E boys always spoke of her 

 as old Sukie, and indeed I 

 thought she was very old, but 

 have since realised that she 

 cannot have been more than thirty when I 

 first remember her. She was a fine whole- 

 some peasant woman, with bright dark eyes, 

 ruddy colouring, a hurried abrupt manner 

 of speech, and a heart of sterling goodness. 

 She came of an odd family. One of her 

 brothers, a miller, had so great a disdain 

 of such poor weaklings as suffered them- 

 selves to be buried in consecrated ground, 

 that he determined to escape this fate at 

 any cost : accordingly he erected a large 

 marble sarcophagus in the middle of his 

 field, and there after death they laid the 

 remains of this whimsical fellow. Another 

 brother was a maker of leather breeches ; 

 197 



