"Such good people always seem to me to die young," said Anna.
"Well, I don't know," said David. "Look at grandmother! She is 'most a hundred, and I am sure she is as good as she can be."
"That she is!" said Jeduthun. "She is a splendid old Christian. She told me she had been a church-member for seventy-five years. Well, young or old don't matter so much, if we are only ready, and we are all of us old enough to make ready. Remember that, children. You can't tell when your time will come, but if you are only ready, it will be all right, whether you are as young as you be now, or as old as Madam Brown."
"We can't tell when our call will come, either," said Elsie.
"No, and so the only safe way is to get ready now, because, you see, to-day is your own, and to-morrow isn't;" and Jeduthun began to sing again, this time, the beautiful tune which goes by the name of Windham—"Life is the time to serve the Lord!"
The children listened respectfully, and Elsie and Anna with real interest, to Jeduthun's little sermon, and even Hetty resolved that she would not "pay" Anna for getting the best of their little dispute. After all, Anna might die—she was often ailing—and then Hetty would be sorry that she had teased her. Osric, however, had no taste for such grave talk, and he slipped away and went up to the school-house, where he found all the children assembled, and all talking together about Miss Lilla's funeral.
"The coffin covered with white velvet, all nailed on with silver nails, and a real silver cross on the top," one of the girls was saying as he came up.
"Oh, Mary, not real silver!" said another.
"Real silver! My aunt said so," persisted Mary. "And they are to have eight young ladies for pall-bearers, all dressed in white, with long white veils and beautiful bunches and wreaths of flowers, and eight young gentlemen with scarfs of white silk and white rosettes. They sent to Hobartown for everything: flowers and coffin, and hearse and carriages. Of course there wasn't anything at the Springs good enough for the Parmalees," added Mary, imitating with considerable success the tone in which she had heard her mother say these words.
"I wonder they didn't send to the city and have done with it," remarked Osric.