Laura-Lou, the new seamstress who had come from Oaks in Flossie’s stead, was put to work immediately. With one apprentice and working with only what she found in the sewing room, she adapted certain clothes of Deborah’s and Selma’s to traditional mourning costumes. All decoration was stripped from everything black or gray, and the garments threaded or bordered in black, making black on gray and black on black. Cloth violets were allowed to remain on the bosom of one of Deborah’s gowns, since they were dark and drooping enough to suggest an emblem of despair.

Selma was appalled by the ritual of the tragedy. When she finally accepted her father’s death in her mind and marrow, she wanted to go away, flee to the fields and woods in order to think about him and come closer to him. Instead, she was required to stay in the house, to remain silent, to see no one but her mother and aunt, neither of whom understood or cared what she was feeling, although Nell assured her that she herself would certainly never be able to smile again.

Pauline, who had been so rudely dismissed, went to the family cabin and cried, both for what was and what was not. Floyd found the place in the woods where the accident had happened. He was glad it was not close to the part of the creek he and Leon had once found so congenial.

Leon attended his mother quietly for the most part. He was learning: the more happens, the less required of one. Outdoors the cows lowed to be milked. The chickens clucked and scratched. Like a sneeze that goes on repeating itself, a cock crowed again and again, heralding a new day.

The first one to ride from Highboro on hearing the news was the St. Thomas’s minister who taught Leon and Rooster a little Latin and less Greek. He comforted with one hand, as it were, and planned with the other. By the time he took his leave, eyes were dry, breathing normal, and what are called “suitable arrangements” had been made.

Attendance at the funeral was large. People kept saying to one another it was lucky the clear weather held, although whether a man prefers to be buried in fair weather rather than foul would seem debatable. In addition, after the hard work of the summer and autumn; a sober event between Thanksgiving and Christmas was not unwelcome.

Every slave on Beulah Land attended the funeral, even the oldest and most feeble. The place was left to dogs and cattle and hogs and fowl. Every horse and mule was hitched to everything that had wheels—cart, wagon, or carriage—to transport the mourners. Those who were not so accommodated walked. A large section of pews was reserved for the family and the plantation people. White and black faces were about equal in number inside and outside the church.