finally the other old woman , a crone if ever there was one , who had nibbled at her plate all the while with the fixed attention of a busy insect , suddenly raised her head and cried to the drunken brothers , 'you are neither of you fit to run this plantation , ' to which the drunken brothers replied with boisterous laughter , though the two younger females regarded this with much seriousness , their eyes passing over charlotte fearfully and then sweeping gently the near paralyzed and useless husband , whose hands lay like dead birds beside his plate .