"Hurry up there," said Paul, impatiently. "If you want me to help with this funeral you must come quick. What are you talking about, anyway?"
"Never mind," replied Teddy, running into sight, followed by Arthur. "It's a secret, and you mustn't ask."
Her aunt noticed that both hands were now visible, and that she carried nothing in them; but Miss Thomasine soon forgot that she had felt any curiosity in the matter, and turned her attention to the proceedings of these very remarkable children. She also forgot that she had been deputed by her sisters to stop these proceedings, and became wholly and at once an interested spectator.
"We will start from here and walk once around the garden," said Teddy, "and we will make quite a long procession, for there are so many of us. I wish we had some music. We might pretend that the poor dear kitten was a soldier."
"So we will," cried Clement. "I'll get my drum quicker than a wink."
Before he had finished speaking he was over the garden wall.
Presently Clem returned, and all was now ready. Upon the boys' express wagon reposed a pasteboard box, in which had been placed the kitten, more honored in its death than in its short, unhappy life. Yellow daisies, asters, and golden-rod were heaped upon the cart in magnificent profusion, but the handle was draped in black.
Arthur and Walter acted as horses, and subdued their natural speed to a funereal gait; Clem and Raymond marched before, one beating his drum with measured rat-tat-tat, the other blowing long and melancholy wails upon his Fourth-of-July horn. On either side the cart walked Paul and Charlie, while close behind came Theodora and her aunt Thomasine.
"You will make a perfect chief mourner," whispered Teddy, "for your hat is so black and so is your cape. I shall hold my handkerchief to my eyes, so."
"But, my dear," expostulated Miss Thomasine, "I really cannot. I do not approve. Remember, it is only a kitten."
"Yes, yes, I do remember. That poor dead kitten! Please come, Aunt Tom! Don't spoil it all, and try to look as sad as you can!"
And before Miss Thomasine really knew it, the procession had begun to move and she was in it. Around the garden they walked, and finally returned to their starting-place, where the grave had been already dug. Paul and Charlie attended to this part of the ceremonies, the musicians blew and beat a parting salute upon their instruments, Theodora mopped her dry eyes, and the horses, when all was over, relieved their feelings by running away.