er, and sometimes he rather liked her, but he was
annoyed by her Christian Patience, and he was reduced to pulpiness when
she discoursed about a quite mythical hero called "Your Father":

"You won't remember it, Georgie, you were such a little fellow at the
time--my, I remember just how you looked that day, with your goldy brown
curls and your lace collar, you always were such a dainty child, and
kind of puny and sickly, and you loved pretty things so much and the red
tassels on your little bootees and all--and Your Father was taking us to
church and a man stopped us and said 'Major'--so many of the neighbors
used to call Your Father 'Major;' of course he was only a private in The
War but everybody knew that was because of the jealousy of his captain
and he ought to have been a high-ranking officer, he had that natural
ability to command that so very, very few men have--and this man came
out into the road and held up his hand and stopped the buggy and said,
'Major,' he said, 'there's a lot of the folks around here that have
decided to support Colonel Scanell for congress, and we want you to
join us. Meeting people the way you do in the store, you could help us a
lot.'

"Well, Your Father just looked at him and said, 'I certainly shall do
nothing of the sort. I don't like his politics,' he said. Well, the
man--Captain Smith they used to call him, and heaven only knows
why, because he hadn't the shadow or vestige of a right to be called
'Captain' or any other title--this Captain Smith said, 'We'll make it
hot for you if you don't stick by your friends, Major.' Well, you know
how Your Father was, and this Smith knew it too; he knew what a Real Man
he was, and he knew Your Father knew the political situation from A to
Z, and he ought to have seen that here was one man he couldn't impose
on, but he went on trying to and hinting and trying till Your Father
spoke up and said to him, 'Captain Smith,' he said, 'I have a reputation
around these parts for being one who is amply qualified to mind his own
business and let other folks mind theirs!' and with that he drove on and
left the fellow standing there in the road like a bump on a log!"

Babbitt was most exasperated when she revealed his boyhood to the
children. He had, it seemed, been fond of barley-sugar; had worn the
"loveliest little pink bow in his curls" and corrupted his own name to
"Goo-goo." He heard (though he did not officially hear) Ted admonishing
Tinka, "Come on