Petunia ought to have reminded me. Can't you
take me some time, Uncle Jed?"
He had insisted upon her dropping the "Mr." in addressing him.
"Your ma's goin' to call me Jed," he told her; "that is to say, I
hope she is, and you might just as well. I always answer fairly
prompt whenever anybody says 'Jed,' 'cause I'm used to it. When
they say 'Mr. Winslow' I have to stop and think a week afore I
remember who they mean."
But Barbara, having consulted her mother, refused to address her
friend as "Jed." "Mamma says it wouldn't be respect--respectaful,"
she said. "And I don't think it would myself. You see, you're
older than I am," she added.
Jed nodded gravely. "I don't know but I am, a little, now you
remind me of it," he admitted. "Well, I tell you--call me 'Uncle
Jed.' That's got a handle to it but it ain't so much like the
handle to an ice pitcher as Mister is. 'Uncle Jed' 'll do, won't
it?"
Barbara pondered. "Why," she said, doubtfully, "you aren't my
uncle, really. If you were you'd be Mamma's brother, like--like
Uncle Charlie, you know."
It was the second time she had mentioned "Uncle Charlie." Jed had
never heard Mrs. Armstrong speak of having a brother, and he
wondered vaguely why. However, he did not wonder long on this
particular occasion.
"Humph!" he grunted. "Well, let's see. I tell you: I'll be your
step-uncle.
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