My heart sank. Poor Nancy! if she had really incurred the public scorn,
it must have been through dire extremity.

"Ye see," Hiram continued, "folks were sort o' tried with her from the
beginnin'. You know what a good outfit she had from her mother's
side,--bureaus, an' beddin', an' everything complete? Well, she left it
all right there in the house, for Jim to use, an' when he brought his
new woman home, there the things set jest the same, an' he never said a
word. I don't deny he ought to done different, but then, if Nancy
wouldn't look out for her own interests, you can't blame him so much,
now can ye? But the capsheaf come about a year ago, when Nancy had a
smart little sum o' money left her,--nigh onto a hunderd dollars. Jim
he'd got into debt, an' his oxen died, an' one thing an' another, he
was all wore out, an' had rheumatic fever; an' if you'll b'lieve it,
Nancy she went over an' done the work, an' let his wife nuss him. She
wouldn't step foot into the bedroom, they said; she never see Jim once,
but there she was, slavin' over the wash-tub and ironin'-board,--an' as
for that money, I guess it went for doctor's stuff an' what all, for
Jim bought a new yoke of oxen in the spring."

"But the man! the other wife! how could they?"

"Oh, Jim's wife's a pretty tough-hided creatur', an' as for him, I
al'ays thought the way Nancy behaved took him kind o' by surprise, an'
he had to give her her head, an' let her act her pleasure. But it made
a sight o' town talk. Some say Nancy ain't quite bright to carry on so,
an' the women-folks seem to think she's a good deal to blame, one way
or another. Anyhow, she's had a hard row to hoe. Here we be, an'
there's Hannah at the foreroom winder. You won't think o' goin' over to
Nancy's till arter supper, will ye?"