a
chauffeur thrown in to drive them home, and they have been under his
thumb ever since. He was the only chauffeur who had ever been brought
alive in captivity to Homeburg, and the whole town inspected him with
the utmost care. He was the best stationary chauffeur I ever saw. He
seemed to regard that car as a monument and was shocked at the idea of
moving it around from place to place.

It was too high-priced a car to be touched by Sam Gayley, our local auto
doc., and somehow the chauffeur never seemed to be able to keep it in
running order long enough to get up to the Payley residence and take the
family out. He ran around the country a good deal, however, tuning it up
and trying it out, and as he was a sociable cuss, some of us always went
with him. In fact, about every one rode in the Payley car that summer
except the Payleys. Wert Payley used to stop me and ask if I could fix
it up to take him along sometime when I went riding with his chauffeur,
but I never would risk it. Besides, it would be imposing on the boy's
generosity to lug a friend along when you went riding.

The most of our machines vary from the one thousand, five hundred dollar
touring car to the five hundred dollar little fellows; and since they
have come, life in Homeburg is twice as interesting. They are our
dissipation, our excitement, our amusement, and the focus of our town
pride. The Checker Club disbanded last winter because the members got to
quarreling over self-starters, and I understand that in the Women's
Missionary Societies and the afternoon clubs the comparative riding
qualities of the various tonneaus about the city have about driven out
teething and styles as a subject of debate. For a while during the
Wilson campaign, it looked as if politics was going to get a foothold in
the town, but some enthusiast organized a flying squadron of automobiles
to propagate Democratic gospel, and then it was all off. Everybody
rushed into the squadron, and the trips around the district became
reliability runs, with a lone orator addressing the freeborn citizens
upon the tariff at each stop, and said freeborn citizens discussing
magnetos, springs, and tires with great earnestness and vehemence during
the speech.

Business always suspends for half a day whenever a new automobile comes
to town. There may be a dozen of the same make already, but that doesn't
make any difference. We are experts, trained to notice the finer shades
of perfection, and un