ENTER LIZZIE
When Pee-wee spoke about Fords he was thinking of Townsend Ripley’s
Ford, and when he said that things happened to it he never said a truer
word. Many things had happened to Pee-wee, but not nearly so many as had
happened to Townsend Ripley’s Ford.
Townsend’s Ford had a long and checkered history extending years back
prior to the time when it enters this story. It got on the downward path
when it was very young, continued going down till it struck a tree and
terminated its youthful escapade upside down in a mill pond.
One would say that this should have been a lesson to it, but no such
thing. Within a week it had parted with one of its fenders. The life of
a Packard or a Cadillac would be tame and prosy, indeed, compared with
the sprightly history of Townsend’s Ford. Townsend often said that
Pee-wee was the Ford among scouts. Perhaps it was because he made so
much noise and things were always going wrong with him.
When Townsend’s flivver came to make its home with the Ripley family it
was seven years old, minus a top, and with three fenders which looked
like ancient tomato cans. In regard to the other fender, it was not. It
might have been in good enough condition, only it wasn’t there. Townsend
said it was the best of the four, but no one had ever seen it.
A unique feature of the car was its pair of headlights. These, to put it
plainly, were cross-eyed. Their columns of light formed an X on the
smooth highways. Townsend had done his best to cure this affliction but
had only made it worse. The lights had a way of joggling back to their
eccentric posture. Nuts, wrenches, wire and clothesline, were all in
vain. Townsend’s car could not look you in the face.
Townsend had not reached the age at which a citizen of New Jersey is
thought to be qualified to drive a car. His was one of those cases where
a license may be secured under the requisite age, upon satisfactory
proof of competency. He was just seventeen. The exact age of the car is
unknown. It was undoubtedly old enough to enjoy the respect due to age.
But it did not enjoy this respect—far from it.
To see Townsend sitting upright on the front seat of his flivver,
utterly regardless of the mirth it occasioned, was as good as a circus.
Long familiarity with the car’s eccentricities had given him a sort of
magic power over it, so that it would obey him as a dog obeys its
master.
Certain it is that it would never start for anybody but Townsend. And it
is a fact that when he said “_lay down_” to it, it would stop. Some said
that these words of stern command were never uttered until the engine
had already made up its mind to “lay down.” If that is the case then
Townsend must always have sensed its intention well in advance, for it
invariably complied with his mandate.
On the morning following Pee-wee’s trip up to Westwood, the Townsend
flivver rolled up to Pee-wee’s home with Townsend at the wheel, looking
as if he were running a Rolls-Royce. In the rear seat sat Mr. and Mrs.
Ripley. Townsend pushed the horn button but the horn did not honk. He
then took the crank, which was lying on the floor, and reaching through
the opened windshield struck the hood with it. Instantly the horn began
to honk and would not stop honking till he hit the hood again. Townsend
did all this as a matter of course.
Presently our hero, laboring under a mountain of luggage, appeared.
“Can you take all this?” he called.
Townsend would never admit that there was anything he could not carry in
his Ford; if Pee-wee had appeared with a piano, his answer would have
been the same.
“Sure thing,” he called cheerily; “the more the merrier.”
It required a few minutes for Doctor and Mrs. Harris to chat with Mr.
and Mrs. Ripley and wish them a pleasant summer and to say, “A Ford
always gets you there.”
“Yes, but it’s so outlandish,” said Mrs. Ripley; “I positively think
that Townsend is proud of it. But it’s really amusing. Townsend, make it
say good-by for Doctor Harris. Doctor, I just want you to listen to it.”
“Giddap!” said Townsend soberly. “Say good-by.”
As it started the car gave forth a weird noise which was not unlike the
words _good-by_. A parrot would have to practice long to say it as well.
“Did you ever hear such a thing in your life?” Mrs. Ripley called back
to Doctor Harris. “It’s a broken spring, I think.”
“I’m going to teach it to say, ‘Be Prepared,’” said Townsend to Pee-wee.
“The scout motto, good idea, huh?”
There was no sign of a smile on his face.