Betty. (With a grown-up air.) There! Sit right down, and I’ll see if Mamma’s in. No, not that one, that’s only for show. The leg’s broken, and it aint got fixed yet. Take the Morris chair. That’s the one sister’s beaux always sit in. There, now you’re all comfy. I’ll tell Mamma you’re here, if she’s in.
Rev. J. Jones. Tell her that I am making pastoral calls. I am—
Betty. Yes, I know who you are. “I’m the new minister,” you was a going to say, wasn’t you?
Bobby. (Entering.) ’Twas my turn to answer the doorbell, Betty Forrest. ’Taint fair! You just camp out in the hall to get ahead of me! You got the book agent, and the Mission Lady, and now you’ve got the minister. Course you’ll beat!
Rev. J. J. Beat?
Betty. You can tell him, Bobby, while I go ask Mamma if she’s in. Sometimes she’s in when she isn’t, and sometimes she isn’t when she is, and the only way to be sure you won’t get a whipping for telling it the wrong way, is to go ask her. She’s in her room, I know, but maybe she isn’t in. You tell him ’bout the new game, Bobby. (She runs out.)
Bobby. It’s what we call the Caller’s game. Betty made it up. Betty’s awful smart to think of new things. You see, Thursday afternoon is Christine’s day out. Say, aint it funny to call an afternoon a day? And Mamma don’t
like to answer the bell herself, ’cause then she couldn’t be out if she didn’t want to see the one that rung it, so she made me and Betty do it, ’n course we hated to be bothered—you know callers are such a nuisance when you’re busy playing, and Betty shirked and made me do it most all. So Daddy said if she didn’t do her share, he’d bring home candy, and give it all to me, ’n then Betty she made up this game. We’ve each got a little book, and we put down which caller we answer the bell to and get a piece of candy for each caller, and if there’s more candy than there is callers, we get two pieces for each one, and now Betty likes to answer it, and she gets the most candy every time.
Betty. (Returning.) That’s ’cause I’m smartest, Daddy says. He says, “Trust a woman to get the best of a man every time, be they ever so young.”
Rev. J. J. And what did Mamma say?