"That really would be a peekaneeka!" crowed Rose-Ellen.



4: PEEKANEEKA?

That trip to Florida surprised the Beechams, but not happily.

First, the driver shook his head at featherbeds, dishes, trunk.
"I take three grown folks, three kids, one baby, twenty-eight
dollars," he growled. "No furniture."

Argument did no good. Hastily the family sorted out their most
needed clothing and made it into small bundles. The driver
scowled at even those.

"My featherbeds!" cried Grandma, weeping for once.

Hurriedly she sold the beds for a dollar to her next-door
neighbor. The clock she would not leave and it took turns with
the baby sitting on grown-up laps.

At each stop the springless truck seats were crowded tighter with
people, till there was hardly room for the passengers' feet. The
crowding did help warm the unheated truck; but Grandma's face
grew gray with pain as cold and cramp made her "rheumatiz tune
up."

And there was no place at all to take care of a baby.