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Show 31 the conversations of older people and loathe to be put to bed before they left. On this occasion I flatly refused, so my mother undressed me and put me to bed without argument. I got promptly out of bed, brought my clothes back to the stove and dressed myself before the company, defiantly out-staring my father. There was a definite sense of triumph as I put on my last garment. Papa let me complete the operation and then he spanked my fat little bottom and made me undress by myself. My trauma disappeared with my triumph, both of them melted into a new respect for this man with the green eyes, the fine hair and the golden mustache. I never lost that respect. Sometimes Papa was more gentle than Mama. The next year we lived in the Jackman house, but it was more drafty. Now there was a new little one, Revo Lucina, the last name after her grandmother on Papa's side. She had been born on the second day of September, 1907, on the farm. When we moved to town, into the drafty house "we suffered all winter with tonsillitis." Mama had abcessed ears and we all had measles. I had recurring sore throat and craved pickles and cheese. "Of all things! " Mama said. "Pickles and cheese, sick as you a r e !" "If she wants pickles and cheese, she is going to have them, " Papa said. It meant a trip to Elsinore, but he brought back a keg of the sourest, most wonderful pickles I have ever tasted, and some cheese. |
