“I’ll go and look,” said grandpa.  “Maybe it’s a tramp.  There have been 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.

“It’s a hungry boy, Mother.  A strange, hungry boy!” said grandpa.  “I guess we’ll have to feed him, and then we’ll have him tell us his story.”

CHAPTER V

SOMETHING QUEER

“Come right in and sit down!” was Grandma Brown’s invitation.  And she said it in such a kind, pleasant voice that the strange boy looked around as though she were speaking to some one who had come up behind him, that he could not see.

“Come right in, and get something to eat,” went on the children’s grandmother.

“Do you—­do you mean me?” asked the strange boy.

“Why, yes.  Who else do you s’pose she meant?” asked Grandpa Brown.

“I—­I didn’t know, sir.  You see I—­I’m not used to being invited into places that way.  I thought maybe you didn’t mean it.”

“Mean it?  Of course I mean it!” said Grandma Brown.

“You’re hungry; aren’t you?” asked Grandpa Brown.

“Hungry.  Oh, sir—­I—­I haven’t had anything since breakfast, and then it was only a green apple and some berries I picked.”

“Land sakes!” cried Grandma Brown.  “Why didn’t you go up to the first house you came to and ask for a meal?”

“I—­I didn’t like to, ma’am.  I thought maybe they’d set the dog on me, thinking I was a tramp.”

By this time Splash, the big pet dog, had come around the path.  The strange boy looked around as though getting ready to run.

“He won’t hurt you,” said Bunny quickly.  “Splash is a good dog.”