UNCLE SILAS, THE WIZARD
“Hello! there! Merry Christmas to you, Dick, old chum!” exclaimed
Leslie, as he pushed in through the door as soon as it was opened.
“Here’s a little something I know you’ve been wanting this long while.”
“Oh, my stars! a pair of dandy hockey skates!” gasped the astonished
Dick, as he tore the paper from the package that had been thrust into
his hands. “You’ve just about knocked me silly, Leslie, for a fact. And
my present to you is such a little one, too.”
“Little!” echoed the other, holding up the book he had taken from its
wrappings. “Why, I’ve been meaning to get this for over half a year.
And the best of it is you earned every cent it cost, while I had most
of my money from my folks. It’s worth ten times as much as what I paid
for the skates, every time, and don’t you forget it.”
“The finest skates I ever saw,” said Dick, joyously, as he again
examined his present. “I can see what bully times I’ll have this
winter--that is of nights, after I get home from work.”
“Oh! rats! don’t say that as if you meant it, Dick. If you leave school
I’ll never have the heart to keep on to graduation time. You know how
we planned to stick together through thick and thin. I’ll ask dad to
let me start working, too, see if I don’t.”
“That would be silly of you,” Dick told him. “But let’s try to forget
it all, for one more day. Time enough to bother when tomorrow comes.”
“What’s this I see!” exclaimed Leslie, humorously. “Five stockings hung
up in a row; and here’s little Susie beginning to look into hers, after
she’s done staring at the gay tree. What luck did you have, Dick?”
“Oh! I hadn’t thought to look yet,” admitted the other. “In fact, I
overslept, and had just gone into the kitchen to see if I could help
mother with breakfast when you knocked on the door.”
He stepped over to the mantel, gave the fire some attention to start it
to burning briskly again, and was about to take hold of the stocking
that had been hung up for him when he stopped short.
Something was peeping above the one his mother had hung up for herself,
and into which Dick had managed to cram the present he had purchased
for her. It looked like a formidable document to Dick too, and somehow
the sight of it gave him a cold shiver, as though he feared new
developments that might mean more trouble.
“I wonder what it is,” he muttered, uneasily; and then overcome by
curiosity, he reached forth his hand, and boldly drew the document out.
Leslie too leaned forward as Dick gazed at the paper which he now knew
Uncle Silas must have placed there after all the rest had retired.
“Oh, my stars!” ejaculated Leslie, shrilly. “It’s a real Government
bond, don’t you see, Dick, with your mother’s full name on it, and
for--why, I must be dreaming--_ten thousand dollars_!”
Dick uttered a loud cry that seemed to come from the depths of his
overcharged heart. As if the shout had been a signal to draw them, the
little mother came hurrying in from the kitchen, while grandpop made
his appearance, cane in hand, his room being close at hand.
“What’s the matter, Dick?” questioned Mrs. Horner, looking deeply
interested.
“Leslie fetched you a present, did he?” demanded the veteran as his
eyes fell upon the glistening hockey skates lying neglected now on the
table.
Dick could not say a word, but he thrust the wonderful paper into the
hands of his mother. Her eyes drank in the printed form on the outside,
with her name plainly inscribed as the owner of the bond.
“What does it mean, Son?” she asked, weakly. “I don’t seem able to
understand.”
“Why, it’s a Christmas present for you, Mrs. Horner, from Uncle Silas,”
explained Leslie, only too desirous of making immediate amends for all
his base suspicions of the past. “He’s waited his time, and sprung the
greatest surprise I ever heard of on you all. Bully for Uncle Silas, I
say; _he’s_ all right!”
“What’s this you’re saying about me?” asked a voice, and the wanderer
appeared in view, his weather-beaten face wreathed in a broad smile of
happiness and contentment. “They say listeners never hear any good of
themselves. Tell me to my face if you dare.”
Polly looked at him almost helplessly. Then she raised the precious
Government bond, with the magic figures printed upon it.
“What--where--how--oh! Silas, how could you deceive us so, and let us
believe you poor and homeless, when you were a rich man all the while?”
