She carried something bulky under her shawl, and she walked with a curious side-wise motion, keeping the side next her nephew well forward.
"Don't you want me to carry your bundle, Aunt Jane ?" Lois heard him say as they walked off.
"No," the old woman replied, hastily and peremptorily.

"It ain't anything." When Lois went into the house, her mother gave her a curious look of stern defiance and anxiety.

She saw that her eyes were red, as if she had been crying, but she said nothing, and went about getting tea.
After tea the minister and his wife called.

Green River was a conservative little New England village; it had always been the custom there when the minister called to invite him to offer a prayer.

Mrs.Field felt it incumbent upon her now; if she had any reluctance, she did not yield to it.