they could, thinking, I suppose, that Jan and Ted had worms or bugs
for them.

But the children did not have.

"Your mother will soon be along to feed you," said Janet, and soon the
mother bird did come flying back from the field. She seemed afraid at
first, when she saw how close Jan and Ted were to her nest, but the
children soon walked away, and then the robin fed her young.

Ted and Jan had a nice walk through the woods and then they went back to
camp.

"We'll take Trouble for a walk, so mother won't have to look after him
so much," said Janet. "Come, Trouble!"

"Show me where the fox was," begged Baby William, and Ted and Jan turned
their steps that way. But there was no sign of the big-tailed animal in
the hollow log, though the children pounded on it as Grandpa Martin
said he had done.

Then they wandered on a little farther in the beautiful woods. Jan saw
some flowers she wanted to gather, and leaving the path where Ted stood
to take care of his little brother, she began picking a handful.

Janet saw so many pretty blossoms that she went a little farther than
she meant to, and, before she knew it, she had lost sight of her two
brothers, though she could hear them talking.

Suddenly, after crawling through some bushes, Jan found herself on
another path. On the other side of it she saw some black-eyed Susans.

"Oh, I must get some of them!" she cried.

She darted across the path, and, as she was about to pick the flowers,
she saw, standing behind a big tree, a man who had on very ragged
clothes. He looked at Jan, who dropped her bouquet and gasped:

"Oh! Oh, dear!"

The ragged man looked at Janet and smiled. But Jan did not smile. One
thought only was in her mind.

"Here is one of the tramps!"

[Illustration: "HERE IS ONE OF THE TRAMPS!"]

CHAPTER VIII

TROUBLE FALLS IN

Janet Martin thought it must have been all of five minutes that she
stood staring at the ragged man and he at her, though, very likely, it
was only a few seconds. A little while seems very long sometimes; for
instance, waiting for a train, or for the day of the party to come.

"Are you looking for anything?" the man asked of Janet after a while.

"He doesn't speak like a tramp," thought the little girl, who had
occasionally heard them asking Nora, at the back door at home, for
something to eat. "I guess I'll answer him."

So she replied:

"I'm looking for flowers."

"Well, there are some pretty ones here in th