"But look at the picnic we've had," put in Belle. "You should have seen Ida's face. A veritable fireless cooker." "And Sid--he supplied the salt hay," declared Bess. "I felt as if I were smothered in a ton of it." "And that was the peace-offering hamper," declared Cora, alighting from her car and closely viewing the wreck. "Jack told me that Ida gave Sid a handsome hamper for the new car." "I told you that the yellow machine would turn--" "Dandelion," Hazel interrupted Belle. "Well, I agree with you that was an ungrateful trick. To demolish the lunch, of all other available things to do, on a day like this!" "Souvenirs?" suggested Cora, removing her glove to dig out of the mud a knife, and then a fork. "Oh, forget it!" exclaimed Bess. "I am sure I want to. Let's get going again, if we are to make the Woodbine Way in time to plan the tour. I'm just crazy about the trip," and the enthusiastic girl expended some of her pent-up energies on the crank at the front of the Flyaway. Cora was also cranking up. "Yes," she said, "we had best be on the road again. We are due at the park at twelve. I expect Maud will have the family tree along and urge us to stop overnight at every gnarl on the 'trunk.'" "We might have asked Ida and Sid," reflected Belle aloud, sympathetically. "Yes," Bess almost shouted, "and have them veto every single plan. Besides, there are to be no boys on this trip; Lady Isabel please take notice!" "As if I wanted boys!" sneered her sister. "As if you could have them if you did!" fired back Bess in that tantalizing way that only sisters understand, only sisters enjoy, and only sisters know how to operate successfully. "Peace! peace!" called Cora. "If Belle wants boys she may have them. I am chairman of the acting committee, and if boys do not act I would like to know exactly what they do." "No boys!" faltered Hazel, who, not owning a machine, had not as yet heard all the details of the proposed three-days' tour of the motor girls. "Nary a one!" returned Bess, now about to start. "If we had boys along," explained Cora, "they would claim the glory of every spill, every skid, every upset and every 'busted tire.' We want some little glory ourselves," and at this she threw in the clutch, and, with a gentle effort, the Whirlwind rolled off, followed closely by the Flyaway. "I suppose Sid and Ida are licking their fingers just about now," remarked the good-natured Bess. "Very likely," rejoined her sister, "for I fancy their meal was made up of buckwheat cakes and molasses, as Sid had to pay for it." "Oh, I meant sheer deliciousness," corrected her sister. "I 'fawncy'"--and she imitated the dainty tones used by Belle--"they have had--" "Backbiting and detraction," called Cora, who had been close enough to hear the sisters' remarks. "I would not have been in your place at that table, Bess, for a great deal." Bess tossed her head about indifferently. She evidently knew what to expect from Ida and Sid.