Willy Burke, or, The Irish orphan in America - Digital Repository ...

20 WILLY BURKE; OR,
to prepare the corpse for burial. Herself put on the
shroud prepared for him ; but when the sailors came to
sew up the corpse in its canvas coffin, she resigned her
place with shrinking horror, for the operation appeared
an unnatural one to her. She had previously called her
children to take their final leave of the dead, herself giving
the example, by imprinting a long, last kiss on the
blue, ice-cold lips. This sorrowful ceremony over, the
De Profundis and the usual prayers were read aloud by a
young ecclesiastic who happened to be on board (on his
way to be ordained in New York for the American mission),
whereupon the body was carried aloft, the family
of the deceased following closely, and after them the
greater number of the passengers. The mournful procession
having reached the stern, ropes were thrown
around the sheeted corpse, in order to lower it from the
ship's side, but the widow darting forward, threw herself
on her knees beside it, and implored them to wait yet a
moment. The hood of her cloak was thrown over her
head, so that her face could not be distinctly seen, but
enough was visible to show that she was pale as the
corpse itself, and that her eyes were swollen with weeping,
though now dry and tearless. "Oh! Andy! Andy!"
she murmured in a low, wailing tone, " it 's little we
thought when we were lavin' home that this id be the
way with us ! An' sure my heart would not be half so
sore, acushla ! if ye were aburyin' in the ould churchyard
at home, where your forefathers lie ; but och !
wirra, wirra ! to see you a throwin' out in the deep ocean,
instead o' bein' covered up in consecrated ground— och,
it 's unnatural, unnatural! But then", she added, sud-
denly recollecting herself, as faith came with its consoling