Grace shook her head with emphasis.

“No?  Then what would you do if your mother insisted upon your washing dishes?”

“I’d drop the ditheth.  Maybe they wouldn’t want me to wath any more ditheth after that,” replied Tommy, screwing up her face so impishly that Miss Elting laughed aloud.

“Is it any wonder that Grace and myself quarrel awfully at times, Miss Elting?” asked Margery.

“They don’t mean anything by it,” apologized Hazel.

“Thay, what did you come up here for, Mith Elting?” questioned Tommy, directing a glance of suspicious inquiry at the teacher.  “Do you want uth to go for another nithe little walk?  No, thank you.  I’ve walked with you before.  Thank you very kindly.  My feet are too thore and Buthter ith too tired.  Harriet’th brother thayth that Buthter wath born with that tired feeling.  I geth he’th right.  Don’t you think tho, Miss Elting?  Thit down and retht, and I’ll tell your fortune with a daithy.”

“If you are rested sufficiently I think we had better move on.  Don’t worry, Grace.  I am not going to drag you away on one of those long walks.  But I have something to tell you.”

“I knew it,” piped Tommy.  “Look out!  There cometh another automobile.”  Tommy shied from her position in the road like a skittish horse.

Just then the car that had caused all the trouble came honking toward them and slowed down with a series of explosions that sounded like the discharges of a Gatling gun.  The young woman who was driving the car, brought it to a stop, leaped out and running to Grace threw her arms about the slender girl in white.

“Oh, my darlin’, my darlin’.  My blessed little Tommy.  Did I kill you altogether?  And I wasn’t going a little bit, was I?  But didn’t I come near to ripping the cowcatcher from that engine?  Wasn’t it just glorious the way I dodged the old thing?  I knew all the time it was going to be a close shave, but I made up my mind I’d beat ’em out even if I took off the hind wheels of my car.  Get in, you dears.  I’ll drive you home.”

“What!  Ride with you?” questioned Margery.  “Not for a million dollars.  It’s a shame.  They ought to arrest you.”

“Yes, Jane,” rebuked Miss Elting.  “You shouldn’t go racing about the way you do.  Your car nearly ran over Grace.”

“Dad says I drive too fast.  He says he doesn’t blame folks for calling me ‘Crazy Jane.’  He says I’ll meet with an accident one of these days.  But Dad has old-fashioned ideas.”

Jane paused long enough to brush back two stray locks from her flushed face.  Her hair was all awry and her attire showed carelessness and haste in dressing.

“Well, darlin’s, if you won’t go with me I think I’ll go and get Harriet.  She isn’t afraid to ride with me.”

“Please don’t do that,” replied Miss Elting.  “We are on our way to see Harriet on important business.”

“So long, then.  I’m off, girls.”