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 3313 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Gift of 
 Dr. J.M. Frost 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924051612152 
 
TED'S SLED WAS RUNNING AWAY, AND DOWN THE DANGEROUS 
 
 SLOPE. 
 The Curlytops Snowed In Page 20 
 
THE CURLYTOPS 
 SNOWED IN 
 
 OR 
 
 Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds 
 
 BY 
 
 HOWARD R. GARIS 
 
 Author op "The Cublytopo Series," "Bedtimb 
 Stories," "Uncle Wiggily Series," etc. 
 
 lUugtrations 6y 
 JULIA GREENE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY 
 
THE CURLYTOPS SERIES 
 By HOWARD R. GARIS 
 
 i2mo. Qpth. Illustrated. 
 
 THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM 
 Or, Vacation Days in the Country 
 
 THE CURLYTOPS ON STAR ISLAND 
 Or, Camping Out With Grandpa 
 
 THE CURLYTOPS SNOWED IN 
 
 Or, Grand Fun With Skates and Sleds 
 
 THE CURLYTOPS AT UNCLE FRANK'S 
 RANCH 
 Or, little Folks on Ponyback 
 
 CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY, New York 
 
 Copyright, 1918, by 
 CuFPwes & Leon Company 
 
 The Cublytops Snowed In 
 
 i'rinted in U. S. A. 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 
 CBAPXeR 
 
 I A Letter from Gtrandpa 
 
 PACK 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 A Runaway Sled . . , 
 
 . 14 
 
 III 
 
 NiCKNACK ON the IcE . , 
 
 . 25 
 
 iV 
 
 T H h\ Snow House . . . . 
 
 36 
 
 V 
 
 NicKNACK Sees Himself . 
 
 52 
 
 VI 
 
 The Snow Man 
 
 62 
 
 VII 
 
 A Strange Bedfetlow . . 
 
 78 
 
 VIII 
 
 The Lame Boy 
 
 88 
 
 IX 
 
 Through the Ice ... . 
 
 99 
 
 X 
 
 Thanksgiving .... 
 
 114 
 
 Xi 
 
 The Snow Bungalow . . 
 
 125 
 
 XII 
 
 Trouble Is Lost . . , 
 
 143 
 
 XIII 
 
 NicKNACK Has a Ride . . 
 
 . 153 
 
 XIV 
 
 Snowed In 
 
 167 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XV Driven Back 
 
 PAGE 
 
 177 
 
 XVi 
 
 DiGGT^TG A Tunnel . . . 
 
 187 
 
 XVII 
 
 In a Big Deiti' 
 
 201 
 
 XV Ml 
 
 NiCKNACK. Is Gone . . . 
 
 209 
 
 XIX 
 
 What Nigknack Brought . 
 
 222 
 
 XX 
 
 In THE Bungalow . . . . 
 
 234 
 
THE CURLYTOPS 
 SNOWED IN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A LETTER FEOM GRANDPA 
 
 "Ted! Teddy! Look, it's snowing!" 
 ' ' Oh, is it ? Let me see, Mother ! ' ' 
 Theodore Martin, who was seldom called 
 anything but Teddy or Ted, hurried away 
 from the side of his mother, who was 
 straightening his tie in readiness for school. 
 He ran to the window through which his sis- 
 ter Janet, or Jan as she liked to be called, 
 was looking. 
 
 "Oh, it really is snowing 1" cried Ted in 
 delight. "Now we can have some fun!" 
 
 "And look at the big flakes!" went on 
 Jan. "They're just like feathers sifting 
 down. It 11 be a great big snowstorm, and 
 we can go sleigh-riding." 
 
 "And skating, too!" added Ted, his nose 
 pressed flat against the window pane. 
 
The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "You can't skate when there's snow on 
 the pond," objected Jan. "Anyhow it 
 hasn't frozen ice yet. Has it, Mother?" 
 
 "'No, I think it hasn't been quite cold 
 enough for that," answered Mrs. Martin. 
 
 "But it'll be a big snowstorm, won't it?" 
 asked Jan. "There'll be a lot of big drifts, 
 and we can wear our rubber boots and make 
 snowballs! Oh, what fun, Ted!" and she 
 danced up and down. 
 
 "And we can make a snow man, too," 
 went on Teddy. "And a big snowball!" 
 
 "An' I frow snowballs at snow man!" ex- 
 claimed the voice of a smaller boy, who was 
 eating a rather late breakfast at the dining- 
 room table. 
 
 "Oh, Trouble, we'U make you a little snow 
 house!" cried Jan, as she ran over to his 
 high chair to give him a hug and a kiss. 
 "Well make you a snow house and you can 
 play in it." 
 
 "Maybe it'll faU down on him and well 
 have to dig him out, like the lollypop-man 
 dug Mcknack, our goat, out of the sand hole 
 when we were camping with grandpa," add- 
 ed Ted with a laugh. "Say, but it's going 
 to be a big storm ! Guess I 'd better wear my 
 rubber boots; hadn't L Mother?" 
 
A Letter from Grandpa 3 
 
 "I hardly think so, Teddy," said Mrs. 
 Martin. "I don't believe the snow will get 
 very deep." 
 
 "Oh, Mother, won't it?" begged Jan, as 
 if her mother could make it deep or not, just 
 as she liked. 
 
 "Why won't it be a big storm. Mother?" 
 asked Teddy. "See what big flakes are com- 
 ing down," and he looked up at the sky, 
 pressing his face hard against the window. 
 "Why won't it?" 
 
 "Because it seldom snows long when the 
 flakes are so big. The big flakes show that 
 the weather is hardly cold enough to freeze 
 the water from the clouds, which would be 
 rain only it is hardly warm enough for that. 
 It is just cold enough now to make a little 
 snow, with very large flakes, and I think it 
 will soon turn to rain. So you had better 
 wear your rubbers to school and take an um- 
 brella. And, Teddy, be sure to wait for 
 Janet on coming home. Remember you're 
 a year older than she is, and you must look 
 after her." 
 
 * * I will, ' ' promised Teddy. " If I have to 
 stay in, Jan, you wait for me out in front." 
 
 "Will you have to stay in, Teddy?" 
 
 "I don't know. Maybe not. But our 
 
The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 teacher is a crank about things sometimes." 
 
 "Oh, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" exclaimed his 
 mother, speaking his name very slowly, as 
 she always did when she was displeased or 
 was quite serious, "you must not say such 
 things about your teacher." 
 
 "WeU, the other boys say she's cranky." 
 
 "Never mind what the other boys say, you 
 must not call her that. Teachers have it 
 hard enough, trying to see that you children 
 know your lessons, without being called 
 cranks. Don't do it again!" 
 
 "I won't," promised Teddy, just a bit 
 ashamed of himself. 
 
 "And get ready to go to school," went on 
 his mother. "Did you clean your teeth — 
 each of you — and comb your hair?" 
 
 "I did," said Janet. 
 
 "I cleaned my teeth," announced Ted, 
 "but my hair doesn't need combing. I 
 combed it last night." 
 
 For most boys this would hardly have 
 been of any use, but with Teddy Martin it 
 was different. Teddy's hair was so curly 
 that it was hard work to pull a comb through 
 it, even though he went slowly, and when 
 he had finished it was curlier than before, 
 only more fluffed up. Janet's was the same, 
 
A Letter from Grandpa 
 
 except that hers was now getting longer than 
 her brother's. 
 
 No wonder then that the two children were 
 called "Curlytops;" for their hair was a 
 mass of tangled and twisted ringlets which 
 dung tightly to their heads. Everyone 
 called them Curlytops, or just Curlytop, of 
 course, if one happened to meet Teddy or 
 Janet alone, 
 
 "I think you'd better give your hair a 
 little brushing this morning, anyhow, 
 Teddy," his mother said. "You can get a 
 few of the wrinkles out." 
 
 "Well, if I do they won't stay," he an- 
 swered. * * Oh, but look at it snow ! " he cried. 
 "The flakes are getting smaller; don't you 
 think so, Jan?" 
 
 "I think so— a little." 
 
 "Then it'll last and be a big storm, won't 
 it. Mother?" he asked anxiously. 
 
 "Well, maybe so. But you don't want too 
 big a storm, do you?" 
 
 "I want one big enough for us to go coast- 
 ing on the hill and have sleigh-rides. And 
 we can skate, too, if the pond freezes and 
 we scrape off the snow. Oh, we'U have fun, 
 won't we, Jan?" 
 
 Without waiting for an answer Ted ran 
 
6 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 upstairs to take a few of the "wrinkles" out 
 of his curly locks, while Nora Jones, who 
 helped Mrs. Martin with the housework, 
 looked for the children's umbrella and rub- 
 bers. 
 
 It was the first snowstorm of the season, 
 and, as it always did, it caused much delight, 
 not only to the Curlytops but to the other 
 children of Cresco where the Martin family 
 lived. Janet watched eagerly the falling 
 flakes as she put on her rubbers and waited 
 for Teddy to come down from the bathroom, 
 where he had gone to comb his hair, though 
 he could not see much use in doing that. 
 
 "It'll only be all curly again," he said. 
 But still he minded his mother. 
 
 "The flakes are getting lots smaller," said 
 Janet, as she and Teddy started for school. 
 "We'll have big heaps of snow, Ted, and we 
 can have fun." 
 
 "Yes, I think it will be more of a storm 
 than I thought it would amount to at first," 
 said Mrs. Martin. " I 'm glad we have plenty 
 of coal in the cellar, and an abundance of 
 dry wood. Winter has started in early this 
 year." 
 
 "And pretty soon it'll be Thanksgiving 
 and Christmas I" cried Ted. "Then what 
 
A "Letter from Orandpa 
 
 fun well have!" exclaimed the excited boy. 
 
 "Now don't get any snow down inside 
 your collars," called Mrs. Martin to her 
 children, as they went down the street. 
 
 "We won't!" they promised, and then 
 they forgot all about it, and began snow- 
 balling one another with what little snow 
 they could scrape up from the ground, which 
 was now white with the newly-fallen crys- 
 tals. 
 
 "I'm going to wash your face!" suddenly 
 cried Ted to his sister. 
 
 "You are not!" she cried, and away she 
 ran. 
 
 Meanwhile, Trouble Martin, which was 
 the pet name for Baby William, the young- 
 est of the family, sat in the dining-room 
 window and laughed at the falling flakes 
 and at his brother and sister going to school, 
 romping on their way. 
 
 "There, I did wash your face !" cried Ted, 
 as he finally managed to rub a little snow 
 on his sister's cheek, making it all the red- 
 der, "I washed your face first this year!" 
 
 "I don't care. You got some down inside 
 my coUar and my neck's wet and I'm going 
 to tell mother on you I" 
 
 "Oh, don't!" begged Ted. "I won't do 
 
8 The Curl ytops Snowed In 
 
 it again, and I'll wipe your neck with my 
 handkerchief." 
 
 "Well, maybe I won't teU if you don't do 
 it again," promised Janet, while her brother 
 got out his pocket handkerchief. 
 
 "Ouch! Oh!" cried Janet, as Teddy 
 started to dry her neck. "Your handker- 
 chief's aU wet ! It's got a lot of snow on it ! 
 Let me alone!" and she pushed him away. 
 
 "Wet? My handkerchief wet?" asked 
 Ted. "So it is!" he exclaimed. "I guess 
 some snow must have got in my pocket. Ill 
 use yours, Jan." 
 
 "No, I don't want you to. I'll wipe my 
 own neck. You let me alone!" 
 
 Jan was laughing ; she did not really care 
 that Ted had washed her face, and she soon 
 had her neck quite dry. Then the two Curly- 
 tops hurried on to school. 
 
 The street was filled with children now, 
 all going to the same place. Some paused to 
 make a slide on the sidewalk, and others took 
 turns running and then gliding along the 
 slippery place. 
 
 "Oh, here's a dandy one !" called Tommie 
 Wilson, who lived not far from Teddy Mar- 
 tin. The two boys saw a long smooth place 
 on the sidewalk in front of them, where some 
 
A Ltetter from Grandpa 9 
 
 early school children had made a slide. 
 
 "Come on!" cried Tommie, taking a run. 
 
 "Come on!" yelled Teddy. 
 
 One before the other they went down tiie 
 i»dewalk slide. 
 
 'TJook out for me !" called Janet and she, 
 too, took a running start. 
 
 But alas for the children. Near the end 
 of the slide one of Tommie 's feet slid the 
 wrong way and after he had tried, by wav- 
 ing his arms, to keep upright, down he went 
 in a heap. 
 
 "Get out the way!" cried Teddy. But 
 Tommie had no time, and right into him 
 slid Ted, falling down on top of his chum, 
 while Jan, not able to stop, crashed into her 
 brother and then sat down on the slide with 
 a bump. All three were in a heap. 
 
 "Oh, Tommie Wilson!" cried Janet, look- 
 ing at her books which had fallen out of her 
 strap. "See what you did!" 
 
 "I couldn't help it!" 
 
 "You could so! You tripped on purpose 
 to make me fall!" 
 
 "I did not, Janet Martin." 
 
 "No, it wasn't Tommie 's fault," declared 
 Teddy- "He couldn't help it. Are you hurt, 
 Jan?" 
 
10 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "No — ^not much — but look at my books." 
 
 "I'll pick 'em up for you," offered Tom- 
 mie, and he did, brushing off the snow. Then 
 he helped Janet to get up, and she began to 
 laugh. After all it was only fun to fall on 
 a slippery slide. 
 
 "There goes the bell!" cried Teddy, when 
 he had helped brush the snow off his sister's 
 skirt. 
 
 "One more slide!" exclaimed Tommie. 
 
 "I'm going to have one, too!" called 
 Teddy. 
 
 "You'll be late for school, and be kept 
 in!" warned Janet. 
 
 "We'll run," Tommie said, as he started 
 at the top of the slippery place. 
 
 He and Ted had their one-more slide, and 
 then, taking hold of Janet's hands, they 
 hurried on to school. 
 
 Behind them and in front of them were 
 other children, some hurrying to their 
 classes, others waiting for a last slide, some 
 falling down in the snow. Others were 
 washing one another's faces and some were 
 snowballing. 
 
 In school the teachers had hard work to 
 keep the minds of their pupils on their les- 
 sons. Every now and then some boy or girl 
 
A Tietter from Grandpa 11 
 
 would look out of the window when his eyes 
 ought to have been on spelling book or geog- 
 raphy. All wanted to see the snow sifting 
 down from the clouds. 
 
 The flakes, that had been large at first, 
 were now smaller, and this, as most of the 
 children had been told, meant that the storm 
 would last. And they were glad, for to them 
 snow meant grand winter fun with sleds and 
 skates. 
 
 "We'll have some bobsled races all right," 
 whispered Teddy Martin to Tommie Wilson, 
 and the teacher, hearing what Teddy said, 
 kept him after school for whispering. 
 But she did not keep him very long, for she 
 knew what it meant to have fun in the first 
 snow of the season. 
 
 Teddy found Janet waiting for him when 
 he came out, for it was now snowing hard 
 and Teddy had taken the umbrella with him 
 when he went to his room. He was a year 
 older than his sister and one class ahead 
 of her in school. 
 
 "Were you bad in class ?" Janet asked. 
 
 "I only whispered a Httle. She didn't 
 keep me in long. Come on now, well have 
 some fun." 
 
 And fun the Curlytops and their play- 
 
12 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 mates did have on their way home from 
 school. They slid, they snowballed, they 
 washed one another's faces and some of the 
 boys even started to roll big snowballs, but 
 the flakes were too dry to stick well, and they 
 soon gave this up. It needs a wet snow to 
 make a big ball. 
 
 When Teddy and Janet got home, their 
 cheeks red, their eyes sparkling and their 
 hair curlier than ever because some snow 
 had gotten in it, they found their mother 
 reading a letter which the postman had just 
 left. 
 
 *'0h, what's it about ?" asked Jan. "It's 
 from Cherry Farm, isn't it, Mother? I can 
 tell by the funny black mark on the stamp." 
 
 "Is it from grandpa?" asked Teddy. 
 
 "Yes," answered Mrs. Martin. "The let- 
 ter is from grandpa." 
 
 "Is he coming here to spend Christmas, 
 or are we going there just as you said we 
 might?" asked Janet. 
 
 "I'm not sure about either one yet," re- 
 plied her mother. "But grandpa sends his 
 love, and he also sends a bit of news." 
 
 "What is it?" asked Ted. 
 
 "Grandpa Martin writes that an old her- 
 mit, who lives in a lonely log cabin in the 
 
A Letter from Grandpa 13 
 
 woods back of Cherry Farm, says this is go- 
 ing to be the worst winter in many years. 
 There will be big snowstorms, the hermit 
 says, and G-randpa Martin adds that the her- 
 mit is a good weather prophet. That is, he 
 seems to know what is going to happen." 
 
 "A big snowstorm I That will be fun I" 
 cried Teddy. 
 
 "Maybe not, if it is too big." warned his 
 mother. * * Grandpa Martin says we ought to 
 put away an abundance of coal and plenty 
 of things to eat." 
 
 "Why?" asked Janet. 
 
 "Because we may be snowed in," an- 
 swered her mother. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A RtTNAWAT SLED 
 
 For a moment Ted and Janet looked at 
 their mother. Sometimes she told them 
 strange things, and she did it with such a 
 serious face that they could not always tell 
 whether or not she was in earnest. 
 
 "Do you mean that the snow will come up 
 over the top of the house so we can't go out ?" 
 asked Teddy. 
 
 He remembered a picture his mother had 
 once showed him of a lonely log cabin in the 
 woods, almost hidden under a big white 
 drift, and beneath the picture were the 
 words: "Snowed in." 
 
 "If it comes up over the top of the house 
 we can't ever get out till it melts," went on 
 Jan. "Will it happen that way, Mother? 
 What fun!" 
 
 "Dandy!" cried Ted. 
 *0h, indeed ! Being snowed in isn't such 
 
 14 
 
A Runaway Sled 15 
 
 fun as you may think," said Mrs. Martin, 
 and then the Curlytops knew their mother 
 was now a little bit in earnest at least. 
 
 "Of course," she went on, "the snow will 
 hardly cover our house, as it is much larger 
 than the one in the picture I showed Teddy. 
 But being snowed in means that so much 
 snow falls that the roads are covered, and 
 the piles, or drifts, of the white flakes may 
 be high enough to come over the lower doors 
 and windows. 
 
 "When so much snow falls it is hard to 
 get out. Even automobiles and horses can 
 not go along the roads, and it is then people 
 are 'snowed in.' They can not get out to 
 buy things to eat, and unless they have 
 plenty in the house they may go hungry. 
 
 "That is what Grandpa Martin meant 
 when he said we might be snowed in, and 
 why he warned us to get in a quantity of 
 food to eat." 
 
 "But shall we really be snowed in. 
 Mother?" asked Ted. 
 
 "I don't know, I'm sure. Grandpa was 
 only teUing us what the hermit told him. 
 Sometimes those old men who live in the 
 woods and know much about nature's secrets 
 that other persons do not know, can foretell 
 
16 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 the weather. And the snow has certainly; 
 come earlier this year than for a long time 
 back. I am afraid we shall have a hard win- 
 ter, though whether or not we shall be 
 snowed in I cannot say." 
 
 "Well, if we're going to be snowed in let's 
 go coasting now, Janet!" suggested Ted to 
 his sister. 
 
 "May we. Mother?" asked the little girl. 
 
 "Yes. But don't go on the big hiU." 
 
 "No. We 11 stay on the small one. ' ' 
 
 Teddy ran out of the room to get the sled. 
 
 "Me want to go on sled!" cried Baby 
 William. 
 
 "Oh, Trouble ! We can't take you !" said 
 Jan. 
 
 "I wish you could," said Mrs. Martin. 
 "He hasn't been out much to-day, and I 
 want to get him used to the cold weather. It 
 wiU be good for him. He loves the snow. 
 Just give him a little ride and bring him 
 back." 
 
 "All right," agreed Janet. "Come on, 
 Trouble. Ill help you get your cap and 
 jacket on." 
 
 "Is he comin' with us?" demanded Ted, 
 as he got his sled and Janet's down out of 
 the attic, where they had been stored all 
 
A Runaway Sled 17 
 
 summer. "I'm not goin^ coasting with 
 himl" 
 
 "Don't forget your 'g's,' Teddy," said 
 his mother gently. 
 
 "Well, I don't want to take the baby 
 coasting," and Teddy was careful, this time, 
 not to drop the last letter as he sometimes 
 did from words where it belonged. "Can't 
 have any fun with him along!" 
 
 "Ill just give him a little ride," whis- 
 pered Janet. "You boys will have to make 
 the hill smooth anyhow, and we girls can't 
 have any fun till you do that. So 111 ride 
 Trouble up and down the street for a 
 while." 
 
 "Oh, all right. And I'U take him coast- 
 ing some other time," promised Ted, a little 
 bit ashamed of the fuss he had made. 
 "Well go on and get the hill worn down nice 
 and smooth." 
 
 It was still snowing, but not very hard, 
 and the ground was now two or three inches 
 deep with the white flakes — enough to make 
 good coasting when it had been packed down 
 smooth and hard on the hill which was not 
 far from the home of the Curlytops. There 
 were two hills, the larger, long one being 
 farther away. 
 
18 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 At first the runners of the two sleds were 
 rusty, but Ted scraped them with a piece of 
 stone and they were soon worn smooth and 
 shiny so they would glide along easily. 
 
 Trouble was delighted at the chance of 
 being taken out on his sister's sled. Janet 
 gave her little brother a nice ride up and 
 down the sidewalk, and then she ran and 
 rode him swiftly to the house where her 
 mother took him up the steps. Trouble did 
 not want to go in, and cried a little, but his 
 mother talked and laughed at him so that he 
 soon smiled. Mrs. Martin wanted Janet to 
 have some fun with Teddy on the hUl. 
 
 There were a number of boys and girls 
 coasting when Janet reached the place 
 where her brother had gone. The Mil had 
 now been worn smooth and the sleds shot 
 swiftly down the hilL 
 
 "Come on, Janet!" cried her brother. 
 " It 's lots of fun ! I '11 give you a push ! ' ' 
 
 Janet sat on her sled at the top of the hiU, 
 and Ted, with a little running start, thrust 
 her along the slope. Down went Janet, the 
 wind whistling in her ears. 
 
 "Look out the way! Here I come, too!'* 
 cried Ted behind her. "I'll race you to the 
 bottom!" 
 
A Runaway Sled 19 
 
 But Janet had a good start and Ted could 
 not catch up to her, though he did beat Tom- 
 mie Wilson who had started at the same time 
 the Curlytop lad had. 
 
 With shouts and laughter the children 
 coasted on the hill. At the bottom they came 
 to a stop on a level place, though some of 
 the older boys gave their sleds an extra push 
 and then went on down another hiUy street 
 that was a continuation of the first. At the 
 foot of this street ran the railroad and there 
 was some danger that sleds going down the 
 second hill might cross the tracks. Of 
 course, if there were no trains this would 
 have been aU right. But one could never be 
 certain when a train would come, so most 
 of the children were told never to go down 
 the second hill. They could not do it imless 
 they pushed their sleds on purpose, over the 
 level place at the bottom of the first hill. 
 
 "I wouldn't want to ride down there," 
 said Teddy, as he saw some of the larger boys 
 fasten their sleds together in a sort of 
 "bob," and go down the second hill together. 
 
 "No, this little hill is good enough," Janet 
 replied. 
 
 She and Teddy, with their boy and girl 
 friends had great sport coasting on the snow. 
 
20 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 It was getting dusk, and some of the smaller 
 children had gone home. 
 
 "We'd better go, too," said Janet. "It's 
 snowing again, Ted, and maybe it wiU hap- 
 pen — ^what grandpa's letter said — we'll be 
 snowed in." 
 
 "WeU, I'm going to have one more coast," 
 Teddy answered. 
 
 "I'll wait for you," returned his sister. 
 
 She saw her brother slide down the small 
 hiU and come to a stop on the level place at 
 the bottom. Then, before Ted could get off 
 his sled, down came a lot of the big boys, 
 riding together on a bob. 
 
 "Look out the way !" they called to Teddy. 
 "Look out the wayl We're going fast and 
 we can 't stop ! We 're going down the second 
 hiU! Look out the way! Clear the track I" 
 
 But Teddy had no time to get out of the 
 way. In another second, before he could get 
 up off his sled, the bob of the big boys 
 crashed into him and sent him over the level 
 place and down the second hill. 
 
 Ted's sled was really running away with 
 him, and down the dangerous slope. 
 
 "Oh, Teddy! Teddy!" cried Janet when 
 she saw what had happened. "Come back! 
 Come back!" 
 
A Runaway Sled 21 
 
 But Teddy could not come back. His sled 
 was a runaway and could not be stopped. 
 LucMly Teddy had not been hurt when the 
 big boys ran into him, and he managed to 
 stay on his sled. But he was going very fast 
 down the second hill. 
 
 "Oh, dear!" cried Janet, and down she 
 ran after her brother. 
 
 I will take just a moment here to tell my 
 new readers a little about the Curlytops, so 
 they may feel better acquainted with them. 
 Those who have read the first volume of this 
 series may skip this part. That book is en- 
 titled "The Curlytops at Cherry Farm," and 
 tells of Janet and Ted's summer vacation, 
 which was spent at the home of Grandpa 
 Martin. They found a stray goat, which 
 they named Mcknack, and they had many 
 good times with their pet. They also met a 
 boy named Hal Chester, who was being cured 
 of lameness at a Home for Crippled Chil- 
 dren, not far from grandpa 's house. Grand- 
 pa Martin had on his farm many cherry 
 trees and how the "loUypop" man helped 
 turn the cherries into candy is told in the 
 book. 
 
 The second volume is called "The Curly- 
 tops on Star Island," and relates the expe- 
 
22 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 riences of the two children, with Trouble 
 and their mother, when camping with 
 grandpa on an island in Clover Lake. On 
 the island Ted and Janet saw a strange blue 
 fire, though they did not learn what caused 
 it until after they had met a strange * * tramp- 
 man" who sometimes stayed in a cave. 
 
 When their camping days on Star Island 
 came to an end, the Curlytops went back to 
 their home in the town of Cresco, where Mr. 
 Martin owned a large store. And now we 
 find them coasting down hUl. 
 
 As for the children themselves, you have 
 already been told their names. Theodore 
 and Janet they were, but more often they 
 were called just Ted and Jan. Baby Wil- 
 liam was generally called "Trouble," be- 
 cause he got in so much of it. But Mother 
 Martin usually called him "dear Trouble." 
 He often went with Jan and Ted when they 
 rode with Mcknack, and Trouble had ad- 
 ventures of his own. Besides Mr. and Mrs. 
 Martin there was Nora, the maid. 
 
 Grandpa Martin has been mentioned, and 
 of course there was Grandma Martin. They 
 lived at Cherry Farm. Mrs. Martin's sis- 
 ter, Miss Josephine Miller, lived in the city 
 of Clayton. 
 
A Runaway Sled 23 
 
 Aunt Jo, as the children called her, owned, 
 besides her city home, a country place in Mt. 
 Hope on Ruby Lake. She said she would 
 some day build a nice, new bungalow at the 
 lake. 
 
 Another relative, of whom the Curlytops 
 were fond, was Uncle Frank Barton. He 
 was really Mr. Martin's uncle, but Ted and 
 Jan claimed him as their own. He had a 
 big ranch near Rockville, Montana, and the 
 children hoped to go there some day. 
 
 Besides their goat, Ted and Jan had a 
 dog named Skyrocket and a cat called Turn- 
 over, because she would lie down and roll 
 over to get something to eat. The dog's 
 name was given him because he was always 
 so lively, running and jumping here, there 
 and everywhere. 
 
 And now that you have learned more 
 about the family, you will, perhaps, wish to 
 hear what was happening to Teddy. 
 
 Down the second hUl he went on his run- 
 away sled, very fast, for the bob of the big 
 boys had struck his coaster quite a blow. 
 And the second hill was much more slippery 
 than the first, some of the boys having 
 sprinkled it with water, that had frozen into 
 ice. 
 
24 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Oh, dear!" thought poor Ted, as he went 
 sliding down faster and faster. "I'm 
 afraid!" 
 
 And well he might be, for at the foot of 
 the hill, where the railroad crossed, he could 
 now hear the puffing of an engine and the 
 ringing of a bell. 
 
 "Ted! Teddy! Come back! Stop!" 
 cried Jan, as she ran down the hiU. But 
 Teddy could neither stop nor come back just 
 then. 
 
CHAPTER m 
 
 NTCKNACK ON THE ICE 
 
 Janet Maetin did not know what to do. 
 In fact, a girl much older than Ted's sister 
 would have been puzzled to know how to 
 stop the little boy on his runaway sled f roni 
 going across the railroad tracks. Of course 
 he might get across before the train came, 
 but there was danger. 
 
 "Oh, dear!" cried Jan. "Those big boys 
 were mean to bunk into Ted, and push him 
 over the second hill !" 
 
 She was tired now, and running down a 
 slippery hill is not easy. So Jan stood still. 
 Many of the other coasters did not know 
 that Ted was in danger. They saw the 
 larger boys coasting down the second hill, 
 and perhaps they thought Teddy knew what 
 he was about as long as his sled was going 
 fio straight down the same slope. 
 
 For Ted was steering very straight. "With 
 
 2S 
 
26 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 his feet dangling over the back of his sled 
 he guided it down the hiU, out of the way of 
 other boys, some of whom he passed, for his 
 sled was a fast one. 
 
 Teddy was frightened. But he was a 
 brave little fellow, and some time before he 
 had learned to steer a sled with his feet, so 
 he was not as afraid as he might otherwise 
 have been. 
 
