“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.”