nathan, "or just what you call top?"

"It's right in front," I went on; "and I don't see how even a man could
fail to find it."

He proceeded to enumerate the contents of the drawer in such strange
fashion that I began to wonder where he had been.

"I said my bureau."

"I went to your bureau."

"The bottom drawer."

"The bottom drawer. There was nothing but a lot of little boxes and--"

"Oh, _I_ know what you did! You went to the secret drawer."

"Isn't that the bottom one?"

"Why, yes, in a way--of course it is; but it doesn't exactly count--it's not
one of the regular drawers--it hasn't any knobs, or anything--"

"But it's a perfectly good drawer."

"Yes. But nobody is supposed to know it's there; it looks like a molding--"

"But I know it's there."

"Yes, of course."

"And you know I know it's there."

"Yes, yes; but I just don't think about that one in counting up. I see
what you mean, of course."

"And I see what you mean. You mean that your shawl is in the bottom one of
the regular drawers--with knobs--that can be alluded to in general
conversation. Now I think I can find it."

He did. And in addition he amused himself by working out phrases about
"when is a bottom drawer not a bottom drawer?" and "when is a top shelf
not a top shelf?"

It is to these incidents--which I regard as isolated and negligible, and he
regards as typical and significant--that he alludes on the occasions when
he is unable to find a red book on the sitting-room table. In vain do I
point out that when language is variable and fluid it is alive, and that
there may be two opinions about the structural top and the functional top,
whereas there can be but one as to the book being or not being on the
table. He maintains a quiet cheerfulness, as of one who is conscious of
being, if not invulnerable, at least well armed.

For a time he even tried to make believe that he was invulnerable as
well--to set up the thesis that if the book was really on the table he
could find it. But in this he suffered so many reverses that only strong
natural pertinacity kept him from capitulation.

Is it necessary to recount instances? Every family can furnish them. As I
allow myself to float off into a reminiscent dream I find my mind
possessed by a continuous series of dissolving views in which Jonathan is
always coming to me saying, "It isn't there," and I am always saying,
"Please look again."

Though everything in the house seems to be