The next mornin’ wuz fair and pleasant, and we got a good, early start. We went with the democrat, and Jack wuz goin’ to set between us after we left Delight; we put in her little willer chair in front, and Jack sot in that till we left her.
I had put on my second best black alpaca dress and my black bunnet that I had mourned for Mother Allen in; it wuz jest as good as it ever wuz. Mournin’ for a mother-in-law hain’t so hard on clothes as mournin’ for your own parents. It wuz real fashionable in shape, for you know fashions come round agin in jest about so long a time, and I had kep’ this in a bandbox for years and years, till, lo and behold! time, that had rolled round and round, had rolled this right into fashion agin. It wuz a kind of poke, but not too pokey. I also wore my black shawl I had mourned in, jest as good as new, the nap not took off a mite. I didn’t wear my crape veil, thinkin’ I didn’t want to look as if I wuz mournin’ too much, but I wanted to be jest right for a connection of the Bodleys by marriage.
Josiah acted kinder sot about dressin’ for the funeral. He would wear his pepper and salt suit. I told him it didn’t look half so well as black at a funeral.
“Well,” sez he, “I hain’t a-goin’ to mourn much.”
Sez I, “You could jest as well mourn what you calculate to in a black suit as a gray one.”
But, no, he would do jest as he wanted to, and contended that he should wear it, for he didn’t lay out to mourn a great deal. He said they wuzn’t any real relation to us, and they wuz on my side what they wuz, and, sez he, “I lay out to wear a pale-blue necktie.”
But I broke that up. He couldn’t find it at the last minute, and had to wear a black one. Jack had on his little blue suit, but I tied a black ribbon round his neck under his collar; he looked good, anyway. We left Delight to home and went on, with Jack settin’ between us and askin’ questions most all the time.
We got to the house about half-past ten—the funeral wuz at eleven. We could told the house anyway, there wuz so many teams standin’ round the door and in front of the barn, and horses hitched all along the fence, and they had took down a length of fence by the orchard and lots of teams wuz hitched in there. There wuz top buggies, one or two autos, democrats, double wagons with chairs in ’em for seats, and one or two buckboards and some bicycles leanin’ aginst the piazza steps. There wuz lots of folks present; Grandma Bodley wuz respected.