leanin' way for'ard over
the dash, reins gripped and teeth sot. For a little ways 'twas an even
thing, and then we commenced to pull ahead a little.

"'Loveland,' yells Jonadab, out of the port corner of his mouth, 'if
I ain't showin' you my tailboard by the time we pass the fust house in
Denboro, I'll eat my Sunday hat.'

"I cal'late he would 'a' beat, too. We was drawin' ahead all the time
and had a three-quarter length lead when we swung clear of the woods and
sighted Denboro village, quarter of a mile away. And up the road comes
flyin' a big auto, goin' to beat the cars.

"Let's forget the next few minutes; they wa'n't pleasant ones for me.
Soon's the Bay Queen sot eyes on that auto, she stopped trottin' and
commenced to hop; from hoppin' she changed to waltzin' and high jumpin'.
When the smoke had cleared, the auto was out of sight and we was in the
bushes alongside the road, with the Queen just gettin' ready to climb
a tree. As for Tobias and Henrietta, they was roundin' the turn by the
fust house in Denboro, wavin' by-bys to us over the back of the seat.

"We went home then; and every foot of the way Cap'n Jonadab called an
automobile a new kind of name, and none complimentary. The boarders,
they got wind of what had happened and begun to rag him, and the more
they ragged, the madder he got and the more down on autos.

"And, to put a head on the whole business, I'm blessed if Tobias
Loveland didn't get in with an automobile agent who was stoppin' in
Orham and buy a fifteen-hundred-dollar machine off him. And the very
next time Jonadab was out with the Queen on the Denboro road, Tobias
and the widow whizzed past him in that car so fast he might as well have
been hove to. And, by way of rubbin' it in, they come along back pretty
soon and rolled alongside of him easy, while Henrietta gushed about Mr.
Loveland's beautiful car and how nice it was to be able to go just as
swift as you wanted to. Jonadab couldn't answer back, nuther, bein' too
busy keepin' the Queen from turnin' herself into a flyin' machine.

"'Twas then that he got himself swore in special constable to arrest
auto drivers for overspeedin'; and for days he wandered round layin' for
a chance to haul up Tobias and get him fined. He'd have had plenty of
game if he'd been satisfied with strangers, but he didn't want them
anyhow, and, besides, most of 'em was on their way to spend money at the
Old Home House. 'Twould have been poor business to let any