Suddenly, after crawling through some bushes, Jan found herself on
another path. On the other side of it she saw some black-eyed Susans.
"Oh, I must get some of them!" she cried.
She darted across the path, and, as she was about to pick the flowers,
she saw, standing behind a big tree, a man who had on very ragged
clothes. He looked at Jan, who dropped her bouquet and gasped:
"Oh! Oh, dear!"
The ragged man looked at Janet and smiled. But Jan did not smile. One
thought only was in her mind.
"Here is one of the tramps!"
CHAPTER VIII
TROUBLE FALLS IN
Janet Martin thought it must have been all of five minutes that she
stood staring at the ragged man and he at her, though, very likely, it
was only a few seconds. A little while seems very long sometimes; for
instance, waiting for a train, or for the day of the party to come.
"Are you looking for anything?" the man asked of Janet after a while.
"He doesn't speak like a tramp," thought the little girl, who had
occasionally heard them asking Nora, at the back door at home, for
something to eat. "I guess I'll answer him."
So she replied:
"I'm looking for flowers."
"Well, there are some pretty ones here in the woods," went on the
ragged man. "I saw some fine red ones a little while ago. If I had
known I should meet you I would have picked them for you.
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