Page:Man's Country (1923).pdf/35

 "Sakes alive!" declared Mrs. Judson. "What won't they do next?"

"I told you I saw it!" he crowed, pointing to the picture. "It nearly ran over me."

He took the paper out with him again into the garden where, expressing rather the emotions of excitement than the energy of industry, he spaded a row clear across the garden. But with that supreme effort, industry paused content. He beamed once more at the picture of the horseless carriage. It held a strange fascination for him. He felt the elation of a discoverer. He read and reread the news account. It was all too brief.

"Wisht I could see it," he murmured and stared at the nest of machinery. "That's what makes it go, a-course. I wonder what it would be like to ride in it!" At the thought his eyes danced, his voice grew excited, and then a sudden insanity possessed him. "By jinks, I'm a-going to see it!" he announced and kicked down his standing spade. "I'm a-going to see it today. I'll tell Mr. King he nearly run over me, and I'll ask him if I can have a ride in it." The boy's face was shining with the light of a great eagerness. "This old cabbage patch can go to the dickens!" he declared with a defiant look around him.

With a furtive glance over his shoulder at his unsuspecting mother bent over a basket of darn-