morning, noon
She now made a permanent home at Mr. Gleason 's , and superintended the household concerns , pursuing at the same time the occupation to which she had devoted the strength and intensity of her womanhood . There was a beautiful grassy lawn extending from the southern side of the building , with a gradual slope towards the sun , whose margin was watered by the clearest , bluest , gayest little singing brook in the world . This was called Miss Thusa 's bleaching ground , and nature seemed to have laid it out for her especial use . There was the smooth , fresh , green sward , all ready for her to lay her silky brown thread upon , and there was the pure water running by , where she could fill her watering pot , morning , noon and night , and saturate the fibres exposed to the sun 's bleaching rays . And there was a thick row of blossoming lilac bushes shading the lower windows the whole breadth of the building , in which innumerable golden and azure-colored birds made their nests , and beguiled the spinster 's labors with their melodious carrolings . Helen delighted in assisting Miss Thusa in watering her thread , and watching the gradual change from brown to a pale brown , and then to a silver gray , melting away into snowy whiteness , like the bright brown locks of youth , fading away into the dim hoariness of age . When weary of dipping water from the wimpling brook , she would sit under the lilac bushes , and look at Miss Thusa 's sybilline figure , moving slowly over the grass , swaying the watering-pot up and down in her right hand , scattering ten thousand liquid diamonds as she moved .