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"The sewing," said Mrs. Peters,
in a troubled way, "All the rest of
them have been so nice and
even--but--this one. Why, it looks
as if she didn't know what she
was about!"
"The cover was off the wooden bucket, and beside it was a paper bag- half full. "
"She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively- when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls, singing in the choir. but that- oh, that was twenty years ago."
"I Liked her well enough," she replied with spirit. "Farmers' wives have their hands full, Mr. Henderson. And then-" She looked around the kitchen.
"Yes?" He encouraged.
It never seemed a very cheerful place," said she, more to herself than to him.
"No," he agreed; "I don't think anyone would call it cheerful. I Shouldn't say she had the home- making instinct."
"Well, I don't know as Wright had, either," she muttered.
"You mean they didn't get on very well?" he was quick to ask.
"No; I don't mean anything," she answered, with decision. As she turned a little away from him, she added: "But I don't think a place would be any the cheerfuller for John Wright's bein' in it."
"One half of it was wiped clean,
the other half messy. Her eyes made
a slow, almost unwilling turn to the
bucket of sugar and the half empty bag beside it. Things begun--and not finished."
"She thought of the flour in her kitchen at home- half sifted, half not sifted. She had been interrupted, and had left things half done. What had interrupted Minnie Foster?"
"Yes--good," conceded John Wright's neighbor grimly.
"He didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most,
I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man,
Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him--."
She stopped, shivered a little. "Like a raw wind that gets
to the bone." Her eye fell upon the cage on the table before her,
and she added, almost bitterly: "I should think she would've
wanted a bird!"
Clue 12
Not having children makes less work," mused Mrs. Hale, after a silence, "but it makes a quiet house--and Wright out to work all day--and no company when he did come in."
"I suppose maybe the cat got it," suggested Mrs. Hale, resuming her sewing.
"No; she didn't have a cat. She's got that feeling some people have about cats--being afraid of them. When they brought her to our house yesterday, my cat got in the room, and she was real upset and asked me to take it out."
"Look at this door," she said slowly. "It's broke. One hinge has been pulled apart."
Mrs. Hale came nearer.
"Looks as if someone must have been--rough with it."
"She used to sing real pretty herself."
"I didn't know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John-"
Minnie Wright was abused by her husband. He killed her canary and she snapped. The women were able to see the signs of abuse. That is why the story is called, "Jury of Her Peers".
"Dirty towels. Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?"