Since we're on page 3 now, maybe I should explain why I said in reply #1 that I thought it says 'sitting on a form'.
The writer has lots of stray marks at the end of words, whether the last letter is a 'd' or 'e' or 'm' or whatever. The stray mark at the end of 'followed' (the word directly above 'sitting') drops below the line and bisects 'sitting'. This stray mark is somewhat similar to the one at the end of 'looked' three lines above, but the writer was more careful there.
The first letter of the word that is 'sitting' is almost certainly an 's' (comparing it to the other words beginning with an 's'. If you ignore the mark below the line from the 'd' in 'followed' which I described in the preceeding paragraph, then it looks very much like there are 2 't's in the middle of that word. That leaves us with pretty much only 2 options: setting and sitting. As he is on a verandah, on a form, with his face in his hands, the logical conclusion is he is sitting.
I agree that the end of the word 'form' is written carelessly, but many of the words in this document have similar stray marks at the end. The writer was obviously writing quickly. When I write quickly, I tend to not finish words properly either.
Alexander
P.S. I've included an excerpt again below so we do not have to keep going back to page 1.
