Scotland/Scots > Reminiscences of a Highland parish

PASSING AWAY.
I23
hands with each, and kissing the hand of his old
and dear mistress, he departed. The family group
felt awe-struck,—the whole scene was so sudden,
strange, and solemn. Next day, Rory was dead.
Old Jenny, the henwife, rapidly followed Rory.
Why mention her ? Who but the geese or the
turkeys could miss her? But there are, I doubt
not, many of my readers who can fully appre¬
ciate the loss of an old servant who, like Jenny,
for half a century has been a respected and valued
member of the family. She was associated with
the whole household life of the manse. Neither
she nor any of those old domestics had ever been
mere things, but living persons with hearts and
heads, to whom every burden, every joy of the
family was known. Not a child but had been
received into her embrace on the day of birth ;
not one passed away but had received her tears
on the day of death; and they had all been
decked by her in their last as in their first gar¬
ments. The official position she occupied as hen-
wife had been created for her in order chiefly to
relieve her feelings at the thought of her being use¬
less and a burden in her old age. When she died,