Which wasn't true a bit, for she drives just as well as I do--she ought to, I taught her. But she has an awfully clever little trick of making a fellow feel good, and I like it--who wouldn't? A lot of mothers never lose an opportunity to take a son down a bit--though I don't suppose one would whose son had come to say goodbye. That same sort are the ones to weep on their boys' shoulders, though, I've noticed. We started off at a good clip, and right away Mother said: "Now, tell me all about it," exactly as if I'd just won an intercollegiate, or something like that. So I told it all to her, and was glad of the chance. I hadn't had time to write much about it, but I could talk fast enough, and I did; and she listened--well, she listened just exactly as another fellow would. I mean--you didn't have to colour the thing, or shave off anything, or fix up any dope to ease it for her, because you knew she wanted it straight. So, naturally, you gave it to her straight--which is much the best way, if people only realized it--for it's all got to come out in the end. And when I was through, what do you suppose she said? Just about the last thing you'd expect any mother to say: "It's all perfectly great, and I don't wonder you want to go. Why, if you didn't want to go, Jack, I should feel that I'd been the wrong sort of mother." Now, honestly, do you blame me? I looked down at her--I'm a good deal taller than she is--and for a minute I wanted to get down in front of her among the gear-shifts and put my head in her lap. But of course I didn't do anything so idiotic as that. I just laughed and said: "Not you,"--and put out my hand and squeezed hers--she'd left off her motoring gloves. And she squeezed back, and looked up at me with those black eyes of hers--and that was all there was of it, and we were off again on details, with no scene to remember. A fellow doesn't like scenes. Well, then we got back to the house, and everybody was there--except Dad, and he came soon. There were my two young sisters, Sally and Sue; and my kid brother, Jimmy--mad as fury because he hadn't been told; and Grandfather and Grandmother. Everybody was all smiles, and nobody even suggested that the time was short--which it blamed was. Dad came in and shook my hand off, and we settled down to talk.