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A
week
before
Yule
came
the
great
snow
.
It
began
with
a
thin
cold
fog
which
muffled
every
fold
of
the
hills
.
"
Rouk
’
s
[
fog
]
snaw
’
s
wraith
,
"
said
the
parish
,
and
saw
to
its
fuel
-
stacks
and
looked
gloomily
at
its
shivering
beasts
.
The
thick
weather
lasted
for
three
days
and
three
nights
,
weather
so
cold
that
it
was
pain
to
draw
breath
,
and
old
folk
at
night
in
their
box
beds
could
not
get
warmth
,
and
the
Woodilee
burn
was
frozen
hard
even
in
the
linns
.
It
was
noted
as
a
bad
omen
that
deer
from
Melanudrigill
were
seen
in
the
kirkton
,
and
that
at
dawn
when
the
Mirehope
shepherd
went
out
to
his
sheep
he
found
half
-
frozen
blue
hares
crouching
among
the
flocks
.
On
the
fourth
morning
the
snow
began
,
and
fell
for
three
days
in
heavy
flakes
,
so
that
it
lay
feet
deep
on
the
roads
and
fields
.
Then
the
wind
rose
and
for
six
furious
hours
a
blizzard
raged
,
so
that
the
day
was
like
night
,
and
few
dared
stir
from
their
doors
.
David
,
setting
out
to
visit
Amos
Ritchie
’
s
wife
,
who
was
sick
of
a
congestion
,
took
two
hours
over
a
quarter
of
mile
of
road
,
wandering
through
many
kitchen
middens
,
and
had
to
postpone
his
return
till
the
wind
abated
in
the
evening
,
while
Isobel
in
the
manse
was
demented
with
anxiety
.
The
consequence
was
that
the
snow
was
swept
bare
from
the
knowes
,
but
piled
into
twelve
-
foot
drifts
in
the
hollows
.
It
was
an
ill
time
for
the
sheep
in
the
paddocks
,
which
were
often
one
giant
drift
,
where
the
presence
of
the
flock
could
only
be
detected
by
the
yellowish
steaming
snow
.
Chasehope
lost
a
score
of
ewes
,
Mirehope
half
as
many
,
and
Nether
Fennan
,
where
the
drifts
were
deep
,
the
best
part
of
his
flock
.
To
David
it
seemed
that
the
farmers
’
ways
were
a
tempting
of
Providence
.
Had
the
sheep
been
left
on
the
hill
they
would
have
crowded
in
the
snow
to
the
bare
places
;
here
in
the
confined
paddocks
they
were
caught
in
a
trap
.
Moreover
,
on
the
hill
in
open
winter
weather
there
was
a
better
living
to
be
picked
up
than
that
afforded
by
the
narrow
rations
of
sour
bog
hay
.
But
when
he
spoke
thus
his
hearers
plainly
thought
him
mad
.
Sheep
would
never
face
a
winter
on
the
hills
-
-
besides
,
the
present
practice
was
the
"
auld
way
.
"
The
snow
lay
till
the
New
Year
was
a
week
old
,
and
when
the
thaw
came
and
the
roads
ran
in
icy
streams
,
David
took
to
his
bed
for
two
days
in
utter
exhaustion
.
All
through
the
storm
he
had
been
on
his
legs
,
for
there
were
sick
folk
and
old
folk
in
Woodilee
who
would
perish
miserably
if
left
alone
.
The
farm
-
towns
could
look
after
themselves
,
but
in
the
scattered
cottages
of
the
kirkton
there
was
no
one
to
take
command
,
and
neighbourliness
languished
when
each
household
was
preoccupied
with
its
own
cares
.
Peter
Pennecuik
,
a
ruling
elder
,
whose
gift
of
prayer
had
been
commended
by
Mr
.
Muirhead
,
had
lost
a
tup
and
had
his
byre
roof
crushed
in
by
the
drift
,
so
he
became
a
fatalist
,
holding
that
the
Lord
had
prepared
a
visitation
which
it
would
be
impiety
to
resist
,
and
sat
lugubriously
by
his
fireside
.
David
’
s
fingers
itched
for
his
ears
.
From
Amos
Ritchie
the
blacksmith
he
got
better
assistance
.
Amos
was
a
shaggy
,
black
-
bearded
man
of
thirty
-
five
,
a
great
fiddler
and
a
mighty
putter
of
the
stone
,
whose
godliness
might
have
been
suspect
but
for
his
behaviour
in
the
Bishops
’
War
.
His
wife
was
at
death
’
s
door
all
through
the
storm
,
but
he
nevertheless
constituted
himself
the
minister
’
s
first
lieutenant
,
and
wrought
valiantly
in
the
work
of
relief
.
