young girl goes to live with mean uncle building a waterfall to hide money and has cat

Don't know why but this has been driving me nuts for over a week now out of no where....LOL.... Help my brain out.

Older kid's/YA book about an orphaned girl in ??early?? part of 20th century who goes to live with a single uncle who is cranky because the girl's mother married wrong (?) and makes her live in his attic and act like his maid and do things like clean out the fireplace.

He dismissed the nice woman who cleaned for him when the niece comes to live with him. The young girl still manages to go see the nice woman and eventually goes to live with her (I think?) after the uncle suffers a heart attack or is injured mortally while trying to hide a supposed treasure under a waterfall he is building to try to hide a chest of money which turns out to be useless anyway since the bank notes have gotten waterlogged and unreadable.

The uncle has the heart attack/ injury because the girl discovers the hiding place and he has a royal hissy fit about it and falls over into the water.

At some point the girl gets a cat to live with her in the attic and uses the ashes from the fireplace as kitty litter until the uncle discovers the cat and makes her get rid of it. The girl takes it to the local minister. I think the girl calls the cat "little one" Or something with "one" in the name. Gray One seems to bounce out at me. ??? not sure tho???

For some reason --and I may be confusing this story with another---I think the girl has dreams or time travels. I am pretty sure it was a Scholastic book , definitely paperback and I vaguely remember the cover being shades of blue and kind of misty looking. I think the girl's name may be Sarah.

Needless to say I remember a lot of details but for the life of me can't remember the title. I would like to find out so I can get a copy for my daughter (and to re-read myself...LOL)

THANKS!

While in no way an exact match as doesn't have the "nice woman", cat or waterfall - aspects of your description made me think of The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope. You may enjoy this book - even if it is not "the one"!

What is the earliest year you recall reading the book?

Sounds like "A Sound of Crying" by Rodie Sudbery.

Rodie Sudbery, A Sound of Crying

"A Sound of Crying" originally published in Great Britain in 1968 as "The House in the Wood".

"What a sinister place to live!" Polly exclaims the very first moment she sees her cousin's house. "I'll bet it's haunted." "It is not!" Frederick snaps back. "And there's no such thing as a ghost!" But before long, even Frederick begins to wonder. As for Polly . . . she must find out the truth about the lonely 19th century girl who comes alive each night in Polly's frightening dreams.

That looks good!

It is a really good book! Polly is living out the past through dreams of Sarah's life. There is an evil uncle in it and a cat called Gray One or something similar. Can't remember if a waterfall is in the book or not.

Here's a link with a picture...

http://rachael-ann.blogspot.com/2008/08/good-books-sound-of-crying-ghost-story.h...

The cover art for the Scholastic book is on the touchstone linked already.

2> That's exactly what I thought of. It doesn't match in many aspects (and yes, A Sound of Crying sounds very likely) but the orphan girl sent to live with a cranky relative certainly fits. Also ghosts, though that wasn't mentioned in the OP. I love The Sherwood Ring.

Thanks so much y'all.

It is A Sound of Crying. WOOT!

It has been driving me up the wall trying to remember what it was. I read it a long time ago and for some odd reason it popped into my head last week. I knew it has some sort of time travel (aka ghosts) involved. Hey! I remembered the name of the cat...lol Is it sad that I even remembered the color of the cover? HAHA!

The other book sounds interesting too.
Off to put them on my Amazon wishlist (along with the 300 other books I have on there...LOL)

Another great childhood book.