ck and put a phonograph
inside, and when I wound it up the snow man would talk."

"The phonograph would freeze inside a snow man," said Laddie.

"No, it wouldn't. If it did I could build a little fire and melt it,"
Russ went on. "Maybe I'll do it, too; that is, if I can find a
phonograph."

"But if you built a fire to thaw out the phonograph it would melt the
snow man," said Rose.

Russ seemed to be puzzled by this.

"Well, I'd do it somehow," he declared. "I'd just build a little fire,
and that wouldn't melt the snow man very much."

Back into the car came trooping some of the men who had gone out to see
the switch and rails clogged with the snow.

"Are we able to go on?" asked Grandpa Ford of one of these men.

"I think so," was the answer. "The snow has been shoveled away from the
switch, and the engineer is going to try again. But it is a bad storm,
and I doubt if we get through to-night."

"Won't we get home to your place, Grandpa?" asked Laddie.

"It's hard to tell," answered the old gentleman. "But, if worst comes to
worst, we can stay on the train all night. We can sleep here and eat
here, but perhaps we can get almost to Tarrington, and drive in a big
sled the rest of the way."

"Where can you get a sled?" asked Violet, always ready with a question.

"Oh, I can hire one, if I can't get my own," said Grandpa Ford. "I told
one of my men to meet us at the depot with a big carriage. But when he
sees it snowing, as it is now up at Great Hedge, he'll take out the
sled, I'm sure."

"I like to ride in a sled," said Rose. "It's such fun to cuddle down in
the fur robes."

"Have you got fur robes, Grandpa?" Vi inquired.

"Oh, yes, plenty of them," he answered. "But I hope we'll get to
Tarrington," he added in a low voice to Mr. and Mrs. Bunker. "I would
not want to drive in an open sled through this cold storm with the
children."

"They wouldn't mind it," said Daddy Bunker. "If they were well-wrapped
they would like it."

"I suppose I should have waited until warmer weather to bring you to
Great Hedge," went on Grandpa Ford. "But I wanted to have the children
with me, and so did their grandmother. She hasn't seen them all together
for some time. So I just thought I'd bring you in the winter, and not
wait for summer."

"And I'm glad you did," said Mother Bunker. "We'll be all right, once we
get there."

"Another reason why I wanted you at Great Hedge," went on Grandpa Ford,
"is that I want you to