He
cheerfully gave up his youth and early middle age to his mother and
waited upon her, ran her errands, sat beside her practically every
evening and read romance after romance aloud for her benefit. And
his "queerness" developed, as under such circumstances it was bound
to do.
Money had to be earned and, as the invalid would not permit him to
leave her to earn it, it was necessary to find ways of earning it
at home. Jed did odd jobs of carpentering and cabinet making, went
fishing sometimes, worked in gardens between times, did almost
anything, in fact, to bring in the needed dollars. And when he was
thirty-eight years old he made and sold his first "Cape Cod Winslow
windmill," the forerunner of the thousands to follow. That mill,
made in some of his rare idle moments and given to the child of a
wealthy summer visitor, made a hit. The child liked it and other
children wanted mills just like it. Then "grown-ups" among the
summer folk took up the craze. "Winslow mills" became the fad.
Jed built his little shop, or the first installment of it.
Mrs. Floretta Winslow died when her son was forty. A merciful
release, Captain Sam and the rest called it, but to Jed it was a
stunning shock. He had no one to take care of now except himself
and he did not know what to do. He moped about like a deserted
cat. Finally he decided that he could not live in the old house
where he was born and had lived all his life.
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