So the last Anderson of Deeside, and the best of all their ancient line, was gathered to his fathers in an equal sleep that snowy January morning.  There were two inches of snow in the grave when they laid the coffin in.  As Saunders said, “Afore auld Elec could get him happit, his Maister had hidden him like Moses in a windin’-sheet o’ His ain.”  In the morning, when Elec went hirpling into the kirkyaird, he found at the grave-head a bare place which the snow had not covered.  Then some remembered that, hurrying by in the rapidly darkening gloaming of the night after the funeral, they had seen some one standing immovable by the minister’s grave in the thickly drifting snow.  They had wondered why he should stand there on such a bitter night.

There were those who said that it was just the lad Archibald Grier, gone to stand a while by his benefactor’s grave.

But Daft Jess was of another opinion.

II

A SCOTTISH SABBATH DAY

    “On this day
  Men consecrate their souls,
  As did their fathers.”

* * * * *

  And ah! the sacred morns that crowned the week—­
    The path betwixt the mountains and the sea,
      The Sannox water and the wooden bridge,
  The little church, the narrow seats—­and we
    That through the open window saw the ridge
      Of Fergus, and the peak
  Of utmost Cior Mohr—­nor held it wrong,
    When vext with platitude and stirless air,
    To watch the mist-wreaths clothe the rock-scarps bare
  And in the pauses hear the blackbird’s song.

  “Memory Harvest.”

I. THE BUIK

Walter Carmichael often says in these latter days that his life owed much of its bent to his first days of the week at Drumquhat.

The Sabbath morning broke over the farm like a benediction.  It was a time of great stillness and exceeding peace.  It was, indeed, generally believed in the parish that Mrs. M’Quhirr had trained her cocks to crow in a fittingly subdued way upon that day.  To the boy the Sabbath light seemed brighter.  The necessary duties were earlier gone about, in order that perfect quiet might surround the farm during all the hours of the day.  As Walter is of opinion that his youthful Sabbaths were so important, it may be well to describe one of them accurately.  It will then be obvious that his memory has been playing him tricks, and that he has remembered only those parts of it which tell somewhat to his credit—­a common eccentricity of memories.