“You poor children!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown.  “This is too bad!  We must see what we can do to help you.  Where do you think your Uncle Simon and Aunt Sallie went to?” she asked.

“It was over to England or France, or some place like that,” answered Mart.  “It was just before the war started, and maybe their ship was sunk.  Anyhow, we haven’t heard from them since then, and Mr. Jackson lost their address,” he added.

“But your Uncle Simon knew where Mr. Jackson was, didn’t he?” asked Mrs. Newton with interest.

“Well, maybe he did and maybe he didn’t,” answered Mart.  “You see Mr. Jackson and his wife travel about a lot.  Lots of times letters get lost, so Uncle Simon may have written about us, and Mr. Jackson might never have got the letter.”

“Yes, that’s so,” agreed Mrs. Brown.  “Well, when my husband comes home we’ll talk with him and see what is best to do.  You had better stay here until then and make yourselves at home.  Hark!  There’s the doorbell.”

“Who do you suppose that is, Mother?” asked Sue.

“I can’t tell that, Sue, from here.”

“I’ll go and see who it is, Mother,” offered Bunny, as he ran through the hall.  The others heard the front door open and the sound of a man’s voice mingling with that of Bunny’s.  In a moment the little fellow came running back.

“Who is it?” asked his mother.

“General Washington,” was the surprising answer.

CHAPTER VII

“Down on the farm”

For a moment Mrs. Brown did not know whether to laugh at Bunny for playing a joke or to tell him he must not do such things when there were visitors at the house.  But Bunny looked so serious that his mother thought perhaps he did not mean to be funny.

“Who is it?” she asked again.

“General Washington,” replied the little boy.

“Bunny Brown!” cried Mrs. Newton, “what do you mean?”

“Well, it’s the man who made believe he was General Washington in the
Opera House show, anyhow!” declared Bunny. “’Course he doesn’t look like
General Washington now, but——­”

Lucile and Mart did not wait for Bunny to finish.  Together they ran to the front door.

“Bunny Brown, you aren’t playing any jokes, are you?” asked his mother.

“No’m!  Honest I mean it!” cried Bunny, his eyes shining with excitement.  “It’s the same man who was General Washington and General Grant and a lot of other people at the show in the Opera House!  He’s at our front door now, and he wants to know if the Happy Day Twins are here.”

“The Happy Day Twins?” exclaimed Mrs. Brown.

“That’s the name the boy and girl went under on the programme, you know,” explained Mrs. Newton.  “The same children you have been so kind to—­Lucile and Mart Clayton.  They took the name of the ‘Happy Day Twins’ on the stage you know.  Did the impersonator want them, Bunny?” she asked.