Thus for many a year David went in and out among his mates and
friends, living the gospel in their sight. The memory of Nanna
filled his heart; he loved no other woman, but every desolate and
sorrowful woman found in him a friend and a helper. And he drew the
little children like a magnet. He was the elder brother of every
boy and girl who claimed his love; his hands were ever ready to
help them, his heart was ever ready to love them. And in such blessed
service he grew nobly aged.
He had come to Shetland when the islands were very far off, when
the Norse element ruled them, and the Christianized men and women
of the sagas dwelt alone in the strong, quaint stone houses they
had built. He lived to see the influx of the southern race and
influences, the coming of modern travel and civilization; but he
never altered his life, for in its simple, pious dignity it befitted
any era.
Now, it is noticeable that good men very often have their desire
about the manner of their death. And God so favored his servant
David Borson. He went out alone one day in his boat, and a sudden
storm came up from the northeast. He did not return. Some said there
had been no time to take in the boat's sail, and that she must have
gone down with her canvas blowing; others thought she had become
unmanageable and drifted into some of the dangerous "races" near
the coast.
But, this manner or that manner, David went to heaven as he desired,
"by the way of the sea," and God found his body a resting-place
among its cool, clean graves--a sepulcher that no man knoweth of,
nor shall know until the mighty angel sets his right foot upon the
sea, and swears that there shall "be time no longer."
Transcriber Notes
Spelling and punctuation inaccuracies were silently corrected.
Archaic and variable spelling is preserved.
Author's punctuation style is preserved.
Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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