kers and chocolate in between.

Then McDonald called: "You've all got to come back, young ladies. I'm
sorry, but these horses do hate to stand even a minute." He was very
apologetic, but the grays were showing signs of restlessness, and pawing
the ground.

The girls scrambled back into the sleigh and almost before they were
seated the horses broke into a run.

About a mile farther on, as McDonald slowed down at a cross-road, they
heard the jingling of other sleigh bells.

"Who do you suppose that is?" Connie asked. "Listen, they're singing!" A
minute later a sleigh like their own swung round the corner--it was
full of boys. Their driver slowed down to give McDonald the right of
way.

"Why, it must be the Seddon Hall girls," they heard one of the boys
shout. "Let's give them a cheer, fellows!"

"What school is it?" Miss Crosby asked. "Do you know, Lois!"

"Perhaps it's the Military Academy," Angela suggested.

Betty stood up in the middle of the sleigh and balanced herself by
holding on to Connie and Lois.

"No!" she said. "They haven't any uniform on. I can see-- I wish
McDonald would let them get ahead."

By this time the yell was in full swing. When it ended the boys waited
in vain for a reply.

"Maybe they didn't hear us," one of them shouted. "Let's give them a
regular cheer with horns."

Polly, who had been edging up slowly toward the front seat of the
sleigh, ever since they had started, gave a sudden spring and climbed up
beside McDonald. She knew exactly what was going to happen.

At the first sound of the horn, the horses--already frightened out of
their senses by all the singing and yelling--reared up on their hind
legs for one terrifying second, and then bolted. Poor McDonald tried to
bring them back under his control, but as he realized their condition,
his nerve failed him.

"They're gone, Miss," he said in an agonized whisper to Polly, and his
hands relaxed on the reins.

The girls, now thoroughly conscious of their danger, hung on for dear
life, and some of them cried out.

The deafening shouts and the blowing of the horns kept up in the sleigh
behind. The boys thought they were being raced.

Polly thought hard for just the fraction of a minute. Then she took the
reins from McDonald's unresisting hands and pulled. She knew that her
strength was not equal to stopping those wild runaways, but she felt she
could keep them headed straight, and avoid tipping the sleigh. Just as
she was t