 Hello there, this is the family doctor, grocery store proprietor, and another daughter of a local justice of the peace, who are vying with each other for the attention of a young soda clerk and a local drug store. He must be the old scallywag, a fine editor he is. He knows very well that everybody in Cedarton will know that he's talking about Ella Mary Bliss and Faith Windsor and Chick Harper. What did you say, Grant? Uh-huh. Oh, nothing, honey, just reading the post-view group. Well, I have something I'd like you to read, Grant. Oh, and it's what? It's this letter from Grant, Jr.'s wife. Listen, Lou, you've known Elle for seven years. Why do you always refer to her as Grant, Jr.'s wife? Oh, I don't know. I just suppose it's because I'm Grant, Jr.'s mother. I guess I did. Well, let me see the letter. One second thought, I think I'll read it to you. You always have so much trouble trying to make out a writing. All right, honey, go ahead. Dear Mother Adam, we received the pickled watermelon and the blackberry preserves in fine shape. They arrived yesterday morning and I put them right up on the shelves, waiting for the right occasion to open them. Grant has been very busy lately. He signed another contract for another building, he says, and it's taking quite a lot of his time to get all the figuring done. Did Grant tell you in his last letter that we have a new car? It's quite a, quite snazzy and we like it a lot. Thanks so much for the pickles and the preserves. And I, as I know Grant is too, am looking forward to seeing both of you. You swell people soon. Love from us both, Elle and Grant, Jr. Grant, what are you thinking? The same thing you are, honey. It just makes me weep when I think of those two children up there in that big city. Oh, now, they're not children, Lou. Grant is 26 and Elle is 23. They're not children. Yes, they are. There are children, Grant, and they're in trouble. Trouble? Oh, now what? Yes, they are. That letter from Elle wasn't the letter of a happy young wife of a successful young architect. Like we know Grant, Jr. is. And you know it wasn't. What did she mean? She put the pickles and preserves up on the shelves, waiting for the right occasion to open them. And she keeps saying that Grant says he has to do this and that. Something's worrying, Elle, and I'd like to know what it is. All right, then we'll find out. Oh, how? We'll invite them down here for a week. Oh, Grant, I hope so much you'd say something like that. What are we going to do? I just got through telling you what we're going to do. We're going to invite them down here for a week. And you let me write the letter. I'll guarantee they'll come down. I'm just sort of nervous, Grant. Nervous? Well, why should I be nervous? Greeting my own son and his wife. Yes, but we haven't seen them for so long. It's more than a year. Never mind. I'm not nervous. Then what are you tearing up tonight's copy of the post-bucal form? Who me? Oh, well, I don't know. It didn't seem to be anything important, did it? Just thought I'd cut. There they are. Well, maybe you better go to the door and let them in, Grant, while I get this apron off. I'll just bet you left that apron on on purpose. All right, all right. I'll go let them in. Put them into the parlor and I'll put the kettle on for tea. All right, Lou. Hello, Dad. Hello, Daddy Adam. Oh, my, it's good to see you again. Well, Grant and Nerv, come on in. Mother and I have been expecting you for hours. Oh, not for hours, Dad. You know how long it takes to come down from the city on that old milk train. Well, come on in anyway. My, it's good to see you both. Hey, it's Junior Technel's thing. All right. You know where to put them. And your mother's out in the kitchen meddling with a kettle or something. Yeah, I'll take her in there while you're gone. All right, Dad. I'll go in and yell hello to her. Well, well, well. My, it's good to see you two youngsters again now. Is it? Oh, it's awfully swell seeing you again, too, Daddy Adam. Come on, come on in. Sit down. Mother will be in pretty soon. Thanks. Well, I think he's going with you both. Oh, just fine. Grant's doing so well and I'm so proud of him. You know, he won the national prize for the best design for a college football stadium this year. Yes, yes, I remember. He wrote Mrs. Adam something about it. What did it say? Did it mean much for Grant? Oh, I should say why it was the very thing he'd been hoping for all year, winning one of the national architectural prizes. Of course, he decided to design a stadium because he used to play football at state. And Grant says it was a new idea he had on draining a football field that won the prize for him. Well, certainly fine. Oh, here they come. Ah, mother and son. Baring tea and biscuits. They're not biscuits, Junior. They're hermits. Oh, I'm awfully glad to see you again. Good evening, Nell. I'm very glad that you and Junior could come down to visit us. Thank you. And now, sit down, all of you. This tea won't stay hot forever. And hermits. Gee, Mother, I haven't seen anything like this since a year ago last Christmas. Yes. Your father and I were terribly sorry. You, too, couldn't get down last Christmas. Do you take lemon and just one lump of sugar as you used to, Nell? Yes. And you take cream, don't you? Yes, Mother Bear. Well, I hope Nell's ready to leave. We have much time before