The answer is option C: The neighbors were glad that Johnny was missing because he was a nuisance.
In the short story "The Ransom of Red Chief," by O. Henry, two criminals kidnap ten year-old Johnny. After a few days with the terribly naughty, intolerable red-haired Johnny, the kidnappers agree to pay Ebenezer Dorset, the boy's father, to get rid of the boy. Mr Dorset, who knows how mischievous his son is, asks the kidnappers to bring him at night, since the neighbors have been glad that he is away and would probably react in a harmful way against anyone who brings him back.