dly paved. Nick
turned in at a two-story brown frame cottage. He went around to the
back. Ma was in the kitchen.

Nick's presence at the evening meal was an uncertain thing. Sometimes he
did not eat at home for a week, excepting only his hurried early
breakfast. He rarely spent an evening at home, and when he did used the
opportunity for making up lost sleep. Pa never got home from work until
after six. Nick liked his dinner early and hot. On his rare visits his
mother welcomed him like one of the Gracchi. Mother and son understood
each other wordlessly, having much in common. You would not have thought
it of her (forty-six bust, forty waist, measureless hips), but Ma was a
nymph at heart. Hence Nick.

"Hello, Ma!" She was slamming expertly about the kitchen.

"Hello, yourself," said Ma. Ma had a line of slang gleaned from her
numerous brood. It fell strangely from her lips. Ma had never quite lost
a tinge of foreign accent, though she had come to America when a girl. A
hearty, zestful woman, savouring life with gusto, undiminished by
child-bearing and hard work. "Eating home, Dewey?" She alone used his
given name.

"Yeh, but I gotta be back by seven-thirty. Got anything ready?"

"Dinner ain't, but I'll get you something. Plenty. Platter ham and eggs
and a quick fry. Cherry cobbler's done. I'll fix you some." (Cherry
cobbler is shortcake with a soul.)

He ate enormously at the kitchen table, she hovering over him.

"What's the news, Dewey?"

"Ain't none." He ate in silence. Then: "How old was you when you married
Pa?"

"Me? Say, I wasn't no more'n a kid. I gotta laugh when I think of it."

"What was Pa earning?"

She laughed a great hearty laugh, dipping a piece of bread sociably in
the ham fat on the platter as she stood by the table, just to bear him
company.

"Say, earn! If he'd of earned what you was earning now, we'd of thought
we was millionaires. Time Etty was born he was pulling down thirteen a
week, and we saved on it." She looked at him suddenly, sharply. "Why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering."

"Look what good money he's getting now! If I was you, I wouldn't stick
around no old garage for what they give you. You could get a good job in
the works with Pa; first thing you know you'd be pulling down big money.
You're smart like that with engines.... Takes a lot of money nowadays
for feller to get married."

"You _tell_ 'em," agreed Nick. He looked up at her, having finished
eating. His glance was