The Deemster

ck hair was thin on the crown and streaked with gray about the temples; the crow's-feet were thick under his small eyes, and

s already an old man when his wife died. Over her open grave he tried to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed-" But his voice faltered and broke. Though he lived ten

lved. Never were brothers more unlike. Gilcrist, resembling his father, was of a simple and tranquil soul; Thorkell's nature

rea was in effect the master of Ballamona; his younger brother was nightly immersed in astronomy and the Fathers, and the old man was sitting daily,

til the farmers cried in the grip of their poverty that they would neither go nor starve. Then the wagons of Thorkell Mylrea, followed close at their tail-boards by the carts of the c

He told Ewan as much time after time, and then the troubled old face looked puzzled. The end of many earnest consultations between father and son, as the one sat by the open hearth

But the day came at length when the old man died in his chair, before the slumberous peat fire on the hearth, quietly, silently, without a movement, his graspless fingers fumbling a worm-eaten hour-glass

fire. Long afterward, when idle tongues were set to wag, it was said that the elder son of Ewan Mylrea had found a means whereby to sap

e last crop lay dank on the mold. When the company returned to Ballamona they sat down to eat and drink and make merry, for "excessive sorrow is exceeding dry." No one asked for the will; there was no will because there was no personalty, and the lands were by law the inheritance of the eldest son. Thorkell was at the head of his table, and he smiled a little, and sometimes reached over the board to touch with his glass the glass that was held out toward him

after black over the blank waters, when the door opened and Thorkell entered. Gilcrist sti

last few days. In fact, I have been troubled about you, to say the truth," sa

but clasped his hands about his kn

f-anything, I should consider it wrong to stand-to put myself in

s back to the fire, and his f

then turned toward the window and looked out at the dark sea. Only the sea's v

d the flickering lights of the fire seemed to make sinis

th across his saddle-bow. He took passage by the "King Orry," an old sea-tub plying once a week t

to a lady twenty years of age, who lived at a distance of some six miles from his estate. It would be more precise to say that the liberal tender was made to the lady's father, for her own will was little more than a cypher in the bargaining. She was a girl of sweet spirit, very tender and submissive, a

parishes made a holiday of his son's wedding. The one followed hard upon the other, and thrift was n

a tribute to the many virtues of Thorkell Mylrea. Indeed, it was as well that the elderly brid

dly Manxman, "five-and-forty if he's a

s got no feelin's. Aw, shock

too, they're sayin'

lack and Gray"; then came the bridegroom's men carrying osiers, as emblems of their superiority over the bridesmaids, who follow

ut his brave exterior lent him small support as he took the ungloved hand of his girlish bride. He gave his responses in a voice that first faltered, and then sent out a quick, harsh, loud pipe. No such gaunt and grim shadow of a joyful bridegroo

sold his own gel, and him preaching there about t

s Laban and Jac

n one minute Thorkell was like another man. All his abject bearing fell away. When the party was clear of the churchyard four of the groom's men started for the Rectory at a race, and the first to reach it won a flask of bran

d with custom," said he

here the bride cake was broken over the bride's hand, and then thrown to be scrambled fo

d bantered, and made quips and quibbles. Finally, he invited all and sundry to partake freely of the oaten cake and ale that he had himself brought from Ballamona in his car for the refreshment of his own tenants there pr

ere laid on the top for tables. Then from pans and boilers that simmered in the kitchen a great feast was spread. First came the broth, well loaded with barley and cabbage, and not destitute of the flavor of numerous sheep's heads. This was served in wooden piggins, shells

here could be heard, over the boisterous harmony of the feaster

ast of the Manxman had been thawed away under the charitable effects of good cheer, a

uld he is yet,

the hayseed out o

owerful head-piec

and fiddling, and the pipes at intervals, and all went merry until midnight, when the unharmonious

brought down the oaten cake and ale. Thorkell had seen that the remains of these good viands were thriftily