the milk strained; the
churn cleaned and the cream standing. The hens had been driven in and
were almost asleep on their perches. The wood was ready for the morning
and the clock had been wound up. She had not had her supper yet she did
not remove her sun-bonnet or yard-boots. She cut herself a slice of
stale bread and a large piece of cheese, dipped a cup in the barrel of
buttermilk and sat down on a low stool with the bread and cheese in one
hand and the cup of milk in the other. She was evidently in great
perturbation, for at times she forgot to eat altogether and sat with the
bread and cheese suspended in her hand while she thought deeply. Her
rather large plain features had a dignity of expression which was
pleasing, though it betrayed a tendency to melancholy. She had no frown,
for her blue eyes were of excellent strength and one does not sit up
late in the country. She was tall and rather bony, a strong peasant
woman.

Presently she rose, her supper still unfinished, and took from a shelf,
from among a medley of herbs and medicine bottles, a penny bottle of ink
with a pen sticking in it. Searching in a drawer of the round table she
found a large envelope on which was written, "Giant pennyworth of note."
She took from it one of the thin bluish sheets of paper, and sitting at
the table, her sun-bonnet making a grotesque shadow behind her, she
began to write. She wrote with little hesitation, urged by the strength
of some feeling. Her handwriting was large and she made long loops to
her g's.

"DEAR SIR,--Though you passed by my cottage yesterday you are so
unknown to me by sight, that I have only just discovered who it
was that was brought to such a pitiable condition before me.
First, sir, let me describe to you what a sight I saw before me,
when, hearing a great plunging and shouting in the road, I came
out from the shippon to see what was the matter.

"I saw, sir, a strong, well-looking, well-dressed young man of
twenty-six lying in the mud of the road, his foot in one stirrup of
his horse, he, mad with drink cursing, first the poor horse (a very
quiet stallion), then the road (a very easy one) and last, the
Almighty God of love. The horse, dragged everywhere by the efforts
of the young man to gain a footing, was rewarded for its patience
when its master at last, by my help, regained his feet, by severe
kicks in the belly, and I, a po