That'll do, won't it? You've heard of step-fathers?
Um-hm. Well, they ain't real fathers, and a step-uncle ain't a
real uncle. Now you think that over and see if that won't fix it
first-rate."
The child thought it over. "And shall I call you 'Step-Uncle
Jed'?" she asked.
"Eh? . . . Um. . . . No-o, I guess I wouldn't. I'm only a back
step-uncle, anyway--I always come to the back steps of your house,
you know--so I wouldn't say anything about the step part. You ask
your ma and see what she says."
So Barbara asked and reported as follows:
"She says I may call you 'Uncle Jed' when it's just you and I
together," she said. "But when other people are around she thinks
'Mr. Winslow' would be more respectaful."
It was settled on that basis.
"Can't you take me to the aviation place sometime, Uncle Jed?"
asked Barbara.
Jed thought he could, if he could borrow a boat somewhere and Mrs.
Armstrong was willing that Barbara should go with him. Both
permission and the boat were obtained, the former with little
difficulty, after Mrs. Armstrong had made inquiries concerning Mr.
Winslow's skill in handling a boat, the latter with more. At last
Captain Perez Ryder, being diplomatically approached, told Jed he
might use his eighteen foot power dory for a day, the only cost
being that entailed by purchase of the necessary oil and gasoline.
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