Alec Forbes of Howglen

ay one by one, on diverging roads, or had stopped and retraced their steps. But as they drew near the place, the

e. And, again, when they stopped at the gate of the churchyard, they were the hands of friends and neighbours, and not those of cormorant undertakers and obscene mutes, that bore the dead man to his grave. And, once more, if the only rite they observed, when the body had settled into its place of decay, was the silent

e in covering the grave. At length the last sod was laid upon the mound, and stamped into its place, where soon the earth's broken surface would heal, as society would flow together again, closing over the place that had k

weary warl,"

never draan the soord o' the Lord and o' Gideon. Ye hae never broken the pitcher, to lat the lamp shine out,

ak sic awfu' things i

he kirkyard than at th

, which he found unpleasantly personal, "jist tell me honestly, Thamas Crann,

my hearin', George! As the t

I didna mea

ly believe.

nest man, aneath our feet, crumblin' awa', as ye ken, and no ae spoke o' his wheel to the fore, or lang, to tell what his cart was like-do ye believe that his honest face will

It'll be a glorifeed body that he'll rise wi'. It's sown in dis

tled still at his t

g he rase wi', gin he had been b

wad be buri

, or the Atlantic, to jine its oreeginal stump-wad it no? Bu

an' the Lord'ill luik after yer body, legs an' a'! Man, ye're no convertit,

st in the tilt of words; "I wad only tak' the leeberty o' thinkin' that, when He was aboot it, the Al

omas with a final thrust, as he likewise rose

than appeared in his words, "maybe he winna objec' to gie a look to my puir soul as weel; for they

and out of the churchyard, leaving Thomas to