Harriet speaks for the first time and she does a pretty good Elly Patterson impression.
Panel 1:
Click Click. That doesn’t sound like "low on gas." You have a flat battery or poor connection at the leads at least. The 'click' is the power getting to the big switch (solenoid) that sends the starting amps to the motor, but there is not enough to do anything beyond this. Charge up or replace your battery. And check the connections are clean.
Panel 2:
Harriet speaks Elly style. She hangs her head into a panel from the side and splays her hands forward in full-up Elly.
Panel 3:
Harriet fills the panel with many words, fully opens her mouth and looks upward. Harriet does claim to have done something we never saw her do, i.e., speak. This would be all Elly-like except…
Elly does not clutch at her breast when she is screaming. Elly prefers accusatory pointing. If a woman clutches her breast in pain, doesn’t that mean she is suffering the preliminary symptoms of a heart attack? I don’t know what Lynn intended here, but that move is not an Elly move. Elly doesn’t do “heart attack.” Elly does have moves that Harriet does not do:
Harriet does not resort to using a raspberry like Elly does.
Harriet does not resort to physical violence like Elly does.
Panel 4:
I think this joke is intended to make it seem like Harriet knows more than Fred did. The “click click” tells us that she doesn’t, or rather Lynn Johnston doesn’t.
Summary:
We saw this one coming a mile away when Fred boated off asking if anyone had brought gasoline. Officially that is the author’s perspective, so please ignore the comic strip as presented.