“Have you got anything for a hungry man?” asked the ragged chap, taking off his ragged hat.  “I’m a poor man, and I haven’t any work and I’m hungry.”

“Did you bring back my daddy’s papers?” asked Russ.

“What papers?” asked the tramp, and he seemed very much surprised.  “I’m not the paper man,” he went on.  “I saw a boy coming up the street a while ago with a bundle of papers under his arm.  I guess maybe he’s your paper boy.  I’m a hungry man——­”

“I don’t mean the newspaper,” went on Russ, for the other little Bunkers were leaving the talking to him.  “But did you bring back the real estate papers?”

“The real estate papers?” murmured the tramp, looking around.

“’Tisn’t any riddle,” added Laddie.  “Is it, Russ?”

“No, it isn’t a riddle,” went on the older boy.  “But did you bring back daddy’s papers that he gave you?”

“He didn’t give me any papers!” exclaimed the tramp.

“They were in a ragged coat,” added Rose.  “In the pocket.”

The tramp looked at his own coat.

“This is ragged enough,” he said, “but it hasn’t any papers in it that I know of.  I guess they’d fall out of the pockets if there was any,” he added.  “This coat is nothing but holes.  I guess you don’t know who I am.  I’m a hungry man and——­”

“Aren’t you a lumberman, and didn’t my father give you an old coat the other day?” asked Russ.

The tramp shook his head.

“I don’t know anything about lumber,” he said.  “I can’t work at much, and I’m hungry.  I’m too sick to work very hard.  All I want is something to eat.  And I haven’t any papers that belong to your father.  Is he at home—­or your mother?”

“I’ll call them,” said Rose, for she knew that was the right thing to do when tramps came to the house.

But there was no need to go in after Mr. and Mrs. Bunker.  They had heard the children talking out on the side porch, and a strange man’s voice was also noticed, so they went out to see what it was.

“Oh, Daddy!” cried Russ.  “Here’s the tramp lumberman you gave the old coat to, but he says he hasn’t any papers!”

“Excuse me!” exclaimed the tramp, “but I don’t know what the little boy is talking of.  I just stopped in to ask for a bite to eat, and he and the other children started talking about a lumberman and some papers in a ragged coat.  Land knows my coat is ragged enough, but I haven’t anything belonging to you.”

Mr. Bunker looked sharply at the ragged man, and then said: 

“No, you aren’t the one.  A tramp lumberman did call at my real estate office the other day, and I told one of my clerks to give him an old coat.  In the pocket were some valuable papers.  But you aren’t the man.”

“I know it, sir!” answered the tramp.  “This is the first time I’ve been here.  I’m hungry and——­”

“I’ll tell Norah to get him something to eat,” said Mrs. Bunker, who was kind to every one.