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SKETCHES. 401
The congregation sang another psalm, after which some
of them left the church. But some remained, because in
half an hour the usual morning service was to commence,
and the people do not all go home between the two ser-
vices in the country, where they often live at a great
distance from the church. It was now daylight and all the
candles were put out.
The widow left the church with her two little children,
because they were to go to the poor-house and take the
“ flower-woman ” her Christmas treat.
The “ flower-woman ” was a handsome, pale, aged woman,
blind of both eves, so that the black spot in the pupil of
the eye was completely gone. They had become so, she
said, when she had her eye-teeth taken out, from which she
had suffered severe pain. This was now ten years ago.
Formerly she used to wander about the country, teaching
little children to read, and making beautiful bouquets of
flowers of colored paper, which she put into platted paper
flower-pots, and gave away in those houses where people
had given her shelter and been kind to her. Thus she had
wandered about and lived in the district for fifteen years,
and nobody knew her name, nor whence she came; they
only knew that she came from a distant part of the country,
and never would speak of herself or of her family, nor give
any account of herself; there was, however, something in
her manners and in her speech which made people say that
there was something “strange” about her, but that one
could easily see that she belonged to the better class; and
being very gentle and pious, and besides, neat and well-man-
nered in her person, teaching the children so well and
making such beautiful bouquets of flowers, she was liked
everywhere, and was called the “ flower-woman” by every
one; and peasants and farmers all liked to have the “ flower-
woman ” in their house for a few weeks at a time. After
she became blind, and was not able either to make any
more bouquets, or to teach the children to read, or to pro-
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