Читать книгу Roy Blakeley's Motor Caravan - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 7

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I guess by now you must think we’re all crazy; I should worry. I just thought I’d tell you that about Pee-wee’s watch because, gee, it had us all laughing. So already you’ve lost an hour reading this story; don’t you care.

Now we didn’t have any more adventures on that trip. We didn’t do much except eat and, gee whiz, you wouldn’t call that having adventures. Late that night we got to Klucksville and we stayed at the hotel till morning. They have dandy wheat cakes at that hotel. And syrup, mm, mm! Then we went to the auto works and the four cars were all ready for us, because Mr. Junkum had sent a telegram to say we were coming.

Oh, boy, you should have seen that big van, a regular gypsy wagon. On the outside was painted,

JOLLY & KIDDER

THE MAMMOTH STORE

EVERYTHING FOR THE HOME

It was all enclosed and there was an electric light inside and steps to go up to it and everything. There were kind of lockers inside too; I guess they were for small bundles, hey? The kind that mothers buy and then send back again, because they don’t fit.

Gee whiz, there wasn’t much to see in Klucksville. We could have brought the whole town home with us in the van if we had wanted to,—all except the auto works. We didn’t waste much time there because Harry wanted to get an early start and go as far as we could the first day. But anyway, we stopped long enough in the village to have a man print a big sign on canvas that we tacked on the van. It said,

MISSOURI TO NEW YORK

SHOULD WORRY ABOUT RAILROADS

BOY SCOUTS ON THE JOB!

WE WORK WHILE OTHERS LOAF

BE PREPARED

Besides that we bought three straw mattresses and an oil stove and some canned stuff. We didn’t need to buy much except food, because we had a lot of camping stuff along. We got cans of beans and soup and tuna fish and some egg powder and Indian meal, because I can make lots of things with that. Gee whiz, I can’t tell you all the stuff we bought, but if you watch us you’ll see us eating it. Believe me, we ate everything except the straw mattresses. Harry said the Kluck was a pretty good car for eating up the miles, but believe me, it hasn’t got anything on us when it comes to eating.

Now this is the way we started. First was a touring car with Tom Slade driving it. He’s awful sober, kind of. But you can have a lot of fun with him. He has no use for candy, but he’s got a lot of sense about other things. I can always make him laugh—leave it to me. Next came another touring car with Rossie Bent driving it. He had a pasteboard sign on his and it said,

WE’RE FROM MISSOURI,

WE’LL SHOW YOU

Next came Brent Gaylong in the other touring car and he had a pasteboard sign that said,

YOU’RE IN LUCK

IF YOU GET A KLUCK

FROM THE WOOLLY WEST

BOUND FOR LITTLE OLD NEW YORK;

After that came the big van with Harry driving it.

Now we fellows were supposed to live in the van, but we didn’t do much except sleep in it. Most of the time we were riding in the different cars. A lot of the time I sat with Tom Slade. Mostly the Warner twins rode in the car with Rossie Bent. Charlie Seabury and Westy were in Brent Gaylong’s car a lot of the time. Will Dawson got sleepy a lot so he was in the van mostly. Pee-wee rode in all the different cars at once, but most of the time in the van, on account of that being the commissary department. Wherever you see a commissary department, look for Pee-wee. Commissary is his middle name. Sometimes he was up on top of the van dancing around. He’s awful light on his feet. He came near lighting on his head a couple of times.

So now I’m going to tell you about that trip.