Mary E. Wilkins

“ Hannah sat looking at her moodily. If it were not for this old woman she would lock her house and leave the village this very night. It must be that she would find toleration somewhere in the great world. Some of her kind would be willing to let her live. But here was Martha, whom she would not leave; Martha and her calla-lily, which to a fanciful mind might well seem a very part of her ”

“ There was a deathly calm. George Arnold arose. He was a tall, fair man, like his father. His yellow, curled head towered up bravely; the light from the pulpit window settled on it. He was very pale. "I wish to make a statement in the presence of this congregation," he said, in a loud, clear voice. "The lady beside me, who is now my wife, has been accused of theft from my father. The accusation was a false one. I stole the money myself. She has borne what she has had to bear from you all to shield me."
Before he had quite finished Hannah rose ”

“ Martha said, when she told her of her disappointment.
The next day Hannah tried to raise some money on her house. It was a large cottage, somewhat out of repair; it was worth some twenty-five hundred dollars.
Hannah could not obtain a loan of a cent upon it. There was no bank in the village, and only one wealthy man, John Arnold. She would not apply to him, and the others, close-fisted, narrow-minded farmers, were afraid of some trap, they knew not what, in the transaction. ”

“ There was no question but that Hannah's unshaken demeanor brought somewhat harder judgment upon herself. A smile in an object of pity is a grievance. The one claim which Hannah now had upon her friends she did not extort, consequently she got nothing. ”

“ She's young an' good-lookin', but she's had her calla-lily five year, an' she ain't had but one bud, and that blasted."
"Well, flowers is a good deal of company."
"I guess they air. They're most as good as folks. Mis' Newhall, why don't Jennie come in an' see Hannah sometimes?"
All the lines in Mrs. Newhall's face lengthened. She looked harder at the callas. "Well, I dunno, Marthy; Jenny don't go much of anywhere. Those lilies are beautiful. You'd ought to have 'em carried into the meeting-house next Sunday, an' set in front of the pulpit."
Martha turned white. ”

“ I'd like to know what you do to it, Marthy?"
"I don't do nuthin'. Flowers 'll grow for some folks, and that's all there is about it. I allers had jest sech luck." Martha stood staring at the lilies. A self-gratulation that had something noble about it was in her smiling old face.
"I tell Hannah," she went on, "if I be miser'ble in health, an' poor, flowers 'll blow for me, and that's more than they'll do for some folks, no matter how hard they cry. ”

“ I s'pose she thought she could raise a little money that way. I guess she's havin' a pretty hard time. She can t get no work anywhere. She's been sewin' boots for Allen over in Wayne, but I heard the other day he was goin' to shut down on her. She's gettin' some of her punishment in this world. Folks said Arnold's son George had a notion of goin' with her once, but I guess it put a stop to that pretty quick. He's down East somewhere."
Hannah, plodding along out in the windy, moonlit night, knew as well what they were saying as if she had been at their elbows. ”

“ There was nothing desperate in her mind, only that fixed intention—the food she would have, she did not know how, but she would have it.
She was so weak from fasting that she could scarcely step herself, but she did not think of that. "It's awful for an old woman to go hungry," she muttered, going down the street. ”

“ I s'pose he thought they couldn't really prove anything, not findin' the money. And then he's a deacon of the church; he'd hate to do such a thing, anyway. But everybody in town thinks she took it, fast enough. Nobody has anything to do with her. She used to go out sewin' for folks, but they say she stole lots of pieces. I heard she took enough black silk here and there to make a dress. Nobody has her now, that I know of. You don't want anybody in your house that you can't trust. ”