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THE LOG OR DIARY 
 
 OK OUR 
 
 Automobile Voyage 
 Through Maine 
 
 AM) THE 
 
 White Mountains 
 
 Writien Bv 
 ONE OF THE SURVIVORS 
 
 Helen M. Angle 
 
cu^ju., lltjU^^ 7n- 
 
 THE LOG OR DIARY 
 
 OF OUB 
 
 Automobile Voyage 
 Through Maine 
 
 AND THE 
 
 White Mountains 
 
 Written By 
 ONE OF THE SURVIVORS 
 
 R. H. Cunningham 
 Stamford, Conn. 
 

 Copyright, igio 
 
 ©C(.A28.3254 
 
4 
 
 I 
 
 To Daddy, who more by good luck than good care 
 
 spared my life to write this Diary, the 
 
 same is thankfully dedicated. — Neleh. 
 
Introductory Explanation, and Introduc- 
 tion to the Crew, Why They Went 
 on so Perilous a Trip, etc. 
 
 Well, to begin with, we know a whole 
 lot more about a boat than we do, or 
 rather did, about an automobile. How- 
 ever, all our friends got machines and 
 Daddy, who never likes to be out of 
 things, decided to be in the swim. Well, 
 the natural thing to do next seemed to 
 be to take a voyage in the thing. (I be- 
 lieve it is more fashionable to call them 
 ''tours" in automobile language, but as 
 I said before we are much better sailors 
 than land lubbers, so please overlook our 
 failings in making ourselves understood.) 
 
 There was of course Daddy at the 
 wheel, our old time pilot sat forward with 
 him, and mother and I occupied what 
 place there was left in the rear, after the 
 cargo had been stored away. We took 
 rugs and coats and suit cases and heaven 
 only knows what, we looked as though 
 we were rivals of Peary, about to hunt 
 up another North Pole. When the plan 
 was first suggested, Dad got a chart, or 
 rather a Blue Book, to guide us and help 
 lay out the course we were to follow.. 
 We did not always make out to follow it,, 
 but we felt more independent, for it is 
 inconvenient to pick up a pilot in each 
 
new port one enters and takes so much 
 time. We decided to start quite early in 
 the morning, and each agreed to be up 
 and ready ; that is, Dad, Mother, the Pilot 
 and myself, but we all forgot to consult 
 *'Billie." Oh, I believe I forgot to intro- 
 duce this, the most important factor of 
 the whole cruise. When we got the au- 
 tomobile, that seemed such a mouthful to 
 say, that we called him just "Billie," but 
 upon becoming better acquainted with 
 his disposition, we called him "Bucking 
 Billie" ; later the reason may become 
 more apparent. In fact, he showed some 
 of his natural crankiness before we got 
 away at all. Mother took some paper 
 with her which she called ''cuss paper"; 
 this was to be used to chalk down the 
 bad things which Dad was almost sure 
 to say; when things do not go right at 
 home, he has a way of punctuating his 
 language which is more forceful than 
 elegant. However, he promised not to 
 offend while we were away, and if he did 
 do so, each offence would mean a fine, 
 and mother felt sure she would have quite 
 a bit of collecting to do. I think this 
 will serve to let you get an idea of your 
 traveling companions on this trip, so we 
 will proceed to get under way. 
 
If 
 
 
 
 J < 
 
 
 t^^l'"' i#flt^ 
 
OUR AUTOMOBILE VOYAGE 
 
 Tuesday Morning, September 8, 
 4.10 A. M. 
 
 I am not going to tell you where we 
 started from for there are a couple of 
 fellows up the state wearing the badge 
 of authority whose idea of speed did not 
 coincide with ours, and although we did 
 not wait to argue the question, I think 
 it well to keep our whereabouts when at 
 home a profound secret. It is sufficient 
 to say that we live some east of old New 
 York in a town among the Connecticut 
 Hills. 
 
 Well, Mother and I arrived upon the 
 scene of action shrouded in veils and 
 goggles and found Dad and the pilot- 
 chaufifeur taking turns at cranking "Billie" 
 up. He seemed absolutely without feel- 
 ing, and I was for going back to finish 
 my morning nap, when with a deafening 
 whirr he started into action. Dad ex- 
 plained that the morning was so cold that 
 it interfered with the carburetor or what- 
 ever it is called, but now everything was all 
 right. We fastened a couple of life-pre- 
 servers on the side, piled away the lug- 
 gage and got aboard ourselves, but just 
 as we were about to start. Mother hol- 
 
 8 
 
lered that we had forgotten the fire- 
 extinguisher, and when Dad started to 
 say words she said we must have it sure, 
 for things were getting hot already. I 
 climbed out and got the fire bug, and by 
 the time we really got away it was 5 a. m. 
 Dad was wild at the delay, but what he 
 said was under his breath, so there was 
 no chance for Mother to use the *'cuss 
 paper," for she did not understand what 
 he said. 
 
 Our first stop was to be New Haven. 
 Alas for the plans of mice and men, our 
 troubles were many before we reached 
 that port. In the first place, Dad was 
 so sure of his way that he absolutely re- 
 fused to listen to any directions, although 
 Mother held tightly to the chart and 
 made ineffectual attempts to keep him 
 on the course. We went through 
 Bridgeport at 5.50 and daylight was be- 
 ginning to streak the sky. After that we 
 went on and on, but nothing familiar 
 greeted our eye. At last Mother said it 
 seemed we were a long time getting to 
 New Haven, and Dad turned to say 
 things at her, when bing! went our star- 
 board spring. Mother got her *'cuss 
 paper" ready, but he saw what she was 
 up to and she had nothing to write upon 
 that occasion. Well there we were, out 
 of sight of all human habitation and 
 "Billie" showing no disposition to help 
 us out. Just here I found out what a 
 
chauffeur's duties really are. He pulled 
 off his coat, pulled on a pair of overalls 
 and got down upon his knees to "Billie." 
 He worked on his feelings some, blocked 
 up the disabled spring, and we made a 
 fresh attempt to see whether New Haven 
 had been removed from the map. We 
 passed a fellow limping along with no 
 hat or coat and his handkerchief tied over 
 one eye, who seemed to be looking for a 
 hospital. He told us that while return- 
 ing home the night before he was way- 
 laid by some fellows who left him just 
 clothes enough to get home in without 
 looking for a barrel. They took his 
 watch and money and departed without 
 saying good-bye. He looked rather 
 longingly at us with the eye he had left, 
 as though he would have preferred riding 
 to walking, but Dad said he was not 
 much worse off than we were anyway, 
 and refused to take him in. 
 
 Well, it was 8.45 when we landed in 
 New Haven, and of course our first stop 
 was to inquire where we could get a new 
 spring for "Billie." We were directed 
 to the National Spring Factory, where, 
 as we were informed, the best work in 
 the city would be done for us. When we 
 got there a long, lanky fellow with a pipe 
 in his mouth almost as long as he was 
 came shuffling out and squinted at us for 
 about ten minutes, then he relieved his 
 mouth of a pint of tobacco juice, and pro- 
 
 10 
 
ceeded to tell us what ought to be done 
 and the way to do it, but said nothing 
 could be done then as the day before had 
 been Labor Day, and the men had forgot- 
 ten to come back. Perhaps some of them 
 thought it was still Monday; anyway, 
 after a great deal of persuasion, he de- 
 cided to try and help us out. Dad run 
 the machine around into their yard and 
 told us to disembark and not show up for 
 two hours ; that was the time the man 
 said it would take to fix things up. We 
 had a lot of trouble getting our feet un- 
 tangled but at last we landed on dry 
 ground and started for the city to look 
 around the place. We got a lot of post 
 cards and got interested sending them 
 away and forgot all about the time, and 
 it was most twelve o'clock when we 
 started back. We went some I tell you 
 when we found how late it was, for we 
 had visions of what would happen to us 
 for keeping Dad waiting. When we got 
 in sight of the place we couldn't see 
 them at all, the only visible thing was 
 "Billie," he seemed like a stranded dere- 
 lict among oceans of old iron and junk. 
 Mother looked kind of scared at me and 
 said she bet they had gone to hunt us up. 
 Just then I saw something move under 
 the machine, and looking closer I saw it 
 was a foot, and that the foot belonged to 
 Dad. Gaining courage, I went nearer. 
 Just then he got up, straightened his 
 
 11 
 
back, and catching sight of me, he said, 
 "What, you people back as soon as this? 
 Why the blooming spring is not half 
 done yet." I looked at mother and she 
 was having a fit laughing. When I 
 thought of the useless amount of energy 
 I had expended hurrying to get back, 
 I didn't feel a bit funny. Dad went into 
 the factory and I climbed into the car. 
 Mother hollered but it was too late. 
 Down went the jack and down went the 
 car, and confusion reigned supreme. The 
 men came out of the factory, and al- 
 though they did not say it, I know they 
 thought that it was just like something 
 a fool woman would do anyway. I don't 
 believe they had it jacked up very well 
 or it would not have happened; but I 
 was very meek and just sat down on a 
 heap of old scrap iron and never moved 
 again until the old thing was all finished. 
 We left the city at i p. m. and Mother 
 counted up the miles we had gone since 
 morning and said she could have walked 
 as far as we had come. It did seem that 
 she was not satisfied to let Dad alone, 
 even when he wanted not to swear. 
 Well, he just turned on the juice and we 
 went some. I think we must have re- 
 sembled an airship going along. Once 
 in a while I suppose we did touch the 
 road, but we went through Guilford and 
 a lot of little towns on a jump. When we 
 reached Saybrook, Dad asked if we were 
 
 12 
 
hungry. I had been starved for hours 
 but had not dared even mention so tri- 
 fling a detail. We inquired and v^ere 
 directed to the "Fenwick," out on Say- 
 brook Point, where it seemed they put 
 up a fine shore dinner. 
 
 Well, we were flying along toward that 
 dinner when biff! bang! went a tire. I 
 did not know the warning signals as well 
 then as I do now, and I thought some 
 one was shot. Daddy said something 
 that made Mother grab for her "cuss 
 paper," but we went right on, never stop- 
 ping to fix the shoe or anything, poor 
 "Billie" just had to make a bare foot run 
 way out to the point. 
 
 When we reached there, we went into 
 the dining room to have our aching voids 
 attended to and the machine was run into 
 the garage where its troubles were look- 
 ed into. Well, there was nothing to com- 
 plain of in the style of this place, grand 
 dining room and lots of pretty girls to 
 wait upon us, but the food — well it left 
 much to be desired. 
 
 At 3.05 we were on the pike once more. 
 New London was our next objective 
 point, and it looked as though we were 
 going to have a fine run. Looks are de- 
 ceptive, however. We had gone but 
 about five miles when all of a sudden 
 down went the same blooming tire we 
 had just fixed back at the Point. What 
 Dad said upon this occasion there was 
 
 13 
 
no difficulty in understanding, and 
 mother was quite busy writing down his 
 remarks. 
 
 At 3.30 we were on the way once more. 
 3.35, same tire down again. It seems that 
 Dad forgot to put on the little cap or 
 whatever it is that holds the wind, and he 
 did not have another, so there we seemed 
 likely to remain. I asked him to ask 
 some of the fellows in the machines that 
 passed us by with pitying glances, but 
 he was stubborn and would not. 3.50, 
 still there. At 4 p. m. a fellow came 
 whizzing along who looked rather sym- 
 pathetic and I called to him to stop. He 
 had a fuzzy looking head, just exactly 
 like our buggy rug at home, but he had 
 the missing link we needed, and in a 
 minute we were under way. Dad said 
 if the thing went down again he would 
 never touch it, but we had much confi- 
 dence in our chauffeur, so that did not 
 worry us any, although we thought best 
 to maintain a discreet silence. 
 
