Doing Dishes — A Story for Boys
"I'll do the dishes this morning, mother, but I don't promise to do them again. John Branch's brother is coming home from college to-day, and he's promised John that he will organize the boys of our size and drill us every day. John says there's nothing he doesn't know about athletics. I mean to spend every minute practising." Herbert's mother did not answer. She was thinking that it would be almost as easy, after all, to crowd the dish-washing into her overfull day as it was to persuade Herbert to wash them. Herbert often said that his father never had washed dishes or scrubbed walks. He forgot that in his father's boyhood home there had been wood to cut and water to bring and a garden to weed, while in Herbert's home none of these things had to be done. "Guess I'll go right up to John's," Herbert said next morning, as soon as breakfast was over. He stopped for William Perry, and met Fred Hunter on the way. Several boys were already waiting on John's lawn. The Branches had been in Trenton only a few months, but their home had already become a favorite meeting place for the boys. "You'll just excuse me a few minutes, fellows," John called from the door. "I'm helping mother break in a new girl." It was nearly half an hour before he came. Herbert wondered how he could stay in the house when a dozen boys were having a good time outside. When he did come, the new girl followed him, but what a queer girl! Tall and strong, with sleeves above the elbow showing muscle envied by every boy in the crowd, the new girl, in spite of a big apron, was undoubtedly the person they had talked and even dreamed of since they had known John; the person they had each resolved to imitate; the college brother who could do anything in athletics. "I've just finished my dishes," he said, as he shook hands all around. "It took longer this morning, because I haven't learned where things stay. I must ask you to excuse me again, for there are some other things to be done. Girls are hard to get, you know, and I tell mother I must earn my board some way. After this we will agree on a time to meet, so I needn't keep you waiting." The boys tried not to look guilty, but most of them had left work undone at home, and several mothers were surprised next morning that their boys had time to help them before the drill hour came, instead of hurrying off as usual.—Selected.