be a good scheme," said the man, as if considering the proposal
seriously.

"Mary had a little ram--" laughed Jimsy; who was thereupon told not
to be "horrid."

"Why don't you box the nasty thing's ears for riding in our car?" asked
Roy of Peggy.

"I'd like to do something, the saucy thing," declared Peggy with
vehemence.

"Tell you what! Let's buy him."

The suggestion came from Jimsy.

"Yes, and have his skin made up into an auto robe," suggested Roy.

"If you boys aren't ridiculous," cried Peggy; "I want to forget the
incident, and so I'm sure does Lavinia," the name of the girl who had
been spilled out of her machine.

"You may be sure I do," she declared with emphasis. "I was never so
scared in my life."

"Want to buy him?" asked the man, grasping at a chance of selling an
animal that had already placed him in some embarrassing positions.

"How much do you want?" asked Roy, more as a joke than anything else.

"Three dollars," said the man.

"There you are, girls! Who'll bid? Who'll bid? This fine young ram going
at a sacrifice."

Jimsy imitated an auctioneer, raising his voice to a sharp pitch.

CHAPTER XVI.

AN INVITATION TO RACE.

It is almost needless to say that the purchase was not consummated. The
girls raised a chorus of protest. The "nasty thing" was the mildest of
the epithets they applied to the beast.

"Well, I don't know. I thought we might have his skin done into a robe.
We could give it as a prize to the girl that makes the best record on
this motor flight," suggested Jimsy.

"I wish you'd take him up a thousand feet and drop him," declared the
unfortunate ram's owner.

"Poor thing! he only acted according to his nature," defended Peggy;
"let him loose and he'll go back to the flock."

"Not him," declared his owner; "he'd only raise more Cain. Better let
him be."

But the girls raised a chorus of protest. It was a shame to leave the
poor thing tied up, and they insisted that he be let loose.

"All right, if you kin stand it I kin," grinned the man.

He and the boy bent over the captive ram and cast him loose. The beast
struggled to his feet, and for an instant stood glaring about him out
of his yellowish eyes that gleamed like agates. But it was only for an
instant that he remained thus.

Suddenly he lowered his head and without more preliminaries dashed right
at the _Golden Butterfly_.

"Gracious, he's a game old sport!" yelled Jimsy; "Hasn't had enough of
i