"How hard this elderly lady works!" remarked David.

"Go and help her, David," said Esther, compassionately.

As their drowsy void spoke, both the old woman and the pompous little
figure behind her lifted their eyes, and for a moment they regarded the
youth and damsel with something like kindness and affection; which,
however, were dim and uncertain, and passed away almost immediately.
The old woman again betook herself to the shovel, but was startled by a
hand suddenly laid upon her shoulder; she turned round in great
trepidation, and beheld the dignitary in the blue coat; then followed an
embrace of such closeness as would indicate no remoter connection than
matrimony between these two decorous persons. The gentleman next
pointed to the shovel, appearing to inquire the purpose of his lady's
occupation; while she as evidently parried his interrogatories,
maintaining a demure and sanctified visage as every good woman ought, in
similar cases. Howbeit, she could not forbear looking askew, behind her
spectacles, towards the spot of stubborn turf. All the while, their
figures had a strangeness in them, and it seemed as if some cunning
jeweller had made their golden ornaments of the yellowest of the setting
sunbeams, and that the blue of their garments was brought from the dark
sky near the moon, and that the gentleman's silk waistcoat was the
bright side of a fiery cloud, and the lady's scarlet petticoat a remnant
of the blush of morning,--and that they both were two unrealities of
colored air. But now there was a sudden movement throughout the
multitude. The Squire drew forth a watch as large as the dial on the
famous steeple, looked at the warning hands and got him gone, nor could
his lady tarry; the party at the tavern door took to their heels, headed
by the fat man in the flaming breeches; the tall deacon stalked away