The Idiot at Home.
by John Kendrick Bangs.
I
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
"My dear," said the Idiot one morning, as he and his good wife and the two little ones, Mollie and Tommy, sat down at the breakfast-table, "now that we are finally settled in our new house I move we celebrate. Let"s give a dinner to my old friends of Mrs. Smithers"s; they were nice old people, and I should like to get them together again. I saw Dr. Pedagog in the city yesterday, and he inquired most affectionately, not to say anxiously, about the children."
"Why should he be anxious about the children?" asked Mrs. Idiot, placidly, as she sweetened her husband"s coffee. "Does he suspect them of lacking completeness or variety?"
The Idiot tapped his forehead significantly.
"He didn"t know whether they take after you or after me, but I relieved his mind on that score," he said. "I told him that they didn"t take after anybody that either of us ever knew. They have started in on a line of Idiocy that is entirely their own. He seemed very much pleased when I said that, and observed that he was glad to hear it."
Mrs. Idiot laughed.
"It was very nice of the Doctor to ask about them, but I am a little afraid he wants to take a hand in their bringing up," she said.
"No doubt of it," said the Idiot. "Pedagog always was anxious to experiment. Many a time I have suspected him of having designs even on me."
"Mrs. Pedagog told me last year that he had devised an entirely new system of home training," observed Mrs. Idiot, "and they both regretted that they had no children of their own to try it on."
"And of course you offered to lend Tommy to them?" said the Idiot, with a sly glance at his son, who was stowing away his oatmeal at a rate that bade fair to create a famine.
"Of course," said Mrs. Idiot. "He"s got to get raw material somewhere, and I thought Tommy would be just the thing."
"Well, I ain"t a-goin"," said Tommy, helping himself liberally and for the third time to the oatmeal.
"My son," said the Idiot, with a mock show of sternness, "if your mother chooses to lend you to any one it is not for you to say that you "ain"t a-goin". It may be that I shall interfere to the extent of demanding to know what security for your safe return is offered, but otherwise neither you nor I shall intervene. What your mother says is law for you as well as for me. Please understand that, Thomas."
"All right, pa," said Tommy; and then he added in an undertone, presumably to the b.u.t.ter, "But I ain"t a-goin", just the same."
"I"ll go," said Mollie, who rather liked the idea of being lent to somebody, since it involved a visit to some strange and therefore fascinating spot away from home. "Lend me to somebody, will you, mamma?"
"Yes, ma, lend Mollie to "em," said Tommy, with, a certain dry enthusiasm, "and then maybe you can borrow a boy from somebody else for me to play with. I don"t see why you don"t swap her off for a boy, anyhow. I like her well enough, but what you ever wanted to buy her for in the beginning I don"t know. Girls isn"t any good."
"Thomas," said the Idiot, "you talk too much, and, what is more, you say vain things which some day you will regret. When you get older you will recall this dictum of yours, that "girls isn"t any good," with a blush of shame, and remember that your mother was once a girl."
"Well, she"s outgrown it," said Tommy; and then reverting to his father"s choice of words, he added, "What is dictums, anyhow?"
"Pooh!" cried the little girl. "Smarty don"t know what dictums is!"
"Suppose you two young persons subside for a few minutes!" interrupted the Idiot. "I wish to talk to your mother, and I haven"t got all day.
You"ll be wanting some bread and b.u.t.ter to-morrow, and I must go to town and earn it."
"All right, pa," said Tommy. "I ain"t got anything to say that I can"t say to myself. I"d rather talk to myself, anyhow. You can be as sa.s.sy--"
"Thomas!" said the Idiot, severely.
"All right, pa," said Tommy; and with a side remark to the cream-jug, that he still thought Mollie ought to be swapped off for something, it didn"t matter what as long as it wasn"t another girl, the boy lapsed into a deep though merely temporary silence.
"You said you"d like to give a dinner to Mr. and Mrs. Pedagog and the others," said Mrs. Idiot. "I quite approve."
"I think it would be nice," returned the Idiot. "It has been more than six years since we were all together."
"You wouldn"t prefer having them at breakfast, would you?" asked Mrs.
Idiot, with a smile. "I remember hearing you say once that breakfast was your best time."
"How long is six years, pa?" asked Tommy.
