, had taken such full
possession of him as to leave him no power to struggle against the
bitterness which became almost hatred as time went on. If he had died
unforgiving, the Lord would have still received him, she had believed,
and she had striven to content herself with this belief in silence,
feeling how vain were spoken words to him.

"Only a miracle would make him see God's will in this; and I have no
right to ask for that."

No miracle was wrought. The letter came, and was the last touch of the
loving Hand which even at the worst times had wounded but to heal; and
lying with his lips in the dust, but with eyes looking upward, the cloud
parted, and he saw the face of God, and was at peace.

After this there came nothing to trouble these two old people as they
moved softly down the hill together. Grannie was never very strong
again after her long illness, and no longer took the lead in all that
was done in the house--that was Katie's part in life for several years
to come; but she was quite content to rest and to look at other folk
busy with the work which had once been hers, and that does not always
happen in the last days of a life so active and so full as hers had
been.

And what was true of the grandmother was true of the grandfather as
well. He seemed to have no more anxious thoughts about anything. He
did not need to have while Davie stayed at home; but even after Davie
went away, and the management of the farm fell for the most part into
the less skillful hands of the younger brothers, their grandfather "took
things easy," the lads said, and rarely found fault.

And so they had still a peaceful gloaming, these two old people, when
their changeful day of life was drawing to a close. Only it was like
the dawn rather than the gloaming, Katie said, because of the soft
brightness that shone on them both. It was "light at evening time," and
their last days were their best to themselves and to all by whom they
were beloved.

For the last days were days of waiting for the change of which they
spoke often to the bairns so dear, and to one another. Once, as Katie
sat with her grandfather at the pasture-bars on Sabbath afternoon, she
said to him--after many other words had been spoken between them--that
she would like to put that verse on his grave-stone after he was gone:

"At evening time it shall be light."

But her grandfather said:

"Na, na, my lassie! If I have a grave-stone--which matters lit