CHAPTER 24The day started like any day, with the sensation of pain in her knuckles. The sky was blue-gray, just bright enough to make out the contours of the snow-covered mountains. So much snow this past winter! A rooster crowed; it was the Tutzingers', next door. Aunt Frieda smiled. She liked the ragged sound; it reminded her of the time when she'd kept chickens herself. Five years ago, she'd given up on that, when her arthritis had started to bite. The Tutzingers' rooster was a fierce, strong-willed devil. There! Listen! There was his mad crowing again!
There was no man in her house, yet there was so much to do! She kept the house clean, and she scrubbed the wooden floors. That was a woman's job. But think of the stable! The work in the garden! That past winter, the fence had collapsed
