"Oh, well, maybe he won't find you," said Mrs. Brown.

"I hope he doesn't," returned Tom, looking over his shoulder.

No strange man came to camp that night, and Bunny and Sue soon forgot
all about the little fright Tom had had. But two days later, just as
dinner was finished, there came a man rowing in a boat to the little
wooden camp-dock Bunker Blue had built out into the lake.

Out of the boat climbed a man with black whiskers. He had on big, heavy
boots, and in one hand he carried a whip. He walked up the path from the
lake, and when he saw Mr. Brown and his family at the table, under the
tent, which was wide open, the man stood still.

"Camp Rest-a-While, eh?" he said in rather a rough voice, as he read the
sign. "Well, maybe this is the place I'm looking for. Have you seen a
boy--a ragged boy--about fifteen years old in these woods?" he asked.

Before Mr. Brown could answer, Tom Vine, who had gone to the spring for
a pail of water, came back. At the sight of the man Tom dropped the
pail, spilling the water. At the same time the "ragged boy" cried out:

"There he is! There's the man! He's after me! Oh, please don't let him
take me away!"

Tom turned to run back into the woods, but Mr. Brown called to him:

"Stay right where you are, Tom! This man won't hurt you. Stay where you
are."

Though he was much frightened, Tom stood still.

"Now then, what do you want?" asked Mr. Brown of the man with the whip.

"I want that boy!" answered the man, pointing the whip at poor Tom. "I
hired him to work for me, but he ran away. I want him back, and I'm
going to have him!"

And oh, what a rough, cross voice the man had! He wasn't at all nice,
Bunny and Sue thought.

"I've been looking for that boy, and now I've found him. I want to take
him back with me," the cross man went on. "I was hunting all through
these woods for him, and yesterday I heard that a boy like him was in a
camp over here. So I came for to find out about it, and I've found him!"

"Is that the man you saw in the woods, when we went after milk the other
day, Tom?" asked Bunny in a whisper.

"Yes," nodded Tom.

"Well, if this boy doesn't want to go with you I'm not going to make
him," said Mr. Brown. "He came to us, and said you had not treated him
well. I'll not send him back to you. Are you the farmer who hired him?"

"Yes, I'm that farmer," said the man, scowling. "Jake Trimble is my
name, and when I want a thing I get it! I want that boy