training. Oh, you've got half an hour. And the seat isn't so big that we can't get you down to the depot in a shorter time than that. You're right, Dad. I guess I've forgotten a lot about the old town. Hmm. What do you mean? Huh? Oh, come on now. I know when you say, hmm, like that, you've got something on your mind. Oh, go on. I haven't anything of the sort. Get on the house with you. You're as bad as your mother. Always thinking I've got something on my mind. We're in the parlor. Come on in here. We're having a cup of tea before the children leave. All right, Mother. Be right in. Come on, son. Coming, Dad. Now, sit down, you two, and I'll pour you tea. And so you're going to leave us again, Nell. Going back to the big city. Yes. And how I hate it. Nell. You do? Why? Oh, this peace. This blissful quiet here in this lovely little town. I'd give up everything we have just to be able to live the rest of my days in a town like this. Well, you know, I've always believed that surroundings don't make a whole lot of difference. I don't think happiness depends on where you live or what kind of carpets you have on the floor or what sort of traffic you have in the streets. And it's much deeper than that. I think two youngsters like you should be able to find happiness anywhere. Oh, Dad. Well, Nell didn't mean that she wasn't. Yes, I did. We might just as well be frank about it, Grant. You and I have almost everything material that a young couple could wish for. A lovely home, a nice car, and hosts of friends. But there's something missing, something very real, something, well, intangible. I don't know what it is. But the absence of it is pulling us apart, Grant, and you know it as well as I do. Nell. Why, this is... I'm sorry, Mother Adams. I shouldn't have talked like that in front of you and Daddy Adams. Nonsense. Of course you should. Gosh, it's a Friday if a son and daughter can't open up and blow off to their own mother and father. Who could they... Say, listen, you two kids, you haven't been scrapping, have you? Dad, of course not. Yes, we have. And you know that too, Grant. We might just as well admit it. We've been having little disagreements lately over nothing. They've been getting more frequent all the time. I just can't stand this. Say, you know, your mother and I went through a time like this once. Yep, just like you two youngsters are experiencing now. Grant. Oh, I know you don't want me to talk about it, Lou. But if Grant, Junior, and Nell can be helped by the telling of it, my gosh, I'm going to tell it. Oh, I see. Go on, Daddy Adams. What were you saying? Well, I was saying that when that little lady over there and I were first married, we used to fight like cats and dogs. You did. Yes. It started off as just a little bicker now and then before I'd leave in the morning for the hospital. We were married while I was still an intern, you know, and your mother was a nurse. She had to resign because they couldn't have a married couple working in the same hospital. They didn't find it out for a couple of months, though. Well, then it got worse and worse. First, just little unimportant spats. Then when it got so sad, I just couldn't bear to go home night, always dreaded facing another session of scrapping. Oh, we never actually did bodily harm to each other, but we came mighty close to it now and then... Gee, I... I can't believe it. It's true. Yep. Not for a few months there that we'd made a mistake. Your mother was almost ready to give up, go back to the hospital, and I was almost ready to leave town and go somewhere else to start in practice. Grant, don't you think... That I've told enough? Well, maybe I have, honey. Maybe I have. But anyway, there it was. We were drifting farther and farther apart all the time until something came along that changed everything. What was that then? You. Huh? Yep, that's right. Now, when Grand Junior was born, we were so busy taking care of the little shaver that we didn't have time to worry about our own imagined troubles. Say, when I got through walking the floor with your son, I didn't have enough gumption in the morning to do anything but smile wiggly and sort of acquiesce to anything your mother wanted. Isn't that true, honey? Yes, it certainly is. Well, I don't think we've had a disagreeable word since. And that was 26 years ago. Thank you, Daddy Adam. Hmm? We both thank you, Dad. For what? All say, look at the time. Oh, we've only got 20 minutes to get started and get down to the depot. Come on, darling. We'll go upstairs and get our bags and wraps. Yes, dear. I'm ready to go. Grand Adam Senior, you big storyteller. Huh? Who? Me? Yes, you. You know very well you made that big story up out of whole cloth. Not one word of it was true. Oh, is that so? Well, what do you know about that? You know very well we've never had a harsh word between us and all the years we've been married to say nothing of a fight. Well, there was that time when you put too much sugar in my coffee and I had to speak to you about it. Oh. I'm sorry I disgraced you so, Lou. Yes, you did disgrace me, Grand Adam. Right before my own children. But I love you for it. Come on, honey. Time to get our things on to. We can't let the youngsters miss their trains. They'll have a lot to talk over on the way back to the city. Family doctor, I'll be in to see you again right soon. Goodbye.