 "Oh, what will happen to him?" wailed 
 Janet, and tears came into her eyes. As 
 soon as she had shed them she was sorry, 
 for it is not very comfortable to cry wet, 
 watery, salty tears in freezing weather. 
 
 "What is the matter, Curlytop?" asked a 
 bigger girl of Jan. This girl had been giv- 
 ing her little brother and sister a ride on her 
 sled. 
 
 "My brother is sliding down the second 
 hill, and there's a train coming," sobbed 
 Jan. "He'll be hurt! We never go on that 
 hill!" 
 
 The big girl looked down at Ted. He was 
 quite far away now, but he could easily be 
 
 seen, 
 
 Maybe he'll stop in time," said the big 
 girl. "Oh, look!" she cried suddenly. 
 "He's steered into a snow bank and upset (" 
 
Nicknack on the Ice 27 
 
 And this was just what Ted had done. 
 Whether he did it by accident, or on pur- 
 pose, Jan could not tell. But she was still 
 afraid. 
 
 "He'U get hurt!" she said to the big girl. 
 
 * ' Oh, I guess not, ' ' was the answer. * ' The 
 snow is soft and your brother would rather 
 run into that, I think, than into a train of 
 cars. Come on, I'll go down the hill with 
 you and see if he is all right. You stay 
 here, Mary and John," she said to her little 
 brother and sister, placing them, with their 
 sled, where they would be out of the way of 
 the other coasters. 
 
 "I'll leave my sled here, too," said Jan, 
 as she went down the hill with the older girl. 
 
 When they reached Teddy he was brush- 
 ing off the snow with which he had become 
 covered when he sUd, head first, into the 
 drift alongside the road. 
 
 "Are you hurt?" cried Jan, even before 
 she reached him. 
 
 "Nope!" laughed Ted. "I'm aU right, 
 but I was scared. I thought I 'd run over the 
 track. Those feUows nearly did," and he 
 pointed to the boys on the bobsled, which 
 they had made by joining together two or 
 three of their bigger sleds, tying them with 
 
28 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 ropes, and holding them together as they; 
 went down hill by their arms and legs. 
 
 The boys on this bobsled had stopped just 
 before going over the track when the 
 switchman at the crossing had lowered the 
 gates. He was now telling the boys they 
 must not coast down as far as this any more, 
 as trains were coming. And, as he spoke, 
 one rumbled by. 
 
 "You might have been hurt by that if you 
 had not stopped your sled in time," said the 
 big girl to Ted. 
 
 "That's what I thought," he answered. 
 "That's why I steered into the snow bank." 
 
 "Those big boys were mean to shove y a 
 down the second hill," declared Janet. 
 
 "WeU, maybe they didn't mean it," sa'd 
 the big girl. 
 
 "No, we didn't," put in one of the larger 
 boys, coming up just then, "We're sorry 
 if we hurt you, Curlytop," he added to Ted. 
 
 "You didn't hurt me, but you seared me," 
 was the small boy's answer. 
 
 "You certainly know how to steer," said 
 the bigger boy. "I watched you as we 
 passed you on the bill. I knew if we got to 
 the bottom jSrst we could keep you from get- 
 ting hurt by the train. Now you and your 
 
Nicknack on the Ice 2S> 
 
 sisters sit on my big sled, and we'R pull you 
 to the top of the hiU to pay for the trouble 
 we made." 
 
 "I'm not his sister," said the big girl. 
 
 "I am!" exclaimed Jan quickly. 
 
 * * I might have known that. You two have 
 hair just alike, as curly as a carpenter's 
 shaving!" laughed the big boy. "Well, hop 
 on the sled, and you, too," he added, nodding 
 at the big girl. "I guess we can pull you all 
 up." 
 
 "Course we can!" cried another big boy, 
 and when Ted, Jan and the larger girl, 
 whose name was Helen Dolan, got on the 
 largest of the sleds that had made up the 
 bob, they were pulled up the two hills by a 
 crowd of laughing boys, Teddy's sled trail- 
 ing on behind. 
 
 So the little incident did not really 
 amount to much, though at one time both 
 Ted and Jan were frightened. They coasted 
 some more, being careful to keep out of the 
 way of the bigger boys and girls and then, 
 as it was getting dark, Jan said again they 
 had better go home. 
 
 "One more coast!" cried Ted, just as he 
 fiad said before. "It may rain in the night 
 and melt all the snow." 
 
30 The Curlytops Snmoed In 
 
 "It's awful cold," shivered Janet, button- 
 ing up her coat. "If it tries to rain it will 
 freeze into snow. And it's snowing yet, 
 Ted." 
 
 "Yes. And almost as hard as it was this 
 morning. Say, maybe we'll be snowed in, 
 Jan! Wouldn't it be fun?" 
 
 "Maybe. I never was snowed in; were 
 you?" 
 
 "No. But I'd Hke to be." 
 
 The time was to come, though, when Ted 
 and Janet were to find that to be snowed in 
 was not quite so much fun as they expected. 
 
 They reached home with rosy cheeks and 
 sparkling eyes, to find supper ready for 
 them. 
 
 "Did you have a good time ?" asked their 
 mother. 
 
 "Fine I" answered Janet. 
 
 "And I got run away with," added Ted, 
 who always told everything that happened. 
 
 "Run away with!" exclaimed his father. 
 "I thought they didn't allow any horses or 
 automobiles on the coasting hill." 
 
 "They don't," Ted answered. "My sled 
 ran away with me, but I steered it into a 
 snow bank and upset," and he told of what 
 had happened. 
 
Nicknack on the Ice 31 
 
 "You must be very careful," said his 
 father, when Ted had finished. ' ' Coasting is 
 fun, but if everyone is not careful you may 
 get hurt, and we wouldn't like that." 
 
 It was still snowing hard when Ted and 
 Jan went to bed, and it was with eager faces 
 that they looked out into the night. 
 
 "Do you s 'pose we '11 be snowed in ? " asked 
 Jan. 
 
 "I hope so — that is, if we have enough to 
 eat, ' ' answered Ted. ' ' That 's what grandpa 
 said to do— buy lots to eat, 'cause the her- 
 mit said it was going to be an awful bad 
 winter." 
 
 "Did you ever see a hermit, Ted ?" 
 
 "No. Did you?" 
 
 'No. But I'd like to, wouldn't you?" 
 
 *Yes, I would, Jan." 
 
 "Maybe I'll be a hermit some day," went 
 on the little girl, after she had gotten into 
 bed, her room being across the hall from 
 Ted's. 
 
 ' * Huh ! You can 't be a hermit. ' ' 
 
 "I can so!" 
 
 "You can not I" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " 'Cause hermits is only men. Ill be the 
 hermit!" 
 
 "] 
 
32 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Well, couldn't I live with you — ^wher- 
 ever you live?" 
 
 "Maybe I might live in a dark cave. Lots 
 of hermits do." 
 
 "1 wouldn't be afraid in the dark if you 
 were there, Teddy." 
 
 'AH right. Maybe I'd let you live with 
 
 me." 
 
 "Does a hermit like snowstorms, Ted- 
 dy?" 
 
 "Children, you must be quiet and go to 
 sleep !" called Mrs. Martin from downstairs. 
 "Don't talk any more. " 
 
 Ted and Janet were quiet for a little while, 
 and then Janet called in a loud whisper : 
 
 "Teddy, when you're a hermit will you 
 have to eat?" 
 
 "I guess so, Jan. Everybody has to eat." 
 
 "Children!'* warned Mrs. Martin again, 
 and then Jan and Ted became quiet for the 
 rest of the night. 
 
 It was very cold when the children awoke 
 in the morning, and as soon as they were up 
 they ran to the windows to look out. It had 
 stoDped snowing and the air was clear and 
 brisrbt with sunshine. 
 
 "We didn't get snowed in," called Janet, 
 in some disappointment. 
 
Nicknack on the Ice 33 
 
 "No," answered Ted. "But it's so cold 
 I guess the pond is frozen and we can go 
 skating." 
 
 "Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Jan. "WiU 
 you help me skate, Ted? 'Cause I can't do 
 it very well yet. ' ' She had just learned the 
 winter before. 
 
 "I'll help you," her brother promised. 
 
 There was a pond not far from the Mar- 
 tin home, and it was so shallow that it froze 
 more quickly than the larger lake, which was 
 just outside the town, and where the best 
 skating was. The smaller boys and girls 
 used the little pond, though sometimes they 
 went to the lake when it was perf e^^ safe. 
 
 After school Jan and Ted, taking their 
 skates, went to the pond. There they found 
 many of their little friends. 
 
 "How's the ice?" asked Teddy of Harry 
 Kent. 
 
 "Slippery as glass," was the answer. 
 
 "Then I'll fall down!" exclaimed Jan. 
 
 And she did, almost as soon as she stood 
 up on her skates. But Ted and Harry held 
 her between them and before long she could 
 strike out a little. Then she remembered 
 some of the directions her father had given 
 her when he taught her to skate the year 
 
34 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 before, and Jan was soon doing fairly well. 
 Ted was a pretty good skater for a boy of 
 his age. 
 
 "You're doing fine, Curlytop!" caUed 
 Harry Morris, one of the big boys who had 
 pulled Ted and Jan up the hill on his sled 
 the previous night. He had come to see how 
 thick the ice was. "You're doing fine. But 
 why don't you hitch up your goat and make 
 him pull you on the ice?" 
 
 "Oh, Ted, we could do that!" cried Janet, 
 as the big boy passed on. 
 
 "Do what?" 
 
 "Harness Mcknaek to a sled and make 
 him give us a ride. Maybe he could pull us 
 over the snow as well as on the ice." 
 
 "We'U try it!" cried Teddy. 
 
 He took off his skates and hurried home, 
 telling Janet to wait for him at the pond, 
 which was not far from the Martin house. 
 In a little while Teddy came back driving 
 Nicknack hitched to Ted's sled. The goat 
 pulled the little boy along over the snow 
 much more easily than he had hauled the 
 small wagon. 
 
 "This is great!" cried Ted. "I'm going 
 to drive him on the ice now. Griddap, Nick- 
 nack!" 
 
Nicknack on the Ice 35 
 
 Teddy guided the goat to the ice-covered 
 pond. Mcknack took two or three steps on 
 the slippery place and then he suddenly fell 
 down, the sled, with Ted on it, gliding over 
 his hind legs. 
 
 "Baa-a-a-a!" bleated Nicknack, as if he 
 did not at aU like this. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE SNOW HOUSE 
 
 "Oh, Teddy, you'Uhurt Meknack!" cried 
 Janet, when she saw what had happened. 
 
 "I didn't mean to," Ted answered, jump- 
 ing off the sled. "He slipped on the ice and 
 I couldn't stop the sled." 
 
 "Help him get up," went on Jan. "He 
 can't get up himself with tiiat sled on his 
 hind legs." 
 
 Teddy pulled back the sled, but stiU. Nick- 
 nack did not get up. 
 
 "Maybe one of his legs is broken," sug- 
 gested Tom Taylor, a boy who lived near 
 the Martins. 
 
 "If it is he'll have to run on three legs. 
 Our dog did that once, when one of his legs 
 had been rim over," said Lola Taylor, Tom's 
 sister. 
 
 "Come on, Nicknack, get up!" cried Ted. 
 "Stand up and give us a ride on the ice." 
 
 36 
 
The Snow House 37 
 
 But the goat only went: "Baa-a-a-al" 
 again, and he seemed to shake his head as 
 if to say that he could not get up. 
 
 "His legs are all right," Teddy said when 
 he had looked at them as well as he could, 
 and felt of the parts that stuck out from 
 under Nicknack's body. "Why doesn't he 
 stand up?" 
 
 "What's the matter, Curlytop?" asked 
 Harry Morris. 
 
 "My goat won't stand up on the ice," Ted 
 answered. "He fell down and his legs are 
 all right, but he won't stand up." 
 
 "Maybe it's because he knows he can't," 
 said Harry. * ' Croats aren 't made to stand on 
 slippery ice you know. Their hoofs are hard 
 like a cow's. They are all right for walk- 
 ing on snow or on ttie ground, but they can't' 
 get a good hold on the ice. I guess the rea- 
 son Nicknack won't stand up is because he 
 knows he'd fall down again if he tried it. 
 Here, I'll help you get him over into the 
 snow, and there you'll see he'll be aU right." 
 
 With the help of Harry, the goat was half 
 led and half carried off the pond to the snow- 
 covered ground. There Nicknack could drag 
 the sled easily, and he gave Ted and Jan a 
 nice ride, also pulling Lola and Tom. 
 
38 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Ted offered the big boy a ride behind the 
 goat, but Harry said: 
 
 "I'm much obliged to you, Curlytop, but 
 I'm afraid your sled is too small for me. 
 Your goat is strong enough to pull me, I 
 guess, but I'd fall off the sled, I'm afraiji." 
 
 "I wish I could make him pull me on the 
 ice," said Teddy. "How could we make 
 him stop slipping?" he asked the big boy. 
 
 "Well, you'd have to have sharp-pointed 
 iron shoes put on his hoofs, the same as they 
 shoe horses for the winter. Only I don't 
 know any blacksmith that could make shoes 
 small enough for a goat. Maybe you could 
 tie cloth on his hoofs, or old pieces of rub- 
 ber, so he wouldn't slip on the ica" 
 
 "That's what we'll dol" cried Teddy. 
 "To-morrow we'll make some rubbers for 
 our goat, Jan." 
 
 "Do you think he'U let us put 'em on?" 
 asked Jan. 
 
 "Oh, course he will. Nicknack is a good 
 goat." 
 
 Ted and Jan drove him around some more 
 in the snow, and this was not hard pulling 
 for Mcknack, as the sled slipped along eas- 
 ily and he had no trouble in standing up on 
 his sharp hoofs in the soft snow. But Ted 
 
The Snow House 39 
 
 did not again drive him on the ice that day. 
 
 "I know what we can do to have some 
 fun," said Jan, as she and her brother 
 started Mcknack toward home after having 
 had some more rides themselves, and giving 
 some to their little friends. 
 
 "What?" asked Ted. "Haven't we had 
 fun enough?" 
 
 "Yes, but we can have more," went on 
 Jan. ' * And this fun is good to eat. " 
 
 "If you mean stopping at a store and get- 
 ting some loUypops — ^nopy !" and Ted shook 
 his head quickly from side to side. 
 
 "I didn't mean that," declared Jan. 
 
 "It's good you didn't," came from her 
 brother, " 'cause if you did we couldn't." 
 
 "Why not?" Jan asked. 
 
 "I haven't got a penny," returned Teddy. 
 "I asked mother for some when I went home 
 to get Nicknack, but she told me to wait a 
 minute while she paid the milkman." 
 
 "Didn't you wait?" asked Jan in some 
 surprise. It seemed strange that Teddy 
 would miss a chance like this, as Mrs. Mar- 
 tin did not give the Curlytops pennies every 
 time they asked for them. She did not want 
 them to get in the habit of spending money 
 too freely, especially when it was given 
 
40 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 them, and they had done no little thing to 
 earn it. Nor did she want them to buy candy 
 when she did not know about it. So the giv- 
 ing of pennies was really an event in the 
 lives of Ted and Jan, and the little girl won- 
 dered very much now, why it was her brother 
 had not taken the money when his mother 
 was willing to give it. 
 
 "Why didn't you want to wait, Ted?" 
 asked Jan. 
 
 "Oh, I wanted to all right," he answered; 
 "but Nicknaek didn't want to. I got him — 
 Nora and me — ^all harnessed up, and I tied 
 him out in front ; then I went in to ask for 
 the pennies — one for you and one for me." 
 
 "Oh, I wish you'd got 'em," said Jan, 
 rather sorrowfully. 
 
 "I would have, only for the goat," ex- 
 plained her brother. "Mother told me to 
 wait ; but, just as she said it, I saw an auto- 
 mobile come along in front of our house close 
 to where I'd tied Meknack. 
 
 "Our goat got seared and tried to run 
 away, 'cause the auto chucked snow on bim, 
 and then I had to run out to catch him. 
 That's why I couldn't wait for the pennies. 
 I jumped on the sled just as Meknack was 
 startin' to run away " 
 
The Snow House 41 
 
 "Star-ting!" corrected Janet. 
 
 "Well, star-ting, then," laughed Ted. 
 "Anyhpw, I couldn't make him turn around 
 to go back for the pennies, so I came on right 
 over to the pond." 
 
 *M^d we had a lot of fun there," stated 
 Jan. ' ' Only I didn 't like to see our goat fall 
 down." 
 
 "Well, hell stand up when we get rubbers 
 for him," said Ted. "But how 're we going 
 to have more fun, Jan^" 
 
 "Make snow-cream," answered the little 
 Curlji;op girl. 
 
 "What's that?" asked Ted. "Like ice- 
 cream?" 
 
 "Yes, only different. Don't you know? 
 Mother lets us make it sometimes. You take 
 a lot of snow — clean snow in a pail — and 
 you stir some eggs and milk and sugar and 
 flavoring in it, and that makes almost the 
 same as ice-cream." 
 
 "How 're we going to do it?" asked Ted, 
 as the goat pulled him and his sister slowly 
 along the snow-lined street. "We haven't 
 got any sugar or mUk or eggs or flavoring 
 — ^not even a pail." 
 
 "We can stop at Aunt Sallie's and get 'em 
 all," said Janet. "She'll like us to make 
 
42 The Curlytops Srumed In 
 
 snow-cream, I guess. She can help us eat 
 it." 
 
 "Then let's I" cried Teddy. "Go on, Nick- 
 nack, we're going to make snow-cream 1 Is 
 it awful good?" he asked his sister. 
 
 < t Terrible good, ' ' she answered. * * I didn 't 
 have any yet this winter, but we had some 
 last. It 's better 'n loUypops. ' ' 
 
 "Then it must be specially extra good," 
 decided Ted. "Hurry up, Nicknack." 
 
 The goat hurried as much as he could, but, 
 though it was easier going on the snow than 
 on the ice, still it was not as easy as on the 
 dry ground in summer. 
 
 Along the street, around this comer, then 
 ground the next went the Curlytops on the 
 sled pulled by Nicknack, until, at last, they 
 came to the house of Aunt Sallie, a dear 
 old lady who was always glad to see them. 
 
 "My gracious sakes alive 1" she cried, as 
 she met the two children. "Here we come, 
 in our coach and four, just like Cinderella 
 out of the pumpkia pie !" 
 
 "Oh, Cinderella didn't come out of a 
 pumpkin pie, Aunt Sallie!" gasped Janet. 
 
 "No? WeU, I was thinking of some 
 pumpkin pies I just baked, I guess," said 
 Aunt Sallie Newton, who was really Mrs. 
 
The Snow House 43 
 
 Martin's aunt, and so, of course, the Curly- 
 tops' great-aunt, though they called her 
 ''Aunt" Sallie, and not "Great-aunt" Sallie. 
 "Yes, I guess that was it — ^the pumpkin pies 
 I baked. Maybe you'd like some?" she 
 asked, looking at the children. 
 
 "Oh, I just guess we would!" cried Teddy 
 eagerly. 
 
 "And we'd like some snow-cream, too, if 
 you please," said Jan. "Could we make 
 some. Aunt Sallie?" 
 
 "Snow-cream?" 
 
 "Yes, like mother used to make. You 
 take some snow," went on the little girl, 
 "and stir it up with milk and sugar and 
 eggs " 
 
 "Oh, yes ! I know ! ' ' laughed Aunt Sallie. 
 "I used to make that when I was a little girl. 
 Xow I'll tell you what I'll do ; if you're sure 
 it will be all right with your mother, I'll get 
 you each a little piece of pumpkin pie and 
 then I'll make the snow-cream." 
 
 "Oh, goodie!" cried Jan and Teddy ex- 
 actly together. 
 
 So, whUe Mcknack stayed outside in a 
 sheltered corner by the house and nibbled 
 the dried leaves of some old flowers, Aunt 
 Sallie got the pieces of pie for the children, 
 
44 The Curlytops Snow ed In 
 
 each slice on a nice little plate with a napkin 
 under it. 
 
 "And now for the snow-cream!" said 
 Aunt Sallie. 
 
 She went out into the kitchen, and almost 
 before Jan and Ted had finished their pieces 
 of pie back she came with two dishes with 
 something good in them. 
 
 "I made it just as you told me," she said 
 to Jan. "I stirred the eggs and sugar and 
 milk up in some clean snow and flavored it. 
 Tell me if you like it." 
 
 The children tasted, and Ted exclaimed: 
 
 **I could eat three dishes!" 
 
 "But I guess one will be enough after the 
 pie," said Aunt SaUie, and Ted thought so, 
 too, after he had finished the nice dessert. 
 Then he and his sister, after thanking Mrs. 
 Newton, went out and got on the sled again, 
 hurrying Nicknack on, for it was growing 
 late. They were soon safe at their own 
 home. 
 
 "Mother, are there any old rubbers in the 
 house?" asked Ted that night, after having 
 told of the fun skating on the pond and rid- 
 ing over the snow behind Nicknack. 
 
 "Old rubbers? What do you want of 
 them?" asked Mrs. Martin. 
 
The Snwjo House 45 
 
 "I want to make some overshoes for the 
 goat." 
 
 * * Overshoes for the goat I What will you 
 try next, Teddy?" and his mother laughed. 
 
 "We really are going to do it," added Jan. 
 "Mcknack can't stand up on the slippery 
 ice without something on his hoofs." 
 
 "Why don't you get him a pair of 
 skates ?" asked Father Martin with a laugh. 
 "Though you'd have to get him two pairs, 
 to have enough to go around, as Nicknack 
 has four feet." 
 
 "He couldn't stand up on skates," an- 
 swered Ted. "His hoofs are like skates 
 now, they're so hard and shiny." 
 
 "And so you think overshoes would be 
 the thing ? ' ' asked his father. * ' Well, maybe 
 they would do. 1 11 see if I can find some old 
 rubbers or rubber boots that you can cut 
 up." 
 
 A pair of boots that had holes in them and 
 could no longer be used by Mr. Martin, were 
 found in the attic. Some pieces of rubber 
 were cut from the legs and when the inside 
 lining had been partly peeled off four thin 
 squares of rubber could be cut out. 
 
 "We'll tie these on Mcknack's hoofs and 
 see if he can stand up on the ice," said Ted- 
 
46 The Curlyt ops Snowed In 
 
 dy. "I wish it was to-morrow now, so we 
 could do it." 
 
 Ted and Jan hurried home from school 
 the next day to hitch Mcknack to Ted's sled 
 and drive him down to the ice to try the 
 goat's new rubbers. They were tied on his 
 hoofs with pieces of string, Mrs. Martin 
 helping the children do this. Mcknack was 
 a gentle and patient goat, but he acted rather 
 strangely when the rubber squares were tied 
 over his hoofs. 
 
 He stamped his feet, shook his head and 
 bleated. He did not quite understand what 
 was going on, but he made no special trouble 
 and started off well when he had been 
 hitched to the sled. 
 
 "Me want a wide!" called Trouble from 
 the veranda, as Ted and Jan went gliding 
 away over the snow. 
 
 "Next time!" answered Ted, 
 
 "This sled isn't big enough," added Janet. 
 "We ought to get a bigger sled, Teddy," 
 she went on. "One as big as our goat 
 wagon, and then we could have fine rides and 
 take Trouble with us." 
 
 "We'll ask daddy to get us one," said her 
 brother. 
 
 When they reached the pond the only 
 
The Snow House 47 
 
 skaters on it were Tom and Lola Taylor. 
 Tom laughed as he saw Mcknaek . 
 
 "Ho I" he cried, *'your goat will fall down 
 on the ice again." 
 
 "Maybe he won't," answered Teddy. 
 ' ' Just you watch ! " 
 
 He drove Nicknack toward the frozen 
 pond, but the goat stood still at the very 
 edge. 
 
 "He's afraid to go on — ^he knows hell 
 slip," said Tom. 
 
 "I guess that's it," agreed Teddy. "Ho 
 on, Mcknaek I" he called. "Giddap! You 
 won't fall 'cause you've your rubbers on." 
 
 "Oh! has he, really?" asked Lola. 
 
 " 'Deed he has. We made him some out 
 of an old rubber boot," replied Teddy. 
 "Look ! ' ' and he pointed to the black squares 
 tied on Mcknaek 's hoofs. 
 
 "How funny!" gasped Lola. 
 
 "Maybe he won't slip with them on," re- 
 marked Tom, "but I guess he isn't sure of 
 it. He won't go on the ice." 
 
 And indeed Mcknaek did not seem to want 
 to do this. He turned first to one side and 
 then the other as Ted tried to drive him on 
 to the frozen pond. Mcknaek did not mind 
 pulling the Curlytops over the snow, where 
 
48 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 he knew he would not slip, but he was afrjdd 
 of the ice. 
 
 "I know how to get him on," said Teddy. 
 
 "How?" asked Tom. 
 
 "Here, you hold this cookie in front of 
 him," went on Teddy. "I put it in my 
 pocket to eat myself, but I'll give it to Nick- 
 nack. Hold it in front of his nose, Tom, 
 and when he goes to bite it you just walk 
 away with it. Then he'll follow after you, 
 and when you walk on the ice he'U. do the 
 
 same." 
 
 "Say, that is a good way!" cried Tom. 
 "I'll do it!" 
 
 "Once he's on the ice, if the rubbers keep 
 him from slipping, he'll be all right," went 
 on Ted. 
 
 He tossed Tom the cookie and Tom held it 
 in front of the goat's nose. Surely enough 
 Mcknack reached out for it, but as soon as 
 he did this Tom stepped back a little way, 
 the goat following. 
 
 This was done two or three times. Nick- 
 nack getting nearer the icy pond each time, 
 until at last he had all four rubber-covered 
 feet on it. 
 
 "Shall I give him the cookie now?" asked 
 Tom. 
 
The Siww H ouse 49 
 
 "No, make him come a little farther for 
 it," answered Ted, who was sitting on the 
 sled in front, holding Nicknack's reins, 
 while Janet sat behind her brother. 
 
 So Tom backed a little farther away from 
 the goat, that stiU walked on to get the 
 cookie which he could smell, and which he 
 wanted very much. And before Mcknack 
 knew it he was walking over the ice and he 
 did not slip at all, for the pieces of rubber 
 on his hoofs held him up, just as they would 
 have held up Teddy or Janet. 
 
 "Now he's all right !" called Teddy. "He 
 can walk on the ice now, and run, too, I 
 guess. Give him the cookie, Tom." 
 
 So Mcknack had the cookie, and then 
 Teddy drove him over and around the pond. 
 Nicknack seemed to like it, now that he did 
 not slip. 
 
 When Teddy and Janet had had a good 
 ride they let Tom and Lola take a turn, Tom 
 driving, and the goat went as well for him 
 as it had gone for Teddy. 
 
 "I didn't know a goat was as much fun 
 in winter as it is in su m mer, ' ' said Tom. * * I 
 wish I had one." 
 
 "Well give you more rides when we get 
 a big sled," promised Ted. 
 
50 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Are you going to get one?" Lola asked. 
 
 "We're going to ask our father for one," 
 replied Ted. "And I guess he'll let us have 
 it so we can take Trouble out for rides. Gid- 
 dap, Mcknack!" and once more he started 
 the goat across the ice. 
 
 The Curlytops and their friends had great 
 sport with the goat and sled that day, and 
 Mcknack hardly slipped at all. He was get- 
 ting used to the ice, Tom said. 
 
 After two days during which the Curly- 
 tops had fun with their sleds and skates, it 
 began to snow again, covering the ground 
 yet deeper with the white flakes, while the 
 frozen pond and lake were buried out of 
 sight. 
 
 "No more skating for a while," said Tom 
 Taylor, as he walked to school with Teddy 
 and Jan one morning. 
 
 "No. But we can sleigh-ride and build 
 a snow fort," answered Ted. 
 
 "And a snow man, too," added Janet. 
 
 "Why not make a snow house?" asked 
 Lola. "The snow is soft and it will pack 
 well. Let 's make a snow house ! ' ' 
 
 "We will!" cried Ted. "We'll start one 
 after school in our back yard. We'll make 
 one big enough for us all four to live in." 
 
The Snow House 51 
 
 "And we can stay there even if the snow 
 covers the top," added Janet. 
 
 "Wouldn't we freeze!" asked Lola. 
 
 * * No. Mother read us a story about a man 
 who was caught out in a big snowstorm, and 
 he dug down under the snow and let it cover 
 him all up, except a place to breathe, and he 
 was warm." 
 
 "WeU, we'll build a snow house, but I 
 guess there won't be enough snow to cover 
 it, "cried Tom. 
 
 "I like lots of snow," put in Teddy. 
 
 All that day it snowed, even when the Cur- 
 lytops and the other children ran laughing 
 and shouting out of school. Tom and Lola 
 went with Jan and Ted to the Martins' back 
 yard and there they began to build a snow 
 house. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 NICKNACK SEES HIMSELP 
 
 The snow was just right for making snow 
 houses, or for rolling big balls that grow in 
 size the more you push them along. For the 
 snow was wet — ^that is, the flakes stuck to- 
 gether. Sometimes, when the weather is 
 cold, the snow is dry and almost like sand. 
 Then is not a good time to try to make snow 
 houses, snow men or big snowballs. 
 
 "But it's just right now!" cried Teddy, 
 as he ran into the back yard with his sister 
 and the other girl and boy. "We'll make 
 a fine snow house!" 
 
 "First we'll make some big snowballs," 
 said Tom Taylor. 
 
 "I thought we were going to make a snow 
 house!" exclaimed Ted. 
 
