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man’s will. That storms and tempests will continue to brush aside man as
a housewife brushes aside a cobweb. And when Thy inexorable processes
run counter to man’s hopes and desires, help them, O Lord, to humble
themselves under the mighty hand of God. May their sorrows yield the
peacable fruit of righteousness, so that each of them shall be able to say:
It is good for me that I have been afflicted. And mercifully grant unto all
of us here present, and to as many as mourn with us in this sorrow, that we
may hear the voice of Thy Spirit saying to us. Be ye also ready, for in such
an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh . . .
They remained for a moment in silence on their knees. Then they rose,
Mrs Gomartin helping herself up slowly from the chair at which she knelt.
Hamilton and Sarah looked at the face of the dead man, then they went up
into the kitchen.
The undertaker’s men slipped unobtrusively into the parlour and closed
the door. Once there was the shrill scringe of a screw driven into wood.
The mourners had shuffled out into the close where they stood under the
rowans in the pearly afternoon light. Hamilton came to the door and beckoned
silently to two or three of them. He chose elderly men a&I close neighbours.
These were the first bearers of the coffin.
As they came up from the parlour their laden unsteady steps passed over
the brain of the sick man like great lurching wheels. They carried the
coffin round the gable of the house to pass his window. While the indistinct
shadow of their passage moved slowly across his room he Lay with closed eyes
and twitching fingers, murmuring to himself.
Pentland had spoken to Sarah before he took his place at the coffin.
"I’ll be back this way for my boat he said. ’You’ll stop in have your toe?"
the girl asked. He smiled and nodded then followed the other men into the
house. Behind him stood Sorleyson, brushing the nap of his hat on his arm.
