"Dat a joke," Gail said. "Hi-nin 'posed to laugh!" Then there was a silence and Regina started to say something but Mrs. His-tara whispered, "Please! It is a thought between the children." Then there was a small, quiet laugh from Hi-nin. "In truth," he said with that oh, so familiar lisp, "it is funny." "Me don't do it again," Gail said, solemn now. * * * * * When I got home it was so late that the stars were sliding down the sky and I just knew Clay wouldn't have thought to turn the parking lights on. But he had. Furthermore, he was still up. "Were you worried?" I asked delightedly. "No. Regina called a couple of hours ago." "_Regina?_" "She said she was concerned about the expression on your face." Clay handed me a present, all wrapped in gold stickum with an electronic butterfly bouncing airily around on it. I peeled the paper off carefully, to save it for Billy, and set the butterfly on the sticky side. Inside the box was a gorgeous blue fluffy affair of no apparent utility. "Oh, _Clay_!" I gasped. "I can't wear anything like _this_!" I slipped out of my paper clothes and the gown slithered around me. Hastily, I pulled the pins out of my hair, brushed it back and smeared on some lipstick. "I look silly," I said. "I'm all the wrong type." My little crayola note was still stuck in the mirror. Phooey to me. "You're laughing at me." "I'm not. You don't really look respectable at all, Verne." I ran into the dining area. "Regina told you about the boudoir slip!" I heard Clay stumble over a chair in the dark. "Obscenity!" he said. "All right, she did. So what? I think you look like a call girl." I ran into the living room and hid behind the sofa. "Do you really, truly think so?" "Absolutely!" Another chair clattered and Clay toed the living room lights. "Ah!" he said. "I've got you cornered. You look like a chorus girl. You look like an easy pickup. You look like a dirty little--" "Stop," I cried, "while you're still winning!" End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Car Pool, by Rosel George Brown