“Will he do it?”
“Of course; he gets me anything I want. And when I get it, Patty, we can go out together in our two cars. Won’t that be fun?”
“H’m, h’m!” murmured Patty, who wasn’t overjoyed at the proposition. “Gracious! what’s the matter?”
“Oh, my! what is the matter? Did something burst?”
“It did so,” said Patty, cheerfully; “the inner tube of this front wheel has burst, and now, if you want to see a successful imitation of a young lady mending her own motor car, just watch me while I get out my little kit of tools, and put my reserve tube in place of this burst one.”
“Can you do it yourself?” enquired Mona, with a look of surprised admiration. “I didn’t know a girl could do things like that!”
“This girl can,” returned Patty, opening her tool-box with a capable air. But the next moment her capable air completely vanished, and she turned to Mona with a comical expression of dismay. “What do you think?” she said. “I’m always so careful to have my car and my tools and my accessories all in perfect order, and now see what’s happened! I had this same experience the other day. The inner tube burst, and I put in my reserve tube and then I put the burst tube away in my kit, and here it is yet. I utterly forgot to have it replaced by a new one!”
“Oh, then the reserve tube that you want to put in is as burst as that one you have just taken out!”
“You’ve struck it right! that’s the situation. Now what’s the solution? There isn’t any answer!”
“Then, what do we do?” asked Mona, looking scared.