Quotation from: The Strength of the Strong

Written by: Jack London

SAMUEL

Margaret Henan would have been a striking figure under any
circumstances, but never more so than when I first chanced upon
her, a sack of grain of fully a hundredweight on her shoulder, as
she walked with sure though tottering stride from the cart-tail to
the stable, pausing for an instant to gather strength at the foot
of the steep steps that led to the grain-bin. There were four of
these steps, and she went up them, a step at a time, slowly,
unwaveringly, and with so dogged certitude that it never entered my
mind that her strength could fail her and let that hundred-weight
sack fall from the lean and withered frame that wellnigh doubled
under it. For she was patently an old woman, and it was her age
that made me linger by the cart and watch.