A half mile further, within a pretty white cottage set shyly from the road, we saw a light burning. This was so unusual for Orland that we invaded the premises with new hope. Toby being again comatose, I waded wearily to the door and knocked. A frightened girl’s voice answered, and its owner appeared at the door. I shall always think of Indiana and Michigan as a succession of old and young standing on doorsteps in their nightgowns. “Who is it?” called a voice from an inner room. “Two women want a place to spend the night, gran’maw,” answered the girl. “Well, don’t you let ’em in here,” answered gran’maw. “No, I don’t know of any place,” the girl translated gran’maw to us, shutting the door. “Of all churlish towns!” we said, left on the doorstep. But it was not a just criticism. We had simply crossed the line where west is east, where a stranger is perforce a suspicious character. Back in New England would _we_ have let in two strange women after midnight? Their asking to come in would have been proof presumptive they were either criminal or crazy. Our duel lost we drew up the old lady in a gutter under some dripping elms, and lay down to a belated sleep among the baggage,--Toby in one seat, I in another. In a twinkling we sat up, refreshed, to broad daylight and a shining morning sky. Our first thought was to search for the car’s internal injuries, fearing greatly they might prevent us going further. There were none. Two tumors the size of a large potato on our front tire revealed the cause of the noise. The marvel was that the tire had not collapsed as a finishing touch to last night’s dismal story. Luck, in its peculiar way, was again with us. While we changed to our last spare tire, Toby straightened up for a moment, and suddenly broke into a bitter, sardonic laugh. “Will you look at that!” she said, pointing overhead. Directly above our patient car a large, brightly painted sign flapped energetically in the clearing breeze. It read, in letters a yard high, “Welcome to Orland!” Transcriber's Notes: Italics are shown thus: _sloping_. Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained. Perceived typographical errors have been changed.