The Motor Girls

  THE MOTOR GIRLS

  by Margaret Penrose

  CHAPTER I

  CORA AND HER CAR

  "Now you've got it, what are you going to do with it?" asked JackKimball, with a most significant smile at his sister Cora.

  "Do with it?" repeated the girl, looking at her questioner insurprise; then she added, with a fine attempt at sarcasm: "Why, I'mgoing to have Jim break it up for kindling wood. It will make such alovely blaze on the library hearth. I have always loved blazingautos."

  "Now, sis," objected the tall, handsome boy, as he swung his armabout the almost equally tall, and even handsomer girl, "don't getmad."

  "Oh, I'm not in the least angry."

  "Um! Maybe not. Put I honestly thought--well, maybe you would likesome of the boys to give you a lesson or two in driving the new car.There's Wally, you know. Ahem! I thought perhaps Wally--"

  "Walter can run a machine--I'm perfectly willing to grant you that,Jack. But this is my machine, and I intend to run it."

  The girl stepped over to a window and looked out. There, on thedriveway, stood a new automobile. Four-cylindered, sliding-geartransmission, three speeds forward and reverse, long-wheel base, newignition system, and all sorts of other things mentioned in thecatalogue. Besides, it was a beautiful maroon color, and the leathercushions matched. Cora looked at it with admiration in her eyes.

  An hour, before, Jack Kimball and his chum Walter Pennington, hadbrought the car from the garage to the house, following Mrs.Kimball's implicit instructions that the new machine should not bedriven an unnecessary block between the sales-rooms and the Kimballhome.

  "The car must come to Cora on the eve of her birthday," Jack'smother had stipulated to him, "and I want it to come to her brandnew, with the tires nice and white. Hers must be the first ride init."

  So it was, after "digesting her surprise," as she expressed it, andspending the intervening hour in admiring the beautiful machine,climbing in and out of it, testing the levers, turning the steeringwheel, and seeing Jack start the engine, that Cora was able to leaveit and enter the house.

  "It's--it's just perfect;" she said, with a longing look back at thecar.

  "Yes, and isn't it a shame mother won't let you go out in itto-night?" spoke Jack as he joined his sister at the window. "Ifthey had only unpacked it a little earlier--it's too bad not to havea run in it while it's fresh. But," he concluded with a sigh, "Isuppose I'll have to push it back in the shed."

  "Yes," assented Cora, also sighing. "But mother must be humored,and if she insists that I shall not take a trial spin after dark,I'll simply have to wait until daylight. Jack, you're a dear! I knowperfectly well that you influenced mother to give me this," and Corabrushed her flushed a cheek against Jack's bronzed face.

  "Well, I know a little sister when I see one," replied the lad; "andthough she may want to drive a motor-car, she's all right, for allthat," and Jack rather awkwardly slipped his arm around his sister'swaist again, for she did seem a "little sister" to him, even if shewas considered quite a young lady by others.

  "Girls coming up to-night?" asked Jack after a pause, during whichthey both had been silently admiring the car and its graceful lines.

  "I don't know," replied Cora. "They haven't heard about my newauto, or they'd be sure to come."

  "Let's run over and tell them," proposed Jack.

  Cora thought for a moment. She had plans for the evening, but theydid not include Jack.

  She said finally: "I have to write a few letters--acknowledging somebirthday gifts. Don't wait for me if you intend to go over toWalter's. You might call at the Robinsons', however, to fetch me;say at half-past nine."

  "Oh, then I'm not to see Bess or Belle--or--well, there are plentyof other girls just as keen on ice cream sodas as those mentioned,"and he pretended to leave the room, as if his feelings had beenhurt.

  "Now; you know, Jack, I always want you with me, but--"

  "But just to-night you don't. All right, little sister. After merunning that machine up from the garage for you, and not evenscraping the tires; after me--even kissing you! Fie! fie! littlegirl. Some day you may want another machine--or a kiss--"

  "Children, children," called Mrs. Kimball, "are you coming todinner? And are you going to put that machine in the shed beforedark, Jack?"

  "Both--both, mum! We were just discussing a discussion aboutthe--the machine, girls and ice cream sodas."

  "What nonsense!" exclaimed his mother with a laugh. "Come todinner, do. But, Jack, run the machine in first, please."

  The car was put under a shed attached to the barn, Cora lookingenviously at Jack as he manipulated the levers and wheels, shesitting on the seat beside him, on the short run up the driveway.She would not venture to operate it herself in such crampedquarters.

  "There!" exclaimed Cora as Jack locked the shed door. "I hopenobody steals it to-night. Did you take out the plug, Jack?"

  "Here you are," and he handed her the brass affair that formed theconnection for the ignition system, and without which the car couldnot be run. "Put it under your pillow, sis," he added. "Maybe you'llhave a gasolene dream."

