"And, to be sure," said Mrs. Betsey, "if one is to be too particular, one doesn't get anybody to associate with. The fact is, the good old families we used to visit have either died off or moved off up into the new streets, and one does like to have _somebody_ to speak to." "Look there, Betsey, do you suppose that's Mr. Henderson that's coming down the street?" said Miss Dorcas. "Dear me!" said Mrs. Betsey, in an anxious flutter. "Why, there are _two_ of them--they are both taking hold to lift out that bureau--see there! Now _she's_ put her head out of the chamber window there, and is speaking to them. What a pretty color her hair is!" At this moment the horse on the other side of the street started prematurely, for some reason best known to himself, and the bureau came down with a thud; and Jack, who considered his opinion as now called for, barked frantically through the blinds. Miss Dorcas seized his muzzle energetically and endeavored to hold his jaws together, but he still barked in a smothered and convulsive manner; whereat the good lady swept him, _vi et armis_, from his perch, and disciplined him vigorously, forcing him to retire to his cushion in a distant corner, where he still persistently barked. "Oh, poor doggie!" sighed Mrs. Betsey. "Dorcas, how can you?" "How can I?" said Miss Dorcas, in martial tones. "Betsey Ann Benthusen, this dog would grow up a perfect pest of this neighborhood if I left him to you. He _must_ learn not to get up and bark through those blinds. It isn't so much matter now the windows are shut, but the _habit_ is the thing. Who wants to have a dog firing a fusillade when your visitors come up the front steps--barking-enough-to-split-one's-head-open," added Miss Dorcas, turning upon the culprit, with a severe staccato designed to tell upon his conscience. Jack bowed his head and rolled his great soft eyes at her through a silvery thicket of hair. "You are a _very_ naughty dog," she added, impressively. Jack sat up on his haunches and waved his front paws in a deprecating manner to Miss Dorcas, and the good lady laughed and said, cheerily, "Well, well, Jacky, be a good dog now, and we'll be friends." And Jacky wagged his tail in the most demonstrative manner, and frisked with triumphant assurance of restored favor. It was the usual end of disciplinary struggles with him. Miss Dorcas sat down to a bit of worsted work on which she had been busy when her attention was first called to the window. Mrs. Betsey, however, with her nose close to the window blinds, continued to announce the state of things over the way in short jets of communication. "There! the gentlemen are both gone in--and there! the cart has driven off. Now, they've shut the front door," etc. After this came a pause of a few moments, in which both sisters worked in silence. "I wonder, now, _which_ of those two was the husband," said Mrs. Betsey at last, in a slow reflective tone, as if she had been maturely considering the subject.