“Oh, well, there’s lots of time. Did you ever hear a gramophone?”
“She can’t hardly hear when she does.”
“Eigh?” He seemed extremely puzzled.
“Uncle Andrew says she’s crazy even to try.”
“Who?”
“Why, Granma.” Mr. Starr had never before seemed stupid, but now Rufus began to think his memory was as bad as those of the boys at the corner. Could he be teasing? It would be very queer if Mr. Starr would tease. He decided he should trust him. “You know, when she phones, like you said.”
Mr. Starr thought that over for a moment and then he seemed to understand. But almost the moment he understood he started to laugh, so he must have been teasing, after all. Rufus was deeply hurt. Then almost immediately he stopped laughing as if he were shocked at himself.
“Well now,” he said. “I begin to see how we both got a bit in a muddle. You’d never heard of the thing I was talking about, and it sounds mighty like grandma phone, did you ever hear grandmaphone. Of course. Naturally. But what I was talking about was a nice box that music comes out of. Did you ever hear music come out of a box?”
“Huh-uh.”
“Well down home, believe it or not, we got a box that music comes out of. Would you like to hear it sometime?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Good. We’ll see if that can’t be arranged. Soon. Now would you like to know what they call this box?”
“Uh-huh.”
“A gram-o-phone. See? It sounds very much like grandma phone, but it’s just a little different. Gram-o-phone. Can you say it?”
“Gram-uh-phone.”
