of relief and became
interested in the creamed potatoes.

"But don't forget to take the papers down to the cellar and put them
back on the pile, neatly," cautioned Mother Blossom.

Bobby and Meg helped Dot and Twaddles take back the papers and then it
was time to put on their coats and sweaters. Twaddles was just
stamping his feet into his rubbers--he always shook the house, Norah
declared, when he put on his rubbers--when the sound of jingling
sleighbells was heard outside.

"There's Sam! There's the sleigh!" shrieked the four little Blossoms,
scattering kisses between Mother Blossom and Aunt Polly and rushing for
the door.

"Good grief, is the house on fire?" Sam demanded as they came running
out of the house. "Where's Philip? I thought you wanted him to go."

CHAPTER XVI

OVER THE CROSS ROAD

Philip could be heard barking madly in the garage and Meg volunteered
to go and let him out. The others were too much absorbed in the horse
and sleigh to offer to release the dog.

"What's the name of the horse?" asked Dot.

"I forgot to inquire," Sam answered. "So you may call him anything you
like. He lives at the livery stable and you might name him after his
master, Walter Rock. Call him Walt for short, you know."

Philip, dancing and barking, came running over the snowy lawn and Meg
raced after him.

"The horse's name is Walt," Dot informed her importantly. "I think he
looks kind, don't you, Meg?"

"Of course he is a kind horse," said Meg. "He's a pretty color, too."

Walt was a spotted horse, brown and white, not a polka-dot horse, of
course, but with what Meg called a "pattern" of oddly shaped slashes of
white on his brown coat.

"He must be a foulard horse," Meg commented as the children climbed
into the soft clean straw which filled the box of the sleigh.

Sam shouted with laughter and Mother Blossom and Aunt Polly and Norah,
who were all standing in the doorway to see them start, called out to
ask what the joke was about.

"Tell you when we come back," shouted Sam, taking up the reins. "All
set back there? Then here we go, jingle bells!"

The horse set off at a trot and the four little Blossoms grinned at
each other delightedly. There were plenty of warm blankets in the
sleigh and the livery stable man had put in a fur lap robe that made
Twaddles think of a big black bear. None of the children had gone
driving in a sleigh very often, for Father Blossom used his car
practicall