  They went into the house, where dinner was waiting for them. Themeal was a simple one, although the means of the little family wereample for a most elaborate affair. But Mrs. Kimball preferred theelegance of simplicity.

  Mrs. Grace Kimball was a wealthy widow, a member of one of theoldest and best known families in Chelton, which was a New Englandtown, not far from the New York boundary. Her husband had beenJoseph Kimball, a man of simple tastes and sterling principles. Whenhe had to leave her, with the two children, he said as he waspassing away:

  "Grace, I know you will bring them up rightly--plainly andhonestly."

  Plain in character, upright and fair, the two children had grown,but, in personality, nothing could make either Jack or Cora Kimball"plain." They were just simply splendid.

  "Then I can't take out the machine to-night, mother dear?" askedCora after dinner.

  "Not to-night, daughter. I know you can run a car, but this is anew one, and I would feel better to have you give it a test run indaylight. You must get the man at the garage to show you all aboutit. Do you like it very much, Cora?"

  "Like it! Oh, mother, I perfectly love it! I can scarcely believeit is all mine--that Jack has no mortgage on it and that it's myvery own."

  "I don't know about that," put in Jack. "A fine car like that israther a dangerous thing for a handsome young lady of seventeensummers, and some incidental winters, to go sporting about in. Someone else may get a mortgage on it, and want to foreclose."

  "Now, I don't tease you, Jack," objected his, sister, "and a girlhas just as much right to tease a boy as a boy has to tease a girl."

  "Goodness me! You don't call that teasing, do you? The girls haveall the rights now. But help yourself! I'm not particular. Did yousay I was to call at the Robinsons' at nine?"

  "No, nine-thirty."

  "Oh, exactly. Well, I'll try to be there. You might make it apoint not to be waiting on the drive for me. A fellow wants to get alook at a girl like Bess once in a while--just for practice, youknow."

  "Oh, Jack!"

  "Oh, Cora! What's the matter?"

  "You're horrid!"

  "All right. Then I'm going off and read a horrible tale aboutpirates, and walking the plank, and all that. I'll be on hand at thetime and place mentioned. Hoping this will find you well, remain,yours very truly, Jack." And he hurried out of the room amid thelaughter of his mother and sister.

  "What a boy!" exclaimed Mrs. Kimball.

  It was a pleasant, summer evening, and when Cora hurried down theavenue toward the Robinson home, she actually seemed to have wings.For she was not running, and her pace could hardly be calledw
alking.

  Her tall, straight figure was clad in a simple linen gown. She hadneed to disregard frills now, for she was a motor girl.

  "Oh, come on, and don't ask a single question!" she exclaimed as theRobinson twins--Bess and Belle--hastened to meet her in response toher ring. "Come on! We must go over to the garage, quick! I've got anew machine, and I've got to learn all about it."

  She had to pause for breath, and Belle managed to say

  "Cora! A new machine! All for yourself! Oh, you dear! Who gaveit to you?"

  "Why Jack found it," Cora laughed. "It was running along thestreet, you know, and he lassoed it. It was going like mad, but hewhirled the lash of his riding-whip about it and--and--"

  "Now, Cora, dear!" and Belle dropped her voice to one of aggrievedtones. "You know what I meant."

  "Of course I do, girly; but hurry--do! I want the man at the garageto teach me all about my new machine. I call it the Whirlwind.' Youknow it's different from Jack's small runabout, and there areseveral new points to be posted on. I want to be all ready, so thatwhen we go out to-morrow morning we can surprise the boys."

  "Oh, how perfectly lovely!" exclaimed Bess.

  Delighted and excited, the three girls hurried over the railroadhill, on a short cut to the garage.

  "Do you think he'll show you?" asked Bess. "He might want you tohire a chauffeur."

  "Well, we'll see," responded Cora. "If we can manage to find anice, agreeable, elderly gentleman--the story-book kind ofmachinist, you know. I fancy he will be sufficiently interested--ahem!well, you know--" and she finished with a little laugh;in which her chums joined.

  They had reached the small door of the office of the garage. Anotice on the glass directed them to "Push."

  Cora put both hands to the portal, and it swung back. She almoststumbled into the room.

  "We would like to see some one who will teach us how to run anauto," she began. "I know something of one, but I have a new kind."

  The three girls drew back.

  "A nice, agreeable, elderly gentleman!" whispered Belle to Cora.

  Cora could not repress a smile.

  Instead of the "story-book machinist," a handsome young lad stoodbefore them, smiling at their discomfiture.

  "What is it?" he asked in a pleasant voice, and Cora noticed howwhite and even his teeth were.

  "We--er--I--that is, we--I want to learn some points about my newcar," she stammered. "It's a--"

  "I understand," replied the handsome chap. "I will be very glad toshow you. Just step this way, please," and, with a little bow, hemotioned to them to follow him into the semi-dark machine shop backof the office.