some around lately."

Bunny and Sue thought of the tramps who had taken the big
cocoanut-custard cake, about which I told you in the book before this
one. Perhaps those tramps had gotten out of jail and had come to get
more cake. Bunny and Sue sat close to mother and father while grandpa
went around the corner of the house to see who was knocking at the back
door.

They all heard grandpa speaking to some one. And the answers came in a
boy's voice.

"What do you want?" asked grandpa.

"If--if you please," said the strange boy's voice, "I--I'm very hungry.
I haven't had any dinner or supper. I'm willing to do any work you want,
for something to eat. I--I----"

And then it sounded as though the strange boy were crying.

"That isn't a tramp!" exclaimed Grandma Brown, getting up. "It's just a
hungry boy. I'm going to feed him."

They all followed Grandma Brown around to the back stoop. There was a
light in the kitchen, and by it Bunny and Sue could see a boy, not quite
as big as Bunker Blue, standing beside grandpa. The boy had on clothes
that were dusty, and somewhat torn. But the boy's face and hands were
clean, and he had bright eyes that, just now, seemed filled with tears.

"What is it?" asked Grandma Brown.