, "you would know
what their help means. They would insist upon trying on every article
of clothing they unpacked; wouldn't they Cora?"

"Something like that, Bess, if they did unpack at all. But, seriously,
if you will give me a little help to drag these empty trunks to the
porch, I will tell you of a plan I have evolved. Of course we cannot
remain this way without a chaperone."

"Isn't it perfectly silly?" complained Belle. "As if we were not all
capable of taking care of ourselves."

"Oh, I don't know about that," objected Cora. "I have noticed that in
case of emergency, when some strange man happens to poke his nose in
at the window, we are all rather glad to acknowledge we are mere
babes."

"And also when we meet them under willow trees," Marita reminded the
boastful ones. "I am sure I agree with Cora that we need a chaperone,
and perhaps a policeman or two."

The girls paused in dragging the baggage toward the front door.

"Just the same," Marita went on, "Lottie was frightened to-day and she
only heard a strange man say, 'They call them the motor girls.' As if
that was anything terrifying."

"But it was the way they said it," Lottie protested. "They just peered
at us--and----"

"Now, Lottie," said Cora, "you have an idea that everyone who looks at
us 'peers' at us. For my part I was rather flattered by their
attention. You see the fame of the motor girls is spreading. But let
me now make my proposition," and she settled down on the rug that was
intended to cover the floor--some time.

"Let her 'prop'!" cried Belle.

"Well, you know our little friend, Freda, has lost some property; that
is, her mother and herself have lost a certain claim to it. This
little colony around here is fairly bristling with the prosperity
implanted in it by such thrifty men as was Freda's grandfather, but in
spite of that, strangers come in, make a big fuss about riparian
rights, and government laws, and property claims and, in so doing,
pretend to discover a flaw in a title that for years has been
considered perfectly clear." She paused, for Bess had opened her mouth
twice, and this time Cora wanted to hear what she had to say.

"We heard some women talking about that to-day," said Bess, "and they
said it was a shame to take a homestead from Mrs. Lewis. They were not
whispering their opinions, either."

"So it is a shame," Cora said, "and if we can, in any way, help to get
the truth established, we will surely have a goo