e winter season, and would go out
presently, some to begin such work as they could still do, others to
live in their own small houses; old age had impoverished most of them
by limiting their power of endurance; but far from lamenting the fact
that they were town charges, they rather liked the change and
excitement of a winter residence on the poor-farm. There was a
sharp-faced, hard-worked young widow with seven children, who was an
exception to the general level of society, because she deplored the
change in her fortunes. The older women regarded her with suspicion,
and were apt to talk about her in moments like this, when they
happened to sit together at their work.

The three bean-pickers were dressed alike in stout brown ginghams,
checked by a white line, and all wore great faded aprons of blue
drilling, with sufficient pockets convenient to the right hand. Miss
Peggy Bond was a very small, belligerent-looking person, who wore a
huge pair of steel-bowed spectacles, holding her sharp chin well up in
air, as if to supplement an inadequate nose. She was more than half
blind, but the spectacles seemed to face upward instead of square
ahead, as if their wearer were always on the sharp lookout for birds.
Miss Bond had suffered much personal damage from time to time, because
she never took heed where she planted her feet, and so was always
tripping and stubbing her bruised way through the world. She had
fallen down hatchways and cellarways, and stepped composedly into deep
ditches and pasture brooks; but she was proud of stating that she was
upsighted, and so was her father before her. At the poor-house, where
an unusual malady was considered a distinction, upsightedness was
looked upon as a most honorable infirmity. Plain rheumatism, such as
afflicted Aunt Lavina Dow, whose twisted hands found even this light
work difficult and tiresome,--plain rheumatism was something of
every-day occurrence, and nobody cared to hear about it. Poor Peggy
was a meek and friendly soul, who never put herself forward; she was
just like other folks, as she always loved to say, but Mrs. Lavina Dow
was a different sort of person altogether, of great dignity and,
occasionally, almost aggressive behavior. The time had been when she
could do a good day's work with anybody: but for many years now she
had not left the town-farm, being too badly crippled to work; she had
no relations or friends to visit, but from an innate love of authority
she coul