Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour | Page 3

you now. Won't you come in?"
"I really don't know whether I ought to or not. My children, on coming
home from school, said they heard sounds of distress in here, and
knowing you were strangers I thought perhaps you might not know
where to apply for help in case you needed it. My husband is one of the
town officials, and if we can do anything----"
"It is very kind of you," said Mrs. Ward. "Thank you so much for
coming over. We are in trouble, and perhaps you can give us some
advice. Please come in."
She went to the front door and let in Bunny, Sue and their mother, the
two children wondering what could have happened to the boy next door,
for they did not see him, and it seemed the trouble was about him.
"It won't take long to tell you what has happened," said Mrs. Ward,
placing chairs for Mrs. Brown and the two children. "Our boy Fred has
run away from home!"
"Run away from home!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown.
"Yes, that's what he's done," said Mr. Ward. "I never thought he'd do
such a thing as that, even though he is quick tempered. Yes, Fred has
run away," and he turned over and over in his hand a slip of paper he
had been reading.
"Perhaps he only went off in a sort of joke," said Mrs. Brown

sympathetically. "I know once Bunny----"
"Yep. I ran away, I did!" exclaimed Bunny. "I got away down to the
end of the street. I saw a man and a hand organ and he had a monkey. I
mean the man did. And I wanted to be a hand-organ man so I ran away
and was going off with him, only Bunker Blue chased after me, so I
didn't run far, though I might have."
"Bunker Blue is a boy who works on Mr. Brown's fishing pier,"
explained Mrs. Brown. "Yes, Bunny did run away once, but he was
glad to run back again."
"And I was lost!" cried Sue. "I was out walking with my daddy, and I
went down a wrong street, and I couldn't see him and I didn't know
what to do so I--I cried."
"Yes, Sue was lost a whole morning before a policeman found her and
telephoned to us," put in Mrs. Brown. "She was glad to get back.
Undoubtedly your boy will be the same."
"No," said Mr. Ward slowly, "I don't believe Fred will come home soon.
He has gone off very angry."
"Are you sure he didn't go to the home of some neighbor or of a
relative?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Children often do that, never thinking
how worried their fathers and mothers are."
"No, Fred is too old to do that," said Mrs. Ward, wiping the tears out of
her eyes. "He has gone, intending to stay a long while."
"What makes you think so?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"Because of this note he left," answered the father of the boy next door.
"You see, Mrs. Brown, I had to correct Fred for doing something
wrong. He spent some money to buy a banjo that he had promised--I
had told him I would get him a fine banjo next year, but----
"Well, he disobeyed me, and I felt I had to punish him. So I sent him up

to his room to stay all day. He went to his room, and that is the last we
have seen of him. He left this note, saying he was never coming back."
"Read Mrs. Brown the note," suggested Mrs. Ward. "Maybe she can
think of some plan to get Fred back."
Mr. Ward was about to read the note when Mr. Brown's voice was
heard under the dining-room windows saying:
"Hello, Mother, and Bunny and Sue! Mary told me you had come over
here, so I thought I'd come to pay a visit too. I've news for you."
"Oh, it's daddy!" cried Sue, and she ran to let her father in through the
front door.
"I wonder what news it is," said Bunny to himself. "I wonder if he has
found Fred."
CHAPTER II
AN OFFER OF HELP
As Mr. Brown walked into the home of the Ward family he saw at once,
by a look at his wife, and by the expressions on the faces of Mr. and
Mrs. Ward, that something had happened.
"Oh, I beg your pardon," Mr. Brown said. "Perhaps I shouldn't have
come in. I'll call another time. But----"
"What about the good news you have, Daddy?" asked Bunny.
"I didn't say it was good news, Son."
"Yes, it is. I can tell by your eyes!" exclaimed Sue.
"Whatever it is, it will keep a little while," said Mrs. Brown, with a
look at her husband,