COUNTY ATTORNEY. I guess we"ll go upstairs first-and then out to the barn and around there. (To the Sheriff.) You"re convinced that there was nothing important here- nothing that would point out any motive?.
SHERIFF. Nothing here but kitchen things. (The County Attorney, after again looking around the kitchen, opens the door of a cupboard closet. He gets up on a chair and looks on a shelf. Pulls his hand away, sticky.).
COUNTY ATTORNEY. Here is a nice mess. (The women draw nearer.).
MRS. PETERS (to the other woman). Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. (To the lawyer.) She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire"d go out and her jars would break.
SHERIFF (rises). Well can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin" about her preserves.
COUNTY ATTONRNEY. I guess before we"re through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.
HALE. Well, women are used to worrying over trifles. (The two women move a little closer together.).
COUNTY ATTORNEY (with the gallantry of a young politician). And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies? (The women do not unbend. He goes to the sink, takes a dipperful of water from the pail, and pouring it into a basin, washes his hands. Starts to wipe them on the roller towel, turns it for a cleaner place.) Dirty Towels! (Kicks his foot against the pans under the sink) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?.
MRS. HALE (stiffly). There's a great deal of work to be done on a farm. (1240).
For the majority of the play, the men are away from the women searching for clues. They leave the two women behind in the kitchen without searching there because the men believe there is nothing significant in a woman's kitchen. While the men remain completely unaware and close-minded, they overlook the simple details of a woman's life necessary to solve this murder.
The women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs.