Ma has a dandy little book that’s full of narrow
slips,
An’ when she wants to pay a bill a page from
it she rips;
She just writes in the dollars and the cents and
signs her name
An’ that’s as good as money, though it doesn’t
look the same.
When she wants another bonnet or some
feathers for her neck,
She promptly goes an’ gets 'em, an’ she writes
another check.
I don’t just understand it, but I know she
sputters when
Pa says to her at supper: 'Well! You’re
overdrawn again!’
Ma’s not a business woman, she is much too
kind of heart
To squabble over pennies or to play a selfish
part,
An’ when someone asks for money, she’s not
one to stop an’ think
Of a little piece of paper an’ the cost of pen
an’ ink.
She just tells him very sweetly if he’ll only
wait a bit
An’ be seated in the parlor, she will write a
check for it.
She can write one out for twenty just as easily
as ten,
An’ forgets that Pa may grumble: 'Well,
you’re overdrawn again!’
Pa says it looks as though he’ll have to start in
workin’ nights
To gather in the money for the checks that
mother writes.
He says that every morning when he’s summoned
to the phone,
He’s afraid the bank is calling to make mother’s
shortage known.
He tells his friends if ever anything our fortune
wrecks
They can trace it to the moment mother started
writing checks.
He’s got so that he trembles when he sees her
fountain pen
An’ he mutters: 'Do be careful! You’ll be
overdrawn again!’
Other works by Edgar Albert Guest...
