send for him right away
if--"

"No, no, Jimmie; I'm all right now."

"Look! I brought you a carnation one of the operators gimme--one swell
little queen, too. You want some of that black medicine, ma?"

"I'm all right now, Jimmie. It was just earlier in the evening I kinda
had a spell. Ain't that pink pretty, though! Here, put it in the glass,
and gimme a French kiss. Always ashamed like a big baby when it comes to
kissin', ain't you? Ashamed to even kiss your old ma!"

"Aw!" He shuffled his feet and bent over her, with the red mounting
above the gold collar of his uniform.

"And such a mamma-boy you used to be before you had to get out and
hustle--such a mamma-boy, and now ashamed to give your old ma a kiss!"

"Ashamed nothin'! Here, ma, I'll smooth your hair for you the wrong way
like Essie used to do when you came home from the store dead after the
semiannual clearings."

"No, no, Jimmie; these days I ain't got no more hair left to smooth."

"You look good to me."

"Aw, Jimmie, quit stringing your old ma. How can a stack o' bones look
good to anybody?"

"You do."

"Your papa used to say so, too, Jimmie; but in them days my hair was
natural curly--little cute, springy curls like Essie's. The first day he
seen me he fell for 'em; and the night before he died, Jimmie, with you
and Essie asleep in your folding-cribs and me little thinkin' that the
next week I'd be back in the department clerking again, he took me in
his arms and--"

"Yes, yes; I know, ma--but didn't old man Gibbs say not to get excited?
Lay back and don't talk, ma. I can feel your heart beatin' way down in
your hands."

"You're all tired out, ain't you, Jimmie?--too tired to listen to my
talk; but you're going to wait up for your sister's young man to-night,
ain't you, my boy? Go wet your hair and smooth it down. You'll wanna see
him, Jimmie."

"Fine chance."

"Sure he's coming to-night, Jimmie. I got their supper all waitin'; and,
see, there's my flowered wrapper at the foot of the bed, so I can get up
and go in when--"

"Aw, cut out the comedy, ma! She ain't comin' straight home after the
show any more'n a crooked road; and if she does he ain't coming with
her."

"Jimmie, she promised sure to-night."

"Didn't she promise last night and the night before and the night before
that?"

"But this afternoon when she left for the matinee, Jimmie, I wasn't
feelin' so well, and she promised so sure."

"Them girl ushers down there is