RAB AND HIS FRIENDS 



rapid in her questions, and sharp at times. 

 He was vexed, and said, " She was never 

 that way afore, no, never." For a time she 

 knew her head was wrong, and was always 

 asking our pardon the dear, gentle old 

 woman : then delirium set in strong, without 

 pause. Her brain gave way, and then came 

 that terrible spectacle, 



" The intellectual power, through words and things, 

 Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way ; " 



she sang bits of old songs and psalms, stopping 

 suddenly, mingling the Psalms of David, and 

 the diviner words of his Son and Lord, with 

 homely odds and ends and scraps of ballads. 



Nothing more touching, or in a sense more 

 strangely beautiful, did I ever witness. Her 

 tremulous, rapid, affectionate, eager Scotch 

 voice the swift, aimless, bewildered mind, 

 the baffled utterance, the bright and perilous 

 eye ; some wild words, some household cares, 

 something for James, the names of the dead, 

 Rab called rapidly and in a " fremyt " voice, 



34 



