One of the children took it when she was n't looking and hid it in his father 's best beaver hat -- the one he wore on Sundays . When Mr. Davidson went to church next Sunday he put the hat on without ever looking into the crown . He walked to church in a brown study and at the door he took off his hat . The nightcap just slipped down on his head , as if it had been put on , and the frill stood out around his face and the string hung down his back . But he never noticed it , because his thoughts were far away , and he walked up the church aisle and into the pulpit , like that . One of his elders had to tiptoe up and tell him what he had on his head . He plucked it off in a dazed fashion , held it up , and looked at it . ` Bless me , it is Sally 's nightcap ! ' he exclaimed mildly . ' I do not know how I could have got it on . ' Then he just stuffed it into his pocket calmly and went on with the service , and the long strings of the nightcap hung down out of his pocket all the time . '' `` It seems to me , '' said Peter , amid the laughter with which we greeted the tale , `` that a funny story is funnier when it is about a minister than it is about any other man . I wonder why . '' `` Sometimes I do n't think it is right to tell funny stories about ministers , '' said Felicity . `` It certainly is n't respectful . '' `` A good story is a good story -- no matter who it 's about , '' said the Story Girl with ungrammatical relish . There was as yet no one in the church when we reached it , so we took our accustomed ramble through the graveyard surrounding it . The Story Girl had brought flowers for her mother 's grave as usual , and while she arranged them on it the rest of us read for the hundredth time the epitaph on Great-Grandfather King 's tombstone , which had been composed by Great-Grandmother King . That epitaph was quite famous among the little family traditions that entwine every household with mingled mirth and sorrow , smiles and tears . It had a perennial fascination for us and we read it over every Sunday .
Cut deeply in the upright slab of red Island sandstone , the epitaph ran XXXXX follows : -- SWEET DEPARTED SPIRIT Do receive the vows a grateful widow pays , Each future day and night shall hear her speak her Isaac 's praise .
about amid as at by for into on that with