Note 12 — The Magic Pail

Tom was thankful to hear all this, and he thought it was no accident that had brought such comfort to his poor lonely wife. He had still greater cause for thankfulness as the days wore on; for as Joan now had her thoughts taken from herself in having a babe—which, by the way, was a maiden babe—to think for and to attend to as far as she was able, she grew better in health, and before winter was over could go about the house-place ‘and do all her little chores her own self,’ she proudly declared. She even swept and sanded her kitchen floor, and made figgy hoggans12 for her husband’s dinner, which she had not been able to do since the early years of their marriage.