 At 5 p. m. we came to the Connecticut 
 River. We went down to the ferry and 
 it did seem as though we were going to 
 plunge headlong into the drink, but Dad 
 snubbed the machine just in time, and a 
 cute little boat came over from the other 
 shore and we slipped across in no time. 
 The boat was the "Colonial." We asked 
 the captain how often he crossed and he 
 said "Whenever there was any one on 
 
 14 
 
either shore wishing to cross to the other 
 side." 
 
 We were now headed straight for New 
 London with raised spirits again. Dad 
 and the chauffeur had some spirits that 
 they did not pass around, but I caught 
 them ''piping their grog" once in a while. 
 At 6.30 we crossed the Thames on the 
 ''Governor Winthrop" and went to a friend 
 who lives in Groton to spend the night. 
 We had a fine supper and I was thankful 
 for that, for our dinner had been such a 
 dismal failure. Well, the house in which 
 our friend lived was rather small so she 
 put Dad and the chauffeur in one room 
 and Mother and I in another one adjoin- 
 ing. Mother had no chance you see to 
 give Daddy a curtain lecture that night. 
 At home she pitches into him and brings 
 forth all his misdeeds of the day in the 
 dark hours of midnight. When she 
 found he had escaped her, she just look- 
 ed things and banged the door. I heard 
 Dad and the chauffeur laughing softly on 
 the other side of the door, and I knew 
 that some one at least was pleased with 
 the sleeping arrangements as they stood. 
 Well, I had quite a time to collect my 
 thoughts and put myself to sleep, but at 
 last I lost track of things and knew noth- 
 ing more until the early morning sua 
 awakened me. 
 
 15 
 
Wednesday, September 9, 6 A. M. 
 
 Awake, but dreadfully sleepy. Dad 
 whistled until no one could possibly 
 snooze any ir.cre, and although the friend 
 with whom we were stopping was an 
 awfully nice woman, I bet she was mighty 
 glad to see the last of us. We had a 
 splendid breakfast, and with best wishes 
 from them all we started on the second 
 stretch of our journey. We in the rear 
 seat had gotten so by now that we could 
 get stowed away without so much delay 
 as we had caused at the beginning, so 
 there was no time lost in the get away 
 upon that occasion. 
 
 Mother had somehow gotten the notion 
 in her head, I think, that Dad must be 
 troubled with bad eyesight, for every 
 few moments her melodious voice cleaved 
 the air in notes of warning — "look out for 
 the side road, blow your horn at the cor- 
 ner, look out for the trolley, go slow, 
 here is a crossing," until positively I 
 marveled at the vast amount of patience 
 Dad displayed. All he did was to settle 
 himself determinedly at the wheel and 
 send "Billie" through at a mile a minute 
 clip. He did a little mumbling also, but 
 under his breath, and no one asked him 
 to repeat his remarks. 
 
 Well, the air was fine and bracing and 
 
 16 
 
the machine was running most smoothly. 
 It did seem as though the "Dove of 
 Peace" had joined our company for that 
 day at any rate. However, it was too 
 good to last. All of a sudden in going 
 down a steep incline, I felt the most 
 dreadful jar, and on my side, too; it did 
 seem as if everything that happened at 
 all was meant for me. Well, being un- 
 able to stop then, we made that descent 
 with a dreadful list aport, and when we 
 reached the bottom of the hill and got out 
 to investigate matters, we discovered 
 that we had coasted down most beauti- 
 fully on three wheels, with the end of 
 the axle digging its way into the roadbed, 
 regardless. It took us some time to dis- 
 cover the missing wheel. It was miles 
 away in a lot back at the side of the hill, 
 but strange to say, it was intact, nothing 
 wrong except that when the wheels were 
 off to be oiled, or whatever it is that gets 
 done to them, the one wdio put them back 
 again had neglected to tighten up the nut, 
 and there you are. We knew who had 
 done the job from the nice, quiet way 
 that Dad helped to replace the thing. 
 
 10.05, off again, and I sincerely hoped 
 there would be no more stoppings until 
 lunch time, for I really did not believe 
 Dad's patience could stand much more 
 strain. 10.25, more tire trouble ; doubled 
 up this time, a puncture and a blowout. 
 Well, we disembarked once again, and as 
 
 17 
 
Mother had complained of not seeing 
 much of the country on account of us 
 going too swiftly when we went at all, 
 I thought she might as well get a look 
 about her now. It seemed as though we 
 were likely to remain for quite a while 
 where we were, so I got an old soap box, 
 which I found alongside the road, and 
 placing it just out of reach of the other 
 machines, I ensconsed her there, while 
 I stood around to boss the job the men 
 bodies were trying to do. Somehow this 
 particular tire needed a lot of coaxing, 
 and at last Dad lost his temper and jab- 
 bed too hard with those corking irons 
 they use in putting in tubes, and out came 
 the chauffeur holding the poor, inoffen- 
 sive tube in his hand, cut in dozens of 
 places. Of course it was Dad's fault ; if 
 it had been any one else who had done 
 such a fool trick he would have likely 
 taken a fall out of them ; however, as he 
 had no one upon which to lay the blame, 
 he got out another tube and started in all 
 over again. I trembled for the fate of 
 that one, but all went well, except that 
 Mother had a few things to write on that 
 "cuss paper" of hers before the job was 
 completed. 
 
 At last both wheels were in good con- 
 dition again, and mother decided that she 
 had had her money's worth at that mati- 
 nee performance, so she hit the poor, un- 
 offending box a vicious kick with her 
 
 19 
 
foot and sent it flying, and I felt it was 
 not any time to say anything so I meekly 
 climbed aboard again and at 11.55 we got 
 away. 
 
 Mother started in once more to give 
 directions how to run the machine, but 
 Dad told her to keep an eye on that tire, 
 and when she got time between her warn- 
 ing cries, she did try to watch it. Once 
 she forgot it for quite a while and then 
 she looked rather quickly just as we went 
 over a thank you mam in the road, and 
 the side of her face and the side brace of 
 the car became mixed up somehow, and 
 I guess it hurt her some, for she was 
 strangely quiet for a long time, and the 
 tire was left to stay up or go down which- 
 ever it pleased. It pleased to stay up, I 
 am pleased to say, for I was getting 
 dreadfully hungry and hotels did not 
 seem to grow on the road we were on, 
 so I was most anxious to keep moving. 
 
 At last we came to a place where there 
 were five roads all going different ways, 
 and wc got the charts mixed and were go- 
 ing too swift to read the sign-boards, so 
 we took the wrong road. We did not 
 find this out for quite a spell. We came 
 to some dreadfully hilly roads, and after 
 we had gone miles and miles, we met a 
 man and asked him the way to Boston. 
 The fellow said we would have to go 
 back to the cross-roads and take the Bos- 
 ton road. Dad, seeming to forget that 
 
 20 
 
this man probably had had nothing to do 
 with the roads or the signs, just hollered 
 frightfully at him about the whole busi- 
 ness. The man looked at us as though 
 he thought he would like to direct us to 
 another place than Boston, but held his 
 tongue, for which I at least was most 
 thankful. 
 
 Well, back we went, and poor "Billie," 
 who had not balked at all about going 
 over the road the first time, kicked some- 
 thing dreadfully about retracing his 
 steps, and we did have a most awful time. 
 
 I p. m., the chauffeur got out and oiled 
 up. 1. 10, fixed a spring that had become 
 unjointed somehow. 1.30, oiled some 
 more, and finally at 1.45, deaf to all coax- 
 ing, "Billie" came to a dead stop. 2 p. m., 
 had not discovered what was wrong. 2.30, 
 still hunting fot the trouble. 2.45, the 
 chauft'eur looked at the gasolene tank and 
 found it — empty. I thought of asking 
 Dad if the thing would run with ''hot air," 
 there seemed to be quantities of that 
 around us just then, but I was afraid of 
 an explosion, so I kept "mum." As far 
 as we could make out, it was just as far 
 from anywhere going ahead or back, and 
 as we could not go either way just then, 
 things looked pretty blue for a hungry 
 girl like me. At last Mother, who had 
 been still quite a while, tried to help 
 matters by making a very ill-timed re- 
 mark, something about giving a "king- 
 
 21 
 
dom for a horse." Dad got mad and said 
 that the fellow who made that speech 
 never owned an automobile or he would 
 have wanted to corner the horse market. 
 It seemed to me that this particular cor- 
 ner would be a pretty good place to have 
 a horse, but wisdom suggested silence, 
 and I obeyed wisdom for once in my life. 
 
 Well, at last Dad and the chauffeur de- 
 cided to draw lots to see which of them 
 would strike out for the nearest place 
 where gasolene might be obtained, and 
 the chauffeur got ''stung." Just as he 
 was about to start, I thought of a small 
 can of the much needed fuel which had 
 been placed in the car for just such an 
 emergency as this, and so the chauffeur 
 lost that opportunity to escape us. I know 
 if he had have gotten away from us at 
 all, he would have beat it for home. I 
 think he was sick of us anyway. 
 
 Well, they dumped the gasolene into 
 the tank and at 3.05 we started in on our 
 bill-climbing contest once more. We 
 won because we were the only one in 
 tbe business, all the other machines had 
 gone on the regular Boston turnpike. At 
 last we came to a decent piece of road 
 and then we made time I tell you, but it 
 was 4 o'clock before we arrived at a 
 place called the Old Field Point Inn near 
 Providence. 
 
 Well, I fixed my mouth for the shore 
 dinner I did not get yesterday. My what 
 
 22 
 
a funny place it was. It was all fenced 
 off and a lot of queer little piles of rocks 
 were placed about the enclosure and a 
 most delicious smell of clams and fish was 
 arising from them. Dad said they were 
 ovens, and that was the way a real old 
 fashioned Rhode Island bake was pre- 
 pared. 
 
 The dining room was a great long aiifair 
 with miles of tables stretching down the 
 entire floor; there were queer little racks 
 hanging a foot or two above the tables 
 where the salt and pepper and other trim- 
 mings were kept. When we were seated 
 the waiters came and dumped some 
 steamed clams on one side of our plates 
 and lobster and corn and clam fritters and 
 things all around us until my place look- 
 ed like an island, surrounded with the 
 inhabitants of the deep. Mother said she 
 did not like her foods so mixed up, but 
 Dad asked her if she would not mix them 
 herself when she ate them ; she seemed, 
 however, to prefer to do her own mixing. 
 I was so hungry that trifles like that did 
 not interest me. I did not seem to mind 
 how the stuff was thrown at me, just so 
 they threw enough of it my way. 
 
 My, there were automobiles there from 
 everywhere ; it seemed like everybody 
 was hungry, and I bet they had not had 
 the bouncing we had either to make them 
 so. We left there at 5 p. m., and if it 
 had not been for mother we would have 
 
 23 
 
been stranded again without any gaso- 
 lene, for Dad completely forgot "Billie's" 
 ailment, now that his own tank was filled. 
 They did not sell any gasolene there, but 
 one of the chauffeurs let us have a little 
 until we could reach Providence. 
 
