"Mummy, you're all in. You can scarcely stand. You've got to tell me what's the matter."
"Now, Jeany——" But Martha's eyes fell before her daughter's. "I don't feel quite so strong as usual, but it's the heat. It's the warmest June we've had for years."
"It's nothing of the kind. It's not a bit hotter than it always is. And if you feel like this now, what will you be in July? I don't believe I'll give you till the tenth. I have a good mind to cart you off to a doctor this very minute."
"Now, Jean daughter, I appreciate your interest and all the rest of it, but remember I am not a case. I won't be packed off to a doctor."
"I wish you were, I'd straighten you out in two minutes. You're really a very simple proposition. I'd close this place, send you to a nice quiet country house where you would have nothing to do but eat lovely food cooked by some one else, and get fat."
"I should hate to get fat and there's no place nicer or quieter than this."
"But, mummy, you need a change."
"Well," Martha took the bowl away from Jean and went on with her mixing, "I haven't said that I wouldn't take that, have I? You always were the most impatient child. I suppose you want me to put on my hat this minute and leap on a train."
"I certainly would, but I can't imagine you 'leaping' at anything unless it was particularly disagreeable. For the second time, listen to your daughter, who has had much experience managing many families and can surely manage one small mother. Next week Mary and I are going to locate a new summer camp for mothers. We're going to take the train and get off wherever it looks good to us and tramp and ride around till we find the exact spot. It's going to be glorious. I've been looking forward to it for months. I'd just bundle you along, too, but you wouldn't enjoy it, and besides it's going to be awfully strenuous. What you need is rest. But I won't budge a step unless you're fixed first, do you hear? If you don't go to a doctor and get some kind of tonic and promise to do exactly as he says, I'll stay right here and work without a day's vacation. There, now will you do as I say?"
"What's Franklin going to do, while you and Doctor traipse about?"