“Yes—­it’s red,” returned Laddie.

“Well, maybe that’s the tramp lumberman that took daddy’s old coat and real estate papers,” went on Russ.  “He had red hair!  Maybe this is the same one!  Oh, Laddie!  If it should be!”

CHAPTER XIV

THE DOLL’S BUTTONS

For a little while Laddie and Russ watched the man in the boat as he rowed slowly toward the sandy point of land in the lake, on which the six little Bunkers were playing.  The man’s hair was certainly very red.  The sun shone on it, and Russ and Laddie could see it quite plainly.  And, too, he had on a ragged coat.

Rose and the other children were farther in toward shore, playing away.  Laddie and Russ, as the two older boys of the family, thought they ought to do something toward getting back Daddy Bunker’s papers.

“He’s coming nearer,” said Laddie, in a whisper to his brother.

“Yes,” agreed Russ.  “He’ll soon be near enough for us to ask him if he’s got ’em.”

The red-haired man in the boat rowed nearer and nearer to the sandy point in Lake Sagatook.  He did not seem to see the two small boys who were so anxiously waiting for him.

“What’s he doing?” asked Laddie, for the man now and then would stop rowing and handle something he had in front of him.

“He’s fishing,” said Russ.  “I can see his pole.”

Laddie saw it too, a moment later.  The man in the boat was a fisherman.

Pretty soon he was near enough for the boys to call to him.

“Hey!” exclaimed Russ.  “Have you got ’em?”

He supposed, of course, that the man would know what he was talking about.  And so it might seem, for the man made answer: 

“Well, I had ’em but I lost ’em.  But I’ll get ’em again.”

“Oh, daddy will be so glad!” cried Laddie.  “Did you lose ’em out of your coat?”

The man looked up quickly.

“Lose ’em out of my coat?  Why, no,” he said.  “I lost ’em off my hook—­two of the biggest fish I’ve caught this day!  But I’ll get ’em back—­or some just like ’em which will be as good.  Hello, youngsters,” he added with a smile.  “Do you live at Mrs. Bell’s place?”

“We’re just visiting her,” explained Russ.  “She’s our grandma.  We’re the six little Bunkers.”

“Oh, ho!” exclaimed the man with a laugh.  “That’s so—­there are six of you!  I can see now,” and he looked beyond Russ and Laddie to where Rose, Vi, Margy and Mun Bun were playing on the sandy point and having lots of fun.

“But are you fond of fishing, that you ask if I lost ’em?” the man went on.

“If you please,” replied Russ, “we didn’t mean to ask about your fish, though we’re sorry you lost any.  But have you daddy’s papers?”

“Daddy’s papers?  I don’t know what you mean,” the man said.

“Aren’t you a lumberman?” asked Laddie, not liking to use the name “tramp,” as the man, though he did have on a ragged coat, did not seem like the lazy wanderers who prowl about the country asking for food but not wanting to work.