Page:Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car.djvu/88

78 you working for some one else?" Grace wanted to know. "Why have you the wagon? The last time you carried your own pack."

"I'm still my own boss," he replied, with a smile. "I am trying for a larger trade, that's all. I got the chance to buy this outfit cheap, and I took it. I guess I got it too cheap," he added, ruefully, "for this horse isn't strong enough to pull me out of this mud-hole. I shouldn't have come this way."

He looked down at the soft, miry road. The one wheel seemed to be sinking deeper and deeper into the clay, and the others showed a propensity to follow its example.

"Where did you come from?" asked Will, whose sister had explained to him and the other boys under what circumstances they first met the young peddler.

"Up Shadow Valley way," was the answer, and instinctively the auto party of boys and girls started, and looked at one another.

"Er—was trade good up that way?" asked Frank.

"Oh, not very. You see, there are not enough folks living there. So I thought I'd take a short cut over to Limeburg. I generally do pretty well there. But I guess I'd have done better to have gone the long way. I'm stuck for fair.