Thereupon Uncle Silas gathered the little woman into his arms, and,
kissing her fondly, went on to solve the mystery.
“Well,” he proceeded to explain, seeing that they were all consumed
with natural curiosity, “after losing three fortunes through being too
greedy, I finally got hold of a claim that I sold for fifty thousand
dollars cash. By that time I was in fact broken in health, so I firmly
determined to hunt up any relatives I might have left, and if they
proved to be the right sort, stay with them the balance of my life,
leaving them all I had in return.”
“And you were playing a sly game on us all the while, you rogue!”
remarked the old veteran, as he grasped the wanderer’s extended hand,
and squeezed it heartily.
“Can you blame me in one way?” demanded Uncle Silas. “I wanted to be
very sure that I was being received for myself alone, and not because
I was worth that much money. Of course, I soon learned that there were
hearts of true gold under this humble roof, and that I would never be
allowed to leave it. But it pleased me to persist in my assumed role
until this happy morning came.”
“And true enough, as you said, ‘weeping may endure for a night, but
joy cometh in the morning!’” cried Mrs. Horner, with her sisterly arms
about his neck. “Surely the clouds did not last long, and the dawn
seems all the more beautiful because of that letter yesterday.”
“It’s the greatest Christmas that ever was!” cried Dick, as he too hung
on to the hand of Uncle Silas. “How glad I am to know that after all I
needn’t give up my schooling yet.”
“You are a fine lad, and I’m proud to have you for my nephew,” said
Uncle Silas, heartily. “Please Heaven you shall go to college, and find
your true place in a world that needs just such fellows as you. There
will be no reason for any of the dear ones under this roof to face
want again, for I have enough for all, and what is mine is yours. You
offered me a home when you believed me poor and sick. I have proved
your hearts by deeds; after this we will find true happiness together
here.”
Dick could hardly eat a morsel of breakfast, he was so excited. Several
times he even asked Leslie, who stayed to the meal with them, to pinch
him, for he felt he really must be dreaming, and that on being aroused
the amazing event would prove to be only an illusion.
But the sight of that wonderful Government bond on the mantel always
gave him renewed hope and strengthened his wavering faith.
“After all, I guess this has been a glorious day for you, old fellow,”
Leslie was saying, as he donned his outer coat, and prepared to run
over home so as to carry the delightful news.
“I never saw the sky look so blue before in all my life,” the other boy
admitted. “And listen to the church bells ringing, will you? It seems
to me they must know all that’s happened here, and are singing just as
my heart’s doing right now. I’m the happiest fellow in Cliffwood; and
I ought to get out so as to try to make some other chap feel a little
the same way by doing him a good turn.”
“My mother will be just tickled half to death,” asserted Leslie. “She’s
been doing little save talk about your trouble ever since I told her,
trying to figure out how she could help you all without offending you.
I just can’t stay any longer because I want to tell her the big news.
Hurrah for Uncle Silas, say I! He’s turned out to be a regular trump!
And how he did fool me in the bargain!”
With that Leslie hurried away, only turning to wave his hand at his
chum, and shout out:
“Everything’s headed your way at last, Dick; and I bet you five cents
against a cookey that fine farce of yours is bound to take the prize
Mr. Holwell’s offering. Nat may try all he wants, but he can’t fight
against such luck as has set in toward the Horners. Mark my words, will
you?”
Dick only laughed in reply as he closed the door, and once more went
in to make sure the amazing paper still stood there on the mantel in
the living room. If he took it in his hands and examined the precious
document once that morning, he did a dozen times; though finally Mrs.
Horner thought it best to place it securely away in a receptacle where
she kept the few little valuables she possessed.
Toward the middle of the morning, Dick, remembering his new hockey
skates, managed to tear himself away from the little house where so
much happiness was concentrated, and go forth to seek the big pond,
with the intention of testing the steel runners.
And during that day the boy sought and found some fellow who had
been utterly forgotten by the patron saint of Christmas, upon whom
he bestowed his other skates, as well as something in the shape of
money. Dick’s heart was overflowing with gratitude for the amazing good
fortune that had come to his home; and this, according to his mind, was
the only way in which he could pass the good cheer along.