In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway Page B

doorway, “Harold, please don’t muss up the paper. Your father can’t read his Star if it’s been mussed.”
    â€œI won’t muss it,” Krebs said.
    His sister sat down at the table and watched him while he read.
    â€œWe’re playing indoor over at school this afternoon,” she said. “I’m going to pitch.”
    â€œGood,” said Krebs. “How’s the old wing?”
    â€œI can pitch better than lots of the boys. I tell them all you taught me. The other girls aren’t much good.”
    â€œYeah?” said Krebs.
    â€œI tell them all you’re my beau. Aren’t you my beau, Hare?”
    â€œYou bet.”
    â€œCouldn’t your brother really be your beau just because he’s your brother?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œSure you know. Couldn’t you be my beau, Hare, if I was old enough and if you wanted to?”
    â€œSure. You’re my girl now.”
    â€œAm I really your girl?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œDo you love me?”
    â€œUh, huh.”
    â€œWill you love me always?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œWill you come over and watch me play indoor?”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œAw, Hare, you don’t love me. If you loved me, you’d want to come over and watch me play indoor.”
    Krebs’s mother came into the dining-room from the kitchen. She carried a plate with two fried eggs and some crisp bacon on it and a plate of buckwheat cakes.
    â€œYou run along, Helen,” she said. “I want to talk to Harold.” She put the eggs and bacon down in front of him and brought in a jug of maple syrup for the buckwheat cakes. Then she sat down across the table from Krebs.
    â€œI wish you’d put down the paper a minute, Harold,” she said.
    Krebs took down the paper and folded it.
    â€œHave you decided what you are going to do yet, Harold?” his mother said, taking off her glasses.
    â€œNo,” said Krebs.
    â€œDon’t you think it’s about time?” His mother did not say this in a mean way. She seemed worried.
    â€œI hadn’t thought about it,” Krebs said.
    â€œGod has some work for every one to do,” his mother said. “There can be no idle hands in His Kingdom.”
    â€œI’m not in His Kingdom,” Krebs said.
    â€œWe are all of us in His Kingdom.”
    Krebs felt embarrassed and resentful as always.
    â€œI’ve worried about you so much, Harold,” his mother went on. “I know the temptations you must have been exposed to. I know how weak men are. I know what your own dear grandfather, my own father, told us about the Civil War and I have prayed for you. I pray for you all day long, Harold.”
    Krebs looked at the bacon fat hardening on his plate.
    â€œYour father is worried, too,” his mother went on. “He thinks you have lost your ambition, that you haven’t got a definite aim in life. Charley Simmons, who is just your age, has a good job and is going to be married. The boys are all settling down; they’re all determined to get somewhere; you can see that boys like Charley Simmons are on their way to being really a credit to the community.”
    Krebs said nothing.
    â€œDon’t look that way, Harold,” his mother said. “You know we love you and I want to tell you for your own good how matters stand. Your father does not want to hamper your freedom. He thinks you should be allowed to drive the car. If you want to take some of the nice girls out riding with you, we are only too pleased. We want you to enjoy yourself. But you are going to have to settle down to work, Harold. Your father doesn’t care what you start in at. All work is honorable as he says. But you’ve got to make a start at something. He asked me to speak to you this morning and then you can stop in and see him at his office.”
    â€œIs that all?” Krebs said.
    â€œYes. Don’t you love your mother,