"It's a very hard country for a woman." He was troubled by the thought of what she must have borne for it was difficult to imagine Sylvia engaged in laborious domestic toil.

It had never occurred to him that her delicate appearance was deceptive.
"Dick," she went on, "was out at work all day; there was nobody to talk to--our nearest neighbor lived some miles off.

I think now that Dick was hardly strong enough for his task.

He got restless and moody after he lost his first crop by frost.

During that long, cruel winter we were both unhappy: I never think without a shudder of the bitter nights we spent sitting beside the stove, silent and anxious about the future.
But we persevered; the next harvest was good, and we were brighter when winter set in.