The old Reo had bumped along on its rim for an hour when Grandma
said in a thin voice, "Next time we come to any likely shade, I
guess we best stop. I'm . . . I'm just beat out."

With an anxious backward glance at her, Daddy stopped the car
under a tree.

"I reckon some of you better go on to that town and get some
bread and maybe weenies and potatoes," Grandma said faintly.

Grandpa and Daddy pulled out the tent and set it up under the
tree, so that Grandma could lie down in its shelter. Then they
bumped away, leaving the children to mind Sally and lead Carrie
along the edge of the highway to graze, while Grandma slept.


[Illustration: Waiting at the roadside]


"I never was so hungry in all my days," Jimmie kept saying.

All the children watched that strip of pavement with the hot air
quivering above it, but still the car did not come.

Suddenly Rose-Ellen clutched Dick's arm. "Those two men look
like . . . look like. . . . They _are_ Grampa and Daddy. But what
have they done with the car?"

"Where's the car?" Dick shouted, as the men came up.