BOOK OF THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I n 



phoned for his automobile and invited the others to 

 make the trip to town with him. In order to reach the 

 north turnpike that runs fairly straight to the city, the 

 chauffeur, a novice in local byways, proposed to take a 

 short cut through our wood road, instead of wheeling 

 into the pike below Wakeleigh. 



This wood road holds the frost very late, in spite of an 

 innocent appearance to the contrary; this fact Evan 

 stated tersely. Would a chauffeur of the Bluffs listen 

 to advice from a man living halfway down the hill, who 

 not only was autoless but frequently walked to the 

 station, and therefore to be classed with the Plotters? 

 Certainly not; while at the same moment the owner of 

 the car decided the matter by pulling out his watch and 

 murmuring to his neighbour something about an im- 

 portant committee meeting, and it being the one day in 

 the month when time meant money! 



Into the road they plunged, and after several hair- 

 breadth lurches, for the cut is deep and in places the 

 rocks parallel with the roadway, the turnpike was visible ; 

 then a sudden jolt, a sort of groan from the motor, and it 

 ceased to breathe, the heavy wheels having settled in a 

 treacherous spot not wholly free from frost, its great 

 stomach, or whatever they call the part that holds its 

 insides, wallowed hopelessly in the mud ! 



