Bare-backed

Before I could answer, a ravishing creature in one of those long, bare-backed gowns which I’d gathered from advertisements were the modern woman’s evening dress, strolled past our table.

At the edge of the woods stood an Indian in worn buckskins and heavy furs; with him were what looked like two white men bundled up against the cold, and all three were staring at a bearded, bare-backed man who was tied to a small maple tree, the skin on his back already branded with sticky red welts.

There, among the punk sophisticates and bow-ties and shiny shoes and bare-backed women, was Mum, wearing a blue and white dress, blue hat and brown sandals.