“O.K.” said Henry, getting up. “We can hunt for clues in the chest. There might be a secret drawer in it.”
“Let me see,” began Jessie. “The chest has three drawers. Joe and Alice can look in one drawer, Henry and Benny in another, and Violet and I in the third.”
Soon the whole family was busy. First they took the old dusty papers out of the drawers. They tapped each drawer, hunting for a secret drawer. They found nothing but dust.
“Ho-hum,” said Benny. “What shall we do now, Jessie?”
“Oh, I’m sure I don’t know,” cried Jessie. Everyone looked at her.
“You’re not cross, are you, Jessie?” asked Benny.
Jessie laughed a little. “Maybe I am,” she said. “I did hope we would find the money in that chest. But we tapped every drawer. There is no secret drawer there. Let’s go outdoors and sit on the steps.”
The family went outdoors slowly and sat down on the steps. Nobody said a word. Jessie was not often cross.
Pretty soon Benny said, “I wonder where the toad is? I suppose he stays under the steps.”
Alice smiled at Benny, but nobody felt like answering him.
Benny went on. “Does a toad have a house? What kind of a house does he live in, Jessie?”
“Oh, Benny! I don’t know! I’m so tired! You want to know everything! Why do you want to ask about toads now, when we want to find a tin box!” She almost laughed.
“Never mind, Jessie,” said Benny quickly. “I’ll look for myself.”
The little boy got down on his hands and knees. Soon he was lying on the ground looking under the steps with one eye.
“I can see him. He’s just sitting there. He winked at me.”
Benny picked up a long stick.
“Don’t hurt the toad, Benny,” said Joe.
“Oh, no. I’m just going to see how big his room is.” Benny began to move the stick from one side to the other. Then he crawled quietly to the back of the steps where there was a big hole under the house. The toad jumped through the hole, and Benny followed him. Everyone had to smile. They knew that Benny was crawling under the house.
Soon they heard him talking to himself. “Here’s a pretty white stone,” he was saying, “and here’s an old tin can. Here’s a screwdriver. Not a bad screwdriver.”
Then he was silent.
But the others could hear him crawling around under the house.
“Never mind, Jessie,” said Joe with a smile. “He’s having fun. Children forget things very soon, you know.”
Then they heard Benny say, “Well, here’s the toad! Hello, Toad! Where do you live?”
“He seems to be having quite a talk with a toad,” said Henry, laughing.
Benny went on, “Do you live in that old wooden box under the house? That’s funny. It’s open in the back instead of the front. Do you go in the back door? Why do you do that? Well, well. Ho-hum-HENRY! There’s a tin box here!”
“What?” shouted Henry, almost falling down the steps.
“I’ve found it!” yelled Benny. “A tin box sitting right in a wooden box!”
The whole family was down on the grass looking under the steps.
“You come out, Benny!” shouted Joe. “Bring the box. We can see better out here.”
“I was coming, anyway,” said Benny. He came crawling as fast as he could through the hole. He pushed the tin box ahead of him, and came out from under the steps.
“Sure enough!” cried Jessie. “It is a tin box. I can hardly believe it. Now I only hope there is something in it.”
“There is,” said Benny. “I shook it.”
The excited children sat back and looked at the box. “You open it, Henry,” said Benny. “It’s too hard for me.”
Henry’s hands shook as he pulled the box open. There before their eyes were piles of green bills.
“Dollar bills!” Benny whispered.
“No, Benny, they are one-hundred dollar bills!” said Henry. “I never saw one before.”
“Let’s count them,” cried Benny.
“You count, Benny. You found them,” said Jessie in a kind voice.
Benny was so excited he could hardly count straight. At last he said, “That’s forty, and that’s all. How much is forty one-hundred dollar bills, Henry?”
“Four thousand dollars, young fellow,” said Henry. “Isn’t that what two race horses would be worth, Joe?”
“Just about,” said Joe.
“Boy, oh boy!” cried Benny. He was all tired out with excitement.
