Part 53 (2/2)
”Aw!” He shuffled his feet and bent over her, with the red mounting above the gold collar of his uniform.
”And such a mamma-boy you used to be before you had to get out and hustle--such a mamma-boy, and now ashamed to give your old ma a kiss!”
”Ashamed nothin'! Here, ma, I'll smooth your hair for you the wrong way like Essie used to do when you came home from the store dead after the semiannual clearings.”
”No, no, Jimmie; these days I ain't got no more hair left to smooth.”
”You look good to me.”
”Aw, Jimmie, quit stringing your old ma. How can a stack o' bones look good to anybody?”
”You do.”
”Your papa used to say so, too, Jimmie; but in them days my hair was natural curly--little cute, springy curls like Essie's. The first day he seen me he fell for 'em; and the night before he died, Jimmie, with you and Essie asleep in your folding-cribs and me little thinkin' that the next week I'd be back in the department clerking again, he took me in his arms and--”
”Yes, yes; I know, ma--but didn't old man Gibbs say not to get excited?
Lay back and don't talk, ma. I can feel your heart beatin' way down in your hands.”
”You're all tired out, ain't you, Jimmie?--too tired to listen to my talk; but you're going to wait up for your sister's young man to-night, ain't you, my boy? Go wet your hair and smooth it down. You'll wanna see him, Jimmie.”
”Fine chance.”
”Sure he's coming to-night, Jimmie. I got their supper all waitin'; and, see, there's my flowered wrapper at the foot of the bed, so I can get up and go in when--”
”Aw, cut out the comedy, ma! She ain't comin' straight home after the show any more'n a crooked road; and if she does he ain't coming with her.”
”Jimmie, she promised sure to-night.”
”Didn't she promise last night and the night before and the night before that?”
”But this afternoon when she left for the matinee, Jimmie, I wasn't feelin' so well, and she promised so sure.”
”Them girl ushers down there is too lively a bunch for her, ma. Us.h.i.+n'
in a theayter is next to bein' in the chorus--only--”
”Jimmie!”
”Sure it is--only it ain't so good one way, and it ain't so bad another.
This new-fangled girl us.h.i.+n' gets my goat, anyways. It ain't doin' her any good.”
”Oh, Gawd, Jimmie, don't I know it? I hated to see her take it--her so little and cute and pretty and all! Night-work ain't nothin' for our Essie.”
”Sure it ain't!”
”But what could we do, Jimmie? After I gave out, her six a week in the notions wasn't a drop in the bucket. What else could we do, Jimmie?”
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