With Katy’s apron tied around his waist, Donald Whiting was occupied in squeezing orange, lemon, and pineapple juice over a cake of ice in a big bowl, preparatory to the compounding of Katy’s most delicious brand of fruit punch. Without a word, Linda stepped to the bread board and began slicing the bread and building sandwiches, while Katy hurried her preparations for filling the lunch box. A few minutes later Katy packed them in the car, kissed Linda good-bye, and repeatedly cautioned Donald to make her be careful.
As the car rolled down the driveway and into the street, Donald looked appraisingly at the girl beside him.
“Is it the prevailing custom in Lilac Valley for young ladies to kiss the cook?” inquired Donald laughingly.
“Now, you just hush,” said Linda. “Katy is not the cook, alone. Katy’s my father, and my mother, and my family, and my best friend——”
“Stop right there,” interposed Donald. “That is quite enough for any human to be. Katy’s a multitude. She came out to the car with the canteen, and when I offered to help her, without any ‘polly foxin’,’ she just said: ‘Sure. Come in and make yourself useful.’ So I went, and I am expecting amazing results from the job she gave me.”
“Come to think of it,” said Linda, “I have small experience with anybody’s cooking except Katy’s and my own, but so far as I know, she can’t very well be beaten.”
Carefully she headed the car into the garage adjoining the salesrooms. There she had an ovation. The manager and several of the men remembered her. The whole force clustered around the Bear-cat and began to examine it, and comment on it, and Linda climbed out and asked to have the carburetor adjusted, while the mechanician put on a pair of tires. When everything was satisfactory, she backed to the street, and after a few blocks of experimental driving, she headed for the Automobile Club to arrange for her license and then turned straight toward Multiflores Canyon, but she did not fail to call Donald Whiting’s attention to every beauty of Lilac Valley as they passed through. When they had reached a long level stretch of roadway leading to the canyon, Linda glanced obliquely at the boy beside her.
“It all comes back as natural as breathing,” she said. “I couldn’t forget it any more than I could forget how to walk, or to swim. Sit tight. I am going to step on the gas for a bit, just for old sake’s sake.”
“That’s all right,” said Donald, taking off his hat and giving his head a toss so that the wind might have full play through his hair. “But remember our tires are not safe. Better not go the limit until we get rid of these old ones, and have a new set all around.”
Linda settled back in her seat, took a firm grip on the wheel, and started down the broad, smooth highway, gradually increasing the speed. The colour rushed to her cheeks. Her eyes were gleaming.