"All of us?" asked Sunny Boy, beginning to pick up the shells and
sea-weed. "Where's Bobbie, Daddy?"

"All of you," assented Mr. Horton. "Bobbie Henderson? Oh, his mother
sent for him. Ready now, children?"

Mr. Horton put Ruth Baker in the front seat because she was the only
girl, and the seven boys piled happily into the tonneau. They were all
ready to start when Sunny Boy, turning around, saw a grinning little
colored boy holding on at the back of the car. Mr. Horton saw him,
too.

"Hey, get down from there!" Sunny Boy's father called crisply. "You'll
be hurt, taking a chance like that. Get off now, before I start the
car."

The woolly black head and grinning brown face disappeared, but Sunny
Boy set up a loud wail.

"Daddy, he took my hat! See him! He's got it! Let me get out and chase
him!"

"Stay where you are," commanded Mr. Horton. "You can't catch him now.
Perhaps we can find him later. If not, Mother will have to get you
another hat to-morrow."

"It was brand-new," Sunny Boy explained mournfully to David, as the
car started. "Mother bought it for me to wear to New York. And now
that colored boy went and stole it!"

CHAPTER II

OLIVER'S LESSON

"You going to New York?" Harold Wallace asked curiously. "When? My
cousin lives there. He's coming to see me next summer."

Sunny Boy bounced around excitedly on the seat. That is, he bounced as
much as he could in the rather crowded space.

"Yes, we're going to New York," he announced. "To-morrow--no, the next
day--when is it, Daddy?"

"Soon," said Mr. Horton.

"Send me a post-card for my album," begged Ruth.

"Me, too," chimed in Nelson.

All the boys, it seemed, wanted post-cards from New York.

"Well, maybe, if Mother will write 'em," agreed Sunny Boy dubiously.
"I can print A's and B's, but not a real letter writing. Are you going
to get out, Daddy?"

The car had circled a large green that made attractive the center of
the city, and Mr. Horton had parked before a busy grocery store.

"I'm going in here to do an errand for Mother," he said. "Now,
youngsters, I won't be long, and every one of you stay in the car till
I come back. I don't want to have to hunt up missing boys when it's
time to go home."

Ruth Baker turned so she faced the back of the car.

"You never stay at home, Sunny Horton!" she declared accusingly. "I
think it's mean. You were going to play Indian braves and sleep out in
the tent, and pretty soon it will be