uld have done!"

Before they had turned the corner of the house, Betty had clambered in
behind the steering wheel and was bidding the girls follow.

In their excitement they all tried to climb in, forgetting that a car
designed to seat two people cannot by any stretch of imagination
accommodate four. Then suddenly realizing what an absurd picture they
must be making, they began to laugh.

"Well, now what are we going to do?" wailed Mollie. "We can't all go at
once."

"Of course you can," cried Betty busily examining her treasure, touching
a lever here, a button there, with loving fingers. "What, may I ask, is
the matter with the running boards?"

"Betty, you don't mean--"

"Yes, I do," firmly.

"But we can't--"

"Well, then I'll have to take one at a time," decided Betty, tooting the
horn experimentally. "Come on--who goes first?"

"Oh, come on, we'll all go," cried Mollie dancing with impatience. "You
get in beside Betty, Grace, since you're afraid of the running board,
and Amy and I'll hang on somewhere. Come on, Amy. Be a sport, old girl."

Amy wavered for a moment, but the challenge was too much for her, and
she nodded her head in assent.

"Thank goodness I can only die once," was her cheerful comment.

So Grace climbed in beside the Little Captain, while Amy and Mollie
scrambled up on the running boards and clung to the sides of the car.
Then Betty tooted the horn triumphantly and began slowly to back down
the drive.

"I don't know about this," she remarked, as the car made rather
zigzagging work of it. "I've driven mostly on a straight road, you know,
and I'm not very expert, even if I do know all about a motor boat."

"So we see," commented Mollie wickedly, as Betty nearly backed into a
flower bed at one side of the drive.

"Don't you think we'd better get off?" asked Amy. "Till you turn into
the road, anyway, Betty?" she added.

"Don't you dare," cried Betty, giving the wheel a nervous little twist
that caused Amy to groan and clutch the side of the car tighter. "If you
make me stop now, I'll never get started again. There!" as the car slid
into the roadway, hesitated a moment, then without a jar or a jerk,
glided swiftly along the smooth road, gathering headway as it went. "Now
we're all right."

"That was pretty work, Betty," complimented Mollie, who, as an old and
experienced driver, felt capable of pronouncing judgment. "Now let's see
what this little car will do."

"Not too fast," be