Cheaper by the Dozen Page #11

Hello? Hello?

Hello, Frank.

Operator.

Operator,

are we still connected?

Well, that's funny.

No one answers.

Hello? Hello?

Frank?

Frank!

- Anne.

- Oh, hello, Mrs. Benson.

- Your mother wants you

to come home, dears, right away.

- What is it? What's happened?

Your father was taken ill at the station.

I'm afraid it's his heart.

- Is it... Is it bad?

- I don't know how bad, dear.

Mrs. Monahan said you were shopping

and asked me to find you.

- Frank's playing ball. Do you know where?

- The school grounds, I guess.

I said I'd pick him up too.

Come on. Let's get in.

You children better go on in.

I'll park in my driveway.

How... How is he,

Mrs. Monahan?

Oh, Andy.

Our daddy's dead.

Sit down, children.

I've called you older children together because

I think you ought to know the situation.

There isn't going to be

a great deal of money.

Most of it's had to go back

into your father's business.

I talked by telephone

to your grandmother in California...

and naturally she wants all of us

to move out there and live with her.

If it's a matter of money,

I plan not to go to college anyway. I'll get a job.

- I don't want to go to college either, Mother.

- Wait until I've finished.

There's an alternative, but it hinges

on your being able to take care of yourselves...

and it will involve sacrifices

from all of us.

I want you to make the decision. I can go on

with your father's work, keep the office open...

and that will mean

that we can keep the house.

We'll have to let Mrs. Monahan go,

and live very simply.

- We couldn't letJim Bracken go, could we?

- Oh, he wouldn't go anyway.

No, I think we can manage

with Jim.

And if things work out the way I think they

will, Anne, you can go to college later on too.

- You know your father wanted

all of you to go to college.

- Don't worry about that, Mother.

Do you want to try it? Can you run the house

and look after things until I get back?

- Get back from where, Mother?

- I'm going to Europe.

I'm going to give those speeches

for your father in London and Prague.

We all know how much they meant to him,

and I'm sure that's the way he would want it.

But as I say, the final decision

is up to you.

Oh, Mother, you don't have to ask us.

Why, you know...

we'll do anything

as long as we can stay together.

Thank you, dear.

I knew that's the way you'd feel about it.

Well, since I'm gonna be

planning the meals from now on, I...

I guess I better get started.

- I'll go over everything with Mrs. Monahan.

- Yes, dear.

And I'll see the house is kept nicely, Mother.

Just the way you like it.

- And I'll help her, Mother.

- We all will.

- Thank you, girls.

- Me too, Mother.

Maybe Bill and I better go down and see

some used car dealers...

about sellir

the automobile, Mother.

You'd better tell them

to bring a tow car.

You know Foolish Carriage

never starts for anyone but Daddy.

- Yeah, and sometimes

it wouldn't even start for him.

I'll do all the errands, Mother, and helpJim.

He's getting pretty old.

That's right.

- Well, son?

- Yes, Mother.

From now on, you'll have to be

the man of the family.

Sure, Mother.

We'll handle things.

And we'll do a good job too.

You wait and see.

Yes, son.

I know you will.

Anyhow, that's one mars opinion.

Yes, Dad, Gilbreth and Company will go on.

Mother and your even dozen

will see to that.

Mother will go to Europe,

and you'll be proud...

of the way she delivers

those speeches for you.

And she'll go right on,

following in your footsteps...

to become the foremost woman industrial

engineer in the world and, by 1948...

America's Woman of the Year.

But wherever you are,

Dad, somehow I'm sure you know that...

and never doubted it

for a moment.

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