The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car | Page 3

others, I suppose," put in Amy.
"Never! Now who's going to ride with me on the front seat?"
For a moment no one answered--Betty, Grace and Amy looked at one another, and then they burst into laughter.
"Well, do you want to draw lots for it?" inquired Mollie, with a trace of sarcasm. "I thought you'd feel honored."
"I will!" exclaimed Betty. "But you will be careful; won't you, Mollie dear?"
"Of course. I'm no more anxious to get into trouble than you are. Oh, what did I do with my handkerchief?"
"It's up your sleeve," said Grace, indicating a bulge in Mollie's sweater.
"Well, come on!" exclaimed the owner of the new car.
"She says it as though she were--going to--jail!" laughed Grace.
The demonstrator had alighted from the car, and was looking it over, testing the tires with his hand.
"Is it all right, Mr. Ransom?" asked Mollie, a bit anxiously. "Is anything the matter?"
"Not a thing, Miss Billette," he replied. "It is in perfect order. And I'm sure you can run it alone very easily. You have had a number of lessons, and you learned very quickly."
"If only I remember to let out my clutch before I change gears," Mollie murmured.
"Oh, you'll remember that," returned the chauffeur, to give her the confidence he saw she needed.
"I'll remind you of it," volunteered Betty.
The girls got into the car, and the man, impressing a few important facts on the pretty girl driver, lifted his cap as Mollie pressed the button of the self-starter.
"Here we go!" cried Grace, as the motor throbbed and hummed.
Carefully Mollie threw out the clutch, and slipped in first speed. Then releasing the clutch pedal gradually she felt the car move slowly forward. A flush of pleasure came to her face; for, though she had several times performed this feat of late, the demonstrator had always sat beside her. Now she was doing it alone.
"Fine!" cried Betty, as the car gathered speed.
"You're all right!" Mr. Ransom called after the girls.
From first to second gear, and then in another moment to high, was performed by Mollie without a hitch. Then she advanced the spark and gas levers.
"Well, so far--so good!" spoke Amy, with a sigh of relief.
"I knew Mollie could do it," declared Betty. "Look out for that wagon, my dear," she cried, a second later.
"I see it," and Mollie gave it such a wide berth that she sent her car needlessly to the grassy part of the country highway that led out of Deepdale.
"I don't want more than my half of the road," good-naturedly called the farmer who was driving the horse-drawn vehicle. "If all motorists were as generous as you there'd be no complaints," and he smiled and lifted his cap.
"It's better to be sure than sorry," said Mollie. "Well, girls, how do you like it?" and she ventured to turn around for an instant to speak to Grace and Amy in the tonneau.
"It's scrumptious!" declared Grace, between bites at a chocolate.
"Lovely," chimed in Amy.
"However did you prevail on your mother to get you the car?" asked Belly.
"Well, you see, when poor papa died," explained Mollie, as she put on a little more speed, "he provided in his will that on my seventeenth birthday I should have a certain sum of money to use just as I pleased--within reason, of course.
"He didn't say what it was for, but he had suggested that I take a trip to Europe. But I want to do that later, when I can better appreciate what I see, so I asked mamma if I couldn't use the money for a car, and she allowed me to. The result--you now behold," and she patted the steering wheel.
"We do more than merely behold it," said Grace. "It was sweet of you to ask us for a spin."
"Why wouldn't I, when Betty has been having us off on a cruise in her motor boat?" replied Mollie. Then she cried: "Oh, dear! There's a dog!" for one was in the road ahead.
"He can't bite us--up here," said Betty. "Unless you are afraid of your tires."
"No, it isn't that, but I'm afraid I may run over him!"
However, the dog leaped away from the road, darted into an open gateway, and from behind the safe vantage of the fence barked at the passing auto.
"I don't mind you there," said Mollie, with a sigh of relief. "Oh, but isn't this lovely!" and she inhaled deeply of the flower-scented air. There had been a shower the night before, and the roads were in excellent condition. Mollie had had the car about two weeks, and had taken several lessons in driving. As the chauffeur had said, she had proved an apt pupil, and now, being fully qualified, as her license stated, to run it alone, she had, on this first occasion, invited her friends for a run.
For several miles