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.
It was a beautiful morning when they started on their six mile sail, or "chug," as Jed called it.