They all looked at each other. Then they looked at the tin box and the pile of green bills.
“Well, Joe,” said Henry at last, “where do we go from here?”
“I think,” answered Joe, “that when we get rested, we’d better go and see the hermit.”
“The hermit is Dave Hunter. And Dave Hunter is Bill,” said Benny.
“I think so, too,” said Joe with a smile. “But even now, maybe he won’t talk.”
Jessie put her arm around her little brother.
“I’m awfully sorry I was cross, Benny,” she said. “It’s lucky you do want to know everything. If you hadn’t looked in the toad’s house, we would never have found the tin box.”
CHAPTER 14
The Hermit
Right away, the children wanted to go to see Rita again. Leaving the money in the tin box in the kitchen cupboard, the whole family almost ran up the road.
“We want to go into the woods again, Rita,” Jessie called. “We want to talk with Dave Hunter. Do you think we could find our way alone?”
“Of course you can,” said Rita. “But Dave won’t talk.”
“Maybe he will talk to Benny,” said Jessie.
“Well, maybe,” said Rita. “He did before.”
The family started down the path through the woods. When they came to the cabin, they saw the hermit walking towards his house with a pail of water. He stopped when he saw the visitors. Then he went right on again.
“Dave!” called Henry kindly. But the hermit started to go up the steps to his cabin.
Then Benny called out in his loudest voice, “Bill!”
The pail went rolling down the steps as the old man stopped. He sat down and put his head in his hands.
But Benny seemed to know just what to do, and nobody stopped him. He ran over and sat down beside the old man and put his hand on his arm. “Oh, Bill,” he said, “don’t worry. We’ve come to take you home.”
“Home?” said Bill. He lifted his head and looked at Benny. “I can never go home, little boy.” He looked at the others as they waited on the path.
“Oh, yes, you can, Bill,” cried Benny. “Grandfather wants you to come home, and so does Mrs. McGregor.”
“Mrs. McGregor!” said Bill in a whisper.
Then nobody could believe what happened next. Violet went quickly over to the steps and took the old man’s hand. “He means Margaret,” she said.
He looked down at the pretty little girl. “Margaret is dead,” said Bill.
“No, Margaret is alive,” said Violet.
“They told me she was dead,” said Bill. “They said there was a fire, and the barn burned and Margaret died trying to save the horses.”
“Oh, that isn’t true at all, Bill,” cried Benny. “We lived in that barn all last summer, and Mrs. McGregor is the housekeeper at my grandfather’s house.”
“I can’t go home,” said Bill quietly. “I can’t find the money. I took Mr. Alden’s money.”
“We found the money,” said Violet gently.
“Where?” asked the old man.
“In a tin box under the steps of the house,” answered Violet.
“In a tin box—that’s right,” Bill said. “Oh dear, oh dear!”
Then Joe came up to the steps. He said, “Mr. McGregor, everything will be all right again, believe me. Your wife is alive and wants to see you. We just found the money today.” Then he turned to the children.
“I’m afraid
Bill is getting very tired,” he said to them. “He is having too much excitement after forty years. Do you think you can walk to Old Village, Mr. McGregor?”
The old man looked at Joe’s kind face. “Yes, I can, if all this story is true.”
“I promise you it is,” said Joe. Then he said to the children, “Don’t ask him anything more until we get him home. But he is Bill all right.”
Benny would not let go of Bill’s hand. He led him carefully along the path, stopping to show him every stone.
“I’ve seen every stone on this path for many years, little boy,” said Bill. But they all knew that he liked to have Benny help him.
They took him to the little house that he had built himself. Alice made him lie down on one of the cots, and Jessie put something soft under his head. Joe rushed over to Jim’s Place and soon came back with a cup of hot tea.
“Drink this,” he said. “It will make you feel better.”
Bill drank the tea, and before anyone knew it, he had fallen asleep.
“He is tired out,” said Violet in a whisper. “And so thin. He looks as if he didn’t have enough to eat. Almost starving.”
“We’ll soon fix that,” whispered Jessie with a smile. “He’ll have enough to eat if he lives with us.”