 " So we are J' agreed Tom. 'TBut the way 
 to start is to make big snowballs. Roll them 
 as big as you can and they'll make the sides 
 
 52 
 
"FIRST WE'LL MAKE SOME BIG SNOWBALLS," SAID TOM TAYLOR. 
 The Curlytops Snowed In P*ge 53 
 
54 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Tom. "We ought to have some boards to 
 lay across the top, and then we could pile 
 snow on them. It's easier that way, but you 
 can make a roof of just snow. Only it might 
 fall in on our heads." 
 
 "We don't want that," said Janet. 
 "Boards are better, Tom." 
 
 When it was too dark to see to do any more 
 work on the snow building, the Curlytops 
 went into the house and their playmates hur- 
 ried to their home for supper. 
 
 "We '11 finish the house to-morrow, ' ' called 
 Teddy to Tom. 
 
 The next afternoon, when they came home 
 from school, the children started to make the 
 roof. Ted had asked his father to get him 
 some boards, and this Mr. Martin had done. 
 They were laid across the top of the four 
 walls, and snow was piled on top of them, 
 so that from the outside the house looked as 
 if made entirely of snow. From the inside 
 the boards in the roof showed, of course, but 
 no one minded that. 
 
 The snow house was large enough for five 
 small children to get in it and stand up, 
 though Tom's head nearly touched the roof. 
 
 "But that doesn't count," laughed Ted. 
 **You can pretend you're a giant and you 
 
Nicknack Sees Himself 55 
 
 could lift the roof off with your head if you 
 wanted to." 
 
 "Only you mustn't want to!" cautioned 
 Jan. 
 
 "I won't," promised Tom. 
 
 "We ought to have a door so we could 
 close it, and then it would be like a real 
 house," Lola said. 
 
 "Couldn't we make one?" asked Ted. 
 
 "It would be hard to make a door fast to 
 the snow sides of the house, " answered Tom. 
 "If we had a blanket we could hang it up 
 for a curtain-door, though." 
 
 "Ill get one !" cried Janet, and she ran in 
 to ask her mother for one. 
 
 The blanket was tacked to the edge of one 
 of the boards in the roof, and hung down 
 over the square that was cut out in the snow 
 wall for the door. "When the blanket was 
 pulled over the opening it was as cozy in- 
 side the snow house as one could wish. 
 
 "And it's warm, too!" cried Ted. "I 
 guess we could sleep here all night." 
 
 "But I'm not going to!" exclaimed Jan 
 quickly. "Anyhow we haven't got anything 
 to sleep on." 
 
 "We can make some benches of snow," 
 Tom said. "Let's do it 1" 
 
56 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "How?" asked Ted. 
 
 "Well, well just bring in some snow and 
 pile it up on the floor along the inside walls. 
 Then we can cut it square and level on top, 
 as high as we want it, and we can sit on it 
 or lie down on it and make-believe go to 
 sleep." 
 
 "That'll be fun!" cried Lola. 
 
 With their shovels the Curlytops and the 
 others were soon piling snow up around the 
 inside walls of the white house. Then the 
 benches were cut into shape, and they did 
 make good places to sit on ; though it was too 
 cold to lie down, Mrs. Martin said when she 
 came out to look at the playhouse, and she 
 warned the children not to do this. 
 
 "We ought to have a chimney on the 
 house," suggested Tom, after he had gone 
 outside to see how it looked. 
 
 "We can't build a fire, can we?" asked 
 Jan, somewhat surprised. 
 
 "No, of course not!" laughed Ted. "A 
 fire would melt the snow. But we can make 
 a chimney and pretend there's smoke com- 
 ing out of it." 
 
 "Let's do it!" cried Lola. 
 
 "All right," agreed Tom. "You're the 
 lightest, Teddy, so you get up on the roof. 
 
Nicknack Sees Himself 57 
 
 You won't cave it in. Ill toss you up some 
 snow and you can make it square, in the 
 shape of a chimney." 
 
 This Ted did, and with a stick he even 
 marked lines on the snow chimney to make 
 it look as if made of bricks. 
 
 "That's fine!" cried Tom. "It looks 
 real!" 
 
 "It would look realer if we had something 
 like black smoke coming out," declared 
 Janet. 
 
 "Oh, I know how to do that!" exclaimed 
 Lola. 
 
 "How?" asked her brother. 
 
 "G-et some black paper and stick it on top 
 of the chimney." 
 
 "Maybe my mother's got some," said Ted. 
 "I'll go and ask her." 
 
 Mrs. Martin found an old piece of wrap- 
 ping paper that was almost black in color, 
 and when this had been rumpled up and put 
 on top of the snow chimney, where Ted fast- 
 ened it with sticks, at a distance it did look 
 as though black smoke were pouring out of 
 the white snow house. 
 
 "Now we ought to have something to eat, 
 and we could pretend we really lived in 
 here," said Janet, after a bit, when they 
 
58 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 were sitting on the benches inside the 
 house. 
 
 "You go and ask mother for something," 
 suggested Ted. "I got the paper smoke. 
 You go and get some cookies." 
 
 "I will," Janet promised, and she soon 
 came running from the house with a large 
 plate full of molasses and sugar cookies that 
 Nora had given her. 
 
 "Uml but these are good!" cried Tom, as 
 he munched some with the Curlytops and his 
 sister. 
 
 "This is a fine house!" exclaimed Teddy. 
 "I'm glad you helped us build it," he said 
 to Tom. 
 
 "Only it wants some glass in the win- 
 dows," said Ted, looking at the holes in the 
 snow walls of the house. 
 
 "We don't need glass," immediately put 
 in Tom. 
 
 "Why not?" asked Jan. "If we put 
 wooden windows in we can't see through 
 'em." 
 
 "We can use sheets of ice!" cried Tom. 
 "My father said that that's the way the Es- 
 kimos do up at the north pole. They use ice 
 for glass." 
 
 "You can see through ice all right," said 
 
Nicknack Sees Himself 59 
 
 Ted. "But where could we get any thin 
 enough for windows for our snow house?" 
 
 "All the ice on the pond and lake is cov- 
 ered with snow," added Lola. 
 
 "We can put some water out in pans," 
 went on Tom. "If it's cold to-night it will 
 freeze in a thin sheet of ice, and then to- 
 morrow we can make windows of it for our 
 snow house." 
 
 "Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Ted. 
 
 "It will be ahnost like a real house!" 
 added Jan. 
 
 Mrs. Martin said, when the Curlytops 
 asked her, that Tom's plan might work if the 
 night turned cold enough to freeze. And as 
 after dark it did get colder she put some 
 water out in large shallow pans. In the 
 morning the water was frozen into thin 
 sheets of ice, clear as crystal, and Ted and 
 Jan could see right through them as well as 
 they could see through glass. 
 
 "They're great!" cried Tom when he saw 
 them, and that afternoon when school was 
 out, the ice windows were set in the holes in 
 the walls of the snow house. 
 
 "Dis nice place!" Trouble said, when he 
 was taken out to it. "I 'ikes it here I I stay 
 aU night I" 
 
60 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "No, I guess you won't stay all night," 
 laughed Tom. * ' You might freeze fast to the 
 snow bench." 
 
 "How plain we can see out of the win- 
 dows, "said Lola. ' ' Oh, see, Ted, here comes 
 your goat! I guess he's looking for you." 
 
 "He must 've got loose and 've run out of 
 his stable," said Teddy. "I'll go to fasten 
 him up. Here, Mcknackl" he called as he 
 walked out of the snow house toward his 
 pet. 
 
 Mcknack kept on coming toward the 
 white house. He Walked up to one of the 
 windows. The sun was shining on it and 
 as Ted looked he cried : 
 
 "Oh, I can see Mcknack in the glass win- 
 dow just as if it was a looking glass. And 
 Mcknack can see himself!" 
 
 This was true. The goat came to a sud- 
 den stop and looked at his own refleeton in 
 the shiny ice window. Mcknack seemed 
 much surprised. He stamped in the snow 
 with his black hoofs, and then he raised him- 
 self up in the air on his hind feet. At the 
 same time he went : 
 
 * ' Baa-a-a-a ! Baa-a-a-a-a ! ' ' 
 
 "Oh, Nicknaek's going to buck!" cried 
 Ted. 
 
Nicknack Sees H imself 61 
 
 "Who's he going to buck?" asked Tom, 
 sticking his head out of the blanket door of 
 the snow house. 
 
 "I guess he thinks he sees another goat 
 in the shiny ice window," went on Ted, "and 
 he's going for that. Oh, look out! Come 
 back, Mcknackl Come back!" Teddy 
 yelled. 
 
 But with another bleat and a shake of his 
 head Mcknaek, having seen himself reflected 
 in the ice window, and thinking it another 
 goat, started on a run for the snow house, 
 inside of which were Jan, Tom, Lola and 
 Trouble. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE SNOW MAN 
 
 Sounding his funny, bleating ciy, like a 
 sheep, Mcknack gave a jump straight for 
 the ice window in which he had seen himself 
 as in a looking glass. 
 
 ''Crash!" went the ice window. 
 
 "Oh, my 1" screamed Lola, inside the snow 
 house. 
 
 "What is it?" asked Jan, for Lola stood 
 in front of her. 
 
 Trouble looked up from where he was sit- 
 ting beside Tom on the snow bench, and just 
 then the goat went right through the soft, 
 snow side of the house and scrambled down 
 inside. 
 
 "Dat's our goat!" exclaimed Trouble, as 
 if that was the way Mcknack always came 
 in. "Dat's our goat!" 
 
 For a moment Jan and Lola had been so 
 frightened that they did not know what it 
 
 63 
 
The Snow Man 63 
 
 was. Luckily they were not in Nicknaek's 
 way when he jumped through, so he did not 
 land on them. 
 
 But the snow house was so small that' 
 there was hardly room for a big goat inside 
 it, besides the four children, even with Ted 
 outside, and Mcknack almost landed in the 
 laps of Tom and Trouble when he jumped 
 through. In fact, his chin-whiskers were in 
 Trouble's face, and Baby William laughed 
 and began pulling them as he very often 
 did. 
 
 "Baa-a-a-a 1" bleated the goat and then he 
 quickly turned around to see, I suppose, 
 what had become of the other goat against 
 which he had leaped, intending to butt him 
 out of the way. 
 
 "Oh, Mcknack!" cried Jan. "What 
 made you jump in on us like that?" 
 
 "Oh, my, I'm so scared!" gasped Lola. 
 "Will he bite us?" 
 
 "Mcknack never bites," answered Janet 
 reprovingly. "But what made him jump 
 into the snow house and break the ice win- 
 dow?" 
 
 " 'Cause he saw himself in it," answered 
 Ted, coming in just then. "I knew what he 
 was goin' to do but I couldn't stop him. 
 
64 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Say, Tom, he made an awful big jump I" 
 
 "I should saj he did I" exclaimed Tom. 
 "I thought the whole place was coming 
 down I You'd better call your goat out, 
 Curlytop, or he may knock our snow house 
 aU to pieces." 
 
 "AU right, I wiU," agreed Ted. "Here, 
 Nicknack I " he called. * ' Come on outside I ' ' 
 
 Nicknack turned at the sound of his little 
 master's voice, and just then he saw another 
 ice window. The sun was shining on that, 
 too, and once more Mcknack noticed the re- 
 flection of himself in the bright ice, which 
 was like glass. 
 
 "Baa-a-a-a-al" he bleated again. "Baa- 
 a-a-a!" 
 
 "Look out! He's going to jump!" cried 
 Tom. 
 
 He made a grab for the goat, but only 
 managed to get hold of his short, stubby 
 tail. To this Tom held as tightly as he 
 could, but Mcknack was not going to be 
 stopped for a little thing like that. 
 
 Forward he jumped, but he did not quite 
 reach the ice window. Instead his horns 
 and head butted against the side waU of the 
 snow house, and in it he made a great hole, 
 near the window. 
 
The Snow Man 65 
 
 This made the wall so weak that the snow 
 house began to cave in, for the other wall 
 had almost all been knocked down when the 
 goat jumped throught that. 
 
 ''Look out!" cried Ted. "It's going to 
 faUI" 
 
 "Come on!" yelled Tom, letting go of 
 Nicknack's tail. 
 
 "Take care of Trouble!" begged Jan of 
 her brother. 
 
 Ted caught his little brother up in his 
 arms. It was as much as he could do, but, 
 somehow or other, Ted felt very strong just 
 then. He was afraid Trouble would be 
 hurt. 
 
 And then, just as the children hurried out 
 of the door, pulling away, in their haste, the 
 blanket that was over the opening, the snow 
 house toppled down, some of the boards in 
 the roof breaking. 
 
 "Oh, it's a good thing we weren't in there 
 when it fell!" cried Lola. "We'd aU have 
 been killed!" 
 
 "Snow won't kill you!" said her brother. 
 
 "But the boards might have hurt us," 
 said Lola. "Our nice house is all spoiled!" 
 
 "And Mcknack is under the snow in 
 there!" cried Ted. 
 
©6 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "No, he isn't! Here he comes out," an- 
 swered Janet. And just as she said that, out 
 from under the pile of boards and the snow 
 that was scattered over them, came Mck- 
 nack. With a wiggle of his head and horns, 
 and a scramble of his feet, which did not 
 have any rubber on now, Mcknaek man- 
 aged to get out from under the fallen play- 
 house, and with a leap he stood beside the 
 children. 
 
 "There, Mcknack! See what you did!" 
 cried Janet. 
 
 "Spoiled our nice snow house!" added 
 Lola. 
 
 "Well build you another," promised Ted. 
 "Say, I never knew our goat was such a 
 good jumper." 
 
 "He's strong aU right," agreed Tom. 
 
 "Mcknack a fimny goat!" laughed Trou- 
 ble, as his brother set him down on a smooth 
 place in the snow. 
 
 "I guess Trouble thinks it was all just for 
 fun, ' ' said Tom. ' * He isn 't scared a bit. ' ' 
 
 "Oh, Trouble doesn't get scared very 
 easy," answered Jan. "He's always laugh- 
 ing. Aren 't you, Trouble 1 ' ' and she hugged 
 him. 
 
 "Well, shall we buUd the house over 
 
The Snow Man 67 
 
 again?" asked Tom, when Ted had taken 
 the goat back to the stable and fastened him 
 in so he could not easily get loose. 
 
 *'It'U be a lot of work," said Lola. 
 "Tou'U have to make a whole new one." 
 
 "Yes, Mcknack didn't leave much of it," 
 agreed Tom. "Shall we make a bigger one, 
 Ted — ^big enough for Nicknack to get in 
 without breaking the walls?" 
 
 "Oh, I don't know," returned Ted slowly. 
 "There isn't much snow left, and some of 
 the boards are busted. Let's make a snow 
 man instead." 
 
 "AU right!" agreed Tom. "We'll do 
 that ! We '11 make a big one. ' ' 
 
 "I don't want to do that," said Jan. 
 "Come on, Lola, let's go coasting." 
 
 "An' take me!" begged Trouble. 
 
 "Yes, take him," added Ted. "He'll 
 throw snowballs at the snow men we make 
 if you don't." 
 
 So Baby WiUiam was led away by the two 
 girls, and Tom and his chum started to make 
 a snow man. But they soon found that the 
 snow was not right for packing. It was too 
 hard and not wet enough. 
 
 "It's too cold, I guess," observed Tom, 
 when he had tried several times to roll a 
 
68 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 big ball as the start in making a snow man. 
 
 "Then let's us go coasting, too," proposed 
 Ted, and Tom was willing. 
 
 So the boys, leaving the ruins of the snow 
 house, and not even starting to make the 
 snow man, went to coast with the girls, who 
 were having a good time on the hill with 
 many of their friends. 
 
 * ' Oh, it 's snowing again ! ' ' cried Ted when 
 the time came to go home, as it was getting 
 dusk. 
 
 "We've had a lot of storms already this 
 winter," added Lola. 
 
 "My grandpa wrote in a letter that a her- 
 mit, up near Cherry Farm, said this was go- 
 ing to be a bad winter for storms," put in 
 Jan. "Maybe we'll aE be snowed in." 
 
 "That'll be great!" cried Tom. 
 
 * ' It win not I " exclaimed his sister. * ' We 
 might all freeze to death. I don't like too 
 much snow." 
 
 "I do!" declared Ted. "And there's a 
 lot coming down now!" 
 
 There seemed to be, for the white flakes 
 made a cloud as they blew here and there 
 on the north wind, and it was quite cold 
 when the Curlytops and their friends 
 reached their homes. 
 
The Snow Man 69 
 
 All the next day it snowed, and Ted and 
 Jan asked their father and mother several 
 times whether or not they were going to be 
 snowed in. 
 
 "Oh, I guess not this time," answered Mr. 
 Martin. "It takes a regular blizzard to do 
 that, and we don't often get blizzards here." 
 
 Though they felt that possibly being 
 snowed in might not be altogether nice, still 
 Ted and Jan rather wanted it to happen so 
 they could see what it was like. But tiiat 
 was not to come with this storm. 
 
 StiU the wind and snow were so bad, at 
 times, that Mrs. Martin thought it best for 
 the Curlytops to stay in the house. Trouble, 
 of course, had to stay in also, and he did not 
 like that a bit. N^eiiher did Jan or Ted, but 
 there was no help for it. 
 
 "What can we do to have some fun?" 
 asked Teddy, for perhaps the tenth time that 
 day. He stood with his nose pressed flat 
 against the window, looking out at the swirl- 
 ing flakes. "Can't I be out, Mother?" he 
 asked again. 
 
 "Oh, no, indeed, little Curlytop son," she 
 answered. 
 
 "But we want some fun!" chimed in Jan. 
 "Isn't there anything we can do?" 
 
70 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Have you played with all your games?" 
 asked her mother. 
 
 "Every one," answered the little girl. 
 
 "And we even played some of 'em back- 
 wards, so's to make 'em seem different," put 
 in Teddy. 
 
 "WeU, if you had to do that it must be 
 pretty hard!" laughed Mrs. Martin. "I 
 know it isn't any fun to stay in the house, 
 but to-morrow the storm may be over and 
 then you can go out. I know that won't help 
 matters now," she went on, as she saw that 
 Teddy was about to say something. "But 
 if you'll let me think a minute maybe I can 
 plan out some new games for you to 
 play." 
 
 "Oh, Mother, if you only can I" cried Jan 
 eagerly. 
 
 "Don't talk— let her think!" ordered 
 Teddy. "We want to have some fun — a lot 
 of fun!" 
 
 So he and his sister sat very quietly while 
 his mother thought of all the things that 
 might be possible for a little boy and 
 girl and their baby brother to do when 
 they had to stay in the house. 
 
 "I have it!" cried Mrs. Martin at last. 
 
 "Something for us to play?" asked Janet. 
 
The Snow Man 71 
 
 "Yes. How would you like to play steam- 
 boat and travel to different countries'?" 
 
 "N"ot real?" cried Ted, with a look at the 
 snow outside. 
 
 "Oh, no, not real, of course," said his 
 mother, with a smile. "But you can go up 
 in the attic, and take the old easy chair that 
 isn't any good for sitting in any more. You 
 can turn that over on the floor and make be- 
 lieve it's a steamboat. In that you and Jan 
 and Baby William can pretend to travel to 
 different coimtries. You can say the floor is 
 the ocean and you can take some blocks of 
 wood to make the islands, and if any one 
 steps in the make-believe water he'll get his 
 feet wet." 
 , "Make-believe wet," laughed Teddy. 
 
 "That's it," his mother agreed with a 
 laugh. "Now run along up and play, and 
 then you won't think about the snow and 
 the storm. And before you know it — ^why, 
 it will be night and time to go to bed and in 
 the morning the storm may be over and you 
 can be out." 
 
 "Come on!" cried Jan to her brother. 
 
 "Wait a minute," he said, standing still 
 in the middle of the room, while Trouble, 
 who seemed to know that something was go- 
 
72 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 ing on different from usual, jumped up and 
 down, crying: 
 
 "We hab some fun ! "We hab some fun !" 
 
 "But you mustn't jump like that up in 
 the attie," said his mother, shaking her fin- 
 ger at him. "If you do you'll rattle the 
 boards and maybe make the plaster fall." 
 
 "Do you mean the plaster like the kind I 
 had on when I was sick?" asked Jan. 
 
 ^'No, my dear, I mean the plaster on the 
 ceiling," said her mother. "Well, Teddy, 
 why don't you go along and play the game 
 I told you about?" she asked, as she saw the 
 little boy still standing in the middle of the 
 sitting-room. "Play the steamboat game 
 with the old chair. The chair will be the 
 ship, and you can take the old spinning 
 wheel to steer with, and maybe there's a 
 piece of stovepipe up there that you can use 
 for a smokestack. Only, for mercy's sake, 
 don't get all black, and don't let Trouble get 
 black. 
 
 "Come on, Ted!" cried his sister to him. 
 
 "I was jast thinkin'," he said thought- 
 fully. "Say, Mother, don't folks get hungry 
 when they're on a ship ?" 
 
 "I guess so, Ted." 
 
 "And even on a make-believe one?" 
 
The Snow Man 73 
 
 "Well, yes, I suppose they do. But you 
 ean make believe eat if you get make-believe 
 hungry." 
 
 "But what if we get really hungry?" 
 asked Teddy. "I'm that way now, almost. 
 Couldn't we have something real to eat on 
 the make-believe steamboat, Mother?" 
 
 Mrs. Martin laughed. 
 
 "Why, yes, I suppose you could," she an- 
 swered. "You children go on up to the attic 
 and get the old chair ready to play steam- 
 boat, and I'U see what I can find to bring 
 up to you to eat." 
 
 "Now we can have some fun!" cried Ted, 
 and he no longer looked out of the window 
 at the snow, and wished he could be in it 
 playing, even though that was not exactly 
 good for him. 
 
 Up the stairs trooped the Curlytops, fol- 
 lowed by Trouble, who grunted and puffed 
 as he made his way, holding to the hem of 
 Jan's dress. 
 
 "What's the matter, Trouble?" asked 
 Jan, turning around. 
 
 "Maybe he's making believe he's climb- 
 ing a mountain," said Ted. "You always 
 have to breathe hard when you do that." 
 
 "Did you ever climb a mountain?" 
 
74 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "No, but I ran up a hill once," answered 
 her brother, "and that made my breath come 
 as fast as anything. I guess that's what 
 Trouble is doing." 
 
 "No, I is not!" exclaimed the little boy, 
 who heard what his sister and brother were 
 saying about him. "I 'ist is swimmin', like 
 I did at Cherry Farm," he said. "I play I 
 is in the water." 
 
 "I guess he's ready to play steamboat, all 
 right," laughed Jan. "Come along, little 
 fat Trouble !" she called, and she helped him 
 get up the last of the steps that led to the 
 attic. 
 
 The children found an old easy chair. It 
 was one Mr. Martin had made some years 
 before, and was a folding one. It had a 
 large frame, and could be made higher and 
 lower by putting a cross bar of wood in 
 some niches. The seat of the chair was made 
 of a strip of carpet, but this had, long ago, 
 worn to rags and the chair had been put in 
 the attic until some one should find time to 
 mend it. But this time never seemed to 
 come. 
 
 Often, before, Ted, Jan and Trouble had 
 played steamboat with it. They laid it down 
 flat, and then raised up the front legs and 
 
The Snow Man 75 
 
 the frame part that fitted into the back legs. 
 These two parts they tied together and could 
 move it back and forth, while they made be- 
 lieve the carpet part of the chair was the 
 deck of the boat. 
 
 "All aboard!" called Janet, as Teddy laid 
 the chair down on the floor. 
 
 "Wait a minute!" called her brother. 
 
 "What for?" Janet wanted to know. 
 
 " 'Cause I haven't got the steerin' wheel 
 fixed. I got to get that, else the boat will 
 go the wrong way. Wait until I get the old 
 spuming wheel for a steerer." 
 
 Up in the attic, among many other things, 
 was an old spinning wheel, that used to be- 
 long to Mrs. Martin's mother's mother — 
 that is the great-grandmother of the Curly- 
 tops. The spinning part of the wheel had 
 been broken long before, but the wheel it- 
 self would go around and it would make 
 something to steer with, just as on the real 
 large steamers, Ted thought. 
 
 The spinning wheel was put in front of 
 the chair steamboat, and then Jan got on 
 "board," as it is called. 
 
 "Wait for me!" cried Trouble, who was 
 hunting in a corner of the attic for some- 
 thing with which to have some fun. 
 
76 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 *'0h, I won't forget you," laughed Jan, 
 and then all three of the children were 
 ready for the trip across the make-believe 
 ocean. 
 
 They crowded together on the carpet deck 
 of the chair boat while Ted twirled the wheel 
 and Jan moved the legs back and forth as 
 if they were the engine. Trouble cried 
 "Toot I Toot I" he being the whistle, and 
 they rode about — at least they pretended 
 they did — and had lots of fun, stopping at 
 wooden islands to pick coeoanuts and 
 oranges from make-believe trees. 
 
 "Here comes mother with something real 
 to eat!" cried Teddy, after a bit, and up to 
 the attic did come Mrs. Martin with some 
 molasses cookies. The children had lots of 
 fun eating these and playing, and before 
 they knew it, night had come, bringing sup- 
 per and bedtime. 
 
 Toward evening of the second day it 
 stopped snowing, and the next day was quite 
 warm, so that when Ted and Jan went out 
 to play a bit in the snow before going to 
 school, Ted found that the white flakes would 
 make fine snowballs. 
 
 * * Oh, it packs dandy ! " he cried. * ' We can 
 make the snow man tiiis afternoon!" and he 
 

 The Snow Man 77 
 
 threw a snowball at Nicknack's stable, hit- 
 ting the side of it with a bang. 
 
 "Yes, this will make a good snow man, 
 said Tom after school, when he and Ted tried 
 rolling the large balls. "We'll make a regu- 
 lar giant 1" 
 
 And they started at it, first rolling a big 
 ball which was to be the body of the snow 
 man. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A STRANGE BEDFELLOW 
 
 Around and around in the back yard, near 
 what had once been a snow house, but which 
 was only a big drift now, went Ted and Tom, 
 rolling balls to make the snow man. Finally 
 Ted's ball was so large that he could not 
 push it any more. 
 
 "What'U I do?" he asked Tom. "Shall 
 I leave it here and make the snow man right 
 in this place?" 
 
 "No. I'll help you push it," Tom said. 
 "We want that for the bottom part of the 
 snow man, so it will have to be the biggest 
 ball. Wait, I'll help." 
 
 The two boys managed to roll the ball a 
 little farther, and it kept getting larger all 
 the while, for as it rolled more snow clung 
 to it and was packed on. 
 
 "There, I guess it's big enough," panted 
 Tom. after a while. "Now, we'll pile my 
 
 78 
 
A Strange Bed fellow 79 
 
 ball on top and then we'll put a head on our 
 man." 
 
 "Where's his legs goin' to be?" asked 
 Jan, who came out of the house just then to 
 look on for a while, bringing Trouble with 
 her. 
 
 "Oh, we'll carve them out of the lower 
 part of the big snowball," answered Ted. 
 "I'U show you." 
 
 With a shovel he and Tom cut away some 
 of the snow, making big, fat, round, white 
 legs for the man, who, as yet, had neither 
 eyes, a nose nor a mouth, to say nothing of 
 ears. 
 
 "Now we've got to have some buttons for 
 his coat and some eyes for his head," said 
 Tom, when the legs were made. On them the 
 snow man stood up very straight and stiff. 
 
 "What do you want for eyes?" asked 
 Ted. 
 
 "I saw a snow man in Grace Turner's 
 yard last year," said Jan, "and that one had 
 pieces of coal for eyes." 
 
 "That's just what we'll use!" cried Tom. 
 
 "I'll get the coal in our cellar," offered 
 Ted, as he ran away to get the black lumps. 
 
 "Bring a lot and we'll make some buttons 
 for his coat," called Tom. 
 
80 The Curlytops Snoived In 
 
 "I will," Ted answered. 
 
 "Don't get the lumps too big I" shouted 
 Jan. 
 
 "No, I won't," replied Ted; theii he rao 
 on to do his errand. 
 
 Two of the largest chunks of coal were 
 stuck in the snow head of the man, and now 
 he reaUj began to look like something. The 
 rest of the coal was stuck in the larger snow- 
 ball and the black lumps looked just like 
 coat buttons in two rows. 
 
 "There's his nosel" exclaimed Tom, as he 
 fastened a lump of snow in the middle of the 
 man's fat face. "And here's his mouth," 
 he went on as he made a sort of cut in the 
 snow with a stick. 
 
 * * Oh, that doesn 't look like a mouth, ' ' cried 
 Janet. "I know a better way than that." 
 
 "Pooh I girls don't know how to make 
 snow men!" exclaimed Ted. "You'd better 
 go and get your doll, Janet." 
 
 "I do so know how to make a snow man, 
 Theodore Martin ! And if you think I don't 
 I won't tell you the best way to make a 
 mouth! So there!" and Janet, with her 
 head held high in the air, and her nose up- 
 tilted, started away, taking Trouble with 
 her. 
 
A Strange Bedfelloiv 81 
 
 "Oh, I didn't mean anything 1" protested 
 Ted. "I was only foolin', Janl" 
 
 "That's right!" added Tom. "Go on, teU 
 US how to make a good mouth. Mine doesn't 
 look much like one, but that's the way I al- 
 ways make 'em when I build a snow man." 
 
 "Well, I'll tell you," said Jan, turning 
 back. "You want to take a piece of red 
 flannel or red paper. Then it looks just like 
 the snow man had red lips and was stickin' 
 out his red tongue. I mean sticking," she 
 added, as she remembered to put on her 
 
 "Say! that is a good way to make a 
 mouth, Ted I "cried Tom. "We'll do it. But 
 where 'U we get the red flannel?" 
 
