"Well, we can ask him to ride us up to our house, and we can tell mamma, there, that we're going," said Bunny. "Then it will be all right."

So he and Sue got in the back part of the automobile, the door of which was open. The children sat up on the seat, waiting for Mr. Reinberg to come out of the post-office, but he stayed there for some time. Bunny and Sue thought it would be fun to sit down in the bottom of the car, and pretend they were in a boat. Down they slipped, making a soft nest for themselves with the robes, or blankets, which they pulled from the seat.

Mr. Reinberg came out of the post-office. He was in such a hurry that he never thought about Bunny and Sue's having asked him for a ride. He just shut the door of the car, took his place at the steering wheel and away he went. He did not see the children sitting down in the bottom, partly covered with the robe. For Bunny and Sue, just then, were pretending that it was night on their make-believe steamer, and they had "gone to bed."

And there they were, being given an automobile ride, and Mr. Reinberg didn't know a thing about it. Wasn't that funny?

CHAPTER XXIV

THE PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW

Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, sitting down in the back part of the automobile, with the blanket around them, got through pretending they were asleep on a make-believe ship, and "woke up."

They had felt the car moving, but they thought nothing of this, for they imagined Mr. Reinberg was taking them to their house so they might ask their mother if they could go for a ride.

Bunny looked at Sue and said:

"It takes this auto a good while to get to our house."

"Yes," Sue agreed, "but maybe he is going around the block to give us a longer ride."

"Oh, maybe! That would be fun!"

Bunny stood up and looked over the side door of the back part of the car. He could not see his house, and, in fact, he could see no houses at all, for they were out on a country road.

"Why! Why!" exclaimed Bunny to his sister. "Look, Sue! We're lost again!"

"Lost?"

"Yes. We're away far off from our house. I don't know where we are; do you?"

"No," and Sue looked at the road along which they were moving in the automobile. "Oh, Bunny! Are we really lost again?"

Sue spoke so loudly that Mr. Reinberg, who was at the steering wheel, turned around quickly. Up to now Bunny and Sue had talked in such low voices, and the automobile had rattled so loudly, that the dry-goods man had not heard them. But when he did he turned quickly enough.

"Why, bless my heart!" he exclaimed. "You here--Bunny and Sue--in my automobile?" and he made the machine run slowly, so it would not make so much noise. He wanted to hear what Bunny and Sue would say.

"You here?" he asked again. "How in the world did you come here?"

"Why--why," began Bunny, his eyes opening wide. "You said we could have a ride, Mr. Reinberg. Don't you remember?"

"That's so. I do remember something about it," the man said. "I declare, I was so busy thinking about my store, and some post-office letters, that I forgot all about you. But I thought you were to ask your mother if you could have a ride."

"Why--why, we thought you would take us around to our house, in the automobile, so we could ask her," Bunny said.

Mr. Reinberg laughed.

"Well, well!" he cried. "This is a joke! You thought one thing and I thought another. After you spoke to me, and I went in the post-office, I supposed you had run home to ask your folks."

"No," said Bunny, "we didn't. We got in your auto 'cause we thought you wanted us to."

"Ha! Ha!" laughed the dry-goods-store man. "This is very funny! And when I came out of the post-office, and didn't see anything of you, I thought your folks wouldn't let you go, as you hadn't come back."

"And we were in your auto all the while!" exclaimed Sue, in such a queer little voice that Mr. Reinberg laughed again.

"And have you been in there ever since?" he asked.

"Yes," Bunny replied. "We were playing steamboat, and we lay down to go to sleep while we went over the make-believe ocean waves. Then, when we woke up, and couldn't see our house--"

"Or any houses," added Sue.

"Or any houses," Bunny went on, "why--why, we thought we were--"

"Lost!" exclaimed Sue. "We don't like to be lost!"

"You're not lost," Mr. Reinberg said, laughing again. "You're quite a way from home, though, for I have been going very fast. But I'll take care of you. Now let me see what I had better do. I have to go on to Wayville, and I don't want to turn around and go back with you youngsters. And if I take you with me your folks will worry.

"I know what I'll do. I'll telephone back to your mother, tell her that you're with me, and that I'll take you to Wayville, and bring you safely back again. How will that do?"

"Will you take us in the auto?" asked Bunny.

"Of course."

"Oh, what fun!" cried Sue. "We'll have a ride, after all, Bunny."

"Yes," agreed her brother. "Thank you, Mr. Reinberg."

The dry-goods man found a house in which there was a telephone, and he was soon talking to Mrs. Brown in her home. He told her just what had happened; how, almost by accident, he had taken Bunny and Sue off in his automobile. Then he asked if he might give them a longer ride, and bring them home later.

"Your mother says I may," Mr. Reinberg said, when he came back to the automobile, in which Bunny and Sue were waiting. "I'll take you on to Wayville."

"Our Uncle Henry lives there," Bunny told the dry-goods man.

"Well, I don't know that I shall have time to take you to see him, but we'll have a ride."

"We 'most went to Uncle Henry's once," said Sue. "On a trolley car, only Splash couldn't come, and we had to go back and we got lost and--and--"

"Splash found the way home for us," finished Bunny, for Sue was out of breath.

"Well, we won't get lost this time," Mr. Reinberg said. "Now off we go again," and away went the automobile, giving Bunny and Sue a fine ride.

They soon reached Wayville, where Mr. Reinberg went to see some men.

Bunny and Sue did not have time to pay a visit to their Uncle Henry, but Mr. Reinberg bought them each an ice cream soda, so they had a fine time after all. Then came a nice ride home.