tips here and there. "I might have known as much!" she said.
"Everychild! And I suppose you think it is quite right for Everychild
to come tagging home after you, making work for other people?"

Tom cried out forlornly, "Oh, mother . . ."

As for Everychild, he was thinking--"She'll never let him go!" He was
standing with one foot on top of the other in a very uncomfortable
manner. Still, he was trying to smile, as if to convey the idea that
Old Mother Hubbard must be joking, of course.

But the old lady continued severely: "I've warned you before. You
ought to know by this time that a house is a--a house."

Here Everychild managed to say, "I'll not be a bit of trouble, Mother
Hubbard, and--and I'm very glad to meet you."

She stared at him as if she were really seeing him for the first time.
But her temper broke forth again. "Don't tell me!" she exclaimed. "I
know what boys are. You'll not deny, I suppose, that you get
ravenously hungry three times a day?"

Everychild was so amazed by this that he looked helplessly at Tom.

"Precisely!" continued Old Mother Hubbard. "Well, you should have
heard our President's address yesterday afternoon on _The Superfluous
Table_."

Her son interrupted in great embarrassment, "Oh, mother, he doesn't
even know what you mean!"