The neighbours' wives do not call; their well-dressed daughters, as they rattle by to the town in basket-carriage or dog-cart, look askance at the shabby figure walking slowly on the path beside the road.

They criticise the shabby shawl; they sneer at the slow step which is the inevitable result of hard work, the cares of maternity, and of age.

So they flaunt past with an odour of perfume, and leave the 'old lady' to plod unrecognised.
The end came at last.

All this blind work of his was of no avail against the ocean steamer and her cargo of wheat and meat from the teeming regions of the West.

Nor was it of avail against the fall of prices, and the decreased yield consequent upon a succession of bad seasons.