"Excuse me, sir, I think I've found your little grandson," he said. "I
discovered this little fellow over by the edge of the pond. He is
looking for his grandpa."
The worried-looking old gentleman was tall and thin. He had no white
mustache and no gray-and-white muffler. He was not Grandpa Horton at
all.
"What ails the man!" cried this grandpa, glaring at the short man. "I
am looking for my granddaughter and he brings me a lost boy!"
"Oh, my!" murmured the short man, dropping Sunny Boy's hand. "I'm
sorry. I'm so absent-minded. I hardly ever get things straight. I
thought you said you had lost your grandson. Excuse me," and he turned
and stepped back into the crowd, leaving Sunny Boy alone again.
This other grandpa stared at Sunny Boy silently for a few minutes and
Sunny Boy stared back. Then the old gentleman threw back his head and
laughed and laughed. He laughed so heartily that Sunny Boy had to
laugh, too, though he could not see that there was anything funny to
laugh at.
"Well, poor James Ridley has made a mess of it as usual," said the old
gentleman, when he could stop laughing. "I suppose, because I called
Adele my little girl, he went about looking for a child. She is
seventeen and able to take care of herself almost anywhere. Well,
child, if I were your grandfather I'd want some one to look after you,
so suppose you stay with me till we see if your grandpa is here. He
wouldn't go home without you, that much I know."
Sunny Boy felt better, with a tall, kindly old gentleman to walk about
with him, but he wished that they could find Grandpa Horton before his
feet were too cold to walk on. And then, just as he was sure his shoes
were frozen fast to his toes, he saw dear Grandpa Horton!
"Grandpa!" he shouted. "Here I am, Grandpa! We've been looking all
over for you."
"And I've been about crazy, looking for you," said Grandpa Horton,
hurrying up to them. "Are you all right, Sunny Boy? Are you cold?
Are you wet? How did you get ashore?"
The other grandfather laughed again as he shook hands with Grandpa
Horton.
"He's all right, though I suspect his feet are pretty wet," he said.
"I would have bundled him off home, but I knew you would be terribly
anxious and I couldn't pick you out of the crowd without his help.
You'd better hurry, now. I'm going to get out of this crowd as soon as
I find my granddaughter."
Grandpa Horton thanked the old gentleman for taking care of Sunny Boy
and then they shook hands again and Sunny Boy and his grandpa hurried
toward the Park gates.
They walked as fast as they could all the way home, and sometimes they
ran a little. Grandma Horton, who had been taking a nap when they left
for the Park, was downstairs in the living-room with Mrs. Horton,
knitting, when she happened to look out of the window and see Grandpa
and Sunny Boy coming.
"Has anything happened to you?" she cried, opening the door as they
dashed up the steps. "Are either of you hurt?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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