Baby Pitchers Trials | Page 8

is. Couldn't have a funeral without somebody dead! It isn't me, and it isn't you. Nor anybody in this house. Did you think it was? No. It is a robin. You can go because you have a black face. Always wear black to funerals. I will, and Bertie will,--round our hats. You mustn't laugh. Good folks don't laugh at funerals, and I don't. Only bad. There's a worm. Want to look? That is the robin's breakfast going home. He lives down there under a plank. I can't lift it, and you can't. Bertie can. He don't want no more breakfast. Course not! He is going to be dead. Bury him when Amy and Charley come. Somewhere. Do you know where? I don't. Bertie does."
With Dinah in her arms, she met Charley and Amy at the corner when school was done, with the cheerful tidings.
"Going to have a funeral!"
"No!" said Charley.
"Are too, Charley Waters."
"When?"
"Now."
"Where?" inquired Amy, anxiously.
"There," pointing towards home.
"Not at our house?"
"Yes."
"It cannot be. Nobody is dead."
"Couldn't have a funeral without somebody dead."
"Flora, is anybody dead?"
"He is."
"Who?"
"The robin. Died to-day. Going to have a funeral in the porch."
"Ho, ho!" laughed Charley.
"You have given me such a fright!" said Amy. "I have not strength enough left to take me home."
Charley offered to carry her on his back, but she declined the offer. After leaning against a tree for a moment, she was able to go on.
"I don't know what the dear child means, do you?"
"Haven't the least idea," said Charley.
"And what is Bertie so busy about?"
"Can't make that out either."
"What is Bertie doing, pet?"
"Making the box," said Flora.
"What box?"
"Can't bury the robin without making a box!"
"Oh!"
"Course not. You ought to know better."
"That's so. When did Mr. R. shuffle off, &c.?"
"Didn't go nowhere, only to be dead."
"Oh!"
"And when Bertie gets the box done, we must form a line and march. Me and Dinah will go first, because she is the blackest."
"Good. She shall be chief mourner."
"Me, too."
"You shall be the marshal."
"Well."
She had not the slightest idea what it was to be the marshal but she liked the sound of it. Bertie was not long in finishing the box. Before they put the birdy in, Amy brought a handful of hay and made a soft nest. She could not bear to see it lying on the bottom of the hard box. Bertie nailed the cover on, and bored a hole with a gimlet. "To look through," he said. But as the hole was very small, and it was very dark inside, you could not see anything.
Bertie wanted to march with the box under his arm and the spade over his shoulder, but Flora insisted upon the wheelbarrow, and as Flora was the marshal, the wheelbarrow was brought out to head the procession. Flora and Dinah followed as chief mourners, while Amy and Charley walked in single file to make the procession as long as possible. They marched round and round the grounds as long as Flora wished, and then Bertie dug a deep hole in the middle of Amy's garden, and buried the robin.
CHAPTER V.
BERTIE MEETS JACK MIDNIGHT AT THE SPRING.
Flora enjoyed the funeral very much. She had never had a dead bird to bury before, and she thought it a very nice thing; so nice in fact, that she meant to come back some day and have it over again. So she marked the spot with a stick, that she might know where to find the bird when she wanted it for another funeral. That it was hid from her sight forever she had not the least idea, or that she could not re-bury it whenever she choose. So she planted the stick, and went away with a happy heart.
When she knew that the birdy could be buried only once, and that she was not to disturb the spot, she mourned her loss afresh. But Amy told her she would plant a daisy on the little mound, and it should be her own, and she should think of her bird whenever the flowers bloomed. And Charley promised to buy a bright yellow canary, if he could ever save money enough, and it should be "a regular screamer." She wanted Bertie to make the cage at once, but Bertie thought he could not make a cage good enough for a canary. He would have a beauty on hand, however, by the time Charley got ready to purchase the bird. This was meant as a sly hit at Charley who never had any money. He fully intended to buy the bird, but canaries cost money, and Charley's pockets were always empty, so far as money was concerned.
Flora had little faith in Charley's promises. Bertie had a new idea in his head. He wanted to prepare a trap for a musk-rat. That was why he