“Ah,” said Frenchy, enthusiastically, “zat is ever’ting! You are fine boy.”
His expression was so generous, so pleasant, that Tom could not help saying, “I like France, too.”
“Listen, I will tell you,” said Frenchy, laughing. “It is ze old saying, ‘Ever’ man hass two countries; hees own and France!’ You see?”
In the warmth of Frenchy’s generous admiration Tom opened up and said more than he had meant to say—more than he ever had said to anyone.
“So I got to be proud of it, anyway,” he said, in his honest, blunt fashion. “Maybe you won’t understand, but one thing makes me like to go away from Bridgeboro, kind of, is the way people say things about my folks. They don’t do it on purpose—mostly. But anyway, all the fathers of the fellows I know, they call them Mr. Blakeley and Mr. Harris, and like that. But they always called my father Bill Slade. I didn’t ever hear anybody call him Mister. But anyway, he was born in the United States—that’s one sure thing. And so was my grandfather and my grandmother, too. Once my father licked me because I forgot to hang out the flag on Decoration Day. That shows he was patriotic, doesn’t it? The other day I was going to tell you about my uncle but I forgot to. He was in the Civil War—he got his arm shot off. So I got a lot to be proud about, anyway. Just because my father didn’t get a job most—most of the time——”
“Ah!” vociferated Frenchy, clapping him on the shoulder. “You are ze—how you say—one fine boy!”
Tom remained stolid, under this enthusiastic approval. He was thinking how glad and proud he was that his father had licked him for forgetting to hang out the flag. It had not been a licking exactly, but a beating and kicking, but this part of it he did not remember. He was very proud of his father for it. It was something to boast about. It showed that the Slades——
“Yess, you are a fine boy!” said Frenchy again, clapping him on the shoulder with such vehemence as to interrupt his train of thought. “Zey must be fine people—all ze way back—to haf’ such a boy. You see?”
[1] Submarines.