“He isn’t? Where is he?” asked her mother. “Perhaps he has fallen asleep in a corner of the porch,” for they were sitting out on the piazza talking over the coming visit to Farmer Joel’s.
“No, he isn’t here,” went on Violet. “He got up and walked off a little while ago.”
“Then I guess he went up to bed by himself,” said Mr. Bunker, as he went into the house carrying Mun Bun, while Adam followed with Margy. “I’ll see if he’s in his room,” he added to his wife.
But a little later, when Mr. Bunker called down: “Laddie isn’t up here!” there was some excitement.
“Where can he be?” asked Mrs. Bunker.
“Maybe he’s out in the yard trying to catch lightning bugs,” suggested Rose, for she and Russ were to be allowed to remain up a little later than the smaller children.
“It’s too early for lightning bugs,” replied Mrs. Bunker. “Where can the child have gone? Laddie! Laddie!” she called, raising her voice. “Where are you?”
But the only sound was the singing of the frogs down in the pond—that is, if you call the noise the frogs make “singing.” There was no answer from Laddie.
“He may have wandered down into the garden, to look at some of the flowers you set out,” suggested Mr. Bunker.
“He couldn’t see flowers in the dark,” objected Mrs. Bunker.