it's about time for our surprise.
Shall we get it, Mary Jane?"

She nodded "yes" and he went to the car, bringing back with him the
mysteriously covered basket. "You shall take the cover off, Pussy," he
said.

Mary Jane pulled back the cover cloth and there, inside, was a basket
full to the brim of--yes, it was--roasting ears! The very first of the
season!

"We keep watch of our corn patch, we do," said Grandfather, and he
nodded solemnly at Mary Jane, "and now we're going to have something
good."

They piled the roasting ears in on the hot coals, then they built
another fire over the top of them, and by the time that had burned down
the corn was ready to eat.

Grandmother and Mother and Alice unpacked the baskets and they all sat
around and enjoyed the feast. Grandmother's fried chicken and crullers
and rolls and Alice's fine cake, which was given the place of honor on
a rock by itself where it could be seen all the time till they were
ready to eat it, were pronounced the best ever.

The moon rose so clear and big and beautiful that it was hard to tell
just when day ended and night began. So it was a surprise when
Grandfather announced that it was eight o'clock and high time they were
starting home. The few scraps, and there weren't very many, were
packed neatly into one basket and the party regretfully left the rocks
and started for the car.

"Nobody ever comes along this road at this time of night," said
Grandfather. "I'll just get the car out into the middle of the road
where you can get in easier." So he pulled it away from the fence
where he had left it, and ran it out into the middle of the road.
"Here, Pussy," he added, "run around on the other side of the car and
hand me that basket."

Mary Jane did as she was told and after he had taken the basket from
her she waited in the middle of the road, by the car, till he should be
ready to help her in.

No one ever knew quite how it happened--it was all so sudden. Perhaps
the other driver, too, thought that no one was ever on that road at
that time of the evening. Out of the shadows and the moonshine, around
the curve of the road, came a roadster moving so fast that before its
driver could realize that some one stood in the center of the road, he
had hit Mary Jane squarely and had tossed her over the fence on the
opposite side of the road.

Grandfather jumped over the fence after her as quickly as he could out
of the car, but, quick as he was,