The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay.

by Margaret Penrose.

CHAPTER I

A WORRIED GIRL

Four girls sat on four chairs, in four different corners of the room.

They sat on the chairs because they were really too tired to stand longer, and the reason for the occupancy of the corners of the apartment was self-evident. There was no other available s.p.a.ce. For the center of the chamber was littered to overflowing with trunks, suitcases and valises, in various stages of being packed, and from them overflowed a variety of garments and other accessories of a journey.

"Oh, dear!" sighed Cora Kimball, as she gazed helplessly about, "will we ever be finished, Bess?"

"I don't know," was the equally discouraging reply. "It doesn't seem so; does it?"

"I'm sure I can't get another thing in my suitcase," spoke the smallest girl of all, who seemed to shrink back rather timidly into her corner, as though she feared she might be put into a trunk by mistake.

"Oh, Marita! You simply must get more in your suitcase!" exclaimed Cora, starting up. "Why, your trunk won't begin to hold all the rest of your things unless you crowd more into the case."

"The only trouble, Cora," sighed Marita, "is that the sides and top aren't made of rubber."

"There's an idea!" cried a plump girl, in the corner nearest the piano. "A rubber suitcase! What a boon it would be for week-ends, when one starts off with a Spartan resolution to take only one extra gown, and ends up with slipping two party dresses and the 'fixings' into one's trunk. Oh, for a rubber suitcase!"

"What's the sense in sighing after the impossible?" asked the girl opposite the plump one. "Why don't you finish packing, Bess?"

"Why don't you?" and the plump one rather glared at her more frail questioner.

"Now, sisters!" cautioned Cora, as she gazed at the Robinson twins, "don't get on one another's nerves. Let's have another try at it. I'm sure if we go at it with some sort of system we'll be able to get all the things in. And really we must hurry!" she exclaimed, looking at the clock on the mantel, which pointed to the hour of four. "I promised to have all the baggage ready for the man at five. That only gives us an hour----"

"Cora Kimball!"

"Only an hour!"

"Why didn't you tell us?"

Thus the three girls exclaimed in startled tones as they fairly leaped from their chairs in their respective corners, and caught up various garments.

Then, as the apparent hopelessness of the situation overcame them again, they looked at one another, at the trunks and suitcases that already held their fair share of articles, at the acc.u.mulation on the floor, and then they sighed in concert.

"It's no use," spoke Bess Robinson. "I'm not going at all--at least not now. I'm going to take another day to sort out the things I really don't need."

"You can't!" exclaimed Cora. "Our tickets are bought, the bungalow is engaged, and we leave for Crystal Bay on the morning train, if we have to ship this whole room by freight--just as it is!"

"Perhaps that would be the easiest way," suggested timid Marita Osborne.

"It certainly would create a sensation in Chelton," murmured Belle, as she looked at her plump sister. "But come, we really must help you, Cora. It's too bad we took advantage of your good nature, and brought our things here to pack. We might better have done it at our own homes."

"No, I think you'll find my way best in the end," said Cora, with a smile, as she looked about for a place in which to pack her sweater.

"By doing this we won't duplicate on the extras. Now, girls, try once more. Marita, let's begin on your suitcase, for that seems to be the smallest. Oh, dear, Bess, what are you doing now?" she called, as she noted an unusual activity on the part of the plump girl.

"I'm just seeing if I'm heavy enough to close the lid of my trunk,"

was the answer. "No, I'm not," she exclaimed, as she hopped on and hopped off again.

"Look out!" called Belle. "You nearly stepped on my veil-box, Bess."

"Sorry, Sis, but you shouldn't leave it on the floor."

The plump one stood looking at the bulging trunk, and then drew a long breath.

"Girls!" she cried, "I'm losing weight."

"How do you know?" asked her sister promptly.

"Couldn't close my trunk lid. That's the way I can always tell.

Problem: Given a trunk, which requires a force of one hundred and thirty-five pounds to close down the lid, and a girl of one hundred and fifteen, how many chocolates must the said girl eat before she is heavy enough to close the lid? Answer--one pound, and here's for a starter," saying which pretty, plump Bess rummaged in a pile of her belongings until she found what she was after. Then, sinking down in a heap of silk petticoats she began munching bonbons with a contented air.

"Bess Robinson!" gasped Cora. "You're never going to do that; are you?"

"Do what?" came with an innocent air.

"Sit there and eat chocolates until you're heavy enough to close down the lid of your trunk."

"I might as well. I can't check it open that way, and I can't close it at my present weight. I need everything I've squeezed into it; and so what else can I do?"

"If we could only get someone to help us," said Marita, innocently, seeming to take Bess literally. "One of the boys----"

She was interrupted by the laughter of the others, for Marita was a newcomer in Chelton, and though Cora and her chums had taken her up, attracted by her nice ways, Marita did not yet appreciate her new friends.

"Don't mind what Bess says, my dear," spoke Cora, as she saw that Marita was a little hurt at the laughter. "As for the boys, please don't suggest such a thing. If they came in now, we'd never get through packing. I hope----"

"All hope abandon, ye who enter here!" declaimed a voice in the doorway, and the faces of two young men peered in.

"Too late!" exclaimed Cora, as she saw her brother Jack and his chum, Walter Pennington. "The boys are here! Any more of you, Jack?" she asked, as she crowded some feminine finery out of sight behind her back.

"No. Why?"

"Because I'm going to give general orders for you to depart at once, and I want to include everyone. Begone!"

"Heartless one!" murmured Walter, sliding into the room under Jack's arm. "Just when we came to help you, too!"

"Here!" called Bess, from her position, Turkish fashion, amid a billowy pile of garments, "Help me up first, Wallie, my dear, and then sit on my trunk."

"Why, is that the throne seat?" he asked, as he extended his hand, and pretended to find it extremely difficult to lift Bess to her feet.

"No, but the lid needs closing, and I can't do it. Sit on it, that's a good fellow," and she extended to him a chocolate from the tips of her fingers, which fingers Walter pretended to bite.

"Now you really must go," said Cora, seriously, when Walter had managed to close the trunk. "Come, Jack, we have to get through by five o'clock," and she glanced at her brother, who was in earnest conversation with Marita in her corner.