 "I've got a piece of red cloth left over 
 from my doU 's dress, ' ' went on Janet. " I '11 
 get that for you." 
 
 "Thanks," murmured Ted. "I guess 
 girls do know something about snow men," 
 he added to Tom. 
 
 "Course they do," the other boy agreed. 
 "I like your sister Janet." 
 
 Ted began to feel that, even if Janet was 
 a year younger than he, she might be 
 smarter in some ways than he was. He was 
 sure of it when he saw how well the snow 
 
82 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 man looked with his red tongue and lips 
 which Tom made from the scarlet cloth Jan 
 gave him. 
 
 "Now if we only had a hat for him he'd 
 look great I" cried Ted, when the last touches 
 were being put on the snow man, even ears 
 having been given him, though, of course, 
 he could not hear through them. 
 
 "I know where there's an old hat — a big 
 stovepipe one," said Jan. She meant a tall, 
 shiny, silk hat. 
 
 "Where is it?" asked Tom. 
 
 "Up in our attic. Daddy used to wear it, 
 mother said, but it's too old-fashioned now. 
 Maybe she'd let us take it." 
 
 Mrs. Martin said the children might have 
 the old taU hat, which was broken in one 
 place, but the snow man did not mind that. 
 It was soon perched on his head and then 
 a very proper jSgure indeed he looked, as he 
 stood up straight and stiff in the yard back 
 of the house. 
 
 More than one person stopped to look at 
 what the Curlytops had made and many 
 smiled as they saw the tall silk hat on the 
 snow man. He even had a cane, made from 
 a stick, and he was altogether a very proper 
 and stylish snow man. 
 
A Strange Bedfellow 83 
 
 Trouble seemed to think the white man 
 with his shiny black hat, was made for him 
 to play with, for no sooner was it finished 
 than Baby William began throwing snow- 
 balls at "Mr. North," as Mrs. Martin said 
 they ought to call the gentleman made from 
 white flakes. 
 
 "Oh, you mustn't do that!" cried Ted, as 
 he saw what his little brother was doing. 
 "You'll hit his hat," for one of Trouble's 
 snowballs came very near the shiny "stove- 
 pipe" as Jan had called it. 
 
 "Trouble 'ike snow man," said the little 
 fellow, laughing. 
 
 "Well, we like him, too," answered Janet, 
 "and we don't want you to spoil him, baby. 
 Don't throw snowballs at Mr. North." 
 
 "Here, I'll help you make a little snow 
 man for yourself," offered Ted to his 
 brother. 
 
 "Oh, dat funl" laughed the little fellow. 
 "I want a biggest one." 
 
 "No, a small one will be better, and then 
 you can throw as many snowballs at it as 
 you want," went on Ted. 
 
 Jan helped Ted make the snow man for 
 Trouble, for Tom and Lola were called home 
 by their mother. In a short while Trou- 
 
S4 The Curltftops Snowed In 
 
 ble's white image was finished, Jan found 
 more red cloth to make the lips and tongue, 
 Ted got more coal for eyes and coat buttons 
 and then he made a paper soldier hat for 
 the small snow man. 
 
 "Do you like it, Trouble?" asked his 
 brother, when it was finished. 
 
 "Nice," answered Baby William. "Bring 
 it in house to play wif I" 
 
 "Oh, no! You mustn't try to do that I" 
 laughed Janet. "If you brought your snow 
 man into the house he would aU melt I" 
 
 "All melt away?" asked the Httle fel- 
 low. 
 
 "Yes, aU melt into water. He has to stay 
 out where it 's cold. Play with him out here, 
 Trouble." 
 
 So Trouble did, making a lot of snowballs 
 which he piled around the feet of his Tnan, 
 so that they might be ready in case the snow 
 man himself wanted to throw them. 
 
 Then Teddy and Janet went coasting just 
 before supper, coming home with red 
 cheeks and sparkling eyes, for it was cold 
 and they had played hard. 
 
 "Well, Trouble, is the snow man all 
 right?" asked Ted, as he and Jan sat down 
 to supper a little later. 
 
HE WAS ALTOGETHER A VERY STYLISH SNOW MAN. 
 The Curlytofs Snowed In Page 82 
 
^ A Strange Bedfellow 85 
 
 *Iss. Big snow man in yard," answered 
 Baby William. 
 
 'He'll take care of your little snow man 
 all night," added Janet. "Then your little 
 snow man won't be afraid to stay out in the 
 dark, Trouble." 
 
 "Trouble's snow man not be in dark," 
 was the answer. "He gone bed. Trouble's 
 snow man gone bed." 
 
 "What does he mean?" asked Ted. 
 
 "Oh, I presume he's just pretending that 
 he put his snow man to bed in a drift of 
 snow," said Mrs. Martin. "The poor child 
 is so sleepy from having played out all the 
 afternoon that he can't keep his eyes open. 
 I'll put you to bed right after supper, 
 Trouble." 
 
 "Trouble go to bed — snow man go to 
 bed," murmured Baby William. He was 
 very sleepy, so much so that his head nodded 
 even while he was eating the last of his bread 
 and milk. And then his mother carried him 
 off to his room. 
 
 Ted and Janet sat up a little later to talk 
 to their father, as they generally did. 
 
 "Did you hear any more from Grandpa 
 Martin?" asked Ted, after he had finished 
 studying his school lesson for the next day. 
 
86 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "What about?" asked Mr. Martin. 
 
 "About the big snowstorm that 's coming. ' ' 
 
 "Oh, you mean about what the hermit 
 said," laughed his father. "N"o, we haven't 
 had any more letters from grandpa." 
 
 "But we will have enough to eat even 
 if we are snowed in, won't wef" Jan 
 queried. 
 
 "Oh, yes, I guess so," answered Daddy 
 Martin. "Don't worry about that." 
 
 "Can those hermits reaUy tell when 
 there's going to be a big storm with lots of 
 snow?" asked Ted. 
 
 "Well, sometimes," admitted Mr. Mar- 
 tin. "Men who live in the woods or moun- 
 tains all their lives know more about the 
 weather than those of us who live in houses 
 in towns or cities most of the time. Some- 
 times the hermits and woodsmen can tell by 
 the way the squirrels and other animals act 
 and store away food, whether or not it is 
 going to be a hard winter. But don't worry 
 about being snowed in. If we are we '11 make 
 the best of it." 
 
 A little later Ted and Jan, still thinking 
 what would happen if a storm should come 
 heavy enough to cover the house, started 
 for their bedrooms. As Janet undressed and 
 
A Strange Bedfellow 87 
 
 turned back the covers of her bed she gave 
 a scream. 
 
 "What's the matter?" asked her motiier 
 from the hall. 
 
 "Maybe she saw a baby mouse!" laughed 
 Ted. 
 
 "Oh, no. Mother! Daddy! Come quick!" 
 cried Jan. "There's somebody in my bed!" 
 
 Mrs. Martin ran into her little girl's room, 
 and there, on the white sheet, half covered, 
 she saw a strange bedfellow. 
 
CHAPTER Vni 
 
 THE LAME BOY 
 
 "Oh, what is it 1 What is it ?" cried Jan, 
 backing into the farthest corner of her 
 room. ' ' What 's in mj bed ? " 
 
 "It's a manl" cried Ted, who had run in 
 from his room. "Oh, Daddy, there's a man 
 in Jan's bed!" he shouted down the stairs. 
 
 "It can't be — ^it isn't large enough for 
 a man!" said Mrs. Martin, who was going 
 toward the gas jet to turn it higher. 
 
 Her husband dropped the paper he had 
 been reading as the children were getting 
 readj for bed, and came racing up the stairs. 
 Into Jan's room he went, and, as he entered, 
 Mrs. Martin turned the light on so that it 
 shone more brightly. 
 
 Daddy Martin gave one look into Jan's 
 bed and then began to laugh. 
 
 "Oh, Daddy! what is it?" cried the little 
 girl. "Isit amaninmy bed?" 
 
The Lame Boy 89 
 
 "Yes," answered her father, still laugh- 
 ing. "But it's a very little man, and he 
 couldn't hurt anybody." 
 
 "Not if he was a — & burglar?" asked Ted 
 in a whisper. 
 
 " No ; for he 's only a snow man 1 ' ' laughed 
 Mr. Martin. 
 
 "A snow man!" exclaimed Mrs. Mar- 
 tin. 
 
 "A snow man in my bedl" gasped Jan. 
 "How did he get there?" 
 
 By this time so much noise had been made 
 that Trouble, in his mother's room, was 
 awakened. He came toddling into Jan's 
 room, rubbing his sleepy eyes and holding 
 up his little nightdress so he would not stum- 
 ble over it. 
 
 "Bis momin'?" he asked, blinking at the 
 bright lights. 
 
 "No, it isn't morning, Trouble," answered 
 his mother with a laugh. "But I guess Jan 
 will have to sleep in your bed and you'll have 
 to come in with me. The snow man has 
 melted, making a little puddle of water and 
 her sheets are all wet. She can't sleep in 
 that bed." 
 
 They all gathered around to look at the 
 strange sight in Jan's bed. As her mother 
 
90 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 had said, the snow man, which was about two 
 feet long, had melted. One of his legs was 
 half gone, an ear had slid off and his nose 
 was quite flat, while one of the pieces of coal 
 that had pretended to be an eye had dropped 
 out and was resting on his left shoulder. 
 
 "Dat my snow man !" announced Trouble, 
 after a look. "Me put him s'eepin's in Jan's 
 bed!" 
 
 "You did ?" cried Mother Martin. "Well, 
 it's a good thing you told us, for I was go- 
 ing to ask Ted if he had done it as a joke." 
 
 "No'm, Mother; I didn't do it I" declared 
 Ted. 
 
 "And it is the little snow man we helped 
 Trouble make," added Jan, as she took an- 
 other look. "I couldn't see good at first 
 'cause it was so dark in my room. But it's 
 Trouble's snow man." 
 
 "Did you really bring him in and put him 
 to sleep in Jan's bed?" asked Baby "Wil- 
 liam's father. 
 
 "Iss, I did," answered Trouble, still rub- 
 bing his eyes. "My snow man not want to 
 stay out in dark cold all night alone. Big 
 snow man might bite him. I bringed him 
 in wif my two arms, I did, and I did put 
 him in Jan's bed, I did. He go s'eepin's." 
 
The Lame Boy 91 
 
 "Well, he's slept enough for to-night," 
 said Mr. Martin, still laughing. * ' Out of the 
 vsdndow you go!" he cried, and raising the 
 sash near the head of Jan's bed he tossed 
 the snow man — or what was left of him — 
 out on the porch roof. 
 
 "Here, Nora!" called Mrs. Martin. 
 "Please take the wet clothes off Jane's bed so 
 they'U dry. The mattress is wet, too, so she 
 can't sleep on it. Oh, you're a dear bunch 
 of Trouble 1" she cried as she caught Baby 
 "William up in her arms and kissed his sleepy 
 eyes, "but you certainly made lots of work 
 to-night. What made you put the snow man 
 in Jan's bed?" 
 
 "So him have good s'eepin's. Him very 
 twired an' s'eepy out in de yard. I bringed 
 him in, I didl" 
 
 "WeU, don't do it again," said Mr. Mar- 
 tin, and then they all went to bed, and the 
 snow man — ^what was left of him — slept out 
 on the roof, where he very likely felt bet- 
 ter than in a warm room, for men made of 
 snow do not like the heat. 
 
 "Well, Trouble, what are you going to do 
 to-day 1 ' ' asked his father. He was just fin- 
 ishing his breakfast and Baby William had 
 just started his. 
 
92 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Trouble goin' make nudder snow man," 
 was the answer. 
 
 **Well, if you do, don't put it in my bed," 
 begged Jan, with a laugh. 
 
 "Put him in wif Nicknack," went on 
 Trouble. 
 
 "Yes, I guess our goat doesn't mind snow, 
 the way he butted into our house," observed 
 Ted. 
 
 "Oh, aren't we going to build another 
 ever?" asked Jan. "It was lots of fun. 
 Let's make another house, Ted." 
 
 * 'All right, maybe we will after school. It 
 looks maybe as if it would snow again." 
 
 "We have had more snowstorms than we 
 usually do at this time of the year," re- 
 marked Mrs. Martin. "I guess Grandpa 
 Martin's old hermit told part of the truth, 
 anyhow." 
 
 "Come on, Jan!" cried Ted to his sister, 
 as they left the table to get ready for school. 
 "We'll have a lot of fun in the snow to- 
 day." 
 
 "WiU we go coasting or skating?" Janet 
 asked. 
 
 "There isn't any skating, unless we clean 
 the snow off the pond," replied Ted. "And 
 that's an awful lot of work," he added. 
 
The Lame Boy 93 
 
 "When we come home from school we'll 
 build a great big snow house, if the snow is 
 soft enough to pack." 
 
 "On your way home from school," said 
 Mrs. Martin to Ted and Jan, "I want you 
 to stop at your father's store. He'll take 
 you to get new rubber boots. Your old ones 
 are nearly worn out, and if we are to have 
 much snow this winter you'U need bigger 
 ones to keep your feet dry. So stop at dad- 
 dy 's store. He '11 be looking for you. ' ' 
 
 * * New rubber boots ! ' ' cried Ted. " That 's 
 dandy!" 
 
 "Oh, may I have a high pair?" asked 
 Jan. "I want to wade in drifts as high as 
 Ted does, and I can't if you get me low 
 boots." 
 
 "Your father will get you the right kind," 
 said Mrs. Martin. "The boot store is near 
 his, and he'll go in to buy them with you." 
 
 Jan and Ted were very glad they were go- 
 ing to have new rubber boots, and Ted was 
 thinking so much about his that when his 
 teacher in school asked him how to spell foot 
 he spelled "b-o-o-t!" 
 
 The other boys and girls laughed, and at 
 first Ted did not know why. But, after a 
 bit, when he saw the teacher smiling also^ 
 
94 The Curlytops Snow ed In 
 
 he remembered what he had done. Then he 
 spelled foot correctly. 
 
 "Theodore was thinking more of what to 
 put on his foot, than about the word I asked 
 him to spell," said the teacher. 
 
 Mr. Martin's store was not far from the 
 school, and Ted and Jan hurried there when 
 their lessons were over. 
 
 "Where you goin'?" asked Tom Taylor, 
 as he came running out of the school yard. 
 "Come on, Curlytop, and let's make another 
 
 snowman." 
 
 "I will after I get my new rubber boots," 
 promised Ted. "You can start making it in 
 our yard if you want to. But don't let 
 Trouble make any more little snow men. He 
 put one in my sister's bed last night." 
 
 "He did?" laughed Tom. "Say, he's 
 queer all right!" 
 
 "Well, Curlytops, did you come to buy 
 out the store?" asked Mr. Martin with a 
 laugh as he saw his two children come in and 
 walk back toward the end, where he had his 
 office. 
 
 "We want rubber boots," said Ted. 
 
 "And I want big high ones, just like those 
 he's going to have," begged Jan, pointing 
 to her brother. 
 
The Lame Boy 95 
 
 "We'll get them just alike and then you 
 won't have any trouble," laughed her 
 father. "Only, of course, Ted's will have to 
 be a little larger in the feet than yours, 
 Jan." 
 
 "Oh, yes. Daddy! That's aU right," and 
 she smiled. "But I want mine high up on 
 my legs." 
 
 Telling one of his clerks to stay in the of- 
 fice until he came back, Mr. Martin took Ted 
 and Jan to the shoestore a few doors down 
 the street. There were many other boys and 
 girls, and men and women, too, getting boots 
 or rubbers. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Martin," said the clerk who 
 had come to wait on the Curlytops, "I see 
 you're getting ready for a hard winter. If 
 you get snowed in out at your house, these 
 youngsters can wade out and buy a loaf of 
 bread." 
 
 "We're going to have a lot to eat in our 
 house," put in Ted, " 'cause a hermit my 
 grandpa knows said we might get snowed 
 in." 
 
 "Indeed!" exclaimed the clerk. "Well, 
 it looks as though we would have plenty of 
 snow. We 've had more so far this year than 
 we did in twice as long a time last season. 
 
96 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Now about your rubber boots," and he took 
 the measure of the feet of Ted and Jan, and 
 soon fitted them with high boots, lined with 
 red flannel. 
 
 "Do they suit you, Jan?" asked her 
 father. 
 
 "Yes, they're just right," she answered. 
 "Hike 'em!" 
 
 "They're fine!" cried Ted, stretching out 
 his legs as he sat on the bench in the shoe- 
 store. "Now I can wade in deep drifts," 
 for the boots could be strapped around his 
 legs at the top, as could Jan's, and no snow 
 could get down inside. 
 
 "Well, run along home and have fun in 
 the snow ! ' ' said their father. ' * Gh, I forgot 
 something 1 Come on back to the store a min- 
 ute. I bought a new kind of chocolate candy 
 to-day and I thought maybe you might like 
 to try it." 
 
 "Oh, Daddy! We would!" cried Jan, 
 clapping her hands. 
 
 ' ' Mind you ! I 'm not sure you '11 like it, ' * 
 her father said, trying not to smile, "but if 
 you don't, just save it for Mcknack. He 
 isn't particular about candy." 
 
 "Oh, we'll like it all right!" laughed Ted. 
 "Hurry, Jan. I'm hungry for candy now I" 
 
TJie Lame Boy 97 
 
 The chocolate was very good, and Ted and 
 Jan each had as large a piece as was good 
 for them, and some to take home to their 
 mother, with a little bite for Trouble. As 
 the Curlytops were getting ready to leave 
 their father's store the clerk came from the 
 office and said : 
 
 "While you were gone, Mr. Martin, a 
 lame boy came in here to see you." 
 
 "A lame boy?" Mr. Martin was much 
 surprised. 
 
 "Yes. He said he had been in a Home up 
 near Cherry Farm, where you were last 
 summer," went on the clerk. 
 "What did he want?" asked Mr. Martin. 
 "I don't know. He didn't say, but stated 
 that he would wait until you came back. So 
 I gave him a chair just outside the office. He 
 seemed to know about you and Ted and 
 Jan." 
 
 "A lame boyl Oh, maybe it was Hal 
 Chester!" cried Jan. 
 
 "But Hal isn't lame any more," Mr. 
 Martin reminded her. "At least he is only 
 a little lame. Did this boy limp much ?" he 
 asked the clerk. 
 
 "Well, not so very much. He seemed 
 anxious to see you, though." 
 
08 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Where is he?" asked Mr. Martin. "I'U 
 be glad to see him. Where is he now?" 
 
 "That's what I don't know. I had to 
 leave the office a minute, and when I came 
 back he was gone." 
 
 "Gone?" 
 
 "Yes, he wasn't here at all. And, what 
 is more, something went with him." 
 
 "What do you mean?" asked Mr. Martin. 
 
 "I mean the lame boy took with him a 
 pocketbook and some money when he went 
 out," answered the clerk. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THROUGH THE ICE 
 
 Mr. Martin said nothing for a few sec- 
 onds after hearing what his clerk told him. 
 Ted and Jan looked at each other. They did 
 not know what to say. , 
 
 "Are you sure the lame boy took 
 the pocketbook and the money?" asked the 
 Curlytops' father of his clerk. 
 
 "Pretty sure; yes, sir. The pocketbook 
 — ^it was A sort of wallet I had some papers 
 in besides money — ^was left on this bench 
 right near where he was sitting while he was 
 waiting for you. I went away and when I 
 came back he was gone and so was the 
 pocketbook. He must have taken it." 
 
 "Was there much money in it?" 
 
 "Only about fifteen dollars." 
 
 "That's too bad. I wonder what the boy 
 wanted. Didn't he say ? ' ' 
 
 "Not to me, though to one of the other 
 
 99 
 
100 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 clerks who spoke to him as he sat near the 
 bench he said he was in need of help." 
 
 "Then it couldn't have been Hal Ches- 
 ter," said Mr, Martin, "for his father is 
 able to provide for him. Besides, Hal 
 wouldn't go away without waiting to see Ted 
 and Jan, for they had such good times to- 
 gether at Cherry Farm and on Star Island. 
 
 "Hal Chester," went on Mr. Martin to "^he 
 clerk, who had never been to Cherry Farm, 
 "was a lame boy who was almost cured at 
 the Home for Crippled Children not far 
 from my father's house. He left there to go 
 to his own home about the time we broke up 
 our camp. I don't see why he would come 
 hereto see me." 
 
 "Maybe his father lost all his money and 
 Hal wanted to see if you'd give him more," 
 suggested Jan. 
 
 "Or maybe he wanted to get work in your 
 store," added Ted. 
 
 "I hardly think so," remarked his father. 
 "It is queer, though, why the boy should go 
 away without seeing me, whoever he was. 
 I'm sorry about the missing pocketbook. I 
 know Hal would never do such a thing as 
 that. "Well, it can't be helped." 
 
 "Shall I call the police?" asked the clerk. 
 
Throu gh the Ice 101 
 
 "What for?" Mr. Martin queried. 
 
 "So they can look for this lame boy, who- 
 ever he was, and arrest him for taking that 
 money." 
 
 "Maybe he didn't take it," said Mr. Mar- 
 tin. 
 
 "He must have," declared the clerk. 
 "The pocketbook was right on the bench 
 near him, and after he went away the pocket^ 
 book wasn't there any more. He took it all 
 right!" 
 
 "Well, never mind about the police for a 
 while," said the children's father. "Maybe 
 the lame boy will come back and tell us what 
 he wanted to see me about, and maybe he 
 only took the pocketbook by mistake. Or 
 some one else may have walked off with it. 
 Don 't call the poli ce yet. ' * 
 
 "I'm glad daddy didn't call the police," 
 said Ted to Jan, as they went home a little 
 later, carrying their fine, new, rubber 
 boots. 
 
 "So'm I," agreed his sister. "Even if it 
 was Hal I don't believe he took the money." 
 
 "No, course not! Hal wouldn't do that. 
 Anyhow Hal wasn't hardly lame at all any 
 more. The doctors at the Home cured him, ' \ 
 said Ted. 
 
102 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Unless maybe he got lame again in the 
 snow," suggested Janet. 
 
 "Well, of course he might have slipped 
 down and hurt his foot," admitted Ted. 
 "But anyhow I guess it wasn't Hal." 
 
 Neither of the Curlytops liked to think 
 that their former playmate would do such 
 a thing as to take a pocketbook that did not 
 belong to him. Mother Martin, when told 
 what had happened at the store that day, 
 said she was sure it could not be Hal. 
 
 "There's one way you can find out," she 
 said to her husband. "Write to Hal's 
 father and ask him if he has been away from 
 home." 
 
 "I'll do it !" agreed Mr. Martin, while Ted 
 and Jan were out in the snow, wading in the 
 biggest drifts they could find with their high 
 rubber boots on. Their feet did not get a 
 bit wet. 
 
 In a few days Mr. Martiu had an answer 
 from the letter he had sent to Mr. Chester, 
 Hal's father. The letter was written by a 
 friend of Mr. Chester's who was in charge 
 of his home and who opened all the mail. 
 Mr. Chester, this man wrote, was traveling 
 with his wife and Hal, and no one knew 
 just where they were at present. 
 
_^ Through the Ice 103 
 
 "Then it might have been Hal, after all, 
 who called at your office," said Mrs. Mar- 
 tin to her husband. "He maj have been 
 near here, and wanted to stop to see the chil- 
 dren, and, not knowing where we lived, he 
 inquired for your store. But if it was Hal 
 I'm perfectly sure he didn't take the pocket- 
 book." 
 
 "So am I," said Mr. Martin. "And yet 
 we haven't found it at the store, nor was 
 there anyone else near it while the lame boy 
 was sitting on the bench. It's too bad ! I'd 
 like to find out who he was and what he 
 wanted of me." 
 
 But, for the present, there seemed no way 
 to do this. Ted and Jan wondered, too, for 
 they would have liked to see Hal again, and 
 they did not, even for a moment, believe he 
 had taken the money. Hal Chester was not 
 that kind of boy. 
 
 The Curlytops had much fun in the snow. 
 They went riding down hill whenever they 
 could, and made more snow men and big 
 snowballs. Ted and Tom Taylor talked 
 of building a big snow house, much larger 
 than the first one they had made. 
 
 "And well pour water over the walls, and 
 make them freeze into ice," said Ted. 
 
104 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Then Mcknack can't butt 'em down with 
 his horns." 
 
 But there was not quite enough snow 
 around the Martin yard to make the large 
 house the boys wanted, so they decided to 
 wait until more of the white flakes fell. 
 
 "There'll be plenty of snow," said Ted to 
 his chum. "My father had another letter 
 from my grandfather, and he says the her- 
 mit said a terribly big storm was coming in 
 about two weeks." 
 
 ' * Whew ! ' ' whistled Tom Taylor. ' * I guess 
 I'd better go home and teU my mother to 
 get in plenty of bread and butter and jam> 
 I like that; don't you?" 
 
 "I guess I dol" cried Ted. "I'm going 
 in now and ask Nora if she'll give us some. 
 I'm awful hungry 1" 
 
 Nora took pity on Ted and the other boy 
 who was playing in the yard with him, and 
 they were soon sitting on the back steps 
 eating bread and jam. 
 
 They had each taken about three bites 
 from the nice, big slices Nora had given 
 them, when around the back walk came a 
 man who was limping on one leg, the other 
 being of wood. Though the man's clothes 
 were ragged, and he seemed to be what 
 
Through the Ice 105 
 
 would be called a "tramp," he had a kind 
 face, though as Ted said afterward, it had 
 on it more whiskers than ever his father's 
 had. Still the man seemed to be different 
 from the ordinary tramps. 
 
 "Ah, that's what I like to seeJ" he ex- 
 claimed as he watched the boys eating the 
 bread and jam. "Nothing like that for the 
 appetite — I mean to take away an appetite 
 —when you've got more than you need." 
 
 "Have you got an appetite?" asked Tom 
 Taylor. 
 
 "Indeed I have," answered the man. 
 "I've got more appetite than I know what 
 to do with. I was just going to ask if you 
 thought I could get something to eat here. 
 Having an appetite means you're hungry, 
 you know," he added with a smile, so Ted 
 and Tom would understand. The man 
 looked hungrily at the bread and jam the 
 boys were eating. 
 
 "Would you — ^would you like some of 
 this?" asked Teddy, holding out his slice, 
 which had three bites and a half taken from 
 it. The half bite was the one Ted took just 
 as he saw the man. He was so surprised 
 that he took only a half bite instead of a 
 whole one. 
 
106 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Would I like that? Only just wouldn't 
 I, though !" cried the man, smacking his lips. 
 ' * But please don 't ask me, ' ' he went on. ' ' It 
 isn't good for the appetite to see things and 
 not eat 'em." 
 
 "You can eat this," said Teddy, as he held 
 out his slice of bread and jam. "I've taken 
 only a few bites out of it. And I cleaned 
 my teeth this morning," he added as if that 
 would make it all right that he had eaten 
 part of the sUce. 
 
 "Oh, that part doesn't worry met" 
 laughed the tramp. "But I don't want, 
 hungry as I am, to take your bread and but- 
 ter, to say nothing of the jam," 
 
 He turned aside and then swung back. 
 
 "There is butter on the bread, under that 
 jam, isn't there?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes," answered Tom. "It's good but- 
 ter, too." 
 
 "Sol should guess, ' ' went on the man. ' ' I 
 can most always teR when there's butter on 
 the bread under the jam. There's always 
 one sure way to tell," he said. 
 
 "How?" asked Ted, thinking it might be 
 some trick. 
 
 "Just take a hite!" laughed the man, and 
 the two boys on the back steps laughed, too. 
 
Through the Ice 107 
 
 "Are you sure you don't want this?" the 
 tramp went on, as he took the partly eaten 
 slice Ted held out to him. "I wouldn't for 
 the world, hungry as I am, take your 
 slice " 
 
 "Oh, Nora '11 give me more," said Ted 
 eagerly. He really wanted to see the man 
 bite into the slice. Ted said afterward that 
 he wanted to know how big a bite the man 
 could take. 
 
 "Well, then, if you can get more I will 
 take this," said the man, as he eagerly and, 
 so it seemed to the boys, very hungrily bit 
 into the slice — or what was left of it after 
 Ted had taken out his three and a half nib- 
 bles. What Ted took were really nibbles 
 alongside the bites the man took. 
 
 "Were you in a war?" asked Tom, as he 
 watched the tramp take the last of Ted's 
 bread. 
 
 "No. Why did you think I was — ^because 
 I have a wooden leg?" 
 
 The boy nodded. 
 
 "My leg was cut off on the railroad," went 
 on the tramp. "But I get along pretty well 
 on this wooden peg. It's a good thing in a 
 way, too," he added. 
 
 "How's that?" asked Tom. 
 
108 The Curlytops Sn owed In 
 
 "Well, you see havin' only one leg there 
 isn't so much of me to get hungry. It's just 
 like having only one mouth instead of two. 
 If you boys had two mouths you'd have to 
 have two slices of bread and jam instead of 
 one," went on the tramp, laughing. "It's 
 the same way when you only have one leg 
 instead of two — ^you don't get so hungry." 
 
 "Are you hungry yet?" asked Tom, as 
 he saw the tramp licking off with his tongue 
 some drops of jam that got on his fingers. 
 
 ' ' I am, ' ' the man answered. * ' My one leg 
 isn't quite full yet — I mean my one good 
 leg, ' ' he added. ' ' You can 't put anything — 
 not even bread and jam into this wooden 
 peg," and he tapped it with his cane. 
 
