Dutiful and loving ; ready to help ; patient to bear and forbear ; eager to excel ; faithful to the smallest task , yet full of high ambitions ; and , better still , possessing the childlike piety that can trust and believe , wait and hope . Good and happy -- the two things we all long for and so few of us truly are . This he was , and this single fact was the best eulogy his pastor could pronounce over the beloved youth gone to a nobler manhood whose promise left so sweet a memory behind . As the young people looked , listened , and took in the scene , they felt as if some mysterious power had changed their playmate from a creature like themselves into a sort of saint or hero for them to look up to , and imitate if they could . `` What has he done , to be so loved , praised , and mourned ? '' they thought , with a tender sort of wonder ; and the answer seemed to come to them as never before , for never had they been brought so near the solemn truth of life and death . `` It was not what he did but what he was that made him so beloved . All that was sweet and noble in him still lives ; for goodness is the only thing we can take with us when we die , the only thing that can comfort those we leave behind , and help us to meet again hereafter . '' This feeling was in many hearts when they went away to lay him , with prayer and music , under the budding oak that leaned over his grave , a fit emblem of the young life just beginning its new spring . As the children did their part , the beauty of the summer day soothed their sorrow , and something of the soft brightness of the June sunshine seemed to gild their thoughts , as it gilded the flower-strewn mound they left behind . The true and touching words spoken cheered as well as impressed them , and made them feel that their friend was not lost but gone on into a higher class of the great school whose Master is eternal love and wisdom . So the tears soon dried , and the young faces looked up like flowers after rain . But the heaven-sent shower sank into the earth , and they were the stronger , sweeter for it , more eager to make life brave and beautiful , because death had gently shown them what it should be . When the boys came home they found their mother already returned , and Jill upon the parlor sofa listening to her account of the funeral with the same quiet , hopeful look which their own faces wore ; for somehow the sadness seemed to have gone , and a sort of Sunday peace remained . `` I 'm glad it was all so sweet and pleasant . Come and rest , you look so tired ; '' and Jill held out her hands to greet them -- a crumpled handkerchief in one and a little bunch of fading lilies in the other . Jack sat down in the low chair beside her and leaned his head against the arm of the sofa , for he was tired . But Frank walked slowly up and down the long rooms with a serious yet serene look on his face , for he felt as if he had learned something that day , and would always be the better for it . Presently he said , stopping before his mother , who leaned in the easy-chair looking up at the picture of her boys ' father , -- `` I should like to have just such things said about me when I die . '' `` So should I , if I deserved them as Ed did ! ''
cried XXXXX , earnestly .
Dutiful Ed Frank Jack Jill day emblem eulogy forbear left