United States or Jamaica ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Rain Bird must have forgiven her on the strength of that speech, for there never was such a perfect blue and gold day as the morning we started out. I have already told you how we were divided up in the cars. Gladys in the Striped Beetle went first, carrying with her Hinpoha, Chapa and Medmangi, and Nyoda drove the Glow-worm right behind her with Sahwah, Nakwisi and myself.
"Your hair will be the only blaze we have to-night." Chapa and Medmangi stood up together on the running-board and began to sing dolefully, "Forsaken, forsaken, forsaken, am I, Like the bones at a banquet, all men pass me by." "I wish a few would pass by," said Gladys, "By the way, have you noticed that not a single car or wagon has passed through here since we've been stranded?
One minute you're en route and the next minute you're rooted, if the reader will forgive a very lame pun. There was not a house in sight nor a telephone wire. The dust in the road was three inches deep and the temperature must have been close to a hundred. They were at least five miles from the nearest town. Chapa looked at Medmangi, Medmangi looked at Hinpoha, and Hinpoha looked at Gladys.
"And I had intended making so many sketches of the interesting things we saw on the way to put into the Count, but the only thing that comes to my mind now is the picture of ourselves, always standing around wondering what to do next." "You might draw a picture of the pain you had from eating green apples," suggested Chapa.
The girls laughed at the witty application, but she was ruled out nevertheless. "Nails," said Mrs. Evans. "Oil," said Nakwisi. "Paint," said Chapa. Medmangi sat down. Nyoda began to count. "Quadrupeds!" cried Medmangi hastily. "Explain yourself," said Nyoda. The girls shouted in derision, but Nyoda ruled the answer in, and the game proceeded. "Refrigerators," said Nyoda. "Salt," said Gladys.
Hinpoha straightened up. "Girls," she said solemnly, "coming shadows cast their events before, I mean, coming events cast their shadows before. Where there's honey you'll find bees, and where there's apples you'll find trees. The famine is over, and now for the feast." She led the way down the road with Chapa and Medmangi on either side.
"He could act as chauffeur," replied Gladys, "and supply the modern flavor." "This is Friday, too," remarked Medmangi. "That's why the car won't start," said Hinpoha, "it won't start anything on Friday." "Couldn't we dig for oil?" suggested Chapa. "We're in the oil belt. There must be all kinds of gasoline in the earth under our very feet, and we languishing on top of it!
Boys playing in the street told them that it had gone past over fifteen minutes before. Hinpoha anxiously wished for a sight of the familiar car so that Pearl could be turned over to Nyoda very soon. "It's like a game of Hare and Hounds," said Chapa from the back seat "Nyoda is the hare and we are the hounds. She's probably doing it on purpose to see how well we can trail her to the city limits.
"But it's such an uncommonly fast hare," sighed Gladys. "And it leaves such amazing and apparently contradictory footprints." "Hi," said Chapa, "look at the crowd in this town. What do you suppose has happened?" In fact, the streets of the village through which they were passing were choked with vehicles of every kind and the sidewalks were crowded with people.
As I said before, I am going to tell the story just as if I had been along and seen everything, without stopping to quote Gladys or Hinpoha or Medmangi or Chapa. You will remember that we were proceeding westward through Toledo at the time and the Striped Beetle was in the lead. Hinpoha sat in the front seat with Gladys, holding Mr. Bob in her lap.
Word Of The Day