against a
barn with
their
hands in
their
pockets,
like
caryatides,
as if to
prop it
up. They,
being
commonly
out of
doors,
heard
whatever
was in the
wind.
These are
the
coarsest
mills, in
which all
gossip is
first
rudely
digested
or cracked
up before
it is
emptied
into finer
and more
delicate
hoppers
within
doors. I
observed
that the
vitals of
the
village
were the
grocery,
the
bar-room,
the
post-office,
and the
