"The raison no wan is afraid iv Death, Hinnessy, is that no wan
ra-ally undherstands it. If anny wan iver come to undherstand
it he'd be scared to death. If they is anny such thing as a cow'rd,
which I doubt, he's a man that comes nearer realizin' thin other
men, how seeryous a matther it is to die. I talk about it, an'
sometimes I think about it. But how do I think about it? It's me
lyin' there in a fine shoot iv clothes an' listenin' to all th'
nice things people are sayin' about me. I'm dead, mind ye, but I
can hear a whisper in the furthest corner iv th' room. Ivry wan
is askin' ivry wan else why did I die. 'It's a gr-reat loss to
th' counthry,' says Hogan. 'It is,' says Donahue. 'He was a fine
man,' says Clancy. 'As honest a man is iver dhrew th' breath iv
life,' says Schwartzmeister. 'I hope he forgives us all th' harm
we attimpted to do him,' says Donahue. 'I'd give annything to
have him back,' says Clancy. 'He was this and that, th' life iv
th' party, th' sowl iv honor, th' frind iv th' disthressed, th'
boolwark iv th' constichoochion, a pathrite, a gintleman, a Christyan
an' a scholard.' 'An' such a roguish way with him,' says th' Widow
O'Brien.
"That's what I think, but if I judged fr'm expeeryence I'd know
it'd be, 'It's a nice day f'r a dhrive to th' cimitry. Did he
lave much?' No man is a hayro to his undertaker."