Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour Part 4

"Just dandy!" exclaimed Bunny Brown. "And I'm going to sit on the seat and steer, just as I did when Bunker Blue took us to grandpa's."

"I don't know that Bunker is going this time," said Mr. Brown, speaking of the boy who worked for him and ran some of the motor boats when parties of men and women wanted to go out in the bay fis.h.i.+ng.

"Oh! Bunker not going?" cried Bunny, somewhat disappointed.

"But we'll take your dog Splash and Uncle Tad," said Mr. Brown.

"That will be all right," agreed Bunny. "Go on, Daddy. Tell us some more."

"Well, I don't know that there is any more to tell. We are going in the big automobile, have a nice trip, and come back when we get ready. It will be Indian Summer most of the time, the nicest part of the year, I think, so we ought to have good weather. Now the rest is in your hands and your mother's--getting ready for the trip."

Those who have read the book telling about the time spent on grandpa's farm will remember the big automobile in which the Browns traveled to the farm.

It had been a furniture moving van, and you know how big and strong they are. Inside they are just like a big room in a house, only they move about by a motor in the front, just as does a small automobile.

But this moving van was very different from the kind usually seen. The inside had been made over into several rooms. There were little bunks, or beds in which to sleep, a combined kitchen and dining room, and a little sitting room where, in the evenings after the day's travel, the children could sit and read, for the traveling automobile was lighted by electric lights, from a storage battery carried in it.

On bright, suns.h.i.+ny days the little table was moved out of the van to the ground beside it and there the meals were served. Sometimes cooking was done out-of-doors, also, on a gasolene stove. A tent was carried, and if any company came they could sleep in that if there was not room in the auto-van.

When the Browns wanted to travel through the rain they could do so without getting wet, for there was a stout roof on the automobile.

Windows had been cut in the sides of the van so the children could sit beside them in stormy weather and look out, just as if they were in a railroad car. And in the big car was a place for some of the children's toys.

There was room for plenty of food to be carried, and even a small ice-box that could be filled with ice whenever they stopped in a city.

"Well," said Mr. Brown, after he had told Bunny, Sue and their mother about his plan, "do you think you'll like it?"

"I'll just love it!" cried Sue.

"So will I," said Bunny. "Let's hug and kiss daddy and momsie!"

"No, I'll have to beg off!" cried Mr. Brown. "Just one kiss each, and don't muss my hair for I've got to go to the police station to take Fred's picture. I'm sure his father would feel bad about doing a thing like that so I'll do it for him. I'll be back soon."

"And we'll talk about the trip while you're gone," said Mrs. Brown.

Bunny and Sue were in bed when their father returned. The next morning their mother told them, after Mr. Brown had gone to work, that he had asked the police to do all they could to find Fred Ward.

"And now we must get ready for our trip," went on Mrs. Brown. "I must get both of you some new clothes, for you wore out many suits while we were at Camp Rest-a-While and in the Big Woods."

"But don't get too many. It will take too long to get 'em," remarked Bunny. "We want to get started on our auto tour."

Not long after this Mrs. Brown announced that she was ready for the trip--that she had bought the new clothes, and had arranged for the food they were to take with them.

"Then I'll bring the big auto around here to the house to-morrow morning and let you look at it," said Mr. Brown. "I have made a few changes in it. I hope you will like it."

"Oh, we'll be sure to," said Mrs. Brown.

That night, when Bunny and Sue were ready for bed, Bunny looked out of the window toward the Ward house. There was a bright moon.

"I see Dix and Splash playing together on the lawn," he said.

"And I see something else," added Sue.

"What?" asked Bunny.

"I see Fred Ward coming home. There he is, going up the back steps now."

Sue pointed, and Bunny saw a tall lad, who did look very much like the runaway boy, at the back door of the Ward home.

"Oh, let's tell daddy and momsie!" cried Bunny, as he and his sister, in their bare feet, pattered their way downstairs.

CHAPTER IV

BUNNY AT THE WHEEL

Bunny and Sue raced downstairs and burst into the sitting room where their mother and father were sitting.

"Oh, Daddy!" cried Bunny.

"Oh, Momsie!" exclaimed Sue.

They were both out of breath.

"Well, what's the matter now?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"We saw something--anyhow Sue did," explained Bunny.

"But first Bunny saw Splash and Dix playing on the lawn in the moonlight," said Sue, breathing fast.

"And then Sue saw Fred coming home--in by the back way," added Bunny, his eyes big with wonder.

"What's that?" cried Mr. Brown, almost as excited as the two children.

"You say you saw Fred Ward?" asked Mother Brown.

"Well, it _looked_ like him," replied Bunny, not quite so sure now that questions were being asked of him and his sister.

"And he was going very carefully and quietly around the back way," added Sue. "Who could it be but Fred? He's getting tired of sleeping in haystacks and eating raw eggs, and he's come home, I guess."

"Look here, Sue and Bunny," said Mr. Brown, a bit firmly but still kindly. "Did you both see this? Or did you make it up or dream it?"

"We didn't dream," said Sue, "'cause we hadn't gone to sleep yet."

"And we didn't make it up, for we weren't playing make-believe," added Bunny.