"Lift me up, Tonal," said the dying man; "I will be wanting to see the sun again, and then I will be going. I will be going to the land where they will not need the light of the sun. Tonal, bhodaich, it is the good brother you have been to me, and many's the good day we have had together.""Och, Hugh, man. Are you going from me?" said Macdonald Bhain, with great sorrow in his voice.
"Aye, Tonal, for a little." Then he looked for a few moments at Kirsty, who was standing at the foot of the bed.
"Come near me, Kirsty," he said; and Kirsty came to the bedside.
"You have always been kind to me and mine, and you were kind to HERas well, and the reward will come to you." Then he turned to Mrs.
Murray, and said, with a great light of joy in his eyes: "It is you that came to me as the angel of God with a word of salvation, and forever more I will be blessing you." And then he added, in a voice full of tenderness, "I will be telling her about you." He took Mrs. Murray's hand and tremblingly lifted it to his lips.
"It has been a great joy to me," said Mrs. Murray, with difficulty steadying her voice, "to see you come to your Saviour, Mr.
Macdonald."
"Aye, I know it well," he said; and then he added, in a voice that sank almost to a whisper, "Now you will be reading the prayer."And Mrs. Murray, opening her Gaelic Bible, repeated in her clear, soft voice, the words of the Lord's Prayer. Through all the petitions he followed her, until he came to the words, "Forgive us our debts." There he paused.
"Ranald, my man," he said, raising his hand with difficulty and laying it upon the boy's head, "you will listen to me now. Some day you will find the man that brought me to this, and you will say to him that your father forgave him freely, and wished him all the blessing of God. You will promise me this, Ranald?" said Macdonald Dubh.
"Yes, father," said Ranald, lifting his head, and looking into his father's face.
"And, Ranald, you, too, will be forgiving him?" But to this there was no reply. Ranald's head was buried in the bed.
"Ah," said Macdonald Dubh, with difficulty, "you are your father's son; but you will not be laying this bitterness upon me now. You will be forgiving him, Ranald?""Oh, father!" cried Ranald, with a breaking voice, "how can Iforgive him? How can I forgive the man who has taken you away from me?""It is no man," replied his father, "but the Lord himself; the Lord who has forgiven your father much. I am waiting to hear you, Ranald."Then, with a great sob, Ranald broke forth: "Oh, father, I will forgive him," and immediately became quiet, and so continued to the end.
After some moments of silence, Macdonald Dubh looked once more toward the minister's wife, and a radiant smile spread over his face.
"You will be finishing," he said.
Her face was wet with tears, and for a few moments she could not speak. But it was no time to fail in duty, so, commanding her tears, with a clear, unwavering voice she went on to the end of the prayer--"For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.""Glory!" said Macdonald Dubh after her. "Aye, the Glory. Ranald, my boy, where are you? You will be following me, lad, to the Glory. SHE will be asking me about you. You will be following me, lad?"The anxious note in his voice struck Ranald to the heart.
"Oh, father, it is what I want," he replied, brokenly. "I will try.""Aye," said Macdonald Dubh, "and you will come. I will be telling HER. Now lay me down, Tonal; I will be going."Macdonald Bhain laid him quietly back on his pillow, and for a moment he lay with his eyes closed.
