"Oh, that's very good of you," the boy said, "But I don't want to be a trouble to you."
"It won't be any trouble," Grandpa Brown said. Then he went out of the kitchen with Mother Brown, Bunny and Sue, leaving Grandma Brown to wait on the strange boy. Splash stayed in the kitchen too. Perhaps the big dog was hungry himself.
"That boy isn't a regular tramp," said Grandpa Brown. "But there is something queer about him. He seems afraid. I must have a talk with him after he eats."
"He seems nice and neat," said Mother Brown.
"Yes, he's clean. I like him for that. Well, we'll soon find out what he has to tell me."
But the boy did not seem to want to talk much about himself, when Grandpa Brown began asking questions, after the meal.
"You have run away; haven't you?" Grandpa Brown asked.
"Yes—yes, sir, I did run away."
"From home?"
"No, I haven't had any home, that I can remember. I didn't run away from home. I was working."