Joe nodded, and for a moment there was silence. Then Jimmy's voice piped up again.
"I won't forget it," he said positively. "They were red horns."
They had eaten, having eventually found a small town with a restaurant, and now they were on their way again. The children were asleep in the back seat, and Pearl was studying a road map with the aid of a dash light that came on when she opened the ashtray.
"A few miles more, and we will be on Highway 10. That will run into 38, and we can take that down to 26. From there it's only ten miles to Mother's place."
"How many miles?"
Pearl began adding the figures on the map. Finally, she said, "About one hundred and thirty."
"That'll get us to your mother's by about eleven. They'll be in bed."
"Can't be helped," said Pearl. "Unless we stop at the next town and phone ahead."
"Good idea. We'll do it. Then they can have a place ready for the kids. They'll be crabby when we wake them, and if the bed's ready, we can just dump them into it."