squirrel?" asked Sue.

"Fast asleep, just as Dix and Splash are," answered Uncle Tad.

Bunny and Sue were awake early the next morning, but Daddy Brown was
ahead of them, and their mother said he had gone on to the hotel to see
about the banjo boy.

"May we go there after we have eaten?" asked Bunny. "We want to see
Fred."

"It might not be he," said Mrs. Brown. "You had better wait until your
father comes back."

At first Bunny and Sue fretted a bit, but finally they became interested
in playing games under the big tree where the "Ark" had rested for the
night, and before they knew it their father came back.

"But he hasn't brought Fred!" cried Bunny.

"Maybe the minstrel boy wasn't the one after all," suggested Mrs. Brown.

"Well, I'm inclined to think he was," said her husband.

"Did you see him?" eagerly asked Bunny.

"No, he had run away. That's why I think it was Fred."

Then Mr. Brown explained:

"When I got to the hotel," he told Bunny, Sue and the others, "I saw Dr.
Perry walking around rather nervously. I asked him about the boy, and he
said that when he and his medicine van reached the hotel after closing
the show last night, he found that his banjo player had packed his
valise, taken his banjo, and gone off."

"Where?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"Nobody knows. He left no word. That's what makes me think it was Fred.
He must have seen us in the crowd. And, as soon as he could wash the
black off his face, he hurried to the hotel ahead of Dr. Perry, got his
bag and ran away. Very likely he did not want to see us and hear us give
him the message from his parents. His heart must still be hard against
them. It is too bad, if that was Fred, for I had begun to think I had
found him. Still it may have been some other young fellow. Dr. Perry
said they often came and went without giving any reasons. But we'll
still be on the lookout for the missing boy."

Once more the "Ark" started off, and for several days there was just
ordinary travel. The children played and had fun, the dogs raced along
the road, barking and enjoying themselves, and the weather was fine.
Then came another day of hard rain, and the "Ark" was kept under a big
oak tree.

The day after the rain, when the wayside brooks were still high, but the
roads fairly good, Mr. Brown went on again. They were coming to a small
town, and had to cross a ditch over which was a small bridge. Usually
there was but little water in the ditch, but now, becaus