The family went into the kitchen. They shut the door softly.
“Won’t Grandfather be surprised,” said Henry.
“And Mrs. McGregor,” said Violet.
“I’m surprised myself,” said Joe. “I thought Bill was dead, for sure.”
Jessie said, “Wasn’t it queer how Benny got him to talk all of a sudden? Just because he called him Bill.”
“Bill must have felt funny to be talking after forty years,” said Benny. “I couldn’t stop talking for forty years.”
“I hope you won’t, Benny,” laughed Alice. “We love to hear you talk.”
“When Bill wakes up, we must give him something to eat,” said Jessie. “I think I’ll run over to Jim’s Place and see what he has.”
“Let me go with you,” said Alice. “We can go out the back door.”
The two girls went across the road, and found Jim in his kitchen stirring something on the back of his stove. It was soup, and it smelled delicious.
Jim turned around quickly and asked, “Wasn’t that the hermit I saw with you?”
“Yes, it was,” said Jessie. “His real name is Bill McGregor, and he used to work for our great-grandfather.”
“I thought something was queer about him,” cried Jim. “People used to say that little house was Bill McGregor’s place. Then one day Dave Hunter came to Old Village and said it was his. He said he was a cousin of Bill’s.
“But he wouldn’t live in the house. He told me to use it for campers and he built himself his cabin.”
“Well,” said Alice, “he says he is Bill McGregor now.”
“He talks, does he?” asked Jim. “I can hardly believe it. It must seem strange. He’s a nice, gentle old man. I always was sorry for him. I always tried to feed him up when he came out of the woods.”
“That’s what we came for,” said Jessie. “Something to feed to him. That hot soup would be just the thing.”
“Jes-sie!” Benny called from across the road. “Bill’s awake and he’s hungry.”
“Take some bread and butter, too,” said Jim with a laugh. “That’ll do him good.”
Alice and Jessie hurried back. Bill was sitting up in a chair. He looked rested.
Jessie put a little table in front of him, and set down the hot soup and a plate of bread and butter. Bill ate as if he were half-starved.
“You don’t look as thin as you did, Bill,” said Benny. “A little fatter.”
Everyone laughed, even Bill himself. “I don’t think he grew very fat on one bowl of soup,” said Jessie. “But you do look better, Bill, sure enough.”
“I feel better,” said the old man, looking into the girl’s kind face. Then he looked around at the other friendly faces. They were all smiling at him.
“I suppose Mrs. McGregor won’t know you,” said Benny.
“I will know her,” said Bill, “even if she is old.”
“She might like you better without your long beard,” said Benny.
“Sh-sh, Benny,” said Jessie.
But Bill’s feelings were not hurt. He even laughed a little. “My beard can be cut off,” he said. “Then I will look like Bill McGregor instead of an old hermit.”
“Jessie!” said Benny, all of a sudden. “Where did you get that soup? I’m awfully hungry.”
“What do you know!” cried Henry. “It’s long past noon and we were so excited we forgot our own dinner.”
“Don’t worry,” said Jessie, getting up at once. “We’ll soon fix that.”
CHAPTER 15
Starting for Home
The family sat down on the steps the next morning after breakfast.
“I want to go home,” said Benny suddenly.
“We all want to go home,” said Henry. “But how can we? We can’t take Bill in a canoe. Four people are too many.”
“We’ll have to get to Mr. Long’s store some way,” said Jessie. “If only we had our station wagon.”
“Let’s wait a little while,” said Joe. “Maybe something will happen.” He winked at Alice.
Benny rushed over to Joe and shook his shoulder. “What are you winking at Alice for?” he cried.
“Don’t you wish you knew?” teased Joe. He rolled Benny over in the grass.
“Get up and look what’s coming, boys,” called Alice. She pointed up the road. Coming around the corner was their very own station wagon.
“It’s the station wagon!” shouted Benny. “That’s Mr. Long driving and his boy is with him.” Benny began to jump up and down. He waved with both hands.
