John Fitzgerald GB 05 Great Bra by Great Brain Reforms Page A

see if we were following him. Then he began to run, with me and Tom and Brownie after him. He ran down the street Frankie had taken. When we got to the outskirts of town the pup turned around to see if we were still following him, then ran down the road leading to the river, He kept going for about a mile down the road. My lungs felt as if they were on fire. Prince turned off on a side road that led to a wooded glen where people often went for picnics. We found Frankie sitting with his back against a tree. Prince was licking tears from Frankie’s face.
    “John, Tom!” Frankie shouted, getting up and running toward us.
    Tom reached him first and picked him up. “What a scare you gave us,” he said.
    “I was plenty scared when it got dark,” Frankie said.
    “We didn’t think you would really run away,” Tom said.
    “I wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for you and John,” Frankie said.
    I couldn’t have been more astonished if Frankie had accused us of beating him. Tom was the first to recover from his astonishment.
    “I thought you were running away because you didn’t think Papa and Mamma loved you anymore,” he said.
    “That’s right,” Frankie said- “But I wasn’t real hon-est sure until you and John didn’t stop me. Then I knew that you both knew Papa and Mamma didn’t love me anymore.”
    “Boy, oh, boy,” I said to Tom. “When he tells Papa and Mamma that, you and I had better run away from home. They will never forgive us.”
    Tom put Frankie down. “Now listen,” he said. “Papa
    and Mamma do love you. J. D. and I were just playing a joke on you.”
    “It’s no joke,” Frankie said, “to make me believe Papa and Mamma don’t love me.”
    “We know that now,” Tom said. “And we are sorry we played a joke on you. Now get into the wagon and sit on the box and we’ll take you home.”
    Frankie was smiling as he got into the wagon. “It is good knowing I’m going home,” he said. “And I won’t tell that you and John played a joke on me.”
    We were on the river road, about a quarter of a mile from town, when we saw a group of men carrying lanterns coming toward us. I waited .until they were near enough and then cupped my hands to my lips.
    “Uncle Mark!” I shouted. “We found Frankie! He is
    all right!”
    All the men with lanterns began running toward us. Papa and Uncle Mark reached us first. Papa picked up Frankie and hugged him.
    “Are you all right, son?” he asked.
    “I’m fine now that I know you love me,” Frankie said as he put his arms around Papa’s neck.
    “Don’t you ever forget how much I love you,” Papa said, “and how much your mother loves you.”
    Papa carried Frankie all the way home. Tom told Uncle Mark and the other men in the search party how we had found Frankie. They left us at our front gate. I had never seen such a happy look on Mamma’s face as when
     
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    the three of us entered the parlor with Frankie.
    “Give me my son,” she cried. She took Frankie from Papa and sat down in her maple rocker holding him on her lap.
    Frankie was struggling to keep his eyes open as Mamma rocked him in her arms. He fell asleep with a beautiful smile on his face.
    Tom told Papa, Aunt Bertha, Mamma, and Sweyn how we had found Frankie.
    “The worst part of it,” Tom confessed, “was that Frankie was sure you really didn’t love him when J. D. and I didn’t try to stop him from running away.”
    Papa sat in his chair shaking his head. “You both played a very cruel joke on a little boy,” he said. “It easily could have resulted in a tragedy. Frankie could have fallen into the river and been drowned. He could have wandered into that stretch of desert on the edge .of town and been bitten by a rattlesnake. I can’t imagine any punishment that is severe enough for what you two did.”
    “I can,” Mamma said. “Just knowing what might have happened to Frankie will haunt both of you for the rest of your lives.”
    Mamma was sure right. My