now. "Is you
goin' to have a race, Uncle Toby?"

"A sort of race, yes, Trouble," was the answer. "I'm going to race and
see if we can get home ahead of the big storm that I'm afraid is coming
down on us."

"Do you think it will be a very big storm?" asked Ted, and he looked
with laughing eyes at Tom.

"I shouldn't wonder," was the answer. "And, though we have a strong car
here, we don't want to get stuck in a snow drift and have to stay all
night."

"I should think that would be lots of fun," said Tom.

"What? With nothing to eat except a few chocolate cakes Jan and Lola
have in a bag?" exclaimed Uncle Toby. "That is if they have any of the
cakes left."

"Oh, yes, we have them," Jan hastened to say, for she and her girl chum
had bought some just before reaching the restaurant, and had not eaten
them.

"Well, that's all we'd have in the way of 'rations,' as the soldiers
call them, if we got stuck in the storm," declared Uncle Toby.

"Then we don't want to get stuck," decided Ted, and Tom agreed with him.
The boys were fond of eating. Most boys are, I believe.

What Uncle Toby said and feared about the storm seemed to be coming
true. Of course the automobile was very far from being caught in any
drift, for the snow had not yet begun to pile up very much. But the
flakes were coming down thicker and faster, and the wind was beginning
to blow. It did not blow inside the cozy car, which was warm and
comfortable, so that the boys and girls could unbutton their wraps. But
they could hear the wind swishing around outside, and they could see the
flakes of snow dashed against the glass windows.

After riding about an hour, the party was out in a country district
where the houses were few and far apart. It was rather lonesome, for
they went many miles without meeting another automobile. The snow was
deeper here, and, more than once, the wheels of the Martin car ran
through little piles of white crystals.

"They've had a storm here before this one that's blowing now," said
Uncle Toby, as he looked at what were really quite high drifts on some
parts of the road. "It may be worse farther on."

"Shall we get stuck?" Ted wanted to know.

"There's no telling," answered Uncle Toby.

Ted and Tom did not want to say they were glad of it, but they were
real boys and they felt that they would not a bit mind being caught in a
big drift so they would have to dig their way out. They forgot, for the
time, about having nothing t