It was wonderful to see the happy and reconciled change when he arose and tenderly lifted the dead child in his arms. His face was transformed with a peace the old man had never seen before in any human being.
Strong men are always strong—in crime—in sin. When they reform it is the reformation of strength. Such a change came over Jack Bracken, the outlaw.
He carried his dead child to the next room: “I've got his grave already chiseled out of the rocks. I'll bury him here—right under the columns he called Mary and little Jesus, that he loved to talk of so much.”
“It's fitten”—said the old man tenderly—“it's fitten an' beautiful. The fust burial we know of in the Bible is where Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah for to bury Sarah, his wife. And as Abraham bought it of Ephron, the Hittite, and offered it to Abraham for to bury his dead out of his sight, so I give this cave to you, Jack Bracken, forever to be the restin' place of little Jack.”
And so, tenderly and with many kisses did they bury little Jack, sinless and innocent, deep in the pure white rock, covered as he was with purity and looking ever upwards toward the statue above, wherein Nature's chisel had carved out a Madonna and her child.