CENE _represents the interior of a cottage in a Lancashire
village. Through the window at the back the gray row of cottages
opposite is just visible. The outside door is next to the window.
Door left. As regards furniture the room is very bare. The
suggestion is not of an empty room, but a stripped room. For
example, there are several square patches where the distemper of
the walls is of a darker shade than the rest, indicating the
places once occupied by pictures. There is an uncovered deal
the left wall is a dresser and a plate-rack above it containing a
few pots. The dresser has also one or two utensils upon it. A
blackened kettle rests on the top of the cooking-range, but the
room contains only the barest necessities. The floor is
uncarpeted. There are no window curtains, but a yard of cheap
muslin is fastened across the window, not coming, however, high
enough to prevent a passer-by from looking in, should he wish to
do so. On the floor, near the fire, is a battered black tin
trunk, the lid of which is raised. On a peg behind the door left
is a black silk skirt and bodice and an old-fashioned beaded
bonnet. The time is afternoon. As the curtain rises the room is
empty. Immediately, however, the door left opens and SARAH
ORMEROD, an old woman, enters, carrying clumsily in her arms a
couple of pink flannelette nightdresses, folded neatly. Her black
stuff dress is well worn, and her wedding-ring is her only
ornament. She wears elastic-sided boots, and her rather short
skirt shows a pair of gray worsted stockings. A small plaid shawl
covers her shoulders. SARAH crosses and puts the nightdresses on
the table, surveying the trunk ruefully. There is a knock at the
outside door and she looks up._

SARAH. Who's theer?

EMMA (_without_). It's me, Mrs. Ormerod, Emma Brierley.

SARAH. Eh, coom in, Emma, lass.

(_Enter_ EMMA BRIERLEY. _She is a young weaver, and, having just
left her work, she wears a dark skirt, a blouse of some
indeterminate blue-gray shade made of cotton, and a large shawl
over her head and shoulders in place of a jacket and hat. A
colored cotton apron covers her skirt below the waist, and the
short skirt displays stout stockings similar to Sarah's. She
wears clogs, and the clothes--except the shawl--are covered with
ends of cotton and cotton-wool fluff. Even her hair has not
escaped. A pair of scissors hangs by a cord from her waist._)

SARAH. Tha's kindly welcoom. It's good o' thee to think o'
c