"I wonder if she has been in heaven all that time?" said Christopher, who was a thoughtful child. "I wonder whether the general will know her when he gets there, too? Oh dear! I wish I hadn't come here!" said Christopher, struck with sudden remorse. "Suppose we should die suddenly, Ozzy?"
"Now, Christy Parsons, if you begin whining, I will never speak to you again as long as I live!" said Osric, angrily. "I should never have come, if you hadn't been so ready to come with me, and now you begin blaming me."
"I didn't blame you, either!" returned Christopher, greatly hurt. "I only said, What if we should die suddenly? And I didn't make you come, either, you know. I never should have thought of running away from school, if you hadn't coaxed me, and I mean to go right back this minute and tell Miss Hilliard I am sorry and I won't do so again."
"And so get punished and kept after school, and have all the boys laugh at you for a tattle-tale and a girl-boy," said Osric, "and just as likely as not, have General Dent taking you up and putting you into jail for trespass. They do put people into jail for trespass, I know, and of course trespassing in a vault would be worse than any other."
As the two boys were wrangling at the far end of the vault, they heard outside a noise of horses' feet and wheels and subdued voices. The funeral train had come up, and they had not seen it, after all.
"We can't get out now, anyhow," said Osric. "We shall have to wait till they bring in the coffin, and then we can see that, at any rate, and slip out with the rest of the people."
"But somebody will be sure to see us," said Christopher, on whose mind the idea of going to jail for trespass had taken a strong hold. "I don't see how we can ever get out at all."
"Hush, can't you?" returned Osric, giving him a pinch. "Somebody will hear you. Just you do as I do. There! They are saying the prayers."
"In the midst of life, we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased? Yet, O Lord most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death!"
How solemn the words sounded! Christopher felt as if they were meant for him—as if he were being buried instead of Miss Lilla. He burst out crying in spite of himself, and of Osric's shakes and pinches.