"Oh, children! where have you been?" cried Mrs. Brown, coming out to meet them. "I sent Uncle Tad off one way to look for you, and Splash in the other. I was just thinking of starting off myself!"
"We were lost in the woods," said Bunny; "but the ragged man found us, and then we met Splash. We didn't see Uncle Tad."
"Oh, maybe he's lost!" cried Sue.
"We can go to look for him," said Bunny.
"No you don't!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "Two of you getting lost is enough in one day. Uncle Tad knows his way back to camp from any part of the big woods. But who was the ragged man?"
"Oh, he's the man that gave us the milk the time the dog drank it up when we chased the squirrel," explained Sue. "He's awful nice, and he gave me a piggy-back ride, and took us to his cabin, and gave us cookies without us really asking."
"What do you mean by not really asking?" inquired Mrs. Brown.
"Oh, Sue means she sort of hinted or spoke of 'em easy like," Bunny explained. "I pinched her leg without Mr. Bixby—he's the ragged man—seeing me, and then Sue stopped asking him if he had anything to eat at his house. He offered the cookies all by his own self."
"Well, I'm glad of that," said Mrs. Brown with a smile. "But after this don't go into strange houses and even hint for something to eat. That isn't polite."
"Oh, but this isn't a real house," said Bunny quickly. "It's a log cabin."