The Motor Maids by Palm and Pine   By: Katherine Stokes

by

KATHERINE STOKES

Author of "The Motor Maids' School Days," etc.

M. A. Donohue & Company Chicago New York

Copyright, 1911, by Hurst & Company

Made in U. S. A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I. To the Sunny South 5 II. Making New Acquaintances 19 III. Timothy's Drowning 37 IV. A Race and What Came of It 50 V. The Two Edwards 64 VI. The Gray Motor Car 79 VII. The Coward 94 VIII. Mr. Duffy Gives a Party 111 IX. The Bullfrog and the Pollywog 128 X. The Song of the Motor 138 XI. The Orange Grove 150 XII. An Unwished Wish 161 XIII. In the Deep Woods 173 XIV. The Mocking Bird 186 XV. Out of the Wilderness 196 XVI. Mrs. L'Estrange 208 XVII. A Morning Call 220 XVIII. It's an Ill Wind 234 XIX. A Passage at Arms 246 XX. The Hand of Destiny 258 XXI. Picnicking Under the Pines 270 XXII. The Last of the House of Troubles 280 XXIII. Explanations 291 XXIV. So Endeth the Second Lesson 298

THE MOTOR MAIDS BY PALM AND PINE

CHAPTER I. TO THE SUNNY SOUTH.

The Atlantic Ocean and the breadth of Europe including half of Russia lay between Mr. Duncan Campbell and his daughter, Wilhelmina. But that did not prevent Mr. Campbell from thinking of numerous delightful surprises for Billie and her three friends in West Haven.

Sometimes it was a mere scrawl of a note hastily written at some small way station, saying: "Here's a check for my Billie girl. Treat your friends to ice cream sodas and take 'em to the theater. Don't forget your old Dad."

Sometimes the surprise took the form of queer foreign looking packages addressed to "the Misses Campbell, Butler, Brown and Price," containing strange articles made by the peasants in the far away land. He sent them each a Cossack costume with high red boots and red sashes. But some three weeks before the Easter holidays came the best surprise of all.

"I believe the Comet needs a change of air," wrote Mr. Campbell. "A fine automobile must have as careful handling as a thoroughbred horse, or, for that matter, a thoroughbred young lady. What does my Billie girl say to an Easter trip to Florida with Cousin Helen as guardian angel and Nan and Nell and Moll for company and the Comet for just his own sweet self?"

Mr. Campbell, who received long, intimate letters from his daughter once a week, felt that he knew the girls almost as well as she did, and he would call them by abbreviated, pet names in spite of Billie's remonstrances.