Under the Tree.

RIVERDALE STORY BOOKS

UNCLE BEN

Boston, Lee & Shepard.

The Riverdale Books.

UNCLE BEN.

A STORY FOR LITTLE FOLKS.

BY

OLIVER OPTIC,

AUTHOR OF “THE BOAT CLUB,” “ALL ABOARD,” “NOW OR NEVER,” “TRY AGAIN,” “POOR AND PROUD,” “LITTLE BY LITTLE,” &c.

BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, (SUCCESSORS TO PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.) 1865.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by

WILLIAM T. ADAMS,

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ELECTROTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.

UNCLE BEN.

I.

Frank and Flora Lee, with Charley Green and his two sisters, Katy and Nellie, had gone out to spend the afternoon in the pasture. It was July, and the strawberries in the fields were ripe. The children had brought their tin pails with them, and they hoped to be able to fill them with berries before they went home.

The afternoon was quite warm, and they soon got tired of running after strawberries, for there were very few in the field. Seating themselves under the broad branches of an oak, they rested their weary limbs, cooled their heated blood, and ate up the few berries that they had picked.

The pasture was on the outskirts of the village, and next to the river. On one side of it was an old, unpainted house, in which lived a man by the name of Benjamin Gorham. He was a poor man, but he was as proud as he was poor. He had been a sailor nearly all his lifetime. He was too old to go to sea now, and had come to Riverdale to end his days in peace and quiet.

He had bought the old house in which he lived, together with the few acres of land around it. He had very little money, and the people of Riverdale thought he must have a hard time to get along. He worked on the land, and raised fruits and vegetables, which he sold in the village.

It seemed very sad for an old man like him to work so hard for a living. The town, or the people, of Riverdale would very gladly have helped him with money or provisions, but he was too proud to take any thing from them. People pitied him, and wanted to do something for him; but he was angry when any one offered to give him any thing.

The folks in Riverdale had a habit of calling Mr. Gorham Uncle Ben, though for what reason I am unable to say; for not many of them liked him very well, and when any of the children came upon his land, he drove them away. He was cross, and scolded a great deal more than was necessary.

But the world had used him rather badly, judging from his own talk. He had worked hard all his life, and now, when he was an old man, he had not enough to live upon without severe toil. I suppose this was what made him cross. He thought people pitied him, and he did not want to be pitied, because he was very proud.

Uncle Ben had not always been a common sailor while at sea. He had been the first mate of a ship—which is next to the captain—the two last voyages he had made. He had wanted to be a captain, but the owners, for some reason or other, would not trust him.

This made him gloomy and sad. He was disappointed, and this helped to make him cross. People used to vex and bother him, too, because he was so crusty, and this only made him worse. His wife was a very good woman, and all the neighbors liked her very much. They had no children.

The happy party were seated only a little way from the house of Uncle Ben; but the two boys thought they were as near as they wanted to be, for the old man seemed to hate children.

If he did, it was only because they gave him so much trouble. They knew he was cross, and they liked to plague him. On purpose to bother him, they used to steal his apples, even when they had enough of them. They would get into his lot, or his garden, only to see him run after them.

This was very naughty of them, for I have no doubt, if they had been kind to him, he would have been kind to them.

“I wish I had a drink of water,” said Flora Lee, as she glanced at the house of Uncle Ben. “I’m almost choked.”