Belles on their Toes

feinted twice at Doctor Bob, who made believe he was baffled and completely helpless under the onslaught.
    "If I find him with so much as an elbow on my kitchen table," Anne promised, "I'm sending for you."

    It wasn't until Anne and Doctor Bob got their suitcases and started for their coupe that Jane and realized the newlyweds were going away on a trip.
    "Take us with you, Doctor Bob," they begged, lunging for his legs. "You haven't taien us for a ride all day."
    He lifted up Jane and kissed her, and looked helplessly at Anne.
    "No, sir," said Anne, trying to disentangle them. "Not on our honeymoon. On that I positively draw the line."

17
POP AND THE WEASEL

    Martha had contacts, although she never went out of her way to develop them. She knew the mayor, the mayor's secretary, librarians, store managers, motormen, policemen, delivery boys, and firemen.
    With Anne married and Ernestine at Smith, Martha took charge of the household when Mother was away on business, and stretched the budget farther than it ever had gone before. Without spending any more money, she saw to it that each of us got a few more of the things he wanted.
    Martha ran the house in the same manner that she performed her school work—effortlessly and efficiently, but without pretense of perfection. She saw to it that the necessary and important things got done. And she refused to allow the unnecessary or unimportant ones to cause her any concern.
    If she could settle for a "B" or a "C" in a school subject, she saw no point in slaving for an "A."Of course, if an "A" came naturally, and occasionally one did, so much the better.
    Likewise, if we swept and dusted the house in the mornings, she saw no reason to nag if we sometimes forgot to wipe our feet or hang up our overcoats when we got home from school in the afternoons. Besides, sometimes she wasn't too careful about wiping her own feet, or hanging up her own overcoat.
    Martha's contacts in Montclair made things easier for all of us. She'd get the grocer's delivery boy to stop by the hardware store to pick up something we had bought. She'd ask the men who drove the city's snow plow if they'd mind taking a few minutes to clear our driveway. If Tom were sick, she'd get the milkman to help Frank and Bill carry the furnace ashes from the basement to the yard.
    People seemed to like doing things for her, and Martha didn't mind helping them. She knew whom to call if a street light were broken, or if the garbage man had forgotten to come by our block, or if a rabid dog were reported in the neighborhood. Mother, and even the neighbors, began to depend on her when they wanted something done by the town.
    Once when Mother was out of town, a sleet storm broke the power lines and the utility company said service couldn't be restored for twenty-four hours. Martha called the fire chief and asked him what to do.
    "With all the children we have in the house," she told him, "I thought it might be a fire hazard to have them stumbling around in the dark striking matches."
    A fire truck pulled into the driveway a few minutes later with six electric lanterns, on loan to Martha. She had a thermos of coffee ready to send back to the station to the chief.
    Martha studied the budget periodically to discover just where the money went, and to see if she could fix it so that less of it went there. If she couldn't figure out a way herself, she'd call the person who was getting the money, and ask him.
    For instance, there was the matter of hair cuts. As Martha pointed out, it was a relatively small item, but one that recurred. She telephoned the owner of the barber shop frequented by the boys, and explained her problem.
    She told him that, since we had six boys, we had to spend more money on haircuts than most families—that it usually came to at least $3 a month. She wondered whether there was any way he could give us a special rate. And if it wouldn't pay him to make us a rate, did he know anybody who was just opening a shop, and needed the business, who might be willing to do so.
    The barber said he never had given special rates before, but that he wouldn't mind doing it provided the boys didn't come on weekends or after five o'clock in the afternoons, when business was heaviest.
    Money saved on transactions such as that was available for luxuries. If any of us wanted anything badly enough, and it didn't cost too much, Martha would try to get it, and still keep within the budget. If she turned us down, we could always go