, who got up to go down on the grass and turn a
somersault, suddenly stopped and looked at a man coming up the side path.

The man was a very ragged one, and he shuffled along in shoes that seemed
about to drop off his feet. He had on a battered hat, and was not at all
nice-looking.

"Oh, look!" whispered Rose, who saw the ragged man almost as soon as Russ
did.

"I see him!" Russ answered. "That's a tramp! I guess it's the one daddy
gave his coat to with the papers in. Maybe he's come to give 'em back. Oh,
wouldn't that be good!"

CHAPTER VI

MUN BUN'S BALLOON

Six little Bunkers looked at the ragged man coming up the walk toward the
porch. He was a tramp--of that even Mun Bun, the smallest of the six, was
sure.

"Have you got anything for a hungry man?" asked the ragged chap, taking
off his ragged hat. "I'm a poor man, and I haven't any work and I'm
hungry."

"Did you bring back my daddy's papers?" asked Russ.

"What papers?" asked the tramp, and he seemed very much surprised. "I'm
not the paper man," he went on. "I saw a boy coming up the street a while
ago with a bundle of papers under his arm. I guess maybe he's your paper
boy. I'm a hungry man----"

"I don't mean the newspaper," went on Russ, for the other little Bunkers
were leaving the talking to him. "But did you bring back the real estate
papers?"

"The real estate papers?" murmured the tramp, looking around.

"'Tisn't any riddle," added Laddie. "Is it, Russ?"

"No, it isn't a riddle," went on the older boy. "But did you bring back
daddy's papers that he gave you?"

"He didn't give me any papers!" exclaimed the tramp.

"They were in a ragged coat," added Rose. "In the pocket."

The tramp looked at his own coat.

"This is ragged enough," he said, "but it hasn't any papers in it that I
know of. I guess they'd fall out of the pockets if there was any," he
added. "This coat is nothing but holes. I guess you don't know who I am.
I'm a hungry man and----"

"Aren't you a lumberman, and didn't my father give you an old coat the
other day?" asked Russ.

The tramp shook his head.

"I don't know anything about lumber," he said. "I can't work at much, and
I'm hungry. I'm too sick to work very hard. All I want is something to
eat. And I haven't any papers that belong to your father. Is he at
home--or your mother?"

"I'll call them," said Rose, for she knew that was the right thing to do
when tramps came to the house.

But there was no