he day; but I'd never heard him talk of
wantin' to own one. And then the first thing I knows he shows up at the
house last Monday night in the tonneau of one of these big seven-seater
road destroyers, all fitted out complete with spare shoes, hat box, and a
double-decker trunk strapped on the rack behind.

"Gee!" says I. "Why didn't you buy a private railroad train while you was
about it, Pinckney?"

"Precisely what I thought I was getting," says he. "However, I want you
and Sadie to help me test it. We'll start to-morrow morning at
nine-thirty. Be all ready, will you?"

"Got any idea where you're going, or how long you'll be gone?" says I.

"Nothing very definite," says he. "Purdy-Pell suggested the shore road to
Boston and back through the Berkshires."

"Fine!" says I. "I'd love to go meanderin' through the country with you
from now until Christmas; but sad to say I've got one or two----"

"Oh, Renee tells me we can make it in four days," says Pinckney, nodding
at the chauffeur. "He's been over the route a dozen times."

Well, I puts the proposition up to Sadie, expectin' she'd queer it first
jump; but inside of ten minutes she'd planned out just how she could
leave little Sully, and what she should wear, and it's all fixed. I tried
to show her where I couldn't afford to quit the studio for two or three
weeks, just at this time of year, when so many of my reg'lars need tunin'
up after their vacations; but my arguments don't carry much weight.

"Rubbish, Shorty!" says she. "We'll be back before the end of the week,
and Swifty Joe can manage until then. Anyway, we're not going to miss
this lovely weather. We're going, that's all!"

"Well," says I to Pinckney, "I've decided to go."

Now this ain't any lightnin' conductor rehash. Bubble tourin' has its
good points, and it has its drawbacks, too. If you're willin' to take
things as they come along, and you're travelin' with the right bunch, and
your own disposition's fair to middlin', why, you can have a bang up
time, just like you could anywhere with the same layout. Also, I'm
willin' to risk an encore to this partic'lar trip any time I get the
chance.

But there was something else I was gettin' at. It don't turn up until
along durin' the afternoon of our second day out. We was tearin' along
one of them new tar roads between Narragansett Pier and Newport, and I
was tryin' to hand a josh to Renee by askin' him to be sure and tell me
when we went through Rhode I