Grandpa, clambering down
stiffly, had to lift Grandma and Sally out. Daddy took Jimmie,
sobbing with weariness. Dick and Rose-Ellen tumbled out, feet
asleep and bodies aching. When they stumbled into the roadside
hamburger stand, the lights blurred before their eyes, and the
hot steamy air with its cooking smells made Rose-Ellen so dizzy
that she could hardly eat the hamburger and potato chips and
coffee slammed down before her on the sloppy counter. Jimmie
went to sleep with his head in his plate and had to be wakened to
finish.

Still, the food did help them, and when they were wedged into
their seats again, they could begin to look forward to the
night's rest. Grandpa said likely they wouldn't drive much after
ten, and Grandma said, "Land of love, ten? Does he think a
body's made of leather?"

On and on they went, toppling sleepily against each other, aching
so hard that the ache wakened them, hearing dimly the same angry
man arguing with the driver. "When we stop to sleep, hah? I ask
you, when we stop to sleep?"

They didn't stop at all.

Rose-Ellen was forever wishing she could wake up enough to pull
up the extra quilt which always used to be neatly rolled at the
foot of her bed. Once, through uneasy dreams, she felt Daddy
shaking her gently, and while she tried to pull away and back
into sleep, Grandpa's determinedly cheerful voice said, "Always
did want to see Washington, D. C., and here we are. Look quick
and you'll see the United States Capitol."

From the rumbling truck, Rose-Ellen and Dick focused
sleep-blurred eyes with a mighty effort and saw the great dome
and spreading wings, flooded with light.

"Puts me in mind of a mother eagle brooding her young," Grandpa
muttered.

"Land of love, enough sight of them eaglets is out from under her
wings, finding slim pickin's," Grandma snapped.

"Looks like white wax candles." Rose-Ellen yawned widely and went
to sleep again.

When gray morning dawned, she did not know which was worse-the
sleepiness or the hunger. The angry man demanded over and over,
"When we stop for breakfast?"

They didn't stop.

Grandma had canned milk and boiled water along, and with all the
Beechams working together, they got the baby's bottles filled.
Poor Sally couldn't understand the cold milk, but she was so
hungry she finally drank it, staring reproachfully at her bottle.

Not till he had engine trouble did the driver halt. Fortunately
the garage where he st