“Oh, Daddy!  Do you know how to find Fred?” asked the little girl as she fell off her dog into the soft grass.

“Well, we are going to try,” answered her father.

“And we’ll help,” cried Bunny.  Then, as he happened to think of something, he exclaimed: 

“Oh, Daddy!  What about the good news you were going to tell us?”

“We want to hear it now,” added Sue.

“You did say something about a surprise,” added Mrs. Brown.  “So much has happened to-day that I had forgotten.”

“Maybe you won’t think it such news after all,” observed Mr. Brown.  “But it occurs to me that there is going to be some warm weather yet, as the Fall is not yet over.  So I was thinking we could take the big automobile—­the one we used when we went to Grandpa’s farm—­and have a tour in it.  I have to go to a distant city on business, but there is no hurry in getting there.  We might all go in the big car.  Shall we go?”

“Shall we go?  Of course!” cried Bunny, dancing about.

“That’s what I say!” added Sue, also capering wildly.  “Oh, Bunny!” she cried, “haven’t we got just the bestest daddy in the whole world?”

“We have!  We have!”

“Then let’s both kiss him at once!” proposed Sue, and they made a rush for Mr. Brown, who pretended to be much afraid.

CHAPTER III

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, Bunny, if I scolded you for being bad.  Not that you are often naughty, but you might be, some time.”

“But I wouldn’t run away,” Bunny said, shaking his head very earnestly.  “I like it here too much.  I read a story once, about a boy who ran away, and he had to sleep in a haymow and eat raw eggs for breakfast.”