The tires made a crunching...
Illustration
The tires made a crunching sound as the car rolled over the gravel of the driveway -- a sound that brought three-year-old Jeremy running from the backyard as fast as his short legs could go. Rounding the corner of the house, he spotted his mother's car, and then his mother, as she emerged in sparkling elegance from the driver's seat. Without a thought for the mud which covered him from head to toe, without any cognizance whatever of his mother's shimmering white dress, Jeremy hurled himself in her direction, his arms outstretched for a hug. Martha did not hesitate. She had been away for nearly a week, and was as overjoyed to see Jeremy as he obviously was to see her. Holding him close to her there in the driveway, listening to his bubbling excitement at her arrival, Martha felt Jeremy's muddy-boy wetness seep through her dress. "That will stain!" she could almost hear her own mother say. "Probably it will," Martha thought, knowing there was not enough dirt in all the world to make her push her son away. -- Fannin
