"Not so very many. It was always closed to keep the dust out and Aunt Agatha liked to sit alone on the back seat. Sometimes she took Pearl or Clara. Never more than one at a time. She said it looked common to fill the car up with children. But once in a while, when I had to go to the dentist or have something tried on, I had a chance to ride."
"Is there anything you'd especially like to see?" asked Allen.
"Yes," said Jeanne, promptly. "I'd like a good look at Lake Michigan."
"That's easy," said Allen. "You shall have _two_ looks."
But when they reached a point from which Lake Michigan was plainly visible, Jeanne was disappointed. "Are you sure," she asked, "that that's it?"
"Why, yes," smiled Mrs. Rossiter. "What's wrong with it?"
"I thought," said Jeanne, "that all lakes were blue. This one is brown."
"It _is_ brown, today," said Mrs. Rossiter. "Sometimes it has more color; but never that intense blue that you have up north. We once took a lake trip on one of the big steamers and I saw your blue lake then."
"Oh, this is a _nice_ lake," said Jeanne, anxious to be polite, "but, of course, I'm more used to my own."
The Rossiters liked their visitor and urged her to remain longer; but Jeanne very firmly declined.
"I'd love to," she said. "And I would, if I were going _away_ from home. But I'm just counting the minutes. It would be just like Patsy to grow another _inch_ while I'm on the train tonight."
"I know just how you feel," assured Mrs. Rossiter. "But perhaps, when you are on your way back, you'll be able to stay longer."
"If she doesn't get back by the time she's twenty," laughed Allen, "I'm going after her. Just remember, Jeanne, I want to be on hand when you're ready to decide about that husband. I should hate to have that iceman get ahead of me."
"All right," agreed Jeanne, cheerfully. "Just hunt me up about six years from now. If I have time to bother with any husbands at all, I think, maybe, I'd rather have you around than the iceman."
"Be sure," said Mrs. Rossiter, at parting, "to let us know when you're starting back this way."
"I will," promised Jeanne. "I've had a lovely time. Good-by, everybody, and thank you _so_ much."
Jeanne slept soundly that night and Bayard Taylor did no extra traveling, because Allen had made a tiny cage for him from a small wooden box, with bars of very fine wire.