At the undertaker

“Hey, Demid Egorovich, how are things going?”
“Oh, brother, Ermil Timofeich, better not to talk about it. It’s gotten to the point that you might as well lie down in the grave yourself and die! You remember how it was earlier with cholera, that’s the way things were, you just keep on working and the money, you’re raking in money by the spadeful. But these days you go out three times for a rich quickie, yeah, it’s such a shame, they’re already reading the last rites, but she’s still alive!”
(Razvlechenie, Moscow, 1861)