holding a kind of black Bazaar, with the aid of
a quantity of black pins. At the moment of my
arrival, he had just finished putting somebody's
hat into black long-clothes, like an African baby;
so he held out his hand for mine. But I, misled
by the action, and confused by the occasion, shook
hands with him with every testimony of warm
affection.

Poor dear Joe, entangled in a little black cloak
tied in a large bow under his chin, was seated
apart at the upper end of the room; where, as
chief mourner, he had evidently been stationed
by Trabb. When I bent down and said to him,
"Dear Joe, how are you?" he said, "Pip, old
chap, you knowed her when she were a fine
figure of a——" and clasped my hand and said
no more.

Biddy, looking very neat and modest in her
black dress, went quietly here and there, and
was very helpful. When I had spoken to Biddy,
as I thought it not a time for talking I went
and sat down near Joe, and there began to
wonder in what part of the house it—she—my
sister—was. The air of the parlour being faint
with the smell of sweet cake, I looked about for
the table of refreshments; it was scarcely visible
until one had got accustomed to the gloom, but
there was a cut-up plum cake upon it, and there
were cut-up oranges, and sandwiches, and
biscuits, and two decanters that I knew very
well as ornaments, but had never seen used in
all my life; one full of port, and one of sherry.
Standing at this table, I became conscious of
the servile Pumblechook in a black cloak and
several yards of hatband, who was alternately
stuffing himself, and making obsequious
movements to catch my attention. The moment he
succeeded, he came over to me (breathing sherry
and crumbs), and said in a subdued voice, "May
I, dear sir?" and did. I then descried Mr. and
Mrs. Hubble; the last-named in a decent speechless
paroxysm in a corner. We were all going
to "follow," and were all in course of being
tied up separately (by Trabb) into ridiculous
bundles.

"Which I meantersay, Pip," Joe whispered
me, as we were being what Mr. Trabb called
"formed" in the parlour, two and two—and it
was dreadfully like a preparation for some grim
kind of dance; "which I meantersay, sir, as I
would in preference have carried her to the
church myself, along with three or four friendly
ones wot come to it with willing harts and
arms, but it were considered wot the neighbours
would look down on such and would be of
opinions as it were wanting in respect."

"Pocket-handkerchiefs out, all!" cried Mr.
Trabb at this point, in a depressed businesslike
voice. "Pocket-handkerchiefs out! We
are ready!"

So, we all put our pocket-handkerchiefs to
our faces, as if our noses were bleeding, and
filed out two and two; Joe and I; Biddy and
Pumblechook; Mr. and Mrs. Hubble. The
remains of my poor sister had been brought round
by the kitchen door; and, it being a point of
Undertaking ceremony that the six bearers
must be stifled and blinded under a horrible
black velvet housing with a white border, the
whole looked like a blind monster with twelve
human legs, shuffling and blundering along,
under the guidance of two keepers—the postboy
and his comrade.

The neighbourhood, however, highly approved
of these arrangements, and we were much
admired as we went through the village; the more
youthful and vigorous part of the community
making dashes now and then to cut us off, and
lying in wait to intercept us at points of
vantage. At such times the more exuberant
among them called out in an excited manner on
our emergence round some corner of expectancy,
"Here they come!"  "Here they are!" and we
were all but cheered. In this progress I was
much annoyed by the abject Pumblechook,
who, being behind me, persisted all the way
as a delicate attention in arranging my streaming
hatband and smoothing my cloak. My
thoughts were further distracted by the
excessive pride of Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, who
were surpassingly conceited and vainglorious
in being members of so distinguished a
procession.

And now, the range of marshes lay clear before
us, with the sails of the ships on the river growing
out of it; and we went into the churchyard,
close to the graves of my unknown parents,
Philip Pirrip, late of this parish, and Also
Georgiana, Wife of the Above. And there,
my sister was laid quietly in the earth while
the larks sang high above it, and the light wind
strewed it with beautiful shadows of clouds and
trees.

Of the conduct of the worldly-minded
Pumblechook while this was doing, I desire to
say no more than it was all addressed to me;
and that even when those noble passages were
read which remind humanity how it brought
nothing into the world and can take nothing out,
and how it fleeth like a shadow and never
continueth long in one stay, I heard him cough a
reservation of the case of a young gentleman who came
unexpectedly into large property. When we
got back, he had the hardihood to tell me that he
wished my sister could have known I had done
her so much honour, and to hint that she would
have considered it reasonably purchased, at the
price of her death. After that, he drank all
the rest of the sherry, and Mr. Hubble drank
the port, and the two talked (which I have
since observed to be customary in such cases),
as if they were of quite another race from
the deceased, and were notoriously immortal.
Finally, he went away with Mr. and Mrs.
Hubble—to make an evening of it, I felt sure,
and to tell the Jolly Bargemen that he was
the founder of my fortunes and my earliest
benefactor.

When they were all gone, and when Trabb
and his men—but not his boy: I looked for him
—had crammed their mummery into bags, and
were gone too, the house felt wholesomer.
Soon afterwards, Biddy, Joe, and I, had a cold
dinner together; but we dined in the best parlour,