"Oh! Grand View," went on Russ. "It's on the seashore, and we're going there for our second vacation. We had one at Uncle Fred's ranch in the West, but something went wrong with the pipes in our school, and we couldn't go back for a month, so Captain Ben invited us to Grand View."
"Hum! Yes. Grand View," murmured the apple boy, who had said his name was Tad Munson.
"Do you know where it is?" asked Rose, while Laddie and Vi ran on ahead, racing to see who would first reach the front porch of the farmhouse.
"Yes, I know," was the low-voiced answer. "And I wish I was there. But I don't see how I can get there. All my money is gone, and none of the farmers want any work done that I can do. But I'm glad I'm going to have some dinner," he went on. "I can smell it now, and it makes me hungrier than ever."
"I'm hungry, too," said Russ.
"Are you going around in an automobile?" asked Vi, coming back after she had beaten Laddie in a race to the porch.
"An automobile? I should say not!" cried the boy. "I travel on shanks' mules, I do."
"Are they like canal mules?" Vi wanted to know.
"Not exactly," answered the boy, smiling. "They're my legs—shanks I call 'em—and I've walked many a mile on 'em since I—well, for the last week," he said quickly.
Russ looked at the boy sharply. There seemed to be something strange about him—as though he wanted to hide something—to hide something more than the apples he had stuffed into his pockets.