Produced by William Koven Juliet Sutherland Charles Franksand the Online Distributed Proofreading TeamIllustration YOUR BOY IF HE IS THE RIGHT KIND OF A BOY HAS WORKTO DO THROUGH A LONG LIFE NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO HIM A MAN ISIMMORTAL TILL HIS WORK IS DONE THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE ASTO ALL OTHERS BUT THIS IS STILL THE RULETHE WHISTLING MOTHERBYGRACE S RICHMONDIllustration musical notationI have the greatest mother on earth I cant call her a littlemother for shes five feet six inches tall and weighs just exactlywhat she ought to according to the table of weights If she were atrifle less active she might put on too much flesh but shell neverkeep still long enough for that I always enjoy having her along onany kind of an outing for shes game for just anything and awfullygood company too In fact she seems more like a vigorous girl thananything I can compare her with And I think her sons are mighty luckychapsespecially just now that the war games onYes thats a picture of Mother neat little holder for it isnt itYes I know she does look interesting doesnt she Shes an awfullygood shot and drives her own car and rides like a Cossack and doesa lot of other thingsnot to mention making homewellwhat it is Isuppose Im rather braggy about her but I tell you I feel that wayjust now and Im going to tell you why Shes pretty too dontyou think so I thought you wouldThe thing that started me off was Hoofy Gilbert coming across the dormhall with a letter in his hand We called him Hoofy because he hatedwalking so and always drove his big yellow roadster from one class toanother even if it was only a thousand feet straight across thecampus to the next lecture Well Hoofy came in that dayit was justbefore the Easter vacationlooking as if he were down and out forfair It turned out hed written home about enlisting and hed gotback a letter from his mother all sobs He didnt know what to doabout it You see the fellows were all writing home and trying tobreak it gently that when they got there theyd have to put it up tothe family to say Go and God bless you But it was looking prettydubious for some of my special friends Their mothers were all rightan awfully nice sort of course but when it came to telling Bob andSam and Hector to enlistthey just simply couldnt do itHoofy said hed got to enlist in spite of his mother He knew it washis duty but hed rather be shot than go home and go through thefarewells He knew his mother would be sick in bed about it and shedcling round his neck and cry on his shoulder and hed have to loosenher arms and go off leaving her feeling like that And his fatherwould look grave and tell him not to mind that his mother wasntwell and that she couldnt help itand Hoofy really didnt think shecould being made that way Just the same he dreaded going home tosay goodbyedreaded it so much he felt like flunking it and wiringhe couldnt comeI told him he mustnt do thatthat his mother would never forgivehim and that hed have to put on a stiff upper lip and go throughwith it And Hoofy owned that that was the thing he was really afraidofthat his upper lip wouldnt keep stiff but would wobble in spiteof him And of course a breakdown on his own part would be the worstpossible thing that could happen to him No potential soldier wants tofeel his upper lip unreliable no matter what happens Its likely tomake him flinch in a critical moment when flinching wont doI was looking up at a picture of Mother on the wall over my desk as Iadvised him to go home and he asked me suddenly what _my_ motherwrote back when I told her I hated to tell him but he pushed meabout it so I finally got out her letter and read him the lastparagraphbut one Of course the last one I wouldnt have read toanybodyIts all right Son and were proud as Punch of you that you wantto be not only in Americas _First Hundred Thousand_ but inher _First Ten Thousand_ We know it will stiffen your spineconsiderably to hear that your family are behind you Well wearejust ranks and rows of us with our heads up and the colourswaving Even Grandfather and Grandmother are as gallant as veteransabout it So go aheadbut come home first if you can You needntfear we shall make it hard for younot we We may offer you a gooddeal of jelly in our enthusiasm for you but you could always stand agood deal of jelly you know so theres no danger of our making ajellyfish of youwhich wouldnt do in the circumstances Thatsrather a poor joke but Ill try to make a better one for you to laughat when you come When shall we expect you Nowe wont have thevillage band out and will try not to look as if we had a hero in ourmidst but we shall be awfully glad to see Jack just the sameWhen I looked up after reading this Hoofy looked like a small boywhos been staring in a shopwindow at a fireengine he cant have Heheaved a big sigh and said Well I wish my motherd take it thatway and went out banging the door after him And I got up and wentover and took Mother down and looked at her and said to her Yougame little sport youyoud put the spine into a jellyfish anytime And I wouldnt miss going home to hug you for goodbye if I knewthe first round of shot would get me as a resultSo then I packed up and went around and saw the dean who assured methat even though I didnt stay to finish my Junior year Id keep myplace and get my dip no matter how long