ked to come. It would all have been so different if we
had had Mrs. Andrews or Mrs. Hawes or--just imagine Miss Blake acting
as she has to-night!"

"I can't imagine it!" returned John, emphatically, "and worse yet, Mike
is in no condition to drive us home. He's been drinking. I went out
to see if the horses were all right and being fed, you know, and there
I heard about it. Mike simply mustn't drive."

Nan pressed her hands together and gave a stifled groan.

"That's what I wanted to tell you," continued John, hurriedly. "It
isn't safe to let him try and I'm going to take his place myself. I
don't know how long I can stand it, for it's colder than ever and I
haven't any driving gloves, but I'll do the best I can and perhaps some
of the other fellows will lend a hand."

Nan thought a minute. "I tell you what," she declared at last, "I'm
going to do part of the driving myself. I'll sit up front and when you
give out I'll lend a hand and we'll get through somehow. I've Miss
Blake's gloves and they are as warm as toast."

The anxious look faded a little from John's face, and in spite of
himself he showed he was relieved. "I may not have to give up at all,"
he said at length; "but if I do there's not a fellow in the whole lot
I'd rather trust the reins to than you. Come! They're making a move.
Get your things on as quick as you can and be where I can see you so we
can take our places without making too much talk."

In a twinkling Nan had flown upstairs, roused Mary and helped her to
get ready and was hooded and cloaked and standing in the hall-way. The
others came up one by one and presently the big door was opened and
they trooped through it out into the waiting sleigh. John gave Nan a
hand and she sprang quickly to the place beside him on the driver's
seat. They started.

It proved a very different matter sitting on that unsheltered box
facing the wind to cuddling, as they had done before, among the warm
straw with their faces shielded from the current by the high protecting
sides of the sleigh, and after a very little while Nan had to set her
teeth to keep from crying out for the pain in her stinging cheeks.

Back of them the rest of the party shouted and tootled and yodeled as
cheerfully as ever. Every one wanted to know what had become of Mike,
and as nobody could tell but John and Nan, and they wouldn't, the
questions went unanswered, and by and by the subject was dropped and
only occasional sp