"Well, I declare," she continued, "I'm blessed if you 'aint sewin' white buttons on with black thread. Is anybody dead in the family, or 'aint you feelin' well as to your head this mornin'?" His voice quavered with mingled embarrassment and resentment as he replied: "What difference does it make, Hepsey? It don't make no difference, as long as nobody don't see it but me." "And why in the name of conscience don't you get a thimble, Jonathan? The idea of your stickin' the needle in, and then pressin' it against the chair to make it go through. If that 'aint just like a helpless man, I wouldn't say." [Illustration: "I'M BLESSED IF YOU 'AINT SEWIN' WHITE BUTTONS ON WITH BLACK THREAD. IS ANYBODY DEAD IN THE FAMILY, OR 'AINT YOU FEELIN' WELL THIS MORNIN'?"] "Well, of course sewin' 'aint just a man's business, anyway; and when he has just got to do it----" "Why don't you let Mary McGuire do it for you? You pay her enough, certainly, to keep you from becomin' a buttonless orphan." Mary McGuire, be it said, was the woman who came in by the day, and cooked for Jonathan, and intermittently cleaned him out of house and home. "She don't know much about such things," replied Jonathan confidentially. "I did let her do it for a while; but when my buttonholes got tore larger, instead of sewin' 'em up, she just put on a larger button; and I'd be buttonin' my pants with the covers of saucepans by now, if I'd let her go on." "It is curious what helpless critters men are, specially widowers. Now Jonathan, why don't you lay aside your sewin', and invite me into your parlor? You aren't a bit polite." "Well, come along then, Hepsey; but the parlor aint just in apple-pie order, as you might say. Things are mussed up a bit." He looked at her suspiciously. When they entered the parlor Mrs. Burke gazed about in a critical sort of way. "Jonathan Jackson, if you don't get married again before long I don't know what'll become of you," she remarked, as she wrote her name with the end of her finger in the dust on the center-table. "Why don't you open the parlor occasionally and let the air in? It smells that musty in here I feel as if I was attendin' your wife's funeral all over again." "Well, of course you know we never did use the parlor much, 'cept there was a funeral in the family, or you called, or things like that." "Thank _you_; but even so, you might put things away occasionally, and not leave them scattered all over the place." "What's the use? I never can find anything when it's where it belongs; but if it's left just where I drop it, I know right where it is when I want it." "That's a man's argument. Sakes alive! The least you could do would be to shut your bureau drawers." "What's the use shuttin' bureau drawers when you've got to open 'em again 'fore long?" Jonathan asked. "It just makes so much more trouble; and there's trouble enough in this world, anyway." "You wouldn't dare let things go like this when Sarah was livin'."