we can even get an
ice-cream soda!"

"Dolly!" said Bessie, in a low voice, reproachfully. "You mustn't--"

"What a tragedy!" said Holmes, laughing.

"Oh, of course, you don't know what it is to have a craving for soda and
not be able to get it!" said Dolly, pouting. "So you laugh at me--"

Holmes was all regret in a moment.

"My dear Miss Dolly!" he protested. "I wasn't laughing at you at
all--really I wasn't! I was smiling at the idea of there being such a
primitive place in a civilized country. Really, I was! And I'm sure it
is a tragedy. I believe I'm as fond of ice-cream soda as you, if I am
such an old fellow. And, after all, though it seems so tragic, it's
easily mended, you know. I happen to remember passing a most attractive
looking drug store in a town about five miles back, and that's no ride
at all in this car. Jump in, both of you, and I'll run you there and
back in no time!"

"Oh, that's awfully kind of you, but I really think we shouldn't,"
stammered Dolly, who had meant, as soon as she saw that Holmes knew
Bessie, to get that invitation.

"Of course we shouldn't, Dolly," said Bessie, irritated, since she saw
through Dolly's rather transparent little scheme at once. "It's very
kind of you, Mr. Holmes, but we mustn't think of troubling you so much.
Dolly doesn't really want an ice-cream soda at all; she just thinks she
does, and she's much better off without it."

"Oh, come, that's very unkind, Miss Bessie! I can see that your friend
is really suffering for a strawberry ice-cream soda. And you mustn't
talk as if I would be taking any trouble. I'm just riding around the
country aimlessly, for want of something better to do. I'm not going
anywhere in particular, and it doesn't matter when I get there or if
I never get there at all. I'm just a useless man, too old to work any
longer. Surely you won't refuse to let me make myself useful to a young
lady in distress?"

"Oh," said Dolly. "Really, is that so, Mr. Holmes? Wouldn't it be a
dreadful amount of trouble to you? Of course, if that's so, and you
really want us to come--"

"Nonsense, Dolly!" said Bessie, severely. "We can't go, and we must be
getting back to the house. Thank you ever so much, Mr. Holmes--and
good-morning!"

But Dolly was not to be deprived of her treat so easily.

"I think you're very rude, Bessie!" she said, bridling. "That may be the
proper way to act in the country where you came from, but it's not the
way we do things in