t see him, and it seemed the trouble was about him.

"It won't take long to tell you what has happened," said Mrs. Ward,
placing chairs for Mrs. Brown and the two children. "Our boy Fred has
run away from home!"

"Run away from home!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown.

"Yes, that's what he's done," said Mr. Ward. "I never thought he'd do
such a thing as that, even though he is quick tempered. Yes, Fred has
run away," and he turned over and over in his hand a slip of paper he
had been reading.

"Perhaps he only went off in a sort of joke," said Mrs. Brown
sympathetically. "I know once Bunny----"

"Yep. I ran away, I did!" exclaimed Bunny. "I got away down to the end
of the street. I saw a man and a hand organ and he had a monkey. I mean
the man did. And I wanted to be a hand-organ man so I ran away and was
going off with him, only Bunker Blue chased after me, so I didn't run
far, though I might have."

"Bunker Blue is a boy who works on Mr. Brown's fishing pier," explained
Mrs. Brown. "Yes, Bunny did run away once, but he was glad to run back
again."

"And I was lost!" cried Sue. "I was out walking with my daddy, and I
went down a wrong street, and I couldn't see him and I didn't know what
to do so I--I cried."

"Yes, Sue was lost a whole morning before a policeman found her and
telephoned to us," put in Mrs. Brown. "She was glad to get back.
Undoubtedly your boy will be the same."

"No," said Mr. Ward slowly, "I don't believe Fred will come home soon.
He has gone off very angry."

"Are you sure he didn't go to the home of some neighbor or of a
relative?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Children often do that, never thinking how
worried their fathers and mothers are."

"No, Fred is too old to do that," said Mrs. Ward, wiping the tears out
of her eyes. "He has gone, intending to stay a long while."

"What makes you think so?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"Because of this note he left," answered the father of the boy next
door. "You see, Mrs. Brown, I had to correct Fred for doing something
wrong. He spent some money to buy a banjo that he had promised--I had
told him I would get him a fine banjo next year, but----

"Well, he disobeyed me, and I felt I had to punish him. So I sent him up
to his room to stay all day. He went to his room, and that is the last
we have seen of him. He left this note, saying he was never coming
back."

"Read Mrs. Brown the note," suggested Mrs. Ward. "Maybe she can think of
some plan to get Fred back."

Mr.