"
The hush that followed Katharine's simple story was unbroken for
some moments. Then Polly sprang up excitedly,--
"The drums! Don't you hear them?" And she rushed away to call her
mother.
The procession was moving, at last, and the distant roll of
muffled drums could be plainly heard by the girls, as they pressed
closely to the window. Touched, as they had been, by the account
of that far-away funeral among the mountains, they were in just
the mood to be impressed by the scene which was passing before
them. And, in truth, any one who stood looking on, that day, must
have felt the impressiveness of the long line as it slowly filed
down the broad street under the graceful arches of the tall old
elms, in the cold light of the cloudy afternoon. First came the
drum corps, with wailing fife and muffled drum; next appeared the
gray uniforms of the company who marched two by two, with bowed
heads and reversed arms, to escort the hearse in their midst.
Directly behind the hearse trotted a small, yellow figure, at
sight of whom Alan stealthily drew his hand across his eyes. It
was Pete's faithful friend, the little Scotch terrier, who was
following his master to his last resting-place, with a sturdy
determination not to leave his good old master with whom he had
spent such a happy little life.
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