find a Mr. Will Ford around here?"

"Why--why, that's my brother!" exclaimed Grace in surprise. "What is it,
please?"

"It's some machinery for him. It's an express piece. Where shall I
deliver it?"

"That's his cabin over there," and Grace pointed to where it could just
be seen. "Are there any charges on it?"

"Yep. Three dollars."

"I'll pay them. Oh, girls, I wonder what it can be?"

"Will's secret, probably," answered Betty. "I wish he would come;" and
she looked anxiously over the trail.

"Don't you wish Allen would come, too?" asked Mollie, slily.

"Hush!" exclaimed Betty, with a glance at Alice and Kittie.

"Well, I'm going back, anyhow!" decided Grace, as she paid the
expressman. "I'll tell Will there is a big box for him, and that will be
a good excuse for him coming back. They must not fight. Papa would not
like it."

"Well, perhaps that is a good plan," agreed Betty. "I'll keep on with
Amy, and you and Mollie can go back to the boys."

"I'll go tell papa, and have him stop Jake and Sam," said Alice, moving
off with her chum.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE AUTO ICE BOAT

Grace strode ahead so rapidly through the snow that Mollie was forced to
ask her to moderate her pace.

"This isn't a race!" was the objection.

"But I want to stop them fighting!" insisted Grace. "Will gets so angry,
sometimes, that he doesn't know what he is doing. Papa often said he'd
do something desperate in his fits of temper some day. I'm really
afraid."

"He's like me," laughed Mollie, frankly. "Only I just flare up for a
second, and then I'm sorry for it."

"Oh, well, Will is too," admitted his sister, "but I don't want to give
him a chance to be sorry. Come on!"

"If I come any faster you'll have to carry me," panted Mollie. "Remember
that I am not a Gibson girl like you."

"Oh, do come!" begged Grace. "They may be rolling and tumbling about in
the snow, biting each other----"

"Boys don't fight that way, and you ought to know it," said Mollie. "I
detest fighting myself, but I know that when it is done right--if ever
there is such a time--there is no biting and scratching."

"Well, I've seen some football games," spoke Grace, and she wondered why
Mollie laughed.

The girls were rather surprised, on coming to a point where they could
look down on the boys, to see merely a snow battle in progress. The air
seemed filled with the flying white missiles, and the four rivals were
running back and forth, looking