n' hoo wears droppers an' o',' replied the friend whom she
addressed.

'Ey! haa hoo does pinch,' critically remarked Libby Eastwood, the
dressmaker of the village.

'Nay, Libby; yon's a natural sized waist--hoo's nobbud small made,
thaa sees,' said the woman to whom the remark had been made.

'Well, aw'd ha' donned a bonnet on a Sunday.'

'Yi; so would I. An' a married woman an' o'--aw think hoo might be
daycent.'

'Aw'll tell thee what, Mary Ann--there's a deal o' mak' up i' that
yure (hair), or aw'm mista'en.'

'Yo're reet, lass; there is, an' no mistak'.'

'Can hoo play th' pianer, thinksto?'

'Can hoo dust one?'

'Nowe, aw'll warnd hoo cornd.'

'Hoo thinks hersel' aboon porritch, does yon lot.'

'Dun yo' think hoo can mak' porritch?' sneered Amos to the woman
who passed the unkindly remark.

'Nowe, Amos, aw durnd. Yon lass'll cost Penrose some brass. Yo'll
see if hoo doesnd.'

While this criticism was going on in the chapel yard, Mrs. Penrose
was seated in the pew of Dr. Hale, somewhat bewildered and not a
little overstrained. Here, too, poor woman, she was unconsciously
giving offence, for on entering she had knelt down in prayer, Old
Clogs declaring that 'hoo were on her knees three minutes and a
hawve, by th' chapel clock;' while at the conclusion of the
service, after the congregation were on their feet in noisy exit,
her devotional attitude led others to brand her both as a 'ritual'
and a 'papist.'

During the afternoon there was a repetition of the morning's
ordeal, and at the service the young wife was again the one on
whom all eyes were fixed, and of whom all tongues whispered.
Never before had she been so called to suffer. If the keen
glances of the congregation had been softened by the slightest
sympathy she could better have stood the glare of curiosity; but
no such ray of sympathy was there blended with the looks. Hard,
cold, and critical--such was the language of every eye. Rehoboth
hated what it called 'foreigners'--those who had been born and
brought up in districts distant from its own. All strange places
were Nazareths, and all strangers were Nazarenes, and the cry
was, 'Can any good thing come out therefrom?' And to this
question the answer was ever negative. Outside Rehoboth dwelt the
alien. In course of years the prejudice towards the intruder
submitted itself to the force of custom, and less suspicious
became the looks, and less harsh the tongues. Even then, however,
the ol