FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50  
51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   >>   >|  
"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'." "No," Jonathan replied sadly, "but there's some advantages in bein' a widower. Of course I don't mean no disrespect to Sarah, but opinions will differ about some things. She'd never let me go up the front stairs without takin' m
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50  
51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Jonathan
 

things

 

parlor

 

drawers

 

bureau

 
funeral
 
occasionally
 

larger

 
McGuire
 

trouble


replied

 

differ

 
called
 

disrespect

 
scattered
 

opinions

 
stairs
 
attendin
 

smells

 

family


wouldn

 

shuttin

 

advantages

 

belongs

 

widower

 

argument

 

button

 

buttonin

 

buttonholes

 

confidentially


covers

 
specially
 

widowers

 

critters

 

helpless

 
saucepans
 

curious

 
becomin
 

buttonless

 
business

orphan
 

intermittently

 
cleaned
 
cooked
 

Jackson

 

critical

 
entered
 

married

 
finger
 

remarked