| Title | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists |
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| Page | 1505 |
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| Chapter | -- |
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| Text |
However, perhaps it is not right to criticize this person's appearance so severely, because the poor fellow was paid only seven-and-six for each burial, and as this was only the fourth funeral he had officiated at that day, probably he could not afford to wear clean linen - at any rate, not for the funerals of the lower classes. He continued his unintelligible jargon while they were lowering the coffin into the grave, and those who happened to know the words of the office by heart were, with some difficulty, able to understand what he was saying: `Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of His great mercy to take unto Himself the soul of our Dear Brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth; ashes to ashes, dust to dust -' The earth fell from the clerk's hand and rattled on the lid of the coffin with a mournful sound, and |
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