feel
awful bad after all her hard work in the hot weather. I remember the
afternoon I put up my cherries last summer.

(_She puts the bottle on the big kitchen table, center of the room. With
a sigh, is about to sit down in the rocking-chair. Before she is seated
realizes what chair it is; with a slow look at it, steps back. The chair
which she has touched rocks back and forth_.)

MRS PETERS: Well, I must get those things from the front room closet,
(_she goes to the door at the right, but after looking into the other
room, steps back_) You coming with me, Mrs Hale? You could help me carry
them.

(_They go in the other room; reappear,_ MRS PETERS _carrying a dress and
skirt,_ MRS HALE _following with a pair of shoes._)

MRS PETERS: My, it's cold in there.

(_She puts the clothes on the big table, and hurries to the stove._)

MRS HALE: (_examining the skirt_) Wright was close. I think maybe that's
why she kept so much to herself. She didn't even belong to the Ladies
Aid. I suppose she felt she couldn't do her part, and then you don't
enjoy things when you feel shabby. She used to wear pretty clothes and
be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in
the choir. But that--oh, that was thirty years ago. This all you was to
take in?

MRS PETERS: She said she wanted an apron. Funny thing to want, for there
isn't much to get you dirty in jail, goodness knows. But I suppose just
to make her feel more natural. She said they was in the top drawer in
this cupboard. Yes, here. And then her little shawl that always hung
behind the door. (_opens stair door and looks_) Yes, here it is.

(_Quickly shuts door leading upstairs._)

MRS HALE: (_abruptly moving toward her_) Mrs Peters?

MRS PETERS: Yes, Mrs Hale?

MRS HALE: Do you think she did it?

MRS PETERS: (_in a frightened voice_) Oh, I don't know.

MRS HALE: Well, I don't think she did. Asking for an apron and her
little shawl. Worrying about her fruit.

MRS PETERS: (_starts to speak, glances up, where footsteps are heard in
the room above. In a low voice_) Mr Peters says it looks bad for her. Mr
Henderson is awful sarcastic in a speech and he'll make fun of her
sayin' she didn't wake up.

MRS HALE: Well, I guess John Wright didn't wake when they was slipping
that rope under his neck.

MRS PETERS: No, it's strange. It must have been done awful crafty and
still. They say it was such a--funny way to kill a man, rigging it all
up like that.