^^  I  didn't  know  hut  you  might,"  said  she,  scorn-
fully; ^^  people  didn't  seem  to  think  we  could  do
anything."

^^  All  I  wonder  at  is,"  said  the  Squire,  rallying  a
little,  '^how  you  managed  to  get  so  much  money
together."

^'  Do  you  want  to  know  ?  Well,  111  tell  you. We've
hound  shoes,  Elmira  an'  me,  for  one  thing. We've
took  all  they  would  give  us. That  wa'n't  many,  for
the  regular  customers  had  to  come  first,  and  I  didn't
do  any  in  Ahel's  lifetime — that  is,  not  after  I  was
sick. I  used  to  a  while  hefore  that. Ahel  wouldn't
let  me  when  we  were  first  married,  but  he  had  to  come
to  it. Men  can't  do  all  they're  willin'  to. I  shouldn't
have  done  anything  hut  dress  in  silk,  set  an'  rock,
an'  work  scallops  an'  eyelets  in  cambric  pocket-hand-
kerchiefs, if  Abel  had  had  his  say. After  I  was  sick
I  quit  workin'  on  boots,  because  the  doctor  he  said
it  might  hurt  the  muscles  of  my  back  to  pull  the  nee-
dle through  the  leather ;  but  there's  somethin'  besides
muscles  in  backs  to  be  thought  of  when  it  comes  to
keepin'  body  an'  soul  together. Two  days  after  the


LneralTBent  Jerome  np  to  Cyrns  RobinBon,  ana  told

him  to  ask  him  if  be'd  got  some  extra  shoes  to  bind
and  close,  and  he  come'  home  with  eome. Elmiro
and  me  bound,  and  Jerome  closed,  and  we  took  our
pay  in  groceries. The  shoes  have  fed  us,  with  what
we  got  out  of  the  garden. Then  Elmira  and  me  have
braided  mats  and  pieced  quilts  and  sewed  three  rag
carpets,  and  Elmira  picked  huckleberries  and  black-
berries in  season,  and  sold  them  to  your  wife  and  Misa
Camilla  and  the  doctor's  wife ;  and  lawyer  Means
bought  lots  of  her,  and  the  woman  that  keeps  house
for  John  Jennings  bought  a  lot. Elmira  picked  bay-
berriea,  too,  and  sold  'em  to  the  shoemaker  for  tallow ;
she  sold  a  lot  in  Dale. Elmira  did  a  good  deal  of  the
weeding  in  your  sister's  garden,  ao's  to  leave  Jerome's
time  clear. Then  once  when  the  doctor's  wife  had
company  she  went  over  to  help  wash  dishes,  and  she
give  her  three  an'  sixpence  for  that. 