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Read Ebook: A Day at the County Fair by Burnett Alice Hale
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Ebook has 255 lines and 10265 words, and 6 pages
"And talk to the man in the moon, I suppose," teased Mary.
"That would be fun, if you didn't have any engine trouble," chuckled Uncle Billy, joining in the fun.
"What's engine trouble?" demanded Jerry. "Do you mean something happening to the works of it?"
"That's it," declared Uncle Billy, "and when it happens down you come faster than even you would like."
"Just down right side up or head over heels," insisted Jerry.
"Well, it needn't make any difference to you, because you are not going to do it, Geraldine White," interrupted Beth, looking at Mary, who hastened to agree with her.
"Lots of times I've wished I were a boy," sighed Jerry. "Nobody ever seems to mind what they do."
"What's the surprise, Uncle Billy?" asked Beth. "Why are you stopping?"
"I don't know myself," said Uncle Billy with a frown on his forehead, as the car gradually came to a stop, "but I'll have to find out."
"Whatever's the matter?" cried Jerry. "Do you think we're having engine trouble?" and she hopped out and stood by the roadside gazing at the car.
"Nothing so easy as that," answered Uncle Billy, in great disgust; "it's gas. We have run out of it. Looks as though they didn't fill up the tank in the garage before we started, as I told them to do."
"Gasoline!" gasped Beth, "and that's what makes it go."
THE PICNIC LUNCH
"Oh, cheer up," said Uncle Billy in his jolly way, "some one will be along before a great while and we'll all drive to the nearest town with them."
Beth stood up on the seat and clapped her hands.
"Listen, everyone," she said, "let's have luncheon while we're waiting."
All were delighted with her plan and in less time than it takes to tell it the basket was lifted out of the car and in the shade of a large tree close by the little party made merry over the dainty sandwiches and iced lemonade.
There were little cakes, too, with pink and white icing.
"I know Martha made these," commented Jerry; "they taste like a cake we had at your party, Beth."
Uncle Billy declared that never before in his life had he eaten so many good things, all at one time.
"There's a wagon!" and Mary, who had been the first to see it, jumped to her feet and pointed up the road toward a farm wagon, piled high with hay, which was approaching them.
Uncle Billy started off at once to meet it and while the girls were busily packing the things back into the basket he was telling the man who drove the wagon about their mishap.
"You can all come along with me to town and then send some one back with gasoline to fetch in your car, if you like. I'm driving in to the county fair," explained the farmer.
"Fine!" decided Uncle Billy. "We'll do it." So in great haste the girls were soon swung up, one by one, to the top of the hay. Then Uncle Billy climbed on.
"All aboard!" he shouted, and at the word the farmer started his team. As the wagon bumped and swayed along the road, the girls held hands to keep from sliding off.
THE FUN BEGINS
"Did you ever see so many wagons in all your life? Why, there are hundreds of them," declared Jerry, when they had reached the little town and were driving down the main street.
"How would you like to go to the fair?" suggested Uncle Billy with his eyes twinkling with merriment.
"Oh, do you really mean it?" questioned Mary. "I've always wanted to see a county fair."
"So have I," echoed each of the others.
"All right; it's a bargain," nodded Uncle Billy. "You all wait here," he told the girls a few minutes later, as he helped them out of the wagon, "while I get some one to bring the car into town."
He left the girls chatting together in great excitement over the unexpected treat, and when he returned there were a great many questions to answer as he led the way toward the great entrance gate.
"Tickets, tickets to the fair grounds! Here you are, boss! This way to the ticket booth."
"I wonder if he thinks you all belong to me?" said Uncle Billy, smiling and nodding to the man in the plaid suit and high hat who had addressed them.
"How funny!" laughed Beth. "You don't look a bit like our fathers."
"There's the merry-go-round," pointed out Mary when they were inside the grounds, "and there's one of those funny houses you get lost in."
"Oh," exclaimed Jerry to Uncle Billy, "look at yourself in that mirror. You're only a foot high and fat as a butter ball."
The three girls laughed until they cried, as Uncle Billy bowed and smiled at himself before the mystic mirror that made the tallest person seem short and squatty.
"Let's ride on the merry-go-round," proposed Beth; "it's almost ready to start."
"Jump aboard," ordered her uncle, "I'll see to the tickets."
Jerry had at once chosen a very wild-looking lion to ride upon, but Mary and Beth decided on two beautiful white horses, that rose up and down on the iron rods that ran through their wooden bodies, as the platform circled about.
The music was a jolly tune that the girls had heard before, so they laughed and sang and waved each time to Uncle Billy as they sped past him.
When the ride was over they walked to the other side of the grounds, where a great crowd had gathered.
"What is it?" asked Jerry. "What is the fun about?" for everyone seemed to be laughing.
Uncle Billy soon found a place for the girls near the inner circle, and to their great surprise they saw a number of boys trying to catch some very shiny little black pigs within a small enclosure. The crowd roared with delight whenever a pig would slip through the fingers of the boy trying to catch him.
"What makes them so shiny?" asked Beth, "and why do they want to catch them?"
"Why, grease makes them shiny," replied Uncle Billy, "and the boy who is clever enough to catch one gets the pig, or a prize."
"I do hope that boy with the red hair and freckles will catch his," whispered Mary; "he looks just like a boy I know."
"Oh, I know whom you mean;--Reddy," said Jerry with a smile.
"Isn't it dreadful the way those pigs squeal," and Beth put her hands over her ears to shut out the sound.
At last the red-haired boy, whom Mary hoped would win, drove a pig into a corner, and as the crowd watched he managed to grasp it by a fore and hind leg and held it close to him.
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