gown of undressed flannel, colored brown . . . made in old yankee style, with long sleeves, covered the top of the hips and was tied before in two places with strings of deerskin

stockings of blue broadcloth

such . . . the dress that this woman was contented to wear, and habit had rendered it convenient and comfortable . . . wore it not as a matter of necessity, but from choice, for it will be seen . . . that her property is sufficient to enable her to dress in the best fashion, and to allow her every comfort of life

English

speaks English plainly and distinctly, with a little of the Irish emphasis recollection and memory exceeded my expectations

it cannot be reasonably supposed that a person of her age has kept the events of seventy years in so complete a chain as to be able to assign to each its proper time and place; she, however, made her recital with as few obvious mistakes as might be found in that of a person of fifty

has the use of words so well as to render herself intelligible on any subject with which she is acquainted

WHEN he had finished writing his notes, he mused. How little of her lay on his pages. He had in no way captured her face.

Conventional religion he had abandoned long ago, but now a Scripture came to him: “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: She hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. . . . She crieth upon the highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.”

WHILE Mary was waiting for him to stop staring at her that first day, she repeated her phrase for him: “—my father, a door, a wall, the hills, a sledge, and the snow.”

“Your father, a wall, a—”

“Yes. I was very young. It was early morning and all else besides my father and me were still abed. I remember he with some difficulty opened the door of our house and I was standing near him and when the door finally swung inward, all I could see was white. A little of it fell straightaway into the room. It must have snowed all the night and that snow had piled up against our door. Because I was so short, I could not see over it; for me the outdoors had vanished and in its place was a wall, a sheet of white.