Here you see the settings I made for this picture and you can see it is visibly brighter.
Click on the Step 5 link on the left to compare what the default settings of the scanner gave.

A word of caution. You are probably using a digital flatscreen monitor. They almost always show old black and white pictures brighter than what they really are. I still use the old style CRT monitor which is easier to judge the best settings for brightness and contrast.
Be careful not to make the scan washed out by making it too bright and not adjusting the contrast enough.