A Funeral葬礼

It was in a Surrey churchyard on a grey， damp afternoon—all very solitary and quiet， with no alien spectators and only a very few mourners; and no desolating sense of loss， although a very true and kindly friend was passing from us. A football match was in progress in a field adjoining the churchyard， and I wondered， as 1 stood by the grave， if， were I the schoolmaster， I would stop the game just for a few minutes during which a body was committed to the earth; and I decided that I would not. In the midst of death we are in life， just as in the midst of life we are in death; it is all as it should be in this bizarre， jostling world. And he whom we had come to bury would have been the first to wish the boys to go on with their sport.

那是一个阴暗潮湿的下午，萨里郡一座教堂的墓地里——周遭冷清而寂静，没有外来的旁观者，只有几位哀悼者；没有凄凉的失落感，尽管一位真挚善良的朋友自此与我们永别。（剩余9207字）