anuts, these days, only
contains ten nuts that lifts them out of the cheap class," laughed
Hester.

"And makes them a luxury, eh?" added Judith.

By the time the peanuts were gone, Jim signaled the girls and they
hurried back to the garage. It took but a moment for them to jump in and
urge Jim to hurry after Verny's car, somewhere in the lead.

Mile after mile of beautiful woodland, with now and then a small town,
but with many flourishing farms along the way, were reeled off rapidly
as the machine sped along as if on wings. Finally they reached a
crossroad where the signboard warned them: "All travel limited to eight
miles per hour."

"Slow down, Jim, or you'll land us in a county jail," called Ruth.

"Then Mrs. Vernon must be in jail--'cause she ain't in sight along the
road, and to get as far as this she _had_ to speed," declared Jim.

"It's funny she wouldn't stop to find out what became of us, when we
dropped so far behind," ventured Hester.

"They'll look us up at mealtime, never fear," laughed Anne. "We've got
the hamper with us, you know."

The others laughed at this remark, but they had not gone much farther
along the road before they spied the Vernon automobile waiting under a
great oak tree. When the tardy car came up, both parties began to shout,
some asking where the delinquents had been, and the unfortunates to
demand why folks wouldn't look behind once in a while!

Finally Jim could make himself heard, and he explained about the spring
and where they had to stop to replace the old one.

"Well, _we_ stopped to discuss ways. We ought to decide the route we
want to take before we reach Jersey City," said Mrs. Vernon.

"Which is the route you'd chose, Verny?" added Ruth.

"Well, we can save a lot of time by going along to Edgewater and cross
on the Fort Lee boat. That takes us right to 130th Street and Broadway,
New York. We avoid all crowds and city streets, but you will not see
anything of the life and bustle of New York City."

"How much time will we save?" asked Julie.

"Because we've lost so much over that old spring," added Ruth.

Mrs. Vernon smiled. "From upper New York we can drive right onto the
State Road that runs direct to Albany. By selecting that way we will
save a great deal of time, because traffic in the city is so congested
that every driver has to travel slow and fall in line back of endless
cars. At every corner when the signal holds up the entire line one has
to stop to