“Well, pick him up as soon as you can,” said Mr. Brown.

“Pick him up!” repeated Bunny, who had been listening to his father’s side of the conversation.  “Did Fred fall down?”

“No.  ‘Pick him up’ is a police expression,” explained Mr. Brown.  “It means find him, or learn where he is.”

“Oh, I see,” murmured Bunny.  “Well, I hope they’ll soon find Fred.”

The talk at supper time drifted from the running away of the boy next door, and what might happen to him, to the trip the Browns were to take in the big car.

“Well, now are you ready to tell us?” asked Bunny, as he saw his father finish his cup of tea.

“Yes, I’ll tell you a little now, and more when the time comes, as I have soon to go down to the police station with Fred’s picture.  But I’ll tell you enough so you can sleep easy,” said Mr. Brown with a laugh.  Then he sat thinking for a while as to the best way to tell his news.

“In the first place——­” began Mr. Brown, only to have Bunny interrupt him with: 

“Oh, it starts off just like a story!”

“No,” cried Sue.  “A story begins:  ‘Once upon a time.’”

“Well, never mind about that now,” said Mr. Brown with a laugh.  “Let me get on with what I have to tell you.  The first part is that I have to go to a city called Portland, about three hundred miles down the coast.  I have to go there on business, but there is no particular hurry.  That is, I can take my time on the road.  Just what the business is about needn’t worry your heads, except that I’m going to look at a big motor boat which I may buy.”

“And may I have a ride in it?” cried Bunny.

“I want to ride myself,” cried Sue, “and I want to learn how to steer.”

“Well, we’ll talk that over later,” said her father.  “Just now I am going to tell you about our auto tour.  We are going, as I said, to the city of Portland.  It is three hundred miles there, but the roundabout roads we will take may make it longer.”

“Can we stop over a day or so here and there?” asked Mrs. Brown.

“Yes, several days, if we like,” said her husband.  “We are going in the big enclosed auto, in which we went to grandpa’s farm.”

“That will be lovely!” cried Sue.

“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 fishing.

“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.”