't ever happen, I guess."

"CAN'T YOU LET ME TELL YOU? And s'posin' the boat was to sink, and I
could swim and save you from drown--"

"You're not going swimming, and that's all there is about it."

"Other boys' mas lets them go. I don't see why I can't go."

No answer.

"Ma, won't you let me go? I won't get drowned, hope to die if I do. Ma,
won't you let me go? Ma! Ma-a!--Maw-ah!"

"Stop yelling at me that way. Good land! Do you think I'm deaf?"

"Won't you let me go? Please, won't you let--"

"No, I won't. I told you I wouldn't, and I mean it. You might as well
make up your mind to stay at home, for you're--not--going. Hush up now.
This instant, sir! Robbie, do you hear me? Stop crying. Great baby!
wouldn't be ashamed to cry that way, as big as you are!"

Mean old Ma! Guess she'd cry too'f she could see the other kids that
waited for him to go and ask her--if she could see them moving off,
tired of waiting. They're 'most up to Lincoln Avenue.

"Oooooooooooo-hoo--hoo--hoo--hoohoooooooooo-ah! I wanna gow-ooooo."

"Did you hoe that corn your father told you to?"

"Oooooooooooo-hoo-hoo-hoo-oooooooo! I wanna gow-ooooooo."

"Robbie! Did you hoe that corn?"

The last boy, the one with the stone-bruise on his heel, limps around
the corner. They have all the fun. His ma won't let him go barefoot
because it spreads his feet.

"Robbie! Answer me."

"Mam?"

"Did you hoe that corn your father told you to?"

"Yes mam."

"All of it? Did you hoe all of it?"

"Prett' near all of it." Well begun is half done. One hill is a good
beginning, and half done is pretty nearly all.

"Go and finish it."

"I will if you'll let me go swimmin'."

It flashes upon him that even now by running he can catch up with the
other fellows. He can finishing the hoeing when he gets back.

"You'll do it anyhow, and you're not going swimming. Now, that's the end
of it. You march out to that garden this minute, or I'll take a stick to
you. And don't let me hear another whimper out of you. Robbie! Come back
here and shut that door properly. I shall tell your father how you have
acted. Wouldn't be ashamed--I'd be ashamed to show temper that way."

It says for children to obey their parents, but if more boys minded
their mothers there would be fewer able to swim. While I shrink
with horror from even seeming to encourage dropping the hoe when the
sewing-machine gets to going good, by its thunderous spinning throwing
up an impervious w