The Campfire Girls Go Motoring | Page 5

us lest too far we wander, Love's sweet voice is calling yonder;
Shine, little Glow-worm, glimmer, Shine, little Glow-worm, glimmer,
Light the path, below, above, And lead us on to love!"
Then there would come a chorus of derision from the Striped Beetles,
who politely inquired which one of us expected to be led to her Prince
Charming by that mechanical Glow-worm; and flung back our chorus
in a parody:
"Shine, little Glow-worm, glimmer, Till the Law makes you put on the
dimmer!"
Then we christened the horn of the Striped Beetle "Love", because that
was the only "sweet voice" we heard calling yonder. I don't believe I
ever had such a good time as I did on the road to Toledo. We got there
about noon and went to a large restaurant for dinner. Even there people
looked up from their tables as we eight girls came in, dressed in our
wood brown and green costumes, and we heard several low-voiced
remarks, "They're probably Camp Fire Girls."
We had a great deal of fun at dinner where we all sat at one big table.
Sahwah and Hinpoha sat at the two ends and got into a dispute as to
which end was the head of the table. "Stop quarreling about it, you
ridiculous children," said Nyoda. "'Wherever Magregor sits--' you
know the rest."

While she was speaking I saw a tourist at another table, dressed in a
long dust coat and wearing monstrous goggles that covered the entire
upper half of his face and made him look like a frog, lean forward as if
to catch every word. Nyoda is perfectly stunning in her motor suit and I
couldn't blame the man for admiring her, but we did want Nyoda to
ourselves on this trip, and the thought of having men mixed up in it put
a damper on my spirits. I suppose Nyoda will leave us for a man
sometime, but the thought always makes me ill. I came out of my little
reverie to find that Gladys had appropriated my glass of water and
Sahwah and Hinpoha were still disputing about being the head of the
table. Finally, we jokingly advised Sahwah to ask the waiter, and she
promptly took us up and did it, and found that Hinpoha was the head.
"I'm going to have the head at the next place we eat," Sahwah declared,
owning her defeat with as good grace as she could. And Fate winked
solemnly and began to slide off the knees of the gods.
From Toledo to Ft. Wayne, our next stop, there were two routes, the
northern one through Bryan and the southern one through Napoleon
and Defiance. As there didn't seem to be much difference between them
we played "John Kempo" and the northern route won, two out of three.
As we were threading our way through the streets of the town, an old
woman tried to cross the street just in front of the Glow-worm. Nyoda
sounded the horn warningly but the noise seemed to confuse her. She
got across the middle of the street in safety and Nyoda quickened up a
bit, when the woman lost her head and started back for the side she had
come from. She darted right in front of the Glow-worm, and although
Nyoda turned aside sharply, the one fender just grazed her and she fell
down in the street. Of course, a crowd collected and we had to stop and
get out and help her to the sidewalk where we made sure she was not
hurt. Nyoda finally took her in tow and piloted her across the street to
the place where she wanted to go.
When the excitement was over and the crowd had dispersed we
returned to the car and Nyoda started up once more. Then for the first
time we noticed that the Striped Beetle was nowhere in sight.
Apparently Gladys had not noticed our stopping in the confusion of the

busy street and had gone on ahead without us.
CHAPTER II.
Gladys, as the leader, had the road map with her with the route marked
out which we were to follow. We hastened to the end of the street,
expecting to catch sight of the Striped Beetle just around the corner, but
it was nowhere to be seen. We stopped at a store and asked if they had
seen it come by and they said, yes, it had just passed and had turned to
the left up --th Street. We followed swiftly, thinking to come upon the
girls each moment, but there was no sign of them.
"They surely have discovered by this time that we are not behind them
and must be waiting for us," said Nyoda. "I can't understand it."
"Gladys is probably trying to see if