The Holbrook news., 1922-06-09


 Then I stopped, all out of breath, and l can imagine just how pleading and palpitating I looked.
 thought Father was going to re- fuse right away, but I saw the glance that Mother threw him-the glance that said, "Let me attend to this. dear" I'd seen that glance before, several times, and l knew just what it meant; so I wasn't surprised to see Father shrug his shoulders and turn away as Mother said to he:
 "Very well, dear I'll think It over and let you know tonight"
 But I was surprised that night tC have Mother say I could go, for I'd about given up hope, after all that talk at the breakfast table. And she said something else that surprised me too. She said she'd like 10 know Paul Mayhew herself; that she always wanted to know the friends of her little girl. And she told me to ask him to call the next evening and play
 
 Happy? l could scarcely contain myself for Joy. And when the next evening came, bringing Paul. and Mother, all prettily dressed as if Ee were really. truly company, came into the room and talked so beautifully to him, was even more entranced. To De sure, it did bother me q little Il at Paul laughed so much, and so loudiy, thing to talk about only himself, and what he was doing, and what he was going to do. Some way, he had never seemed like that at school. And was afraid Mother wouldn't like thut.
 All the evening I was watching and listening with her eyes and her ears everything he did, everything he said. 1 so wanted Mother to like him. l so wanted Neither to see how really fins and splendid and noble he was. But that evening-Why couldn't he st0r talking about the prizes he'd won, and the big racing car he'd just or dcred for next summer? There was nothing fine and splendid and noble about that. And were his finger nails always so dirty?
 WEy. Mother would think
 Mother did not stay in the room ali the time; bat she was In more or less often to watch the game; and at half past hire she brought in some little cakes and lemonade as a surprise. thought it was lovely; but I could have shaken Paul when he pretended to be afraid of it, and asked Mother if there was stick in it.
 The idea-Mother! A stick
 1 just knew Mother wouldn't like that. But if she didn't. she never showed a thing In her face. She just smiled, and said no, there wasn't any stick in it; and passed the cakes.
 When he had gone I remember didn't like to meet Mothers eyes, and didn't ask her how she liked Paul Mayhew. I kept right on talking fast about something else. Some way, didn't want Mother to talk then, for fear of what she would say.
 And Mother didn't say anything about Paul Mayhew-then. But only a few days later she told me to in- vite him again to the house (thls time to q ciafing-dlsh supper). and to ask Carrie Haywood and Fred Small, too.
 We had a beautiful time, only again Paul Mayhew didn't "show off at all in the way I wanted him to-though he most emphatically showed off, in his way! It seemed to me that he bragged even more about himself and his belongings than he had before. And l didn't like at all the way he ate his food. Why. Father didn't eat like that-with such noisy mouth, and such a rattling of the silverware
 And so it went-wiSe mother that she wasl Far from prohibiting me to hew, she let me see all I wanted to of him, particularly in my own home She let me go out with him, properly chaperoned, and she never, by word or manner, hinted that she didn't ad- mire his conceit and braggadocio.
 And it all came out exactly as l suspect she had planned from the be- ginning. When Paul Mayhew asked to be my escort to the class reception in June, I declined with thanks, and imi- mediately afterward told Fred Small would go with him. But even when told Mother nonchalantly, and with carefully averted eyes, that 1 was go- ing to the reception with Fred Small even then her pleasant Well, that's good." conveyed only cheery mother interest; nor did nasty glance into her face discover so much as lifted eyebrow to hint, q thought you'd come to your senses sometime." 2"
 Wise little mother that she was!
 In the days and weeks that followed (thOugh nothing was said) 1 detected a subtle change in certain matters, however. And as I look back at it now, am sure can trace its origin to my affair with Paul Mayhew. Evi- dently Mother had no intention of run ming the risk of any more courtships i; also evidently she intended to know who my friends were. At all events, the old Anderson mansion soon be- came the rendezvous of all the boys and girls of my acquaintance. And such good times as we had, with Mother always one of us, and ever pro- posing something new and interesting :,
 And because bOys-not a boy, but boys-were as free to come to the house as were girls, they soon seemed to me as commonplace and matter of course and free from sentimental in terest as were the girls.
 Again, wise little mother!
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