Page:Bunny Brown on Grandpa's Farm.djvu/210

202 and have run off in a hurry, to have dropped their handkerchief this way. We'll ask the hired man."

But the hired man had been working in the garden, some distance away from the house, and he had seen nothing of any tramps. He had come in to his dinner, and he said he had looked in the pantry then, and had noticed that the big cake was all right.

"Then the tramps came here after dinner, and after they were at the picnic grounds," said Grandpa Brown. "I must look around. They may be hiding in my barn, and sometimes tramps smoke in the hay, and set it on fire. We'll look for them."

But no tramps were found.

"Maybe they heard Splash barking, and ran away in such a hurry that they dropped their handkerchief," said Bunny.

"Maybe," agreed his mother. "Well, it's better to have them take the crullers, the pie and the cake instead of a cow or a horse."

"Indeed it is!" said Grandpa Brown. "I don't want to lose any more horses."

"I can bake you another cocoanut-custard