They were not come to mourn, but to make gibes to show how much they
hated him, and many of the children had old pots and pans for rough
music. Parson Glennie was waiting in the church, and there he waited, for
the cart could not pass the gate, and we had no bearers to lift the
coffin. Then I looked round to see if there was any that would help to
lift, but when I tried to meet a man's eye he looked away, and all I
could see was the bitter scowling faces of the women. And all the while
the girl stood by the trolley looking on the ground. She had a little
kerchief over her head that let the hair fall about her shoulders, and
her face was very white, with eyes red and swollen through weeping. But
when she knew that all that crowd was there to mock her father, and that
there was not a man would raise hand to lift him, she laid her head upon
the coffin, hiding her face in her hands, and sobbed bitterly.'
Ratsey stopped for a moment and drank again deep at the flask; and as for
me, I still said nothing, feeling a great lump in my throat; and
reflecting how hatred and passion have power to turn men to brutes.
'I am a rough man,' Ratsey resumed, 'but tender-like withal, and when I
saw her weep, I ran off to the church to tell the parson how it was, and
beg him to come out and try if we two could lift the coffin.
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