“THEY’RE GONE”

The pony cart, which generally stood in the middle of the barn floor next to the stall of Toby, the little Shetland, had been rolled back out of the way, and in its place stood what first seemed to Sue and Bunny to be a large box.  But when they looked a second time, they saw that the box was fastened on a large sled—­larger than either of their small ones.

“What are you makin’?” asked Sue.

“Oh, something to give you and Bunny a pony ride,” answered Mart.

“Oh, it’s a pony sled, isn’t it?” cried Bunny.

“Well, yes, something like that,” was the answer, given with a smile.  “There wasn’t much to do down at the dock to-day, so your father let me off early.  On my way home I saw this large sled at Mr. Raymond’s store.  It was broken, so he let me buy it cheap.  I brought it here, mended it, and fastened on it this drygoods box.  Lucile helped me, and she lined it with an old blanket your mother gave us.  Now what do you think of your sled?” and Mart stepped back out of the way so Bunny and Sue could see what he had made.

“Oh, it’s just—­just dandy!” cried the little boy.

“And it’s a real seat in it!” exclaimed Sue.

“Yes, we took a smaller box and put it inside the large one for a seat,” explained Lucile.  “Now don’t you want to go for a ride?”

“I—­I—­oh, it’s dandy,” cried Bunny, his eyes round with pleasure.

“See,” went on Mart, “I am going to take the thills off the pony cart and fasten them on this sled.  Then you can hitch up the Shetland and go for a ride.”

“Oh!  Oh!” squealed Sue, in delight, as she jumped up and down on the barn floor.

“Say, this is more than dandy!” cried Bunny.  “It’s Jim Dandy!”

He went closer to look at the home-made sled while Mart took the shafts from the pony cart and fastened them on the dry goods box at a place he had made for that purpose.

“Why, there’s room for all four of us in the sled!” said Bunny, as he noticed how large the box was.  “And our pony can pull four.  He’s done it lots of times.”

“Well, then I guess he can do it on the slippery snow,” said Mart.  “We’ll come if you want us to, Bunny.”

“Of course I want you!” said the little boy.

“And Lucile, too!” added Sue, for she was very fond of the singing girl actress.

“Yes, I’ll come,” said Lucile.  “But if you drive, Bunny, you must promise not to go too fast.”

“Oh, I’ll go slow,” he agreed.

“Maybe the snow’ll stop and then we can’t go riding,” Sue said.

“Oh, go and look and see if it has!” cried her brother.  “That would be too bad, wouldn’t it, to have the snow stop after Mart had made such a fine sled?”

But a look out the window of the barn showed the white flakes still swirling down, and Bunny and Sue laughed and clapped their hands in delight as Mart brought the pony from his stall.