ing to
Grandpa Martin. "I haven't a card with me, but when I get washed and
dressed and shaved I'll look more like what I am. Excuse me for
intruding this way, but I could not keep from speaking when I heard what
you were talking about."

"Then aren't you a tramp?" asked Ted.

"No, though I have been _tramping_ all over this island looking for the
very blue rock you children seem to have found. I wear my oldest
clothes, just as my friend Professor Anderson does, for we have been
going through briar bushes, into caves and mud holes and our clothes are
a sad sight. But we are not tramps."

"Is there someone with you?" asked Grandpa Martin, looking over the
man's head toward the bushes, out of which he had come.

"There was another. Anderson is his name. But he has gone to the
village, and I was on my way to row across the lake to join him when I
happened to pass by your tent, saw the blue light, and heard what your
children said. Do you really know where there is a big blue rock like
this little one that is on fire?" he asked as he pointed to the flaming
blue light.

"Yes, we found a big one," said Hal.

"If you will show me where it is you will get a lot of money," said Mr.
Weston. "That is, if you will sell me the meteor," he went on to Grandpa
Martin. "I understand you own part of this island," he added.

"About half of it, yes. But are you looking for a meteor?"

"Yes, for a meteor, or fallen star, and the blue rock your children
found is part of it. We have been looking for it a long time, my friend
and myself, and we had about given up. Now we may get it. Will you sell
me the fallen star?" he asked.

"I'll see about it," promised Mr. Martin with a smile. "Perhaps you will
come into our tent and tell us about it. Are you--well, I was going to
say the tramp--but are you the man we saw before, wandering about our
camp?"

"I presume I am. I don't mind being called a tramp, for I certainly look
like one. However, now that the fallen star is found I don't need to be
so ragged."

"Are you the ragged man that pulled Trouble out of the spring?" asked
Ted, as they watched the blue light die away.

"I did pull a little boy out of the spring," answered Mr. Weston,
"though I didn't know his name was Trouble."

"That's only his pet name," laughed Grandpa Martin. "But come and sit
down and tell us your story. The children have been wondering a long
while what the blue light meant, and who the ragged man was. And,