Mr. Pall prided himself on the reverent manner in which he performed his
necessary funereal duties. He always dressed in black, and sat,
handkerchief in hand, in the middle of his coffin ware-room, in a
prepared state of mind to receive customers.
He had every variety of coffin--from plain pine-wood up to the most
polished mahogany and rosewood. His latest invention was "the casket,"
daintily lined throughout with white satin, and the lid so constructed
as to expose the whole person instead of the face only, as in more
common coffins. This was what Mr. Pall called "a dress coffin," and was
perfectly consistent with any variety of adornment in the shroud that
the fancy of grief-stricken affection might suggest.
When Watkins entered, Mr. Pall sat complacently in his chair amid his
piles of coffins, with his hands solemnly folded over his handkerchief.
He would have scorned to disgrace his profession, like many others of
the craft, by reading the newspapers in his sanctum, smoking a cigar, or
in any other way conveying the idea that he had lost sight of his
mournful calling. We are not bound, therefore, to believe, on the
authority of a prying policeman's limited vision through the key-hole,
that when the shop was closed, Mr. Pall nightly drew from an
old-fashioned coffin a bottle of whisky and a box of cigars, wherewith
to console himself for the day's solemn and self-inflicted penance.
"Good morning, m-a-a-m," drawled the dolorous Pall.
"'Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound,
Mine ears attend the cry.'
"Want my mournful services, ma'am? I shall take a melancholy pleasure in
showing you my coffins. Age of the corpse, ma'am?" and Pall used his
white handkerchief.
"Six years."
"'Death strikes down all,
Both great and small--'
"Place of residence, ma'am?
"Orphan Asylum, eh?" repeated the disappointed Pall, as his vision of
the costly casket pattern faded away; "pine coffin, of course--no satin
lining or silver nails--no carriages--night burial, Potters' Field, etc.
"'Lie in the dust,
We all must.'
"Tell the afflicted matron of the Orphan Asylum that I will send up
directly and take the deceased child's measure."
And Pall flourished his white handkerchief as long as was consistent
with the demise of a charity orphan, and the small sum invested in the
pine coffin.