Free The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee by Eleanor Estes Page A

was in the back, making sure that everything was stashed in securely and that the tailgate would close. Jimmy McGee zoomied to the front of the car and tightened some nuts and bolts under the hood. He banged the engine lightly. He knew it was in fine shape. Then he sped off to the kitchen to watch the leave-taking. Perhaps Little Lydia could watch it, too, with those electric blue eyes of hers that might enable her to see through stovepipe hats!
    Then Papa slammed the tailgate, which did just barely close, and locked it up.
    "Move over, Wags," Papa said. Wags did move over a little, and Papa got in the driver's seat. Wags dropped his sock for a minute and licked Papa's cheek to show how much he loved him. Then he put his sock back in his mouth. Papa started the car to let it warm up.
    "Well!" Papa exclaimed. "What do you know! I don't know what magic touch I have suddenly developed, but it started. We won't have to stop at the garage to check it. This car has a soul of its own! It fixes itself!"
    Mama got in and sat in the front seat beside Wags, who was happy to be made to sit closer to Papa again. Amy and Clarissa were already in the back seat, where they kneeled and cupped their chins in their hands and looked out the back window. Amy stood Bear between them so he could see out, too.
    "Let's see who can see The Bizzy Bee the longest when we get going," said Clarissa.
    "I bet Bear will," said Amy. She propped him up so his chin just barely rested on the top of the upholstery. "There!" she said. "See what you can, Bear. See Jimmy McGee if you can!"
    She and Clarissa laughed. "The banger-on-the pipes man!" Amy explained to Bear.
    "All right, then," said Papa. "We're off!"
    "Zoomie-zoomie-zoomie," said Amy, laughing.
    "Zoomie-zoomie-zoomie on the zoomie-zoomie trail," sang Clarissa.
    Papa started up slowly.
    "Good-by, good-by to everything," sang Amy and Clarissa. "Good-by, summer!" They felt a little sad.
    They watched the little cottage where they had spent a whole summer grow smaller and smaller, dwindle away. It looked cold and forlorn already, a not-lived-in house, tiny and fragile on the top of the dune. No one in it to wake up to the sound of Jimmy McGee's banging on the pipes. Then, after a bend in the road, they couldn't see it any more.

    No one could say who had seen it the longest; all had seen it the longest.
    "Maybe Bear saw it the longest," Amy said. "Did you, Bear?"
    Amy took Bear in her arms and hugged him. "Bear did," she said. "I think he did."
    They couldn't know that Jimmy McGee was watching the old gray Dodge growing smaller and smaller and gathering speed now down the hard, sandy road, sending flecks of sand and gravel behind it and a little puff of smoke.
    Nor could they know that Jimmy McGee would be at their home on Garden Lane in Washington, banging the pipes there to greet them when they arrived and to make their house ready for living in again.
    During the leave-taking, Little Lydia had been remarkably quiet. Now suddenly she bebopped, "
Fun!
"
    Jimmy McGee's apprehensions were realized. She was not yet restored to being a do-nothing doll! Well, perhaps she was like Wags and anticipated a trip to somewhere, like the great thunder-and-lightning-bolt excursion, or perhaps some new and curious adventure Jimmy McGee had in mind?
    Jimmy McGee swiftly made his final check around The Bizzy Bee. Everything was fine ... windows boarded up, doors locked, only a few final drops of water falling from the outside garden faucet, and they would soon stop. A thin little cat from down the road came walking as though bowlegged. She sat under the faucet and watched the drops fall, licking one once in a while, batting another with her paw.
    Then Jimmy McGee zoomied over to his headquarters to close it up for the winter. Not hard at all. All he did was shove his summer banging pipes way, way back in the cave, fold up his bombazine hammock, and lay it neatly on his scrolls, his summer scroll library. He pushed them into