Uncle Bob

“ They are always angels to me, you know. Now we will put you ashore right here. And you must be sure to come over to Second Westings and see me,—won't you?—while Uncle Bob is there. Come next week."
"I thank you for the gracious invitation," answered the boy, bowing a little stiffly. "But I think I had better wait for Mr. Glenowen's permission, as these gentlemen are not likely to present me to him in a very favourable light."
"Don't be silly and disagreeable, Robert," said Barbara, impatiently. "Uncle Bob will think of you just as I do. We always agree about people. Now you must hurry!" ”

“ Only Uncle Bob! Mrs. De Peyster, in her dim corner, tried to shrivel up into yet darker obscurity. Breathlessly she felt herself upon the precipitous edge of ultimate horror. For Judge Harvey—Judge [pg 165] Harvey of all persons—to be the one to discover her amid her humiliating circumstances!
Dimly she heard Jack talk on, explaining in casual tone: "You know, Matilda, Uncle Bob has always had the general oversight of the house when it's been closed during summers; and he's always made it his business to drop in occasionally to see that everything's all right. ”

“ Dead people are dead, Uncle Bob, and only live people really count. People have to be alive to help you and make you happy. I want to be happy, Uncle Bob—I want to be happy. I know all about the Pendletons, Uncle Bob. They were Cavaliers—I know all that—and they used to ride about sticking lances into peasants who couldn't afford a suit of armor, but they can't do anything for me now, and they mustn't interfere with me now. Anyhow, the Sudduths were plain people and I'm not a bit ashamed of it, mother. Great-grandfather Hiram lived in a log cabin. Grandfather Hiram ate with his knife. ”

“ I saw Uncle Bob catch the blow on his right arm, dart out his left and strike the big grinder in the mouth; and then, before he could recover himself, my uncle’s right fist flashed through the air like lightning, and the man staggered and then fell with a dull thud, the back of his head striking the stones.
There was a loud yell at this, and a chorus rose:
“In wi’ ’em. Throost ’em i’ th’ dam,” shouted a voice, and half a dozen men advanced menacingly; but Uncle Bob stood firm, and just then Fannell the smith strode before them. ”

“ Bob had broken the news to his grandfather and there had been another distressing scene.
“It is all so dreadful,” wrote Esther, “that I don’t want to think about it now. Poor Bob! And poor Mr. Cook! And Uncle Foster! And you, Auntie! I feel as if I must be a wicked, ungrateful girl. He says I am not and that we have done the only thing that could be done. He is a dear fellow and I love him. He is sure we will never be sorry and that by and by everything will be right again. Oh, I hope so!... You will tell Uncle Foster how sorry I was to leave him, won’t you? ”

“ To go anywhere, you have to travel so much.”
Uncle Bob laughed, and drew her to him. “You 68blessed!” he said. “Of course it’s big. Why, there’s room enough here to swing a cat.”
“Yes,” agreed Phœbe, “but I don’t want to swing a cat.”
“I mean”—Uncle Bob was shaking precisely like the more substantial portion of a floating-island pudding!—“that you can stretch yourself.”
“No.” Phœbe shook her head with decision. “No, Uncle John doesn’t like me to stretch. He says, ‘Ladies don’t do it’.”
“Oh, you funny little tyke!” cried Uncle Bob. “Can’t you run, and romp, and play?” ”

“ After breakfast, however, when she found that Uncle Bob was going down into the village to call on the Reverend Jonathan Sawyer, to drink a glass with Squire Gillig in his snug office behind the store, and to pay his respects to Doctor John and Doctor Jim, then Barbara felt the lure of the rain, and said she would go with him.
"I love the rain," she explained,—"and it's so nice for the complexion, too! I'll go and tell Mercy Chapman about my presents, and take some jellies to her poor sick mother, while you are talking politics in the squire's back office, Uncle Bob. ”

“ You ’ve made a real discovery, Rob, and I ‘ll have to forgive you for trying to smash down my house.”
Rob’s joy, too, was soon tempered by a sad thought—the letter was n’t his: it was Uncle Bob’s. He did want to be unselfish, and rejoice simply in the pleasure of the find and in his uncle’s fine new possession; but the thought of the value of that letter to the new-fledged B. A. Society was almost too heavy on his spirit to leave any buoyancy. ”

