m over to the other side of the
house, Hepsey? Then you wouldn't have to see it. Don't you like
scarlet?"

"No, I don't like it, and if you don't paint it out, I will."

"Don't do nothin' rash, Hepsey. You know sometimes colors fade in the
moonlight--some colors, that is. Maybe that scarlet porch'll turn to a
light gray if you let it alone."

Mrs. Burke could stand it no longer; so, laying down her work she
exploded her pent-up wrath:

"Jonathan Jackson, if that paint isn't gone before to-morrow, I'll
come over and paint it myself."

"Oh, that isn't necessary, Hepsey. And it might set people talkin'.
But if you won't move your sittin'-room to the other side of your own
house, why don't you move it over to my house? You wouldn't see so
much of the red paint then."

Hepsey snorted and spluttered in baffled rage.

"Now, now, Hepsey," soothed Jonathan, "if that don't suit you, I'll
tell you what I'll do: I'll paint it over myself on one condition!"

"And what's that, I'd like to know?"

"That you'll marry me," snapped Jonathan hungrily.

Instead of resenting such bold tactics on the part of her suitor, Mrs.
Burke gazed at him a long time with a rather discouraged look on her
face.

"Land sakes!" she exclaimed at last with assumed weariness and a
whimsical smile, "I didn't know I'd ever come to this; but I guess
I'll have to marry you to keep you from makin' another kind of fool of
yourself; widowers are such helpless mortals, and you certainly do
need a guardian." She shook her head at him despondently.

Jonathan advanced towards her deliberately, and clinched the matter:

"Well, Hepsey, seein' that we're engaged----"

"Engaged? What do you mean? Get away, you----" She rose from her chair
in a hurry.

"Now Hepsey, a bargain's a bargain: you just said you'd have to marry
me, and I guess the sooner you do it and have it over with, the
better. So, seein' that we are engaged to be married, as I was about
to remark when you interrupted me...." Relentlessly he approached her
once more. She retreated a step or two.

"Well! Sakes alive, Jonathan! Whatever's come over you to make you so
masterful. Well, yes then--I suppose a bargain's a bargain, all right.
But before your side of it's paid up you've got to go right over and
paint that porch of yours a respectable color."

So, for once, Hepsey's strategy had been manipulated to her own
defeat: Jonathan went off to town with flying colors, and bought
himself a c