 Well, we filled up there and oiled the 
 machinery, and Dad settled himself at 
 the wheel and said, "Well, folks, the next 
 stop will be Boston." It wasn't. We 
 made a lot of stops before we reached 
 the "Hub." Once we were obliged to 
 stop for chains to keep the car from skid- 
 ding, the streets in the cities were so wet 
 that it was most impossible to keep 
 "Billie" on an even keel. When we did 
 get to Boston, Dad said we better keep 
 right on our course until we reached 
 Lynn, Mother felt as though a good bed 
 was most to be desired just then and 
 wanted to remain in Boston ; she was 
 afraid there might not be any good hotels 
 in Lynn. Dad said she could stay in 
 Boston if she wanted to, but the way he 
 said it made her decide immediately that 
 she did not want to, and to Lynn we 
 went. We had been making splendid 
 time and arrived there at 7.45 p. m. We 
 stopped at the Seymore and I washed off 
 a coat of sand and dust, brushed up what 
 hair I had left and presented myself at 
 the table for supper. I was not very 
 hungry of course, but meals seemed to be 
 so very irregular on our job that I tried 
 
 24 
 
to fortify myself for anything I might 
 miss the next day. At 9 o'clock, although 
 pretty late, Dad decided he wanted to 
 visit a cousin he had living in the city. 
 You know he always claims to be a ter- 
 ribly friendless sort of chap, but he al- 
 ways seems able to dig up an uncle or an 
 aunt or some cousins most anywhere he 
 goes. 
 
 Well, when we got to Cousin Dan's 
 house we found it was not his any more ; 
 he had sold it and moved somewhere 
 about a mile farther on. Mother was 
 right tired and kicked against going any 
 farther, but at the place we inquired, a 
 mighty pretty girl came out to direct us 
 and offered to accompany us to the house. 
 She stepped right up to Dad and they 
 started off. When Mother saw him in 
 company with a good looking female she 
 found she was not so tired as she had 
 supposed and followed in their wake. 
 
 Well, Dan was at home and glad to see 
 us, but his wife was visiting a neighbor 
 some ways up the street and he wanted 
 us to see her, and away we went again. 
 Mother made no comment upon this add- 
 ed walk. I suppose she was afraid some 
 more good looking females would aopear 
 as escorts ; at any rate, I was good and 
 tired myself by this time, and I just drag- 
 ged on after the bunch, with nothing to 
 say to anyone. I was so glad when the 
 door was opened and I anchored to the 
 
 25 
 
first piece of furniture that I saw, and 
 that I thought would hold me. We spent 
 quite a pleasant time, and Cousin Dan 
 accompanied us back to the hotel. I 
 think Dad and he talked things over un- 
 til morning, at any rate as soon as we 
 were inside and Mother had made up her 
 mind Dad was safe from further contact 
 with the feminine population of Lynn, 
 we hustled to bed. 
 
 Mother had Dad to herself that night, 
 or at least the part of it there was left 
 after Cousin Dan left. I was glad she 
 had him, for I had decided he needed a 
 little lecturing. Well, the moment my 
 head and the pillow got acquainted, I just 
 simply died ; I did not even dream. 
 
 26 
 
Thursday, September lo, 5 A. M. 
 
 Awakened by a knock upon my door. 
 5.30, awakened by a louder knock. This 
 one sounded as though it meant business, 
 so I jumped up and dressed and landed 
 at the breakfast table not so very much 
 behind the others. Dad was unusually 
 quiet but the chauflfeur whispered to me 
 on the Q. T. that he had overheard por- 
 tions of conversation between my belov- 
 ed parents that morning, in which pet 
 names, such as dear, etc., were strangely 
 missing, so I made no comments. 
 
 Well, at 7 a. m. we weighed anchor, 
 and just as we swung out into the road- 
 way a beautiful black cat crossed our bow, 
 and as I am rather superstitions, I called 
 attention to it. I said that I believed we 
 would have good luck all day through it. 
 Well it was decided that we were to get 
 our dinner in Newburyport, so I got out 
 the chart or blue book and prepared to 
 cross off the places as we came to them, 
 just as I used to mark off the days on the 
 calendar before vacation time in the old 
 days at school. Towns went by on the 
 run, and so did everything else; all I 
 could see was the rear of things getting 
 safely out of our pathway. They acted 
 as though they thought **Billie" was an 
 avenging Angel bent upon their destruc- 
 
 27 
 
tion. We lost all reckoning of our longi- 
 tude, etc. We inquired of one fellow, but 
 we were going some, and I think he 
 thought we had designs upon him, so 
 he dodged into a store and we were past 
 him before he got his mouth open even to 
 holler. We tried to ask another chap in 
 a carriage, but the horse took fright and 
 the fellow was most home before he could 
 have answered anyway. Finally the 
 chauffeur w^ent into a house to ask and 
 he was gone so long that I went to find 
 him and we both found there was no one 
 at home ; when we got back to the ma- 
 chine I judged from Dad's looks and a 
 suspicious rustle of paper that Mother 
 had been busy with her "cuss paper." We 
 went on and soon overtook a farmer who 
 told us to go about a mile and turn to 
 the left, or we could go straight on from 
 where we were only the roads were not 
 so good. We decided that a few miles 
 extra on a good road would amount to 
 very little and took the longest way. Of 
 course we only had the man's word that 
 it was the better road ; sometimes it look- 
 ed as though he did not know what a 
 good road was, or that the other must 
 be simply impassable. 
 
 At 10.05, stopped to oil up and put 
 some water in the cooler. We passed 
 many fields and beautiful bits of wood- 
 land, but houses — never one. At last 
 from the queer bumpy feeling and a zig- 
 
 28 
 
zaggy motion of "Billie's," I made up 
 my mind that we had met another nail or 
 something equally vicious, and sure 
 enough, flat as a pancake was the bloom- 
 ing tire ; it did seem as though all the 
 nails and tacks in the whole world had 
 combined to worst us ; at any rate they 
 made this trip memorable to all of us. 
 
 While the tire was being replaced or 
 pumped up, or whatever finishing touches 
 they get, Mother remarked that the black 
 cat was seemingly more of a hoodoo than 
 anything else, and Dad, who had not 
 spoken for some time, relieved his feel- 
 ings some by saying — well some things 
 that the cat would not like to have heard 
 I know. 11.30, another start. We seem- 
 ed to be specially successful in starting, 
 but what troubled us was to keep going. 
 Well, we met some road along here. It 
 was so rough that most of my hairpins 
 departed, and my head and feet nearly 
 changed places two or three times. I am 
 sorry I complained at some of the roads 
 I had been over, for they were velvet 
 pathways compared to this. 
 
 Daddy had promised us dinner in the 
 next town, which was Newburyport, but 
 it was so late when we got there that he 
 kept right on, and all we got was the 
 promise and some more of that dreadful 
 shaking up. Mother made a couple of 
 attempts to utter some of her warnings, 
 but almost bit her tongue off, so she shut 
 
 29 
 
up and just held on for dear life. "Billie"' 
 acted like a hero and went bouncing^ 
 along, sometimes on the ground and it 
 seemed more times not. Well, without 
 one thing more happening, we arrived in 
 Portland at 5 p. m., and in spite of what 
 they say, I believe the cat was all right 
 after all. 
 
 This was the first straightaway run we 
 had made since the start without some 
 old thing happening to delay us. We 
 stopped at the Tremont House and had 
 our supper or dinner, and if ever a ship- 
 wrecked mariner wept tears of thanks- 
 giving at sight of land, I felt sure like it 
 when we reached that dining room. Well 
 the table did not look so well after a short 
 time, but we felt a lot better and re- 
 embarked for the last few miles, which 
 stretched between us and Brunswick. Of 
 course, as we are natives of the old **Pine 
 Tree State," Dad was acquainted with 
 the lay of the land, and needed no com- 
 pass in his home waters. The roads were 
 some better and at just 8 p. m. we drew 
 up at our old home door and it was some 
 good I tell you to see the folks once more. 
 
 Truly sometimes on the trip down, I 
 had not expected to, and I was so nearly 
 seasick back on that awful road that I 
 almost hoped I would not live to. Well, 
 Dad's sister was interested to know all 
 about our trip, what we had seen and all 
 that, but I told her that we had seen 
 
 30 
 
nothing all the way; we were so busy 
 stopping and starting and trying to get 
 to the next place ahead. She looked as 
 though she thought a box car would have 
 done as well to take the trip in if that 
 was all. You see Dad had seemed 
 throughout the trip to lose sight of the 
 fact that there were things in the world 
 beside crank up, oil up, get there and get 
 away, and we women folks had scarcely 
 thought it wise to remind him. 10.30 I 
 went to bed and slept the sleep of the 
 just. 
 
 31 
 
Friday, September ii, 6 A. M. 
 
 Awakened early from habit, now that 
 there was no need of it, for we were not 
 going to start anywhere very early. I 
 snuggled down for a nice nap the mo- 
 ment I remembered this and never knew 
 more until Aunt called me at 7.30. 
 
 After breakfast we decided to take a 
 trip up to Monmouth (that is Dad's 
 birthplace) and the men went out to talk 
 things over with "Billie" to see how he 
 felt about it. You see we had all learned 
 that his consent was a most necessary 
 point to gain in making our plans. At 
 first glance he appeared all right, but 
 upon further examination it turned out 
 that he was a bit wheezy or something 
 and his valves needed 'attention. So 
 Mother and I went in and helped Aunt 
 with the dishes. My! but I hate that job. 
 My cousin stayed home from school to 
 go with us, as she had never had an auto 
 ride, and she danced around Dad until 
 I know he wished she had gone to school 
 ^r would go in the house. Some half 
 dozen of her little friends came over and 
 added their comments and questions. One 
 little fellow said he just adored automo- 
 l)iles and wished he did not have to go to 
 school. A little girl with her face all 
 lied up in rags said she did not have to 
 
 32 
 
go to school because she had a toothache, 
 but said she liked to ride in automobiles 
 too. Cousin tossed her head and told them 
 she was not going to school and had no 
 toothache but that she was going auto- 
 mobiling. I know just how she felt when 
 she said that, and I know just what those 
 kids felt like saying to her; human na- 
 ture has not changed much after all since 
 I was a youngster. One of the boys with 
 a practical turn of mind said he bet a fel- 
 low had to be awful rich to own an auto- 
 mobile. Dad told him that he guessed 
 he was right, but that no one could re- 
 main very rich and run one of them. 
 
 When we had finished our work in the 
 house, Dad asked us if we would rather 
 go before dinner or after. I wanted to 
 go before, but Mother said she knew why 
 I was anxious to do that. I knew, too, 
 that I would likely escape another lot of 
 dirty dishes if we went first. 
 
 At II a. m. we started for Litchfield 
 on our way to Monmouth. Dad has an- 
 other sister living up there. She is a high- 
 minded sort of person and lives among 
 the mountains. Says her doctor advises 
 it, but she did not say what she paid him 
 for the advice, however. We stopped in 
 a garage for some gasolene, for up in the 
 wilds of Maine it would not be easy to 
 get any auto fixings, and we know from 
 experience how pleasant it is to be miles 
 from nowhere and a tank that should be 
 
 33 
 
full, totally empty. We also got a pad 
 for the youngster; she seemed to think 
 it necessary to take notes of the trip, to 
 regale her school friends with later I 
 suppose. She was kept pretty busy at 
 first. I know she saw a yellow cat with 
 black eyes, and some cows upon the 
 mountain side, which seemed of enough 
 importance to be taken note of. Some- 
 times she could not write at all, the ma- 
 chine rocked so; she wanted Dad to stop 
 while she got down her impressions, but 
 he said the deuce with cows and cats and 
 on we went. 
 
 At 12:50 we got to Aunt's abode. She 
 boards with a Mrs. Winter, and they got 
 us the nicest lunch, all homey stuff, and 
 Mrs. Winter's two daughters waited 
 upon us. After lunch Aunt wanted Dad 
 to take Mother Winter and her daughters 
 out for a little ride, as she had never been 
 on the inside of an auto. Of course he 
 was most willing; he had been putting 
 an awtul eye upon those girls all through 
 our meal. They were nice and slim and 
 pietty. Mother decided that Aunt and 
 she would go also, but that there wouM 
 be no room for me; of course she would 
 go butting in if some woman was going 
 to get near Dad. Well it was fixed for 
 me to stop there and wash up the dishes 
 for Mother Winter just like a nice, little 
 girl and Dad got the machine ready. 
 Goodness when Mother Winter appeared 
 
 84 
 
r 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 i' ^/.'//^y^. 
 
