"Aw, Pop, it isn't six o'clock yet!" Melvin protested.
Instantly Mary Anne came to his rescue. "Daddy, you're not getting enough rest!" she said, her eyes darting to the rocket and then to her brother in fierce reproach.
"I ought to turn in early when I can," Elwood said. "If your mother wasn't at Aunt Martha's I'd have to sit up half the night convincing her I've got enough practical sense left to shave and bathe myself and take in the mail."
"Goodnight, daddy!" Mary Anne said.
"Goodnight, kids. Thanks for being patient and giving me a break."
"Pop, can I stay down here and look it over?"
"Sure, Melvin, stay as long as you like. I don't mind your puttering around a bit with the tools so long as you don't touch the rocket." Elwood's face grew suddenly strained. "Promise me you won't."
"He won't!" Mary Anne promised.
She waited for her father's footsteps to echo hollowly on the floor above before she turned her ire full upon Melvin. "If I was a boy I'd be more considerate of daddy than you are!" she exclaimed, accusingly. "You don't care how tired he gets."
"You're not a boy," Melvin retorted. "You never could be. What's the sense in fooling yourself?"