As he went out of the door he looked back to see her bending over the baby in the cradle, and he noticed for the first time that above the cradle there was a little shrine fastened to the wall.

It was decked with a crucifix and paper flowers; above was a coloured picture of the Virgin.
Trenholme, whose nerves were perhaps more susceptible than usual by reason of the creature set at large by the opening of the coffin, wondered that Turrif should leave his wife and children alone so willingly, without any effort to bar the house and without objection on their part.

He knew there was no other house within half a mile, and the darkness that lay on the flat land appeared to give room for a thousand dangers.
He expressed this surprise to Turrif, who replied placidly that the good saints took care of women and children--a reply which probably did not go to prove the man's piety so much as the habitual peace of the neighbourhood.
The vehicle to which Turrif had harnessed his pony was a small hay cart--that is to say, a cart consisting of a platform on two wheels, and a slight paling along each side intended to give some support to its contents.

It was much more lightly made than Saul's ox-cart.

The wheels went over the frozen ruts at a good pace, and the inmates were badly jolted.