Kimball. But everybody called her by the comfortable and affectionate t.i.tle of Aunt Betty, and she was a great favorite in the Kimball home, which she frequently visited. She was a widow without children, and she welcomed the opportunity of mothering this lively brood of young people.

The main floor of the bungalow was divided into two parts by the long hall that ran from front to back. On the right was a large living room and library combined. Off from this was a music room, and the girls gave little cries of delight as they saw a handsome baby grand piano through the portieres.

On the left of the hall was the dining room, which appealed more strongly to the boys than the music room, and back of this was the kitchen, from which savory odors were wafted to their olfactory organs.

Up the broad stairs Aunt Betty led the way, and pointed out to the various members of the party the rooms they were to occupy. Those of the girls were on the south side of the house, while the boys' quarters faced the north. Trunks had been sent on before and were in the rooms.

"What perfectly darling rooms!" cried Cora, as the delighted girls let their eyes roam over the two connecting rooms that had been a.s.signed to them.

"That's all right!" shouted Jack from across the hall, "but don't forget that there's a perfectly darling little dining room downstairs, and I'm honing to make its acquaintance."

"Don't worry," flung back Belle. "We'll be ready to go down as soon as you are."

"Ha, ha!" cried Jack. "Listen to my low, mirthless laugh."

CHAPTER VIII FUN IN THE OPEN

Jack's sardonic laugh seemed to be justified, for the boys had been below stairs for several minutes before the girls came trooping down.

"One more proof that I'm never mistaken," Jack remarked, as he shook his head sadly at the laughing bevy.

"You boys haven't so much to do as we girls have," said Belle, making a little face at him.

"We haven't, eh?" replied Walter. "I lost all my hair-pins in that mad sprint for the house."

"And the rain took my hair out of curl," added Paul.

"And I had the greatest hunt before I found my box of powder!" said Jack in a high falsetto.

Just then Mrs. King came in from the kitchen, where she had been supervising the preparations for dinner.

"Come right along now and take your places at the table," she beamed.

"Table is my middle name!" exclaimed Jack, as he led the way, followed by the others.

It was a sumptuous meal that Aunt Betty had prepared, and with their appet.i.tes sharpened by their long ride, the travelers did it full justice. And the warmth and good cheer of the cozy dining room were emphasized by contrast with the rain that beat upon the windows.

"A regular flood," commented Jack.

"Noah would have felt at home in that," said Bess.

"That reminds me," interposed Paul. "Noah was supposed to take two specimens of every kind of animal when he went into the Ark. But there was one species he overlooked."

"What was that?" asked Cora.

"Rats," replied Paul.

"How do you make that out?" inquired Belle.

"Why," Paul answered, "he had been sailing forty days before he saw ary rat."

There was a moment of stunned silence.

"Ararat!" Cora at length exclaimed. "Paul, how could you inflict that on us?"

"You ought to be shot at sunrise," said Bess.

"Now you see, Aunt Betty, what we've had to stand on our journey up here," moaned Cora.

"I must say you seem to have thrived on it," smiled Aunt Betty, looking at the rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes of the girls.

"Good for Aunt Betty!" cried Walter. "She appreciates us! You girls will too, when you've seen a little more of men and realize how we stand out from the common herd."

"Who was that woman," asked Bess, turning to Cora, "who said that the more she saw of men the more fond she grew of dogs?"

"Poor, misguided female," said Paul pityingly. "I suppose she was an inmate of a lunatic asylum."

"More to be pitied than censured," added Jack.

By this time they had reached dessert, and when they had finished, Aunt Betty proposed an adjournment to the porch.

"It's perfectly dry and snug out here," she said, "and I think the rain will be over soon anyway. When it rains so hard up here it doesn't last very long. But you girls had better get some wraps, for even though it is August, the nights are rather cool, especially after a storm."

There was an abundance of big, comfortable chairs on the porch, and they grouped them into a semi-circle and sat laughing and talking, on the best of terms with themselves and the world.

"That was rather a narrow escape we had this afternoon," remarked Bess.

"If we had been a hundred feet further on the road than we were, that tree would have come down plump on top of us."

"A miss is as good as a mile," returned Jack lightly.

"By the way, I suppose those poor old cars of ours are getting a thorough soaking," observed Cora. "What are you going to do about them, boys? It doesn't seem to me that we ought to let them stay there all night."

"I guess it's up to us fellows to take a turn down there and look them over," answered Jack. "The fact is that I've had such a good dinner that I feel too lazy to move. But far be it from me to resist the plain call of duty."

"What's the matter with us girls going along with you?" asked Bess.

Aunt Betty looked aghast.

"What, in all this mud and rain?" she protested.

"You forget that we Motor Girls are used to being out in all kinds of weather," laughed Cora. "But we'll promise to wrap up well if you let us go. It's lucky that our trunks were sent on up here ahead of us, so that we have our rubbers and raincoats all ready to get into. Besides, it's practically stopped raining now."

Aunt Betty was very easily won over.

"I'll send Joel, the stableman, along with a lantern," she said. "He knows the woods like a book by night or day. Then, too, he's as strong as an ox, and he can help to get the cars out of the fix."