She knew what he was going to do with them, and without
a word held the light while he fashioned the rude coffin in which he
laid the dead man, but not until she had with her own hands reverently
and tenderly washed the blood from the ghastly face and bound about the
wound upon the temple a handkerchief which she found in his pack. Then,
after the body was placed in the box, she took a pillow from her
father's bed, and putting on it a clean covering and placing it under
the peddler's head, folded his hands upon his breast, and kneeling
beside the box bowed her head upon the boards and began the Lord's
Prayer.
It was her burial service for the dead, all she could think of, and for
a moment her father stood staring at her as if stupefied with what he
saw; then his features relaxed, and falling on his knees beside her he
cried out piteously:
"Oh, Father in heaven, forgive, forgive! Thou knowest I did not mean to
do it. Have mercy, have mercy! Blot out my great sin, and if a prayer
for the dead is not wrong, grant that this man, my friend, whom I sent
into eternity with no time for repentance, may be among the saved;
forbid that I should destroy him body and soul.
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