Sweet Eternal Pause

It's a funeral! says Terence. We're borrowing THIS!

He is lugging a life buoy, which he and Baldy have dislodged from the church wall.

This can go round oyster granny, says Terence. And no on will tread on her.

Saint Roley looks pleased.

He had not thought that someone might tread on oyster granny. But they might. And with the life buoy around her, they can't.

But Gaius is not sure they should be removing the life buoy.

It has been hung on the wall of a church, and has black words written on it.

ACTES DE CONTRITION.

No, says Gaius. Let's keep it simple. We shall carry the two parts of granny down to the shore, before anyone else gets there, and bury her quickly. That is what she would have wished.

He has made up the last bit. He never knew oyster granny. Or what she would have wished.

Fie Fie! breathes oyster granny.

Okay! says Terence. Let's wake everyone up. Baldy, you get Butterfatty.

Wait, says Saint Roley. I'm not ready.

Why not? says Gaius.

I want to compose a few words, says Saint Roley. I need pencil and paper.

Belle has our pencils, says Gaius. And she is asleep in the Hotel Nuit et Jour.

I'll ask Méen, says Saint Roley.

He flutters over to Méen and Maclou, emitting tiny sparks from his feathers.

The sparks drop onto Méen and Maclou and wake them.

Pencils! says Méen.

Paper! says Maclou.

It is wondrous the rapport that saints have with one other.

Saint Roley now has a pencil and paper.

Gaius wishes he found it that easy.

I'll help you, says Terence. Write what I tell you.

No, says Saint Roley. Oyster granny saved my life. You just be quiet.

He writes, slowly, as it is difficult to come up with the proper words for such an occasion:

O Oyster Granny
You were my oars
O oyster granny
My life is now yours
Lie under the sand dear
For a sweet eternal pause.

Sweet eternal pause? says Gaius.

Yay! says Terence. That's the best rhyming ever!

It is indeed, agrees Gaius hastily. Let's be off at once, before the beach becomes crowded