 "Take my slice of bread," said Tom 
 kindly. "I guess I can get some more when 
 I get home." 
 
 "Kora'll give you some same as she will 
 me," said Teddy. "Gro on and eat — I like 
 to watch you," he added to the tramp. 
 
 "Well, you don't like to watch me any 
 more than I like to do it," laughed the rag- 
 ged man, as he began on the second slice of 
 bread and jam. 
 
 He ate that all up, and then, when Teddy 
 and Tom went in and told Nora what had 
 
-^«lK>, (^fRfilft^,,- 
 
 JAN WENT THROUGH THE ICE INTO THE BLACK WATER. 
 The Curlytops Snowed In Pnse 111 
 
Through the Ice 109 
 
 ^— 1 ' ■ ■ 
 
 happened, the good-natured girl insisted on 
 getting some hot coffee and bread and meat 
 for the hungry man. 
 
 "Jam and such like isn't anything near 
 enough," she said, "even if he has but one 
 leg. I'll feed him proper." 
 
 Which she did, and the tramp vdth the 
 "wooden peg," as he called it, was very- 
 thankful. Before he left he cut some wood 
 for Nora, and also whittled out two little 
 wooden swords for Ted and Tom. 
 
 "I'm glad we gave him our bread and 
 jam; aren't you?" asked Ted of his chum. 
 
 "Yep," was the answer. "I liked him, 
 and it was fun to see him take big bites." 
 
 A snowstorm came a few days later, and, 
 for a time, the Curlytops thought it might 
 be the big one Grandpa Martin's hermit had 
 spoken of. But the snow soon changed to 
 rain and then came a thaw, so that there 
 was not a bit of snow left on the ground, aU 
 being washed away. 
 
 "Oh, dear!" sighed Jan, as she looked out 
 of the window. "This isn't like winter at 
 aU I We can't have any fun ! ' ' 
 
 "Wait till it freezes," said Ted. "Then 
 we'U have lots of fun skating on the 
 pond." 
 
110 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Two nights later there came a cold spell, 
 and the ice formed on the pond. But, though 
 the Curlytops did not know it, the ice was 
 not as thick as it ought to have been to make 
 it safe. 
 
 On the big lake, where the larger boys and 
 girls went skating, a man, sent by the chief 
 of police, always tested the ice after a freeze, 
 to make sure it was thick enough to hold up 
 the crowds of skaters. But on the pond, 
 where the water was not more than knee- 
 deep, no one ever looked at the ice. The 
 little boys and girls went there just as they 
 pleased. 
 
 "Come on skating 1" cried Ted, after 
 school the first day of this cold weather. 
 "We'll have a race on the ice, Jan." 
 
 "All right," she answered. "I can skate 
 faster than you if I am a girl I" 
 
 "No, you can't!''' exclaimed Ted. 
 
 "I want to comel" cried Trouble, as he 
 saw his brother and sister starting out with 
 their skates on straps over their shoul- 
 ders. 
 
 "Oh, no I You're too little!" said his 
 mother. "You must stay with me." 
 
 But Trouble did not wish to do that, and 
 cried until Nora came in and said he might 
 
Through the Ice 111 
 
 help her bake a cake. This pleased the lit- 
 tle fellow, who, if he were given a piece- of 
 dough, not too sticky, to play with, had a fine 
 time imagining he was making pies or a 
 cake. 
 
 So Ted and Janet hurried off to the pond 
 and were soon skating away with other boys 
 and girls of their own age and size. 
 
 "Come on, now, let's race!" cried Ted, 
 after a bit. "I'll get to the other side of 
 the pond 'fore you do, Jan!" 
 
 "JSTo, you won't!" she exclaimed, and the 
 Curlytops started off on their race, the oth- 
 ers watching. 
 
 For a while Ted was ahead, and then, 
 whether it was because she was a better 
 skater or because her skates were sharper, 
 Jan passed her brother. He tried to catch 
 up to her but could not. 
 
 And then, when Jan was about twenty 
 feet ahead of Teddy and in the middle of the 
 pond, the ice suddenly began to crack. 
 
 "Look out! Come on back! You 11 go 
 through I" cried Tom Taylor. 
 
 "Oh, she's in now!" screamed Lola. 
 
 And, as Lola spoke, Jan went through the 
 ice into the black water beneath. 
 
 * ' Skate to shore ! Skate to shore ! ' ' called 
 
112 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 Tom to the others. * ' Get off the ice or you '11 
 go in, tool" 
 
 The other children did as he said, and it 
 was well that they did, for the ice was now 
 cracking in all directions from the big hole 
 in the middle, through which Janet had 
 gone down. 
 
 Teddy, who was skating as hard as he 
 could, could not stop himself at once, but 
 went on, straight for the hole through which 
 his sister had slipped. 
 
 "Stop! Stop!" yelled Tom, waving his 
 hands at Ted. "Stopl" 
 
 Ted tried to, digging the back point of his 
 skate into the ice as he had seen other skat- 
 ers do when they wanted to stop quickly. 
 But he was going too fast to come to a halt 
 soon enough, and it looked as though he, also, 
 would go into the water. 
 
 * * Fall down and slide ! Fall down I ' ' cried 
 a bigger boy who had come over to see if his 
 own little brother was all right on the pond. 
 
 Ted understood what this boy meant. By 
 falling down on the ice and sliding, he would 
 not go as fast, and he might stop before he 
 got to the hole where the black water looked 
 so cold and wet. 
 
 Flinging his feet from under him Ted 
 
Through the Ice 113 
 
 dropped full length on the frozen pond, but 
 still he felt himself sliding toward the hole. 
 He could see Janet now. She was trying to 
 stand up and she was crying and sob- 
 bing. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THANKSGIVING 
 
 "Look out, Teddy! Look out, or you 11 
 fall in same as I did !" 
 
 This is what Janet Martin called to her 
 brother as she saw him sliding toward her 
 when she was in the pond where she had 
 broken through the ice. She stopped crying 
 and shivering from the icy water long 
 enough to say that. 
 
 "Stop, Teddy! Stop!" she shouted. 
 
 "I'm tryin' to!" he ajiswered. He 
 pressed hard vpith his mittened hands on the 
 smooth ice on which he had thrown himself. 
 It was very slippery. He was sliding ahead 
 feet first and he could lift up his head and 
 look at his sister. 
 
 Luckily the water was not deep in the 
 pond — hardly over Janet's knees — and when 
 she had fallen through the ice she had man- 
 aged to stand up. Her feet, with the skates 
 
 114 
 
Thanksgiving 115 
 
 still on them, were down in the soft mud and 
 ooze of the pond, the bottom of which had 
 not frozen. 
 
 "I can't stop!" yelled Teddy, and it did 
 seem as though he would go into the water 
 also. But he stopped just in time, far 
 enough away from the hole to prevent his 
 going through the ice, which had cracked 
 in three or more places. 
 
 "Crawl back to shore!" yelled the big 
 boy, named Ford Henderson, who had come 
 to look after his own little brother, whom 
 he found safe. "Crawl back to shore, Cur- 
 lytop. Don't stand up, or you might fall 
 down where the ice is thin and crack a hole 
 in it. Crawl back to shore I" 
 
 "But I want to help Janet!" said Teddy, 
 who was almost ready to cry himself, since 
 he saw in what plight his sister Janet now 
 was. 
 
 "I'll get her out!" called Ford. 
 
 Then, while Teddy slowly crawled back 
 over the ice, which every now and then 
 cracked a little, as if the whole frozen top of 
 the pond were going to fall in, Ford, the big 
 boy, not in the least minding his feet getting 
 wet, ran to where Janet stood up in the hole. 
 Ford broke through the ice also, but as he 
 
116 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 was quite tall the water did not even come 
 to his knees. 
 
 "Don't cry. You'U be all right soon," 
 said Ford in a kind voice to the little girl. 
 "I'll take you home!" 
 
 Then, being strong, he lifted her up in his 
 arms, skates and all, and, with the mud and 
 water dripping from her feet while his 
 own were soaking wet, the big boy ran to- 
 ward the Martin home with Janet. 
 
 "You come along, too, Curlytop!" called 
 Ford to Teddy. "If I bring in your sister, 
 all wet from having fallen through the ice, 
 your mother will be afraid you are drowned. 
 Come along!" 
 
 So Teddy, quickly taking off his skates, 
 Tom Taylor helping him, ran along beside 
 Ford, who was carrying Janet. The other 
 boys and girls who had run from the crack- 
 ing ice in time to get off before they broke 
 through, followed, so there was quite a pro- 
 cession coming toward the Martin house. 
 Mrs. Martin, looking out of the window, saw 
 it and, seeing Jan being carried by the big 
 boy, guessed at once what had happened. 
 
 "Oh, my goodness!" she cried to Nora. 
 "Jan has fallen through the ice. She'U be 
 soaking wet and cold. Gret some hot water 
 
Thanksgiving 117 
 
 ready, and I'll bring some blankets to warm. 
 She must be given a hot bath and put to bed 
 in warm clothes. Maybe Teddy is wet, too, 
 or some of the others. Hurry, Nora!" 
 
 And Nora hurried as she never had be- 
 fore, so that by the time Ford had set Jan 
 down in a chair by the stove in the kitchen 
 and had helped Mrs. Martin take off her wet 
 skates and shoes, the water was ready and 
 Janet was given a hot foot bath. 
 
 "You must dry yourself, Ford," said 
 Mrs. Martin. "I can't thank you enough 
 for saving my little girl!" 
 
 "Oh, she was all right," answered Ford. 
 "She stood up herself, because the water 
 wasn't deep, and I just lifted her out of 
 the mud. Ted did well, too, for he stopped 
 himself from going into the hole." 
 
 "I was going to get Janet out," Teddy an- 
 swered. 
 
 "I knew you would be a brave little boy 
 when your sister was in danger," said Mrs. 
 Martin. "Now here is some hot milk for 
 you, Janet, and I guess you're old enough 
 to have a little coffee. Ford. It will keep you 
 from catching cold I hope." 
 
 "Couldn't he have some bread and jam 
 with it. Mother ?" asked Janet, as she sipped 
 
118 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 her warm drink, "Maybe he's hungry." 
 
 "Maybe he is!" laughed Mrs. Martin. 
 
 "Oh, don't bother!" exclaimed Ford. 
 
 But Mrs. Martin got it ready and Ford 
 ate the bread and jam as though he liked it. 
 So did Ted, and then ISTora took some cookies 
 out to the boys and girls from the pond who 
 had gathered in front of the Martin home 
 to talk about Janet's haying gone through 
 the ice and of how Ford had pulled her out 
 of the mud. 
 
 Altogether there was a great deal of ex- 
 citement, and many people in town talked 
 about the Curlytops that night when the 
 boys and girls went to their homes with the 
 news. 
 
 "Some one ought to look after the ice on 
 the little pond as well as on the lake when 
 there is skating," said Mr. Martin, when he 
 heard what had happened. "We want our 
 little boys and girls to be safe as well as the 
 larger ones. I'll see about it." 
 
 So he did, and after that, for the rest of 
 the winter and each winter following, a 
 man was sent to see how thick the ice on the 
 little pond was, and if it would not hold up 
 a big crowd of little boys and girls none was 
 allowed on until it had frozen more thickly. 
 
Thanksgiving 119 
 
 "But when are we going to build the big 
 snow house?" asked Jan one night at sup- 
 per, when she and Ted had played hard on 
 the hill after school. 
 
 "You can't build it until there's more 
 snow," said her mother. "You'll have to 
 wait until another storm comes. I expect 
 there'll be one soon, for Thanksgiving is next 
 week, and we usually have a good snow 
 then." 
 
 "Oh, is it Thanksgiving?" cried Ted. 
 "What fun we'll havel" 
 
 "Is grandpa or grandma coming to see 
 us this year?" asked Jan. 
 
 "'Ho, they have to stay on Cherry Farm. 
 I asked them to come, but grandpa says if 
 there is going to be a blizzard, and any dan- 
 ger of his getting snowed in, he wants to be 
 at home where he can feed the cows and 
 horses." 
 
 "Aren't we going to have any company 
 over Thanksgiving?" asked Ted. 
 
 "Well, maybe," and his mother smiled. 
 
 "Oh, somebody is coming 1" cried Jan joy- 
 fully. "It's going to be a surprise, Ted! I 
 can tell by the way mother laughs with her 
 eyes!" 
 
 "Is it going to be a surprise?" Ted asked. 
 
120 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Well, maybe," and Mrs. Martin laughed. 
 
 The weather grew colder as Thanksgiving 
 came nearer. There were two or three flur- 
 ries of snow, but no big storm, though Jan 
 and Ted looked anxiously for one, as they 
 wanted a big pile of the white flakes in the 
 yard so they could make a snow house. 
 
 "We'll make the biggest one everl" de- 
 clared Ted. "And maybe we'll turn it into 
 a fort and have an Indian fight 1" 
 
 "I don't like Indian fights," said Janet. 
 
 "They'll only be make-believe," Ted went 
 on. "Me an' Tom Taylor an' some of the 
 fellows '11 be the Indians." 
 
 But the big snow held off, though each 
 morning, as soon as they arose from their 
 beds, Jan and Ted would run to the window 
 to look out to see if it had come in the 
 night. There was just a little covering of 
 white on the ground, and in some places, 
 along the streets and the sidewalks, it had 
 been shoveled away. 
 
 "Do you think it will snow for Thanksgiv- 
 ing?" asked the Curlytops again and again. 
 
 "Yes, I think so," their mother would an- 
 swer. 
 
 Such busy times as there were at the Mar- 
 tin house! Mrs. Martin and Nora were in 
 
Thanksgiving 121 
 
 the kitchen most of each day, baking, boil- 
 ing, frying, stewing and cooking in other 
 ways. There was to be a pumpkin pie, of 
 course — ^in fact two or three of them, as 
 well as pies of mincemeat and of apple. 
 
 * * There must be a lot of company coming, ' ' 
 said Ted to Janet; " 'cause they're bakin' 
 an awful lot." 
 
 "Well, everybody eats a lot at Thanksgiv- 
 ing," said the little girl. "Only I hope we 
 have snow and lots of company." 
 
 "Did you hear anything more about the 
 lame boy and the missing pocketbook and 
 money?" asked Mrs. Martin of her husband 
 two or three days before Thanksgiving. 
 
 "No, not a thing, ' ' he answered. "He did 
 not come back to the store, and we haven't 
 found the lost money. I am hoping we shall, 
 though, for, though I can't guess who the 
 lame boy was, if he wasn't Hal, I wouldn't 
 want to think any little chap would take 
 what did not belong to him." 
 
 "Nor would I," said the Curlytops' 
 mother. 
 
 The next afternoon something queer hap- 
 pened. Teddy and Janet had not yet come 
 home from school, and Mrs. Martin and 
 Nora were in the kitchen baking the last of 
 
122 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 the things for Thanksgiving and getting 
 things ready to roast the big turkey which 
 would come the next day. 
 
 The front doorbell rang and Mrs. Martin 
 said: 
 
 "You'd better answer, Nora. My hands 
 are covered with flour." 
 
 "And so is my nose," answered the maid 
 with a laugh. "You look better to go to the 
 front door than I do." 
 
 "Well, I guess I do," agreed Mrs. Mar- 
 tin with a smile. She paused to wipe her 
 hands on a towel and then went through the 
 hall. But when she opened the door no one 
 was on the steps. 
 
 "That's queer," she said to herself, look- 
 ing up and down the street. "I wonder if 
 that could have been Teddy or Jan playing 
 a joke." Then she looked at the clock and 
 noticed that it was not yet time for the chil- 
 dren to come home from school. 
 
 A man passing in the street saw Mrs. Mar- 
 tin gazing up and down the sidewalk. 
 
 "Are you looking for someone?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "Well, someone just rang my beU," an- 
 swered Mrs. Martin. "But I don't see any- 
 
 one." 
 
Thanksgiving 123 
 
 "I saw a lame boy go up on your vernada 
 a few minutes ago, ' ' went on the man. * ' He 
 stood there, maybe four or five seconds and 
 then rang the bell. All at once he seemed 
 frightened, and down he hurried off the steps 
 and ran aroimd the corner, limping." 
 
 "He did?" cried Mrs. Martin. "Why, 
 how strange I Did he say anything to you ?" 
 
 "No, I wasn't near enough, but I thought 
 it queer." 
 
 "It is queer," agreed Mrs. Martin. "I 
 wonder who he was, and if he is in sight 
 now?" 
 
 She ran down the steps and hurried 
 around the corner to look down the next 
 street. But no boy, lame or not, was in sight. 
 
 "Maybe he was just playing a trick," said 
 the man. "Though he didn't look like that 
 kind of boy." 
 
 "No, I think it was no trick," answered 
 the mother of the Curlytops, as she went 
 back into the house. 
 
 "What was it?" asked Nora. 
 
 "A lame boy, but he ran away after ring- 
 ing," answered Mrs. Martin. "I wonder if 
 it could have been the boy who was at Mr. 
 Martin's store, and who might know some- 
 thing about the stolen pocketbook, even if 
 
124 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 he did not take it. Perhaps he came to tell 
 us something about it and, at the last minute, 
 he was too frightened and ran away." 
 
 She told this to Mr. Martiu when he came 
 home, and he said it might be so. 
 
 " If it is, ' ' he went on, "that lame boy must 
 be in town somewhere. I'd like to find him. 
 I'll speal: to the police. The poor boy may 
 be in trouble." 
 
 The police promised to look for the lame 
 boy and help him if he needed it. And then 
 all else was forgotten, for a time, in the joys 
 of the coming Thanksgiving. 
 
 The night before the great day, when the 
 Curlytops were in the sitting-room after sup- 
 per talking of the fun they would have, and 
 when Trouble was going to sleep in his 
 mother's lap, Daddy Martin went to the win- 
 dow to look out. 
 
 "It's snowing hard," he said. 
 
 "Oh, goodie!" laughed Jan. 
 
 "Now we can build the big snow house l*' 
 cried Ted. 
 
 Just then the doorbell rang loudly. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE SNOW BirNrGALOW 
 
 "Who's that?" asked Mrs. Martin, mth- 
 out thinking, for, of course, there was no way; 
 of telling who was at the door until it was 
 opened. 
 
 "I'll go to see," offered Daddy Martin. 
 
 "Oh, maybe it's that queer lame boy," 
 suggested Ted. 
 
 "Don't let him get away until you talk 
 to him," cautioned Mother Martin. "I'd 
 like to know who he is." 
 
 "Whoever is there doesn't seem to be go- 
 ing to run away," remarked the Curly- 
 tops' father. "They're stamping the 
 snow off their feet as if they intended to 
 come in." 
 
 "Oh, I wonder if it could be themf said 
 Mrs. Martin questioningly. 
 
 "Who, Mother? Who do you think it is ?" 
 asked Jan. but her mother did not answer. 
 
 I2S 
 
126 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 She stood in the hall while her husband went 
 to the door. Outside could be heard the 
 voices of people talking. 
 
 Then the door was opened by Mr. Martin, 
 letting in a cloud of snowflakes and a blast 
 of cold air that made the Curlytops shiver 
 in the warm house. 
 
 "Well, here we are!" cried a jolly voice, 
 
 "Sort of a surprise!" some one else 
 added; a woman's voice Jan decided. The 
 other was a man's. 
 
 "Well, how in the world did you get here 
 at this time of night?" asked Daddy Martin 
 in surprise. "Come right in out of the 
 storm. We're glad to see you! Come in 
 and get warm. It 's quite a storm, isn 't it ? " 
 
 "Yes. And it's going to be worse," the 
 man's voice said. "It's going to be a regu- 
 lar blizzard, I imagine." 
 
 "Oh, goodie!" murmured Ted. 
 
 "But who is it — ^who's come to see us so 
 late at night?" asked Janet. 
 
 "Pooh! 'Tisn't late," said her brother. 
 "Only a little after eight o'clock. Oh, it's 
 Aunt Jo!" he cried a moment later as he 
 caught sight of the lady's face when she took 
 off her veil and shook from it the snowflakes. 
 
 "Yes, it's Aunt Jo, Curlytop!" cried the 
 
The Snow Bungalow 12T 
 
 lady. "I'd hug you, only I 'm wet. But I '11 
 get dry in a minute and then I will. Where 's 
 my Little Curlytop girl, and where 's that 
 dear bunch of Trouble ?" 
 
 * * Here I is ! " cried Baby William, who had 
 been awakened when the bell rang. He had 
 been put on the couch by his mother, but 
 now came toddling out into the hall. "Who 
 is it?" he asked, rubbing his sleepy eyes. 
 
 "It's Aunt Jo I" cried Ted. "Aunt Jo's 
 come to visit us for Thanksgiving. Oh, I'm 
 so glad ! ' ' and Teddy danced wildly about the 
 room. 
 
 "And it's Uncle Frank, too!" cried 
 Mother Martin. "You children don't know 
 him as well as you do Aunt Jo, for you 
 haven't seen him so often. But here he is 1" 
 
 "Is it Uncle Prank from out West wEere 
 the cowboys and Indians live?" asked Ted, 
 stopping his dance to think of this new in- 
 terest. 
 
 "That's who I am, young man!'* an- 
 swered the hearty voice of the man who had 
 come through the storm with Aunt Jo. "As 
 soon as I shake off this fur coat, which has 
 as much snow on it as a grizzly bear. gets on 
 him when he plays tag in a blizzard, I'll have 
 a look at you. There ! It's off. Now where 
 
128 The Curly tops Snovoed In 
 
 are the children with such curly hair? I 
 want to see 'em!" 
 
 "Here they are," answered Daddy Mar- 
 tin. "They were just going to bed to get up 
 good appetites for the Thanksgiving dinner 
 to-morrow. But I guess we can let them stay 
 up a little longer. We didn't expect you two 
 until to-morrow." 
 
 "We both managed to get earlier trains 
 than we expected," explained Aunt Jo. 
 
 "And we met each other at the Junction, 
 without expecting to, and came on to- 
 gether," added Uncle Frank. "Thought 
 we'd give you a surprise." 
 
 ' * Grlad you did, ' ' returned Mr. Martin. * * I 
 was beginning to get afraid, if the storm 
 kept up, that you wouldn't get here for 
 Thanksgiving. ' ' 
 
 "Wouldn't have missed it for two dozen 
 cow ponies and a wire fence thrown inl" 
 laughed Uncle Frank, in his deep voice. 
 "Now Where's that curly hair?" 
 
 Jan and Ted, just a little bashful in the 
 presence of their Western uncle, who did 
 not often leave his ranch to come East, went 
 forward. Uncle Frank looked at them, ran 
 his fingers through Ted's tightly curled hair 
 and then cried: 
 
The Snow Bungalow 129 
 
 "Oh, I'm caught!" 
 
 "What's the matter?" asked Aunt Jo 
 with a laugh. 
 
 "My fingers are tangled in Ted's hair and 
 I can't get them loose!" said Uncle Frank, 
 pretending that his hand was held fast. 
 "Say, I heard your hair was curly," he went 
 on, after he had finally gotten his fingers 
 loose, having made believe it was very hard 
 work, "but I never thought it was like this. 
 And Jan's, too! Why, if anything, hers is 
 tighter than Ted's." 
 
 "Yes; we call them our Curlytops," said 
 Mother Martin. 
 
 "And here's another. His hair isn't 
 curly, though," went on Uncle Frank. 
 "What did you call him?" 
 
 "His name is William Anthony Martin," 
 said Aunt Jo. "I know, for I picked out 
 the name." 
 
 "But we caU him Trouble," said Ted, who 
 was looking eagerly at his big imele from 
 the West, hoping, perhaps, that he might 
 bring out a gun or a bow and some arrows 
 from the pockets of his fur overcoat. But 
 Uncle Frank did nothing like that. 
 
 "Come out in the dining-room and have 
 something to eat," invited Mr. Martin. 
 
130 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "No, thank you. Miss Miller and I had 
 supper before we came here," answered 
 Uncle Frank, "We knew we'd be a little 
 late. But we'll sit and talk a while." 
 
 "Mother, may Ted and I stay up and lis- 
 ten — a little bit?" begged Janet. 
 
 "Oh, yes, let them, do!" urged Aunt Jo. 
 "It isn't so very late, and they don't have to 
 go to school to-morrow. Besides if this 
 storm k^eps up all they can do is to stay in 
 the house." 
 
 "We got big rubber boots, and we can go 
 in deep drifts," explained Jan. 
 
 "Did you? Well, I guess the drifts will 
 be deeper to-morrow than you've ever seen 
 them if I'm any judge of weather," re- 
 marked Uncle Frank. " It 's starting in like 
 one of our worst blizzards." 
 
 "Then we'll be snowed in like the hermit 
 said we'd bel" cried Ted. "That'U be 
 fun!" 
 
 "What does he mean about a hermit?" 
 asked Aunt Jo. 
 
 Then Daddy Martin told about the letter 
 from grandpa at Cherry Farm, and of the 
 hermit's prediction that there was going to 
 be a hard winter. 
 
 "Well, Thanksgiving is a good time to be 
 
The Snow Bungalow 131 
 
 snowed in," said TJncle Frank. "There's 
 sure to be enough to eat in the house." 
 
 "Were you ever snowed in?" asked Ted, 
 when he was seated on one of TJncle Frank's 
 knees and Jan was on the other. 
 
 "Oh, lots of times," was the answer. 
 
 "Tell us about itl" eagerly begged the 
 Curlytops. 
 
 "I think you had better hear TJncle 
 Frank's stories to-morrow," said Mother 
 Martin. "It is getting late now, and time 
 you were asleep. You may get up early, if 
 you wish and you'll have all day with our 
 nice company." 
 
 "Oh, Mother! just let Uncle Frank tell 
 one story!" pleaded Jan. 
 
 "We haven't heard one for an awful long 
 while, ' ' added her brother. * * I mean a story 
 like what he can tell," he added quickly. 
 "Course you teU us nice stories, Mother, and 
 so does Daddy, but can't TJncle Frank tell us 
 just one?" 
 
 "I don't know," returned Mother Mar- 
 tin, as if not quite sure. 
 
 "Oh, please!" begged Jan and Ted to- 
 gether, for they thought they saw signs of 
 their mother's giving in. 
 , Trouble seemed to know what was going 
 
132 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 on. He wiggled down from his father's 
 knees and climbed up on those of Uncle 
 Frank. Then he cuddled down in the big 
 man's arms, and the big man seemed to know 
 just how to hold little boys, even if their pet 
 names were like that of Trouble. 
 
 "I 'ikes a 'tory!" said Trouble simply. 
 "I 'ikes one very much!" 
 
 "Well, now that's too bad," said Uncle 
 Frank with a laugh. "But if daddy and 
 mother say it can't be done, why — ^it can't!" 
 
 "Do you know any short ones?" asked 
 Mr. Martin. "I mean a story that wouldn't 
 keep them up too late, and then keep them 
 awake after they get to bed?" 
 
 "Oh, I guess I can dig up a story like 
 that," said Uncle Frank, and he scratched 
 his head, and then stuck one hand down 
 deep in his pocket, as if he intended digging 
 up a story from there. 
 
 "Well, I suppose they won't be happy 
 until they hear one, ' ' said Mrs. Martin. * ' So 
 you may tell them one — ^but let it be short, 
 please." 
 
 "All right," agreed Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Oh, this is lovely!" murmured Janet. 
 
 "What's the story going to be about?" 
 asked Ted. 
 
The Snota Bungalow 133 
 
 "What would you like it to be about?" 
 inquired Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Tell us of the time you were snowed in," 
 suggested Jan. "And maybe we'll have 
 something like that happen to us." 
 
 "Ha 1 ha !" laughed Uncle Frank. "Well, 
 maybe after you hear about what happened 
 to me you won't want anything like it your- 
 selves. However, here we gol" 
 
 He settled himself in the easy chair, cud- 
 dled Trouble a little closer to him, and, after 
 looking up at the ceiling, as if to see any 
 part of the story that might be printed there, 
 Uncle Frank began: 
 
 "Once upon a time, not so very many 
 years ago " 
 
 "Oh, I just Jove a story to begin that way; 
 don't you, Ted?" asked Janet. 
 
 "Yep. It's great ! Go on. Uncle Frank." 
 
 "You children mustn't interrupt or Uncle 
 Frank can't tell, or it will take him so much 
 longer that I'll have to put you to bed before 
 the story is finished," said Mother Martin, 
 playfully shaking a finger at Ted and Jan. 
 
 "All right, we'll be quiet," promised the 
 littie girl. 
 
 "^o on. Uncle Frank," begged Teddy. 
 
 '^nce upon a time, a few years ago," be- 
 
134 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 gan Uncle Frank the second time, "I was 
 living away out West, farther than I am 
 now, and in a place where hardly anyone 
 else lived. I had just started to make my 
 living in that new country, and I wanted to 
 look about a bit and see a good place to set- 
 tle in before I built my log cabin. 
 
 *'I took my gun and rod, as well as some- 
 thing to eat, so I could hunt and fish when I 
 wished, and I set out one day. I traveled 
 over the plains and up and down among the 
 mountains, and one night I found that I was 
 lost." 
 
 "Really lost?" asked Jan, forgetting that 
 no questions were allowed. 
 
 "Well, I guess you could call it that," said 
 Uncle Frank. "I didn't know where I was, 
 nor the way back to where I had come from, 
 which was a little settlement of miners. 
 There I was, all alone in the mountains, with 
 night coming on, and it was beginning to 
 snow. 
 
 "It was cold, too," said Uncle Frank, 
 "and I was glad I had on a fur coat. It 
 wasn't as big as the one I wore here," he 
 said, "but I was very glad to have it, and 
 I buttoned it around me as tight as I could 
 and walked on in the darkness and through 
 
The Snow Bungalow 135 
 
 the snowstorm, trying to find my way back. 
 
