He begged Steve, with tears in his eyes, to go and find Daniel while he went home with Ignatious, who could scarcely stand. ‘I will send a cart or waggon at once to bring him home, if you will only wait there and do unto him as if he was your own dead brother.’ Steve and his four companions went, and what a sight met their eyes! CHAPTER XXVI ’TIS THE WILL OF GOD The hill on which they found themselves was the highest point of the rolling plain. On it were scattered masses of ironstone. Whether there was any kind of metal present in the soil of the hill, or whether it was because it was the highest spot in the neighbourhood, Steve could _not_ determine, but he later on learned that this was a favourite spot for the lightning to strike down on. What they saw was this-- Two horses, dead and all twisted up as if they had no bones in their bodies, indescribably horrible to see. Entangled with one horse, a man’s body was seen. When they lifted him up by the arms, his head dropped backwards between the shoulders, as if his neck was composed of only skin and soft flesh. His hat and most of his clothes were carbonised, and his flesh, where exposed, was scorched and burnt in crooked lines. But let us draw a curtain, ’tis God’s work; His ways are inscrutable. The body was conveyed, in a waggon (sent for the purpose), home. When the body was carried into the house, the mother of the dead man cast off all restraint and threw herself in a passion of weeping upon the corpse, and had to be dragged away by main force from the awful sight of the mutilated body of her son. To cut a gruesome story short, the body was buried the following day at midday. Steve and his companions came over from a neighbouring farm, where they had gone the afternoon of the accident, as so many relatives and friends had come to assist the bereaved family that they thought it well to leave and relieve the house of the care of stranger guests. Poor Ignatious was in a precarious condition; his life was despaired of for some time. But he recovered in the end. But poor Tante Letta; the shock was too much for her; she nearly followed her boy to the grave, and was delirious for months afterwards. Oom Ignatious spanned in his cart, on the doctor’s advice, and rode from neighbour to neighbour for weeks, every day giving his wife change of scene and faces. By this means, she gradually recovered a shadow of her health and reason. But the beautiful motherly smile, which formerly dwelt on her face, was gone for ever. She is now the tender care of little Lettie, and is waiting patiently for the time when her God will call for her, and take her to her beloved son. God comfort the poor old lady! CHAPTER XXVII A DANGEROUS FORD The day of the funeral was Sunday. Steve and party took leave of the sad household, and the following day went farther on.