Page:Old ninety-nine's cave.djvu/337

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from the Reformed Church. This beautiful old building had been carefully preserved and the great concourse of people there gathered to participate in the last sad rights over Elisha Vedder's remains saw the edifice still unchanged. Every seat was taken, and the aisles, vestibule and even the churchyard were crowded.

Floral offerings, on account of Elisha's oft-*expressed fondness for the mountain laurel, were simply great mounds of the green leaves and waxy, rose-colored blossoms.

A few friends accompanied Dominie Leyden, pastor of the church, to The Laurels. There, after a short prayer, the remains, followed by the miners in a body, were taken to the church where the active pall-bearers were waiting at the entrance and through the cleared passage-way, the plain oaken casket was carried up the steps, through the right aisle into the chancel and laid down before a wall of laurel blossoms.

The burial service was very simple. No eulogy—his acts were apparent. "Nearer