“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.