It was just one night.

There was no doctor, and the women could not help her, and she was very bad--and when it came it was a girl--and it was dead--and then the doctor arrived, but he was too late." Macdonald Dubh finished with a great sigh, and the minister's wife said gently to him: "That was a very sad day, and a great loss to you and Ranald." "Aye, you may say it; she was a bonnie woman whatever, and grand at the spinning and the butter.

And, oich-hone, it was a sad day for us." The minister's wife sat silent, knowing that such grief cannot be comforted, and pitying from her heart the lonely man.

After a time she said gently, "She is better off." A look of doubt and pain and fear came into Macdonald's eyes.
"She never came forward," he said, hesitatingly.

"She was afraid to come." "I have heard of her often, Mr.Macdonald, and I have heard that she was a good and gentle woman." "Aye, she was that." "And kind to the sick." "You may believe it." "And she loved the house of God." "Aye, and neither rain nor snow nor mud would be keeping her from it, but she would be going every Sabbath day, bringing her stockings with her." "Her stockings ?" "Aye, to change her feet in the church.