The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-26

saw ehere at the gate the carrier with Jess and the old cart-a cloud of steam rising in the crisp November air from the mare. James was already coming up the stairs. He entered the room with an arm ful of blankets and spread out on the floor two old, clean ones having "A. c. 1766' on them in large letters worked in worsted They were the initials of All son Graeme and James, a lusty youth. may have looked in on her from without himself unseen but not unthought of when he was wat and weary after days work and had walked many miles over the hills to see her sitting there by the fire while all the rest of the house was sleeping, working her name on the blankets for her ain James's bed.
 Taking his wife from the bed the car rier wrapped her carefully and firmly in the blankets, leaving the face uncovered and then lifting her and holding sharply to Doctor John, strode along the passage and down the stairs with resolved, but utterly miserable face. Rab followed head, tail and ear down most mournfully The doctor came close behind with a lighted candle, though it was growing so light now that he did not need it, and stood stupidly holding it in the calm, frosty air of the morning He could have helped James, but saw look on his face which said he was not to be meddled with. James laid Allie down tenderly in the eart-as tenderly as when he had lifted her out of it ten days before-as tender ly as when he had first taken her in his chn n.1xr 6 TIL. beautiful, sealed face was left open and upturned to the heavens and, taking the old mare by the bridle, the carrier moved off. Rab presided behind the cart and neither he nor his master cast even a look upon John as they went
 Doctor John stood there minute watching the procession as it passed through the long shadow of the college and turned up Nicolson street, and he thought how it would wend it's way through the solitary street and then out of the city, up the Libberton Brae along the Roslin Muir, the rising sun touching the Pentland Hills and making them on- looking ghosts; then down the hill through a str0 of woods and out upon Haunted Woodhuselee'
 And as daybreak came sweeping up the bleak Iammermuirs and fell upon his own door the company would stop and danes would take the key and unlock the cottage, ldhe HIS Alll6 III HIS drfnS again and lay her on her own bed and cover her with the blankets worked so long ago in the firelight with the letters "A. G." when James looked through the window upon bonnie Alison Graeme. Then he knew that Rab would watch be- side the bed while James put up the mare and fed her and returned to the lonely house to watch with Rab until kindly neighbors came and minstered to them.
 Rab would sit by, solemn, majestic, giv- ing vent to no sound only now and then getting up to go and look long and medi- tatively at the dead face upon the bed James would speak only when spoken to, and then aswer by few short, stern words. Young Doctor John could see it all and as the sunrise gun from the castle boomed over the city he re- turned to his room and lay down to try to sleep. But ever through his dreams moved Rab and his friends Enthusiastically shifting as the rudderless mind of slum- Der moved guideless upon the wander ing currents of thought.
 James buried his wife with his neigh bors mourning. Rab from a distance looked on with that same solemn and sorrowful air which he had worn since the night of Allies death in the hospital. There was snow the ground and the black hole of the grave looked strange in the midst of that swelling cushion of
 spotless white. Poor Rab and poor old James, they were both getting along In years and very lonely now At the funeral James looked after everything, even assisting with his own hands in placing the body of poor Allie in it's last resting place against the time when this mortal shall put on immortality He and Rab lived alone for a time and the carrier attempted to resume his regular trips from Howgate to the city. But in little while he rather suddenly fell sick i and took to his bed. neighbor found him lying there with Rab watching. He was insensible when the doctor came, and soon died. There was a sort of slow fever pervading the village at the tfme, and James want of sleep, his exhaustion and his <1lisery made him apt to take it. Allies grave was not hard to reopen fresh fall of snow had made all things white again when they came to bury James. laying him ! in the same resting place where had been iaid his wife. Rab once more looked on solemnly, soberly, sorrowfully. Then he slunk away to the stable and laid down beside old Jess in her stall He would not enter the house, he did not watch beside the grave. He simply took up his quarters with the only one of his friends who remained alive, the old mare Jess.
 A week after the burial of James Dr. John saw in an Edinburgh street the fla miliar sight of Jess and her cart. But a stranger was in charge of the outfit; d | new carrier had got the good will of James old business and taken over with 1t the horse and cart. Dr. John looked about for Rab, but he was nowhere to be seen. How is Rab?" asked the doctor of the new carrier. But the man put him off and said gruffly, Whats your business wi the dog?' But Dr.. John was not to be put off and said again. rather sternly :, and emphatically, Where is Rab?"
 The carrier became confused, reddened a bit and began rumpling his hair. Deed, sir" replied he after long pause, 'Rab ded.' "Dead." exclaimed John. What did he die of?,' well sir said the car- , rier getting more red and more confused, tits just this way, ye see, sir, he didna exactly dee as ye might say" Did not exactly die?" echoed Dr. John. "Na, not exactly, as ye. might say,l' replied the man, as if carefully considering the qres- tion. "He was as ye might say killed had to brain him wi a rack pin; there was nae doin wi him. He lay in the stall wi the mare and wadna come oot. And mair, he wadna let me coon in. tempt him wi kali and meat. but he wad take naething. He kepit me frae feeding the i beast and was aye gur, gurrin' and grup. gruppn' me by the legs when I was tryin to ger tae her. I was laith to make ava wi the auld dog--ther wasna his like atween this and Thornhill--but deed, str. I could do naething else" Dr. John believed the man and gave sigh TOT Rab.
 Cor