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When the trio reached the Corner House that day, however, they found a subject afoot that put out of Neales and Agnes minds for the time being all thought of the stealing of Mr. Collingers car. And yet the county surveyors aunt had something to do with this very interesting topic under discussion.
Mrs. Heard was present, having a neighborly cup of tea with Mrs. MacCall, who was quite as much a friend of the family as she was housekeeper. Mr. Howbridge had chanced to drop in as well, and Ruth had arrived home ahead of the other Corner House girls.
Oh, Aggie! cried Ruth, running out of the sitting room where tea was being served, Uncle Rufus having rolled the service table in there at Mrs. MacCalls request. Just guess!
Going to have rice waffles for supper, put in Neale, with a cheerful grin.
That boy! said the oldest girl, scornfully.
What has happened? demanded Agnes, excitedly. Ruth was seldom given to exuberance of speech or action, and she was plainly stirred up now.
He says we can do it!
Huh? grunted Neale, staring.
Who says we can do what? demanded Agnes, her blue eyes almost as wide as saucers. How you talk, Ruth Kenway!
It will be most delightful, I am sure, said the older girl, more composedly. We shall all enjoy it. And Mrs. Heard has agreed to act as chaperone, for Mrs. MacCall cant go, and you know how Aunt Sarah Maltby feels about the auto.
Oh! I see, grumbled Neale. A glimmer of intelligence reaches my brain. You are talking about the trip in the auto after school closes.
Is that it? cried Agnes, clasping her hands. Oh, Ruthie!
That is it, my dear! Mr. Howbridge just spoke about it himself. He has known Mrs. Heard for years, you see, and he thinks she would be just the nicest person in the world to go with us.
And so she is, agreed Agnes.
Well, said Dot, who had listened in grave silence, if we are going off on a long journey with our car, my Alice-doll must have her complexion tended to. You take her, Neale, and get her doctored, and she thrust the precious doll directly into the boys hands, and marched out of the room with quivering lip. It was really very hard for the smallest Corner House girl to part from her most loved child even in such an emergency.
There now! What did I tell you? demanded Agnes, of Neale. Youve got your hands full.
Of doll, he admitted, but he did not appear rueful. I know just where they will fix her up as good as new, and he laughed. I believe in preparedness. I foresaw this when I spoke about the doll the other day.
But now was the time to talk about the tour. Agnes had prepared for this since the very first day she knew they were to have the automobile. The height of her ambition was to travel in the most modern way by motor car.
With Neale and sometimes aided by her sisters she had planned elaborate routes through the surrounding country sometimes into neighboring states. She had borrowed maps and guide books galore and had purchased not a few. In fact, in a desultory way, she and Neale had picked up a smattering of knowledge of roads and towns and hotels and general geographical information which really might be of use if, as Ruth said they would, the Corner House girls should go on a tour in the new seven-passenger car.
They talked about it to the exclusion of almost everything else that evening, and Agnes spread the news abroad at school the next day. That the Corner House girls really owned a car was already an important fact
to their school friends.
For Ruth and Agnes were not likely to be selfish in their enjoyment of their new possession. Stinginess was not a fault in the Kenway family.
On the very second Saturday after they had come into possession of the car Neale had taken out the older girls and a party of their friends in the morning, and in the afternoon Tess and Dot had played hostesses to a lot of little girls. As Mr. Howbridge remarked with a laugh, the cost of the new car was a mere drop in the bucket. Maintenance and gasoline were the items that would deplete the pocketbooks of his wards.
As for Neale ONeil, he almost lived in the car.
Of course, the entire family had to try it even to Linda. Linda enjoyed it, and in her broken English stated it as her opinion that heafen could be not like dis. Which was a statement not to be contradicted.
Mrs. MacCall was doubtful about the utility of the machine after all. Uncle Rufus, when he went out with Neale and the little girls and not a few of the pets, including a couple of kittens and Tom Jonah, just clung to the seat-rail with both hands and actually turned gray about the corners of his mouth.
As for Aunt Sarah Maltby, she had set her face against the innovation from the first.
But of course, she said, in her severe way, it doesnt matter what I say or what my opinion may be. Nobody asks me to advise. I am a non-entity in this house.
That was the beginning. Ruth and Agnes and even Mrs. MacCall had to coax and plead and cajole before the old lady would promise to take a ride in the car. When she did, she dressed in her Sunday dress the one she always went to church in and carried her prayer-book.