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.