 '^ ''"^^1' 
 
she was not a bit like either daughter, 
 more like them both bunched together. 
 Of course there was not room for them 
 all and dear Mother was left at home, 
 where she was so willing to leave me ; 
 darned if I was sorry. 
 
 Well, I went to work at those dishes 
 and I saw right then there is no use in 
 running away from disagreeable things; 
 you will find them ready to meet you 
 when you get where you are going any- 
 way. Well, when the crowd got back, we 
 said good bye to all hands and with one 
 last look at the Winter twins Dad gave 
 the wheel a turn to starboaord and we 
 were off for Monmouth. 
 
 Mother was ominously quiet, and only 
 hollered once or twice about cross-roads, 
 etc. Cousin wrote in her log when she 
 could sit still enough, and I bit my lips 
 to kcf-p from laughing over what was 
 likely to happen when Mother got Dad 
 all to herself. "Billie" was behaving 
 mighty well, except that he was listing 
 badly on the side which Mother Winter 
 had held down. The spring seemed 
 rather weak. The chauffeur examined 
 it and thought it would do for a while, 
 but he had Mother and I change sides, as 
 she weighs so much less than I do. 
 
 As we were getting aboard again, I 
 noticed that one of "Billie's" shoes that 
 was much the worse for wear had a hole 
 almost all through on one side. Dad 
 
 36 
 
thought it could be patched. We were 
 told to watch for a cobbler shop, where 
 a piece of leather might be obtained to do 
 the trick. We arrived in Monmouth at 
 4 p. m. It was no great trouble to hunt 
 for a cobbler shop there, for there were 
 onlv three stores in the place. However, 
 there were no leather men there and 
 it began to look bad for that shoe. I 
 have never before been in Monmouth ; 
 Dad has, but it was fifty years ago. We 
 got some post cards of the place and some 
 candy to eat, just because it was from 
 Monmouth. We could not bite it. I told 
 Dad 1 bet it was made the year he was 
 born. Well, we stopped at a little way- 
 side place and got a patch from an an- 
 cient mariner to fix ''Billie's" shoe. Then 
 we proceeded to return to Brunswick. 
 Mother, who had been quite quiet, now" 
 began again to tell Dad where to blow the 
 horn, how fast to go, etc., until I meekly 
 suggested that she change places and 
 run the machine herself. Somehow my 
 idea did not hit her favorably and it was 
 quite chilly for a long time in my imme- 
 diate vicinity. At last Dad noticed some- 
 thing wrong and asked what ailed us. I 
 told him. Mother did not think I would,, 
 and afterwards I wished I hadn't. 
 
 We arrived at 8.30 and I went straight 
 to bed; every one knew I must be sulky 
 or most dead, for I am always on hand 
 when meals are ready. Cousin came with 
 
 37 
 
me, she had even lost interest in her log. 
 After she had gotten to sleep, however, 
 she awakened with the idea that the black 
 cat or the yellow one she had seen was 
 scratching the eyes out of the mountain 
 cows or something equally ridiculous, but 
 I told her the cows would likely take care 
 of themselves and she went off again to 
 the land of "Nod." I did not know until 
 morning how dad made out when he had 
 to face the explosion that had been bot- 
 tled up for him all day. 
 
 38 
 
Saturday, September 12. 
 
 When I opened my eyes I found the 
 sun was on his job and I quickly dressed 
 and descended to my breakfast. The 
 rest of the bunch were already there and 
 guyed me a lot for being late. I glanced 
 over the table and found that they had 
 not demolished quite everything, so I 
 went quietly to work and let them talk. 
 This was absolutely the first meal I had 
 really had time to eat respectably since 
 leaving home, and I made the most of my 
 opportunity. 
 
 "Billie" was taken over to the town 
 after breakfast to have his springs over- 
 hauled and some bumpers, I think they 
 are called, put underneath to stand the 
 strain in case we overloaded the machine 
 as we did yesterday. Mother, aunt and 
 myself went for a walk upon the hills. 
 
 The morning was perfect, and the odor 
 of fir and balsam filled the air with a 
 most delicious fragrance. We returned 
 at II o'clock to find that Dad and the 
 chauffeur had arrived with "Billie," all 
 primed up and washed and looking alto- 
 gether quite respectable once more. Well, 
 we dressed and at 12 noon we started for 
 a place called Forest Home, situated most 
 delightfully with a pine forest for a back- 
 ground and the old ocean rolling up in the 
 
 39 
 
foreground. Here we were to have din- 
 ner. We did not, however, get our dinner 
 quite as soon as we really expected we 
 might, nor did we reach our Forest Home 
 until we had passed through some trials 
 and much tribulation. We had not gone 
 far when the neat little patch which Dad 
 had had adjusted that morning over the 
 weak spot on "Billie's" shoe suddenly 
 turned ''turtle," leaving the sore spot ex- 
 posed; some bits of gravel worked 
 through and bang! went the whole busi- 
 ness. Mother and I had gotten so used to 
 these little happenings that we simply 
 piled out and said nothing. Aunt, how- 
 ever, was new at the business and tried to 
 ask questions in regard to it. Dad does 
 not take kindly to questioning at such 
 times and she soon joined us where we 
 were seated upon the stone wall by the 
 roadside like a couple of crows looking 
 on. The chauffeur blocked the car up 
 while Dad looked over the extra tires in 
 a vain attempt to discover one that would 
 do. Alas, not one. You see we had been 
 piling them up on the trip down and had 
 forgotten to have anything done to repair 
 them or get any new ones. We were in 
 a spot when the thing occurred which 1 
 firmly believe had been overlooked both 
 by man and beast since Creation day. 
 There was nothing to be seen on either 
 side, straight ahead or back of us, but 
 miles of clay road and thick forests. There 
 
 40 
 
seemed nothing tc be done but to patch 
 up an old tire, and Dad told me to hunt 
 up the glue, or whatever it is called, that 
 is used for such purposes, and he got into 
 his overalls and got ready for business. 
 I pulled out the robes and coats and some 
 of the suit cases, and dug under the seat 
 and in the tool box, but not a bit of 
 stickum came to light. Dad, becoming 
 impatient, finally pushed me one side and 
 — well he did not find it either. Then he 
 lighted on the poor chauffeur. Each 
 blamed the other for having forgotten it, 
 but at last it seemed to dawn upon them 
 both that whoever had been to blame they 
 were not helping matters just at that time 
 by holding a court-martial over it, and 
 so Dad started bravely for somewhere 
 to get a piece of leather or in fact any- 
 thing that would do. 
 
 I would have run the machine without 
 a shoe had I been captain of the expedi- 
 tion, but Dad was loth to ruin the rim (I 
 think he called it) and off he went. After 
 he had gone a fellow came by on a motor 
 cycle, and seeing us hung up, stopped to 
 inquire into our difficulties. As it turned 
 out, he had some self-healing patches, I 
 guess he called them, and in a short time 
 we were all fixed up, pumped up and 
 ready to start. When Dad finally arrived, 
 he looked so warm and tired that I was 
 glad everything was all done for him, but 
 he was so blooming ugly when he saw it 
 
 41 
 
done that no one said anything to him at 
 all. You see he had walked miles, poor 
 fellow, in the heat and dirt, whereas if he 
 had remained with us things would have 
 turned out all right just the same. I 
 thought of Isaac Newton and the falling 
 apples, but it did not seem exactly a good 
 time to say anything, so I wisely kept 
 quiet. 
 
 3 p. m., under way once more. I was 
 most glad to get away from that particu- 
 lar spot of the universe, but believe me, if 
 the road we had been on was straight, the 
 next turn we came to made up all that 
 could be desired in crookedness. We 
 crossed the same railroad track twenty 
 times in as many minutes. Even a self- 
 respecting snake would have been unable 
 to follow that road without breaking its 
 back. First we would be heading due 
 west, and in a moment it would seem we 
 would be back again facing the land of the 
 rising sun. 
 
 At 4.30 p. m. we arrived at our destina- 
 tion and I was famished. Probably the 
 others were also, but I was the only one 
 who acknowledged it. My! what a deli- 
 cious dinner we did have ; everything was 
 served in such a dainty manner, too. 
 
 6 p. m., on our homeward way. "Billie" 
 kept his natural disposition well under 
 control and we had a delightful trip. 
 Aunt, who is limited in the knowledge of 
 automobiles and their shortcomings, said 
 
 42 
 
it seemed to her that the machine was all 
 right if given the proper attention. She 
 said it was not to be expected that any- 
 thing could go on forever without some 
 repairing and looking into. Dad said, 
 that so far he had given **Billie" much 
 more attention and consideration than he 
 had shown any willingness to return, and 
 no one being in a position to dispute him, 
 silence reigned. 
 
 Well, as usual, when we went at all, 
 we went like the wind and at 7.30 exactly 
 we arrived at Aunt's home. Just as we 
 were alighting Mother caught her skirt 
 upon the handle of the door and tore a 
 beautiful three-cornered piece right out 
 of the front of it. She was some mad, 
 but I told her not to mind, she could get 
 a new one when Dad settled up with the 
 "cuss paper." She was not much cheered, 
 however, for I do not think she believed 
 he would ever reach the settling stage. I 
 am positive she would never dare suggest 
 it to him. 
 
 After "Billie" had been put to rest. Dad 
 and the chauffeur went to the town and 
 came back laden with cards and souve- 
 nirs. Dad brought Mother and I each a 
 card album. I am going to keep mine to 
 put post cards in of the places we have 
 been through. It will be a nice way to 
 see some of the country we have passed, 
 blessed if I have seen much of it as we 
 came along. Well at 11 p. m. I went to 
 
 43 
 
my bed, but not to sleep. No indeed. It 
 seemed to me that lobsters, crabs and 
 other creatures of the deep were holding 
 a consultation, and from the feeling I had, 
 I judged the result was not at all satis- 
 factory to any of them. I know it was 
 not to me. I heard the clock strike every 
 hour until 4 a. m. 
 
 44 
 
Sunday Morning, September 13. 
 
 Awakened at 8.30, not feeling quite as 
 well as might be desired. For breakfast 
 there were the old-fashioned Boston 
 baked beans and brown bread. They 
 looked mighty good to me, but there was 
 still a rebellious feeling going on within 
 me, and I was obliged to be quite self- 
 sacrificing, though it did hurt some. After 
 breakfast I was not asked to help with 
 the dishes, and that fact alone made it 
 worth while being sick. Instead I got 
 ready and we went for a spin and had a 
 lovely day. The only disagreeable fea- 
 ture of the entire trip was the way the 
 drivers of horses acted about letting us 
 get by. Those who appeared to know 
 enough to side track were too contrary 
 to do so, and those who were willing did 
 not seem to know enough. When Dad 
 would blow the horn some of them 
 would look back and hold their course, 
 plumb in the middle of the channel. 
 Others would not look around, and still 
 others after looking back, it would seem 
 for hours, would suddenly cross our bow 
 at perilously close quarters, and the re- 
 sult was a series of hair-raising escapes. 
 Once if the chauflfeur had not grabbed the 
 wheel and jibed her over in a hurry we 
 would have been head on into an idiotic 
 
 45 
 
looking crank who seemed to have an in- 
 sane desire to drive between our two 
 front wheels. We lost a lamp in that 
 mix-up, and Mother did some writing, but 
 otherwise we enjoyed the day more than 
 any since our departure from our home 
 port. 
 
