"Oh, poor thing! Is she dead?" exclaimed Anna Lee.
"She's dead, sure enough, but you needn't call her 'poor thing' any more, Anna. She has got a long way beyond that by this time," said Jeduthun. "Yes, Miss Lilla has been in heaven two days already. They are going to bring her over here, and put her in old General Dent's vault. The Parmalees are kind of connections of the Dents, somehow. Kissy, she knows all about it. The boss was there yesterday, and last night, the general and his sister drove over. The funeral is to be at half-past one o'clock, and they'll get here about three, I expect."
"There's somebody mowing the grass before the door of the vault," remarked Osric, looking across the river.
"Yes, the general's man came down to open the door and make everything nice. Kissy, she went over yesterday to see if she could do anything. She used to work at Mr. Parmalee's before she was married. She was saying last night that she was the first one to lay Miss Lilla in her new cradle, and yesterday she helped to lay her in the coffin."
"I suppose they will have a splendid coffin?" said Mehetabel Lee.
"Oh yes. Mr. Parmalee won't spare expense, you may be sure. It's a kind of comfort to him, I expect, though it don't do her any good. They have got a coffin covered with white, with silver nails-and handles, and a great silver cross on the breast, with Miss Lilla's name, and a text of Scripture, and heaps of lovely white flowers of all kinds."
"Miss Lilla always liked white," remarked Elsie. "I hardly ever saw her wear anything else in summer, and even in quite cold weather. Don't you remember, Anna, when we were little girls, our wishing we could have such white frocks as Miss Lilla's? Kissy was doing them up, and she showed them to us."
"She had better white robes than any that money could buy," said Jeduthun, solemnly. "She had washed her robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, as Scripture says, and now she is a-wearing of them before his throne. You get such robes as those, my dears, and then you won't fear to die any more than she did."
"It must have been rather sudden at last," remarked Hetty, after a little silence. "I saw her riding out in the carriage last week, when I was over at the Springs. Let's see! why, that was only last Friday."
"Yes, she rode out the morning of the day she died, but her death wasn't sudden more than any death is sudden," replied Jeduthun. "They have been expecting it any time for the last year. In fact, Miss Lilla has never been well like other people since she was born. I never thought she would live as long as she has done."