rcuit of the car, kicking the
tires and feeling them.

"Have you filled them?" he asked.

"No," said Linda. "I did not want to start the engine until I had
finished everything else."

"All right," he said, "I'll look at the valves first and then, if it is
all ready, there ought to be a garage near that we can run to carefully,
and get tuned up."

"There is," said Linda. "There is one only a few blocks down the street
where Dad always had anything done that he did not want to do himself."

"That's that, then," said Donald.

Linda crawled from under the car and stood up, wiping her hands on a bit
of waste.

"Do you know what tires cost now?" she asked anxiously.

"They have 'em at the garage," answered Donald, "and if I were you,
I wouldn't get a set; I would get two. I would-put them on the rear
wheels. You might be surprised at how long some of these will last.
Anyway, that would be the thing to do."

"Of course," said Linda, in a relieved tone. "That would be the thing to
do."

"Now," she said, "I must be excused a few minutes till I clean up so I
am fit to go on the streets. I hope you won't think I forgot you were
coming."

Donald laughed drily.

"When 'shoes' was the first word I heard," he said, "I did not for a
minute think you had forgotten."

"No, I didn't forget," said Linda. "What I did do was to become so
excited about cleaning up the car that I let time go faster than I
thought it could. That was what made me late."

"Well, forget it!" said Donald. "Run along and jump into something, and
let us get our tires and try Kitty out."

Linda reached up and released the brakes. She stepped to one side of the
car and laid her hands on it.

"Let us run it down opposite the kitchen door," she said, "then you go
around to the front, and I'll let you in, and you can read something a
few minutes till I make myself presentable."

"Oh, I'll stay out here and look around the yard and go over the car
again," said the boy. "What a bunch of stuff you have got growing here;
I don't believe I ever saw half of it before." "It's Daddy's and my
collection," said Linda. "Some day I'll show you some of the things, and
tell you how we got them, and why they are rare. Today I just naturally
can't wait a minute until I try my car."

"Is it really yours?" asked Donald enviously.

"Yes," said Linda. "It's about the only thing on earth that is
peculiarly and particularly mine. I haven't a doubt there are improv