“Let’s get out the car and drive all around for ten miles, on every side, blowing the horn, with a sign standing up on the back seat: ‘Man wanted to run this!’” suggested Florimel.
Mary came running out of the house. “Janie, Florimel! Abbie thinks, maybe, she knows a man!” she cried.
“I doubt it!” Jane promptly commented. “Abbie doesn’t look as though she would know one, ever; she looks as though she’d slaughter one if he were introduced to her.”
“She doesn’t know this one, personally,” Mary admitted. “But she has just thought of somebody named Joel Bell who might answer. She is sure he doesn’t know how to drive, but she says he’s fine at general work, especially gardening, and madrina wants that, too. Abbie thinks this Joel is bright, and could learn to run the car. There’s one thing certain: he could wash it!”
“What happens?” asked Jane, knowing Mary and that she had a plan. “Do we go out in the car hunting him? Do you suppose he’s a boojum snark? If he is, there’s no use hunting him.”
“We are going this evening; madrina would like to go with us. Win will take us, some of us—all of us, if we want to go, of course. I thought it would be nice to take Abbie, as long as it’s her exploration. She doesn’t have much fun,” said Mary.
“Fine to take Abbie, Molly darling! But if she goes it’s a good thing it’s a seven passenger car. Her sixth is equal to two fractions,” Jane remarked.
“I would never imagine that madrina would take a man to train as a chauffeur! I’m already considerably trained, and she’s afraid with me. She ought to have a good driver, else why not trust to Jane?”
“Jane can’t repair punctures, change tires, nor pump them up. Madrina feels safer with a man; I do, too, Janie; if you don’t mind? There’s something in seeing a man’s hands on the wheel that gives you a sense of security. Perhaps it’s only because men have held steering wheels so long! Yet muscle does count.” Mary looked her apology to Jane.
“If any woman could be a more reckless and generally good for nothing driver than some men!” exclaimed Jane disgustedly.