 6.05, returned hungry and tired. After 
 supper the men went for a walk. I do 
 not know when they got in. I bet that 
 Dad catches it though. I am glad I 
 sleep on the other side of the house. You 
 see Mother cannot bear to have him leave 
 her to go anywhere for a minute. I should 
 think she would be glad to get rid of him 
 once in a while. She, however, calls it 
 Love ; still I should think that even poor 
 little Cupid would want a rest. 
 
 46 
 
Monday, September 14, 5 a. m. 
 
 Opened my eyes quite anxiously to see 
 what kind of a morning it was. I was 
 afraid it was going to be stormy, for last 
 night was so cloudy. We were to make 
 a nice early start on our return voyage 
 to-day and wet weather is not exactly 
 conducive to pleasant automobiling. Of 
 course I knew that if the 'Towers that 
 be" (meaning in this case my august 
 Daddy) decided to make the start, there 
 would be no appeal from that decision, 
 so I prayed for sunshine, you may be 
 sure. 
 
 Aunt put up a nice luncheon ; the 
 chauffeur went round looking things over 
 to see if all was taut and ready to stand 
 the weather; mother arranged the suit 
 cases, etc., a little more to her liking; 
 while I looked **Billie" over anxiously,, 
 trying to read his mind, to see how he 
 felt about going home. We stopped in 
 Topsham for gasolene and new tires, and 
 when the chauffeur cranked up again, we 
 noticed steam rising from the radiator or 
 water tank, or whatever it is called, and 
 he said he bet there was a leak in it. Dad 
 jumped out, unscrewed the top and be- 
 fore he could sidestep, he was covered 
 with dirty, iron rusty water; it scalded his 
 hands and made a wreck of his clean 
 
 47 
 
shirtfront. It seemed that the water was 
 most out of the thing, and what was in 
 came out when he opened the top and 
 there you are. 
 
 Mother told him that if he had put on 
 his sweater, as she had asked him to do, 
 that he would not have spoiled his bosom 
 shirt; she did not seem to mind about his 
 poor hands. Well, anyway, he asked the 
 chauffeur how in the Devil it was that he 
 forgot to fill that tank when he had been 
 working round the thing since three that 
 morning. I told him not to scold, for we 
 should be glad it was not out of business, 
 and we could get some water, so it might 
 be much worse. 
 
 Well, we filled up at a wayside water- 
 ing trough with a little half-pint dipper, 
 which does not insure lightning results ; 
 and then the men folks thought it would 
 be nice to have a drink themselves, but 
 in Maine to drink anything stronger than 
 water is considered against the law and 
 gospel, so they were obliged to curb their 
 thirst and off we went. 
 
 A white frost had fallen during the 
 night and the grass was strewn with 
 glittering diamonds wherever the sun 
 shone upon it. The air was quite nippy, 
 and we were glad to avail ourselves of 
 some of those extra wrappings that 
 Mother had insisted upon bringing along. 
 
 7.53 arrived at Millport. 9 a. m. in 
 Portland. We should have gotten there 
 
 48 
 
much sooner than this, only we lost our 
 way twice and had to go so far round 
 the third time that we might better have 
 gone back. We would not have gotten 
 lost so often only we went whizzing by 
 the sign boards so fast that they looked 
 like blotches of paint instead of letters, 
 and at last Daddy decided that it might 
 help some if he went a bit slower and 
 gave us a chance to read, it would save 
 going back so often, if no more. 
 
 We oiled up in Portland and started 
 for Gorham. The engines had gotten to 
 raring and went plinkety plunk until I 
 was nearly crazy. Dad got out to see 
 what was wrong and he found one engine 
 not working, but he did not find out why. 
 Naturally we were not able to make much 
 headway. There was a fair at Standish 
 and we must have passed all the horses 
 in Maine on the way to it, while the noise 
 we were making scared the poor animals 
 almost to death. One fellow drove up 
 the side of a bank to escape us and waited 
 for us to pass him. Daddy appreciated 
 his good intentions, but the way we were 
 going it began to look as if the fellow 
 would miss the Fair if he waited for us. 
 We just crept along, hardly able to keep 
 steerage way on the blooming craft, and 
 at last I inquired why they did not try 
 to find out the nature of "Billie's" ail- 
 ment. Dad said he could find nothing 
 wrong, but that when he got to a garage 
 
 49 
 
he would have the people there look for 
 the difficulty. We went miles and miles 
 on a walk, but could read all the sign 
 boards now without any difficulty. We 
 passed one that said it was 4}^ miles to 
 Steep Falls ; on the opposite corner, in 
 plain sight of this, was one giving the 
 distance to the same place as five miles. 
 Dad said it made little difference whether 
 he went slow enough to read the boards 
 or not, the blooming things were not to 
 be depended upon anyway. He seemed 
 to forget that he was not going slowly 
 for the purpose of reading anything, but 
 just because he could not help himself. 
 
 Arrived in Steep Falls at last, but there 
 were no stores that looked promising 
 there. A freight shed and a feed store and 
 a toy grocery comprised the entire outfit. 
 We were badly in need of an automobile 
 hospital you see, to find out what ailed 
 the engines ; also, we were pretty low on 
 gasolene. Well, we passed an old shed 
 about a mile from town and a sign there- 
 on stated that gasolene was sold there at 
 35 cents per gallon. Dad said that was 
 daylight robbery; he did not think the 
 whole village worth much more. It did 
 not make a great deal of difference, how- 
 ever, what he thought ; we simply had to 
 have the expensive luxury, so we drew up 
 at the door, "Billie" announcing our ar- 
 rival with the same groaning and creak- 
 ing which had been assailing our ears for 
 miles and miles. 
 
The door was made fast with a padlock 
 and there were absolutely no signs of life 
 in or about the place. As it was well past 
 noon, we decided to have our luncheon 
 then and there, so we attempted to rescue 
 the box of lunch Aunt had placed in the 
 car in the morning. I pulled out fur coats 
 and linen dusters and rugs, etc., only to 
 find that one corner of our heaviest suit- 
 case had been resting comfortably on that 
 poor unoffending lunch for hours, and 
 Aunt's ginger bread looked more like 
 molasses pudding than anything else, but 
 all hands were hungry, so everything dis- 
 appeared completely. Just as we were 
 finishing, a little urchin trotted up and 
 asked us if we were waiting for the gaso- 
 lene man. When we assented, he told us 
 that it was his ''Fadder," and he was 
 home to dinner, but would be back in half 
 an hour. Mother said if he would go 
 hurry him up she would give him a dime, 
 but I thought this would be a fine oppor- 
 tunity to dispose of that Monmouth candy 
 and I showed him the box; I did not dare 
 give him any until his return, however. 
 
 Well, he went upon the wings of the 
 wind to get his *'Fadder" and obtain that 
 candy. When he returned there were a 
 baker's dozen of other little fellows with 
 him, and true to my promise, I handed out 
 the box. One little chap bit into a cara- 
 mel and went whooping off down the road 
 like an Indian, holding onto his jaw. 
 
 51 
 
Well, while the man was getting his 
 money for the ''juice," Dad told him of 
 some of his troubles on the way up from 
 Standish. The fellow was anxious to see 
 the inside workings of the machine, and 
 although Dad objected to the delay, he 
 took the hood off and the fellow squinted 
 at the engines and chewed tobacco, and 
 at last decided there were too many wires 
 and things for him to know much about 
 it anyway. So Dad started to slam the 
 hood into place again, but suddenly stop- 
 ped, peeled his eye pretty close to the port 
 engine and said something that would not 
 look well in print. He took the pliers and 
 juggled some of the wires for a minute 
 and presto ! our sick "Billie" was well 
 once more. There had been nothing 
 wrong all along except a contrary little 
 wire which had become detached from 
 somewhere, causing all the trouble. The 
 man said it had not taken long to fix it, 
 but Mother butted in and told him it had 
 taken long enough to find out what to 
 fix. Well we left that place some quicker 
 than we were able to get there. As we 
 passed the corner we were pursued by a 
 crowd of disgusted boys, pegging candy 
 at us as long as we were in sight. 
 
 Our stopping place for that night was 
 expected to be Bethel, but alas with an 
 auto, a fellow never knows where he is 
 going to lay his head. We were getting 
 into the mountains by now, and the hills 
 
 52 
 

 
were becoming steeper every mile. We 
 climbed some by getting out and pushing 
 "Billie" up, and some by blocking him up 
 with portions of the stone walls upon the 
 roadside, and waiting until he got his 
 breath to start on again. Twice we got 
 almost to the top of one dreadful hill by 
 dint of much coaxing and then down he 
 went clear to the bottom again. A chap 
 upon a horse came along and tried to 
 cheer us by telling us what trouble all 
 the other tourists had. He said the cause 
 of it was that the air became rarified in 
 the mountains so that the gasolene mix- 
 ture became affected or something of that 
 sort. Anyway the air near us was blue 
 enough. My the things that the men said ; 
 why Mother simply tore up that *'cuss 
 paper" then and there. She said it kept 
 her working overtime and never would 
 do her any good. 
 
 Well, after a while we got through 
 playing see-saw on that hill and got to 
 the top and stayed there. I had jammed 
 my finger, or rather Mother had jammed 
 it for me ; she got mixed some in putting 
 a stone under the wheel and mistook my 
 poor finger for the roadway, and it began 
 to hurt me badly. I showed it to Dad, 
 but he said no one sympathized with him 
 when he scalded his hands in the morning, 
 so I kept my own counsel after that. 
 
 At 8.05 p. m. we arrived at Maplewood 
 and stopped at the Maplewood Hotel. It was 
 
 54 
 
a grand, big place, room enough in it to 
 accommodate a city full. When we drew 
 up, three or four darkies surrounded us 
 and grabbed our coats and suit cases and 
 freed of our hamper, we disembarked. 
 When we got under the lights on the 
 porch and those colored gentlemen got a 
 good look at us, I know they thought we 
 had come to the wrong entrance, although 
 any self-respecting serving maid would 
 have considered herself eternally disgrac- 
 ed to have looked as we did that night. 
 Our tussle with those hills and the dust 
 of the roadway had not combined to make 
 us look any too well groomed. We reach- 
 ed our rooms and I made a brave attempt 
 to remove some of the marks of the day's 
 toil. Then I dug some dress clothes out 
 of my suit case and descended to the 
 dining hall. I met my family there and 
 we all went in together. Mother holds 
 her head pretty high at all times, just sails 
 along, looking neither to the right or to 
 the left. Upon this occasion she never 
 saw a poor little waiter with a big tray of 
 dishes coming her way, and when we res- 
 cued her from the mixup she had to go 
 back and change her rig. After supper 
 we went out to look over the place. The 
 grounds about the hotel were something 
 suburb. I said I would not mind remain- 
 ing there for a week, and looking at the 
 clouded sky. Dad said most likely I would 
 have to. When I retired that night my 
 
 56 
 

 
 
 
finger ached badly, and for a long time I 
 could not sleep. I named the four posts 
 of my bed for four friends of mine, as I 
 used to do in school, but when I did get 
 to sleep all I dreamed about was the poor 
 little waiter mother upset. 
 
 58 
 
Tuesday, September 15, 5 A. M. 
 
