“He looks just like you,” declared Jan. “Can’t we call you Uncle Ben?”
Mr. Wilson did not answer for a moment. Then, looking at Mr. and Mrs. Martin, he said:
“You have been so kind to me that I must tell you my story. After that, if the children want to, they may call me Uncle Ben. But it will be only for a little while, as I hope soon to be able to travel on.”
Mr. Wilson’s story was quite a long one, and I will not put it all down here. Enough to say that he had worked as a sailor for a number of years, until he lost his health. Then he had to get something else to do. But he did not get better, his relatives all died or he lost track of them, and at last he could not work hard enough, any longer, to make a good living.
“So I turned into what is often called a tramp,” he said. “I went from place to place, trying to get a little work here and there. A doctor told me that if I could live out of doors for six months I would get well and strong again. But the only kind of life out of doors is that on a farm or being a sailor, and I am not strong enough to plow and do farm work, and cannot get on a ship. So I don’t know what to do.
“I wandered to Cresco, thinking perhaps I might get work here. I didn’t have very much to eat, and when I reached your house I was weak and I just couldn’t go any further. Everything seemed to be going around and around, and I—I fell down, I guess.”
“Yes, you did,” said Teddy, who, like Jan, was eagerly listening to this story. “You fell down, and Miss Ransom told us you were acting funny, and we told mother, and——”
“Yes, and you brought me in and have been very kind to me ever since,” said Mr. Wilson. “But I cannot stay here. I must travel on and see if I can’t get work out of doors. Then I could get well and strong again.”
“And now may we call you Uncle Ben?” asked Jan, when the man had brought his story to a close.
“Of course you may, children!” exclaimed their mother. “If he was Uncle Ben once he is Uncle Ben still, and though he isn’t the same Uncle Ben you know down in Florida, I think it will be nice to call him that, since it really is his name.”