Every afternoon a line of very old women passes down the road outside my home, each carrying a load of firewood. All of them are tiny. It seems to be generally the case in primitive countries that the women, at a certain age, shrink to the size of children. One day a poor old creature who could not have been more than four feet tall crept past me under a vast load of wood. I stopped her and put a five-sou piece (less than a penny) into her hand. She answered with a shrill wail, almost a scream, which was partly gratitude but mainly surprise. I suppose that from her point of view I seemed almost to be violating a law of nature. She accepted her status as an old woman, that is to say, a beast of burden.

Q. Underline the sentence which best supports the answer to question No. 2.