Whilst recent mourners, from a distance come,

Pass slowly onwards to the silent tomb: * * *

And there the tattlers of the neigh’rhood hie,

Inventing falsehoods for the village cry:

There, country swains and damsels meet and weep,

Or laugh, away the moments prior to sleep,—

Make love,—unthoughtful that the sacred sod,

On which they stand or sit belongs to God!

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

I.