“Not a bit of it. You see, I come in between the boys. This is the order, from the oldest down.” Isabel held up her gloved fingers. “Jim, aged twenty-four; William and Milton, twins, aged twenty; Lou, seventeen; Isabel, sixteen; Norman, thirteen; and Edwin, eleven. Jim is through school and in business with Father now, though he is planning something else, I guess. Slim and Shorty are working their way through college, Lou is in the last year of high school, Norman and Ed in the grades. Norman goes into high school next year. Jim brought us all up.”
“Jim! Where were your father and your aunt?”
“I don’t wonder you exclaimed. But my daddy had his hands full to get the daily bread for us all, and is easy going on discipline. Auntie is a dear, timid little soul. Some folks think that she is queer, but she is just old-fashioned and afraid of folks. She tried her best on me, but the boys were too much for her, so Jim took hold of the discipline and made us all behave. We knew if he said anything he meant it. Father would forget, and Auntie couldn’t make a flea mind, but Jim felt responsible, too. Once when I had been awfully rebellious about Jim’s interfering, as I thought, about something I wanted to do dreadfully, I talked it all out to Jim. Can’t you just imagine me, mad as could be, telling Jim that I didn’t think it was any of his affair and that I knew I could get Father to let me. It was terribly mean of me, for Jim had always petted me especially because I was the girl. Oh, he would tease me and make me do things, but he made a lot over me.
“This time Jim gave up. ‘All right, Isabel,’ he said, ‘if that is the way you feel about it.’ Then he sat down in a chair, looking too forlorn, and stared out of the window. I was not expecting any such performance—thought I should be made to behave, as usual. I went out and banged the door, and then I felt so mean over it that I came back in, and there was Jim still sitting in the chair. And I love Jim next to Father, so I went up and peeked around the chair and said, ‘What’s the matter, Jim?’ He just held out his arms and I got in his lap and we made up, and Jim told me why he did not want me to do this. I listened to him this time, and then he told me that when our mother knew she could not live, when Edwin was a tiny baby, she asked Jim to help Father look after the children, especially me! I was scarcely five and Jim about thirteen then. Think of it! Poor Jim, with six children younger than he was! But then he has a perfectly lovely disposition, and is real jolly, too. I imagine it did not wear on him as much as you might think. I told you how he taught me to swim, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“This time I must have been about ten years old. I told Jim that I was sorry and that I would stand by him. And so I have, especially with the younger boys.”
“Which ones do you call Shorty and Slim?”
“Will is Slim, and Milton is Shorty. I’ll not describe any of the boys. You’ll get them all fixed without much trouble, I think. All the boys have nicknames, but you can get their real names first. I call them by their own names almost altogether now.”
“I thought that you had never known your mother at all. But you must have been old enough to remember her.”
“It’s very hazy. Auntie had me away from home a good deal because my mother was not strong for several years before she died.”