Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/265

 *landish place (wheriver it were, I did na' ken) where he an' the auld laird were. I did na' ask him wha' he wrote, an' he did na' ask me wha' he should write; I wa' thankfu' for that. I suppose he thought I wa' too wild like in my great sorrow to send any message; so he jist wrote wha' he thinked best. Nae doot he telled him o' the accident she met wi' on her way hame, and o' its fatal effects, which might weel hae been expectit in her circumstances; but he could na' tell him o' the birth o' her child—nabodie guessed that—nabodie haed seen her fra' the time she kim, till they seen her sweet face in the coffin; nabodie kenned wha' had happened but Tib and I, for the event had na' been expectit for many weeks yet, an' the secret wa' safe eneugh wi' us.

"After a while news kim fra' abroad that the auld mon wa' gainin' somewhat, out there where the doctors haed sint him; an' now that Alice wa' gone, his son's first duty wa' to his father, an' he wad stay wi' him as long as he remained there. The rector telled me this; an' there wa' somewhat aboot luve an' sorrow—idle, bleth'rin words! I