Two days later Ted, Jan, and Baby William were allowed to go into the room where the “tramp,” as the children often called him, was sitting up in an easy chair. He looked much better than when he had been carried in a few days before.
Ted and Jan stared at the invalid, who was fast getting better. And Ted suddenly exclaimed:
“Why, he’s Uncle Ben!”
“Uncle Ben!” repeated his father. “What do you mean?”
“Why, he looks just like the picture of Uncle Ben in our photograph album,” went on Teddy. “Doesn’t he, Mother?”
Mrs. Martin looked closely at the man, who had a bushy, brown beard.
“I have been puzzling my head, trying to think whom you did look like,” she said to the stranger. “Now I know. It is Uncle Ben!”
CHAPTER VI
OFF TO SILVER LAKE
The sick man smiled at the children and at Mr. and Mrs. Martin. When he smiled he had a very pleasant face—in fact, he had a very pleasant face at all times, now that he was getting well and strong.
“I’m glad to know I look like some one in this family, which has been so kind to me,” he said. “But I’m sorry to say I’m not your Uncle Ben, my dear little Curlytop!”