There was a creaking, crackling sound upon the gravel in the avenue, and then a carriage emerged from behind the hedge, and another, and another.  They were family carriages, and stopped at the front door, which was swung wide open.  There was no sound but the letting down of steps and slamming of doors, and the rolling away of wheels.  People with grave faces, which they seemed to have put on for the occasion as they put on white gloves for weddings, stepped out and came up the steps.  They were mostly clad in sober colors, and said nothing, or conversed in a low, murmuring tone, or in whispers.  They entered the house and seated themselves in the library, with the large, solemn Family Bible, and the empty inkstand, and the clean pen-wiper, and the paper knife, and the melancholy recluses of books locked into their cells.

Presently some one would come to the door and beckon with his finger to some figure sitting in the silent library.  The sitter arose and walked out quietly, and went with the beckoner and looked in at the lid, and saw what had once been a boy with soft eyes and tender heart.  Coming back to the library the smell of varnish was for a moment blown out of the wide entry by the breath of the clover that wandered in, and reminded the silent company of the song and the sunshine and bloom that were outside.

At length every thing was waiting.  No more carriages came—­no more people.  There was no more looking into the casket—­no more whispering and moving.  The rooms were full of a silent company, and they were all waiting.  The clock ticked audibly.  The wind rustled in the pine-trees.  What next?  Would not the master of the house appear to welcome his guests?

He did not come; but from the upper entry, at the head of the stairs, near a room in which sat Hope Wayne, and Lawrence Newt, and Mrs. Simcoe, and Fanny Dinks, and Alfred, and his parents, and a few others, was heard the voice of Dr. Peewee, saying, “Let us pray!”

And he prayed a long prayer.  He spoke of the good works of this life, and the sweet promises of the next; of the Christian hero, who fights the good fight encompassed by a crowd of witnesses; of those who do justice and love mercy, and walk in the way of the Lord.  He referred to our dear departed brother, and eulogized Christian merchants, calling those blessed who, being rich, are almoners of the Lord’s bounty.  He prayed for those who remained, reminding them, that the Lord chastens whom he loves, and that they who die, although full of years and honors, do yet go where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest, and at last pass beyond to enter into the joy of their Lord.

His voice ceased, and silence fell again upon the house.  Every body sat quietly; the women fanned themselves, and the men looked about.  Here was again the sense of waiting—­of vague expectation.  What next?

Three or four workmen went into the parlor.  One of them put down the lid and screwed it tight.  The casket was closed forever.  They lifted it, and carried it out carefully down the steps.  They rolled it into a hearse that stood upon the gravel, and the man who closed the lid buttoned a black curtain over the casket.