and all I could see was the bitter scowling faces of the women.  And all the while the girl stood by the trolley looking on the ground.  She had a little kerchief over her head that let the hair fall about her shoulders, and her face was very white, with eyes red and swollen through weeping.  But when she knew that all that crowd was there to mock her father, and that there was not a man would raise hand to lift him, she laid her head upon the coffin, hiding her face in her hands, and sobbed bitterly.’

Ratsey stopped for a moment and drank again deep at the flask; and as for me, I still said nothing, feeling a great lump in my throat; and reflecting how hatred and passion have power to turn men to brutes.

‘I am a rough man,’ Ratsey resumed, ’but tender-like withal, and when I saw her weep, I ran off to the church to tell the parson how it was, and beg him to come out and try if we two could lift the coffin.  So out he came just as he was, with surplice on his back and book in hand.  But when the men knew what he was come for, and looked upon that tall, fair girl bowed down over her father’s coffin, their hearts were moved, and first Tom Tewkesbury stepped out with a sheepish air, and then Garrett, and then four others.  So now we had six fine bearers, and ’twas only women that could still look hard and scowling, and even they said no word, and not a boy beat on his pan.

’Then Mr. Glennie, seeing he was not wanted for bearer, changed to parson, and strikes up with “I am the resurrection and the life”.  ’Tis a great text, John, and though I’ve heard it scores and scores of times, it never sounded sweeter than on that day.  For ’twas a fine afternoon, and what with their being no wind, but the sun bright and the sea still and blue, there was a calm on everything that seemed to say “Rest in Peace, Rest in Peace”.  And was not the spring with us, and the whole land preaching of resurrection, the birds singing, trees and flowers waking from their winter sleep, and cowslips yellow on the very graves?  Then surely ’tis a fond thing to push our enmities beyond the grave, and perhaps even he was not so bad as we held him, but might have tricked himself into thinking he did right to hunt down the contraband.  I know not how it was, but something like this came into my mind, and did perhaps to others, for we got him under without a sign or word from any that stood there.  There was not one sound heard inside the church or out, except Mr. Glennie’s reading and my amens, and now and then a sob from the poor child.  But when ’twas all over, and the coffin safe lowered, up she walks to Tom Tewkesbury saying, through her tears “I thank you, sir, for your kindness,” and holds out her hand.  So he took it, looking askew, and afterwards the five other bearers; and then she walked away by herself, and no one moved till she had left the churchyard gate, letting her pass out like a queen.’  ‘And so she is a queen,’ I said, not being able to keep from speaking, for very pride to hear how she had borne herself, and because she had always shown kindness to me.  ’So she is, and fairer than any queen to boot.’