first hill the girl was crying
hard, and there were eleven automobiles, Aggie counted, not far behind
us. At the end of the next rise there were still ten. It was then that
Tish, with her customary presence of mind, told us to scatter the tacks
over the road behind us.

The result was that only four were to be seen when we got to the top of
Graham's Hill, and they had lost time and were far away. Tish was in a
terrible way. Her plan had been merely to take the girl away, because
Culver belonged in her precinct and it was her business, as ordered by
the government, to gather in all the slackers, matrimonial or otherwise.
Then, after Culver had registered as a single man, he could, as Tish
tersely observed later, either marry or go and drown himself. It was
immaterial to her.

But now we were likely to be arrested for abduction, and the whole thing
would get in the papers.

"Tish," Aggie begged, "do stop and put her out in the road. That Culver
and the policeman are in the first car. I can see them plainly--and they
can pick her up and take her back."

But Tish ignored her, and kept on. She merely asked, once, if we had any
scissors with us, and on Aggie finding a pair in her knitting bag, said
to get them out and have them ready.

I pause here for a moment to reflect on Tish's resourcefulness. How many
times, in the years of our association, has her active brain come to our
rescue in trying times? And, once the danger is over, how quickly she
becomes again one of us, busy with her charities, her Sunday school
class, and her knitting for the poor! Indomitable spirit and Christian
soul, her only fault, if any, perhaps a slight lack of humor, that is
Letitia Carberry.

"Watch for a barbed wire fence, Lizzie," she said, as we flew along.
"And see how near they are."

Well, they were very close, but owing to Tish leaving the macadam at
this point, they lost time at a crossroads. At the top of the next hill
Aggie said she could not see anything of them. It was then that Myrtle
tried to jump out, and would have succeeded had not Tish speeded up the
car.

I could hear Aggie trying to soothe her, and telling her that Tish was
not insane, but was merely saving her from a terrible fate.

"I have never been married, my dear, owing to an unfortunate
circumstance," she said, in her gentle voice. "But to marry without
love----"

The girl sat up, startled.

"But how do you know I don't love him?" she demanded.

"I am s