But when you are dying, all will abandon you, all will turn away from you, for then there will be nothing to get from you. Whatâs more, they will reproach you for cumbering the place, for being so long over dying. However you beg you wonât get a drink of water without abuse: âWhenever are you going off, you nasty hussy, you wonât let us sleep with your moaning, you make the gentlemen sick.â Thatâs true, I have heard such things said myself. They will thrust you dying into the filthiest corner in the cellarâ âin the damp and darkness; what will your thoughts be, lying there alone? When you die, strange hands will lay you out, with grumbling and impatience; no one will bless you, no one will sigh for you, they only want to get rid of you as soon as may be; they will buy a coffin, take you to the grave as they did that poor woman today, and celebrate your memory at the tavern. In the grave, sleet, filth, wet snowâ âno need to put themselves out for youâ ââLet her down, Vanuha; itâs just like her luckâ âeven here, she is head-foremost, the hussy. Shorten the cord, you rascal.â âItâs all right as it is.â âAll right, is it? Why, sheâs on her side! She was a fellow-creature, after all! But, never mind, throw the earth on her.â And they wonât care to waste much time quarrelling over you.
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