a woman of medium size and height, and endowed with remarkable
good sense and energy. Heaven had also blessed her with that gentleness
of temper so necessary to make a home happy. They had, indeed, been
married nearly twenty years, and although nothing had come of it in the
way of an offspring, not a cross word had passed between them. It was
said to her credit that no housewife this side of the Tappan Zee could
beat her at making bread, brewing beer, or keeping her house in good
order. The frosts of nearly forty winters had whitened over her brows,
yet she had the manner and elasticity of a girl of eighteen, and a face
so full of sweetness and gentleness that it seemed as if God had
ordained it for man's love. Angeline's dress was usually of plain blue
homespun, woven by her own hands, and with her cap and apron of snowy
whiteness she presented a picture of neatness and comeliness not seen in
every house.

There was a big, square room on the first floor, with a little bed room
adjoining, and an old-fashioned bed with white dimity curtains, fringe,
and tassels made by Angeline's own hand. Snow white curtains also draped
the windows; and there was a tidy and cosy air about the little bed room
that told you how good a housewife Angeline was. An old-fashioned
hand-loom stood in one corner of the big, square room; and a flax and a
spinning-wheel had their places in another. A farm-house was not
considered well furnished in those days without these useful implements,
nor was a housewife considered accomplished who could not card, spin,
and weave. Angeline carded her own wool, spun her own yarn, and weaved
the best homespun made in the settlement; and had enough for their own
use and some to sell at the store. In addition to that there was no
housewife more expert at the flax-wheel, and her homemade linen was
famous from one end to the other of the Tappan Zee. Hanz was, indeed, so
skilful in the art of raising, hetcheling, and dressing flax, that all
the neighbors wanted to borrow his hetchel. And if needs be he could
make reeds and shuttles for the loom, while Angeline always used
harnesses of her own make. And so industrious was this good wife that
you could rarely pass the house of a night without hearing the hum of
the wheel or the clink of the loom.

The good people about Nyack were honest in those days, paid their debts,
were happy in their very simplicity, and had no thought of sending to
Paris either for their fabric