`` It 's always summer here , Anne , '' Leslie had said one day ; and all who were the guests of that house of dreams felt the same . `` The Enterprise seems to run to obituaries these days , '' quoth Miss Cornelia . `` It always has a couple of columns of them , and I read every line . It 's one of my forms of recreation , especially when there 's some original poetry attached to them . Here 's a choice sample for you : She 's gone to be with her Maker , Never more to roam . She used to play and sing with joy The song of Home , Sweet Home . Who says we have n't any poetical talent on the Island ! Have you ever noticed what heaps of good people die , Anne , dearie ? It 's kind of pitiful . Here 's ten obituaries , and every one of them saints and models , even the men . Here 's old Peter Stimson , who has ` left a large circle of friends to mourn his untimely loss . ' Lord , Anne , dearie , that man was eighty , and everybody who knew him had been wishing him dead these thirty years . Read obituaries when you 're blue , Anne , dearie -- especially the ones of folks you know . If you 've any sense of humor at all they 'll cheer you up , believe ME . I just wish I had the writing of the obituaries of some people . Is n't ` obituary ' an awful ugly word ? This very Peter I 've been speaking of had a face exactly like one . I never saw it but I thought of the word OBITUARY then and there . There 's only one uglier word that I know of , and that 's RELICT . Lord , Anne , dearie , I may be an old maid , but there 's this comfort in it -- I 'll never be any man 's ` relict . ' ''
`` It IS an ugly word , '' said XXXXX , laughing .
Anne Cornelia Leslie Peter Stimson day days left obituary years