After a little interval the girls arrived and with a shy giggle or two hurried up the steps and disappeared through the massive doorway. Whereupon Dick Bissell took occasion to stroll over to Sube and suggest that if he was going to sit with the girls he'd better be going inside.
Sube indulged in another of his sickly smiles, which for a boy of his spirit required no small amount of effort. But at that moment the cortége arrived and dissipated any insane notions of self-destruction that might have been forming in his outraged brain.
The boys followed the casket into the church in much the same manner as they would have followed the band in a street parade, but instead of going all the way to the altar they slipped into the rear seats, where they stayed just long enough to find out that a funeral was not at all unlike church. Then by twos and threes they began to desert.
When a sufficient number had assembled in front of the church a quiet game of tag was proposed, to while away the time until they should be permitted to view the remains. And they at once proceeded to the nearby church-sheds as a place marvelously adapted to the sport.
The game was less quiet than had been anticipated, and after a little actually threatened to put the funeral out of business. Whereupon ol' Joe, the sexton, hastily forming an alliance with big Lew Wright, rushed out to disperse the noise-makers. Big Lew was an elder or deacon or something whenever anything of importance was taking place at the Baptist Church, and at other times he ran a sawmill. He enjoyed the reputation of handling logs and boys in much the same rough manner; and he scattered the participants in the game as he would have brushed away a handful of sawdust.
The gang was withdrawing silently, albeit sullenly, when without warning there came flying over the sheds a large chunk of sod to which a quantity of soil was clinging. This disrespectful offering struck big Lew in the place where his ready made necktie connected with his rubber collar, forcing from his mouth a noise that sounded very much like profanity.
Sube did not throw the sod, but he saw it strike; and he knew instantly that was no place for him. In a desperate attempt to make a quick getaway he fell down. And when he regained his feet the angry elder or deacon or something was upon him. But somehow he managed to wriggle through a hole in the fence inches smaller than his body and started for the lumber yard nearby with big Lew, who nimbly scaled the fence, close behind.