better for
the pussy to be a little hungry for a time than for us to get stuck in
the snow with night coming on. We'd all be hungry then. We'll soon be
home."

They came to a railroad track, almost hidden under the snow, and Uncle
Toby stopped the automobile, and, opening the door a little way, seemed
to be listening.

"What's the matter?" asked Ted.

"I wanted to hear if the train was coming," was the answer. "One is due
here about now, and I didn't want to cross the tracks if it was too
near. But I guess it's late on account of the storm. It will be safe to
cross."

He drove over the tracks and was just speeding up again when they all
heard a distant whistle.

"There's the train!" exclaimed Tom.

Then came several more whistles, long toots and short toots in such a
queer combination that they all knew something must be the matter.

"Maybe there's been an accident," said Ted.

"Maybe," agreed Uncle Toby. "But I think that the train is stuck in a
deep cut not far from here. The cut may be filled with snow so the train
can't get through. It's probably stalled there."

"Will anybody be hurt?" asked Janet.

"No, only delayed for a while. Men will come with shovels to dig out the
train. We can soon see what has happened, for the auto road passes near
the railroad cut."

A little later they saw that what Uncle Toby had guessed at had come to
pass. The children saw a passenger train with the front part of the
engine buried deep in a pile of snow that filled a cut between two rocky
hills on either side of the track.

As the automobile came in sight of the train the engineer blew several
more shrill whistles, waking up Skyrocket, who began to bark loudly.

CHAPTER IX

NEW PLAYMATES

"Just hear him toot!" cried Jan, putting her hands over her ears, for
the automobile was now quite close to the train stuck in the big snow
drift. The drift was much deeper here than at any other point along the
railroad, because the narrow cut between the high rocks held the white
flakes tightly packed.

"Sounds as if it was calling us," said Lola.

"I believe it is!" exclaimed Ted, as the toots of the whistle kept up.
"Do you s'pose he could want us to help him, Uncle Toby?"

"How could an auto pull a stalled train out of a snowdrift?" asked Tom.

"Course we couldn't _pull_ the train," admitted Ted. "But we could sort
of--now--do _something_, couldn't we, Uncle Toby?" he asked.

"I believe we could, and I think t