know a girl could do things like that!”
“This girl can,” returned Patty, opening her tool-box with a capable air. But the next moment her capable air completely vanished, and she turned to Mona with a comical expression of dismay. “What do you think?” she said. “I’m always so careful to have my car and my tools and my accessories all in perfect order, and now see what’s happened! I had this same experience the other day. The inner tube burst, and I put in my reserve tube and then I put the burst tube away in my kit, and here it is yet. I utterly forgot to have it replaced by a new one!”
“Oh, then the reserve tube that you want to put in is as burst as that one you have just taken out!”
“You’ve struck it right! that’s the situation. Now what’s the solution? There isn’t any answer!”
“Then, what do we do?” asked Mona, looking scared.
“Oh, we just sit here,” said Patty, returning to her seat in the runabout. “It isn’t a question of doing anything, because we can’t do anything. We can sit here, or we can walk home. Or, rather, you can walk home, if you want to. I sha’n’t leave my car, if I sit here all night.”
“And I sha’n’t leave you, if we sit here all night! But if I can walk anywhere, and get assistance for you, I’ll gladly do so.”
“Mona, you’re a good deal of a trump,” said Patty, looking into the girl’s earnest face; “but I don’t know of any place you could get assistance nearer than home, and that’s ten miles away. You see, Mona, when motor cars do break down, they invariably choose a place far away from any garage or repair shop. The farther away it is, the better the car likes it. Can’t you hear Camilla chuckling at our discomfiture?”
“How can you joke, Patty? I think it’s awful! What can we do?”
“We can’t do anything, but, if we’re patient, some one may come along who can help us. You know, there’s a certain courtesy of the road among motorists that makes them help each other whenever they can. At least, this courtesy is said to exist, but I’ve never seen much of it, myself. However, I’ve had very few occasions to desire it. Now we’ll sit and wait for courtesy.”
Nor did they wait long. Very soon a good-sized motor came by, and the polite driver of it stopped and asked the girls if he could be of any assistance.
Patty liked his quiet, courteous manner, and she explained her difficulty.
But the man, though willing, was unable to help her, for his tires were not the same size as those on Patty’s ear. He would have been glad, he said, to tow her car, but he was going in the other direction. So Patty thanked him for his interest in the matter, and he went on his way.
“Now, you see,” observed Patty, “that there is a courtesy of the road. I’ve no doubt some more courtesy will come along soon, and we’ll get fixed up somehow.”
But courtesy seemed to be scant that afternoon, for half a dozen cars, both large and small, whizzed past them apparently without noticing their plight.
At last, however, a man came by alone in a small electric runabout, not unlike Patty’s own.
“Hi! there!” he called out, “you in trouble?”
Patty did not like his mode of address, nor did she like the looks of the man himself. And even though she greatly desired his help, and felt sure that he might have a reserve inner tube which would fit her tire, she hesitated to ask him for it, as she so distrusted and disliked his general appearance. He looked good-natured, but he did not look to be a man of refinement. But while she hesitated, Mona, greatly to Patty’s surprise, took the situation in hand, and called back to the man: “Yes, we’re in a dreadful fix! Can’t you help us out?”
“You bet I can!” cried the man, and, springing from his own car, he came over to Patty’s side.
“What’s wrong, little one?” he said, looking boldly into Patty’s face.
Patty was thoroughly annoyed at his manner, but now that things had gone so far, of course she must carry it through. Sitting up very straight, and assuming an air of severe dignity, she said: “The inner tube of a front wheel has burst, and I have no good one with which to replace it. If you have one you could spare, I should be glad to have it, and I will send you a duplicate one, if you will give me your address, or my father will send you a cheque for the price of it.”
The man looked at Patty and smiled. “You needn’t be so crusty about it,” he said; “the other young miss ain’t so crusty.”
Patty was becoming a little frightened. The man was so easy-mannered, and, though she felt sure she could manage all right by herself, she had a fear that Mona might say something foolish at any moment.
“I don’t mean to be crusty,” said Patty, smiling pleasantly, but without friendliness. “I’m simply asking the courtesy of the road from a fellow-motorist, and I feel sure, if you can, you will give it to me.”
The man backed away a little and looked at Patty with unmistakable admiration. “Well, I just guess I will!” he replied, and went straight to his own tool-box for implements.
Patty took this opportunity to whisper to Mona, “Don’t you say another word to him! You mustn’t speak to strangers so familiarly. You came near making serious trouble for us!”
Now Mona was of such a peculiar disposition that, instead of realising the truth of Patty’s words, she became incensed at the idea of being scolded, and made no reply, save to pout her lips and assume a very angry expression of countenance.
The man returned from his own car, and in a short time had inserted a new inner tube, and Camilla was in perfect order for a fresh start.
“I thank you very much,” said Patty, with a calm, gracious politeness; “and, if you’ll give me your card, or your address, my father will send you a cheque for the tire, and a note of thanks for your kindness to his daughter.”
“’Taint worth mentioning,” said the man, looking a little sheepish before Patty’s courteous dignity; “and I haven’t a card, but here’s my name, and I’ll be glad to hear from your father, miss.”
He scribbled on a bit of paper and gave the address to Patty, who put it in her cardcase, and, bowing civilly to the man, she started her car and drove swiftly away.
Chapter XI.
The First Arrivals
“Mona,” said Patty, severely, as they drove along, “you ought to know better than to talk to a strange man in that familiar way! He wasn’t a nice man at all.”
“Well, he helped us out of our difficulty.”
“Yes, and he’ll be paid for it. But there was no occasion to talk to him as you would to an acquaintance.”
“Oh, I’m not so awful stuck-up as all that!”
“It isn’t a question of stuck-upness! Or, if you do call it that, it was just the time to be stuck-up. Proper civility is all very well, but you needn’t be chummy with a stranger. And I give you fair warning, Mona, that, if you want to be friends with me, you must never do that sort of thing again.”
“I do want to be friends with you, Patty, and I think I see what you mean now, but I didn’t think I was doing any harm. I’m glad to have you scold me, Patty, for I do want to do what’s right. You see, I never had much bringing-up. My mother died when I was a little girl, and since then father has indulged me in everything I wanted, but I’ve really had none of what you may call social training.”
Patty was amazed at the sudden humility of the girl whom she had considered arrogant