In the meantime, Crystal was spinning along Bellevue Avenue,
forgetting to bow to her friends, and wondering why the car was going
so badly until, her eye falling on the speedometer, she noticed that
she was doing a mild thirty-five miles an hour. Sooner, therefore,
than the law allowed, she reached a small park that surrounds a statue
of Perry, and there she picked up a passenger.
Ben got in and shut the little door almost before she brought the car
to a standstill.
[Illustration: "I'll be there in five minutes, in a little blue car"]
"When you were little," he said, "did you ever imagine something
wonderful that might happen--like the door's opening and a delegation
coming to elect you captain of the baseball team, or whatever is
a little girl's equivalent of that--and keep on imagining it and
imagining it, until it seemed as if it really were going to happen?
Well, I have been standing here saying to myself, Wouldn't it be
wonderful if Crystal should come in a little blue car and take me to
drive? And, by Heaven! you'll never believe me, but she actually did."
"Tell me everything you've done since I saw you," she answered.
"I haven't done anything but think about you. Oh yes, I have, too.
I've reappraised the universe. You see, you've just made me a present
of a brand-new world, and I've been pretty busy, I can tell you,
untying the string and unwrapping the paper, and bless me, Crystal, it
looks like a mighty fine present so far.
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