The laundry yard

An original account written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

At the laundry I was first given the smallest handkerchiefs to hang. The sheets belonged to the older women, who could lift their wet weight without dragging a corner through the earth. I took my place at the end of the line and copied the way they folded the cloth over it. Whenever I left too much hanging on one side, the wind pulled it loose. By noon my little row remained in place, and the forewoman entrusted me with a tablecloth.

Give one phrase that shows the narrator’s responsibility increased at noon.