SICKNESS AND DEATH 357 



frankest language, not to cherish any false hopes. 

 " Ah, John, it isn't they that feels the most, as dies 

 the most." 



Preparations for a funeral are often made long 

 before a death happens, and the chief sufferer takes 

 a keen interest, a sort of proprietary pride, in them. 

 He will, sometimes, send for the undertaker and give 

 minute directions about his own coffin. As often 

 happens in everyday life, so also in that supreme 

 moment, the solemn will, sometimes, pass into the 

 grotesque, the sublime into the ridiculous. " How 

 is your husband to-day ? " inquired the squire of a 

 neighbouring village about a labouring man who had 

 long been at death's door, and whom he hardly 

 expected to find alive when he called. "Oh sir," 

 replied the wife, "he is ever so much better to-day. 

 Now what do you think he did last night? You 

 would hardly believe it. He got out of bed, came 

 downstairs, and ate a good bit of the funeral ham, 

 and is ever so much the stronger for it." With such 

 ideas, a bit of furniture or an article of clothing 

 which is of no value in itself, acquires a sentimental 

 value ; a valuable thing acquires a greatly enhanced 

 value, if it has taken part in many such sad cere- 

 monies. There is a picturesque little settlement in 

 the heath country, which owes its origin to some 



