they stopped in a city.

"Well," said Mr. Brown, after he had told Bunny, Sue and their mother about his plan, "do you think you'll like it?"

"I'll just love it!" cried Sue.

"So will I," said Bunny. "Let's hug and kiss daddy and momsie!"

"No, I'll have to beg off!" cried Mr. Brown. "Just one kiss each, and don't muss my hair for I've got to go to the police station to take Fred's picture. I'm sure his father would feel bad about doing a thing like that so I'll do it for him. I'll be back soon."

"And we'll talk about the trip while you're gone," said Mrs. Brown.

Bunny and Sue were in bed when their father returned. The next morning their mother told them, after Mr. Brown had gone to work, that he had asked the police to do all they could to find Fred Ward.

"And now we must get ready for our trip," went on Mrs. Brown. "I must get both of you some new clothes, for you wore out many suits while we were at Camp Rest-a-While and in the Big Woods."

"But don't get too many. It will take too long to get 'em," remarked Bunny. "We want to get started on our auto tour."

Not long after this Mrs. Brown announced that she was ready for the trip—that she had bought the new clothes, and had arranged for the food they were to take with them.

"Then I'll bring the big auto around here to the house to-morrow morning and let you look at it," said Mr. Brown. "I have made a few changes in it. I hope you will like it."

"Oh, we'll be sure to," said Mrs. Brown.

That night, when Bunny and Sue were ready for bed, Bunny looked out of the window toward the Ward house. There was a bright moon.

"I see Dix and Splash playing together on the lawn," he said.

"And I see something else," added Sue.

"What?" asked Bunny.

"I see Fred Ward coming home. There he is, going up the back steps now."

Sue pointed, and Bunny saw a tall lad, who did look very much like the runaway boy, at the back door of the Ward home.

"Oh, let's tell daddy and momsie!" cried Bunny, as he and his sister, in their bare feet, pattered their way downstairs.

CHAPTER IV

BUNNY AT THE WHEEL

Bunny and Sue raced downstairs and burst into the sitting room where their mother and father were sitting.

"Oh, Daddy!" cried Bunny.

"Oh, Momsie!" exclaimed Sue.

They were both out of breath.

"Well, what's the matter now?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"We saw something—anyhow Sue did," explained Bunny.

"But first Bunny saw Splash and Dix playing on the lawn in the moonlight," said Sue, breathing fast.

"And then Sue saw Fred coming home—in by the back way," added Bunny, his eyes big with wonder.

"What's that?" cried Mr. Brown, almost as excited as the two children.

"You say you saw Fred Ward?" asked Mother Brown.

"Well, it looked like him," replied Bunny, not quite so sure now that questions were being asked of him and his sister.

"And he was going very carefully and quietly around the back way," added Sue. "Who could it be but Fred? He's getting tired of sleeping in haystacks and eating raw eggs, and he's come home, I guess."

"Look here, Sue and Bunny," said Mr. Brown, a bit firmly but still kindly. "Did you both see this? Or did you make it up or dream it?"

"We didn't dream," said Sue, "'cause we hadn't gone to sleep yet."

"And we didn't make it up, for we weren't playing make-believe," added Bunny.

"Then you must have seen something," said their father; for when Bunny and his sister spoke in this serious way their parents could tell they were in earnest.

"What could it be?" asked Mrs. Brown, with a wondering look at her husband.

"I'll run over and see," he replied. "You children hop back into bed. You'll catch cold."

"Oh, Daddy! It's Summer yet, and we're even going to sleep out in the tent when we're on the auto tour," said Bunny. "Let us wait up and see if Fred really has come home. I hope he has!"

"I hope so, too," said Mother Brown. "Let them lie awake in bed, Daddy, until you come back from the Ward home."

"All right, I will," Mr. Brown agreed, and as he started across the moonlighted lawn Bunny and Sue, with many whisperings, noddings and giggles went back upstairs to their room.

But they did not go to bed. This was one of the times when they did not do as they were told. But it was only once in a while they did anything like that. Bunny and Sue were, as a rule, very good.

Well, instead of going to bed they stood by the window where they could watch the lawn on which Splash and Dix were still playing.

"We mustn't catch cold," said Sue. "We'd better wrap a blanket around us, Bunny, if we stand by the window, though it isn't cold at all."

"Yep," grunted Bunny, who was so interested in watching his father cross the grass plot that he did not feel like talking much.

Sue brought a light blanket from her bed and one from Bunny's, and in these the children wrapped themselves, and stood by the window.

"There he is!" cried Bunny, as he saw the tall figure of his father, accompanied by a bigger shadow in the moonlight, appear on the lawn.

"Hush!" cautioned Sue. "Don't talk so loud or mother will come up and make us go to bed."

Bunny "hushed," and then the two children watched. They saw their father go up the side steps of the Ward house and very soon come out again.

"It didn't take him long to find out," said Bunny in a low voice.

"I hope Fred has come back," whispered Sue.

But it was not, as they learned a little later when their mother came upstairs to tell them. The children had quickly scampered back to their beds when they heard their mother coming up, and she found two anxious faces peering at her over the blankets.

"Was it Fred?" they asked excitedly.

"No, I am sorry to say it was not," answered Mrs. Brown. "It was one of the boys Fred used to play with, and he went around the back way because he did not want any one to see him going in the front door."

"Does he know where Fred is?" asked Bunny.

"No. But he went to tell Mr. Ward about him. He had seen some of the police circulars, or printed papers which were scattered about, showing Fred's picture and telling how he looked and how much his father wanted him to come home again."

"And is he coming?" asked Sue.

"We don't know, dear. Mr. Ward told us this boy, whose name is George Simpson, knew that Fred was going to run away, for Fred had told him."

"Why didn't George come and tell Fred's father so he could stop him?" asked Bunny.

"Because Fred made George promise not to tell. But after George had seen the police circulars he made up his mind he must say something, so he came to-night. He said Fred had told him he was going to run away to Portland and try to get work in a theater playing a banjo."

"Portland!" cried Bunny. "Why that's where we're going!"

"And maybe we'll see Fred!" added Sue.

"It may be," said their mother. "But now you two must go to sleep. The big auto will be here in the morning, and you will wish to see the new things daddy has put in."

"May I ask just one more question?" begged Bunny.

"Yes, and only one."

"How did Fred come to go to Portland? Did he know we were going there?"

"No, dear. But he knew a man in a theater there who had promised to give him a trial at banjo playing if ever he wanted it. So, when Fred ran away, he