"Not mother! We ain't her kind of a party."
"I know it," admitted Malcolm slowly. "Sometimes I want her just awful.
I wonder why?"
"I guess it's 'cause a boy is born wanting his mother. I want her myself a lot of times, but I wouldn't go with her if she'd come today, so I don't know why I want her, but I do sometimes."
"I didn't know you did," said Malcolm.
"Well I do," said James, "but I ain't ever going. Often I think the queerest things!"
"What queer things do you think, James?"
"Why like this," said James. "That it ain't safe to let children be jerked, and their heads knocked. You know what Lucette did to Elizabeth? I think she hit her head too hard. She gave me more cake, and said I was a good boy for saying the ice made her sick, but all the time I thought it was hitting her head. I wouldn't be the boy who said that again, if I had to be shot for not saying it, like the French boy was about the soldiers. 'Member that day?"
"Yes I do," said Malcolm shortly.
"You know you coaxed her off the bench, and I pushed her in!" said
James, slowly.
"Yes," said Malcolm. "And I kicked her. And I wasn't mad at her a bit.
I wonder why I did it!"