“That’s as Fate wills it! Do you suppose father will come to look for us,—say, along toward midnight?”
“Patty, don’t be a goose! Fred will be scared to death!”
“Because I’m a goose? Oh, no! he knows I am, already. But, Nan, I’ve an idea. If I were only strong enough,—or if you were,—we could lift out one of those fence rails, and stick it in the sand in front of that deepest wheel, and get her out.”
“Patty, how clever you are! How do you know that?”
“Oh, I know it well enough. My general gumption tells me it. But,—we’re neither of us strong enough to boost it out of the fence and under the wheel in the right way.”
“But we might do it together.”
“We might try. Come on, Nan, let’s make the effort. Bother that old cow, anyway! But for her, we’d be almost home now.”
They got out of the car, and, with plucky effort, tried to dislodge a fence rail. But it was a fairly new and a well-made fence, and the rails would not come out easily. They tried one after another, but with no success.
“Well, Nan, here’s my only solution to this perplexing situation. We can’t sit here and let father lose his mind worrying about it, and thinking we’re ground under our own chariot wheels. So one of us must stay here with the car, and the other walk home and tell him about it.”
“Walk home! Why, Patty, it must be five miles!”