Where's Nora? by Sarah Orne Jewett

"Where's Nora? " Young Johnny O'Callahan was asking the question; the / express had stopped for water, and he seemed to be the only passenger; / this was his day off.

Mrs. Ryan was sitting on her doorstep to rest in the early evening; her / husband had been promoted from switch-tender to boss of the great / water-tank which was just beginning to be used, and there was talk of / further improvements and promotions at Birch Plains; but the / good-natured wife sensibly declared that the better off a woman was, / the harder she always had to work.