Belles on their Toes

guess it wasn't such a bad idea after all," Anne hastily assured her.
    "And you did," Ernestine pointed out, "save more than twenty dollars of Mother's money."
    "Perfectly good money," amended Martha, who obviously considered all currency of the realm to be eminently satisfactory. "And I wouldn't have done it if he hadn't said he didn't sleep."
    "It's all right, I guess," said Anne, "but how about those two half fares?"
    "What about them?" Martha demanded belligerently, fishing for the checkbook again.
    "Put that thing away," Anne told her. "I'm in charge here, and I'm not going to have checkbooks, check-off sheets, manifests, or bills of lading waved in my face every time I open my mouth."
    "Frank might possibly be able to get away with a half-fare ticket, but not you," Ernestine said.
    "I'd like to know why not," Martha replied indignantly. "I'm a little tall, I admit. But I certainly can bend my knees when I go up the gangplank."
    "It's not just your being tall," Ernestine said significantly.
    "Well, what is it then?"
    "For goodness' sake," said Anne, looking. "Just look at yourself."
    Martha glanced down and shrugged. "Oh, that," she said. "My gosh, nobody pays any attention to things like that."

    Our train for Hoboken left in the early afternoon. We didn't want to have to pay for more than one taxicab, so five of the older children, with Ernestine in charge, walked from the house to the station. Anne and Tom, with the five youngest children and all of our suitcases, waited at the house for a taxi.
    The suitcases were lined up on the front steps, and Anne had the five children washed and ready, when the cab finally appeared.
    It wasn't until the suitcases were stowed away and the children packed into the taxi that Anne discovered Tom was missing. She called him, but he didn't answer. She unlocked the front door and searched the house. In the kitchen she found Tom's cap, a cage with our two canaries, and an empty cardboard box with holes punched in the top. But no Tom.
    The cab driver kept blowing his horn, and Anne went out front to pacify him. The children were jumping and crawling around the car, and Bob was sitting in the driver's lap.
    "If you're the ringmaster," the driver told Anne, reaching into the back seat and rescuing his hat from Jack, "you'd better get this show on the road. I've got other stops to make this afternoon, you know."
    "I'm doing the best I can," Anne said. "We'll be ready in a minute. I think our cook is looking for his cat."
    "How about Mr. Chairman?" Fred asked.
    Anne snapped her fingers. "I knew I forgot something. Where is he?"
    Mr. Chairman was our dog, a sort of collie. He was there, barking at the cab and growling at the driver.
    "Get a leash on him," Anne told Fred. "Don't let him get away."
    Tom came running down Eagle Rock Way.
    "Fourteen," he panted, "ain't nowhere to be found."
    "We'll have to leave her," Anne said. "We're late for the train right now. Get into the cab, quick."
    "Leave Fourteen?" Tom asked incredulously. "Are you crazy?"
    "Please. We simply must catch this train."
    "What do you think I am," Tom snapped. "I ain't going to leave that cat. If she don't go, I don't go."
    "We've got Mr. Chairman," Anne begged. "And you've got the canaries."
    "But I ain't got Fourteen."
    "Damn it," Anne shouted. "I've planned this trip for better than two weeks. I planned it right down to the last bath and shined shoe. A plague of chicken pox didn't delay it and no cat is going to ruin it. Now get into that cab."
    Tom never had heard Anne swear before, and he was impressed.
    "I ain't even got my cap," he said. "Nor the birds, neither."
    "Go get them," Anne told him, "and be damned quick about it."
    "You heard what the lady said," the driver put in. "I got other stops to make."
    Tom went, mumbling but hurrying. "I wisht your father could hear you talk like that. He'd learn you. He'd learn you good, you bold thing you."
    Tom was still mumbling when he returned in a joggling half run, with his cap and the cage, and got into the cab. "He'd learn you, all right. Swearing like a cab driver in front of all them children. You ain't too big to spank, neither."
    Anne locked the front door and jumped into the cab.
    "One cab for seven people, eight suitcases, a dog and two canaries," the driver inventoried as we started down the driveway. "You should have ordered three at least."
    "We're not too crowded," Anne said as cheerfully as she could.
    "Is that dog housebroken?"
    "Usually," Anne