tickets, so
he wouldn't know why the conductor punched 'em."

Laddie thought about this a while.

"All right," he said, finally, as Zip trotted along down the hill, and
came out on a level road that led to Green Pond. "I'll make up a new
riddle for the lumberman," he went on. "Or I could ask him about Zip's
breath coming in short pants."

"All right, ask him that," agreed Russ. "I hope he gives us the papers."

Mr. Barker's place was on the shores of Green Pond. In fact the man owned
the whole pond--or little lake, for that was what it was--and all the
woods around it. His house, a very big one, stood in the woods not far
from the pond, and all about the house were beautiful grounds, with roads
and paths leading through them. And around the house was a high iron
fence, with gate-ways here and there.

Russ and Laddie, riding in their soap-box dog-cart, came along the public
road. Ahead of them they could see the big iron fence around Mr. Barker's
place. They knew it, for they had driven past it the week before with
Grandma Bell, when she took the six little Bunkers and Daddy Bunker and
Mother Bunker for a picnic ride in the big carriage.

"There's the place," said Laddie, pointing.

"I see it," returned Russ. "Now we'll drive in and find the lumberman and
get daddy's papers."

Russ guided Zip up to one of the big iron gates, and as the boys turned
into the drive a man came out of a little house near the entrance and held
up his hand. It was just as the policeman does in the city street when he
wants the automobiles and wagons to stop, so Russ called to Zip:

"Whoa!"

The dog had learned to stop when any one driving him said this, so now he
halted and, being tired, he stretched out on the ground. His harness was
loose, so he could do this.

"Where are you boys going?" asked the man at the gate.

"We want to find a lumberman," said Russ.

"A lumberman?"

"Yes. One works here and he has daddy's old coat and there are some
papers in the pocket that daddy wants," Russ explained. "He's red-haired,"
he went on. "I mean the lumberman is, not my father."

"Oh," said the man at the gate. "So you're looking for some one. But Mr.
Barker lives here and you can't go in, I'm afraid."

"We know Mr. Barker lives here," returned Russ. "We live over at Lake
Sagatook--that is, we don't zactly _live_ there, but we're visiting
Grandma Bell."

"Oh, are you some of the little children staying at Mrs. Bell's house?"
asked