My First Ride in an Automobile

Rules for Three or More Players

First take the sheets of paper in this envelope and cut them to pieces on the dotted lines, so that only one name is on each slip. Select one person to act as reader. The read distributes the printed slips evenly among the players. As the reader pauses at each blank (____) in the narrative, player in turn reads one of the slips, the slip thus read then being laid aside. The slips should not be looked over, but the top one always read first. As the cards never come twice in the same order…

It is allowable to change the name on a slip from singular to plural, or vice-versa, where it will make better sense by doing so.

When I went to visit Uncle Horatio, my father's brother, who lived in the city, I anticipated a very lively time. He had no sons of his own, but many ____. His dearly beloved wife had several years since taken by mistake a ____ as a remedy for a toothache and had died from the effect of it.

He invested the ____ she left him in an automobile factory and promised that as soon as I made him a visit I would be presented with one of the choicest and swiftest.

Accordingly, a few days after my arrival, he took me to the factory to make my choice. I would have much preferred a new ____ to an automobile, but appreciating my uncle's kindness in offering an auto instead of a ____, I said nothing, thereby showing that I had never had any experience in that line. On my way to the factory, I saw many sights among which was a lady leading a ____ by a chain, and a little boy eating a ____ with great gusto. Our car ran very fast but suddenly stopped in the middle of the block and landed a ____ in my lap which a little girl in front of me had been carrying. It seemed as if ____ and ____ were flying in the air.

My uncle dropped his ____ and we hastily left the card and walked in the rest of the way. Although my uncle made a specialty of automobiles he manufactured a number of other things such as ____ and ____. The department of ____ was especially interesting, 2,000 of these were manufactured daily and were turned out of a machine operated by a ____ with the assistance of a ____. In still another department ____ and ____ were made by hand and were said to be seamless. Upon entering the third department I asked my uncle what all those ____ hanging on the wall were used for and he said those were ____ and were used for curing attacks of ____. In the miscellaneous department they made anything from a ____ to a ____.

My uncle took a great deal of pride in the appearance of his building and each window was decorated with a ____ and a ____ on either side. Over each door was hung a ____. The walls were decorated with beautiful and realistic pictures of ____ and ____. They reminded me of the ____ which is hung in our parlor at home. As I made my way to the automobile department I stumbled on a ____ and fell into a ____ which was used to keep the flies away. All the automobiles were covered with large ____. The one I chose had a ____ tied on the back to frighten away small boys; also a ____ in front for a danger signal. There was a ____ to be used in case the ____ gave out. My uncle rode home with me and explained the machinery as we went. The next day being 4th of July, I thought I would celebrate by taking for a ride a young lady friend. When I called for her I was astonished to see that she had a large ____ pinned on her waist and a ____ upon her hat, but she also looked surprised when she saw the ____ in my buttonhole. We started after she had said good-bye to her small brother who was waving a ____ at us from the house, and her mother had told us to be careful of the ____ in the next block. Being unfamiliar with the steering gear, I turned the wrong way and narrowly escaped a ____ and a ____. It seemed to me I had never seen the street so full of ____. A little boy who was trying to shoot off a ____ called us a ____ and a ____________. I took out a ____ and a ____ from our lunch basket and threw them at him, leaving only a ____ and a ____ with a ____ for desert. Along our way we saw many of the houses decorated with strings of ____ and on tall flag poles were many ____. Miss Susan remarked that she thought ____ would have been more appropriate and suggested that we stop and buy a ____ to decorate the automobile. I tried to stop, but the machine ran on the sidewalk encountering and old lady with a ____ on her head and a basket of ____ on her back. All the passersby took refuge with a large ____ standing in front of one of the stores. As soon as I had stopped the machine, I saw a policeman standing in front of me. He demanded two ____ in payment for the damage I had done and I offered instead a ____ which I had in my pocket. This was not sufficient so Miss Susan offered a ____ which her father had brought from Europe. The policeman seemed satisfied, so having decorated our machine with a ____ which I bought at the peanut stand, we proceeded. I saw a ____ at a distance and steered toward that but upon reaching it I found it was only a ____. So I steered into the country road at the right. I felt more a home in the country, so turned on full power, and soon the ____ which was had seen in the city was left behind. The ____ and ____ which the farmers raised in the fields seemed to be flying past, and Miss Susan asked if ____ and ____ grew here also. I replied that I made most of my money cultivating ____ which were especially useful to sailors. Miss Susan said she felt like a ____, and I told her she looked like one, whereupon she seemed offended and called me a ____. I told her I would rather look like that than a ____.

To pacify her, I suggested it was dinner time, and said I knew of a farm house where we could get a ____ and a ____ to eat as we rode along. She said she was very fond of that as long as she couldn't get a ____. There was a man visiting there who entertained us with songs entitled, "The ____ and the ____", and "The Tale of the ____ They then asked us to eat dinner with them and I was surprised to see the serving ____ instead of ____. For dessert we had a ____ apiece, which Miss Susan relished more than I. After dinner, my friend the farmer said that he would take me out to see the ____ which he had in the barnyard. I asked Miss Susan to go also, but she said she would rather stay and see the ____ which the boy was taking to market, hoping to get a nice, big ____ in return for them. Then Miss Susan said that showed I was a big ____ and I wished I were at home enjoying that ____ which Uncle Horatio had given me.

Then it began to rain, and as we had brought no umbrellas, Miss Susan protected herself with a ____ while I took refuge under a ____. A boy passing us laughed, but he looked just as queer with a ____ over him. It rained so hard that we were forced to stop under a ____ where we found a ____ also seeking shelter. After it stopped raining we decided to go back home and began to look around for a signpost, but all we could see was a ____ which said on it "10 miles to the next ____ ". I started my machine, not noticing a ____ coming. It jumped out of the way, however, right into a ____. When we had ridden about half a mile, I saw a ____ with a hand on it pointing the way to town. Miss Susan said that was a strange sight, and that in the city they used ____ for such purposes. I rode like a ____ back to town and when I tried to stop the machine I couldn't. It was going so fast, I was frightening all the ____ and ____ and all the ____ stared at us. Fortunately I was able to guide it and I went around one square about ten times. By the tenth time all the storekeepers were out throwing ____ and ____ at us, and one man in his rage even threw a ____. Luckily, Miss Susan had a ____ with which she protected us. The ____ and ____ were flying past and Miss Susan said she would give me all her ____ if I could only stop.

Finally, I deliberately ran into a wagon of ____ and that stopped the machine. It was rather hard on the wagon though, and made it look like ____. Miss Susan said she preferred to walk home, so I left my machine in care of a ____ and walked home with her. Miss Susan had lost everything she had carried with her except a ____ and a ____.

I told her I would repay her by giving her my best ____. When we reached her house we refreshed ourselves with a delicious ____ and a ____, and after Miss Susan had said that she had had a charming time, I proceeded on my way to get the automobile.