d, and
when they let go entirely they went even faster, for that slanting road
had turned into a real hill, and they were going down it as speedy as
Mr. Man would go down, and perhaps speedier, and Mr. 'Possum wasn't
looking at the scenery any more, but was holding as fast as he could to
the steering-wheel, trying to keep in the road, and not doing it the
best in the world, though nobody was pushing now.

Then all at once Mr. 'Possum saw something that scared him--scared him
so he nearly fainted away, for just then they rounded a turn, going
lickety-split, and right in front of him Mr. 'Possum saw the Wide Blue
Water. They were headed straight for it, and Mr. 'Possum's thoughts
became confused. He could only realize two things clearly--one was that
he had forgotten all about putting brakes on his car, to stop with, and
the other was that he _must_ stop without delay, or they would all
disappear in the Wide Blue Water, and that he couldn't swim.

Mr. 'Possum wondered very rapidly what would stop them, and just then he
saw a little tree ahead, right at the side of the road, and he thought
_that_ would probably do it. He couldn't think of anything _but_ that,
and he steered for the tree as straight as he could, which wasn't so
very straight, for he hit it on the bias.

Still, that was enough to stop the car, but not the people in it. Mr.
'Possum himself flew into a thick blackberry-patch and lost
consciousness; Mr. Rabbit sailed clear over the blackberry-patch, and
landed in a boggy place, which was soft enough, but quite splashy; Mr.
'Coon went straight up into the little tree they had hit, and grabbed
some limbs and hung on, while Mr. Crow just opened his wings, though he
hadn't used them for ever so long, and went sailing over to a nice
grassy place by the road, and wasn't injured at all.

There wasn't really anything fatally damaged except the automobile. When
Mr. 'Possum came to, and Mr. Rabbit cleaned some of the bog off of
himself, and Mr. Crow came back, and Mr. 'Coon climbed down, and the
others caught up with them, they all looked around to see what they
could find of Mr. 'Possum's invention. Some of it was in the bushes
and some in the tree, and two of the wheels they couldn't find at all.
Mr. 'Coon said his trunk-strap was as good as ever, which was more than
Mr. Crow could say for his wood-box. Mr. 'Possum, who limped and seemed
suffering, said, when he looked at what they had gathered, that he felt
just a