know how it is I suppose, Mrs. Ward," for now the other lady had come to the window. "We keep putting such things off. And really I have been so busy since we came back from our camp in the big woods that I haven't had time to set my house to rights."

"I know how it is, Mrs. Brown," replied Mrs. Ward, wiping the tears from her eyes, "and I am glad to see 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, which he understood. "Our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Ward," she continued, "are in great distress. Their only son, Fred, has run away from home."

"Oh, that's too bad!" exclaimed Mr. Brown. "I shouldn't have come in. I'll——"

"No, stay, we'll want your advice," said Mrs. Brown. "Mr. Ward was just going to read a letter his son left. I want you to listen to it and tell us what is best to do. You know you are on the police board."

"Of course I'll do all I can," said Mr. Brown. "First let me hear the letter. You can sometimes tell a good deal of what's in a person's mind by the way he writes."

And while Mr. Brown is listening to the letter left by the runaway boy, I'll tell my new readers something more about Bunny Brown and his Sister Sue, and the things that happened to them in the books before this.

The first volume is named "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue," and it tells of what happened to the two children in their home town of Bellemere, on Sandport Bay, near the ocean. There the little boy and girl had fine times, and they took a trolley ride to a far city, getting lost.

The second book told of "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm," and you can imagine the fun they had there, getting lost in the woods and going to picnics. After that the two children played Circus in the book of that name, and they had real animals in their show, though you could not exactly call them wild.

"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue at Aunt Lu's City Home," is the name of the fourth book, and in the big city Bunny and Sue had stranger adventures than ever.

After that Mr. Brown took the whole family to "Camp Rest-a-While." It was a lovely place in the woods and they lived in tents. Uncle Tad went with them, and ever so many things happened to the children there. Their dog Splash had good times too.

Camp Rest-a-While was near the edge of the big woods, and in the book called "Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods," which is just before this one, you may read of the adventures with Bunny's train of electric cars, and of the fun Sue had with her electrical Teddy bear, which could flash its eyes when a button was pressed in his back—or rather, her back, for Sue had named her Teddy bear Sallie Malinda, insisting that it was a girl bear.

And now the Brown family was home again from the big woods, ready for other happenings. And that they were going to have adventures might be guessed from what Mr. Brown started to say about some news. But just now he was reading the letter Fred Ward had written to his parents.

"Hum! That is a strange note for a boy to leave," said Mr. Brown slowly. "He evidently doesn't intend to come home very soon."

"Oh dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Ward, and commenced to weep once more.

"I tell her he may come home soon, for he has no money—or at least very little to live on," said the