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137
The Solitary Summer
·
Elizabeth Von Arnim
68
This,
I
was
instructed
on
my
first
round
by
the
Frau
Inspector,
is
the
proper
thing
to
ask;
and
if
you
can
follow
it
up
by
an
examination
of
the
contents
of
the
saucepan,
and
a
gentle
sniff
indicative
of
your
appreciation
of
their
savouriness,
so
much
the
better.
I
was
diffident
at
first
about
this,
but
the
gratification
on
their
faces
at
the
interest
displayed
is
so
unmistakable
that
I
never
now
omit
going
through
the
whole
business.
This
woman,
the
wife
of
one
of
the
men
who
clean
and
feed
the
cows,
has
arrived
at
that
enviable
stage
of
existence
when
her
children
have
all
been
confirmed
and
can
go
out
to
work,
leaving
her
to
spend
her
days
in
her
clean
and
empty
room
in
comparative
dignity
and
peace.
The
children
go
to
school
till
they
are
fourteen,
then
they
are
confirmed,
are
considered
grown
up,
and
begin
to
work
for
wages;
and
her
three
strapping
daughters
were
out
in
the
fields
yesterday
reaping.
The
mother
has
a
keen,
shrewd
face,
and
everything
about
her
was
neat
and
comfortable.
Her
floor
was
freshly
strewn
with
sand,
her
cups
and
saucers
and
spoons
shone
bright
and
clean
from
behind
the
glass
door
of
the
cupboard,
and
the
two
beds,
one
for
herself
and
her
husband
and
the
other
for
her
three
daughters,
were
more
mountainous
than
any
I
afterwards
saw.
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