Benny pushed open the door and went in, me at his heels, and both
of us nervous as cats. His mother was sitting in a rocker, reading
the evening paper with gold spectacles, and I never saw such a
straight-backed old lady in my life, nor any so tall and thin and
commanding. She looked up at us, kind of startled to see two
soldiers walking into her kitchen, and Benny smiled a silly smile
and said:
"Mommer, I'm off to help Dooey in the Fillypines!"
I guess he thought she'd jump at him or something, for he had
always been a mother's boy and minded everything she said, though
he was twenty-eight years old and rising-nine--but all she did was
to draw in her breath sharp and sudden, so you could hear the
whistle of it, and then two big tears rolled out under her specs.
"Don't feel bad about it, Mommer," said Benny in a snuffly voice.
She never said a word, but got up from the chair and came over to
where Benny was, very white and trembly, and looking at his army
coat like it was a shroud.
"Oh, my son, my son!" she said, kind of choking over the words.
"I couldn't stay behind when all the boys was going," he said.
I saw he was holding back all he could to keep from crying, and I
didn't blame him either, as we was to sail the next day and the
old lady was his Ma. It's them good-byes that break a soldier all
up. So I lit out and played with the dog and made him jump through
my hands and fetch sticks and give his paw (he was quite a
RE-markable dog, that dog, though his breeding wasn't much), while I
could hear them inside, talking and talking, and the old lady's
voice running on about the danger of drink and how he mustn't
sleep in wet clothes or give back-talk to his officers--it was
wonderful the horse-sense that old lady had--and how he must
respeck the uniform he wore and be cheerful and willing and brave,
like his sainted father who was dead--all that mothers say and
sometimes what soldiers do--and through it all there was a pleasant
rattle of dishes and the sound of the fire being poked up, and
Benny asking where's the table-cloth, and was there another pie?
By and by I was called in, and there, sure enough, the table was
spread, and we were both made to sit down while the old lady
skirmished around and wiped her eyes when we weren't looking.
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