“ And that’s rather a long-winded speech,” he added, smiling.
“Can’t we make them see that we are working for them instead of against them?” said Uncle Dick.
“No,” said Uncle Bob. “No one can teach prejudiced workmen. The light comes to them some day, but it takes a long time to get through their dense brains. I think Cob must go.”
“Oh! Uncle Bob,” I exclaimed.
“I can’t help it,” my lad. “There seems to be no help for it. I shall regret it horribly, for your uncles are very poor company.”
“Thankye,” said Uncle Dick.
“Nice remark from the most stupid of three brothers,” grumbled Uncle Jack. ”

“ He then broke out in incoherent fear: "You keep him off of me, master—you keep him off. Or I tell yer, I'll brind him—I will!" At which Lizarann's heart stopped. Not from anything in the words, which were of the sort that she would have told Bridgetticks were "only Uncle [159] Bob." Uncle Bob occurred too frequently in daily life for her to fret much about his language. The cold shiver had run down her back, this time, because she knew there was no one in the room with him. But, may she not have known falsely? Surely there was someone else there, that he was speaking to. Listen! ”

“ Then, suddenly, Bess snickered, and at the same moment came a faint, weak little whistle screech, and Bob and I looked the way she was pointing, and there, clear across the river, half a mile away, was a nice little railroad train, trundling along as innocently as could be!
For one second Bob looked as if he was going to say something to match the expression of his face; and then he caught sight of Uncle Rob, who was standing with his back that way, his feet planted ankle deep in the red clay and both hands on the bit of his horse,—and he grinned, instead. ”

“ Uncle Bob roared with laughter, and slapped his knee. “That’s a good one!” he cried. “And down at the Court House, sometimes when I talk a good deal I can put a lawyer to sleep.”
“Lawyers are not nice people,” Phœbe declared. “At least they’re never very nice on the screen.”
She asked him quite frankly about her program 168of work. “Public school is out, and so is Miss Simpson’s,” she reminded him; “and here I am at lessons every morning.”
“You’ll be just so much ahead of everybody else,” returned Uncle Bob. “And why waste the time? Pile up the good work while Daddy’s gone. Now! now! ”

“ And do you know how happy Grandma is to have you?—Uncle John and Uncle Bob, too? I can see they love my little girl already.”
“And they’ll love Mother,” added Phœbe, stoutly “You just wait till she comes back well again. Won’t they, Daddy?” ”

“ Evans did not seem to think that such a thing could possibly happen, and so Uncle Bob breathed easier.
“But you mustn’t take those things with you,” added the visitor, as Uncle Bob walked toward the safe with the saddle-bags in his hand. “You will never get out of the valley if you do. ”

“ He’s er gittin’ uperds in years now; pretty soon he’ll hatter shove off fur dat ‘heb’nly sho’,” an’ wen de Lord sen’ atter him, he don’t want dat angel ter catch him in no kinwunshuns ’long wid ’publicans an’ sinners.’” And so Uncle Bob attends to his store, and mends chairs and tubs, and deals extensively in chickens and eggs; and perhaps he is doing just as well as if he were in Congress.
Dilsey and Chris and Riar are all women now, and are all married and have children of their own; and nothing delights them more than to tell their little ones what “us an’ de white chil’en usen ter do.” ”

“ Miss Ruth told us she was crying. Well, she wasn’t. She was cutting paper dolls. Anyhow, I stole her, and she’s cried a lot since. Uncle John says I’m too big for dolls, so I intend to adopt her.”
“Adopt her!” exploded Uncle Bob.
“Oh, just look at her!” implored Phœbe. “She’s had such bad luck!—a step-mother, and the awful 184name of Botts, and she’s red-haired, and freckled, and she’s got adenoids!”
Mrs. Botts sprang forward. “So-o-o!” she answered. “She is like that. But she can mind her own business. And she does not talk too much. She might be worse—as bad as you!”
“Phœbe,” said Uncle Bob. ”

“ As the breezy Bob crossed the threshold, the question of his eyes was instantly transformed to an expression of utter astonishment as he beheld the extraordinary blend of soil and pallor upon the countenance of his uncle.
“For the Lord’s sake!” he cried, “what ails your face?” and strongly tempted to laugh at the absurd spectacle, and as urgently impelled to restrain himself by the glittering eyes of the raging Raikes, he added, by way of apology for his noisy intrusion:
“We knew that you were in here, but could not make you hear us. You are almost two hours beyond your usual time.” ”

