The Button Inside the Table
Chapter 1Five Gold Buttons
Esti laid five large gold-colored buttons beside Bubby's sewing basket.
They were for a waistcoat her little brother would wear in a school play. They were not real gold, although he had asked twice.
The worktable had once belonged to Bubby's father. Its wide top was covered with a thick mat. One corner had a round hole where an old fastening peg had been removed. Directly below it was a hollow wooden leg.
Bubby always kept the hole covered by the mat.
Today she had rolled the mat back while dusting.
Esti arranged the buttons in a straight line near the corner. The roundest one would not lie quite flat. She turned it over and set it down again.
Then she went to fetch the waistcoat.
When she returned, there were four.
Her cousin Gittel sat beside the sewing basket, winding loose thread onto a card.
"Where is the last button?" Esti asked.
Chapter 2Under the Basket
Gittel looked at the four buttons.
"I did not move them."
Esti lifted the sewing basket. Then she shook the folded waistcoat.
No button.
She looked beneath Gittel's chair.
Gittel stopped winding.
"What are you looking for there?"
"The button."
"I told you I did not move it."
Esti did not say she disbelieved her. She only searched the chair again, which said enough.
Bubby came in with a cup of water. Her hair was covered by a neatly tied navy scarf.
She set the cup well away from the sewing things.
"Please leave the needles in their box while we search."
Esti checked the floor under the table. Gittel checked the windowsill and the folded cloth.
Bubby counted the remaining buttons.
"Four. We will not sew them on yet."
Esti felt the afternoon slipping away. Her brother was supposed to try the waistcoat before supper.
Chapter 3A Sound in the Wood
Gittel put the thread card on the table and stood.
Her knee nudged its wooden leg.
Something inside gave a light rattle.
Esti froze.
"Do that again."
"I bumped it by mistake."
Bubby put her hand on the tabletop to steady it. She gently moved the leg a little herself.
The same rattle came from low down.
Esti peered at the corner. The round peg hole was uncovered. It was just wide enough for one of the buttons to pass through edge first.
"It could be in there."
"It could," Bubby said.
Esti wanted to turn the whole table over at once.
Bubby stopped her.
"Not with the sewing basket on it. And not without someone strong enough to help."
They moved the basket, the buttons, and the cup to the sideboard. Gittel carried the waistcoat.
Chapter 4The Little Wooden Cover
Totty came to the sewing room after putting away his coat.
Bubby showed him the hole and explained the rattle. He checked the table before lifting anything.
There was a small wooden cover at the bottom of the hollow leg, fastened with two screws. It could be removed while the table stayed upright.
Totty asked the girls to stand back while he used his screwdriver.
The cover came away.
A gold-colored button dropped into his palm, followed by a dry curl of old wood.
Esti leaned forward.
"That is it!"
Totty laid it beside the other four.
Bubby asked where she had put them earlier.
Esti pointed to the corner. "I lined them up there."
One could have rolled toward the opening if the table was nudged. Neither girl had seen it fall.
But they knew where it had been found.
Esti remembered the button rocking on its rounded back. She had left it beside an opening without noticing the opening at all.
Chapter 5The Fifth Place
Totty replaced the wooden cover. Bubby rolled the mat over the hole again and put a small tray on top for loose buttons.
Esti washed the dusty button and dried it carefully. Then she went to Gittel.
"I kept searching your chair after you said no."
Gittel picked up the thread card.
"I saw."
"I thought you might have knocked it off."
"You could have asked that."
Esti sat down beside her.
"I am sorry."
For a little while, they worked without talking. Gittel held the thread card steady while Esti untangled a loop that had slipped off it.
Then Gittel pushed the small button tray toward her.
"Five places. Count them before Bubby starts."
Esti counted aloud.
Her brother came to the door, carrying a paper crown.
"Is my gold ready?"
"Not real gold," both girls said together.
Chapter 6A Crooked Bow
Bubby sewed the buttons onto the waistcoat. The girls passed her each one from the tray, keeping the needles and scissors where she had placed them.
At last, Esti's brother put it on.
He fastened the top button into the wrong hole. The waistcoat leaned to one side.
Esti began to reach toward it.
"Wait," he said. "I can do it."
She waited.
He undid the button, found the right hole, and started again. The third one took him longest.
Gittel tied the ribbon on his paper crown. Its bow was slightly crooked, but it stayed tied when he bowed to Bubby.
"Your Majesty," Bubby said, "please stand away from my sewing things."
He took a careful step back, then bowed again.
After he left, Esti put the button tray away. She ran her hand lightly over the mat, checking that the peg hole remained covered.
Gittel tapped the table leg with one finger.
No rattle.
"That table had a secret pocket," she said.
Esti picked up the curl of wood Totty had saved on the sideboard.
"An old, dusty pocket."
