"So it is!" burst out Belle. "What a shame!" "Maybe it won't amount to much," said Ben. "It often snows just a little, you know." The first flakes to fall were large, and dropped down lazily from the sky. But soon it grew darker, and in a short time the snow was coming down so thickly that it almost blotted out the landscape on all sides. "Some fall this!" exclaimed Phil. "Looks now as if it were going to be a regular storm." "O dear! and I wanted it to be moonlight to-night!" wailed Laura. Dave was peering around and looking anxiously at the heavy, leaden sky. "If this is going to be a heavy storm, maybe it might be as well for us to turn back," he announced. "Turn back?" came from several of the others. "Yes." "What for, Dave?" questioned Phil. "I don't think a little snow is going to hurt us. Maybe it will help to keep us warm," he added with a grin. "We don't want to get snowed in, Phil." "Oh, let's go on!" interposed Roger. "Even if it does keep on snowing it won't get very heavy in the next couple of hours. We can hurry up with our dinner at Lamont and be home again before it gets very deep." "All right, I'm willing if the rest are," returned Dave, who did not wish to throw "cold water" on their sport. "Lamont it is! Go ahead, Wash, we want to get there just as soon as possible." On they plunged, the snow coming down thicker and thicker every minute. Then, just as the outskirts of the town were gained, they heard a curious humming sound. "Oh, Dave! What is that?" queried Jessie. "It's the wind coming up," he answered. "Listen!" All did so and noted that the humming sound was increasing. Then the wind came tearing through the woods and down the highway with great force, sending the snow in driving sheets into their faces. "My gracious, this looks as if it were going to be a blizzard!" gasped Phil, who had started up to see what the sound meant. "We had better get under some kind of cover just as soon as possible." "We'll be up to dat hotel in anudder minute," bawled Washington Bones, to make himself heard above the sudden fury of the elements. "Say! dis suah is some snowsto'm!" he added. Again he cracked his whip, and once more the four horses ploughed along as well as they were able. They had to face both the wind and the snow, and these combined made progress slow. By the time the party came into sight of the hotel with the restaurant attached, the wind was blowing almost a gale, and the snow seemed to be coming down in driving chunks. "Drive us around to the side porch," ordered Dave. "It will be a little more sheltered there." "Yassir," came from the colored driver; and soon they had come to a halt at the spot mentioned. From under the snow and robes crawled the boys and the girls and lost no time in running into the hotel. Then the colored man drove the turnout down to the stables. [Illustration: FROM UNDER THE SNOW AND THE ROBES CRAWLED THE BOYS AND THE GIRLS--_Page 103._]