“No,” and Sue looked at the road along which they were moving in the automobile.  “Oh, Bunny!  Are we really lost again?”

Sue spoke so loudly that Mr. Reinberg, who was at the steering wheel, turned around quickly.  Up to now Bunny and Sue had talked in such low voices, and the automobile had rattled so loudly, that the dry-goods man had not heard them.  But when he did he turned quickly enough.

“Why, bless my heart!” he exclaimed.  “You here—­Bunny and Sue—­in my automobile?” and he made the machine run slowly, so it would not make so much noise.  He wanted to hear what Bunny and Sue would say.

“You here?” he asked again.  “How in the world did you come here?”

“Why—­why,” began Bunny, his eyes opening wide.  “You said we could have a ride, Mr. Reinberg.  Don’t you remember?”

“That’s so.  I do remember something about it,” the man said.  “I declare, I was so busy thinking about my store, and some post-office letters, that I forgot all about you.  But I thought you were to ask your mother if you could have a ride.”

“Why—­why, we thought you would take us around to our house, in the automobile, so we could ask her,” Bunny said.

Mr. Reinberg laughed.

“Well, well!” he cried.  “This is a joke!  You thought one thing and I thought another.  After you spoke to me, and I went in the post-office, I supposed you had run home to ask your folks.”

“No,” said Bunny, “we didn’t.  We got in your auto ’cause we thought you wanted us to.”

“Ha!  Ha!” laughed the dry-goods-store man.  “This is very funny!  And when I came out of the post-office, and didn’t see anything of you, I thought your folks wouldn’t let you go, as you hadn’t come back.”

“And we were in your auto all the while!” exclaimed Sue, in such a queer little voice that Mr. Reinberg laughed again.

“And have you been in there ever since?” he asked.

“Yes,” Bunny replied.  “We were playing steamboat, and we lay down to go to sleep while we went over the make-believe ocean waves.  Then, when we woke up, and couldn’t see our house—­”

“Or any houses,” added Sue.

“Or any houses,” Bunny went on, “why—­why, we thought we were—­”

“Lost!” exclaimed Sue.  “We don’t like to be lost!”

“You’re not lost,” Mr. Reinberg said, laughing again.  “You’re quite a way from home, though, for I have been going very fast.  But I’ll take care of you.  Now let me see what I had better do.  I have to go on to Wayville, and I don’t want to turn around and go back with you youngsters.  And if I take you with me your folks will worry.

“I know what I’ll do.  I’ll telephone back to your mother, tell her that you’re with me, and that I’ll take you to Wayville, and bring you safely back again.  How will that do?”

“Will you take us in the auto?” asked Bunny.

“Of course.”

“Oh, what fun!” cried Sue.  “We’ll have a ride, after all, Bunny.”