Please write summary about omit flowers, i will give you 100marks Omit Flowers
You busy?" asked a voice from my study doorway.
I turned from my typewriter and saw Willie Lord standing just outside
the door. He was in his dress clothes and wore a white shirt with a collar.
"Come in, Willie," I said.
s "I been to a funeral," he said, staring at me with his pale, blue eyes.
"Was over in Cape Worship, where I was born. Since you're always
interested in stories about Maine folks, I thought you might like to hear
about it. It was quite a funeral."
"I imagine so. Tell me about it, Willie."
10 He hesitated, then laughed and started his story.
"I'll have to go back to the beginning and tell you about the Widow1
Buxton, who I knew when I was a young boy. The Widow was prominent
in Cape Worship. She was head of everything a female could be head
of including her own family. She had three daughters. Folks said she
1s married this fellow Buxton after she was jilted by2 Nehemiah Westfield
just to spite Nehemiah. Anyway, Buxton didn't last long.
She was a character. She was the most willful woman that ever lived
and the best at pinching a penny. She had her three girls all married at
1widow: a woman whose husband has died, and she has not got married again 2jilted by: when someone is rejected by the person he or she had agreed to marry
Chapter 4 Omit Flowers 49

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the same time by the same minister to save money. Nehemiah
was there because he was an official of church and was involved in funerals
and weddings. He was a wealthy man and a wido twice. But the
Widow put him in his place.
'Go and sit down, Nehemiah,' she told him. 'You're w me as a
guest, but I don't expect a bill for any services. I'll manage this wedding
myself.'
Nehemiah said it wasn't proper, but she gave him a shove, and he
went into the parlor and sat down.
Well, the three girls had their own homes and gave birth to children.
The Widow was now a grandma, but she went on living in her own
house on the Cape and doing her own housework. She was always
scrimping and saving.
The three girls were old married women by now. They were just
waiting for the old Widow to die, but it didn't look as if she ever would.
She was as hale and hearty in her seventies as she was on the day that
Nehemiah jilted her at the altar. Then all of a sudden, about two weeks
ago, word got around that she was dying.
Nobody knew what she was dying of. The girls sent for Doc Harmon,
but when he came to her door, she yelled, 'Get out of here. There's
nothing wrong with me. I'm dying, that's all. I made up my mind that
it's time for me to go, and nobody's going to stop me.'
Then a week ago, the Widow told the girls to call Nehemiah Westfield.
The girls were surprised because they knew how much she hated him.
Nehemiah came to the house. 'Well, Jenny, (see the Widow's name
was Jenny) this is a sad occasion.'
'Don't be a fool. I sent for you because I know you're going to bury
me, and I don't want you to cheat me. What will you charge me for a
good, plain, funeral without any extras?'3
'Well, now, Jenny. I can give you the best there is. You can have an
ebony4 casket with silk lining and solid silver handles. The full service
includes the hearse and three carriages. All together it will. cost six
hundred and fifty dollars.'
'You want six hundred and fifty dollars! I won't pay such a sinful
price, you old cheat.
I'll give you one hundred dollars to put me in a plain pine5 coffin and
drag me to my grave. If you won't do it for that, I'll send for Jeb Perkins,
the carpenter, and he'll carry me to the cemetery in his truck. He'll do it
cheap just to get rid of me.'

50 The Role of Fate

Nehemiah was about ready to cry. 'A hundred dollars, Jenny. I've
been waiting all these years to bury you nice and comfortable!'
60 'Nice and profitable, you mean. A hundred dollars, take it or leave it;
she says.
'All right, all right, Jenny. But there's one thing. You've got to have the
extras. You've got to have plenty of flowers. You need roses and lilies to
cover the casket. Otherwise, if folks see how cheap it is, I'll be ruined.'
65 'I don't need flowers. That's foolishness. If you want flowers, there's
a hydrangea bush6 behind my house. If you want to cover the coffin, you
can cover it with hydrangeas:
'I won't do it; says Nehemiah.
'Then get out of my house. I'm sick of the sight of you anyway,
70 Nehemiah Westfield.'
'And I'm sick of you. You're a penny pinching, bad-tempered, willful
old woman and I thank the good Lord I never married you:
Well, sir, when he said that, the Widow rose up out of bed like a
cow moose7 coming out of a snowdrift. Her whole family was standing
75 around the bed. She landed on her feet and let out one long screech.
Then she lunged for Nehemiah.
Nehemiah didn't stop to think that she was a dying woman. He yelled
and ran for the door. The Widow ran after him. Just as he got to the front
door and opened it, she caught up to him.

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