he is
going into nervous prostration. I've been to see some distant
relatives about the matter, but I can't do anything. I'm so sorry for
dear little mother. If she should break down----"

Poor, worried Freda could not go on. Cora held her close and the
thought came to her that Freda herself was on the verge of a nervous
breakdown. The girl had changed very much from the happy, laughing
chum of a year before.

"Freda, dear, tell me more about it," murmured Cora. "Perhaps I can
help--I have friends--Jack and I----"

"Here comes the train!" interrupted Jack. "Come on, Cora!"

"I must see you again, Freda," said Cora, hastily. "I'll look for you
on the train. I've got to get my party together. Don't forget--I'll
see you again!" and, wondering what was the cause of her friend's
worry, Cora hastened up the platform, toward her companions, while the
train steamed noisily in.

CHAPTER II

FREDA'S STORY

"Well, are we all here?"

"Count noses!"

"Did anybody lose anything?"

"If it's a pocketbook it's mine!"

"Especially if it has money in it!"

Thus the motor girls, and their boy friends, sent merry quip and jest
back and forth as they found seats in the coach, and settled down for
the trip to Crystal Bay. Cora, after making sure that the girls had
comfortable seats, and noting that Jack had pre-empted the place
beside Marita, leaned over Bess and whispered:

"I'm going back in the next car for a little while."

"What for?"

"Did you lose anything?" asked Belle, who overheard what Cora said.

"No, but you saw me talking to that girl on the platform; didn't you?"

"Yes, and I wondered who she was," remarked Bess.

"She was Freda Lewis."

"Freda Lewis! Why, I never would have known her!"

"Nor I!" added Belle. "How she has changed! Of course you were more
intimate with her than we were, Cora; but she certainly doesn't seem
to be the same girl."

"She isn't," replied Cora. "She and her mother are in trouble--financial
trouble. I'm going back and talk to her. I want to help her if I can."

And while Cora is thus bent on her errand of good cheer, it may not be
out of place, for the benefit of my new readers, to tell a little
something more about the characters of this story, and how they
figured in the preceding books of this series.

To begin with the motor girls, there were three of them, though
friends and guests added to the number at times. Somehow, in speaking
of the motor girls, I alwa