 When I opened my eyes I found the sun 
 was still shining brightly. No rain and 
 nothing that looked like it was to be seen. 
 We started at 5.50, and as this was earlier 
 than they served breakfast, we decided to 
 get ours in Littleton, N. H., which was 
 not far ahead. I was sorry for I know 
 that Dad's disposition does not work as 
 well before breakfast as it does afterwards, 
 and I was worried when I thought of the 
 hills between us and Littleton. Well, we 
 shaped our course for that place and 
 finally got there, over some of the most 
 dreadful hills. Those of yesterday were 
 but babies compared to these. Needless 
 to say we repeated the blocking and push- 
 ing process with the machine numbers of 
 times. When we got there we met some 
 one who told us that we had come the 
 wrong way and might have avoided the 
 worst of the hills had we come the other 
 road. Well, we got directions from this 
 man and started on, and no one thought 
 it wise to mention breakfast. Before long 
 we forgot that we had not had any. We 
 had seen in the guide book something 
 about a three-mile hill, but the man we 
 inquired from told us we need not go up 
 that if we followed his directions. I don't 
 believe we did go up it either. I think 
 
 59 
 
that at the least calculation the shortest 
 hill we climbed was about six miles in 
 length. I searched the chart to find some 
 way of getting back on the traveled road, 
 but I could not locate our position or get 
 our bearings, and we were obliged to 
 keep our course. 
 
 11.05, stopped to oil up. 11. 10 on our 
 way once more. 12 noon, still climbing 
 hills. We had met no one of whom to ask 
 anything since leaving Littleton. Dad 
 said he would like to find some blooming 
 idiot and ask him if there was not an- 
 other mountain somewhere we had ne- 
 glected to climb. We passed a few houses 
 but they were all boarded up, as no one 
 seemed to live in the vicinity. The 
 chauffeur, who had been quite silent, said 
 he did not wonder at folks digging out of 
 such a forsaken place as that seemed to 
 be. 
 
 I p. m., came to a road that looked 
 promising and we began to descend. We 
 passed a fellow driving a team of oxen 
 and he directed us how to get to Moulton. 
 We wrote down what he said and began 
 coasting again. I believe that for ten 
 miles we used absolutely no power, just 
 let the car have headway. 2.50, we came 
 to a fine macadam road. Dad let "Billie" 
 out and we had one glorious spin. Just 
 about this time I began to feel rather 
 faint and then it dawned upon the bunch 
 that we had had neither breakfast or din- 
 
 60 
 
ner. 3 .10, arrived in Moulton and stopped 
 at the very first place that looked any- 
 thing like a hotel or an inn ; we were not 
 over particular by this time. 4 p. m., on 
 our homeward way again. The only 
 thing that happened all the rest of that 
 day was when we discovered a leak in the 
 pipe which feeds the carbureter. We 
 patched that with soap, so it would hold 
 until we could get it attended to. I asked 
 the chauffeur if he supposed it happened 
 from "Billie" straining so to get his breath 
 back in the mountains, and Dad laughed. 
 I took notice of that laugh for the sound 
 of merriment had been strangely missing 
 the entire trip. 
 
 At 7.15 we arrived at Suncock, N. H., 
 and stopped at a place called the Oswald 
 Inn. The machine was put into a garage 
 to have the leaky tube soldered, and after 
 we had made ourselves presentable we 
 went into the dining room. A wishy- 
 washy looking fellow, who seemed to be 
 the waiter, was reading a paper some- 
 thing about ''advice to the love lorn," and 
 he seemed loth to leave the advice long 
 enough to wait on us. He moved about 
 in a sort of dream, and I expected every 
 moment to see Dad or the chauffeur wake 
 him up a bit. However, he got along 
 fairly well, and after we had finished we 
 went out to see if we could get the ma- 
 chine fixed that night, as we wished to 
 start quite early in the morning. The 
 
 62 
 
man at the garage did not want to do 
 anything about it, for he was afraid to 
 monkey about gasolene at night; however, 
 he was persuaded to do so by an applica- 
 tion of the "long green" and soon the job 
 was done. The chauffeur had been look- 
 ing about and had discovered that a pin 
 was missing which holds the wheel or 
 something, and so we all went to hunt up 
 a blacksmith to get a new steel arrange- 
 ment fitted in. It was quite late before 
 that job was completed. I know I got 
 restless and sleepy and left the bunch. I 
 do not know when they came in. 
 
 63 
 
Wednesday Morning, September i6. 
 
 When I awakened at 5, a dense fog 
 was hanging like a pall over the town. I 
 dressed hurriedly and descended to the 
 dining room, only to find that the rest of 
 the party were nearly finished with their 
 breakfast. I was told to hurry up, but I 
 made up my mind to get all I wanted be- 
 fore I left that place, for I had not for- 
 gotten our experience of yesterday, and I 
 meant to have one good meal for the day, 
 whatever the result might be. 6.20, when 
 I finally got ready I went to the garage 
 to see why they did not come for me. 
 Mother stood there alone, leaning upon 
 the car, but the men folks were nowhere 
 in sight. When I inquired about them 
 she told me that they had gone off dis- 
 gusted, having had to wait so long for 
 me, and that they were most likely hold- 
 ing up the bar at the Inn. Well, I drifted 
 back and sure enough they were just 
 coming out, but thank fortune they were 
 both smiling, so I ventured to join them. 
 
 Well, "Billie" responded very readily 
 and we seemed likely to get somewhere 
 that day. As we were starting, I noticed 
 a large wet spot on the floor, but not sup- 
 posing it was in any way connected with 
 our affairs, I neglected to speak of it. 
 Later I did wish I had mentioned it. We 
 
 64 
 
had only gone a short distance when 
 "Billie" balked. No amount of coaxing 
 seemed to have any effect, and remember- 
 ing the time we had been stranded for a 
 drop of gasolene, Mother suggested that 
 the tank be looked into. Dad declared 
 we had plenty, but finally did look, and 
 we had none whatever. The chauffeur 
 said there was plenty in it when they 
 left it half an hour before. Well, it turn- 
 ed out that the shut-ofif, or whatever it is 
 that turns off the juice underneath, had 
 gotten turned in some way and all our 
 supply had run out. I remembered the 
 suspicious spot on the garage floor then 
 and told Dad about it. He agreed that it 
 was probably our gasolene, but said it was 
 no use talking about it now if I did not 
 know enough to say something at the 
 time. The chauffeur said likely a lot of 
 kids had been getting too fresh and turn- 
 ed the thing; but whatever the cause, 
 some more stuff had to be gotten some- 
 how, and it was up to some of us to get 
 it, so the chauffeur took the can and 
 started back to the village. I thought 
 from the frosty feeling about the place, 
 that walking would be good for me too, 
 so I went along. Well, on our way I 
 heard more things about automobiles and 
 cranks that run them than I ever knew 
 before. You see our chauffeur is a 
 strangely silent man, but I suppose he 
 thinks as fast as other people. At any 
 
 65 
 
rate, he chose me then and there to air 
 his grievances upon. I felt sure then that 
 the next trip we took would be without 
 his pleasant company. Well, we got our 
 gasolene and went back to find Dad pac- 
 ing up and down the road, just as he 
 paces the quarterdeck of our old Hooker 
 when things have not gone exactly to his 
 liking. Mother was reading a newspaper, 
 or she seemed to be; when I got near 
 enough, however, to see, I found she had 
 the paper held upside down, but as she 
 seemed oblivious of the fact, I thought it 
 best to make no remarks. 
 
 Well, we dumped the gasolene into 
 "Billie's" tank and at 8.20 exactly we 
 made a new start. I was worried for fear 
 our supply would not hold out until we 
 reached Manchester, and listened an- 
 xiously for any cessasion in **Billie's" 
 heartbeats. Well we arrived in Manches- 
 ter and filled up the tank, and then Dad 
 told Mother to meet him again at the 
 Commons in about two hours. It seems 
 he used to work there when I was a 
 youngster and wanted to stop and see 
 some of his old cronies. I had nothing 
 soecial I wanted to do, in fact I felt as 
 though I had walked enough already that 
 morning. Mother, I suppose, remember- 
 ed how we had been hustled out of every 
 place we really wanted to stop at and said 
 most consolingly, "Never mind, dear, it 
 makes a great difference which part of the 
 
 66 
 
family wants to stay," and after we had 
 held down the Commons for almost three 
 hours, I certainly felt like agreeing with 
 her. 
 
 2 p. m., the men arrived and they seem- 
 ed in the best of humor; it was quite evi- 
 dent that time had not hung heavily for 
 them, and feeling that it was best for this 
 state of bliss to continue, I yanked Mother 
 by the sleeve when she started to say 
 things, and I believe I avoided a mixup, 
 at least for the time being. 
 
 At 2.15 we left the city and I just pray- 
 ed that nothing would go wrong, for I 
 felt sure that if Dad's unusual show of 
 good nature received a setback the result 
 would most likely be calamitous. We 
 flew along and could just get glimpses of 
 things we passed. Finally we came to a 
 farm house and a wee bit of an urchin 
 was holding for dear life onto a great 
 truck horse with a piece of rope about a 
 foot long. He looked at us and so did the 
 horse. Evidently the horse did not like 
 "Billie," for he suddenly broke away from 
 the little fellow and off he went. The boy 
 naturally objected to his going and stood 
 and yelled whoa at him as long as we 
 could see or hear him. I asked Dad to 
 stop but he would not listen to me ; we 
 kept going and so did the horse. At last, 
 pretty well winded, he turned in at a pas- 
 ture by the roadside, at least two miles 
 from his starting point. Mother said that 
 
 67 
 
Dad would have called another man bad 
 names, but it does make a difference who 
 owns the horse and who runs the auto- 
 mobile. Well, we certainly did find some 
 dandy stretches of road, and "Billie" 
 acted like a hero. Dad seemed to feel 
 dreadfully good natured and at last start- 
 ed to sing. The chauffeur was real glad 
 to hear him, but I knew it was the worst 
 thing Dad could do. He once told me that 
 he had never sung but twice in his life; 
 the first time he was taken with a bad 
 sickness right after his singing bee and 
 he was married shortly after his second 
 attempt, so I feared for results upon this 
 occasion. My fears, it turned out, were 
 not overdrawn. I cannot tell just what 
 happened or how, but I think that Dad 
 had gotten so interested in his song that 
 he became a bit careless, at any rate he 
 got "Billie" too close to the side of the 
 road, and to avoid going down an em- 
 bankment he wheeled suddenly across the 
 road plumb into a machine headed the 
 other way, and both cars made a head-on 
 acquaintance which jarred all hands 
 dreadfully. I was thrown out and Mother 
 came tumbling after. I don't know how 
 the rest got out, whether they fell or got 
 out themselves. The machines were badly 
 used up too. When I could move at all, I 
 felt sure at least one arm was broken, and 
 I felt like a piece of tough beefsteak that 
 some one has pounded the dickens out of 
 
 68 
 
Wimw 
 
to soften it up a bit. I helped Mother to 
 her feet, with Dad's assistance, and found 
 that outside of a bad shaking-up she seem- 
 ed unhurt. There was no one in the other 
 car but the driver, and he and Dad got 
 into a conversation which was quite heat- 
 ed in the beginning. Somehow they found 
 out that they were both Masons, and that 
 seemed to please them a whole lot, though 
 I could not see how that helped so much, 
 for the cars looked like they needed the 
 services of a machinist more than a 
 Mason. The chauffeur had lighted him- 
 self a cigar when he found all his bones 
 were still intact and was seated over on 
 the fence making absolutely no attempt 
 to help adjust matters. He had always 
 seemed to know just what to do hereto- 
 fore and the best way to do it, but I could 
 plainly see that no help was coming from 
 him in this dilemma. He did not say 
 anything, but I knew that he had about 
 decided that Dad as a chauffeur was not 
 an absolute success. He had made sev- 
 eral attempts to get Dad to let him run 
 the car when we first started from home, 
 but he never would allow it, and well here 
 we were, and from the looks of the wreck- 
 age no one would run the thing for some 
 time to come. Mother acted like an 
 angel ; usually she has so much to say 
 about "I told you so," that her silence 
 upon this occasion was most unexpected. 
 At last it was decided that we would have 
 
 70 
 
to find an abiding place for the night, as 
 it was now after 5. Just as this decision 
 was reached a fellow came along with an 
 old farm wagon and we hailed him. He 
 hauled to and seemed much more inter- 
 ested in what had happened to the ma- 
 chines than he was in us or our welfare. 
 At last, however, he told us that he lived 
 down the road a spell, and if the women 
 wanted to pile in, he would take us to his 
 home and could come back and tow the 
 cars in later. I did not want to go, so I 
 stayed with Dad, while mother and the 
 chauffeur departed. 
 
