Sometimes she stole forth by moonlight and visited the graves of venerable integrity and wedded love and virgin innocence , and every spot where the ashes of a kind and faithful heart were mouldering . Over the hillocks of those favored dead would she stretch out her arms with a gesture as if she were scattering seeds , and many believed that she brought them from the garden of Paradise , for the graves which she had visited were green beneath the snow and covered with sweet flowers from April to November . Her blessing was better than a holy verse upon the tombstone . Thus wore away her long , sad , peaceful and fantastic life till few were so old as she , and the people of later generations wondered how the dead had ever been buried or mourners had endured their grief without the Old Maid in the Winding-Sheet . Still years went on , and still she followed funerals and was not yet summoned to her own festival of death . One afternoon the great street of the town was all alive with business and bustle , though the sun now gilded only the upper half of the church-spire , having left the housetops and loftiest trees in shadow . The scene was cheerful and animated in spite of the sombre shade between the high brick buildings . Here were pompous merchants in white wigs and laced velvet , the bronzed faces of sea-captains , the foreign garb and air of Spanish Creoles , and the disdainful port of natives of Old England , all contrasted with the rough aspect of one or two back-settlers negotiating sales of timber from forests where axe had never sounded . Sometimes a lady passed , swelling roundly forth in an embroidered petticoat , balancing her steps in high-heeled shoes and courtesying with lofty grace to the punctilious obeisances of the gentlemen . The life of the town seemed to have its very centre not far from an old mansion that stood somewhat back from the pavement , surrounded by neglected grass , with a strange air of loneliness rather deepened than dispelled by the throng so near it . Its site would have been suitably occupied by a magnificent Exchange or a brick block lettered all over with various signs , or the large house itself might have made a noble tavern with the `` King 's Arms '' swinging before it and guests in every chamber , instead of the present solitude . But , owing to some dispute about the right of inheritance , the mansion had been long without a tenant , decaying from year to year and throwing the stately gloom of its shadow over the busiest part of the town . Such was the scene , and such the time , when a figure unlike any that have been described was observed at a distance down the street . `` I espy a strange sail yonder , '' remarked a Liverpool captain -- `` that woman in the long white garment . '' The sailor seemed much struck by the object , as were several others who at the same moment caught a glimpse of the figure that had attracted his notice . Almost immediately the various topics of conversation gave place to speculations in an undertone on this unwonted occurrence . `` Can there be a funeral so late this afternoon ? '' inquired some . They looked for the signs of death at every door -- the sexton , the hearse , the assemblage of black-clad relatives , all that makes up the woeful pomp of funerals . They raised their eyes , also , to the sun-gilt spire of the church , and wondered that no clang proceeded from its bell , which had always tolled till now when this figure appeared in the light of day .
But none had heard that a corpse was to be borne to its home that afternoon , nor was there any token of a funeral except the apparition of the Old Maid in the XXXXX .
Maid Winding-Sheet back-settlers housetops left petticoat right sea-captains wigs years