What? Hasn't she come back from court yet? That isn't possible hardly!
'Tis eight o'clock. Was August here?
MARTHEL
Not yet.
BERND
Not yet either? Well, maybe she's with him then.—Have you seen that great cloud, Marthel, that was comin' over from the mountain about six o'clock, maybe?
MARTHEL
Yes, father; the world got all dark!
BERND
There'll come a day o' greater darkness than this! Light the lamp on the table for me an' put the Good Book down next to it. The great thing is to be in readiness. Marthel, are you sure you keep thinkin' o' the life eternal, so that you can stand up before your Judge on that day? Few is the souls that think of it here! Just now as I was comin' home along the water's edge, I heard some one cryin' out upon me from behind, as they often does. "Bloodsucker!" cried he. An' was I a bloodsucker when I was overseer on the domain? Nay, I did my duty,—that was all! But the powers of evil is strong! If a man is underhanded, an' closes his eyes to evil, an' looks on quietly upon cheatin'—then his fellows likes him well.—But I leans upon the Lord Jesus. We human bein's all need that support. 'Tisn't enough just to do good works! Maybe if Rose had given more thought to that, maybe we'd ha' been spared many a visitation an' a deal o' heaviness an' bitterness. [A CONSTABLE appears in the doorway.] Who's comin' there?