 Well, we looked *'Billie" over. He was 
 done up this time sure ; his side was 
 smashed in, and his outriggers were 
 broken off, and he looked like he would 
 have to be hauled out on a drydock for 
 repairs. We were in bad shape. We cer- 
 tainly seemed to be a complete wreck. 
 At last the farmer came back with a pair 
 of horses and attached a hawser to both 
 cars, and with the stranger and Dad and 
 I bringing up the rear, we left the scene 
 of our disaster. The house was about a 
 half-mile down the road and situated in 
 the cosiest little spot. It looked like a 
 bit of Arcadia to me, and I was glad in- 
 deed to have found such pleasant quarters 
 to spend the time which was likely to 
 elapse before we would be able to con- 
 tinue on our homeward way. 
 
 When we entered the domicile I found 
 
 71 
 
it to be equally pleasant. It seemed that 
 the farmer who had brought us lived here 
 alone with an old maid sister; she was a 
 sweet little person and flew about getting 
 us as comfortable as possible. The man 
 we had run into was to remain for the 
 night but would be obliged to return to 
 the city in the morning. He left the re- 
 pairing of the car to Dad, who, of course, 
 assumed all the expense. We had a fine 
 little supper, and afterward we had a jolly 
 time, that is, under the circumstances. 
 The lady of the house tried to entertain 
 us as best she could. She gave us a great 
 deal of her history, but dwelt sadly upon 
 the fact that she seemed doomed to re- 
 main unmarried. Mother told her that she 
 ought to be real happy and thankful that 
 she was not tied to any man. She told 
 her that most people agreed that marriage 
 was a failure anyway. The spinster 
 agreed too. She said it had certainly been 
 a failure with her; in fact she had failed 
 three different times in entering what to 
 her seemed the only happy state of exist- 
 ence. She said she had been sure the last 
 man meant business, but he disappeared 
 and the next she heard of him he was 
 married to a widow with six youngsters. 
 I bet he wished many times he had not 
 done it ; six kids, and Dad says one is a 
 great plenty. Well, she sang for us a 
 lot of old mushy love songs, and after 
 hearing her voice I wondered if maybe the 
 
 72 
 
six youngsters were not preferable after 
 all. After a while she asked Dad to sing 
 something. She said he ought to have a 
 fine bass voice, he was such a big strong 
 fellow. Needless to say, he refused very 
 decidedly to oblige her. I suppose he re- 
 membered what his last singing brought 
 him to. 10 p. m. good nights were said 
 and all hands were piloted to their rooms. 
 Mine was up among the eaves, and the 
 floor was covered with rags (I mean a rag 
 carpet), and the bed was one of those old 
 Revolutionary things that it takes a ladder 
 to climb up into it. I felt awfully dreamy 
 and spooky, however, up there all alone; 
 rather I guess I was afraid I was not 
 alone. There were so many little nooks 
 and dark corners that I could not get the 
 candles to light them all up, and I guess 
 I expected ghosts and goblins to stalk out 
 any moment. I burned my fingers trying 
 to get the pesky candles to burn more 
 brightly. There was a feather bed under 
 me and one to put over mc, and I climbed 
 up into that bed and hid my head under 
 the covers, so I could not see the dancing 
 shadows in the corner. I just dreamed a 
 lot of night-marey things about old-fash- 
 ioned men with big shoe buckles and 
 swords. Once I awoke screeching. I do 
 not remember at what, but Dad came 
 rushing in, and instead of having sympa- 
 thy for me, he told me to have a little for 
 the rest of the folks in the house. I tried 
 
 73 
 
to be quiet. At last I heard a big grand- 
 father's clock somewhere in the house 
 strike 5 and I knew that all self-respecting 
 spooks always departed at daylight, so I 
 turned my face to the wall and my! but 
 I slept, and soundly too. 
 
 75 
 
Thursday, September 17, 9 A. M. 
 
 Awakened with a start, for a time I 
 could not place myself, and nearly tum- 
 bled out of bed before I remembered what 
 a high and mighty affair I had been sleep- 
 ing in. I climbed down and proceeded to 
 don my clothes. While I was thus en- 
 gaged I took a peep at the weather. It 
 was one of those hopelessly dreary, 
 weepy fall days, the first bad weather w^e 
 had had since leaving home. I suppose 
 that upon the whole things turned out for 
 the best, for we could not have gotten any- 
 where in such weather even had "Billie" 
 been in a condition to travel. I did wish, 
 however, that our present abiding place 
 were a bit nearer some city. 10, dressed 
 at last. I got badly lost looking for the 
 dining room, and wandered through all 
 sorts of queer rooms and finally got to one 
 long gallery like affair, hung with innum- 
 erable pictures. I think all the folks the 
 old maid had ever had were there, and she 
 certainly must have had a good many. 
 There were men in uniform and ladies in 
 fancy dress costumes, some men in knee 
 pants and enormous buckles and more 
 ladies with hoop skirts and waterfalls on 
 their heads. All of them seemed to have 
 their eyes set upon poor me with a most 
 inquiring stare, and I just gathered my 
 
 76 
 
skirts in my hand and made a grand dash 
 out of there. The breath was all out of 
 me when by accident I came upon a door 
 which I found opened upon the family 
 sitting room. Mother and the old maid 
 were the only occupants when I made my 
 debut, and Mother seemed surprised to 
 see me. I reckon she had expected I 
 would sleep right through until dinner 
 time. Dad and the chauffeur were not in 
 evidence, neither was the man of the fam- 
 ily. I suppose they were out trying to 
 diagnose ''Billie's" ailments. I found tjiat 
 the farmer had driven our unfortunate ac- 
 quaintance of the evening before to the 
 nearest railroad station and had not yet 
 returned. After a cup of cofifee, I joined 
 the men folks out in the stable and left 
 Mother to entertain the old maid; I am 
 never much interested in women's chatter 
 and was glad to escape from them as 
 usual. Stayed out until the fellow return- 
 ed from the station and then we all went 
 in to dinner. The storm which had begun 
 quite respectably in the night had increas- 
 ed in violence, and the little old farm 
 house shook and trembled in its grasp, 
 and dinner was eaten to the accompani- 
 ment of beating rain drops and furious 
 gusts of wind. 
 
 1.30, piled up in a big chair in the old- 
 fashioned library, in front of a delightfully 
 cosy fireplace, with my nose deep in a 
 most interesting book, and truly I never 
 
 77 
 
enjoyed myself quite so much as I did that 
 stormy afternoon in the country, miles 
 from anywhere whichever way one went. 
 6 p. m., supper time, and it was so dark 
 we had to eat by candle light. 8 p. m., in 
 the family sitting room and Mother dear 
 requested me to play something to enter- 
 tain the bunch. I detest playing and she 
 knows it. I suppose that is why she ask- 
 ed me ; anyway, I banged out a lot of rag- 
 time until everybody felt like throwing 
 things at me I know, and at last I played 
 "Home Sweet Home." That finished Dad. 
 He said there was no use rubbing it in. 
 9.30, candles were handed round and we 
 each sought our beds once more. I asked 
 the old maid to show me to mine, for I 
 did not feel very sure that I could find it, 
 after my experience of the morning. 10.30, 
 in my high-toned bed, cuddled up in the 
 covers, with every candle I could lay my 
 hands upon burning brightly to dispel the 
 shadows. The wind howled around the 
 house like a "Banshee," and I put extra 
 fervor in my prayers before daring to close 
 my eyes that night. 
 
 78 
 
Friday, September i8, 7 A. M. 
 
 Awakened to find the storm had abated 
 and although the sun had not as yet re- 
 turned to work, the day promised to be 
 clear. 8 a. m., breakfast finished. Dad 
 would not let me come with him ; said he 
 had all he could attend to without having 
 me nosing around. The chauffeur said 
 nothing. He has a fashion of thinking 
 twice and then talking to himself. I think 
 that is how he gets along as well as he 
 does with Dad. 
 
 II a. m., the gentleman who owned the 
 other car came back; seemed quite pro- 
 voked to find things were not yet com- 
 pleted on his car. He went out to Dad, 
 and from his demeanor when he left the 
 house, I think that even the fact that they 
 were brother Masons had ceased to have 
 much weight with him. He was really 
 most unreasonable, for we were so far 
 from anywhere that it was a dreadful han- 
 dicap. 12.30, all hands came in to dinner. 
 The chauffeur told me that Dad had fixed 
 it up with the fellow. He was to have the 
 damaged car taken to the city and have 
 whatever was necessary to be done to it 
 attended to there, and in the meantime he 
 was to use a hired car at Dad's expense. 
 I was glad to get rid of him and his old 
 car. 2 p. m., I went wandering about the 
 
 79 
 
old place and finally found myself in the 
 attic, and my it was a perfect treasure 
 house of bygone times. There were 
 trunks and cedar chests full of old-time 
 iinery. I just forgot everything else and 
 dressed myself up in some of the quaintest 
 things ; when I was fixed up I must have 
 looked like my own grandmother. Of 
 course no one knew where I was or what 
 I was up to, and I did not mean them too, 
 naturally. Well, I danced about and tried 
 to imagine myself taking part in a real 
 old-fashioned minuet, after which I sat 
 down and flirted most outrageously with 
 an imaginary cavalier, and finally the 
 quietness overcame me and I closed my 
 eyes and slept; I do not know how long, 
 but when I opened them again total dark- 
 ness prevailed. I jumped up and fled from 
 there, never stopping to breathe until I 
 landed in the midst of the others. I want- 
 ed to get where it was light. I got what 
 I was looking for and something I was 
 not. In my excitement I had completely 
 forgotten my appearance, and there I 
 stood rigged out in that old ball dress 
 which had belonged to some past genera- 
 tion of the old maid's family, a self-con- 
 fessed "snooper." There was nothing for 
 it but to face the music. Explanations 
 would only have added to the offence, so 
 I let the others do the talking. The old 
 maid's brother must have enjoyed the 
 spectacle I presented for he laughed like 
 
 80 
 
an old fool at me. The old maid herself 
 tried to be real sweet about it, but Mother 
 — oh ! she arose in righteous wrath and es- 
 corted me from that room, and even the 
 spooky appearance of my own little place 
 under the eaves lost much of its terror 
 after she had finished her say. I crept 
 into bed very meekly and Mother return- 
 ed that confounded old dress to its hiding 
 place. I felt so hungry and lonely that I 
 believe I would have welcomed the society 
 of even a respectable ghost. 
 
 81 
 
Saturday, September 19. 
 
 Awakened early but did not know 
 whether it was best to descend or not. 
 Finally hunger settled the question for 
 me, and I took all my courage in both my 
 hands and down I went. I was of course 
 in total ignorance of how far the repairs 
 upon "Billie" had progressed. No one in- 
 formed me the night before and I had 
 been too wise to tarry asking questions 
 even had I thought of it, which I confess 
 I did not. My breakfast was eaten in 
 deep silence; no one said anything to me 
 and I thought it best not to open the 
 conversation. 
 
