"Better not start your car until I git by," remarked the farmer, while Phil, still holding the bridles, aided the loaded wagon to slip by the red monster, now quiet enough on the dangerous side of the road. Once their backs were towards the machine the team quieted down quickly enough. "Let me help you down, miss," said Phil, who never forgot his manners, springing back towards the young couple climbing down to the roadway. Danny, like many brothers, having scrambled down unaided, went to his father's aid, though aid was now unnecessary. Phil soon helped Nan down, the weight of her plump young body convincing him that she must be several years older than Dan. "I'm mightily obliged, sir," she lisped, with an upward glance at the boy as he landed her squarely on her feet, not bare like her brother's but clad in fairly dainty footwear. "I don't know what we'd 'a' done but for you." "Pshaw, that's nothing! I'm sure glad we were on hand, Miss--" He hesitated. "Is there anything more we can do?" Nothing, apparently; but before starting the car again, Paul called out: "Say, Mister! How far is it to the nearest town on this road?" "Ten mile, I reckon. We live three miles beyond." As the car started Phil waved a hand from the auto, whereat a white handkerchief fluttered back an answering signal. Dave turned back to Way, saying: "Blame if I don't believe you've made a regular mash on that girl--hey, Paul?" Paul, now at the wheel, was too busy to reply. "Wonder what they were doing so far from home with a load of hay?" said Dave. "It's past haying time now," was Worth's comment. "Must be taking it off somewhere to sell. If so, that explains why the girl was dressed so nicely." "How about the man and boy?" asked Paul. "They looked like real hayseeds." "How'd you want 'em to look?" This from Dave. "When you're selling hay you can't load or unload in your Sunday go-to-meeting clothes." "Well," remarked Phil, "whoever and whatever they are, we tried to be decent to them. I reckon they're all right." "Especially the girl, eh?" laughed Paul. "Oh, you Nan! Wasn't that her name, Phil? You ought to know." Phil passed this by without reply, as he talked about other matters. Little did any of them then think that they had not seen the last of those three whom they had saved from possible accident and bodily danger by giving them the safest side of the road. From then on for half an hour the car glided smoothly through a rich farming section where the houses and barns looked prosperous and the numerous stacks of grain and hay and the sleek herds of cattle betokened that the owners or tenants were by no means on the wrong side of prosperity. Then the timbered tracts increased, and a series of low, rugged hillsides opened up until at a sudden bend they saw the town whose smoke had been for some time indicative of this break in the hitherto uninterrupted rural expanse of their morning's ride.