already begun to think of Christmas.

As Aunt Sallie had said, there had been placed in the automobile a
number of boxes of lunch to be eaten on the way, as it would be night,
or very near it, before the cabin in the woods could be reached. Uncle
Toby had written to a lumberman to build a fire in it so the place would
be warm for the children. It was a large roomy cabin, with many comforts
and conveniences. Having the lunch in the automobile, the next thing to
think about was the time to eat it.

Possibly the boys thought more about this than the girls; at any rate
that must have been the reason why Tom and Ted so often asked Uncle Toby
what time it was, for the clock on the instrument board of the
automobile was not going.

"Well, it will soon be eating time, if that's what you want to know,"
answered Uncle Toby, with a laugh, after this same question had been
asked many times. He seemed to be always laughing.

"In fact we may as well get the lunch out now, I guess, Aunt Sallie," he
went on. "We had an early breakfast and--"

He suddenly stopped talking, for there was a loud hissing sound from
beneath the automobile, as if a big snake had had its tail run over.

"Puncture!" cried Tom and Ted, for they knew enough about cars to tell
this.

"Well, I'm glad it isn't a blow-out!" Uncle Toby exclaimed. Had there
been a blow-out the noise would have been much louder, like the bang of
a gun. "As long as it's only a puncture we can easily mend it, and I'll
do that while the rest of you eat."

"Oh, let me help!" begged Ted. "I often help daddy when he has tire
trouble."

"I want to help, too," cried Tom.

"So do I," added Harry. "We never had an auto," he went on, "so I don't
know anything about them. But I'll do what I can."

"Well, you boys can hand me the tools," said Uncle Toby, "and I'll do
the hard work. This is a heavy car and I don't want you getting into any
danger around it. You can be getting out the lunch, Aunt Sallie. We'll
be ready to eat after we finish putting in a new rubber tube."

"We'll help," offered Jan and the other two girls, while Trouble cried:

"I want to see punchure! Want to see punchure!"

"No, you stay in here," said his sister, for she knew he would only get
in the way if allowed to run about. "I'll let you open some of the
boxes."

This satisfied Trouble, who was now content to stay in the big car.
Skyrocket, though, went out with the boys and nosed about in the woods
near wh