The Automobile Girls at Chicago Part 15

"I couldn't eat another mouthful after the dinner we had to-night. It would be a physical impossibility," declared Bab.

"Don't make any rash a.s.sertions until you see what I have provided for you in the way of a feast," replied Olive, as she took a large, flat tin box from the lower compartment of the old-fas.h.i.+oned sideboard. "Ruth,"

she continued, "if you will draw the rugs up close to the fireplace we will lose no time in beginning the festivities."

Ruth Stuart did so, arranging the rugs in a semi-circle. But the interest of the girls was centred on the tin box, not on the rugs, just at that time. Then Olive brought out five long, slender white sticks, which she distributed among the girls.

"Aren't you going to open the box?" begged Grace anxiously. "Can't you see we are dying with curiosity to know what is inside?"

"Bab, you may open the box."

The cover was off almost before the words had left Olive's lips.

"Marshmallows!" cried the girls in chorus. "Oh, isn't that simply glorious?"

"And such a lot of them, too," added Grace Carter.

"Five pounds," Olive informed them. "We are about to sit down to a marshmallow toast. Eat all you wish, but for goodness sake do not make yourselves sick."

"She means you, Mollie," teased Ruth.

"The coat doesn't fit me, however," retorted Mollie. "But I do love marshmallows. Do we toast them over the flames of the candles?"

"No," replied Olive, as she placed the five-pound box of sweets on the rug between them and the fire. The girls sat down on the rug, with their feet curled under them. Each speared a marshmallow and thrust it close to the fire. Little blue flames rose from the white cubes and a tantalizing odor filled the air.

"Oh, dear me. Mine's gone into the fire," cried Mollie in distress. "It just melted away."

"So did mine," answered Barbara, "but it melted in my mouth."

"How nice of you to think of this, Olive. Thank you ever so much,"

glowed Grace Carter.

"This isn't my treat. My part is to carry out the little surprise. Mr.

Stuart sent out the marshmallows to me, asking me to give you girls a toast. It is a real treat, isn't it?"

"Glorious!" breathed the girls.

"Did you children ever do fire-gazing?" asked Olive after a moment of silence as the girls helped themselves to the sweets.

The "Automobile Girls" confessed their ignorance of the game. Olive explained that each girl was to gaze into the fire then describe what forms or figures appeared to grow out of the flames or coals.

"I see a red automobile," cried Mollie, almost as soon as she had fixed her gaze on the fire. "And, oh, look at the man driving it! He is all in red, wears a pointed beard and has a cloven foot. Isn't he a frightful looking creature?"

"Your imagination needs no encouragement," declared Olive. "Let us hope that the gentleman with the cloven foot may drive his car up the chimney flue and fly away. What do you see, Ruth?"

"I see a fiery pit with a lot of imps dancing about, hurling b.a.l.l.s of fire at each other."

"Your turn, Barbara."

Bab was gazing at the fire in wrapt attention.

"I see a black chest, but I can't see what it holds, for the cover is down. There goes the cover! Oh, look, girls! See the gold and the sparkling jewels! See the golden coins glitter in the light of the fire!

Oh, oh, oh!"

"Money? Money? Where?" cried Mollie. "I want some of that money."

The spell was broken in a merry laugh. Mollie laughed, too, then turned her gaze toward the window, for her eyes were smarting from the heat.

Suddenly her face took on a frightened expression, the color fading from it.

"Look! Oh, look!" she gasped, scarcely above a whisper.

What they saw made the "Automobile Girls'" faces turn white with fear.

CHAPTER XI

GIVING AN ATTIC PARTY

PEERING in at them was a hideous yellow face with a nose that in the light from the room seemed to be fiery red. The face was pressed against the window pane. Now a long-drawn, dismal groan sounded from the other side of the window.

"It's a ghost!" cried Grace.

Barbara, however, had seen more than the other girls, and, mustering up all her courage, ran to the door.

"Come back!" called the girls anxiously. Bab kept on, unheeding their cries. As she jerked the outside door open, they heard a crash and the frightful face suddenly disappeared from the window. Ruth and Olive rushed to the door. Both girls remembered that an old rain barrel had stood under that window for a long time.

"I've got the spook!" shouted Bab triumphantly. "I picked it out of the rain barrel." She came in, dragging by an ear the irrepressible Tom.

"Thomas Warrington Presby, what does this mean?" demanded Olive sternly.

"The--the rain barrel went to pieces," complained Tom.

"Oh! Was it you who scared us out of our wits?" questioned Mollie.

"I knew it was a false face almost the instant I saw it," said Barbara.

"Thomas, I fear I shall have to turn you over to your father. You have evidently forgotten some things."

Tom wriggled, his face worked anxiously.

"Please don't. Maul me, do anything you want to punish me. I won't squeal, but don't peach to father."

"Girls, what shall we do with him?" asked Bab.

"I move we make him sit down on the rug and eat marshmallows," suggested Ruth.

"The very idea," agreed Mollie.