After his son died, Raleigh Stewart, bit by bit, lost his own life while everyone else moved on.
His wife focused on Susannah, their newly orphaned granddaughter. His friends returned to their concerns. Finally, the Hart family, as his grieving continued, quietly took over running the farm.
It did cheer him to watch Susannah, not yet one, battle the controlling women.
Not a honey, not a sweeties!….. Will do it myself.
But he remembered his son’s last words to him, and he feared for her.
Slowly his life narrowed to daily sojourns to Vern’s Tavern and lonesome hours sitting in the garden.
Then one day, as he sat on his favorite bench, he heard an indignant Scottish brogue. “Are you not ready to stop moping your days away and aid me in this garden?”
That was the first time he saw the Brownie.
But it would not be the last.
