nlooked-for state of affairs! What was to be done? The
boys ran back to the sled, and the colored men ran out to the road, and
everybody talked and nobody seemed to say anything of use.

At last Dick Ford spoke up:

"I tell ye what, Mah'sr Harry! I say, just let's go 'long," said he.

"But how are you going to do it?" said Harry. "There's no snow."

"I know that; but de mud's jist as slippery as grease. That thar team
kin pull it, easy 'nuff!"

Harry and Tom consulted together, and agreed to drive out to the road
and try what could be done, and then, if the loaded sled was too much
for the team, they would throw off the wood and go home with the empty
sled.

There was snow enough until they reached the road--for very little had
melted in the woods--and when they got fairly out on the main road the
team did not seem to mind the change from snow to thin mud.

The load was not a very heavy one, and there were two horses and two
mules--a pretty strong team.

Polly did very well. She was now harnessed with Grits in the lead; and
she pulled along bravely. But it was slow work, compared to the lively
ride over the snow. The boys and the men trudged through the mud, by the
side of the sled, and, looking at it in the best possible light, it was
a very dull way to haul wood. The boys agreed that after this trip they
would be very careful not to go on another mud-sledding expedition.

But soon they came to a long hill, and, going down this, the team began
to trot, and Harry and Tom and one or two of the men jumped on the edges
of the sled, outside of the load, holding on to the poles. Then Grits,
the big mule, began to run, and Gregory couldn't hold him in, and old
Selim and thin Hector and little Polly all struck out on a gallop, and
away they went, bumping and thumping down the hill.

And then stick after stick, two sticks, six sticks, a dozen sticks at a
time, slipped out behind.

It was of no use to catch at them to hold them on. They were not
fastened down in any way, and Harry and Tom and the men on the sled had
as much as they could do to hold themselves on.

When they reached the bottom of the hill the pulling became harder; but
Grits had no idea of stopping for that. He was bound for home. And so he
plunged on at the top of his speed. But the rest of the team did not
fancy going so fast on level ground, and they slackened their pace.

This did not suit Grits. He gave one tremendous bound, burst loose from
h