tomobile is plenty good enough for me."

Not for many a year had Persis been possessed by such a sense of
buoyancy and youthfulness. The road lay straight and smooth before
her. The little car, obedient to her strong capable hand, spun along
the shining track, counterfeiting by the swiftness of its motion the
breeze lacking in the languid spring day. Persis had laid aside her
hat, and the rush of air ruffled her abundant hair and rouged her
cheeks. As a matter of fact, Persis was not so near flying as she
thought. In the most conservative community, there would have been
little danger of her arrest for exceeding the speed limit. But to one
accustomed to the sedate jog-trot of farm horses taken from the plow to
hitch to the capacious carry-all, the ten-mile-an-hour gait of the new
motor seemed exhilarating flight.

The day had the deceptive stillness by which nature disguises the
ferocious intensity of her spring-time activities. Bird, beast and
insensate clod all felt the challenge of the season. Persis had
responded characteristically by cleaning house from six o'clock till
noon and making a dress for Betty in the interval which less strenuous
natures devote to afternoon naps. And now that Celia was off somewhere
with Joel, and Betty had promised to look after the baby, and the boys
had received permission to inspect a family of puppies newly arrived in
the neighborhood, Persis was scurrying hither and thither with all the
ebullient light-heartedness of a girl let out of school. She had
startled the staid residents of Twin Rivers, where the spectacle of a
woman driving a car ranked in interest second only to a circus parade.
She had frightened two horses and narrowly escaped running over a
chicken. And now she turned her face homeward, with the deliberate
intention of ignoring the approach of supper-time and inviting young
Mrs. Thompson to take the baby out for an airing. At no other time of
the year would Persis have considered being late to supper for no
reason except that she was loath to shorten her pleasure. Without
doubt the momentous interview between Mother Eve and the most subtle of
beasts occurred in the spring when the moral defenses need
reinforcement.

Against the deepening gold of the west, a black speck showed, emerging
rapidly into distinctness as the vehicles approached. The
slower-moving of the two was still at too great a distance for Persis
to distinguish its occupants when she bega