under what circumstances they first met the young
peddler.

"Up Shadow Valley way," was the answer, and instinctively the auto party
of boys and girls started, and looked at one another.

"Er--was trade good up that way?" asked Frank.

"Oh, not very. You see, there are not enough folks living there. So I
thought I'd take a short cut over to Limeburg. I generally do pretty
well there. But I guess I'd have done better to have gone the long way.
I'm stuck for fair. Go 'long there, Stamp!" he called to the horse.
"See if you can move the boat."

"Stamp? Is that his name?" asked Betty.

"I just christened him that, Miss," replied Jimmie, with a smile.

"Why?" asked Grace, who was always the last one to see a joke.

"Because, Miss, he's--stuck!" was the answer, and the others, who had
anticipated this, laughed at poor Grace.

"I don't care!" she said. "I was thinking of something else then."

"Well, I guess I'll have to stay here until this mud dries up," went on
Jimmie, "or I might feed up Stamp until he is strong enough to pull me
out. Only that would take too long, I'm afraid. He's been kept on a diet
of carpet tacks, lately, to judge by the many fine points about him," he
added, whimsically.

Will alighted from the auto, and, going as far as the edge of the muddy
road, looked critically at the stalled wagon. Then he asked:

"Have you a long rope?"

"Not a very long one," said the boy peddler, "but I have one that may
do. I'll get it," and he delved in the rear of his vehicle.

"What's the game?" asked Frank.

"I was going to see if we couldn't pull him out of the hole," replied
Will. "If the rope is long enough to reach from his wagon to the auto,
and the rope holds, and his wagon doesn't pull apart with the strain, we
can do it."

"Oh, I hope we can!" cried Mollie. "We must try."

Jimmie produced the rope, and, tossing one end of it to Will, proved
that it was long enough. It looked sufficiently strong, too.

"Now, Mollie, if you'll turn around, and back down as near as you can,
we'll see what we can do," proposed Will.

While the car was being manipulated to the proper position, Will tied
some knots in the rope.

"Fasten this end to the middle of the whiffle-tree," he called to
Jimmie, tossing the loop to him. "In that way you won't have to unhitch
the horse, nor get out in the mud yourself."

"Oh, I won't mind that--if I can get out of this hole."

"Might as well take it as easy as you can," w