Classic Poem

" Did she suffer much? "
" Yes, the pain was dreadful. "
" And the new doctor, couldn't he help her? "
" No, you see it had gone too far, " he said, —
" Past help; she hid her trouble from us all.
You would think that, being an old woman,
She might have let the doctor see her breast
And not thought of it. But she wouldn't —
Not until he made her; it was too late.
She didn't complain much when he told her
That she could only live, perhaps, two months.
Once she said, " Do you believe in heaven?
What do you think it is like — harps and crowns
And trailing white robes on the golden floors?
I don't want those things — just my sun-bonnet
And my calico dress to putter in,
And my flowers. Heaven won't be heaven to me
If I can't have some pineys and lilacs. "

" Who is that coming down the road?
Is it the undertaker — I can't see? "

" No, for he has white horses; that's Dan Frost
Driving to the farm to fetch his mother.
It will be an hour before the funeral;
Let us go outside and look at her flowers. "

" She had sights of them, late and early;
Her garden blossomed from May till snowfall.
There by the fence are her lemon lilies,
And the double hollyhocks, and the asters.
There's the herb bed set in the fence corner,
With the green and white creeper around it.
There's the dahlias out by the grapevine,
And a bed of marigolds and foxglove,
And every piney you ever heard of.
But the flower-bed that she set store by
Was her grave-yard bed.

" Come over this way —
She never talked to the neighbors about it,
But all the flowers came from some graveyard.
She knew them all by name, — that is, the graves
She'd taken them from; she would say to me,
" This bush is Niece Abigal's snowdrop,
And that vine is Uncle John's myrtle.
(He is buried down at Pendal Hollow.)
The box border is Aunt Theodosia's,
And the scarlet honeysuckle was set
On young Ed Montgomery's grave on the hill.
He took poison, perhaps you remember;
They said his father turned him out of doors
For spending the money he sold his steers for,
To go to the city."
" Here's a bride rose
That came from Rose Latham's grave; she was buried
In her wedding dress; her baby died too,
And they laid the baby in her arms
And she looked so happy — lay there smiling,
Wistful, just like a bride; she died in June,
Just one year from the time she was married.
Her mother set a Bride rose on her grave,
And she took a root that had run outside.
I think she liked that rose for her bouquets
For meeting, better than any other rose.
Every year from springtime to snowfall
She carried a bouquet out to church
To set on the preacher's desk during meeting;
After Sunday School she gave it away
To someone; I think folks will miss her flowers.

" You remember she went to the city
Once every year to visit her grandniece.
She liked to go down there because her niece
Lived next to a city burying-ground.
It was the prettiest place in the world, she said,
And she could get slips of new kinds of flowers.
Once in a while there'd be a grand funeral,
And she would go and stand with the mourners,
And they would think that she was one of them,
And give her a ride home in a carriage.
" Maybe 'twas wicked to pretend, she said,
But then it wasn't all pretense either,
For she was sorry when anyone died,
And there isn't so much difference, after all,
Between folks, when it comes to the end of life.

" There, he's coming; I can see the white horses.
Let's go in; he'll want some help, likely.
I'll get those old silver combs for her hair.
She was afraid she wouldn't look nice.
I promised she should wear her best dress —
The black cashmere she bought in the city —
And have some white geranium in her hands. "

*****

" Now you get in the back seat; I'll sit there
With you; it's three miles to the graveyard.
Don't cry — remember what the preacher said, —
Though I always cry, too, when they're singing.
The last hymn. She picked that one out herself:
" Beulah Land," a queer hymn for a funeral,
But kind of sweet —

" Do look back up the hill —
Did you ever see flowers as beautiful?
They look like a " Morning Star" patchwork quilt
Laid on the grass —

" Do you see anything?
No, I'm not faint, something gave me a turn
Just now. When I looked back at her flowers
Something dazzled my eyes; I could see her
Standing there close beside the flower-beds,
In her old calico and sunbonnet,
Looking down the road, smiling after us.

" Do you suppose that things go on the same
After we're dead, only we can't see them,
And we don't have to wait for Gabriel
To blow the trump? She looked just as natural.
For a minute it gave me a bad turn;
Of course, 'twas nothing but a dark shadow,
Or a blur in my eyes.

" I must dig up
That Bride rose tomorrow, and set it out
Over her down there in Pendal Hollow. "