"Really, Thomas," replied the Idiot, severely, "you are the most absurd creature. How long is six years!"
"I meant in inches," said Tommy, unabashed. "You always told me to ask you when I wanted to know things. Of course, if you don"t know--"
"It"s more"n a mile, I guess," observed Mollie, with some superiority of manner. "Ain"t it, pa?"
The Idiot glanced at his wife in despair.
"I don"t think, my dear, that I am as strong at breakfast as I used to be," said he. "There was a time when I could hold my own, but things seem to have changed. Make it dinner; and, Tommy, when you have deep problems to solve, like how long is six years in inches, try to work them out for yourself. It will fix the results more firmly in your mind."
"All right, pa," replied Tommy; "I thought maybe you knew. I thought you said you knew everything."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "POSSESSED A LIBRARY OF FIRST EDITIONS"]
In accordance with the Idiot"s suggestion the invitations were sent out.
It was a most agreeable proposition as far as his wife was concerned, for the Idiot"s old a.s.sociates, his fellow-boarders at Mrs.
Smithers-Pedagog"s "High-Cla.s.s Home for Single Gentlemen," had proved to be the stanchest of his friends. They had, as time pa.s.sed on, gone their several ways. The Poet had made himself so famous that even his bad things got into print; the Bibliomaniac, by an unexpected stroke of fortune, had come into possession of his own again, and now possessed a library of first editions that auctioneers looked upon with envious eyes, and which aroused the hatred of many another collector. The Doctor had prospered equally, and was now one of the most successful operators for appendicitis; in fact, could now afford to refuse all other practice than that involved in that delicate and popular line of work. The genial gentleman who occasionally imbibed had not wholly reformed, but, as the Idiot put it, had developed into one who occasionally did _not_ imbibe.
Mr. Brief had become an a.s.sistant district attorney, and was prominently mentioned for a judgeship, and Mr. and Mrs. Pedagog lived placidly along together, never for an instant regretting the inspiration which led them to economize by making two into one. In short, time and fortune had dealt kindly with all, even with Mary, the housemaid, who was now general manager of the nursery in the Idiot"s household.
The home life of "Mr. and Mrs. Idiot" had been all that either of the young people could have wished for, and prosperity had waited upon them in all things. The Idiot had become a partner in the business of his father-in-law, and even in bad times had managed to save something, until now, with two children, aged five and six, he found himself the possessor of his own home in a suburban city. It had been finished only a month when the proposed dinner was first mentioned, and the natural pride of its master and mistress was delightful to look upon.
"Why, do you know, my dear," said the Idiot one evening, on his return from town, "they are talking of asking me to resign from the club because they say I am offensive about this place, and Watson says my conversation has become a bore to everybody because the burden of my song yesterday was pots and pans and kettles and things like that?"
"I suppose clubmen are not interested in pots and pans and kettles and things," Mrs. Idiot observed. "Some people aren"t, you know."
"Not interested?" echoed the Idiot. "What kind of people can they be not to be interested in pots and pans and kettles and things? I guess it"s because of their dense ignorance."
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""THEY NEVER HAD THE FUN OF BUYING THEM""]
"They never had the fun of buying them, perhaps," suggested Mrs. Idiot.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""GUARANTEED TO HANG ONTO A GARMENT IN A GALE""]
"Possibly," a.s.sented the Idiot. "And I"ll tell you one thing, Pollie, dear," he added, "if they had had that fun just once, instead of squandering their savings on clothes and the theatre, and on horses, you"d find every blessed one of those chaps thronging the hardware shops all day and spending their money there. Why, do you know I even enjoyed getting the clothes-pins, and what is more, it was instructive. I never knew before what countless varieties of clothes-pins there were. There"s the plain kind of commerce that look like a pair of legs with a polo-cap on. I was brought up on those, and I used to steal them when I was a small boy, to act as understudies for Noah and Shem and Ham and j.a.pheth in my Noah"s ark. Then there"s the patent kind with a spring to it that is guaranteed to hang onto a garment in a gale if it has to let go of the rope. Very few people realize the infinite variety of the clothes-pin, and when I try to tell these chaps at the club about it they yawn and try to change the subject to things like German opera and impressionism and international complications."
"How foolish of them!" laughed Mrs. Idiot. "The idea of preferring to talk of Wagner when one can discourse upon clothes-pins!"