"Prudy," said she, "it is polite to do so when we lose people we love. Charlie was my friend and Katie's friend, and we shall treat him with the respect of a friend."
"Yes," said Katie, skipping after a fly, "spec of a fend."
Dotty had never looked on death.
"You musn't be frightened, little sister," said Prudy, as they walked hand in hand to Mrs. Gray's, behind the rest of their own family, on the day of the funeral. "Charlie is just as cold as marble, lying in a casket; but he doesn't know it. The part of him that knows is in a beautiful world where we can't see him."
"Why can't we see him?" said Dotty, peering anxiously into the sky.
"I don't know exactly why," replied Prudy, "but Grandma Read says God doesn't wish it. And He has put a seal over our eyes, so an angel could stand right before us, and we shouldn't know it."
"Ah!" said Dotty in a low voice; and though she could see nothing, it seemed to her the air was full of angels.
"But I think likely Charlie can see us, Dotty, for the seal has been taken off his eyes. O, it is beautiful to be dead!"
After this Dotty was not at all afraid when she touched the cold face in the casket, for she knew Charlie was not there.
"It is beautiful to be dead!" said she next day to Katie. "Charlie is very glad of it."