FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140  
141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   >>  
been all right on smooth macadam, but on this country road he had her jumpin' around on that short wheel-base like a jackrabbit with the itch. We might have been so many kernels of pop-corn being shaken over a hot fire. Barry seems to be enjoyin' every minute of it, though. He makes funny cracks, whistles, and now and then breaks into song. "Driving a car seems to go to his head," remarks Miss McLeod. "It appears to make him wild." "It does," says Barry. "For---- I'm a wild prairie flower, I grow wilder hour by hour. Nobody cares to cultivate me, I'm wild. Whe-e-e-e!" He warbles that for the next five minutes, until Miss McLeod suggests that it's time for lunch. "Let's stop at the next shady place we come to," says she. "Oh, bother!" says Barry. "Just when Adelbaran is striking his best pace. Why not take our nourishment on the fly?" So she gets out the sandwiches and the thermos bottle and we take it that way. Rather than let Barry take either hand off the wheel she feeds him herself, even if he does complain about gettin' his countenance smeared up with mustard some. Anyway, we didn't lose any time if we did spill more or less of the coffee. "Cheerie oh!" sings out Barry, readin' a sign board. "Only twenty miles more!" "But such up-and-downy miles!" says Ann. She was dead right about that, for the further we got into New Hampshire the more the road looked like it had been built by a roller coaster fan. I always had a notion this was a small state, from the way it looks on the map, but I'll bet if it could be rolled flat once it would spread out near as big as Texas. All we did was to climb up and up and then slide down and down. Generally at the bottom was one of these covered wooden bridges, like a hay barn with both ends knocked out, and the way we'd roar through those was enough to make you think you was goin' forward with a barrage. Then just ahead would be another long hill windin' up to the top of the world. "Only five miles to go!" sings out Barry at last, along about three o'clock. "Now, Ann, it's nearly time for you to be saying a few kind words to Adelbaran and me." "I'll be thinking them up," says Ann. Perhaps she did. I can't say. For it was somewhere in the middle of the second or third hill after this that the little roadster began to splutter and cough like it had swallowed a monkey wrench. "Come, come now, Adelbaran!" says Barry coaxin'. "Don't go misbehav
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140  
141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   >>  



Top keywords:
Adelbaran
 

McLeod

 

rolled

 

splutter

 

misbehav

 
roadster
 
spread
 

Hampshire

 
looked
 

coaxin


wrench

 

monkey

 
notion
 

roller

 
coaster
 

swallowed

 
barrage
 
forward
 

windin

 

thinking


bridges

 

middle

 

wooden

 

bottom

 

covered

 

Perhaps

 

knocked

 

Generally

 

breaks

 

Driving


whistles

 
cracks
 

minute

 

remarks

 

appears

 
cultivate
 

warbles

 
minutes
 

Nobody

 
prairie

flower
 

wilder

 
enjoyin
 
jackrabbit
 

jumpin

 

smooth

 
macadam
 

country

 
shaken
 

kernels