Phineas quite glowed with joy--Colonel Smith's car was red. "Oh, green's
the thing," he retorted airily; "an' see!" he added; and forthwith he
burst into a paean of praise, in which tires, horns, lamps, pumps,
baskets, brakes, and mud-guards were the dominant notes. It almost
seemed, indeed, that he had bought the gorgeous thing before him to look
at and talk about rather than to use, so loath was he to stop talking
and set the wheels to moving. Not until Diantha had twice reminded him
that she was longing to ride in it did he help her into the car and make
ready to start.
It was not an entire success--that start. There were several false moves
on Phineas's part, and Diantha could not repress a slight scream and a
nervous jump at sundry unexpected puffs and snorts and snaps from the
throbbing thing beneath her. She gave a louder scream when Phineas, in
his nervousness, sounded the siren, and a wail like a cry from the
spirit world shrieked in her ears.
"Phineas, what was that?" she shivered, when the voice had moaned into
silence.
Phineas's lips were dry, and his hands and knees were shaking; but his
pride marched boldly to the front.
"Why, that's the siren whistle, 'course," he chattered. "Ain't it great?
I thought you'd like it!" And to hear him one would suppose that to
sound the siren was always a necessary preliminary to starting the
wheels.
Pages:
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56