Coming back, the automobilists saw Elder Concannon down at his front gate. He raised his hand commandingly as the car drew near, and Frank, with an amused glance at Janice, brought the Kremlin to an easy stop.
“I’m surprised to see you in one of those ungodly things, Janice,” said the old man seriously. “Many who ride in them are led into wrong ways. They are an invention of the devil, I verily believe.”
“Oh, Mr. Concannon!” cried Janice. “I hope you don’t really believe that! You will have to take a ride in this one sometime and give it a trial. You see, it belongs to me. Daddy just sent it as a present. I am learning to run it.”
“You surprise me, Janice!” repeated the Elder, frowning. “The world has run mad over those things. I am sorry that your father was so thoughtless as to spend good money for one.”
“Don’t say that, please,” begged Janice again. “Daddy did it to give me pleasure, and I shall want to give other people pleasure with it, too. I hope you will take a ride in it with me before you utterly condemn the car. Do!”
“I have observed them on the road, and the reckless manner in which people who ride in them run the machines,” said the old gentleman. “I disapprove—thoroughly and irrevocably! Had I my way I would get a law through the Legislature refusing automobilists the use of the public highways. I scarcely dare drive from here to Middletown because of the numbers of those devil wagons on the Middletown Pike.”
“But you don’t know how quietly and easily this runs, sir,” put in Frank Bowman, with perfect gravity. “Like every good thing, reckless and foolish people misuse it. You would not condemn the printing press because bad books are printed on it as well as good?”
“Sophistry—sophistry, young man,” croaked the Elder. “I am sorry to see two young people like you and Janice engaged in such pleasures. The world’s run mad after these things, I tell you!” and he turned about, shaking his head warningly, and retired again to his porch.
Yet Janice and Frank noticed that, as they speeded up and down the road for the next hour, Elder Concannon watched the running of the car with increasing interest.
And it did run beautifully! Janice quickly learned the uses of the guiding wheel, the switch, the pedals and levers, how to start the car, and all that. Frank pronounced her an apt pupil and declared all she needed was practice to make her a proficient chauffeur.