she had a genius for knowing when a cough is a thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking around your throat. she believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb leaf, and made sounds of contempt over all this new-fangled talk about germs, and so on. it was a lesson in propriety to see her escorting the children to school, walking sedately by their side when they were well behaved, and butting them back into line if they strayed. on john's footer [in england soccer was called football, "footer" for short] days she never once forgot his sweater, and she usually carried an umbrella in her mouth in case of rain. there is a room in the basement of miss fulsom's school where the nurses wait. they sat on forms, while nana lay on the floor, but that was the only difference. they affected to ignore her as of an inferior social status to themselves, and she despised their light talk. she resented visits to the nursery from mrs. darling's friends, but if they did come she first whipped off michael's pinafore and put him into the one with blue braiding, and smoothed out wendy and made a dash at john's hair.