Mrs. Belding was, Laura knew, just the dearest mother who ever lived; yet she had been brought up as a girl in a country community, had never had interests any broader than her own home while her children were small, and now that Laura and Chetwood were almost “grown up”—or, at least, felt they were—Mother Belding scarcely understood their plans and aspirations. The new organization was “too much” for her, as she frequently said.
“Why, how ridiculous!” Mrs. Belding once said, upon coming home from a shopping tour. “They show me exactly the same style of garment both for Laura and myself. No difference save the size, I declare! And at Laura’s age I had not even begun to put my hair up, and my skirts had not been lengthened.”
“Changes—changes! Don’t let them worry you, Mother,” said her husband, comfortably.
“Well, Milly and Frank are left us, anyway—they’re still children,” sighed the troubled lady. “But I must admit that Laura and Chet are too much for me!”
Not that either of her older children gave her real cause for worriment or complaint. Chet was his father’s chum and confidant; he could not go far wrong under such guidance. And Laura was a very sweet tempered and practical girl. Indeed, it was Laura’s shrewd outlook upon and her keen appreciation of things that had never entered her mother’s mind as a girl, that so startled Mrs. Belding.
At supper that night Chet was full of the ball game that his father and he had attended that afternoon.
“Well, the East High fellows beat the West High boys, just as everybody said they would. They’ve got the battery—Hanks and Doolittle—and Merryweather and Ted Doyle are some punkins with the stick. Why, Ted is a bear-cat! But I believe we Central High fellows can put up a game that will hold them for a while. I want to see Central High win the pennant this year.”
“What is a battery?” sighed his mother. “Why ‘punkins’ and ‘stick’? Is this Ted you speak of really a subject for side-show exhibition, or are you ‘nature-faking’ when you call him a ‘bear-cat’? And why should the playing of you and your friends at baseball, Chetwood, ‘hold them’ for any length of time? Please elucidate?”
Laura and the younger children burst out laughing, and the older daughter said:
“English is a funny language, isn’t it?”