“O Mary! dear departed shade!
Where is thy place of ”
“Whist! whist!” interrupted Saunders with horror. D’ye no ken ye stupe, it that’s a piece o’ ane o’ Burns’s sangs? Gude ⟨forgio⟩ us! I wus nocht ill may happen us for ⟨sic⟩ profanity! lay the Scots Worthies ⟨aneath⟩ ye’r elbow on the wundow-sole there, ⟨and⟩ had ye’r peace a thegither, if ye canna ⟨say⟩ ony thing better.”
It was a place, however, where speaking could alone keep up their spirits; and Saunders was obliged, in a little while, to break the law of silence he had so hastily imposed. At length the moon appeared over the edge of the hill; and never did patriarch of ⟨old⟩ hail with grater pleasure a celestial messenger descending to visit him, than they did the presence of the efulgent luminary, as she lifted her broad face in tranquil ⟨sublimity⟩ from the top of the mountain, and seem’d to transfer herself at once into the blue arch of heaven. All things now began to assume a different aspect. Every tree had its gigantic shaddow that stretched like a leviathan along the church-yard, and concealed within its range a vast number of graves. The old gothic church stood by itself like a ⟨planet⟩ half eclipsed, with the shadows of some of the taller trees advanced half-way up its wall very much in the form of butresses; ⟨while⟩