Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/265

 seemed to wear the aspect of sadness. As she passed from Morison's to the house of mourning, the shocks of yellow corn, spangled with dew-drops, appeared to her to stand as mementos of the vanity of human hopes, and the inutility of human labours. The cattle, as they went forth to pasture, lowing as they went, seemed as if lamenting, that the hand which fed them was at rest; and even the Robin-red-breast, whose cheerful notes she had so often listened to with pleasure, now seemed to send forth a song of sorrow, expressive of dejection and woe.

The house of the deceased was already filled with female guests: the barn was equally crowded with men; and all were, according to the custom of the country, banqueted at the expense of the widow and orphans, whose misfortunes they all the while very heartily deplored. Mrs Mason's presence imposed silence upon the women; but, in the barn, the absence of Sandie, who ought to have presided at