"I think it will be safe if they keep near the shore out on the little point of land that extends into the lake," said Grandma Bell. "There is a sandy beach there, and the water is not deep. Let the children play there. You can see them from the house; so, if we look out every now and then, we'll be sure they are all right." "Very well," said Daddy Bunker. "We'll first have a look at the lake." "Oh, goody!" cried Russ. "Now we can have a lot of fun and sail boats!" added Laddie. "We can have a whole lot of fun." "I'll take my doll down and give her a bath," said Rose. "Oh, won't water spoil your doll, my dear?" asked Grandma Bell. "I don't mean my big one, that the lady took for her baby," explained the little girl. "I mean my small rubber doll." "Oh! Well, I guess it will be all right to bathe her in the lake," said Grandma Bell with a laugh. Daddy Bunker found that the sandy point, which Grandma Bell told about, was a very nice and safe place for the children to play. So, dressed in their old clothes which water and sand would not soil, they all trooped down to Lake Sagatook, and there, in the shade of the big woods, they began to have fun. Russ and Laddie made little boats and set them adrift in the blue water. Rose and Vi played with their dolls, for they had each brought two or three of them. Mun Bun and Margy dug in the sand with sticks which they picked up on the shore of the lake. "It's almost like the seashore," said Rose, when she came back from having given her rubber doll a dip in the lake, "only the water doesn't taste salty like when you cry tears." "I like it here," said Vi. "I wish we could stay always." The children were having lots of fun when, in the midst of their play, they heard the sound of water being splashed and the noise made by the oars of a boat. Looking up, they saw a rowboat not far from shore, and in it sat a big man. And, at the sight of this man, Russ dropped the chip he was floating about, pretending it was a submarine, and, in a whisper, said: "Hi, Laddie! do you see his hair?" "Yes--it's red," returned Laddie. "Well, maybe that's the tramp lumberman that took daddy's old coat and real estate papers," went on Russ. "He had red hair! Maybe this is the same one! Oh, Laddie! If it should be!" CHAPTER XIV THE DOLL'S BUTTONS For a little while Laddie and Russ watched the man in the boat as he rowed slowly toward the sandy point of land in the lake, on which the six little Bunkers were playing. The man's hair was certainly very red. The sun shone on it, and Russ and Laddie could see it quite plainly. And, too, he had on a ragged coat. Rose and the other children were farther in toward shore, playing away. Laddie and Russ, as the two older boys of the family, thought they ought to do something toward getting back Daddy Bunker's papers. "He's coming nearer," said Laddie, in a whisper to his brother. "Yes," agreed Russ. "He'll soon be near enough for us to ask him if he's got 'em."