“Then promise me that you will give ten minutes a day to the one thing and ten to the other. I don’t mean ten minutes of scribbling, but of careful and exact following of some copy, and the same care to the spelling. It might be a good thing to combine the two; that is, to write the words you want to learn to spell. There are certain rules you can learn; they would be very helpful, but you mustn’t learn them like a parrot, but thoughtfully and intelligently.”
“Would it please you if I did that?”
“It would please me greatly if my adopted daughter were to show me that she hasn’t a flibberty-gibbet sort of mind, but a studious one. That she can pin herself down to a subject if she chooses, and that she doesn’t throw over a thing just because it requires concentration, or because it doesn’t particularly interest her.”
Joanne gently lifted one of her friend’s hands and kissed it. “Now I know why Bob is so fine,” she said. “I don’t intend my adopted mother and brother shall be ashamed of me, and I promise faithfully to do my best. I did begin to try, but I got tired and slacked off, but I don’t mean ever to be called a slacker again.”
“Dear little girl,” Mrs. Marriott bent over and kissed her, “I am proud of you.”
“And I love you more than ever. Please tell me what I may call you. Girls don’t call even their adopted mothers Mrs.; and I like to have special names for persons I love.”
“What would you like to call me?”
Joanne considered this question very seriously. Finally she said: “Would you mind if I called you Muvvie? I used to call my own mother muvver, and it would be something like that; besides it rhymes with lovey, and in my mind I can say dear Muvvie lovey, when I am thinking of you at night.”
Mrs. Marriott answered with a smile though there were tears in her eyes as she said: “I think you are a dear to want to call me that, and I shall be delighted if you will.”
“And please don’t call me Dotty, for it will make me think you believe I am very silly. You might say Doppy; that will be short for adopted, and just we, ourselves, will understand. Do you know what I call Bob to myself? I call him Robin, because he is so strong and cheerful, and whistles so clearly and happily.”