ten p.m.
At the doorstep of one of these cottages -- a well-kept , clean and neat little dwelling -- sat , this August afternoon , an old woman , spinning busily . She , although some of her neighbors might be , was not asleep . Oh , no ! Seldom was Madame McAllister caught napping , save at orthodox hours , between ten p.m. and six a.m. . In spite of her seventy-six years , was she hale and hearty , bright and active . She was a brisk little body , and had a most intelligent face . Her eyes were dark and bright with animation , and her coloring was brown and healthy , unlike that of her neighbors of the same age , for , as a rule , French Canadian women of the lower classes lead very hard-working lives , often marrying at sixteen or seventeen , and have scarcely any youth , entering , as they do , on the trials and duties of womanhood before an English girl of the same age has left the schoolroom .