CAMPING OUT
Mr. Brown was awakened in the morning feeling little hands tugging at
him as he lay in his bunk, and childish voices crying:
"Come on, Daddy! Get up! Get up!"
"Eh? What's this? Get up!" he exclaimed. "Why, what's the matter, Bunny
and Sue?" he went on, as he saw the two standing inside the curtains
that hung in front of his bed.
"It's time to get up," said Sue.
"Why, it isn't six o'clock yet," answered her father, looking at his
watch, which was under his pillow. "Why are you out of your bunks so
early? Go back to sleep."
"But we want to get on to Portland to find Fred Ward," said Bunny. "It's
only twenty miles and we can soon be there if we start early."
"There isn't much you children forget, is there?" asked Mr. Brown with a
laugh, as he stretched and rubbed his eyes. Then as he opened wide his
arms Bunny and Sue piled into the bunk with him, having a good, hearty
tussle, until their shouts of laughter awakened Mrs. Brown and Uncle
Tad, while Dix and Splash, asleep under the big car, added their barks
to the din.
"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Has anything more happened?"
"Oh, these children want to leave before breakfast for Portland, to find
that runaway boy," said Mr. Brown. "Well, as long as they're awake I
suppose we might as well get up and start early. It's about time I
attended to my business affairs."
Breakfast was soon ready, and when it had been eaten the "Ark" was once
more chugging along the road. The travelers passed through several small
villages and then they came to the edge of a big city which, the
children's father told them, was Portland.
"Are we going to stay in the auto while we're here?" asked Bunny, for
Mr. Brown had said they would probably remain in Portland for nearly a
week, as he had several matters to look after.
"No, I'll give you a chance to stretch your legs," said his father.
"We'll store the automobile in a garage and you can live at a hotel
while I'm getting my business in shape."
"But what about Dix and Splash?" asked Bunny. "Where can they stay?"
"Oh, we'll find a hotel with a garage attached to it, and leave the dogs
there in charge of the 'Ark,'" said Mr. Brown.
"And what about finding Fred?" Sue queried. She, as well as Bunny, was
greatly interested in the missing boy.
"Oh, I'll do all I can to find him," promised Mr. Brown.
A hotel, with a garage attached to it, was easily found in Portland, and
as the "Ark" went through the streets many persons turned to look at it.
But Bunny and Sue did not mind this in the least.
"They'll think we're a new kind of gypsy," said Bunny.
"And they'll all wish they was us, riding around this way," said Sue,
as she laughed with Bunny.
"'They was us.' Oh, Sue!" groaned her mother.
Dix and Splash did not like very much being left alone in the garage,
and they whined and barked as they were chained near the auto. But the
garage keeper promised to be kind to them, to let them run about after a
while and to feed and water them.
"And we'll come to see you every once in a while," said Bunny and Sue,
as they patted and hugged their two pets.
Fluffy, the squirrel, now well again, had been set free, before entering
the city, in the woods that he loved.
So, for a while the Browns gave up their "Ark," and settled down to
hotel life. Mr. Brown had much business to look after in connection with
his fish and dock affairs at home, for he was part owner of a steamship
line that ran from Portland to Bellemere.
After a day or two he found a chance to ask about the missing boy. Mr.
Brown first appealed to the police. But they had no record of him, and
though inquiries were made of a number of theater owners, Fred Ward was
not found. The man whose name he had mentioned as being the one he
intended to see in Portland had moved away.
"Well, Fred may have come here," said Mr. Brown, "and, after he found
his friend was gone, he may have drifted on to some other town. I'm
afraid we can't find him."
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Bunny. "That's too bad!"
"Let us go to look for him," proposed Sue. "We found Nellie Jones, that
girl who lives at the end of our street, when she was lost away over on
the next block."
"Yes, but that was different from this," said Mrs. Brown. "Portland is a
big city, and if you go wandering about in it you'll be worse lost than
you were in the big woods. You children stay with me, and your father
will do all he can to find Fred."
So Bunny and Sue had to be content to stay at the hotel, to go
sightseeing with their mother, to go to the moving pictures, while Mr.
Brown looked after his business. Several times each day Bunny and Sue
went to the garage to see the dogs. And how glad Dix and Splash were to
see the children!
Finally the day came when Mr. Brown had finished his business. He made
several more attempts to find Fred, but could not do so and at last
wrote to Mr. Ward, as he had promised, that, as far as could be learned,
the missing boy was not in Portland.
"We will keep watch for him on our way back to Bellemere," Mr. Brown
said in his letter. "We are returning by a different route from that by
which we came. Every chance we get we will look for your boy."
Then the "Ark" was taken from the garage, to the delight of the dogs no
less than that of the children, and once more the Browns were on their
tour.
As Mr. Brown had said, they were going back a different way from the one
they had taken on coming to Portland. This was to give his family a
chance to see new towns and villages. And, as the weather still promised
to be fine, all looked forward to a jolly auto tour.
Every time he came to a good-sized city, and whenever he met a
traveling show, Mr. Brown inquired for Fred, but it seemed that the
missing boy was well hidden. Undoubtedly he did not want to be found.
Bunny and Sue had great fun on the homeward trip, which lasted even
longer than the outgoing one.
The party had ridden on for several days, each one marked by sunshine,
when one evening they came to a little clump of trees beside the road.
It was not far from a good-sized village.
"We'll stay here over night," said Mr. Brown, "and in the morning we'll
take a little side trip to a waterfall not far away."
"Oh, that will be fun!" cried Bunny. "Maybe I can make a wooden water
wheel, and have it splash in the falls and go around."
"No indeed you can't!" cried his father. "The falls are too big for
that. They are seventy feet high."
But, as it happened, when morning came and Mr. Brown was about to start
the automobile after breakfast, there was a sudden crash, and the big
car settled down on one side, like a lame duck.
"Oh, my!" cried Mrs. Brown. "What has happened now?"
"It sounded as if one of the big springs had broken," said her husband,
getting down off the seat to look. "Yes," he added, "that's it. This
means we'll have to stay here three or four days until I can get a new
spring put in."
For a moment Bunny and Sue looked a trifle sad. Then Bunny cried:
"Oh, that will be fun. We can camp out in a tent in the woods."
"Yes, you and Sue can play at camping, if you like," said their father.
"But I think you'll want to sleep in the auto at night."
"Oh, no! We won't!" laughed Sue. "Now for some fun camping out!" she
added.