西蒙先生菲尼走出了他的住所侧门和停了一会儿，揭示在丁香树丛背他的烟斗。菲尼先生是各种杂职业的人，他的符号，钉在大银叶在前院，列举了其中几个。 “卡彭特，那么驱动程序，建筑的人，看蔓越莓博格斯照顾和调度，等等，等等，以”让阅读的迹象。这房子是坐落在“菲尼巷，”关闭“跨街弯弯曲曲的小拜韦”之间的“海岸道路”在斜坡和脚的“山大道” - 原“希金斯斯特” - 顶部。从菲尼门的看法是广泛的，并为大部分湿。在过去的急剧下降山“肖尔路，”在贫瘠的土壤中，与杨梅灌木和“贫穷草覆盖诺尔斯，”到海滩和灰色，饱经风霜的鱼沿线分散的房屋黄沙。除了是海湾，在夕阳光一线希望。
    菲尼夫人在厨房里，与忙碌的晚餐菜肴。她的丈夫，在他的音乐喘息管舒适，吸引了来自他的口袋里一古银手表，并在其拨号照顾。过去的6个季度。时间是越来越下降到车厂及邮政署。至少有一打东Harniss男性公民思想在那一刻，非常事。这是一个长期的社会习惯，看到来在火车上，追求的邮件。事实胜于雄辩，火车乘客在毫无亲密的人你有兴趣，而且您预期没有邮件没有什么差别。如果你是30岁以上的人，你去车厂或“俱乐部”，就像你的妻子或姐妹去了缝纫和社交圈为轻度兴奋。如果你是一个年轻的男子你去为相同的原因，你参加祷告会的邮局。如果你是一个年轻的姑娘你去邮局，祈祷会，以提供一对年轻男子的原因。
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    Mr. Simeon Phinney emerged from the side door of his residence and paused a moment to light his pipe in the lee of the lilac bushes. Mr. Phinney was a man of various and sundry occupations, and his sign, nailed to the big silver-leaf in the front yard, enumerated a few of them. "Carpenter, Well Driver, Building Mover, Cranberry Bogs Seen to with Care and Dispatch, etc., etc.," so read the sign. The house was situated in "Phinney's Lane," the crooked little byway off "Cross Street," between the "Shore Road" at the foot of the slope and the "Hill Boulevard"--formerly "Higgins's Roost"--at the top. From the Phinney gate the view was extensive and, for the most part, wet. The hill descended sharply, past the "Shore Road," over the barren fields and knolls covered with bayberry bushes and "poverty grass," to the yellow sand of the beach and the gray, weather-beaten fish-houses scattered along it. Beyond was the bay, a glimmer in the sunset light.
    Mrs. Phinney, in the kitchen, was busy with the supper dishes. Her husband, wheezing comfortably at his musical pipe, drew an ancient silver watch from his pocket and looked at its dial. Quarter past six. Time to be getting down to the depot and the post office. At least a dozen male citizens of East Harniss were thinking that very thing at that very moment. It was a community habit of long standing to see the train come in and go after the mail. The facts that the train bore no passengers in whom you were intimately interested, and that you expected no mail made little difference. If you were a man of thirty or older, you went to the depot or the "club," just as your wife or sisters went to the sewing circle, for sociability and mild excitement. If you were a single young man you went to the post office for the same reason that you attended prayer meeting. If you were a single young lady you went to the post office and prayer meeting to furnish a reason for the young man.