 "But I couldn't. I seemed to be getting 
 more lost all the while, and finally I made up 
 my mind there was no help for it. I'd have 
 to stay out in the woods, on top of the moun- 
 tain all night." 
 
 "All alone?" asked Jan. 
 
 "All alone," answered Uncle Frank. 
 "But I wasn't afraid, for I had my gun with 
 me, and I'd been out all night alone before 
 that. But I didn't like the cold. I was 
 afraid I might freeze or get snowed in, and 
 then I never could find my way back. 
 
 "So, before it got too dark, and before the 
 snow came down too heavily, I stopped, 
 made a little fire and warmed some coffee I 
 had in a tin bottle. I drank that, ate a little 
 cold bread and meat I had, and then I felt 
 better. 
 
 "But I wanted some place where I could 
 stay all night. There were no houses where 
 I could go in and get a nice, warm bed. 
 There were no hotels and there wasn't even 
 a log cabin or a shack. I couldn't build a 
 snow house, for the snow was cold and dry 
 and wouldn't pack, so the next best thing to 
 do, I thought, would be for me to find a hol- 
 low log and crawl into that. 
 
136 The Curly tops Snoioed In 
 
 "So I looked around as well as I could in 
 the storm and darkness," went on Uncle 
 Frank, "and finally I found a log that would 
 just about suit me. I cleared away the snow 
 from one end, kicking it with my boots, and 
 then, when I had buttoned my fur coat 
 around me, I crawled into the log with my 
 gun. 
 
 "It was dark inside the hollow log, and 
 not very nice, but it was warm, and I was 
 out of the cold wind and the snow. Of 
 course it was very dark, but as I didn't have 
 anything to read, I didn't need a light. 
 
 "After a while I began to feel sleepy, and 
 before I knew it I was dozing off. Just be- 
 fore I began to dream about being in a nice 
 warm house, with some roast turkey and 
 cranberry sauce for supper, I felt some one 
 else getting inside the hollow log with me. 
 
 "I was too sleepy to ask who it was. I 
 thought it was somebody like myself, lost in 
 the storm, who had crawled in as I had done 
 to keep from freezing. So I just said: 
 *Come on, there's lots of room for two of 
 us,' and then I went fast asleep. I thought 
 I'd let the other man sleep, too. 
 
 "Well, I stayed in the log all night and 
 then I woke up. I thought it must be mom- 
 
The Snow Btrngalow 137 
 
 ing, but I couldn't see in the dark log. Any- 
 how, I wanted to get up. So I poked at 
 what I thought was the other man sleeping 
 with me. I poked him again, and I noticed 
 that he had on a fur coat like mine. 
 
 " 'Come on!' I cried. 'Time to get up!' 
 
 "And then, all of a sudden there was a 
 growl and a sniff and a snuff, and, instead of 
 a man crawling out the other end of the log, 
 there was a big, shaggy tear!" 
 
 "ReaUy?" asked Jan, her eyes big with 
 surprise. 
 
 "Really and truly," said Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Oh! Oh!" gasped Teddy. "Weren't 
 you scared?" 
 
 "Well, I didn't have time to* be," an- 
 swered Uncle Frank. "You see, I didn't 
 know it was a bear that had crawled into the 
 log to sleep with me until he crawled out, 
 and there wasn't any use in getting fright- 
 ened then. 
 
 "Out of the log scrambled the Jsear, and 
 I guess he was as much surprised as I was 
 to find he'd been sleeping in the same hollow- 
 tree-hotel with a man. Away he ran! I 
 could see him running down the hill when I 
 crawled out of the log. Morning had come, 
 the snow had stopped, and I could see to find 
 
138 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 my way back to the town I had left. But I 
 was glad the bear got in the log with ine, for 
 he helped keep me warm. And, all the while, 
 I thought it was another man with a fur 
 coat on like mine. 
 
 "There, now that's all the story, and you 
 Curljiiops must go to bed! Hello! Trou- 
 ble's asleep already!" 
 
 And so the little fellow was, in Uncle 
 Frank's arms. 
 
 "Oh, that was an awful nice story!" said 
 Jan. ' ' Thank you ! ' ' 
 
 "Yes, it was," added her brother. "I'm 
 awful glad you came to see us," he went on. 
 "I hope you'll stay forever and tell us a 
 story every night. We like stories!" 
 
 "Well, one every night would be quite a 
 lot," said his uncle. "But I'll see about it. 
 Anyhow, Aunt Jo and I are glad to be here 
 ■ — at least I am," and Aunt Jo nodded to 
 show that she was also. 
 
 "Come, children!" called Mrs. Martin. 
 "Uncle Frank was very good to teU you such 
 a nice, funny story. But now you really 
 must go to bed. To-morrow is another day, 
 and our company will be here then, and for 
 some time longer." 
 
 **Did you know they were coming. 
 
The Snow Bungalota 139 
 
 Mother?" asked Jan, as she slid off her 
 uncle's knee. 
 
 "Well, I had an idea," was the snuluig an- 
 swer. 
 
 "Is this the surprise daddy was talking 
 about?" Ted queried. 
 
 "Yes, this is it," answered his father. 
 "Do you like it?" 
 
 "Um, yes!" laughed Ted, and Jan smiled 
 to show tiiat she was of the same mind. 
 
 When the Curlytops were in bed Aunt Jo 
 and TJncle Frank told Mr. and Mrs. Martin 
 of their journey. For some time each one 
 had been planning to come to visit their rela- 
 tives, Aunt Jo from her home in Clayton 
 and TJncle Frank from his Western ranch 
 in Montana. Of course he had started some 
 time before Aunt Jo did, as he had farther 
 to travel. But they both reached the rail- 
 road junction, not far from Cresco, at the 
 same time. Then they came the rest of the 
 way together, arriving in the midst of the 
 storm. 
 
 "WeU, we're glad you're here," said Mrs. 
 Martin, "and the children are delighted. 
 They knew we had some surprise for them, 
 though we did not tell them you were ex- 
 pected. Now I expect they'll hardly sleep, 
 
140 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 planning things to do in the snow and on the 
 ice." 
 
 Indeed Ted and Jan did not go to sleep 
 at once, but talked to each other from their 
 rooms until Mrs. Martin sent Nora up to 
 teU them if they did not get quiet they could 
 not have fun with Aunt Jo and Uncle 
 Erank. 
 
 "Oh, it's snowing yet, Janl" cried Ted, 
 as he jumped out of bed the next morning. 
 "It's going to be a fine storm!" 
 
 "That's good I" laughed Janet. "I won- 
 der if Uncle Frank knows how to build a 
 snow house." 
 
 "We'll ask him. Come onl Let's hurry 
 down and see if he's up yet." 
 
 Uncle Frank was up, and so was Aunt Jo 
 and the whole family, except Trouble, for it 
 was later than the Curlytops thought. 
 
 "Make a snow house? Of course I know 
 how ! ' ' laughed Uncle Frank. * ' Many a one 
 I've made out on the prairie when I've been 
 caught in a blizzard." 
 
 "Why don't you buUd a snow bungalow?" 
 asked Aunt Jo. 
 
 "What's a bungalow?" asked Jan. 
 
 "Well, it's a sort of low, one-story house, 
 with all the rooms on one floor," ex- 
 
The Snow Bungalow 141 
 
 plained her aunt. "There is no upstairs 
 to it." 
 
 "We did build a snow house, and it hadn't 
 any upstairs," said Ted. "But Mcknack, 
 our goat, saw his picture in one of the glass- 
 ice windows, and he butted a hole in the 
 waU." 
 
 "Well, he's a great goat!" laughed TTncle 
 Frank. "But if you're going to buUd an- 
 other snow house, do as Aunt Jo says, and 
 make it a low bungalow. Then it won't be 
 so easy to knock down. We build low houses 
 out West so the wind storms won't knock 
 them down so easily, and you can pretend 
 your goat is a wind storm." 
 
 "That'll be fun!" laughed Ted. 
 
 "And we'll make the bungalow with sides 
 and a roof of wood," went on Aunt Jo, "and 
 cover the boards with snow. Then it will 
 look just like a snow house, but it will be 
 stronger. I'll help you. I'm going to build 
 a bungalow myself this summer," she went 
 on, "and I'd like to practise on a snow one 
 first." 
 
 ' ' Come on ! " cried Ted. "We 11 build the 
 snow bungalow!" 
 
 "Better get your breakfasts first," said 
 his mother. 
 
142 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 This did not take long, for Ted and Jan 
 were anxious to be at their fun. And a little 
 later, with Aunt Jo and Uncle Frank to 
 help, the snow bungalow was started. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 TEOTJBLE IS LOST 
 
 "What sort of house are you going to 
 build, Uncle Frank?" asked Ted, as he and 
 his sister watched their uncle and their aunt 
 out in the big yard back of the house. 
 
 "WeU, I caU it a shack, though your aunt 
 calls it a bungalow," was the answer. "Be- 
 tween us I guess we'll manage to make some- 
 thing in which you Curlytops can have fun. 
 I've made 'em like this on the prairies — 
 those are the big, wide plains, you know, out 
 West, where there are very few trees, and 
 not much lumber," he went on. "We have 
 to use old boards, tree limbs, when we can 
 find them, and anything else we come 
 across. 
 
 "It used to be that way, though there is 
 more lumber now. But I've often taken a 
 few sticks and boards and made a sort of 
 shelter and then covered it with snow. It 
 
 143 
 
144 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 will stand up almost all -winter, if you don't 
 let a goat knock it down," he added with a 
 laugh. 
 
 "We won't let Nicknaek knock this snow 
 bungalow down," said Janet. 
 
 "No, we'U coax him to be good," added 
 Aunt Jo. 
 
 It had stopped snowing, though heavy 
 clouds overhead seemed to hold more that 
 might fall down later, and the Curlytops had 
 not given up hope of being snowed in, 
 though really they did not know all the 
 trouble that might be caused by such a 
 thing. 
 
 There were plenty of boards and sticks in 
 the Martin barn and around it, and Aunt 
 Jo and Uncle Frank had soon made a 
 framework for the bungalow. It was larger 
 than the first snow house the children had 
 made, and it was to have a wooden door to 
 it so the cold could be kept out better than 
 with a blanket. 
 
 "What are you doing?" asked Tom Tay- 
 lor on Thanksgiving day morning, when he 
 came over to play with Jan and Ted. 
 
 "Making a snow bungalow," Ted an- 
 swered. "Want to help?" 
 
 * ' My, yes 1 ' ' answered Tom. "Say, it 's go- 
 
Trouble Is Lost 145 
 
 ing to be a dandy!" he exclaimed when he 
 had been introduced to Aunt Jo and Uncle 
 Frank, and was told what they were doing 
 to give the Curlytops a good time. 
 
 When the dinner-bell rang the wooden 
 part of the bungalow was nearly finished 
 and there were two windows in it of real 
 glass, some old sashes having been found in 
 the bam. These had once been in a chicken 
 coop. 
 
 "Well, we're glad to have Uncle Frank 
 and Aunt Jo with us for the Thanksgiving 
 dinner," said Daddy Martin, as they all sat 
 at the table. 
 
 "And I'm going to be right next to my 
 dear little Trouble!" cried Aunt Jo, reach- 
 ing over to hug Baby WiUiam. 
 
 "Look out he doesn't eat everything off 
 your plate," warned Mother Martin with a 
 laugh. "He says he's very hungry." 
 
 "Well, that's what everybody ought to 
 be on Thanksgiving day," said Uncle 
 Frank. "We ought to be hungry enough 
 to like a good dinner, and be thankful 
 we have it, and wish everybody else had 
 the same." 
 
 "That's right!" cried Daddy Martin, and 
 then he began to carve the big, roasted tur- 
 
146 The Curlytops iSnowed In 
 
 key, while Mother Martin dished out the red 
 cranberry sauce. 
 
 I will not tell you aU the good things there 
 were to eat at the Martins' that Thanksgiv- 
 ing, for fear I might spoil your appetite for 
 what you are going to have to-day — ^what- 
 ever day it happens to be. Not that you 
 might not have just as nice a dinner, but it 
 wiU be different, I know. 
 
 Such a brown, roasted turkey, such red 
 cranberry sauce, such crisp, white celery and 
 such a sweet pumpkin pie — ^never were they 
 seen before — at least as far as I know. 
 
 There was eating and talking and laugh- 
 ter and more eating and more talking and 
 more laughter and then they began aU over 
 again. 
 
 At last even Uncle Frank, who was a big- 
 ger man than Daddy Martin, said he had 
 had enough to eat. So the chairs were 
 pushed back, after !N"ora had brought in some 
 snow cream, which was something like ice 
 cream only made with snow instead of ice, 
 and Uncle Frank told about a prairie fire. 
 
 Then Aunt Jo told one about having been 
 on a ship that struck a rock and sank. But 
 no one was drowned, she was glad to be able 
 to say. 
 
Trouble Is Lost 147 
 
 Ted and. Jan liked to listen to the stories, 
 but they kept looking out in the back yard, 
 and finally Uncle Frank said : 
 
 "I know what these Curlytops wantl" 
 
 "What?" asked Mother Martin. 
 
 "They want to go out into the yard and 
 finish the snow bungalow! Don't you, Cur- 
 lytops?" 
 
 "Yes!" cried Jan and Ted. 
 
 "And I want to go out, too," went on 
 Uncle Frank, "for I'm not used to staying 
 in the house so much, especially after I've 
 eaten such a big dinner. So come on out 
 and we'll have some fun." 
 
 "I'm coming, tool" cried Aunt Jo. "I 
 love it in the fresh air and the snow." 
 
 "Come on, Mother Martin!^' called Mr. 
 Martin to his wife. "We'll go out with 
 them. It will do us good to frolic in the 
 snow." 
 
 "All right. Wait until I get on some rub- 
 bers." 
 
 "Me come, tool" cried Trouble, who had 
 fallen asleep after dinner, but who was now 
 awake. 
 
 "Yes, bring him along," said Daddy Mar- 
 tin. 
 
 They were soon all out in the yard. The 
 
148 The Curlytops Snotved In 
 
 storm had not started in again, but Uncle 
 Frank said it might before night, and 
 there would, very likely, be much more 
 snow. 
 
 Then they began the finishing touches on 
 the snow bungalow. They piled the masses 
 of white flakes on top of and on all sides 
 of the board shack, or cabiu, Uncle Frank 
 and Aunt Jo had built. Soon none of the 
 boards, except those where the door was 
 fastened on, could be seen. They were cov- 
 ered with snow. 
 
 "There!" cried Uncle Frank, when the 
 last shovelful had been tossed on. "There's 
 as fine a snow bungalow as you could want. 
 It will be nice and warm, too, even on a cold 
 day." 
 
 "And Mcknack can't knock it down, 
 either," added Ted. 
 
 "Well, he'U have harder work than he 
 did to knock down the plain snow house you 
 built," said Aunt Jo. "Now let's go inside 
 and see how much room there is." 
 
 The bungalow would not hold them all at 
 once, but they took turns going in, and it 
 was high enough for Uncle Frank to stand 
 in, though he had to stoop a little. 
 
 Some benches and chairs were made of 
 
Trouble Is Lost 149 
 
 the pieces of wood left over and tJncle 
 Frank even built a little table in the middle 
 of the play bungalow. 
 
 "You can eat your dinners here when it's 
 too warm in the house," he said with a 
 laugh. 
 
 Then Ted, Janet, Tom Taylor and his sis- 
 ter Lola had fun in the new bungalow while 
 the older folk went in to sit and talk of the 
 days when they were children and played 
 in the snow. 
 
 Daddy Martin told about the strange lame 
 boy who had come to his store and, later, 
 to the house, but who had gone away with- 
 out waiting to tell what he wanted. 
 
 "Ted and Jan are anxious to see him to 
 make sure he is not their friend Hal," said 
 Mr. Martin. "But I do not think it is. Hal 
 would not take a pocketbook." 
 
 "Then you have never found the lost 
 money?" asked Mrs. Martin. 
 
 "No, never," her husband answered. 
 "Still I do not want to say the lame boy 
 took it untU I am more sure." 
 
 The Curlytops and their friends played 
 in the yard around the snow bungalow until 
 it was getting dark. Trouble had been 
 brought in some time before by his mother, 
 
150 The Curlytops Snowe d In 
 
 and now it was the hour for Jan and Ted 
 to come in. 
 
 "We'll go coasting to-morrow, Toml" 
 called Ted to Ms chum. 
 
 "All right," was the answer. "I'll call 
 for you right after breakfast." 
 
 "We'll hitch Mcknaek to the big sled and 
 make him pull us to the hill," said Janet, 
 for Mr. Martin had bought a large, second- 
 hand sled to which the goat could be har- 
 nessed. The sled would hold five children, 
 with a little squeezing, and Trouble was 
 often taken for a ride with his brother and 
 sister, Tom and Lola also being invited. 
 
 "Come to supper, children!" called Mrs. 
 Martin, as Ted and Jan came in from hav- 
 ing spent most of the afternoon in the snow 
 bungalow. "I don't suppose you are hun- 
 gry after the big dinner you ate," she. went 
 on, "but maybe you can eat a little." 
 
 "I can eat a lot!" cried Ted. 
 
 "I'm hungry, too," added Janet. 
 
 "Well, I wish you'd wash Trouble's hands 
 and face, Jan," went on Mrs. Martin. "I 
 hope you didn't let him throw too many 
 snowballs." 
 
 "Why, Trouble wasn't with us — ^not af- 
 ter you brought him in!" exclaimed Ted. 
 
Trouble Is Lost 151 
 
 "He wasn't?" gasped Mrs. Martin. 
 "Hasn't he been out with you since about 
 an hour ago, and didn't he come in with you 
 just now?" 
 
 "No," answered Jan. 
 
 "Why, I put on his mittens, little boots 
 and jacket," said his mother, a worried look 
 coming over her face. "He said he wanted 
 to go out and play with you. I opened the 
 back door for him, and just then Aunt Jo 
 called me. Are you sure he didn't go out 
 to you?" 
 
 "No, he didn't," declared Jan. "We 
 haven't seen him since you brought him in. 
 Oh, dear! is Trouble lost?" 
 
 Mrs. Martin set down a dish that was in 
 her hand. Her face turned pale and she 
 looked around the room. No Trouble was 
 in sight. 
 
 "What's the matter?" asked Mr. Martin, 
 coming in just then. 
 
 "Why, I thought Baby William was out 
 in the yard, playing with Jan and Ted," 
 said Mrs. Martin, "but they came in just 
 now and they say he wasn't. Oh, where 
 could he have gone?" 
 
 "Maybe he went out in the front instead 
 of to the back when you put on his things," 
 
152 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 said Aunt Jo, "and he may be in one of the 
 neighbor's houses. We'll go and ask, Uncle 
 Frank and I." 
 
 "I'll come, too," said Mr. Martin. 
 "Mother, you caU through the house. He 
 may not have gone out at all." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 nicknace: has a ride 
 
 Mrs. Martin hurried into the hall and in 
 a loud voice called: 
 
 "Trouble! Trouble! Where are you? 
 Baby William ! Come to Mother ! ' ' 
 
 There was no answer. Ted and Jan 
 looked anxiously at each other. Their 
 father had gone with Uncle Frank and Aunt 
 Jo to inquire in the houses next door and 
 those across the street. Sometimes Trouble 
 wandered to the neighbors', but this was in 
 the summer, when doors were open and he 
 could easily get out. He had never before 
 been known to run away in winter. 
 
 "Oh, where can he be?" exclaimed Janet. 
 
 "We'll find him," declared Teddy. 
 
 He saw that Janet was almost ready to 
 cry. 
 
 "Help me look, children," said Mrs. Mar- 
 153 
 
154 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 tin. "He may be in one of the rooms here. 
 We must look in every one." 
 
 So the search began. 
 
 The Curlytops and their mother had gone 
 through about half the rooms of the house 
 without finding Trouble when Uncle Frank 
 and Aunt Jo came back. 
 
 "Did you find him?" they asked Baby 
 [William's mother. 
 
 "No," she answered. Then she asked 
 eagerly: "Did you?" 
 
 "He hadn't been to any of the neighbors' 
 houses where we inquired," said Uncle 
 Frank. 
 
 "Dick is going to ask farther down," 
 added Aunt Jo. "I think he said at a house 
 where a little boy named Henry lives." 
 
 "Oh, yes! Henry Simpson!" exclaimed 
 Ted. "Trouble likes him. But Henry's 
 house is away down at the end of the 
 street." 
 
 **Well, sometimes WiUiam goes a good 
 way off," said his mother. "I hope he's 
 there. But we must search all over the 
 house." 
 
 "And even down cellar," added Uncle 
 Frank. "I know when I was a little fel- 
 low I ran away and hid, and they found me 
 
Nicknack Has a Bide 155 
 
 an hour or so later in the coal bin. At least 
 so I've been told. I don't remember about 
 it myself. I must have been pretty dirty." 
 
 "Oh, I don't think Trouble would go in 
 the coal, ' ' said his mother. "But, Nora, you 
 might look down there. We'U go upstairs 
 now." 
 
 With Uncle Frank and Aunt Jo to help 
 in the search the Curlytops and their mother 
 went up toward the top of the house. 
 Mother Martin looked in her room, where 
 Trouble slept. He might have crawled into 
 her bed or into his own little crib, she 
 thought. But he was not there. 
 
 "He isn't in my rooml" called Ted, after 
 he had looked about it. 
 
 "Are you sure?" asked the anxious 
 mother. 
 
 "Yes'm." 
 
 "And he isn't here," added Janet, as she 
 came out of her room. "I looked under the 
 bed and everywhere." 
 
 "In the closet?" asked Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Yes, in the closet, too," replied Janet. 
 
 "Maybe he's in my room," said Aunt Jo. 
 "It's a large one and there are two closets 
 there. Poor little fellow, maybe he's crying 
 his eyes out." 
 
156 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "If he was crying we'd hear him," re- 
 marked Ted. 
 
 He and Janet followed Aunt Jo into her 
 room. The light was turned on and they 
 looked around. Trouble was not in sight 
 and Aunt Jo was just starting to look in 
 her large clothes closet when she suddenly 
 saw something that caused her to stop and 
 to cry out : 
 
 "Oh, what made it move^* 
 
 "What move?" asked Uncle Frank, who 
 had followed her and the Curlytops in. 
 "What did you see move?" 
 
 "My big suitcase," replied Aunt Jo. 
 "See, it's there against the wall, but I'm 
 sure I saw it move." 
 
 "Did any of you touch it?" asked Uncle 
 Frank. 
 
 "No," answered Aunt Jo; and Ted and 
 Jan said the same thing. 
 
 "What is it ?" Mother Martin asked, com- 
 ing into the room. "Did you find him?" 
 she asked anxiously. "He isn't in my room, 
 nor in Ted's or Janet's. Oh, where can he 
 be?" 
 
 " Look 1 It 's moving again I ' ' cried Aunt 
 Jo. 
 
 She pointed to the suitcase. It was an 
 
Nicknack Has a Bide 157 
 
 extra large one, holding almost as much as 
 a trunk, and it stood against the wall of her 
 room. 
 
 As they looked they all saw the cover 
 raised a little, and then the whole suitcase 
 seemed to move slightly. 
 
 "Maybe it's Skyrocket, our dog," said 
 Ted. "He likes to crawl into places like 
 that to sleep." 
 
 "Or maybe it's Turnover, our cat," added 
 Janet. 
 
 Uncle Frank hurried across the room to 
 the suitcase. Before he could reach it the 
 cover was suddenly tossed back and there, 
 curled up inside, where he had been sleep- 
 ing, was the lost Trouble ! 
 
 * ' Oh, Trouble, what a fright you gave us I " 
 cried his mother. 
 
 "Were you there all the while ?" Aunt Jo 
 demanded. 
 
 Trouble sat up in the suitcase, which was 
 plenty big enough for him when it was 
 empty. He rubbed his eyes and smiled at 
 those gathered around him. 
 
 "Iss. I been s'eepin' here long time," 
 he said. 
 
 "Well, of all things !" cried Aunt Jo. "I 
 couldn't imagine what made the suitcase 
 
158 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 move, and there it was Trouble wiggling in 
 his sleep." 
 
 "How did you come to get into it?" asked 
 Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Nice place. I like it," was aR the rea- 
 son Trouble could give. 
 
 He still had on his jacket and rubber boots 
 which his mother had put on him when he 
 said he wanted to go out and play in the 
 snow with Jan and Ted. 
 
 "And, instead of doing that he must have 
 come upstairs when I wasn't looking and 
 crawled in here," said Mrs. Martin. "You 
 mustn't do such a thing again, Baby Wil- 
 liam." 
 
 "Iss, I not do it. I 'se hungry!" 
 
 * ' No wonder ! It 's past his supper time ! ' * 
 cried Aunt Jo. 
 
 "Did you find him?" caUed the anxious 
 voice of Daddy Martia from the front door. 
 He had just come in, "He wasn't down at 
 the Simpsons'," he went on. 
 
 "He's here aU right 1" answered Uncle 
 Frank, for Mrs. Martin was hugging Trou- 
 ble so hard that she could not answer. She 
 had really been very much frightened about 
 the little lost boy. 
 
 "Well, he certainly is a little tyke!" said 
 
Nicknack Has a Ride 159 
 
 Mr. Martin, when he had been told what had 
 happened. "Hiding in a suitcase 1 That's 
 a new kind of trouble !" 
 
 They were all laughing now, though they 
 had been frightened. Trouble told, in his 
 own way, how, wandering upstairs, he had 
 seen Aunt Jo's big suitcase, and he wanted 
 to see what it would be like to lie down in 
 it. He could do it, by curling up, and he was 
 so comfortable once he had pulled the cover 
 down, that he fell asleep. 
 
 The cover had not closed tightly, so there 
 was left an opening through which Trouble 
 could get air to breathe. So he did not suf- 
 fer from being lost, though he frightened 
 the whole household. 
 
 Supper over, they sat and talked about 
 what had happened that day, from building 
 the snow bungalow to hunting for Trouble. 
 Before that part had been reached Trouble 
 was sound asleep in his mother's lap, and 
 was carried off to his real bed this time. A 
 little later the Curlytops followed, ready to 
 get up early the next day to have more fun. 
 
 "Well, we haven't got that big storm yet, 
 but it's coming," said Uncle Frank, as he 
 looked at the sky, which was filled with 
 clouds. 
 
160 The Curly tops S noticed In 
 
 "And mil we be snowed in?" asked Ted. 
 
 "Well, I wouldn't exactly say that," his 
 uncle answered. "Would you like to be?" 
 
 "If you and Aunt Jo will stay." 
 
 "Well, I guess we'll have to stay if we 
 get snowed in, Curlytop. But we'll have to 
 wait and see what happens. Where are you 
 going now?" 
 
 "Over on the little hill to coast. Want to 
 come with me, Uncle Frank?" 
 
 "No, thank you. I'm too old for that. 
 I'll come some time, though, and watch you 
 and Janet. What are you going to do with 
 your goat?" he asked, as he saw Ted taking 
 Nicknack out of the stable. 
 
 "Oh, our goat pulls us over to the hill in 
 the big sled, and then we slide down hill on 
 our little sleds. I'm going to take Jan and 
 Tom Taylor and Lola." 
 
 "And Trouble, too?" Uncle Frank asked. 
 
 "Not now. Trouble is getting washed and 
 he can't come out." 
 
 "E"o, I guess he'd get cold if he did," 
 laughed Uncle Frank. 
 
 He helped Ted hitch Nicknack to the big 
 sled, not that Ted needed any help, for he 
 often harnessed the goat himself, but Uncle 
 Frank Mked to do this. Then the Curlj;-^ 
 
Nicknack Has a Bide 161 
 
 tops and Tom and Lola Taylor started for 
 the hill. 
 
 There they found many of their play- 
 mates, and after Nicknack had been un- 
 hitched so he could rest he was tied to a tree 
 and a little hay put in front of him to eat. 
 The hay had been brought from home in the 
 big sled which stood near the tree to which 
 Nicknack was tied, and Ted and Jan began 
 to have fun. 
 
 Down the hill they coasted, having races 
 with their chums, now and then falling ofE 
 their sleds and rolling half way down the 
 hiU. 
 
 "I know what let's do, Teddy," said Jan 
 after a bit. 
 
 * * I know something, too ! " he laughed. ' ' I 
 can wash your face I" 
 
 "No, please don't I" she begged, holding 
 her mittened hands in front of her. "I'm 
 cold now." 
 
 "Well, it'U make your cheeks nice and 
 red," went on Teddy. 
 
 "They're as red now as I want 'em," an- 
 swered Jan. "What I say let's do is to see 
 .who can go the farthest on our sleds." 
 
 "Oh, you mean have a race?" 
 
 "No, not zactly a race," answered the lit- 
 
162 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 tie girl. "When you race you see who can 
 go the fastest. But now let's see who can 
 go the longest." 
 
 "Oh, I see!" exclaimed Teddy. "That 
 will be fun. Come on!" and he started to 
 drag his sled to the top of the hill, Janet fol- 
 lowing after, "like Jack and Jill," as she 
 laughingly told her brother. 
 
 When the two children were about haiE 
 way up the hill, their heads bowed down, for 
 the wind cut into their faces, they heard a 
 shout of : 
 
 "Look out the wayl Look out the way! 
 Here we come!" 
 
 Ted and Jan looked up quickly and saw, 
 coasting toward them, another little boy and 
 girl on their sleds. 
 
 "Come over here !" cried Teddy to his sis- 
 ter. "Come over on my side of the hill and 
 you'll be out of the way." 
 
