Sit right down at once."
"Dear, kind, considerate Hugh!" Mollie thought, as she took her place at
the tidy table. "Where is he now, Mrs. Slimmens?"
"Gone for his own dinner, miss, or his breakfast; I don't know which,
seein' he's had nothing all day but a cup of tea I gave him this
morning. He's been and had the poor creeter upstairs laid out beautiful,
and the room fixed up, and the undertaker's man's been here, a-measurin'
her for her coffin. She's to be buried to-morrow, you know."
"Yes, I know. Poor Miriam! poor mother!"
Mollie finished her meal and went at once upstairs. The chamber of death
looked ghastly enough, draped with white sheets, which hid the smoky,
blotched walls; the stove had been removed, the floor scrubbed, the
window washed and flung open, and on the table stood two large and
beautiful bouquets that scented the little room with sweetest odors of
rose and mignonette.
On the bed, snowily draped in a white shroud, lay Miriam, her hands
folded across her bosom, a linen cloth covering the dead face. By the
bed a watcher sat--a decently dressed woman, who rose with a sort of
questioning courtesy upon the entrance of the young lady.
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