“‘Kamerad!  Kamerad!’” he cried, holding up both hands.  “That’s what the Germans say when they surrender, ain’t it?  I give in, Maud.  You can shoot me against a stone wall, if you want to, only give me my frozen puddin’ first.  It ain’t so much that I like the puddin’,” he explained to Mrs. Armstrong, “but I never can make out whether it’s flavored with tansy or spearmint.  Maud won’t tell me, but I know it’s somethin’ old-fashioned and reminds me of my grandmother; or, maybe, it’s my grandfather; come to think, I guess likely ’tis.”

Ruth grasped his meaning later when she tasted the pudding and found it flavored with New England rum.

After dinner they adjourned to the parlor.  Maud, being coaxed by her adoring father, played the piano.  Then she sang.  Then they all sang, all except Jed and the captain, that is.  The latter declared that his voice had mildewed in the damp weather they had been having lately, and Jed excused himself on the ground that he had been warned not to sing because it was not healthy.

Barbara was surprised and shocked.

“Why, Uncle Jed!” she cried.  “You sing ever so much.  I heard you singing this morning.”

Jed nodded.  “Ye-es,” he drawled, “but I was alone then and I’m liable to take chances with my own health.  Bluey Batcheldor was in the shop last week, though, when I was tunin’ up and it disagreed with him.”

“I don’t believe it, Uncle Jed,” with righteous indignation.  “How do you know it did?”

“’Cause he said so.  He listened a spell, and then said I made him sick, so I took his word for it.”

Captain Sam laughed uproariously.  “You must be pretty bad then, Jed,” he declared.  “Anybody who disagrees with Bluey Batcheldor must be pretty nigh the limit.”

Jed nodded.  “Um-hm,” he said, reflectively, “pretty nigh, but not quite.  Always seemed to me the real limit was anybody who agreed with him.”

So Jed, with Babbie on his knee, sat in the corner of the bay window looking out on the street, while Mrs. Armstrong and her brother and Miss Hunniwell played and sang and the captain applauded vigorously and loudly demanded more.  After a time Ruth left the group at the piano and joined Jed and her daughter by the window.  Captain Hunniwell came a few minutes later.

“Make a good-lookin’ couple, don’t they?” he whispered, bending down, and with a jerk of his head in the direction of the musicians.  “Your brother’s a fine-lookin’ young chap, Mrs. Armstrong.  And he acts as well as he looks.  Don’t know when I’ve taken such a shine to a young feller as I have to him.  Yes, ma’am, they make a good-lookin’ couple, even if one of ’em is my daughter.”