s silly to put me in my stall and take them out. They won't be
able to move. They'll get stuck fast in a drift, and goodness knows how
we'll ever haul them out."

"I shouldn't worry about the oxen if I were you," Ebenezer replied. "It
seems to me Bright and Broad are old enough and big enough to look out
for themselves."

"That's just the trouble!" cried Twinkleheels. "They're too old and
they're too big. They're terribly heavy. If they were stuck in a drift I
don't believe you and the bays could pull them out--not even if I helped
you."

Ebenezer sighed deeply.

"I'm going to sleep now," he told Twinkleheels.

Soon Twinkleheels could hear Farmer Green shouting "Gee!" and "Haw!"

"There!" Twinkleheels called to the two bays. "There's Farmer Green
talking to Bright and Broad. I hope they're not helpless already."

The bays snickered.

"Don't laugh!" Twinkleheels begged them. "It's not funny. It would be
awful for them to spend the rest of the winter in a snow bank."

"We weren't laughing at Bright and Broad," the bays explained.

Twinkleheels tried to look at them; but old Ebenezer's bony back was in
the way.

"I don't know what amuses you, then," he snapped.

"Maybe you'll find out later," the bays told him.

And he did. When Johnnie Green next led him out of the barn Twinkleheels
discovered that a broad path had been opened from the barn to the
highway. And a little distance up the road Farmer Green and Bright and
Broad were battling with the drifts.

XIV

STUCK IN A DRIFT

Outside the barn, in the snow-covered farmyard, Johnnie Green mounted
Twinkleheels and rode him beyond the gate, where he could watch the fun
up the road.

Yoked to a sort of plough, Bright and Broad, the oxen, tore through the
piled-up snow and threw it to either side in great ridges.

"I'm going ahead to the crossroads," Johnnie Green told his father.

That plan pleased Twinkleheels. Before Farmer Green could speak he
plunged out of the broken road and wallowed in snow up to his neck. He
was going to show Bright and Broad that he could get to the crossroads
before they did.

"Don't do that!" Farmer Green shouted to Johnnie.

He was too late. The words were scarcely out of his mouth before
Twinkleheels was reaching desperately for a footing. His toes found
nothing firm beneath them--nothing but yielding snow. And his frantic
struggles only made him sink the deeper.

Johnnie Green slid off Twinkleheels' back and