Unknown

ELLEN AND ALLEN

FICTION

We didn't expect to get away with it, Ellen and me. Ellen that's my twin sister (I'm Allen) and I were going all the way to Boston all by ourselves to spend the summer with our grandma. That was the sum- mer when we were nine, but Mother and Dad said we were old enough and intelligent enough to go by ourselves as long as we didn't get off the train anywhere and besides we had a compartment all to ourselves.

The reason we were going was this: Dad was going on a lectureship to England for a year and Mother wanted to go and study art in the British Museum. Anyway they decided that it would be better if we didn't go with them (but they never asked us either!) But since Grand- ma (that's Mother's mother) had wanted us to come and stay with her, why, then Ellen and I would go there for the summer and maybe until Christmas time when Mother would come back. Well, it was better than staying in Chicago. (Everything is better than staying in Chica- go!).

So the last we saw of Mother and Dad, they kissed us goodbye in the train compartment. The last thing Mother said to us: "Behave yourselves now-both of you." Then we were gone, pulling out of the station.

Mother's last remark, even after so many years, hangs in my mind; at least, we heard it often enough, from day to day. But that time, she meant something more than the usual run of the mill admonishment.

Now, we weren't any better or any worse than the average run of kids or should I twins say because twins can concentrate their ef- forts a little more. So in a way I guess we did get in a little more

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