t thrifty New
England women, a sin only second to arson, theft, or murder; and,
though the rule was occasionally carried too far for common sense,--as
in this case, where two elderly women of sixty might reasonably have
drawn something from their little hoard in time of special need,--it
doubtless wrought more of good than evil in the community.

Rebecca, who knew nothing of their business affairs, merely saw her
aunts grow more and more saving, pinching here and there, cutting off
this and that relentlessly. Less meat and fish were bought; the woman
who had lately been coming two days a week for washing, ironing, and
scrubbing was dismissed; the old bonnets of the season before were
brushed up and retrimmed; there were no drives to Moderation or trips
to Portland. Economy was carried to its very extreme; but though
Miranda was well-nigh as gloomy and uncompromising in her manner and
conversation as a woman could well be, she at least never twitted her
niece of being a burden; so Rebecca's share of the Sawyers' misfortunes
consisted only in wearing her old dresses, hats, and jackets, without
any apparent hope of a change.

There was, however, no concealing the state of things at Sunnybrook,
where chapters of accidents had unfolded themselves in a sort of serial
story that had run through the year. The potato crop had failed; there
were no apples to speak of; the hay had been poor; Aurelia had turns of
dizziness in her head; Mark had broken his ankle. As this was his
fourth offense, Miranda inquired how many bones there were in the human
body, "so 't they'd know when Mark got through breakin' 'em." The time
for paying the interest on the mortgage, that incubus that had crushed
all the joy out of the Randall household, had come and gone, and there
was no possibility, for the first time in fourteen years, of paying the
required forty-eight dollars. The only bright spot in the horizon was
Hannah's engagement to Will Melville,--a young farmer whose land joined
Sunnybrook, who had a good house, was alone in the world, and his own
master. Hannah was so satisfied with her own unexpectedly radiant
prospects that she hardly realized her mother's anxieties; for there
are natures which flourish, in adversity, and deteriorate when exposed
to sudden prosperity. She had made a visit of a week at the brick
house; and Miranda's impression, conveyed in privacy to Jane, was that
Hannah was close as the bark of a tree, and consid'able sel