Dick was another nice boy. Babs saw at a glance how brown he was, how slow and easy going he was, and she also noticed he drawled and dragged and sang his words.
“From the South,” she was deciding, as Dudley introduced Dick Landers from “Geo-gia.”
It was the funniest thing how Babs persistently got herself in with the boys without having any idea of leaving the girls. Here she was again with the two boys for company and no girl. Would the girls believe her when she would tell them she had expected to have Ruth along?
The big car with all the others had gone on ahead, and now Babs was following in the little roadster with Dick on one side of her and Dudley on the other. Here again she found herself perfectly at ease, just as she had with two waitresses hovering around her at the table. After all it was pleasant to be so situated.
The boys were jolly companions, each trying to outdo the other at saying smart things. They teased as boys always do, and when Babs admitted under Dud’s severe fire of questions, that she did like little Italian “Kids” who sold junk, and that she was “sore” because the other girls had followed her tracks that afternoon and had gone to look for more junk; then Dick relieved the strain by telling wonderful tales about the old “junk” down “Sauth.”
“Best old andirons,” he insisted, “the funny old black iron stuff mostly. But of c’ose there’s lots of brasses, too.”
“Did the girls want to go to Nicky’s to buy stuff?” Babs interrupted the Southern story to ask Dudley. “Why should they do a thing like that?”
“Oh, you know what girls are when they get a notion in their heads,” he evaded. “I’ll tell you about it when you’re in better humor, Babs,” he ended just as they pulled up to the curb to enter the motion picture theater.
Ruth came to the rescue. She left the other girls and boys—there were two boys, Glenn Gaynor and Andrew Norton—and skipped along to where Babs stood waiting.
“Heard you wanted me along, Babs,” Ruth said merrily, “and I’ll say I wanted to be along.” She gave a significant glance with a sly chuckle at the Southern boy. “I’ll bet you had a fine time.”