ave liked this one, for he didn't bark at him," added
Bunker Blue with a laugh. "Maybe Splash knew this tramp before you
children found your dog, on the island where you were shipwrecked."

For Bunny and Sue had found Splash on an island, as I told you in the
first book of this series. That was when Bunny and Sue were
"shipwrecked," as they called it.

Nothing else had been taken from Camp Rest-a-While except the bacon and
eggs, and as Bunker Blue was going to the village that day he could buy
more meat for Mother Brown. The eggs they could get at the farmhouse
where they bought their milk. So, after all, no harm was done.

"The only thing is," said Daddy Brown, "that I don't like the idea of
tramps prowling about our tents at night. I'd rather they would keep
away."

[Illustration: BUNNY AND SUE OFTEN WENT BATHING IN THE COOL LAKE.
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Camp Rest-a-While._ _Page_ 181.]

It was so lovely, living out in the woods, near the beautiful lake, as
the Browns were doing, that they soon forgot about the noise in the
night, and the tramps. Bunny and Sue were getting as brown as little
Indian children. For they wore no hats and they went about with only
leather sandals on, and no stockings, their sleeves rolled up to
their elbows, so their arms and legs were brown, too. They often went
bathing in the cool lake, for, not far from the camp, was a little sandy
beach.

Of course, it was not like an ocean beach, or the one at Sandport Bay,
for there were only little waves, and then only when the wind blew. In
the ocean there are big waves all the while, pounding the sandy shore.

One day Mrs. Brown told daddy they needed some things from the village
store--sugar, salt, pepper--groceries that could not be bought at the
farmhouses near by.

"I'll take the children, row over, and get what you want," said Mr.
Brown, for it was easier to row across the lake, and walk through the
woods, than to walk half-way around the lake to the store. With Splash,
Bunny and Sue in the boat Mr. Brown set off.

They landed on the other shore, and started to walk through the woods.
On the way they had to pass along a road that was near to the farm of
Mr. Trimble, the "mean man," as Bunny and Sue called him. Perhaps Mr.
Trimble did not intend to be mean, or cross, but he certainly was. Some
folk just can't help being that way.

"Huh! Are you coming over again to bother me about that runaway boy, Tom
Vine?" asked Mr. T