Sunday after Sunday we pray in Church against sudden death. "From sudden death, good Lord, deliver us!" But doesn't sudden death mean death unprepared for? I don't think death can ever be "sudden" in the real sense of the word to those who are ready and waiting. I think the stroke of the buffer, which startled and swept him away, was nothing more nor less to father than just the voice of his Master bidding him "Come Home!" One moment of start and fright, maybe; and then—nothing but joy.
When the train came to a stop, a little way farther on, after the cruel deed was done—not that anybody could be blamed!—several gentlemen got out; and the driver of the engine sat down on the ground, and hid his face, and cried like a child at the awfulness of what had happened. But, poor fellow, nobody could find fault with him!
Mother saw the whole from first to last. She never took her eyes away; and when the mangled body was tossed out by the wheels upon the six-foot way, she went swiftly down, never faltering, and knelt beside it, and wouldn't be torn away till the doctor came and told her all was over—as she might have seen. But they said she didn't seem to see. Her eyes were fixed, and she never spoke a word, nor shed a tear.
I saw nothing more after the moment that the buffer struck father. It must have been a long faint. When I struggled back to sense, with a strange dreadful feeling that some sort of thunderbolt had fallen on us, Mr. Baitson and Lady Arthur and Mrs. Hammond were all standing over me, and I was down on the floor in our kitchen.
"Poor things! How terrible for them!" I heard Lady Arthur say.
"And they seeing it all! Why, it's enough to kill 'em—more than enough," Mrs. Hammond said, in the brisk sort of way she had.
"Hush!" Mr. Baitson said, quite low.
And I opened my eyes, and looked at them all three. I didn't know what had happened, and I didn't want to know. I didn't want to be told. I only felt it was something frightful—something awful.
"Poor dear! I do believe it'll kill her!" says Mrs. Hammond, with a click of her tongue meaning pity.
Mr. Baitson turned upon her, more fierce-like than I'd ever seen him, for he was commonly so quiet.