If she then stayed at home and kept house well, and in addition mended and took in washing when it came in her way, no one would venture to charge Mrs.Holman with not knowing how to do her duty during these hard days.
And she still discharged this duty of hers by strictly keeping Silla from passing her leisure time in idleness, which was dangerous for young people.

Sewing and darning and patching all the evening--there could be no better way of being trained in steadiness.
But it was just while Silla sat and sewed and darned and patched in the evening by the low oil-lamp that the dancing and gaiety were best carried on in her head, and that all Kristofa's and her friends' word-pictures transformed themselves into actual experiences.

Bubble after bubble, the one more wonderful than the other, floated up or burst right in front of Mrs.Holman's nose, while she sat knitting.

She saw nothing, only wondered a little sometimes what there could be to smile and laugh at in the heel of a stocking..