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not have the funeral (underlined), until the next Sunday--when
they could get the minister to preach the funeral sermon.*

The husband & sons, of this good woman, came over in the
morning, & the cart driving up to the door, they helped to
lift the coffin in; a clean sheet (for pall they had none)
was spread over, in decent concealment of the melancholy object.
The black man, walked by the horse's head leading him carefuly
over the narrow & little used road through the cornfield
& among the stumps of trees that still impeded the way
through the woods.--Allan insisted on following the
remains of his murder'd (underlined) wife as he called her, to her last, long
home. His neighbor, & one of his sons, supported
the tottering steps of one, more enfeebled by his grief, than by his
age; it was a task William could not perform, for
worn out by fasting, sorrow & watching, he could scarcely drag
his own feeble & emaciated frame along; & while he
held Fanny with one hand, he leaned his other on the shoulder
of Billy, to steady & support himself -- The old dog, who walked,
slowly & heavily, close by his master, & waving his tail in between
his legs, & uttering a low growl, or moaning sound, would look
from his master to the cart, as if to ask what all this meant.

When they reached the solitary church yard, the
men took the coffin from the cart, & carrying it to the new
made grave, left William to assist the afflicted husband.
He could not stand, but when he reached the spot, sunk sat down
on the trunk of the fallen oak, & leaned his head against its
blasted branches, & look mournfully on,
whilst his neighbours were laying the wife of his bosom
in her lonely dwelling. The kindly showers of heaven,
softened the hardened soil; but no kindly tears
flowed from the burning eyes of Allan, to relieve his almost
bursting heart. He shuddered as he heard the gravel, rattling
on the coffin; the sound fell still heavier upon
his wounded spirit. When he arose from the spot, where
he must now leave the companion of his life, his limbs

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* In this neighborhood it is the custom to bury the dead
often without any religious service, or the attendance of many friends,
which they call