He was in a no less blithesome mood this day. The head apprentice was reading aloud the accounts for the burials of the month, while the master checked off the items, nodding approval, commenting, correcting or condemning with strange expletives.
“Don’t gabble, gabble next one slowlee!” said the Master of Burials, as the second account was laid aside, duly approved. “Eh ben, now let’s hear the next—who is it?”
“That Josue Anquetil,” answered the apprentice. The Master of Burials rubbed his hands together with a creepy sort of glee. “Ah, that was a clever piece of work! Too little of a length and a width for the box, but let us be thankful—it might have been too short, and it wasn’t.”
“No danger of that, pardingue!” broke in the apprentice. “The first it belonged to was a foot longer than Josue—he.”
“But I made the most of Josue,” continued the Master. “The mouth was crooked, but he was clean, clean—I shaved him just in time. And he had good hair for combing to a peaceful look, and he was light to carry—O my good! Go on, what has Josue the centenier to say for himself?”
With a drawling dull indifference, the lank, hatchet-faced servitor of the master servitor of the grave read off the items:
The Relict of Josue Anquetil, Centenier, in account with
Etienne Mahye, Master of Burials.
Item: Livres. Sols. Farth. Paid to Gentlemen of Vingtaine, who carried him to his grave.................. 4 4 0 Ditto to me, Etienne Mahye, for proper gloves of silk and cotton................. 1 0 0 Ditto to me, E. M., for laying of him out and all that appertains............... 0 7 0 Ditto to me, E. M., for coffin............ 4 0 0 Ditto to me, E. M., for divers............ 0 4 0
The Master of Burials interrupted. “Bat’dlagoule, you’ve forgot blacking for coffin!”
The apprentice made the correction without deigning reply, and then went on