th' love of God in me!"