There
were
old
women
too
chilled
and
frail
to
kindle
their
fires
in
the
morning
and
melt
snow
for
water
;
there
were
households
so
ill
provided
that
they
existed
largely
on
borrowed
food
;
there
were
cots
where
the
weather
had
broken
roof
or
wall
.
Isobel
in
the
manse
kitchen
was
a
busy
woman
,
and
her
girdle
was
never
off
the
fire
.
David
had
looked
forward
to
the
winter
snows
as
a
season
of
peace
,
when
he
could
sit
indoors
with
his
books
;
instead
he
found
himself
on
his
feet
for
fourteen
hours
out
of
the
twenty
-
four
,
his
hands
and
face
chapped
like
a
ploughman
’
s
,
and
so
weary
at
night
that
he
fell
off
his
chair
with
sleep
while
Isobel
fetched
his
supper
.
Yet
it
was
the
storm
which
was
David
’
s
true
ordination
to
his
duties
,
for
it
brought
him
close
to
his
people
,
not
in
high
sacramental
things
like
death
,
but
in
their
daily
wrestling
for
life
.
He
might
visit
their
houses
and
catechize
their
families
,
but
these
were
formal
occasions
,
with
all
on
their
best
behaviour
,
whereas
in
the
intimate
business
of
charity
he
saw
them
as
they
were
.
The
new
minister
was
young
and
he
was
ardent
,
and
his
duties
were
still
an
adventure
.
His
Sabbath
sermons
were
diligently
meditated
.
For
his
morning
lecture
he
took
the
book
of
the
prophet
Amos
,
which
,
as
the
work
of
a
herdsman
,
seemed
fitting
for
a
country
parish
.
His
two
weekly
discourses
dealt
laboriously
with
the
fourfold
state
of
man
-
-
his
early
state
of
innocence
,
his
condition
after
the
Fall
,
his
state
under
grace
,
his
condition
in
eternity
.
That
winter
David
did
not
get
beyond
the
state
of
innocence
,
and
in
discoursing
on
it
he
exhausted
his
ingenuity
in
piecing
texts
together
from
the
Scriptures
,
and
in
such
illustrations
as
he
believed
would
awaken
his
hearers
’
minds
.
Profane
learning
openly
used
would
have
been
resented
,
but
he
contrived
to
bring
in
much
that
did
not
belong
to
the
divinity
schools
,
and
he
escaped
criticism
,
it
may
be
,
because
his
Kirk
Session
did
not
understand
him
.
His
elders
were
noted
theologians
,
and
what
was
strange
to
them
,
if
it
was
weightily
phrased
,
they
took
for
theological
profundity
.
At
ten
o
’
clock
each
Sabbath
morning
Robb
the
beadle
tinkled
the
first
bell
;
at
the
second
the
congregation
moved
into
the
kirk
,
and
Peter
Pennecuik
,
who
acted
as
precentor
,
led
the
opening
psalm
,
reading
each
line
before
it
was
sung
.
When
Robb
jerked
the
third
bell
,
David
entered
the
pulpit
and
began
with
prayer
.
At
one
o
’
clock
the
people
dispersed
,
those
who
came
from
a
distance
to
Lucky
Weir
’
s
ale
-
house
;
and
at
two
fell
the
second
service
,
which
concluded
at
four
with
the
coming
of
the
dark
.
The
kirk
,
with
its
earthen
floor
,
was
cold
as
a
charnel
-
house
,
and
the
dimness
of
the
light
tried
even
David
’
s
young
eyes
.
The
people
sat
shivering
on
their
little
stools
,
each
with
the
frozen
decorum
and
strained
attention
which
was
their
Sabbath
ritual
.
To
the
minister
it
seemed
often
as
if
he
were
speaking
to
sheeted
tombstones
,
he
felt
as
if
his
hearers
were
at
an
infinite
distance
from
him
,
and
only
on
rare
occasions
,
when
some
shining
text
of
Scripture
moved
his
soul
and
he
spoke
simply
and
with
emotion
,
did
he
feel
any
contact
with
his
flock
.
But
his
sermons
were
approved
.
Peter
Pennecuik
gave
it
as
his
verdict
that
he
was
a
"
deep
"
preacher
and
sound
in
the
fundamentals
.
Others
,
remembering
the
thrill
that
sometimes
came
into
his
voice
,
called
him
an
"
affectionate
"
preacher
,
and
credited
him
with
"
unction
.
"
But
there
were
many
that
longed
for
stronger
fare
,
something
more
marrowy
and
awful
,
pictures
of
the
hell
of
torment
which
awaited
those
who
were
not
of
the
Elect
.
He
had
the
"
sough
,
"
no
doubt
,
but
it
was
a
gentle
west
wind
,
and
not
the
stern
Euroclydon
which
should
call
sinners
to
repentance
.
Their
minister
was
a
man
of
God
,
but
he
was
young
;
years
might
add
weight
to
him
and
give
him
the
thunders
of
Sinai
.
