Those were in the days before undertakers and other such modern conveniences had been introduced into that country.  Jake Benton, good soul, went to Dobbinsville after the coffin and hauled it back in the same old lumber wagon he had hauled Evangelist Blank in five years before.

The funeral was arranged for Wednesday afternoon at two o’clock.  A handful of ashes, together with the pocket-knife and other articles found in the ash-heap, was taken and wrapped in a napkin and placed in the big new coffin.

On Wednesday afternoon, when two o’clock arrived, the two front rooms of the Gramps farmhouse were crammed full of people.  The yard was full, too.  The St. Louis preacher began and spoke thus:  “My friends and brethren, we have met on this sad occasion to pay our last respects to the honored dead.  Within the narrow confines of this casket lie the earthly remains of a man whose spirit yet lives.  It was not my happy privilege to know this excellent man, but I am informed by his pastor, Preacher Bonds here, of his manifold excellencies.  When a great man dies, the people mourn.  I am informed that our departed brother was a great man.  First, he was a great man in business.  When I behold this beautiful well-kept farm, I see its wide, extending fields, its running brooks, its whitewashed fences, its excellent buildings, in the burning of one of which our brother met his death—­when I behold these things, I say, I am made to exclaim that God hath blessed him in basket and store.  Yes, a great man in business.

“Secondly, he was a great man in his home, and by the way, there is where the true greatness of a man is tested.  In the death of our esteemed brother the home is the loser.  It loses a loving husband.  It loses a considerate father and an efficient bread-winner.

“Thirdly, our brother was a great man in the community.  I am told that he was a public-spirited man.  He believed in schools, in good roads, and in all other things that make for the welfare of a community.  In his death the community is a heavy loser.

“Fourthly, he was a great man in the church. (Preacher Bonds, “Amen".) I am told that for upwards of thirty years our brother has been a consistent member of Mount Olivet Church and a regular attendant at its service and a heavy contributor to its funds.  I understand that he was a mighty defender of the church’s faith.  He fought bravely on.  He stood like a rock.  He weathered the storm.  He finished the course.  He conquered.

“But, my friends, our finite minds cannot fathom the profound mysteries of the infinite.  We cannot understand.  Why would a just God permit such a noble man to meet such a tragic death?  It is not ours to reason why.  We simply bow our hearts to the will of the divine.”

“And now, to the bereaved I would say, Weep not as those who have no hope. (Mrs. Gramps weeps aloud.) Brother Gramps is just gone on before.  He has crossed over Jordan, where he waits on the sunny banks of sweet deliverance.  Just a few more days and we shall join him.  He has gone where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary be at rest.  Let us pray.  Brother Bonds, lead us.”