The lumberman, having replaced the queer punt where he had found it, was walking away, when Betty, running after him, cried:
"Oh, won't you let us know who you are? We want to thank you, and——"
"Oh that's all right," he said, with rough good-nature. "It was all in the day's work. I've done the same thing before."
"But won't—won't you tell us who you are?" asked Allen.
"It doesn't matter. I'm a stranger around here, and I don't expect to stay. I'll be getting along," and he took off his fur cap and bowed. It was so evident that he did not want to disclose this identity that the boys did not press him.
"But we can't thank you enough," said Mollie.
"The sight of your pretty faces is enough," he replied gallantly, and with just the trace of a brogue. He smiled genially, bowed again and tramped off through the snow.
"How odd!" exclaimed Grace.
"Maybe he's one of the Jallow lumbermen, and didn't want it known that he had done the Ford family a favor," suggested Will.
"Silly!" remarked his sister.