Belles on their Toes

embarrassment. But we didn't want to hurt her feelings, so we didn't say anything about them at first.
    Mother believed that every resident of a community had civic obligations and responsibilities. No matter how busy she was, she'd drop everything for a PTA meeting.
    Her biggest school chore was the annual "Be Your Child'' session. This was sponsored by the PTA, and the mothers were supposed to sit at their children's desks, meet their teachers, look over their textbooks, and review their papers.
    The program was geared for mothers of average-sized families, and failed to take into account the unlikely possibility that someone might have eight children simultaneously in the school system.
    Mother would hire a cab for the evening and race from home to the elementary school, where she'd sit at four different desks; from the elementary to the junior high, where she'd sit at two, and from the junior high to the high school, where she'd sit at two more. With the help of a memorandum book she managed to keep straight the compliments and complaints she received concerning each of us.
    "I never thought I'd have to give an 'F' to one of your children," Frank's Latin teacher told her at one "Be Your Child" session. "I've had Anne, Ernestine, and Martha. But Frank is simply impossible."
    "I know too much about what a fine teacher you are to believe you think any child is impossible," Mother replied with her sweetest smile. "Some pupils are just more of a challenge to teachers than others, isn't that right?"
    "I guess so," the teacher said doubtfully. "Put it that way, then—he's the biggest challenge I've run into in fifteen years."
    Mother made a memorandum to help Frank with his Latin, and to ask Ernestine to help him, too.
    "I'll see that he's tutored at home, and I'm confident that meanwhile you'll work everything out," Mother challenged the Latin teacher, heading for the door and her waiting taxicab.
    At the high school, Ernestine's English teacher was indignant. She had discovered that Ern had turned in a book report based—in fact lifted—from blurb on the jacket, and hadn't bothered to read the book itself.
    "I can't tell you how shocked I was, Mrs. Gilbreth. It's not at all the sort of thing Anne would have done. And I certainly didn't expect it from Ernestine. I always had considered her the soul of honor."
    "I don't think there's really much reason to change your opinion," Mother replied a little hotly.
    "I consider it plagiarism, plain and simple."
    "Maybe it is," Mother said, "but thinking back suppose I've done the same thing. Some times when I'm with a group of people who are talking about a new book, I guess I've given the impression that I've read the book, instead of reviews about it in the newspapers."
    "Why I've done that too, I suppose, but..."
    "It's really the same thing, isn't it?" Mother smiled.
    "No, I don't consider it at all..."
    "Don't reproach yourself for it," Mother interrupted. "After all, if a person tried to read everything that comes out, he wouldn't have time for anything else, Would he?"
    "I suppose not," said Ern's teacher, throwing in he sponge.
    "There's no reason for you to feel bad about it. It's really laziness more than plagiarism. And all of us, whether we like to admit it or not, are a little lazy sometimes, aren't we?"
    Mother headed for the door. But the fact she had dismissed the matter with such glib talk at school didn't mean she wasn't going to have a heart-to-heart talk with Ernestine.
    Some of the teachers thought it simply impossible that Mother could earn a living and supervise us properly at home. Jack's kindergarten teacher, who was new to the school system, tried to pump him about it one day.
    "What does your Mother do, John?" she asked.
    "Lots of things," said Jack. "She's busy."
    "Like what, dear?"
    "She mends my stockings when there are holes in them, and serves the plates at the table, and gets me up in the morning, and tells me stories, and plays the piano so we can sing."
    "But she can't do all that, John."
    "Why can't she?" Jack asked suspiciously.
    "Doesn't she have a career, John?"
    "I don't think so."
    "Why you know perfectly well she does," the teacher said accusingly.
    "Well if she does," Jack shouted, "she never showed it to me."
    When Mother started speaking to the Parent-Teacher groups, she explained about how she and Dad had tried to adapt motion study methods to bringing up a large family. This involved telling a number of stories about us, and