 "No, you come over with me !" said Janet. 
 "This is the right side, and mother said 
 we must always keep to the right no 
 matter if we walked up or slid down 
 hiU." 
 
 "Well, maybe that's so," agreed Teddy. 
 **I guess I'll come over by you," and he 
 started to move across the hill, while the lit- 
 
Nicknack Has a Bide 163 
 
 tie boy and girl coasting toward him and 
 Jan kept crying: 
 
 "Look out the way I Look out the way! 
 Here we come!" 
 
 And then a funny thing happened. Teddy 
 thought he was getting safely out of the 
 way, and he certainly tried hard enough, but 
 before he could reach the side of his sister 
 Janet, along came the sled of the little boy, 
 and right into Teddy's fat legs it ran. 
 
 The little boy tried to steer out of the way, 
 but he was too late, and the next Teddy 
 kaew, he was sitting partly on the little boy 
 and partly on the sled, sliding down the hill 
 up which he had been walking a little while 
 before. 
 
 "Ohl" grunted the little boy when Teddy 
 part way sat down on him. 
 
 "Oh!" grunted Teddy. 
 
 The reason they both grunted was because 
 their breaths were jolted out of them. But 
 they were not hurt, and when the sled with 
 the two boys on it kept on sliding downhill 
 all the other boys and girls laughed to see 
 the funny sight. 
 
 "Well!" cried Teddy when he reached 
 the bottom of the hill and got up, "I didn't 
 know I was going to have that ride." 
 
164 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 "Neither did I," said the little boy, whose 
 name was Wilson Decker. "Me and my sis- 
 ter were having a race," he went on, "and 
 now she beat me." 
 
 "I'm sorry," said Teddy. "I didn't mean 
 to get in your way. My sister and I are go- 
 ing to have a race, too, and that's what we 
 were walking up to do when I sat on you. 
 Don't you want to race with us ? We're go- 
 ing to have a new kind." 
 
 "What kind, Curlytop?" the little boy 
 asked. 
 
 "To see who can go the longest but not 
 the fastest," answered Teddy. "Come on, 
 it'Ubealotof fun!" 
 
 So the little boy and his sister, whose sled, 
 with her on it, had first gotten to the bottom 
 of the hiU, went up together with Teddy, to 
 where Jan was waiting for him. 
 
 "Oh, Teddy!" cried the Kttle Curlytop 
 girl, laughing, "you did look so funny!" 
 
 "I — I sort of felt funny!" replied 
 Teddy. * ' They 're going to race with us, " he 
 went on, as he pointed to Wilson Decker and 
 his sister. 
 
 * * That 'U be nice, ' ' returned Janet. * * Now 
 we'll all get on our sleds in a line at the top 
 of the hill. It doesn't matter who goes first 
 
Nicknack Has a Ride 165 
 
 or last, but we must start even, and the one 
 who makes his sled go the longest way to the 
 bottom of the hill beats the race." 
 
 They all said this would be fair, and some 
 of the other children gathered at the top of 
 the hill to watch the race, which was differ- 
 ent from the others. 
 
 "All ready! I'm going to start!" cried 
 (Janet, and away she went, coasting down the 
 hill. The other three waited a little, for 
 there was no hurry, and then, one after the 
 other, Wilson, Teddy and Elsie (who was 
 Wilson's sister) started down the hill. 
 
 Janet's sled was the first to stop at the 
 bottom, as she had been the first to start, 
 and she cried: 
 
 "!Nobody can come up to me I" 
 
 But Elsie on her sled was exactly even 
 with Janet. 
 
 "Well, if Teddy or your brother don't go 
 farther than we did then we win the race — 
 a half of it to each of us," said Janet. 
 
 And that's just what happened. Teddy's 
 sled went a little farther than did Wilson's, 
 but neither of the boys could come up to the 
 girls, so Jan and Elsie won, and they were 
 proud of it. Then they started another race. 
 
 They were having grand fun, shouting 
 
166 The Curlytopg Snowed In 
 
 and laughing, when suddenly a strange dog, 
 which none of the children remembered hav- 
 ing seen before, ran along and began bark- 
 ing at Mcknack. 
 
 The goat, who was used to the gentle bark- 
 ing of Skyrocket, did not like this strange, 
 savage dog, which seemed ready to bite him. 
 
 *'Baa-a-a a!" bleated the goat. 
 
 "Bow-w-w!" barked the dog, and he 
 snapped at Mcknack 's legs. 
 
 This was more than the goat could stand. 
 With another frightened leap he gave a 
 jump that broke the strap by which he was 
 tied to the tree. Then Mcknack jumped 
 again, and this time, strangely enough, he 
 landed right inside the sled which, a little 
 while before, he had pulled along the snow 
 to the hiU. 
 
 Right into the sled leaped Mcknack, and 
 then another funny thing happened. 
 
 The sled was on the edge of the hill, and 
 when the goat jumped into it he gave it such 
 a sudden push that it began sliding down- 
 hill. Right down the hill slid the sled and 
 Mcknack was in it. 
 
 *'0h, your goat's having a ridel Your 
 goat's having a ride!" cried the other chil- 
 dren to the Curlytops. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SNOWED IN 
 
 NiCKNACK was indeed having a ride. 
 Whether he knew it or not, or whether he 
 wanted it or not, he was sliding downhill 
 in the very sled in which he had puUed the 
 Curlytops a little while before. 
 
 "Oh, look I" cried Janet. 
 
 "You'd better catch him 'fore he gets 
 hurt!" added Tom. 
 
 "I never knew a goat could ride down- 
 hill!" laughed Jack Turton, a funny, fat, 
 little fellow. 
 
 "Did you teach him that trick, Curly- 
 top?" asked Ford Henderson, the big boy 
 who had carried Janet home the day she 
 went through the ice. 
 
 "I guess he must have learned it himself, " 
 
 answered Ted. 
 
 "That bad dog made him do it," said 
 167 
 
168 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 Janet. "Go on away, you bad dog I" she 
 cried, stamping her foot. 
 
 Then Janet caught up some snow in her 
 hand and threw it at the dog, which gave a 
 surprised bark and ran away, with his tail 
 between his legs, the way dogs do when they 
 know they have done something wrong for 
 which they deserve a whipping. 
 
 Perhaps, too, this dog was so surprised at 
 seeing a goat ride downhUl that he ran away 
 on that account, and not because Janet threw 
 a snowball at him. For a goat riding down 
 a snow hill in a sled is certainly a funny 
 sight. I never saw one myself, though I 
 have seen a goat in a circus ride down a 
 wooden hiU made of planks and this goat 
 sat on a seat in a wagon that, afterward, he 
 drew about the ring with a clown in it. 
 
 So, I suppose, if a goat can ride downhill 
 in a wagon it is not much harder to do the 
 same thing in a sled. 
 
 At any rate, Nicknaek rode down the hill, 
 and the big sled kept going faster and faster 
 as it glided over the slippery snow. 
 
 "Get out, Nicknaek! Get out!" cried 
 Janet, as she saw what was happening to her 
 pet. "You'll be hurtl Jump out of the 
 sled!" 
 
Snowed In 169 
 
 Ted ran down the hill after the sliding 
 sled, but as it was now going very fast, the 
 little boy could not catch up to it. 
 
 "I guess your goat won't be hurt," said 
 Ford Henderson to Jan. "Goats can climb 
 rocks and jump down off them, so I guess 
 even if his sled upsets and spills him out 
 Mcknack won't get hurt." 
 
 "The snow is soft," said Lola. 
 
 "Look, he is going to upset 1" cried Ted, 
 who had stopped rimning and, with the other 
 children, was looking down the hill. Nick- 
 nack was half way to the bottom now. 
 
 Just as Ted spoke the sled gave a twist to 
 one side and Nicknack cried : 
 
 "Baa-a-a-a!" 
 
 Then, just as the goat was about to leap 
 out, the sled ran into a bank of snow, turned 
 over on the side and the next moment Mck- 
 nack went flying, head first, into a big, white 
 drift. 
 
 "Oh, our nice goat wiU be killed!" cried 
 Jan. "Oh, Teddy, you'd better go for a 
 doctor!" 
 
 "No, Nicknack won't be hurt !" said Ford 
 Henderson, the big boy, trying not to laugh, 
 though Jan did make a very funny face, half 
 crying. "Gloats often land head first on 
 
170 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 their horns. Anyhow, I've read in a book 
 that they do, and they don't get hurt at 
 all. Goats like to fall that way. He's aU 
 right. See! He's getting out of the drift 
 
 now." 
 
 And so Meknack was. He had not been 
 in the least hurt when he jumped, or was 
 thrown, head first into the soft snow, though 
 he might have broken one of his legs if he 
 had rolled downhill with the sled. For that 
 is what the sled did after it upset. 
 
 Kicking and scrambling his way out of the 
 snow bank, Meknack climbed up the hill 
 again. He could easily do this, even without 
 the pieces of rubber tied on his hoofs, for 
 they were sharp hoofs, and he could dig them 
 in the soft snow, as boys stick their skates 
 into the ice. 
 
 Up came Nicknack, and then with a little 
 waggle of his funny, short, stubby tail he 
 walked over to a little hay still left near his 
 feeding place, and began to eat. 
 
 "Say, he's a good goat all right!" cried 
 Tom Taylor. "He's a regular trick goat! 
 He ought to be in a circus." 
 
 "Maybe we'll get up a circus and have 
 him in it some day next summer," promised 
 Ted. 
 
Snowed in 171 
 
 "You'd better go an' get our sled 'fore it's 
 broke," called Janet to him. 
 
 "That's right," agreed Ford. "Some of 
 the coasters might run into it and break it, 
 or hurt themselves. I'll get it for you." 
 
 Ford was not coasting on the little hill, 
 being too big a boy. But he liked the Cur- 
 lytops and was always helping them when he 
 could, even before he helped get Janet out 
 of the frozen pond when she broke through 
 the ice. 
 
 The heavy sled, to which Mcknack could 
 be hitched, was not easy to puU up the hiU, 
 but Ford managed to do it. Then, after 
 Ted, his sister and their playmates had 
 coasted all they wanted to, the goat was har- 
 nessed again, and back home he trotted over 
 the snow, pulling the Curlytops, 
 
 Ted had fastened some sleighbells to his 
 pet, and they now made a merry jingle as 
 Mcknack trotted along. The goat went 
 quite fast, for I suppose he knew a nice sup- 
 per of the things he liked was waiting for 
 him in his stable. And it was not altogether 
 pieces of paper off tin cans, either, though 
 some goats like to chew that paper because 
 it has sweet paste on it. 
 
 "Well, did you have a nice time?" asked 
 
172 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Uncle Frank, as the Curlytops came home. 
 
 "Finel" cried Janet. 
 
 "And Mcknack had a ride downhill I" 
 added her brother. 
 
 "No!" exclaimed Uncle Frank, in sur- 
 prise. "IsTow you're fooling me!" 
 
 "Nope!" said Ted earnestly. "He did, 
 honest!" and he told all about it. 
 
 Aunt Jo and the other grown-ups also had 
 to hear the story, and there was many a good 
 laugh as the little Curlytops and the grown 
 folks sat in the living-room that evening and 
 talked over the things which had happened 
 during the day. 
 
 "It's getting colder," remarked Daddy 
 Martin, as he went out on the porch to look 
 at the thermometer before going to bed. 
 
 "Does it look as if it would snow?" asked 
 his wife. 
 
 "Well, there are no stars out, so it must 
 be cloudy, and cloudy weather in winter 
 generally means snow." 
 
 "Have we any of the roast turkey left 
 from Thanksgiving?" asked Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Oh, yes, plenty," answered Daddy Mar- 
 tin. "Why do you ask?" 
 
 "Well, so if we get snowed in well have 
 plenty to eat." 
 
Snowed in 173 
 
 "Oh, we'll have plenty besides turkey," 
 put in Mother Martin. " But I don 't believe 
 we'll get snowed in." 
 
 It was not quite time for Ted and Janet to 
 go to bed, and they liked to sit up and listen 
 to what their father and mother, Aunt Jo 
 and Uncle Prank had to say. The CurljHiops 
 loved company as much as you children do. 
 
 Trouble had been put to bed, though not 
 before he had made his sister and brottier 
 tell, over and over again, how Nicknack rode 
 downhill on the sled. Trouble laughed each 
 time he heard the story. 
 
 The Curlytops were playing a little game 
 with Uncle Frank, and Aunt Jo, Daddy and 
 Mother Martin were talking about the good 
 times they used to have in winter when they 
 were children, when Mrs. Martin said : 
 
 "I feel a cold wind blowing, don't the rest 
 of your' 
 
 "It is chilly," agreed her husband. "The 
 wind must have sprung up suddenly and is 
 coming through the cracks of the windows." 
 
 "There's more wind than comes through 
 a crack, " said Mrs. Martin. "T think a door 
 is open. It comes from the front. Did you 
 shut the hall door, Dickr' 
 
 "Yes, I closed it after I came in from look- 
 
174 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 ing at the thermometer," answered her hus- 
 band. 
 
 "Well, I'm going to see what makes such 
 a draft on my back!" exclaimed Mrs. Mar- 
 tin, getting up. 
 
 She went out into the hall, and the others 
 did not think much more about it for a little 
 while until Mrs, Martin suddenly cried : 
 
 "No wonder I felt a cold wind ! Trouble 
 Martin ! What will you do next % Oh, dear I 
 You're always doing something! Come in 
 this instant!" 
 
 * * What 's he doing now ? I thought he was 
 safe in bed and away over in Dreamland," 
 said Daddy Martin. 
 
 "So did I," returned his wife. "But he 
 must have gotten up and come downstairs. 
 I didn't hear a sound, but here the little tyke 
 has the front door open! Oh, how cold it 
 is!" 
 
 "What made you do it. Trouble?" his 
 father asked, as he caught the little fellow 
 up in his arms. 
 
 "Trouble want to seG snow," was the an- 
 swer. 
 
 "It is snowing, and snowing hard!" ex- 
 claimed Ted. "Hurray, it's a regular bliz- 
 zard!" 
 
Snowed in 175 
 
 Indeed it was snowing hard. Those inside 
 had a glimpse of the storm before Daddy 
 Martin closed the door Trouble had opened. 
 It had not been fastened tight and the little 
 boy had managed to pull it open. He had 
 awakened after being put to sleep for the 
 night in his crib, and had crept downstairs. 
 His mother thought the wind blowing the 
 hard flakes of snow against a window near 
 him must have awakened him. 
 
 "I'll go up to bed with him now," she 
 said, "and I'll see that he doesn't get up 
 again until morning." 
 
 "I guess we'll all go to bed," said Aunt 
 Jo. "I'm tired and sleepy myself." 
 
 Ted and Jan looked out of the window as 
 they began to undress. 
 
 "It's snowing hard," said Teddy. 
 
 "And maybe we'll be snowed in!" added 
 his sister. 
 
 All night the storm raged. The wind blew 
 hard and the snow came down in great, white 
 feathery pUes. Ted and Jan slept soundly, 
 for they had played hard the day before. It 
 was late in the day when they awakened, and 
 they saw a light in the hall outside their 
 room. 
 
 "What's the matter?" asked Janet, as she 
 
176 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 saw her mother up and dressed. ' ' What jou 
 dressed for at night, Mother?" 
 
 "Hush! Don't wake Trouble. He was 
 restless aU night, but he is sleeping now. It 
 isn't night, it's morning." 
 
 "But what makes it so dark?" asked 
 Teddy. 
 
 "Because the snow covers nearly aH the 
 windows, especially on this side of the 
 house." 
 
 "Is it snowing yet?" asked Jan, 
 
 "Yes; snowing hard," her mother an- 
 swered. 
 
 "Are we snowed in?" asked Ted. 
 
 "Yes," replied Mrs. Martin, "I'm afraid 
 we are snowed in, Teddy boy. It's a terrible 
 storm, and very cold!" 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 DRIVElir BACK 
 
 Teddy and Janet, who had put on their 
 bath robes as they crawled out of bed, looked 
 at one another in the light that streamed into 
 their mother's room from the hall. Their 
 faces were happy. They were not afraid of 
 the big storm. It was just what they had 
 hoped would happen. But they did not 
 know all the trouble that it was to cause. 
 
 "Are we really snowed in?" asked Janet. 
 
 "Yes, I think we really are," answered 
 her mother, motioning to the children to 
 come out into the haH so they would not 
 awaken Trouble. 
 
 "Just like that hermit grandpa wrote 
 about said we'd be?" Ted wanted to know. 
 
 "Well, I don't know just how big a storm 
 that hermit thought would come," said Mrs. 
 Martin ; "but this is certainly a bad one. If 
 you get dressed you can look out of the win- 
 
 177 
 
178 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 dows at the back of the house. The sno> 
 isn't so high there, and you can see what 
 lot has fallen in the night." 
 
 "Where's daddy?" asked Ted. 
 
 "He's getting ready to go out to the bar 
 to see if the horse and cow are all right. 
 The Martins had lately bought a cow, an 
 they had had a horse for some time, thoug 
 the children would rather ride behind thei 
 goat Nieknack than in the carriage with ol 
 Jim, who was not a very fast horse, 
 
 "Come on, Jan!" called Ted. "We'U g( 
 dressed and we 'U go out and have some fun. 
 
 "Oh, no, you can't go out !" exclaimed hi 
 mother. "And please don't make muc 
 noise." 
 
 "Why can't we go out?" asked Janet s 
 once. 
 
 "Because the snow is too deep. It's ove 
 your heads in some of the drifts, and it's s 
 cold and still snow^ig so hard that 
 wouldn't dream of letting you Curlytops g 
 out." 
 
 ^'Not even with our new rubber boots? 
 Teddy asked. ' * They are good and high an 
 w*» could wade through the snow wit 
 them." 
 
 "¥ot even with your new rubber boot 
 
Driven Back 179 
 
 Teddy boy. Now be good and don't tease. 
 Gret washed and dressed, and Nora will give 
 you some breakfast." 
 
 "Come on I" called Ted in a whisper to 
 his sister. "Well have some fun anyhow I 
 Snowed in! That's just what we wanted!" 
 
 "Snowed in, is it?" exclaimed Uncle 
 Frank, coming from his room. "So you 
 have got a real snowstorm here at last, have 
 you?" he went on to Mrs. Martin. "Well, 
 this makes me think of my ranch in the 
 West. Where's Dick?" he asked. 
 
 "He's trying to see if he can get out to 
 the barn to make sure the horse and cow 
 have water and something to eat, ' ' said Mrs. 
 Martin, for her husband had gotten up a 
 little earlier. 
 
 "Well, I'll go and help him," said Uncle 
 Frank. "I'm used to storms like this. It's 
 a regular blizzard by the sound of it." 
 
 Indeed the wind was howling around the 
 corner of the house, and at times it seemed 
 to blow so hard that the house shook. As 
 yet Ted and Jan had not had a look outside, 
 for the windows upstairs, from which they 
 had tried to see the storm, were coated witE 
 snow. The window sills had drifted full of 
 the white flakes, and more had been piled on 
 
180 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 top of them. Then the warmth inside the 
 room had made the snow that blew on the 
 windows melt a little. This had frozen and 
 more snow had fallen and been blown on the 
 glass untH from some of the windows noth- 
 ing at all could be seen. 
 
 "But if you go downstairs to the kitchen 
 I think you can look out a little," said Mrs. 
 Martin to her two Curlytops. 
 
 Downstairs hurried Janet and Teddy. 
 They only stopped to call " Good-morning 1" 
 to Nora, who was busy at the stove, and then 
 the two children pressed their faces against 
 the window panes. 
 
 They could not see much at first — ^]'ust a 
 cloud of swirling snowflakes that seemed to 
 fill the air to overflowing. Then. Janet cried : 
 
 "Why, it's almost up to the window sill, 
 Teddy!" 
 
 "That's right! The back yard is full of 
 snow, Nora!" 
 
 "I know it is. I went in over my knees 
 when I went out to see if the morning paper 
 had come." 
 
 "Did it come, Nora?" 
 
 * ' Indeed it didn 't I I guess there won *t be 
 any paper for a few days if this storm keeps 
 up, for the boys can't get around to deliver 
 
Driven Bach 181 
 
 it. I could hardly get the door shut after I 
 opened it. It 's terrible ! ' ' 
 
 "It's fun!" cried Teddy. 
 
 "Course it is!" agreed Janet. "We 
 wanted to be snowed in!" 
 
 "Well, you got your wish, Curlytops, and 
 I hope it isn't any worse than that," said 
 Nora. ' ' Though how we 're to get out of the 
 house and get things to eat is more than I 
 know." 
 
 "We've got lots left from Thanksgiving," 
 said Teddy. 
 
 "Haven't we got any milk?" asked Janet. 
 
 "Oh, yes, there's plenty left from last 
 night, though if the storm keeps up I don't 
 see how your father is going to get out to the 
 barn to milk the cow, and Patrick cannot get 
 over to do it through this storm, 
 
 Patrick was a man who milked for the 
 Martins and sometimes did other work for 
 them about the place. 
 
 "Daddy can milk," said Ted. 
 
 "Yes, I know he can," agreed Nora, "if 
 he can only get out to the barn. But look at 
 the big drifts in the yard." 
 
 Jan and Ted looked out agaiii. The yard 
 was indeed filled with great heaps of snow, 
 many of them higher than the heads of the 
 
182 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 children. The yard was a big one and at the 
 far end was the barn. 
 
 ' ' Oh, look 1 ' ' cried Ted. * ' Our snow bung- 
 alow is gone, Janet I" 
 
 "Oh, it's blowed down!" cried Janet. 
 
 "No, it hasn't," said Nora. "I could just 
 see the tip top of it when I got up early this 
 morning, but now the snow has covered it. 
 The bungalow is there all right, but you can't 
 see it. It's under a big drift." 
 
 "Oh, wouldn't it be fun if we were out iu 
 it now ?" cried Teddy. 
 
 "Indeed, and you'd starve and freeze," 
 laughed Nora. 
 
 ' ' No, we wouldn 't, ' ' declared Teddy. " It 's 
 nice and warm out there. Uncle Frank said 
 he used to make snow bungalows like that 
 out West and he's lived in one a whole week 
 in a blizzard." 
 
 "But he had something to eat," went on 
 Nora, "and there's nothing in your bunga- 
 low." 
 
 "Yes, there is, a little," remarked Teddy. 
 "We had a play party in it yesterday — Jan, 
 me and Trouble, and we left some of the 
 things we couldn't eat. I put 'em in a box 
 and tied 'em up in a piece of carpet we nad 
 there. I was going to come back and make- 
 
Driven Back 183 
 
 believe I was a tramp and awful hungry, 
 only I forgot it. There's things to eat out 
 there, Nora. We wouldn't starve." 
 
 "Well, I guess your mother wouldn't let 
 you go out there and play anyhow, in this 
 storm." 
 
 "We'll have some fun in the house," said 
 Janet. * ' Oh, doesn 't it snow, Ted ! " 
 
 There came a big gast of wind just then 
 and a cloud of snow hid the yard from sight. 
 All the children could see was a lot of white- 
 ness. 
 
 "Oh, what about Mcknack?" asked Jan 
 suddenly. 
 
 "What you mean?" asked her brother. 
 
 "I mean will he have enough to eat ? May- 
 be we've got to go out and feed him." 
 
 "I gave him something to eat last night," 
 said Teddy, "and I left a big pail of water 
 in his stable. I guess he'll be all right. Any- 
 how Daddy and Uncle I'rank are going out 
 to the barn and they can feed our goat." 
 
 Mcknack had a little ^table, like a big dog 
 house, buUt next to the main barn, of which 
 it was a part, though he had his own little 
 door to go in and out. 
 
 "Get your breakfasts, children, and then 
 you can sit by the window and watch the 
 
184 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 storm," said Mrs. Martin, coming into the 
 kitchen just then. "Trouble is waking up 
 and 111 want you to help take care of him. 
 You'll all have to stay in the house to-day 
 and play quiet games." 
 
 "Let's go and look out the front win- 
 dows," proposed Janet. 
 
 She and Ted ran through the hall to the 
 parlor. But from those windows they could 
 see nothing, for the glass was either so 
 crusted with snow, or the drifts were reaUy 
 so high in front of the windows, that it was 
 impossible to look out. 
 
 "It is an awful big storm I" cried Janet 
 as she went back to the warm dining-room. 
 Not much could be seen from those win- 
 dows, either. 
 
 "Maybe it will stop in a little while," said 
 Teddy, "and then we can go out and have a 
 ride with Mcknack." 
 
 "Indeed, Mcknack would be buried deep 
 in the snow over his head if you took him 
 out," said Aunt Jo, as she came downstairs. 
 "You Curlytops haven't an idea how bad 
 this storm is. I never saw a worse one. We 
 may be snowed in for a week I" 
 
 "Hurray!" cried Teddy. 
 
 "It'll be fun," added Janet. 
 
Driven Back 185 
 
 As the children sat down to breakfast, the 
 lights being turned on because it was so 
 dark, though it was nearly nine o'clock, their 
 father and Uncle Frank got dressed ready 
 to go out to the barn. 
 
 The men had on their overcoats, caps and 
 big rubber boots. On their hands were warm 
 gloves and each one carried a snow shovel, 
 which the Curlytops' father had brought up 
 from the cellar. 
 
 "We're going to try to get out to the 
 barn," said Mr. Martin. "I'm not sure the 
 cow and horse have enough to eat." 
 
 "Oh, can't I come?" begged Teddy. 
 
 "And me, too!" added Janet. 
 
 "No, indeed, Curlytops!" cried Mr. Mar- 
 tin. "You'd be lost in the snow and maybe 
 Uncle Frank and I couldn't dig you out 
 again. Stay here until we come back." 
 
 The children hurriedly finished their 
 breakfasts, and then ran to the kitchen win- 
 dows to see their father and Uncle Frank 
 try to dig their way to the barn. And the 
 men reaUy had to dig their way, for between 
 the barn and the house the drifts were too 
 deep to wade through. Many of them were 
 over the heads of Daddy Martin. 
 
 The Curlytops could see little, as the snow 
 
1 86 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 was still blowing and drifting. Now and 
 then they saw their father or their Uncle 
 Prank for just a moment, but the men were 
 so covered with the white flakes that they; 
 looked like snow men. 
 
 Finally there was a stamping of feet in 
 the back entry, and when Nora opened the 
 door there stood Uncle Frank and Daddy 
 Martin. They were covered with snow and 
 looked very tired. 
 
 "What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Mar- 
 tin. "Couldn't you get to the bam, Dick?" 
 
 "No, we were driven back," her husband 
 answered. "It is a terrible storm, and very 
 cold. We dug a path part way to the bam, 
 but the wind blew the snow in it, filling it up 
 as fast as we could dig it out. I guess we 
 can 't get to the bam. We surely are snowed 
 inl" 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 DIGGING A TUNNEL 
 
 Even seeing their father and uncle so tired 
 out from shoveling snow and from strug- 
 gling vnth the storm did not make the Curly- 
 tops think how bad it was to be snowed in. 
 They still thought it was going to be fun. 
 And so, in a way, it was, I suppose. At any 
 rate they had a warm house in which to stay 
 and plenty of good things to eat. 
 
 "Well, what are you going to do?" asked 
 Mrs. Martin of her husband as, standing in 
 the entry, he brushed some of the snow off 
 his boots with the broom. 
 
 "We'll have to try again," said Uncle 
 Frank. 
 
 "Is it like your out-West blizzards, Uncle 
 Frank?" asked Teddy. 
 
 "Yes, this is almost as bad as the ones we 
 have out there," he said. "Only this isn't 
 quite so cold." 
 
 187 
 
188 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "It's cold enough for me I" exclaimed Mr. 
 Martin. * 'Here, Jan, ' ' he caUed to his little 
 girl. "Just take hold of my; nose, will you, 
 my dear?" 
 
 "What for, Daddy?" asked the little girl. 
 
 "I want to see if it is still fast to my 
 face, ' ' answered her father. "It got so cold 
 when I was shoveling snow that I thought 
 maybe it had frozen and dropped off." 
 
 Janet grasped her father's nose in her 
 warm hands. 
 
 "Oh, it's awful coir* I" she cried with a 
 little shiver. 
 
 "I know it isl" laughed Mr. Martin. 
 "That's what made me afraid it was going 
 to drop off. I'm glad I stiU have it." 
 
 "Are you cold, too, Uncle Frank?" asked 
 Teddy. 
 
 "A little, yes. But I shoveled hard at 
 the snow and I'm warmer now." 
 
 "Take some hot coffee," said Mrs. Mar- 
 tin. "Nora will pour it out for you. No, 
 Trouble ! You mustn't do that !" she cried, 
 as she saw Baby William crumbling a slice 
 of bread into the pitcher of milk. 
 
 "What's he doiag?" asked Aunt Jo. 
 
 "Goin' make a cake," the little fellow an- 
 swered. "Make cake an' have p'ay party.'* 
 
Digging a Tunnel 1S9 
 
 "Well, you can have a play party with 
 something else," laughed his mother. "We 
 can't let you waste milk that way when we 
 can't tell when we'll get more if daddy can't 
 get out to the barn to milk the cow." 
 
 She took the slice of bread away from 
 William and set him down from the table to 
 which he had climbed up in a chair. 
 
 " 'Member the time he made a cake when 
 we were camping with grandpa on Star Is- 
 land?" asked Janet of Ted. 
 
 * * I guess I do ! " he laughed. * * The dough 
 was all over everything!" 
 
 "Well, let's try it again now," said Uncle 
 Frank to Daddy Martin, when they had had 
 some hot coffee. "We've got to get out to 
 the bam, somehow." 
 
