“A man?” cried Sue.  “What kind?”

“Oh, I can’t tell, except that he has a dog and he’s very ragged.”  Bunny peeped between some bushes and the next moment uttered a cry of surprise: 

“Why, it’s the ragged hermit who gave us the milk and who was so good to us!” cried Bunny.  “He’s the man who lives in the log cabin with the cow!  Now we’re all right.  He’ll take us home.  Now we’re all right!” and Bunny danced about.

“Oh, I’m so glad!” murmured Sue.  “We’re not lost any more!”

CHAPTER XII

WONDERINGS

Out from behind the bush where they had hidden on hearing the rustling in the underbrush came Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, hand in hand.  The hermit, as they called the man who lived all alone in his little cabin, looked up and saw them.  So did the dog, and with a bark and a growl he rushed toward the two children.

“Down, Tramp!  Down!” called the hermit, and the dog sank to the moss-covered ground, beating his tail up and down on the dried leaves.

“He wouldn’t hurt you for the world,” said the old, ragged man.  “He loves children, but he’s so fond of them that he jumps up on them, and tries to kiss them.  Sometimes he tries to love them so hard that he knocks them down.  So I have to tell him to be careful.”

“We’re not afraid of good dogs,” said Bunny.

“And we’ve got a dog of our own,” added Sue.  “His name is Splash, ’cause he splashes through the muddy puddles so much that he gets us all wet when he’s with us.  That’s why we don’t take him so often, lessen we know it’s going to be a dry day.”

“I see,” said the ragged man.  “Well, Tramp is pretty good, except that he loves children too much.”

By this time the dog must have felt that it was time for him to get up, and he arose and leaped toward Bunny and Sue.  Sue turned to one side and held her arm over her face, but Bunny waited for the dog to come near enough so he could be patted, and this the dog seemed to like.  When he tried to jump up and put his paws on Bunny’s shoulders the little boy cried: 

“Down!  Down, Tramp!” and at once the dog sank down and wagged his tail so hard that Sue said afterward she thought it would almost wag off.

The dog seemed to like Bunny and Sue, running about them, giving little barks of joy and licking their hands.

“I like him,” said Sue.  “He’s ’most as good as our dog.  How did you come to name him Tramp?”

“Well, he looked like a tramp when he came to me,” said the ragged man, who seemed to be clean enough, though his clothes were in tatters.  “He was all stuck up with burrs from the woods, one foot was cut and he was covered with mud and water.  I took him in, washed him, bound up his paw, which had been cut on a piece of broken glass, and gave him something to eat.  He has been with me ever since.”

“I should think he would stay with you,” said Bunny.  “You were kind to him.”