“Aren’t you fellows going to have anything?” asked Bob. “You’ll eat; won’t you?”
“Oh, for cats’ sake, cut out the grub-talk for a while!” begged Ned. “Say, what about that conference, anyhow? Does any one know anything about it?”
“All I know,” said Jerry, “is that I asked mother to come out for an auto ride this afternoon, and she said she couldn’t because your dad, Ned, and Bob’s too, were coming over to call.”
“No, but I took it for granted it was something about business. You know mother owns some stock in your father’s department store, Ned.”
“Yes, and she deposits at dad’s bank,” added Bob, whose father, Andrew Baker, was the president of the most important bank in Cresville. “I guess it must be about some business affairs.”
“Why not?” Jerry demanded. “When mother said she couldn’t come out I hustled over and got you fellows, and here we are. But what’s your reason for thinking it isn’t business, Ned, that has brought our folks together at my house?”
“Because of some questions my father asked me this morning.”
“Well, in a way, yes. He asked me what I’d been doing lately, what you fellows had been doing, and he wanted to know what my plans were for this winter.”
“What did you tell him?” inquired Jerry, slowing down as he came to the crest of another hill.
“Oh, I said we hadn’t decided yet. I didn’t tell him we had talked over making a tour of the South, for we hadn’t quite decided on it; had we?”
“Not exactly,” responded Jerry. “And yet the South is the place when winter comes. I guess we might do worse.”
“Well, I didn’t say anything about that,” went on Ned, “because, if I had, dad would have wanted to know all the particulars, and I wasn’t in a position to tell him.”
“Is that all he asked you that makes you think the conference may be about us, instead of business?” Bob inquired.
“No, that wasn’t quite all. He asked me about that trouble we got into last week.”
“Oh, do you mean about the time we were pulled in for speeding?” asked Jerry with a laugh.
“That’s it,” assented Ned. “Only it isn’t going to be anything to grin at if dad finds out all about it--that we nearly collided with the hay wagon while trying to pass that roadster. Say, but it was some going! We fractured the speed limits in half a dozen places.”