"Oh, it is too bad; too bad! that mother should be so troubled for the
want of a little money," said Mabel.
"Cheer up! Cheer up!" rang out a voice close at hand, "pretty Poll;
cheer up!" and a bright green parrot with a yellow breast began to
beat against the bars of his cage as if he would like to get out.
"That is a good omen, Polly," said Mabel, as she rose and opened the
door of the cage, "but it is not Poll who ought to 'cheer up' but I,
you pretty bird." Poll hopped out and perched upon her finger and
looked so knowingly at her, that it almost broke down the resolution
she had formed. Mabel was accustomed to take Poll out and talk to her,
and brother Ben, who was an amateur photographer, had taken a picture
of the pretty pair, so Polly was already immortalized.
"Poor Ben! Poor Ben!" said Polly. "'On Linden when the sun was
low'--ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! Poor Ben! Poor Ben!" laughed and shouted
Polly.
"Poor Ben, indeed!" said Mabel, "though the Ben you first heard about
was another Ben, and used to break down with his recitation and be
laughed at. I wonder where he is now, and whether he is dead, my brave
soldier uncle! If he were alive, and should come back, what would he
think to find another Polly just like the one he left behind, who had
learned some of the things his Polly used to say. Mamma says your
predecessor died of old age, Polly; I wonder if that will be your
destiny. I shall never know; for I am going to sell you to the lady up
at the hotel, who saw you hanging outside, and wanted you for her
little girl. She said she would give me five dollars, and when I
refused she offered me ten. I could not let you go, Polly, but now I
_must_. I must say 'good-bye' to you now, Polly, for I shall never
take you out of the cage again."
"Cheer up! cheer up!" sang Polly, as Mabel put her back, and closing
the cage, left the room.
The boys were leaving the sitting-room when she went down stairs, and
as Ben passed her, she said, "Do not go to bed till I come up again. I
want to speak to you. Wait in my room."
Mrs. Ross was getting ready to go up to her room when Mabel entered.
"Are you going up, mamma?" said she, "I will not keep you long; but I
want to tell you, that I think I know a way for you to get some money.
I wish to keep it a secret for the present; but I think I can safely
promise you some. The last thing before I came down, Polly called,
'cheer up, cheer up,' and it is a good omen; so I say the same to you,
mamma."
"You are a good girl, Mabel, but I am afraid you are too sanguine. How
can you hope to succeed where I have failed?"
"You will believe me when you see the money, shall you not, mamma?"
"There would not be much merit in that, dear, but I will _trust_ you,
and whatever happens I will believe you did what you thought was
right, and that God does every thing for the best."
"Thank you, mamma. Good night, and pleasant dreams."
"Good night, dear."
Mabel went softly up stairs. "Ben," said she, when she reached her
room, but Ben had fallen asleep, and she had to shake him up.
"What kept you?" said Ben, in a sleepy tone.
"Why, I was not long, Ben. Do you now the name of that little girl who
took such a fancy to Polly?"
"Yes," said Ben. "It is Eva Granby. What do you want to know for?"
"I shall tell you sometime, you are too sleepy to talk to-night, so I
shall let you go. Good night, Ben."
"Good night," said Ben, not sorry to be dismissed.
Mabel lay awake some time. She was sorry to part with her parrot, but
after all it was only a bird. Mamma and Ben and Walt and dear little
Joe should not suffer that she might keep it.
She could hear the music, from the great hotel on the hill, borne on
the breeze, and that, with the happy frame of mind produced by the
approval of her conscience, soon had the effect of sending her into a
sound sleep, from which she awoke in the morning, refreshed and quite
happy. She went about her accustomed duties with a light heart and
singing like a lark. Mrs. Ross wondered, to hear her; what could be
the source of her high spirits.
She was on the alert for a chance to put her plan into execution, and
when she found her mother occupied over the details of the breakfast
table, she went up to her room, and covering the parrot's cage and
herself with a light water-proof cloak, which the chill of of the May
morning seemed to warrant; she went out of the house and through the
back gate, and took the road to the hotel.
Mrs. Granby had just risen, and was delighted that Mabel had come to
terms after all, as her little daughter had been longing for the
parrot continually. Mabel told her story and Mrs. Granby was deeply
affected. She promptly agreed to Mabel's condition, to sell her the
bird back again, if she could get together ten dollars of her own to
redeem it, and gave Mabel her address in New York.
Mabel was at home again just as the boys were getting their breakfast,
and wondering what had become of her. She said she had been taking a
walk for her health and refused to gratify them further.
Soon they were through and went out, and when she saw little Joe in
the swing, and Ben and Walt sitting on the bench of Walt's making,
under the apple-tree, and knew by their gestures they were discussing
Perry's colt--she drew from her pocket the crisp, bright, ten-dollar
bill, and laid it beside her mother's plate. Her mother's fervent
"Thank God," amply rewarded her for the loss of the parrot.
"But, Mabel," began Mrs. Ross--
"Now, mamma," interrupted Mabel, "you know you promised to trust me.
You will soon know all about it."
Mabel went to school that day with a happy heart.
That evening a portly, middle-aged gentleman stood at the gate, and as
she looked up, he said:
"Can you tell me if this is Mrs. Ross's?"
"Yes, sir," said Mabel, wondering who he could be. As she turned and
faced him, he caught his breath quickly, and exclaimed:
"Alice!"
Mabel's heart gave a great bound.
"That is mamma's name, mine is Mabel."
"Lead me to her," he said, hoarsely.
Mabel quickly ran before him into the house exclaiming:
"Oh, mamma! I think it is Uncle Ben."
Mrs. Ross would have fallen had she not been caught by the strong arms
of the stalwart brother whom she had not seen for twenty years. And
then it all came out. Mabel's secret was a secret no longer.
Captain Ben Grayson, old soldier, and retired ranch owner, had come
back after twenty years of life in the west to hunt for his sister,
his only known relative, whom he had last seen when she was a girl
like Mabel. He had been told a Miss Grayson had died from the ravages
of an epidemic that swept through the school she had been placed at;
and so, when the war ended, he went out west instead of returning to
New York as he should have done but for that false report. But he had
lately heard, from an old school-friend, he had come across, that she
was living, had married, and become a widow, and that was all the
information he could get.
By the simplest chance he had stopped at Fairmount. Shortly after
rising that morning, he was startled by a parrot hung outside the
window of the room next to his, calling out,--"Cheer up! cheer up!"
and shortly after,--"'On Linden when the sun was low,' ha! ha! ha! ha!
ha! Poor Ben!"
"Well," said Uncle Ben, "you can imagine the effect. I knew my parrot
could not be living yet; but I thought to myself, _that_ parrot must
have learned from my old one or from you, Alice, and I hastened to
make the acquaintance of my next-door neighbor, and so _I have found
you_."
And Mabel bought her parrot back again, which was now doubly dear, as
it had been the means of finding Uncle Ben. And quiet brother Ben was
made happy by an artist's outfit, and had the satisfaction of doing
Mabel and the parrot in colors, as he had long ago done them with the
camera.
When the last gift had been given, the boys, with one accord, threw up
their hats and cried,--"Hurrah, for Uncle Ben!"
As for Mrs. Ross, her measure of happiness was full; she had her long
lost brother Ben.