HE THOUGHT HE COULD DO IT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 9, 10 January 1880, Page 5

HE THOUGHT HE COULD DO IT.

He had never tried it before, but he was naturally a self-reliaant man, and felt confident of his ability to do it. Moreover, his wife had gone into "the country. Therefore, carefully selecting from that lady's work-basket the thickest needle and stoutest thread .as is the God-given instinct of his sex),, ;he absolutely set himself to the task. Spitting; upon his fingers, he carefully rolled the end into p point, and then closing one of his own optics, he attemped to jab. out the needle's solitary eye. But the thread either passi-d %.f one side or the other of the needle. Howpver, Lwhjle he "• reflected npon the difficulty which miyst^ttend a rich mfu^s entrance iiito the Kingdom of HeE'vea^ the thread suddenly bolted through tip eye to the extent of an inch; and, fearing to- lose this advantage he quickly drew the ends together and united them , with a knot about the size of a buckshot. The button was a trouser one, but he liked the dimensions of itß.holes, and it was only going ihto the 'back "of his shirt, anyhow* As •he passed, the needle gently upwards through tke linen, he felt a mingled pity and disdain for men who bungled over such : easy jobs ; and as he let the button 'j gracefully glide down the thread to jsa appointed place, he vowed within fnimself that if he ever married asecond i time it should be for some nobler reason j than a dread of sewing on his 6v._t' buttons. The first downward thrust \ had the i same happy result, and holding the button down firmly with. his thumb, !he came up again with all that confidence which uniform siiccess inspires, ! Perhaps tjie point of the needle did not enter to the bone* hut it; seemed to him that it did, ahd his comment upon the circumstance was emphatic;* '(' -Bjit he was very ingenious, and next time he would hold thebutton byone<edge, and come up through the hole nearest , the other. Of course he would. But ! the needle . had an independent way } isuiting, itself as to the holes, and $ chose the one where tHe thumb wa_. The remarks which followed would have been quite out of place at a prayer meeting. Then the needle got sulky. It didn't care about holes, any-, how, if it was going to be __wora ! tai_ __*? findihg them, and the button might have been an unperforated disc for all the apertures it could thehcefor ward be made to discover,. without infi'iite bofc- . ing and prodftinjg.- :_Ct ? ai wpy^ came through when' -it was ' lessr- Vxpedtedj, 5 ' ~ and never where it was wanted. Still he persevered, and it was not until he finally discovered that he had stitched over the edge of the button and. had sewn it on the wrong side of the shirt that he y.tterly broke down.— San Erancisco News Letter,