I hae bade ye look at him as a type of your Maker, ye will hae a
sore heart; for ye hae left me in my need, when ye should hae been
near at hand to help me, for the hard labour and industry with which
I brought you up. But it's the Lord's will. Blessed be the name of
the Lord, that makes us to thole the tribulations of this world, and
will reward us, through the mediation of Jesus, hereafter." She
wept bitterly as she said this, for her heart was tried, but the
blessing of a religious contentment was shed upon her; and I stepped
up to her, and asked about her concerns, for, saving as a
parishioner, and a decent old woman, I knew little of her. Brief
was her story; but it was one of misfortune.--"But I will not
complain," she said, "of the measure that has been meted unto me. I
was left myself an orphan; when I grew up, and was married to my
gude-man, I had known but scant and want. Our days of felicity were
few; and he was ta'en awa' from me shortly after my Mary was born.
A wailing baby, and a widow's heart, was a' he left me. I nursed
her with my salt tears, and bred her in straits; but the favour of
God was with us, and she grew up to womanhood as lovely as the rose,
and as blameless as the lily. In her time she was married to a
farming lad. There never was a brawer pair in the kirk, than on
that day when they gaed there first as man and wife. My heart was
proud, and it pleased the Lord to chastise my pride--to nip my
happiness, even in the bud. The very next day he got his arm
crushed. It never got well again; and he fell into a decay, and
died in the winter, leaving my Mary far on in the road to be a
mother.

"When her time drew near, we both happened to be working in the
yard. She was delving to plant potatoes, and I told her it would do
her hurt; but she was eager to provide something, as she said, for