Transcriber's Note:

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For a complete list, please see the end of this document.

This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

 

 

 

 

[126]

[126]

 

AND ALL THE EARTH A GRAVE

BY C.C. MacAPP

ILLUSTRATED BY GAUGHAN

There's nothing wrong with dying—it just hasn't ever had the proper sales pitch!

 

It all began when the new bookkeeping machine of a large Midwestern coffin manufacturer slipped a cog, or blew a transistor, or something. It was fantastic that the error—one of two decimal places—should enjoy a straight run of okays, human and mechanical, clear down the line; but when the figures clacked out at the last clacking-out station, there it was. The figures were now sacred; immutable; and it is doubtful whether the President of the concern or the Chairman of the Board would have dared question them—even if either of those two gentlemen had been in town.

As for the Advertising Manager, the last thing he wanted to do was question them. 

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