Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/266

 funeral scene, "I am the resurrection, and the life, saith the Lord." The attention of the natives to this solemn service was almost breathless. It seemed as if their humbled, dejected countenances were an illustration of that pathetic portion of it, "Man that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of misery." Tears rolled over the face of old Martha at the words, "He cometh up and is cut down like a flower, he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay." The hollow sound of the clods falling upon the lid of the coffin, and the voice, "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," drew a deep groan from the hoary warriour. John Cooper, who, strongly attached to the customs of Mr. Occom, had listened with some touch of sectarian feeling, was so much affected at the introduction of the passage, "write! blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord," that, forgetting he was in a burying place of the Church of England, he responded fervently, Amen. At the close of the service, the divine approached old Zachary, and took him by the hand. He stood like some tall tree in the forest firm at the root, but whose boughs are marked by a winter which can know no spring. His few silver locks waved in the light breeze that was rising; and his eyes, bent upon the grave, were tearless. Bowing down at the salutation of the clergyman, he said in a calm tone—"I look for the resurrection from the dead, for the life of the world to come." Martha, whose erect and dignified form, had never yielded to time, now bent with sorrow. Clasping the