Mr. Long soon saw him, stopped at the little house, and got out. He laughed to see the children so surprised.
“You didn’t hear us, did you?” he said. “Joe and I made a lot of plans up at my store that first day.”
“Henry, I was sure you heard us,” said Joe, laughing. “I had just asked Mr. Long to meet us here in six days, when you suddenly came around the corner.”
“No, I didn’t hear a word,” said Henry, smiling. “But Mr. Long came on the right day. We do want to go home.”
“I never thought I would want this trip to end,” said Violet. “But now I want to get home to see Grandfather, and we all want to get Bill home to Mrs. McGregor.”
“Don’t tell me you have found Bill!” said Mr. Long, much surprised.
“Oh, yes,” said Benny. “Remember Dave Hunter, the hermit?”
“Yes,” said Mr. Long, “you mean he is Bill?”
Jessie said, “Yes, and it’s going to be a big surprise for Mrs. McGregor. Joe, shouldn’t we send a telegram to Grandfather?”
“Good for you, Jessie,” said Joe. “We’ll do that, just as soon as we find a place.”
“Come on,” shouted Benny. “Let’s go.”
The little house was soon full of people rushing around, rolling up bed rolls. They put things into the back of the station wagon, while Jim packed a big lunch for them to eat on the way home.
Jessie took the money out of the tin box and put it carefully into her handbag. “I’ll take care of this,” she said.
“We carry that money around as if it were just pieces of old paper,” said Violet laughing.
“It is,” said Benny, as he carried his bed roll to the station wagon.
“Why not let me cut off that long beard, before you go, Mr. McGregor?” asked Jim, when he came over with the lunch. “I can cut it for you.”
“How do you feel about it, Bill?” asked Joe. “Do you want it off?”
“Of course I do,” said Bill. “Don’t you remember I said I would look more like Bill McGregor?”
So the family all watched Jim as he cut off Bill’s long beard, then shaved him.
“What a change!” said Joe. “You certai
nly look fine, Bill.”
“A fine-looking man,” said Jim. “Look at yourself, Mr. McGregor.”
“Yes, you’ve got a nice smooth face,” said Benny. “Mrs. McGregor will like you better this way.”
“Oh, dear,” said Jessie suddenly, “we forgot all about the two canoes. We can’t leave them here.”
“Yes, you can,” said Mr. Long. “That’s why I brought my boy with me. We can paddle them back. Don’t worry about the canoes or the tents. We’ll take them with us.”
Benny took Bill’s hand, and said, “You’ll be surprised, Bill, when you see where Mrs. McGregor lives. Grandfather’s big house is very nice.”
Bill smiled at the little boy. “I know that house very well,” he said.
“What are you going to do about this house, Dave—Bill, I mean?” asked Jim Carr. “And your cabin in the woods?”
“You can have them both,” said Bill quietly. “You were always very kind to me, and gave me things to eat when I didn’t even say thank you.”
“That’s all right,” said Jim. “And thank you. Nobody ever gave me two houses in one day.”
At last everything was ready. Bill sat in front with Benny and Joe who was going to drive. Alice and Violet sat behind them. Henry and Jessie sat on the back seat.
“Now we’re really going home!” shouted Benny. “We did find Bill and we did find the money, Joe. Won’t Grandfather be glad!”
Joe turned the station wagon around, and the children waved good-by until they were out of sight of Old Village.
“Little boy,” said Bill suddenly, “how much money was in that tin box?”
“It was all hundred-dollar bills,” said Benny. “And it was four thousand dollars in all.”
“Four thousand dollars,” said Bill in great excitement. “That’s exactly right. Who did you say put it there?”
“We aren’t sure,” said Joe, kindly. “You must tell us that.”
“I’m afraid it was my own brother, Sam,” Bill told them sadly. “I understand the whole thing now.”
“Tell us,” begged Jessie. “Tell us everything you know.”
“Well,” began Bill in a weak voice, “did you hear about the horses? I sold two fine race horses for Mr. Alden.”