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,