Hepsey Burke

and her devotion to neighborly good deeds relaxed, she turned to knitting wash-rags as a sportsman turns to his gun, or a toper to his cups. Sh

ry tea, she was sitting in her garden, and knittin

been lookin' altogether too sober, and you don't eat nothin' t

cardiac affection, of the romantic

ughed as

all right. There's nothing the matter with

hin' as gettin' away from your best friends, once in a while. I guess you need a change--pinin' for the city,

e to visit in

n your

yone. Don't you ever get away

et ready, and shuttin' up the house, it's more trouble than its w

ou ever visi

or a wedding now and then. Visitin' is no joke, I tell you. No sir, I'm old enough to know when I'm well off, and home's t

to visit in N

sit?" Maxwell inquired. "

o nothin' in particular. The middle cell was a dinin' room where we ate when we could find the way to our mouths. Near as I can recollect, you got into the parlor through the pantry, back of the servant's room, by jumpin' over five trunks. You ought to have seen my room. It looked just like a parlor when you first went in. There was somethin' lookin' like a cross between an upright piano and writin' desk. Sally gave it a twist, and it tumbled out into a folding bed. The first night, I laid awake with my eyes on the foot of that bed

al and healthful lives in the country. The adva

ve. Just think of havin' no yard but a w

, either. In the first place we 'aint so particular, which helps a lot, and besides, as Jonathan Jackson used to say,--there's compensations. I had one look at F

een things, livin' and noddin' in the rain is a long ways from being disheartenin',--and when the sun shines I can sit out here, in my garden, with my flowers, and watch the boys

grass near by. She realized that the parson had cleverly side-tracked her original subject of co

ion. Now, he was smiling, and, balked of her prey, Mrs. Burke knitted briskly, contemplating other

married, Mr. Maxwell?

three rings of smoke in the air, and then replied

ge has fancied himself in love

ugh; every man has to have it sometime;

could make up to a girl for the sacrifice of bringing her to live in a place lik

e girl is just dyin' to make a great sacrifice f

e average g

ce, while he affected to gaze stonily

rman, in her day; evidently, she decided, this p

yman is better off marri

is knees, and smiled thoughtfully for a moment. There was a light in his eyes which was good

nd face all the difficulties of the situation before he comes to a definite decision and marri

and has the good sense to keep out of matrimony, the people talk about his bein' a selfish old bachelor who neglects his duty to society. He can't afford to run a tumble-down rectory like ours. If in the face of all this he marries, he has to scrimp and stint until it is a question of buyin' one egg or two, and lettin' his wife worry and work until she's fit for a lunatic asylum. No business

rade, and after a while

m afraid you ar

good, and says everything's all right; let's have a good time. Poor fool! The practical man--anyway, the practical woman--sees both the bad and the good, and says we can make things a whole lot better if we try; let's t

to be able to help out, and raise money enough so that

cent for the church. And don't you get me started on Bascom as you value your life. Maybe I'll swear a blue streak before I get through: not but what I suppo

ll there is in life," s

to wear the same hat three summers. I've got to that time in my life where I can get along

ought not to marry and bring hi

you was to get married I'd see you th

to me a bit illogical?"

dark. Maybe you'll land on your feet, and maybe you--won't. But you have got to jump just the same. That's matrimony--common sense, idiocy, or whatever you choose to call it.... I never could

-when the time comes for me to take the momentous step. But I think it would be the wis

iled broadly at his clever evasion of the ba

lass for that miniature of your sister. You must have dozed off with it in your hands last night an

last stitch of the wash-rag. "Excuse me--I

fish for you; but I don't think it's a very good day fo