isely decided to bury the body at once, and get rid of it. At his
summons, therefore, the carpenter and another man came aft with a square
of canvas, palm, needle, and twine to sew up the body, and a short
length of rusty chain--routed out from the fore-peak--wherewith to sink
it. Meanwhile the brig's ensign was hoisted half-mast high, and the men
were ordered to "clean" themselves in readiness for the funeral--all
work being knocked off for the remainder of the day. Upon being
apprised of what was about to take place, Miss Trevor retired to her
cabin.

The process of sewing up the body and preparing it for burial occupied
about half an hour, by which time the men were all ready. Meanwhile
Leslie had been coaching Purchas--who frankly confessed his ignorance--
as to the part he was to perform; it being of course his duty, as master
of the ship, to read the burial service.

The carpenter having reported that the body was ready, two more men came
aft, bearing with them a grating which they laid down on the deck
alongside the companion. They then descended to the berth wherein the
dead man lay and, assisted by the carpenter and the man who had helped
to sew up the body in its canvas shroud, carried the corpse, with some
difficulty--owing to its weight, and the cramped dimensions of the berth
and the companion-way--up on deck, where it was laid upon the grating,
and a spare ensign spread over it as a pall. Then the four men raised
the grating and its burden to their shoulders, and with Purchas in front
reading the burial service, and Leslie following behind, all, of course,
uncovered, the little procession moved slowly along the deck to the lee
gangway, where the rest of the crew, also uncovered, awaited it.
Arrived at the gangway, the grating was laid upon the rail, with the
feet of the body pointing outboard; the carpenter and his assistant
supporting the inner end of the grating.

Shorn though the ceremony necessarily was of most of the solemn
formalism that characterises an interment ashore, and further marred in
its effectiveness by the droning tones in which Purchas deemed it proper
to read the beautiful and solemn words of the prescribed ritual, it was,
nevertheless, profoundly impressive, the peculiar circumstances of the
case, and the setting of the picture, so to speak--the small brig out
there alone upon the boundless world of waters, the little group of
weather-beaten bare-headed men surrounding the star