“ Jack had ridden up close to the Indian, and was energetically shaking hands.
"Quick, Uncle Stanley, do tell us something," pleaded Tim. "Have you seen those lumberjacks? Do you know what Bob Somers thinks?"
"Boys, boys, give me a chance," laughed Mr. Lovell. "Order, order! Now, Bob, what is your idea?"
"That the men have staked out the wrong place."
Wanatoma, with an approving glance, nodded.
"The white boy is keen, like Indian brave," he said, slowly.
"Then—then do you really mean to say Bob is right?" stammered Tim, with a great flash of hope. "Quick, Uncle Stanley, tell us." ”

“ A cry of terror escaped all of them. Every one started up, and each one grasped neighbor.
There was something in this sudden shock so dreadful and so startling, that it broke through even the drowsiness and heavy stupor of Bob, and penetrated to his slumbering faculties, and in an instant roused them all. With a wild yell he flung his arms round Uncle Moses. Uncle Moses, fell backward, and all the others were flung upon him. They all lay thus heaped upon the side of the coach, a straggling mass of humanity.
Frank was the first to come to himself, and regain his presence of mind. ”

“ He would not let her go. “Phœbe! Oh, Phœbe, listen to me! Your father guesses that you don’t want him to marry. And so he won’t. For that very reason you must choose your mother. And you must choose her before you go!”
255“Before tomorrow?”
“This very afternoon!”
At that they both rose. There was that set look about Uncle Bob’s jaw which Phœbe, learning the moods of men, recognized as a sign of determination. Before that big, glowing countenance and those clenched teeth, Phœbe weakened.
He saw that. “Oh, Phœbe,” he pleaded, “there’s so much that you must know for your own safety and happiness. ”

“ Bob, as we have shown, was a native of Piketon, and had spent most of his life there. He was an only son, who was left a considerable fortune by his father, who appointed Uncle Jim Budd his guardian. This old gentleman, though he sometimes flared up and threatened Bob because of his extravagance and waywardness, was foolishly indulgent. Whatever firmness he might have shown at times in dealing with his nephew was spoiled by his wife, who refused the young man nothing that was in her power to grant. Bob was not naturally vicious, and his relatives were largely responsible for his going wrong. ”

“ But Barbara interrupted.
"I'm not going back to Second Westings!" she declared obstinately, trying hard to set her full red lips together in the resolute way that Robert's had. "I will never go back to live with Aunt Hitty. I'll drown myself first. I'm going to Uncle Bob, at Stratford." ”

“ Because Uncle Bob won’t have a motor car—he wants to walk to and from the Court House, and keep down his weight, and——”
“Uncle Bob is fat?” Phœbe inquired.
“Well, stout. And Uncle John, being a clergyman, and a trifle particular, doesn’t believe ministers should rush around in automobiles. So the surrey is for Uncle John, but Grandma will let you drive for her sometimes. And there are ducks and chickens to feed, and big beds of flowers, and a tall, 18green hedge where the birds build their nests, and——”
“And when will Mother come?” ”

“ We must see what we can do for you. Your uncle Bob will not help you; I have heard all about that. We will not talk about him; and as for Heatherly, there is no help to be got from him. I am going out of town to-night, or I would have had you, Walter, come and dine with me and talk matters over. However, if your friends will look after you for a day or two longer, I hope we may settle something. I have an idea that my aunt, Lady Di Pierpoint, will take charge of Emily. I must insist upon her doing so. She mixes a good deal in the world, rouges, and is rather addicted to scandal, it is true ”

“ He was always very learned even when he was a boy, I've heard father say. And he hasn't got to work for his living, so he can please himself how he spends his time."
"Is he better off than your father, then?" asked Bob, somewhat diffidently, for he did not know how his companion would take the question.
"Yes," Tim answered calmly, "he has money which an uncle left him. It was very kind of Uncle John to ask me here, but I wish he was more like father," he concluded with a regretful sigh.
"You are to have tea with us," announced Bob, as they came within sight of home. ”