"
Billy turned and gazed contemplatively at Ralph. "Been readin' some
more o' them love-stories?" he asked, smiling behind a cloud of smoke.
"No, I ain't, an' I don't mean that kind. I mean your mother or your
sister or your wife--it'd be jes' like as though you had a wife, you
know, Uncle Billy."
Again, the man puffed savagely at his pipe before replying.
"Wull," he said at last, "na doot it'd be comfortin' to have a guid
weef to care for ye; but they're an awfu' trooble, Ralph, women
is,--an awfu' trooble."
"But you don't know, Uncle Billy; you ain't had no 'xperience."
"No more am I like to have. I'm a gittin' too auld now. I could na get
me a weef an' I wanted one. Hoot, lad! think o' your Uncle Billy wi' a
weef to look after; it's no' sensiba, no' sensiba," and the man took
his pipe from his mouth and indulged in a hearty burst of laughter at
the mental vision of himself in matrimonial chains.
"But then," persisted Ralph, "you'd have such a nice home, you know;
an' somebody to look glad an' smile an' say nice things to you w'en
you come home from work o' nights. Uncle Billy, I'd give a good deal
if I had it, jes' to have a home like other boys has, an' mothers an'
fathers an' sisters an' all that."
"Wull, lad, I've done the bes' I could for ye, I've--"
"Oh, Uncle Billy!" interrupted the boy, rising and laying his hand
on the man's shoulder affectionately, "you know I don't mean that;
I don't mean but what you've been awful good to me; jes' as good as
any one ever could be; but it's sumpthin' dif'rent from that 'at I
mean.
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