Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour | Page 6

a distant city on business, but there is
no hurry in getting there. We might all go in the big car. Shall we go?"
"Shall we go? Of course!" cried Bunny, dancing about.
"That's what I say!" added Sue, also capering wildly. "Oh, Bunny!" she
cried, "haven't we got just the bestest daddy in the whole world?"
"We have! We have!"
"Then let's both kiss him at once!" proposed Sue, and they made a rush
for Mr. Brown, who pretended to be much afraid.
CHAPTER III
READY FOR THE TRIP
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Go and love your mother for a change!" laughed
Mr. Brown as he squirmed away from Bunny and Sue, who had hugged
him and kissed him half a dozen times. "You've mussed my hair all up!
Isn't my hair sticking up seven ways, Mother?" he asked his wife.
"Indeed it is. If you children muss mine that way I shall have to comb it
again before supper, and I'll hardly have time if father is to explain
about the auto tour. This is as much news to me, Bunny and Sue, as it is
to you."
"Oh, Mother made a rhyme! Now we'll have a good time!" cried Bunny.
"Come on, Sue, we'll kiss her easy-like, and then we'll hear about the
trip. When are you going, Daddy?"
"And where?" asked Sue.
"One is about as important as the other," laughed Mr. Brown. "But I
think you will have to wait a while. I want to telephone to the chief of
police, and have him start the search for Fred Ward. We have to work
quickly in the cases of runaway boys, or they get so far away that it
makes them harder to find."

"What makes boys run away?" asked Bunny.
"Well, it's hard to tell," said Mr. Brown. "Sometimes it's because they
feel ashamed at being punished, just as Fred was, and as you might be,
Bunny, if I scolded you for being bad. Not that you are often naughty,
but you might be, some time."
"But I wouldn't run away," Bunny said, shaking his head very earnestly.
"I like it here too much. I read a story once, about a boy who ran away,
and he had to sleep in a haymow and eat raw eggs for breakfast."
"Oh! I'd never do that!" cried Sue. "I wouldn't mind playing with the
little chickens that came out of the eggs, but I wouldn't run away," she
said earnestly. "I wouldn't want to sleep in a haystack lessen Bunny
was with me."
"Well, when you two make up your minds to run away," said Mrs.
Brown with a laugh, "tell us, and we'll come for you when night falls
and bring you home. Then you can sleep in your own beds and run
away the next day.
"That will be great!" cried Bunny. "We'll do it that way, Sue."
"That's what we will!" said she.
They were at the Browns' house now, and Dix, the dog that belonged to
the runaway boy, turned to go back home. Splash barked at him as
much as to say:
"Oh, come on, old fellow, stay and have a good time. Maybe I can find
a choice bone or two."
But Dix wagged his tail and barked, and if one had understood dog
language, of which I suppose there must be one, he would, perhaps,
have heard Dix say:
"No, old chap. I'm sorry I can't come to play with you now. Some other
time, perhaps. There's trouble at home you know, and I'd better stay

around there."
Then Splash and Dix looked at each other for a little while, saying
never a word, as one might call it, only looking at each other. They
seemed to understand, however, for, with a final wagging of their tails,
away they ran, Dix back to the Ward home where the mother and the
father were grieving for their lost boy, and Splash on to the happy
home of the Browns.
"Now, Daddy, you can tell us about that auto trip we are going to take,
while mother is seeing to the supper," called Bunny as he pulled his
father toward a big armchair, while Sue clung to her father on the other
side.
"Not until after the meal," insisted Mr. Brown. "I want to tell it to
mother and you all at the same time. That will save me from talking so
much. Besides, I haven't yet told the police about missing Fred Ward."
Mr. Brown soon called the chief on the telephone wire. Being the
president of the police board, Mr. Brown often had to give orders.
In this case he told the chief about Fred running away, how long the
boy had been gone, and about the note saying he was