In the days when the spinning -wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses , and even great ladies , clothed in silk and thread -lace , had their toy spinning -wheels of polished oak , there might be seen in districts far away among the lanes , or deep in the bosom of the hills , certain pallid undersized men , who , by the side of the brawny country -folk , looked like the remnants of a disinherited race .The shepherd 's dog barked fiercely when one of these alien -looking men appeared on the upland , dark against the early winter sunset , for what dog likes a figure bent under a heavy bag ?, and these pale men rarely stirred abroad without that mysterious burden .The shepherd himself , though he had good reason to believe that the bag held nothing but flaxen thread , or else the long rolls of strong linen spun from that thread , was not quite sure that this trade of weaving , indispensable though it was , could be carried on entirely without the help of the Evil One.In that far -off time superstition clung easily round every person or thing that was at all unwonted , or even intermittent and occasional merely , like the visits of the pedlar or the knife -grinder .No one knew where wandering men had their homes or their origin , and how was a man to be explained unless you at least knew somebody who knew his father and mother ?To the peasants of old times , the world outside their own direct experience was a region of vagueness and mystery .To their untravelled thought a state of wandering was a conception as dim as the winter life of the swallows that came back with the spring , and even a settler , if he came from distant parts , hardly ever ceased to be viewed with a remnant of distrust , which would have prevented any surprise if a long course of inoffensive conduct on his part had ended in the commission of a crime , especially if he had any reputation for knowledge , or showed any skill in handicraft .All cleverness , whether in the rapid use of that difficult instrument the tongue , or in some other art unfamiliar to villagers , was in itself suspicious .Honest folk , born and bred in a visible manner , were mostly not overwise or clever , at least , not beyond such a matter as knowing the signs of the weather , and the process by which rapidity and dexterity of any kind were acquired was so wholly hidden , that they partook of the nature of conjuring .In this way it came to pass that those scattered linen -weavers , emigrants from the town into the country , were to the last regarded as aliens by their rustic neighbours , and usually contracted the eccentric habits which belong to a state of loneliness .