A Lesson Before Dying

It is the night of the Christmas program and Grant suggests that it be done in Jefferson’s honor. More people show up than ever before. Despite the rain, people dress in their “town clothes” which are old but neat. As Grant gets the kids ready to put on the Christmas pageant, he chronicles the arrival of each person, something about them, and what food they likely brought to share. Grant speculates that more people might have showed up because the weather prevented them from working in the fields or their gardens, so they couldn’t claim to be too tired to come out for the play. Reverend Ambrose delivers a prayer that refers to Jefferson and Grant, though he does not name them. He asks God to be with both the guilty and the innocent in the jail cells in Bayonne, and he asks God to be with the man, no matter how “educated” he is who refused to acknowledge that he needed Him. He also compares this man’s “ignorance” to a “cell” of a similar sort.

Grant also attributes the beautiful singing of the children to the inclement weather that had prevented them from exhausting themselves in the fields.