Part 6 (2/2)
”The girl is smiling like a 'basket of chips,'” said Bess, almost in a whisper. ”It is not likely that she is angry with us at all.”
”Did you get a nice drink?” asked the strange girl, with unmistakable friendliness.
”Oh, yes, thank you very much,” spoke up Cora, ”but I am afraid we are trespa.s.sing.”
”Not at all,” said the girl. ”My name is Hope--Hope Stevens,” she said, in the most delightfully simple manner. ”I always like to introduce myself--'specially to young girls.”
”We are very glad to know you, Hope,” said Cora. ”This is Miss Bess Robinson, this Miss Belle Robinson, and I am Cora Kimball.”
”Oh, I know who you are now,” declared Hope. ”They call you the Motor Girls.”
”I am afraid they do,” agreed Bess. ”But then we are just plain girls as well--our motors do not make us--we try to make them--go!”
”That is what father said when he saw you come over yonder hill, when he left the field to get the team. Do you know he makes more money hauling folks with automobiles up this hill, than he does on the farm?
He always stops his work and gets the team ready when he sees an auto stuck out here.”
”Oh, that is what he intended to do,” said Cora. ”Well, it was very good of him to be so prompt, but we are always able to make our own hills--I don't really think we will need him.”
”Lots of folks think that way,” said Hope. ”But, of course, you ought to know--best. Do you think you can get up the hill?”
”Yes. You see these are practically new machines,” explained Cora, ”and we have been taught to run them carefully.”
”Pa says that girls are more careful than men,” added Hope, and Belle kept her eyes on the pretty face beneath the bonnet. She thought she had never seen such dimples, and such splendidly marked brows.
”There comes pa now,” went on the girl. ”He will be----”
”Disappointed, of course. It was too bad for him to leave the fields,”
said Cora.
”Well, the rest won't hurt his poor back,” ventured Hope. ”Pa works harder than any of the hired men, and these are very bad hills to farm.”
”Are you ready, young ladies?” called the man from the road, as he backed the st.u.r.dy team of horses up close to the _Whirlwind_. ”I guess this little machine can hitch behind t'other.”
”Really, we do not think we will need any help,” said Cora, rather confused. ”We always take hills without trouble.”
”Never been up this one though,” declared the farmer, with a shake of his broad-brimmed hat. ”I reckon you'll not be able to fly over the top.”
”It's awfully good of you,” put in Bess. ”But suppose we try? You see we do not want to break our records.”
”Plucky, all right,” the man commented. ”Well, go ahead, and I'll stop to chat with Hope. If you get stuck just give me five quick toots, and I'll be there.”
The girls thanked him profusely, and after cranking up both the _Flyaway_ and the _Whirlwind_, said good-bye to Hope and her father, and started off, both machines on low gear.
”It is steep,” remarked Belle to Bess. ”Perhaps it would have been well to have taken his offer.”
”All right?” asked Cora from ahead, as she looked back.
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