If we had tried to see what a dreadful muss we could make, things could have looked no worse.

I think father told her to wait in the carriage, but we heard her cry: "Oh Mr.Stanton, let me see the dear children I'm to teach, and where I'm to work." Hopped is the word.

She hopped from the carriage and came hopping after father.

She was as tall as a clothes prop and scarcely as fat.
There were gray hairs coming on her temples.

Her face was sallow and wrinkled, and she had faded, pale-blue eyes.