Hepsey Burke

e miniature of a certain young lady on the mantelpiece, having forgotten to return it to its hiding-place the night before. He quickly placed it in its cove

to leave the room she had caught sight of the picture, and,

ll, well, well! So this is what you've been dreaming about; and a mighty good thing too--only the sooner it's known the better. But I suppose I'll have to wait for his reverence to inform me officially, and then I'll have to look mighty surprised! She's got a good

married, she did not see why he did not announce the fact, and have it over with. She had to repeat her prayers three times before sh

the matter. He could be trusted to keep silent and assist her to carry out some provisional plans. She knew exactly what she wished

f it differed from hers; and when she had made a pretense of consulting him, he had learned by long experience to hesitate for a moment, look judicially wise, and then re

nto mischief, or let the house run down, or "live just by eatin' odds and ends off the pantry shelf any old way." Mrs. Jackson entertained no illusions in regard to her husband, and she trusted Hepsey implicitly

nted herself at the woodshed door, where she caught J

in' white buttons on with black thread. Is anybody dead in the

ingled embarrassment and

ey? It don't make no difference, as

ea of your stickin' the needle in, and then pressin' it against the chair to

E BUTTONS ON WITH BLACK THREAD. IS ANYBODY DEAD IN T

t a man's business, anyway; and w

you? You pay her enough, certainly, to k

e in by the day, and cooked for Jonathan, and i

a while; but when my buttonholes got tore larger, instead of sewin' 'em up, she just put on a large

idowers. Now Jonathan, why don't you lay aside your sewin'

just in apple-pie order, as you might say. Things

or Mrs. Burke gazed about

he wrote her name with the end of her finger in the dust on the center-table. "Why don't you open the parlor occasion

e parlor much, 'cept there was a funeral in t

things away occasionally, and not lea

's where it belongs; but if it's left just where I

live! The least you could do woul

'em again 'fore long?" Jonathan asked. "It just makes so much

things go like this w

inions will differ about some things. She'd never let me go up the front stairs without takin' my boots off, so as not to soil the c

t worried her a lot more than her conscience, poor soul. I should thin

better than comin'. The fact is, a man of my age can't live

day; but I'll tidy up a bit before I go, if you don't m

do anything you like," he

p to the garden, and returned with a big bunch of flowers which she placed in a large glass vase on the mantel. Then she hung Jonathan's dressing gown over the back of a chair, and pu

athan! That's b

ed profoundly

a man can't do that kind of thing like a woman can? He

was done it came back to her with sudden force; so, puckerin

the parlor or to jolly you. I've come to have a confid

s it, H

rimo

h self-conscious embarrassment; and after

n' matrimony again, Hepsey?--

f Gideon, no. It's about some one els

Jonathan inquired, with a

dopte

Maxwell and Virginia Bascom; but I didn'

n't nothin' t

as then, for

picture on his mantelpiece yesterday mornin

ryin' 'aint none of our

ot to be fixed over a whole lot 'fore it's fit to live in. You know the

om past experience that Hepsey's word

ave, if you sa

is, with my consent. It's the worst old rat-trap I ever saw. I've got the key, and I'

nturin' some. You don't know

point that way, and we've

o think that Virginia has a first

d I'm goin' to tell him so the first chance I get. I don't see why he should air his private affairs all over t

my knowledge and belief t

at the rectory at

the vestry first," the Ju

, I'd lik

e the trustees

nd to the property? The

reful. I'll be the

ted for the door; but Jo

well to have you. It would seem so nice and home

his a proposal of m

in that light; but if you wo

was beating

g about the room as if his late wife might appear at any moment as an avenging deity, and drag him into the kitchen where he belonged. But nothing happened, and he began to feel a realization of his independence. He sat and thought for

t she's dead, and I must confess I'm powerful reco

"get thee behind me" abruptness, and puttin