"If it will hurry the work you had best both go," Dorothy added. "As Tavia says, there is a house in sight, and we could run there if anything came along to scare us."
"Well, trot along Nat," commanded Ned, as he took up the piece of the clutch. "This is sure your busy day. I'll race you to the bend to make good time, and I assure you, young ladies, we will not be one moment longer than necessary away from you."
"We are so very fond of you," joked Nat, "that every moment will be unto us an hour—"
"Oh, come, quit your nonsense, if you are going to run—"
But before Ned had finished, his brother had gained quite a handicap and was making tracks through the glen, and then out again into the open.
"Isn't it lonely," said Dorothy, getting into the disabled machine after the youths were out of sight.
"Not a bit," declared Tavia. "No tramps around here. But such a day! I almost feel as if one more thing must happen. Bad luck goes in threes, you know. One more will surely make up our day—"
"Oh, please don't talk so," and Dorothy shivered. "I do wish we were safely back in Dalton."
"And the boys gone back to the Cedars! Well, I would rather have the ride ahead of me, than to have it all ended. It is so nice to have good times. Sometimes I think I'll just run away, and see what there is to do and observe outside of that stupid old Dalton," exclaimed Tavia.
"Tavia!" and Dorothy's voice betrayed how shocked she was at the very thought of such a thing as "running away." "How can you talk so?"