"How much time were we making, Harriet?"
"Nearly sixty miles an hour."
"Yes, I knew it wasn't very fast. Just jogging, Daddy."
The visitor grunted.
"Something went wrong with the steering gear. I don't know what it was, but the wheel had no effect on the car. You should have seen us. It was funny, wasn't it, girls, the way that car darted from one side of the road to the other, and we hanging on for dear life? You see, that was all we could do—hang on. Well, the car jumped the ditch, went up the bank on that side of the road, smashed into the iron post of a wire fence, then stood up on end and turned over backward. Did you ever see such a contrary automobile? Where did you buy it, Dad?"
"Didn't buy it. Borrowed it of a man I know up at Portsmouth. It'll cost me only a few thousand to make it right with him, but then Dad's rich; don't you care."
"I never do," chuckled Jane. "Do you?"
"No, I don't, so long as no one gets hurt. How'd you get out? What did you do when the car was stopped by the fence?"
"We just went on over, Dad. You know nothing can stop a Meadow-Brook Girl when she is once well started on a course. We landed on plowed ground on the other side of the fence."
"Mercy!" exclaimed the Chief Guardian.