"No, you needn't," called out Ned. "Go round to the kitchen and ask politely for something to eat, and you'll get it."
"I don't believe they'd give me a bite. I'm not a beggar, either, an' to take to that trade wad be worse nor dying an honest, upright, self-supporting man."
"Why, who is it, and what does he want?" queried one of Viamede's visitors in tones of surprise and disgust.
"Let's go down and see; give him some money, if he'll take it, to buy himself some supper and pay for a night's lodging," said another guest, jumping up and moving toward the veranda steps.
"Tell him we will give him something to eat—send it out there to him, if he wishes," said Grandma Elsie, speaking very soberly, though she felt pretty certain they would find no one there.
The lads hurried down to the bushes that seemed to hide the stranger, and Ned clapped his hands in ecstasy over the idea that they had been so easily and completely duped.
"They'll be greatly surprised and disappointed," said Elsie Dinsmore, "and it's almost too bad, for they seem very kind-hearted and ready to help one in distress."
The other young folks were laughing in an amused way.
"And it was just you, Cousin Ronald, wasn't it?" asked Elsie Raymond.