The Whistling Mother

“But after all, it's the mothers, I think, who do the biggest giving when their sons go to war. I suspect it's what they put into their sons that stands for the real stuff in the crisis. I don't think there are many weak mothers, like Hoofy Gilbert's, even among the ones who are invalids. But I wish more of them understood what it is to a fellow to have his mother hold her head up!””

— Grace S. Richmond

“As for Grandfather and Grandmother, they went through the Civil War, and they knew, better than any of us, what might be ahead.””

— Grace S. Richmond

“Which wasn't true a bit, for she drives just as well as I do”

— Grace S. Richmond

“It turned out he'd written home about enlisting, and he'd got back a letter from his mother, all sobs. He didn't know what to do about it. You see the fellows were all writing home, and trying to break it gently that when they got there they'd have to put it up to the family to say "Go, and God bless you!" But it was looking pretty dubious for some of my special friends. Their mothers were all right, an awfully nice sort, of course, but when it came to telling Bob and Sam and Hector to enlist”

— Grace S. Richmond