The
ragged man listened a moment, and then he cried: "All right! I'm
coming!"
Janet saw him stoop and pick up off the ground a canvas bag, through
the opening of which she saw stones, such as might be picked up on the
shore of the lake or almost anywhere on the island.
"I hope I shall see you again, little girl," went on the tramp, as
Janet called him afterward when telling the story. "And when I do, I
hope I'll have some red flowers for you. Good-bye!"
Janet was so surprised by the quick way in which the man ran off
through the woods with his bag of stones that she did not answer or
say good-bye. She just stood looking at the quivering bushes which
closed up behind him and showed which way the man had gone. Janet
could not see him any longer.
A moment later she heard the bushes behind her crackling, and, turning
quickly, she saw Ted and Trouble coming toward her.
"What's the matter?" called her older brother. "Did you see another
bear--I mean a fox?"
"No. But I saw a tramp man," replied Janet. "Oh, but he was awful
ragged!"
"A tramp!" cried Ted. "Then we'd better get away from here. We'd
better go and tell grandpa!"
Janet thought the same thing, and, after telling Ted all that had
happened and what she and the man had said, the Curlytops hurried back
through the woods to the camp.
"A ragged man on the island; is that it?" asked Grandpa Martin, when
Jan told him what had happened.
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