A little
later two or three families departed by the same train, under cover of
the darkness between two days, without stopping to pay even their
house rent. These mysterious flittings, like that of the famous Tartar
tribe, roused a suspicion against their fellow countrymen, but after a
succession of such departures almost everybody else thought it far
cheaper to stay among friends. It seemed as if at any moment the great
mill wheels might begin to turn, and the bell begin to ring, but day
after day the little town was still and the bell tolled the hours one
after another as if it were Sunday. The mild spring weather came on
and the women sat mending or knitting on the doorsteps. More people
moved away; there were but few men and girls left now in the quiet
boarding-houses, and the spare tables were stacked one upon another at
the end of the rooms. When planting-time came, word was passed about
the Corporation that the agent was going to portion out a field that
belonged to him a little way out of town on the South road, and let
every man who had a family take a good-sized piece to plant. He also
offered seed potatoes and garden seeds free to anyone who would come
and ask for them at his house. The poor are very generous to each
other, as a rule, and there was much borrowing and lending from house
to house, and it was wonderful how long the people seemed to continue
their usual fashions of life without distress. Almost everybody had
saved a little bit of money and some had saved more; if one could no
longer buy beefsteak he could still buy flour and potatoes, and a bit
of pork lent a pleasing flavor, to content an idle man who had nothing
to do but to stroll about town.
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