How'd you want 'em to look?" This from Dave. "When you're selling hay
you can't load or unload in your Sunday go-to-meeting clothes."

"Well," remarked Phil, "whoever and whatever they are, we tried to be
decent to them. I reckon they're all right."

"Especially the girl, eh?" laughed Paul. "Oh, you Nan! Wasn't that her
name, Phil? You ought to know."

Phil passed this by without reply, as he talked about other matters.
Little did any of them then think that they had not seen the last of
those three whom they had saved from possible accident and bodily danger
by giving them the safest side of the road.

From then on for half an hour the car glided smoothly through a rich
farming section where the houses and barns looked prosperous and the
numerous stacks of grain and hay and the sleek herds of cattle betokened
that the owners or tenants were by no means on the wrong side of
prosperity. Then the timbered tracts increased, and a series of low,
rugged hillsides opened up until at a sudden bend they saw the town
whose smoke had been for some time indicative of this break in the
hitherto uninterrupted rural expanse of their morning's ride.

It was not a big town, being off the railroad lines, which were a mile
or so to one side, but it looked prosperous and was doubtless the center
of the rural trade activities for some miles around. It being now about
the noon hour, the car stopped before a modest hotel for a noonday
lunch. There were two larger hostelries on the main street, but from
motives of prudent economy the boys preferred the less expensive
taverns.

"Yes, we will have dinner ready in a few minutes," remarked a
comfortable looking woman who seemed to be in charge of the tiny office.
"Make yourselves at home. Why, are you lads from Lannington?" This after
reading the register.

"That is our home town, madam," replied Phil. "Do you know the place?"

"Well, I should say I did!" The woman smiled. "I was raised there. Been
off here ever since I married."

"Lannington is where we live," remarked Worth, after inscribing his name
on the register with a flourish. "We're on a vacation trip, ma'am."

"It might be that you knew our folks when you lived there," was Dave's
contributing remark, for he saw that she was reading their names and
smiling more broadly than before.

"Why, yes, I do know some of them. I knew Dr. Way, and there was his
friend Lawyer Dilworth, and the MacLesters. I feel as if I knew you all
rig