Midnight
An energetic loafer can attend properly to one bench , but it takes genius as well as assiduity to do justice to six of them . His habits were decidedly convivial , and he spent a good deal of time at the general musters , drinking and carousing with the other ne'er - do-weels . You may be sure he was no favorite of Mrs. Todd 's ; and she represented to him all that is most undesirable in womankind , his taste running decidedly to rosy , smiling , easy-going ones who had no regular hours for meals , but could have a dinner on the table any time in fifteen minutes after you got there . Now , a certain lady with a noticeable green frock and a white `` drawn-in '' cape bonnet had graced the Midnight Cry on its journey from Limington to Saco on three occasions during the month of July . Report said that she was a stranger who had appeared at the post-office in a wagon driven by a small , freckled boy . The first trip passed without comment ; the second provoked some discussion ; on the occasion of the third , Mrs. Todd said nothing , because there seemed nothing to say , but she felt so out-of-sorts that she cut Jerry 's hair close to his head , though he particularly fancied the thin fringe of curls at the nape of his neck . Pel Frost went over to Todd 's one morning to borrow an axe , and seized a favorable opportunity to ask casually , `` Oh , Mis ' Todd , did Jerry find out the name o ' that woman in a green dress and white bunnit that rid to Saco with him last week ? ''