“Last December, the fourteenth day.”
“Did you see her on that day?”
“I was there early in the morning, for I saw there was snow to fall. She was dead at the noon hour.”
“You saw her go away?”
“No; I was afraid of the storm. I left her at ten o’clock. She could not then speak, but she gave me the papers. We had talked of them before.”
“Then did she die alone?”
“She did not. I went into the next cottage and told Christine Yell that it was the last hour with Nanna; and she said, ‘I will go to her,’ and so she did.”
“You should have stayed, mother.”
“My lad, the snow was already falling, and I had to hasten across the moor, as there was very good reason to do.”