 1 went out to visit "Billie," but did not 
 seem very welcome there, so I just went 
 for a walk and stayed until noon. At din- 
 ner the mental atmosphere had cleared 
 considerably. You see there is not much 
 use in staying cross with anyone who does 
 not resent it, and I had been so meek that 
 at last I was taken back into the good 
 graces of my family. Also, it turned out 
 that everything had gone so much more 
 quickly than had been expected in regard 
 to getting the car into shape, that it look- 
 ed like we might sail for home on the 
 morrow. 
 
 2 p. m., playing solitaire in the library. 
 This game I find is pretty sure to keep you 
 
 82 
 
out of trouble with anyone but yourself, 
 and after my recent experience I felt it 
 wise to stick close to it. 6 p. m., supper 
 time. It does seem that it is always meal 
 time in the country. After I had helped 
 the old maid with the dishes we retired 
 to the sitting room. I believe I have for- 
 gotten to mention that the dish-washing 
 affair had been a part of my daily diet 
 during my sojourn there, but Mother 
 never forgot to have me do it just the 
 same. 9 p. m., I sneaked for bed, not that 
 I was sleepy, but I did not feel exactly 
 comfortable ; I felt as though the eyes 
 which w^ere turned now and then in my 
 direction were not exactly friendly in 
 their expression so I removed myself. 
 
 83 
 
Sunday, September 20, 5 A. M. 
 
 Up and dressed in a great hurry, for to- 
 day we were to start for home. We had 
 a dandy breakfast. Dad and Mother were 
 in a most happy state of mind, even my 
 piccadilloes of a few days before were 
 completely forgotten it would seem. It 
 occurred to me that Dad would not be so 
 smiling when he received the bill for re- 
 pairs on the other fellow's car, but there 
 was no use hastening the evil day, so I 
 packed up my duds and prepared to leave 
 the farm house which had been our abid- 
 ing place for the last few days. 
 
 The morning was quite cold and Mother 
 put on her big fur coat and hat, and truly 
 she looked more like an esquimo than 
 anything else. I have no fur coat and I 
 am glad I haven't, for there would have 
 been no room for me in the car had I been 
 bundled up as she was. The chaufifeur 
 brought "Billie" around to the door, the 
 first time I think he had touched the 
 wheel during our entire trip. Poor "Bil- 
 lie," he did not look so very fine, in fact 
 he looked awfully patched up, and the 
 paint upon his patched places did not 
 match very well with his other coloring, 
 but he seemed all right as far as going 
 went. 
 
 We bid good-bye to the old maid and 
 
 84 
 
the farmer, Dad took the wheel, and off 
 we went. Hartford was to be our next 
 city of any importance, and there we were 
 to have our dinner, ii a. m., we had been 
 going along beautifully, no stops for oil- 
 ing up, no tire trouble, in fact everything 
 had been going most smoothly. Sud- 
 denly Dad brought the car to an abrupt 
 stop, and Mother and I from force of 
 habit started to get out. Dad hollered 
 at us, wanted to know what ailed us ; we 
 didn't know, but supposed something was 
 wrong with **Billie." He said no there 
 was not, but that he had been going so 
 good naturedly for so long, that he had 
 just stopped him to see if he really meant 
 it and would start again all right. I 
 thought that was fool business ; it is best 
 to leave well enough alone I believe. 11.05, 
 turned the button and sure enough the car 
 sprung ahead and we were ofT like a 
 streak. There has just been a stretch of 
 macadam road completed some miles 
 above Hartford and when we got to that 
 Dad just turned everything on full and — 
 well, I suppose we did have one wheel on 
 the ground some of the time, but at the 
 time it did not seem so to me. 
 
 12.30, reached Hartford, the city of our 
 desires, but not exactly in the way we de- 
 sired. No indeed. Just at the outskirts 
 of the city, about the time we were giving 
 an express train points, a fellow on a mo- 
 tor cycle called halt ! He had a speedom- 
 
 85 
 
eter upon his handlebars, and when he 
 came up to us he said we had been mak- 
 ing, I don't exactly remember, but some 
 ridiculous number of miles, and told us 
 we were under arrest. Mother began to 
 cry, Dad swore some, and not knowing 
 just what to do, I kept still, and under 
 escort of the law we made our debut in 
 Hartford. Well, that introduction to the 
 lawmakers of Hartford cost Dad just a 
 quarter of a hundred dollars, and none of 
 us were anxious to continue the acquaint- 
 ance. 
 
 3 p. m., at liberty once more and now 
 for some dinner. I was almost starved to 
 death ; so was the chauffeur, poor fellow, 
 but Dad and Mother did not seem much 
 in the mood to wait for anything to eat 
 there. I suppose it seemed to them that 
 enough of Dad's good money had been 
 left there as it was. However, we stopped 
 at a quaint little roadhouse, just after 
 leaving the city, and had a delightful 
 lunch. 
 
 4.30, away once again ; we had a clear 
 course and I do not think we kept always 
 within the speed limit either. Several 
 fellows who looked like country consta- 
 bles looked after us rather suspiciously, 
 and I think one or two caught our num- 
 ber, but no one molested us. 6 p. m., a 
 crowd in the road ahead were gathered 
 about an automobile which was hung up 
 and seemed the center of attraction. 
 
 86 
 
When we got nearer Dad stopped to see 
 if he could be of any assistance. A couple 
 of young fellows had the machine and I 
 think they had it out for a joy ride. They 
 seemed pretty worried, but truly I could 
 not feel properly sympathetic ; it seemed 
 so good to see another bunch in trouble 
 that I could have danced. Well, our 
 chauffeur tried to help the boys out. He 
 dug around underneath the car, looking 
 for the difficulty, but could not locate it. 
 Dad began pawing over the engines and 
 finally found that one of the "sparking 
 bugs," I think he called it, had got too old 
 to spark, or at any rate absolutely refused 
 to do so. We all tried to coax a little life 
 into the thing but it was hopeless. 7 p. m., 
 nothing accomplished and at last we left 
 the poor fellows and continued on our 
 way. 
 
 My, but it was a new experience leav- 
 ing the other car behind; usually we had 
 been the ones to watch the rest depart. 
 7.30, stopped to light up, the first time 
 since our departure from home. The gas 
 lamps would not work; no amount of 
 coaxing would bring even a glimmer from 
 them. Things do certainly work back- 
 wards in this world. Most of the time 
 we had been away there had been a glori- 
 ous moon each night. Now when we 
 wanted to travel a little after dark to get 
 home the blooming thing decided to take 
 a vacation. We got along quite well, how- 
 
 87 
 
ever, for a while. 8.15, two lights ahead 
 and as they did not show any inclination 
 to turn out for us, Dad supposed it was 
 because the other fellow could not see our 
 miserable lights, so he turned far to the 
 right and presto ! down went our star- 
 board side amidst a most terrific sound of 
 crashing timber and a sickening feeling of 
 yielding ground. 8.20, all hands gathered 
 round *'Billie" and with the aid of our 
 poor little oil lamps we found that the 
 lights we had seen were not lamps on an 
 automobile, neither had they been placed 
 upon the roadside as ornaments. They 
 were warning signals about an open ditch, 
 and when Dad turned out he closed up 
 some of that ditch with our poor "Billie." 
 8.25, home looked very far away to me 
 about this time. It was so dark that we 
 could not determine whether much had 
 been broken. I spied a dim light a short 
 distance ahead, and Dad, Mother and I 
 started to walk toward it. We left the 
 chauffeur to watch the car and flag any 
 other unfortunate wayfarer who might 
 come along with designs upon the same 
 ditch. 
 
 At 8.35 we arrived at the light and found 
 it was in a house, and so we began pound- 
 ing upon the doors to awaken the in- 
 mates. My but country people do go to 
 bed early. 8.45, a window was raised 
 cautiously in the upstairs part of the 
 house and a squeeky female voice asked 
 
"Who is there?" Dad told of some of our 
 difficulties and asked for the man of the 
 house, Alas, there was none ; we had hit 
 upon another old maid it seemed. Finally 
 we succeeded in quieting the lady's fears 
 and got the information from her that her 
 brother lived about a half-mile below and 
 would most likely do what he could for 
 us. Dad asked her if he had a telephone 
 so that he might get in communication 
 with a garage somewhere. Wondrous 
 luck ! the lady herself had one, and after 
 keeping us waiting almost half an hour 
 while she dressed, she at last opened the 
 door and showed us where the telephone 
 was. Dad worked that instrument of use- 
 fulness to good advantage, while Mother 
 and I were assailed with hundreds of ques- 
 tions as to how it happened, and why, etc. 
 The lady talked so fast herself that she 
 scarcely waited to be answered, which 
 was a great blessing, for neither of us 
 knew much more about it than she did. 
 ID p. m., the pleasant sound of honk! 
 honk ! greeted our ears. It was a machine 
 which had been sent out to us from New 
 Haven, and we all proceeded down the 
 road to "Billie." The chauffeur was sound 
 asleep, curled up in the tonneau, taking 
 more comfort apparently than he had got- 
 ten all the while we had been away from 
 home. 
 
 II p. m., "Billie" standing upon an even 
 keel once more, and wonders of wonders, 
 
 89 
 
nothing worse had happened to him than 
 a bent axle. The sound of crashing wood 
 which had seemed so ominous to us was 
 only a couple of thin planks which had 
 lain alongside the ditch. Also, as we sunk 
 down it seemed just enough earth had 
 tumbled into the opening to make a very 
 comfortable berth for "Billie," so with the 
 aid of the new arrivals we had succeeded 
 in righting things, but "Billie" was astride 
 the blooming ditch. At last we gathered 
 together some pieces of old joists from the 
 scene of operations to build a sort of cor- 
 duroy bridge over enough of the opening 
 to transfer the car across, and I for one 
 thanked my lucky stars that things had 
 turned out as well as they had. We got 
 some stuff from the New Haven car to 
 fill our gas tank, and at midnight, with our 
 "lamps all trimmed and burning," we bade 
 adieu to the scene of our latest and, I 
 fervently hoped, our last disaster. 
 
 2.05 a. m., climbing the last hill before 
 reaching our house. 2.20 a. m., in the 
 yard. 2.30 a. m., in the house, with bags 
 and coats and things deposited upon the 
 floor. Bade good night, or rather good 
 morning, to Dad and Mother, and taking 
 a suit case in each hand started for my 
 room. 3 a. m., when I was ready to brush 
 out my hair, I could not find the bag with 
 my comb and brush and night dress. 
 Hurried down stairs and pawed over the 
 bunch of things, but no ! that bag was 
 
 90 
 
missing. I went in to tell Mother about 
 it. We both then remembered that it had 
 been strapped on the trunk rack with the 
 trunk that morning and must have jarred 
 loose when we dropped down so hard that 
 time. Oh, dear ! I suppose that bag is resting 
 comfortably at the bottom of that pernick- 
 ety old ditch. 4 a. m., in my own bed, 
 thank Heaven, trying to forget I had ever 
 been away. 
 
 91 
 
Conclusions Arrived at Next Day Looking 
 Backward. 
 
 1st. In capital letters— GLAD TO BE 
 AT HOME AGAIN. 
 
 2nd. An automobile is nothing to take 
 with you to see the country. 
 
 3rd. An old plug of a horse is good 
 enough for me my next trip. 
 
 4th. Automobiles spoil tempers and 
 break up happy homes. 
 
 5th. It is best to make trips with 
 strangers, the mental atmosphere is apt to 
 remain much clearer. 
 
 6th. A fellow to run an automobile 
 should carry at least one National Bank 
 in his pocket at all times. 
 
 TINIS 
 
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