Cheaper by the Dozen

smiling brown eyes. Grosie kissed us and called us "dears." Papa shook hands, and said that each day we stayed in his house he was going to take all of us down to a toy shop and let us pick out a toy apiece.
    "Honestly," Anne bubbled, "it's like stepping into a fairy tale three-deep with godmothers and with wishes that come true."
    That was easy. After four days of Mother's drawing room cookery, with only infrequent trips to the dining car, what we wanted most was something good to eat; a real home-cooked meal.
    "I hate to say it after the way Mother's been slaving over a hot Sterno can," said Ernestine, "but we're starving."
    "If my wish would come true," Mother hastened to change the subject, "you'd all be sitting in bathtubs right this minute, washing soot out of your hair."
    Grosie said we were going to have a big dinner in about an hour and a half, and that she didn't want to spoil our appetites.
    "How about just a little snack right now," she suggested, "and then baths and dinner? How about some graham crackers with milk? I know how much little children like graham crackers, and we have a great big supply of them."
    The mention of graham crackers took away our appetites, and we said we guessed we'd skip the snack and get our baths.
    "Such dear children," Grosie squeezed us. "They want their dear Mother's wish to come true!"

Chapter 9
Chinese Cooking

    We were so impressed by the comforts and quiet organization of the Mollers' home that we were subdued and on our best behavior. But the biggest change was in Mother. Ensconced again in the bedroom in which she had grown up, she seemed to shed her responsibilities and become again "one of the Moller girls." Automatically, she found herself depending on her father to make the important decisions, and on her mother to advise her on social engagements and the proper clothes to wear. She seemed to have forgotten all about motion study, her career, and the household back East. Her principal worries seemed to be whether her parents had slept well, how they were feeling, whether they were sitting in drafts.
    "Mama, dear," she'd say, "are you sure that shawl is warm enough? Let me run upstairs and get you another."
    Since Mother seemed so concerned about Grosie and Papa, we held them in awe. We tiptoed in their presence and talked only in whispers.
    The respect in which we held Grosie was heightened the day after our arrival, when she gave Mother a quiet reprimand which Mother accepted just as if she were a little girl again. Anybody who could have that effect on Mother, we thought, must be a very important person.
    The reprimand came about after Grosie handed Mother a list of six close friends of the family, and suggested that Mother call to pay her respects that afternoon.
    "Do you really think it's necessary, Mama, dear?" Mother asked.
    "I think it would be nice, dear."
    "What do you think I should wear?"
    "I would think the dress you wore to dinner last night would be just right, dear."
    Mother set out to make the calls, and returned about two hours later.
    "There," she said, coming smiling into the living room. "Thank goodness that's out of the way. It didn't take me long, did it? Six calls in two hours'. Wasn't I efficient?"
    To be efficient, in the Gilbreth family, was a virtue on a par with veracity, honesty, generosity, philanthropy, and tooth-brushing. We agreed that Mother had, indeed, been exceptionally efficient. But Grosie looked disapproving.
    "Don't you think I was efficient, Mama, dear?"
    "Perhaps, Lillie, dear," Grosie said slowly, "perhaps you were a little—too—efficient."
    Our grandparents became worried by our exemplary behavior. They told Mother they didn't think it was natural, and that it made them nervous the way we tiptoed and whispered.
    "They don't act at all the way I pictured them," Papa said. "From your letters, I thought they whooped and hollered around. I don't believe they feel at home."
    "They'll feel at home soon enough," Mother warned. "I'm scared that when they decide to feel at home they may decide all at once. If they do, it's Katey bar the door."
    We decided to feel at home on the day that Grosie gave a formal tea in Mother's honor. Our godmothers bad bathed us with sweet-smelling soap and were dressing us in new outfits that Grosie had approved. For the girls, it was dotted Swiss and matching hair ribbons and sashes; for the boys, blue serge suits and Buster Brown collars, with red, generous bow ties.
    The boys' trousers were