class="smcap">Consternation

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS
IN A MOTOR CAR

CHAPTER I

OUT OF A TREE

"Come on, girls, the car is here, and this time I'm going to run it myself!"

"You never are, Mollie Billette!" exclaimed Grace Ford, as, with three companions, she hurried to the window of the library of the Billette home, and looked out toward the street, up which was coming a luxurious touring car of the latest model.

"Aren't you afraid?" asked Amy Stonington, as she looked admiringly at Mollie, whose cheeks were flushed with excitement.

"Oh, it simply gives me the creeps to think about it!" added Grace.

"I don't see why," spoke Mollie, as the car, in charge of a demonstrator, came to a stop in front of her house. "I've taken enough lessons, the garage man says; I have my license, and why shouldn't I run my car? Are you afraid to come with me?"

"No—no, it isn't exactly that," said Amy, slowly as she fastened the strings of her new motoring hood—all the girls had them, and very becoming they were. "It isn't exactly that, Mollie, but you know——"

"If you weren't afraid to go with Betty in her motor boat, I don't see why you should be afraid to come with me in the car," went on Mollie. "Oh, what did I do with my goggles?" she asked as she hurriedly looked about the room, lifting up a pile of books and papers on a table. "I know I had them, and——"

"Look!" exclaimed Betty Nelson with a laugh. "Dodo and Paul are trying to pull them apart. I suppose they think the goggles are big enough for two," and she pointed to where the twins, Mollie's little brother and sister, were seated on the velvety lawn, both having hold of a new pair of auto goggles, and gravely trying to separate the two eye pieces.

"The little rascals!" cried Mollie, though she, too had to join in the laughter of her chums. "Paul!" she called. "Dodo! Come here this instant with my goggles!"

The children looked up, their dispute forgotten.

"Us hasn't any doddles—us got tecticals!" exclaimed Paul.

"Well, those are sister's spectacles—to wear in the auto so the dust won't get in her eyes," explained Mollie, as she approached the twins, "Give them to sister."

"Oo et us wide in tar us dive um to oo," stipulated Dodo, holding the goggles behind her back.

"Not to-day, pet," said Mollie, sweetly—compromisingly.

Dodo arose, and backed away, limping slightly, for she was not quite recovered from a recent operation as the result of a peculiar accident. She held the goggles out of reach, and, walking with her eyes fixed on her sister, she was in danger of stumbling.

"She'll fall and break them," cried Grace.

"That's what I'm afraid of," said Mollie. "Come, Dodo, give the glasses to sister."

"Her dive um for tandy!" cried the crafty Paul, seeing a chance to make capital out of his little sister's strategic move. "Us dive oo glasses for tandy; won't us, Dodo?"

"Us will," assented Dora—or Dodo, as she was almost universally called. "Us dive for tandy—lots of tandy."

"The little rascals," laughed Mollie. "I wish I dared rush at her and take them away. But she might fall——" and with the recollection of what little Dodo had suffered, Mollie gave up her plan of action. The chauffeur tooted on the auto horn, as much as to say:

"Come, I'm waiting for you."

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mollie. "Have any of you——"

"Grace, will you kindly oblige?" asked Betty, with a laugh. "Surely you are not without chocolates on this momentous occasion."

"I don't see why you assume that I always have candy," remarked the tall, slender girl, whose willowy figure added to the charm of her face, framed in a wealth of light hair.

"Oh, we know your failing," laughed Betty. "Come, Grace, you are delaying the game, and if we are going for an auto ride with Mollie—let—let's have it—over with."

"Well, I like the way you speak!" exclaimed Mollie, rather sharply—Mollie had a failing in her quick temper. "If you girls are afraid to come in my new car, just because I'm going to steer all alone, why——"

"Oh, Mollie, I didn't mean it that way at all!" protested Betty. "I just didn't want Grace to feel——"

"Where is tandy?" demanded Paul, as he approached his little sister, evidently with the intention of again assuming the dispute over the goggles in case no confectionery was forthcoming.

"Grace, have you any?" asked Mollie, beseechingly. "We must get started, and the day is so fine we don't want to miss any of it. Paul—Dodo—don't you dare break my glasses!" She shook a warning finger at them.

"I just happen to have some chocolates," said Grace, with an air of injured dignity. From the pocket of her sweater she produced a small box, and held it out to Dodo. The child, with a glad cry, dropped the goggles on the grass and sprang for Grace. Paul, too, joined in the race, and while Mollie picked up her recovered property the twins, with a new matter to contend about, gravely sat down on the lawn, and proceeded to divide the candy.

"Now come on!" cried Mollie, "before something else happens. Be good children!"