The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car | Page 2

a recent operation as the result of a peculiar accident. She held the goggles out of reach, and, walking with her eyes fixed on her sister, she was in danger of stumbling.
"She'll fall and break them," cried Grace.
"That's what I'm afraid of," said Mollie. "Come, Dodo, give the glasses to sister."
"Her dive um for tandy!" cried the crafty Paul, seeing a chance to make capital out of his little sister's strategic move. "Us dive oo glasses for tandy; won't us, Dodo?"
"Us will," assented Dora--or Dodo, as she was almost universally called. "Us dive for tandy--lots of tandy."
"The little rascals," laughed Mollie. "I wish I dared rush at her and take them away. But she might fall----" and with the recollection of what little Dodo had suffered, Mollie gave up her plan of action. The chauffeur tooted on the auto horn, as much as to say:
"Come, I'm waiting for you."
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mollie. "Have any of you----"
"Grace, will you kindly oblige?" asked Betty, with a laugh. "Surely you are not without chocolates on this momentous occasion."
"I don't see why you assume that I always have candy," remarked the tall, slender girl, whose willowy figure added to the charm of her face, framed in a wealth of light hair.
"Oh, we know your failing," laughed Betty. "Come, Grace, you are delaying the game, and if we are going for an auto ride with Mollie--let--let's have it--over with."
"Well, I like the way you speak!" exclaimed Mollie, rather sharply--Mollie had a failing in her quick temper. "If you girls are afraid to come in my new car, just because I'm going to steer all alone, why----"
"Oh, Mollie, I didn't mean it that way at all!" protested Betty. "I just didn't want Grace to feel----"
"Where is tandy?" demanded Paul, as he approached his little sister, evidently with the intention of again assuming the dispute over the goggles in case no confectionery was forthcoming.
"Grace, have you any?" asked Mollie, beseechingly. "We must get started, and the day is so fine we don't want to miss any of it. Paul--Dodo--don't you dare break my glasses!" She shook a warning finger at them.
"I just happen to have some chocolates," said Grace, with an air of injured dignity. From the pocket of her sweater she produced a small box, and held it out to Dodo. The child, with a glad cry, dropped the goggles on the grass and sprang for Grace. Paul, too, joined in the race, and while Mollie picked up her recovered property the twins, with a new matter to contend about, gravely sat down on the lawn, and proceeded to divide the candy.
"Now come on!" cried Mollie, "before something else happens. Be good children!" she cautioned them, "and don't go away."
"No," they chorused, while Paul added:
"Bring us more tandy--not bery much here."
"Which speaks well for the appetite of Grace," murmured Amy.
"Oh, let me alone!" protested Grace, with as near a show of temper as she ever indulged in. Mollie looked at her and remarked:
"You're getting my complaint, Grace dear."
"Well, I'm tired of always having candy thrown in my face--what if I do like chocolate?"
"You should have thrown the candy in her mouth--not in her face," laughed Betty, and then Grace smiled instead of frowning, and the four chums--the Outdoor Girls, as they had come to be called from living so much in the open--walked across the lawn to the waiting car.
"It certainly is a beauty!" declared Grace, as her eyes, and those of her friends, took in all the details of the auto. "Mollie, you are a lucky girl, and so is Betty with her motor boat. Amy, I wonder what good fortune is coming to us?"
"It will have to be an airship in your case, Grace," said Mollie. "One boat and one car is enough. You had better pray for an aeroplane."
"Never!" assented Grace. "The land and water are enough for me."
"And as for Amy," said Betty, "she wants a balloon, perhaps."
Amy shook her head, and a strange look came over her face. Her chums knew what it meant--that above everything else she would have preferred having the mystery of her identity solved.
"Well, if we're going to mote--let's mote!" exclaimed Mollie, perhaps with a desire to change the subject. "I'm going to take you for a nice long spin."
"Aren't you nervous--to think of being at the wheel without some one beside to help you in case of emergency?" asked Betty.
"Were you, in the Gem?" retorted Mollie.
"A little, but then, you know, a motor boat doesn't go as fast as a car--somehow you seem to have a better chance in case of collisions, or accidents."
"There aren't going to be any collisions or accidents," declared Mollie, with conviction. "I'm going to be careful until I get a little more accustomed to it, and then----"
"You'll scorch, like all the