Sez I, “There is his children left for her to live for,” sez I—“three little bits of his own life, for her to nourish, and cherish, and look out for.”
“Yes,” sez Cephas, “and she will do that nobly, and I will help her. They are all goin' to the funeral, too, in deep-black dresses.” He said “they wuz too little to realize it now, but in later and maturer years it would be a comfort to 'em to know they had took part in such a funeral as that wuz goin' to be, and wuz dressed in black.”
“Wall,” sez I (in a quiet, onassumin' way I would gin little hints of my mind on the subject), “I am afraid that will be about all the comforts of life the poor little children will ever have,” sez I. “It will be if you buy many more flower-pieces and crape dresses.”
Cephas said “it wouldn't take much crape for the children's dresses, they wuz so little, only the baby's; that would have to be long.”
Sez I, “The baby would look better in white, and it will take sights of crape for a long baby dress.”
“Yes, but S. Annie can use it afterwards for veils. She is very economical; she takes it from me. And she feels jest as I do, that the baby must wear it in respect to her father's memory.”
Sez I, “The baby don't know crape from a clothes-pin.”
“No,” sez Cephas, “but in after years the thought of the respect she showed will sustain her.”
“Wall,” sez I, “I guess she won't have much besides thoughts to live on, if things go on in this way.”
I would give little hints in this way, but they wuzn't took. Things went right on as if I hadn't spoke. And I couldn't contend, for truly, as a bad little boy said once on a similar occasion, “it wuzn't my funeral,” so I had to set and work on that insane bedquilt and see it go on. But I sithed constant and frequent, and when I wuz all alone in the room I indulged in a few low groans.