 "Yes," agreed the father of the Curly- 
 tops. "I don't want the horse and cow to 
 be hungry or thirsty. I hope the water in 
 the barn isn't frozen^ If it is well have to 
 carry some from the house." 
 
 "And that might freeze on the way out," 
 said Uncle Frank. 
 
 "You could take a pail of hot water and 
 that wouldn't freeze," Teddy remarked. 
 
 "Our horse or cow couldn't drink hot 
 water," objected Janet. 
 
190 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Well, they could wait for it to cool just 
 as we do for our hot milk sometimes." 
 
 "Yes, they could do that," agreed Janet. 
 "Oh, I wish we could go out in our bunga- 
 lowl" 
 
 "Don't dare try it I" cried Daddy Mar- 
 tin. "If you children went out in the snow 
 you might not get back until your ears and 
 fingers were frost-bitten, to say the least." 
 
 "What does frost-bitten mean?" Teddy 
 asked. 
 
 "Well, it means almost frozen," explained 
 his mother. "Now you and Janet can take 
 Trouble up to the playroom and have a good 
 time, while I help Nora with the work." 
 
 "We want to see daddy and Uncle Frank 
 dig in the snow out to the barn," said 
 Teddy. 
 
 "Well, you may watch them a little while, 
 and then take care of Baby William." 
 
 "You can't see very much," said Uncle 
 Frank. "The snow is still coming down 
 hard and it blows so we can hardly see one 
 another. So you won't see much of us from 
 the windows." 
 
 "Well, maybe we can see a little," re- 
 marked Janet, and she and Teddy, with 
 Trouble between them, perched on chairs 
 
Digging a Tunnel 191 
 
 with their faces close against the snow cov- 
 ered glass. Of course the snow was on the 
 outside, but it made the inside of the win- 
 dow-pane quite cold, and in a little while, 
 Jan drew her face away and, feeling her 
 nose, cried: 
 
 "Oh, Ted! It's frozen 'most, like dad- 
 dy's was I" 
 
 "So's mine!" exclaimed Ted, feeling of 
 his nose. 
 
 "Mine cold, tool" added Trouble, putting 
 his chubby palm over his "smeller" as he 
 sometimes called his nose. 
 
 Indeed the noses of the children were cold 
 from having been pressed so long against 
 the window, and when Aunt Jo heard what 
 they had been doing she said: 
 
 "I wouldn't stay near the window any 
 longer if I were you. The wind blows in a 
 little, and it's drafty. You will get cold, 
 all over — not only your little noses. Go up! 
 to the playroom and I'll come, too. iWe*!! 
 have some fun." 
 
 "Just wait until we see if we can watcH 
 daddy and Uncle Frank a minute," pleaded 
 Teddy. 
 
 They all looked out of the window again. 
 Once in a while they had a glimpse of their 
 
192 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 father or his uncle tossing the snow to one 
 side. The two men were trying to dig a 
 path from the house to the barn, and they 
 were down in a deep trench, with white walls 
 on either side. 
 
 "This is a terrible storm!" said Aunt Jo 
 as she went up to the playroom with the 
 Curlytops and Trouble. "I hope no little 
 boys or girls are out in it." 
 
 "I hope not, either," echoed Jan with a 
 little shiver, as she heard the wind howl 
 around the corner of the house and dash the 
 hard flakes of snow up against the windows. 
 
 "If any boys or girls were out in it they 
 could stay in our bungalow," said Ted. 
 "There's some blankets in there and a little 
 to eat." 
 
 "And they could drink snow for water," 
 said Jan. "I ate some snow once and it 
 tickled my throat." 
 
 "Snow isn't good to eat," said Aunt Jo. 
 "Up near the North Pole, the Eskimos and 
 travelers never eat snow. It would make 
 them ill. They melt it and drink the water 
 when they are thirsty. But I hope no little 
 boy or girl has to leave his or her warm 
 house and live in your bungalow, nice as it 
 may be. I'm afraid they'd be pretty cold in 
 
Digging a Tunnel 195 
 
 it even with a blanket and a piece of car- 
 pet." 
 
 "If daddy and Uncle Frank would dig a 
 path we could go out to our bungalow and 
 see," observed Jan. 
 
 ** Maybe there's a tramp in it, like we 
 thought there was on Star Island," went on 
 Ted. 
 
 And, though neither Ted nor Jan knew it, 
 there was someone in their snow bungalow. 
 
 Up in the playroom the Curlytops and 
 Trouble had fun with Aunt Jo. She told 
 them stories and made up little games for 
 them, while outside the storm raged and 
 the snow came down faster than ever. 
 
 "Come on!" cried Teddy after waiting a 
 bit, "let's play that guessing game some 
 more." 
 
 "Oh, let 'si" agreed Jan. "It's lots of 
 funl" 
 
 This was a game in which one of them 
 would think of something in the attiC' — ^the 
 old spinning wheel, the steamboat chair or 
 maybe a string of sleigh beUs. Then the one 
 who had the turn of thinking would tell the 
 others the first letter of the name of the 
 thing thought of, and perhaps something 
 about it. The others had to guess what it 
 
194 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 was, and whoever guessed first was next in 
 ium to think of something. 
 
 Teddy, Jan and Aunt Jo played this game 
 for a while, but it was not much fun for 
 Trouble. He was too little to know how to 
 speU the things he thought of, though he 
 pould name almost everything in the attic, 
 even if he called some by nicknames he made 
 Up himself. 
 
 "Let's play something that will be fun 
 for Trouble," said Aunt Jo after a while. 
 
 "What?" asked Teddy. 
 
 "How would hide the bean bag be ?" asked 
 Aunt Jo. 
 
 "We haven't any bean bag," replied 
 Teddy. "We had one, but Trouble threw it 
 in the hedge and we can't find it." 
 
 "Well, I can easily make one," said Aunt; 
 Jo, and this she quickly did, getting beans 
 from the kitchen, and sewing a bag from a 
 piece of cloth from the rag-bag. 
 
 "Now we'U let Trouble hide the bag first," 
 said Aunt Jo, "as he hasn't had much fun 
 this last hour. You take the bag of beans. 
 Trouble dear, and hide it anywhere you like. 
 Only you must remember where you put it, 
 so when we give up, if we can't find it, you 
 can get it to hide again." 
 
Digging a Tunnel 195 
 
 " All right !" laughed the little fellow, and 
 then they told him all over again so he would 
 be sure an4 not forget. 
 
 "Maybe you look where I put it," said 
 Trouble, when he was about to take the bag 
 and hide it. 
 
 "No, we'll blind our eyes so we can't see," 
 promised Jan. 
 
 "And we won't look until you tell us 
 you're ready," added Ted. 
 
 "And I promise I won't peep I" laughed 
 Aunt Jo. 
 
 "Aw wight!" said Trouble, with a wise 
 look on his chubby little face. 
 
 Then the others closed their eyes, and 
 turned their backs, so they would be sure to 
 see nothing, and Trouble, with the bag of 
 beans in his hand, went wandering about the 
 attic looking for a place to hide what he 
 hoped Aunt Jo and the others would have to 
 look a long time for. 
 
 "Are you ready. Trouble?" asked Jan, 
 after a bit. 
 
 "Have you hid it yet*?" inquired Ted. 
 
 "Yes, I put it hid," answered Baby Wil- 
 liam, and when they looked they saw him 
 sitting on the floor near the chimney. 
 
 Then began the hunt for the bean bag. 
 
196 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Aunt Jo and the two Curlytops looked in all 
 the places in which they thought Trouble 
 might have hidden it. They peered into 
 boxes and old trunks, under boards, around 
 the ledges of rafters and beams and every- 
 where. 
 
 "I guess we can't find it!" said Aunt Jo 
 at last. "You hid it too well. Trouble. Tell 
 us where you put it and then hide it in an 
 easier place next time. Where is the bean 
 bag, dear?" 
 
 "I — ^I sittin* on it 1" laughed Trouble, and 
 when he got up, there, surely enough, was 
 the bag under him on the attic floor. 
 
 How they both did laugh at him, and 
 Trouble laughed, too, and they had lots more 
 fun, each one taking a turn to hide the 
 bag. 
 
 Now and then the children would go to 
 the window to look out, but they could see 
 little. All Cresco was snowed in. As far 
 as the children could see, no one was in the 
 street. 
 
 Cresco, where the Curlytops lived, was a 
 large town, and there was a trolley line 
 running through it, but not near the home 
 of Janet and Ted. 
 
 "But I guess the trolley isn't running to- 
 
Digging a Tunnel 197 
 
 day," Teddy remarked, after a game of 
 bean-bag. 
 
 "I guess not," agreed Aunt Jo. "The 
 cars would be snowed under." 
 
 Just then Mrs. Martin called Aunt Jo to 
 help her with some work, and the children 
 were left to themselves. They ran to the 
 window, hoping they could see something, 
 but the snow was either too high on the sill 
 or the glass was frosted with the frozen 
 flakes so no one could look through. 
 
 "Let's open the window!" suddenly pro- 
 posed Ted. "Then we can get a little snow 
 and make snowballs and play with 'em in 
 here." 
 
 "Oh, let 'si" cried Janet. 
 
 "Me want snowball, too!" 
 
 "We'll give you a little one," promised 
 his sister. 
 
 By standing on a chair Teddy managed 
 to shove back the catch of the window, but 
 to raise the sash was not so easy. It was 
 frozen down, and held fast by the drift of 
 snow on the sill. 
 
 "I know how to raise it," said Jan. 
 
 "How?" asked her brother. 
 
 "Get daddy's cane and push it up. I saw 
 Aunt Jo do it the other day." 
 
198 The Curly tops Snowed In 
 
 Mr. Martin's cane was down in the hall, 
 and Ted soon brought it upstairs. He put 
 one end of it under the upper edge of the 
 lower window sash and then he and Jan 
 pushed with all their might. But the win- 
 dow did not go up. 
 
 "Push harder!" cried Teddy. 
 
 "I ami" answered Janet. 
 
 They both shoved as hard as they could 
 on the cane and then it suddenly slipped. 
 There was a crash and a tinkle of glass, and 
 the children toppled over on the floor while 
 the room was filled with a swirl of snow- 
 flakes blown in through the broken window. 
 
 "Oh, it's busted!" cried Teddy. "You 
 did it, Janet Martini" 
 
 ' * Oh, The-o-dore Baradale Martin ! I did 
 not! You pushed it yourself 1" 
 
 "I didn't!" 
 
 "You did so!" 
 
 "Well, who got the cane, anyhow?" 
 
 "Well, who told me to get it?" 
 
 "I got some snow! I got some snow!" 
 cried Trouble, and he tossed handf uls at his 
 brother and sister, who had risen to their 
 feet and were looking at the broken glass. 
 The end of the cane had gone through it and 
 the wind and snow were blowing into the 
 
Digging a Tunnel 199 
 
 room. On the carpet was a white drift that 
 had fallen from the window sill. 
 
 "Oh, children! what are you doing?" 
 cried Mrs. Martin, when she saw what had 
 happened. 
 
 "The window broke," said Teddy slowly. 
 
 "Yes, I see it did," answered his mother. 
 "Who did it?" 
 
 Then Teddy proved himself a little hero, 
 for he said: 
 
 "I — I guess I did. I got the cane and it 
 slipped." 
 
 "I — I helped," bravely confessed Janet. 
 "I told him to get the cane and I pushed on 
 it, too." 
 
 "Well, I guess you didn't mean to," said 
 Mrs. Martin kindly. "But it's too bad. 
 We can't get the window fixed in this storm, 
 and daddy will have to nail a board or some- 
 thing over the hole. Trouble, come away 
 from that snowl" 
 
 Trouble was having fun with the snow 
 that came in through the hole, and did not 
 want to stop. But his mother caught him 
 up in her arms and took him out of the room, 
 sending in Nora to sweep up the pile of white 
 flakes on the carpet. 
 
 Then Daddy Martin nailed a heavy blan- 
 
200 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 ket over the window to keep out the cold 
 wind, though a little did come in, and snow 
 also. 
 
 *'Did you and Uncle Frank dig a path out 
 to the barn?" asked Teddy, when the excite- 
 ment over the broken window had died 
 down, 
 
 ' ' Not yet, ' ' answered his father. ' * I guess 
 we'll have to make a tunnel." 
 
 "Oh, a real tunnel, like railroad trains 
 go through?" cried Ted. 
 
 "Yes, only made of snow instead of earth 
 and rocks. We're going to make a snow 
 tunnel." 
 
 "Oh, that'll be funl" exclaimed Jan. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 IN A BIG DRIFT 
 
 "What are you men going to do now?" 
 asked Mrs. Martin, as lier husband and 
 Uncle Prank sat near the stove in the 
 kitchen warming their feet, for they were 
 very cold, having come in after a second at- 
 tempt to make a path to the bam. 
 
 "We're going to try a tunnel," said Mr. 
 Martin. "The snow is too deep between the 
 back door and the barn to try to shovel a 
 path through it. As fast as we toss the snow 
 away it blows in again and fills up the path 
 so we can hardly get back to the starting 
 place. Now if we begin in front of the 
 house, where there is a big drift, we can tun- 
 nel out to the side of the barn." 
 
 "What good will that do?" asked Airnt 
 Jo. 
 
 "When we make a tunnel it will have a 
 top on it, like a roof over a house. It will 
 
 201 
 
202 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 be a long snow house, the tunnel will, and 
 the snow can't blow in and fill it up." 
 
 "But what will you do with the snow you 
 dig out of the tunnel?" Mrs. Martin en- 
 quired. "You'U have to dig ahead and pile 
 the snow back of you and you 11 be just as 
 badly off." 
 
 "No," said her husband. "In front of 
 the house is a big drift that goes aU the way 
 to the bam. But one side of the drift, near 
 the house, is low and we can make a hole 
 there to start. Then as we dig away the 
 Bnow we can bring it back to this hole and 
 dump it outside. If we work long enough 
 well have a tunnel right through to the 
 bam." 
 
 "In what will you carry the snow out of 
 the tunnel?" asked Aunt Jo. 
 
 "In the big clothes baskets," answered 
 Daddy Martin. "A tunnel is the only way 
 I can see by which we can get out to the 
 bam. Come on, TJnele Frank I If your feet 
 are warm enough well begin. The horse 
 and cow wiU be glad to see us." 
 
 "Can't you make a place so the children 
 can watch you ? ' ' asked Mother Martin. * ' I 
 can't have them in the playroom now as the 
 window is broken. Scrape off some snow 
 
In a Big Drift 203 
 
 arouud the front windows so they can see 
 what you're doing." 
 
 "We will," promised Uncle Frank, 
 
 So before he and Daddy Martin began to 
 dig the tunnel they made a cleared place in 
 front of one of the parlor windows so a view 
 could be had of the big drift where the tun- 
 nel was to be started. 
 
 "Oh, I wish I could dig!" cried Ted. 
 
 "So do I!" echoed Janet. 
 
 "Don't you Curly tops open any more win- 
 dows, or try to get out where your father 
 and Uncle Frank are making the tunnel," 
 warned Mrs. Martin. "This storm is get- 
 ting worse instead of stopping." 
 
 So the children stayed by the window and 
 watched. 
 
 With their big, wooden shovels and the 
 big clothes baskets in which to pile the snow 
 they dug from the tunnel, Daddy Martin 
 and Uncle Frank started off to their work. 
 
 As the children's father had said, there 
 was a large drift near the front of the house. 
 On one side it sloped sharply to the ground, 
 making a sort of snow wall, almost straight 
 up and down. It was in the middle of this 
 snow wall that the tunnel hole was to be 
 started. 
 
204 The Curlytops Sno wed In 
 
 "Well, here we go!" cried Uncle Frank, 
 as he waved his shovel at the watching chil- 
 dren in the window. 
 
 He made a jab into the snow wall, and cut 
 out a big square chunk of whiteness. This 
 he tossed back of him out of the way. For 
 a time this could be done, and there was no 
 need to use the baskets. But as the tunnel 
 was dug farther in, the pile of white flakes 
 would have to be carried out. As the tunnel 
 was only going to be big enough for one per- 
 son to walk in at a time, and not wide 
 enough for two to go side by side, the two 
 men were to take turns digging, one using 
 the shovel and the other bringing out the 
 clothes basket filled with snow which would 
 be emptied outside. 
 
 "Oh, I can't see Uncle Frank any more!" 
 cried Ted, who was eagerly watching with 
 his sister and Trouble. 
 
 "Where's he gone?" asked Janet. 
 
 "He's dug a hole for himself inside the 
 snow bank — ^in the tunnel — and I can't see 
 him now. He 's away inside ! Oh, what fun I 
 I wish we could be in there," he added. 
 
 " So do I, " echoed Janet. * * Maybe we can 
 when it gets warmer and the snow stops com- 
 ing down." 
 
In a Big Drift 205 
 
 "We'll ask mother," decided Teddy. 
 
 **I see my papal" suddenly called Trou- 
 ble. "He's bringin' out de clothes!" 
 
 "No, that's a basket of snow he has," 
 said Janet with a laugh, for her father had 
 just then come out of the tunnel with the 
 first load of snow that had been dug loose 
 by Uncle Frank. 
 
 From then on, for some time, the children 
 had a sight of their father or their Uncle 
 Frank only once in a while, as either one or 
 the other came to the mouth of the tunnel 
 to empty the basket filled with snow. Som.e- 
 times it would be Daddy Martin and again 
 Uncle Frank, as they were taking turns. 
 
 "I guess the tunnel must be most fin- 
 ished," said Janet, when they had been 
 watching for some time. 
 
 "Anyhow here they come in," added 
 Teddy, as he heard a noise at the back of 
 the house. 
 
 "Did you tunnel your way to the bam?" 
 asked Mrs. Martin, as her husband and 
 Uncle Frank came into the kitchen. 
 
 "Not yet. It's farther than we thought, 
 and hard work," answered Mr. Martin. 
 "We came in to get some dinner and then 
 we're going at it again." 
 
206 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "And will you see if Nicknack is all right 
 when you get out to the barn?" asked 
 Teddy. 
 
 *'I surely will," promised his father. "I 
 thought I heard him bleating when I first 
 went out, so I guess he's all right." 
 
 * ' Couldn't you bring him into the house f" 
 asked Janet, 
 
 "He's lonesome out there," added Ted. 
 
 "Bring your goat into the house?" cried 
 Mother Martin. "Oh, my goodness, no!" 
 
 "Then we'd like to go out and see him," 
 went on Teddy. 
 
 "Well, maybe, wheh we get the tunnel 
 finished, and if it isn't too cold, I'U take you 
 out," promised their father. , 
 
 After dinner he and Uncle Frank began 
 work on the tunnel again. The storm 
 seemed to be stopping a little and the wind 
 did not blow so hard. 
 
 "Please, Mother, couldn't Jan and I go 
 out, just for a little while?" begged Teddy 
 toward evening, when it was getting almost 
 too dark for Mr. Martin and Uncle Frank 
 to see to dig in the tunnel. 
 
 "What do you think, Aunt Jo?" asked 
 Mrs. Martin. 
 
 "Oh, I should think it wouldn't hurt 
 
In a Big Drift 207 
 
 tiiem to go out for a few minutes. Wrap 
 them up well, and I'll go with them, on the 
 side of the house where there isn't so much 
 snow. But I wouldn't let Baby William 
 
 go." 
 
 "No, I'U not." 
 
 So Ted and Jan and Aunt Jo got on their 
 warm wraps and stepped out of the front 
 door, where Daddy Martin and Uncle Frank 
 had cleared a place on the veranda. Trouble 
 cried to go, but, though the storm was not 
 as bad as it had been at the start, it was too 
 cold for him. i 
 
 Ted and Janet did not mind it at first. 
 They ran around, laughed, shouted and 
 threw the snow. Then they began to feel the 
 cold, which was more severe than they had 
 thought. 
 
 "Oh, what big drifts I" cried Teddy, as he 
 saw some out in the road. 
 
 "Awful big!" agreed Janet. "Let's go 
 and look in the tunnel." 
 
 There was little to see, however, except a 
 big white hole in the great drift, for Daddy 
 Martin and Uncle Frank were at the far 
 end, digging their way to the bam and Nick- 
 nack. 
 
 "CJome now, it's time to go in," said Aunt 
 
208 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Jo. "I promised your mother I'd keep you 
 out only a little while. I think it's going 
 to storm worse than ever. Come on in !" 
 
 "Please wait until I take one jump!" 
 begged Teddy. 
 
 He gave a run and a jump, down a little 
 side hill in the yard near the house. Into a 
 pUe of snow he leaped, and the next instant 
 he had disappeared from sight ! The snow 
 had closed over his head! 
 
 "Oh, where is he? Where's Teddy?" 
 cried Janet, very much frightened. 
 
 "I guess he's in the big drift!" answered 
 Aunt Jo. 
 
 "Oh, Daddy! Uncle Frank!" cried 
 Janet. "Come quick! Teddy's in a big 
 drift!" 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 NICKNACK IS GONE 
 
 Daddt Mabtin and Uncle Frank came 
 running from the snow tunnel. Each one 
 carried a shovel, for while the Curlytops' 
 father had been digging away at the snow 
 with his shovel. Uncle Frank had used the 
 other to pile into the basket the loosened 
 heap of white flakes. 
 
 "What's the matter?" asked Janet's 
 father as he looked at her. "Why did you 
 call me?" 
 
 " 'Cause Teddy's in a big drift — down 
 there!" she answered, pointing. 
 
 "Yes, he really did jump down there, and 
 the snow was so soft that he went all the way 
 through," added Aunt Jo. 
 
 "Then we must get him out in a hurry 1" 
 
 cried Uncle Frank. "Come on, Dick! This 
 
 will be a new kind of digging for us." 
 
 209 
 
210 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "I should say sol" exclaimed Mr. Mar- 
 tin. 
 
 The two men ran toward the big drift, 
 but when they got close they walked more 
 carefully, for they did not want to make 
 more snow faU in on top of Teddy through 
 the hole he left when he jumped into the big 
 drift. 
 
 "Are you down there, Son?" asked Mr. 
 Martin, leaning over the hole and calling 
 to the little boy. 
 
 Janet began to cry. She was afraid she 
 would never see her brother again, and she 
 loved him very much. 
 
 "Don't cry," said Uncle Frank kindly. 
 "We'U get Teddy out all right Did he 
 answer you?" he inquired of Daddy Mar- 
 tin. 
 
 "Not yet, but I guess " 
 
 Just then a voice seemed to call from 
 under their very feet. 
 
 "Here I am!" it said. "Down in a big 
 pile of snow. Say, can you get me out? 
 Every time I wiggle more snow falls in on 
 top of me!" 
 
 "We'U get you out all right, Ted!" 
 shouted his father. "Just keep as still as 
 you can. Can you breatiie all right?" 
 
Nicknack Is Gone 211 
 
 "Yep!" came back the answer, as if from 
 far away. 
 
 Then Daddy Martin and Uncle Frank be- 
 gan to dig in the big drifts with their shov- 
 els, while Aunt Jo and Janet looked on. As 
 yet Mrs. Martin and Nora knew nothing 
 about what had happened, nor did Trouble. 
 
 "But it's of no use to tell your mother 
 and frighten her, Janet," said Aimt Jo. 
 "They'll have Teddy dug out in a minute, 
 and then he can tell her himself what hap- 
 pened to him, and we'll aU have a good 
 laugh over it." 
 
 "Won't he smother?" asked Janet. 
 
 "Oh, no," answered Aimt Jo. "Falling 
 under snow isn't like falling under water. 
 There is a little air in snow but not any in 
 water — at least not any we can breathe, 
 though a fish can. But still if a person was 
 kept under heavily packed snow too long he 
 would smother, I suppose. However, that 
 won't happen to Teddy. They're getting to 
 him." 
 
 IJncle Frank and Daddy Martin were 
 tossing the snow away from the drift by big 
 idiovelfuls. In a little while they had dug 
 down to where Teddy stood in a little hollow 
 plaee he had scooped out for himself with 
 
212 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 his hands. He was covered with snow, but 
 was not hurt, for falling in the big drift, he 
 said, was like tumbling into a feather bed — 
 the kind Trouble had once cut up when he 
 was at his grandmother's on Cherry Farm. 
 
 "Well, how in the world did you get down 
 there?" asked Teddy's father, when the lit- 
 tle boy was lifted up safe on the path again, 
 and the snow had mostly been brushed from 
 him. 
 
 "I — I just jumped," Teddy answered. 
 "I wanted to see how far I could go and I 
 didn't think about that being the edge of 
 the terrace." 
 
 For the big drift was on the edge of a ter- 
 race, where the front lawn was raised up 
 from the rest of the yard. So the drift was 
 deeper than any of the other piles of snow 
 around it. 
 
 "However, you're not hurt as far as I can 
 see," went on Mr. Martin. "But please 
 don't go in any more drifts. Uncle Frank 
 and I won't have time to dig you out, for we 
 must keep at work on the tunnel." 
 
 "Isn't it finished yef?" asked Aunt Jo. 
 
 "1^0. And I don't believe it will be to- 
 night. It's getting late now and we can't 
 work much longer. It 's going to snow more, 
 
Nicknack Is Gone 213 
 
 too," added the father of the Curlytops as 
 he looked up at the sky, from the gray clouds 
 of which more white flakes were falling. 
 
 "Can't we go into the tunnel?" asked 
 Teddy, who did not seem much frightened 
 by what had happened to him. 
 
 "Well, yes, I s'pose you could go in a lit- 
 tle way," his father answered. "We won't 
 do any more digging to-night," he said to 
 Uncle Frank. 
 
 "IN'o, but we'd better put some boards in 
 front of the hole we have dug to keep it from 
 filling with snow in the night." 
 
 "Yes, well do that," said Mr. Martin. 
 
 The two men led the way to the tunnel, in 
 which they had been digging most of the 
 day. Aunt Jo, Teddy and Janet followed. 
 At the window, one of the few out of which 
 she could look into the big storm, Mrs. Mar- 
 tin motioned for the Curlytops to come in. 
 Daddy waved his hand and called that he 
 would bring them in as soon as he had 
 showed them the tunnel. 
 
 The Curlytops thought this a wonderful 
 place. They had been through railroad tun- 
 nels, but they were black and smoky. This 
 snow tunnel was clean and white, not a speck 
 of dirt beiag in it. Though it was cut 
 
214 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 through a great, white drift it was getting 
 dark inside, for the sun was not shining, 
 and night was coming. 
 
 "Wouldn't this be a dandy; place to 
 play?" cried Ted. 
 
 "Pine," answered Janet. "Nicer than 
 our snow bungalow. When can we dig out 
 to our bungalow?" she asked her father. 
 
 "Oh, in a day or two, I presume. It's 
 pretty weU covered with snow, and we must 
 first see that the horse and cow are all right. 
 It wiU be time enough to think of play after 
 we have done that." 
 
 "And we've got to feed and water Mck- 
 naek, too," added Janet. 
 
 "Yes, we mustn't forget your goat," 
 laughed Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Did you leave him any hay and water ?" 
 asked Daddy Martin. 
 
 "I did," Teddy answered. "I put a loi 
 of hay where he could get it and some water 
 to drink in a paU." 
 
 "WeU, then maybe he '11 have enough until 
 we can dig our way out to kim," said Mr. 
 Martin. "But it isn't going to be easy. 
 This has been a terrible storm, and I'm 
 afraid it's going to be worse. I hope the 
 poor of our town have coal enough to keep 
 
NicTmack Is Grone 215 
 
 warm and enough food to eat. Being 
 snowed in is no fun when one has to freeze 
 and starve." 
 
 Teddy and Janet were glad they were bo 
 comfortable. They, too, hoped no one was 
 suffering, and if they had known that not far 
 away a poor boy was in great distress they 
 would not have slept as well as they did that 
 night. But they did not know until after- 
 ward, when they found out the secret about 
 the snow bungalow. 
 
 "Well, come on out now," called Daddy 
 Martin, as the Curlytops were looking at the 
 snow tunnel. "It's time to go in. You've 
 been out in the cold long enough." 
 
 "It is very cold," agreed Aimt Jo. "I'm 
 just beginning to notice it." 
 
 Into the warm house they went, stamping 
 and brushing ofE the snow that clung to 
 them. As they gathered about the supper 
 table, which was well filled with good things 
 to eat, Nora came in to say that it was snow- 
 ing again. 
 
 "I thought it would," remarked Daddy 
 Martin. "We surely must finish that snow 
 tunnel to-morrow," he said to Uncle Frank. 
 "We may need the horse to help us break 
 ft way to the road." 
 
216 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "And we'll need more milk to-morrow," 
 said Mother Martin. 
 
 That evening, as they sat in their warm 
 house playing games and listening to the 
 crackling of the corn which Aunt Jo 
 popped, the Curlytops were very thankful 
 for the nice home they had to stay in. 
 
 "How the wind blows!" cried Aimt Jo 
 as she took the children up to bed. 
 
 "Is it snowing yet?" asked Teddy. 
 
 "I can't see," his aunt answered. "It's 
 so dark and the snow covers the windows. 
 But I wouldn't be surprised if it were. The 
 storm is not over yet. I guess you children 
 will have all the snow you want for once." 
 
 "We can have rides downhill for a long 
 while," remarked Janet. 
 
 "And make snow men and snow forts 
 and snowballs as much as we like," added 
 Teddy. 
 
 All night long the storm raged again. The 
 wind blew and the snow came down, but not 
 as hard as it had the night before. If it had, 
 there is no telling what would have hap- 
 pened. The Curlytops would have been 
 snowed in worse than they were. 
 
 But it was bad enough, as they saw when 
 they awakened and looked out the next 
 
Nicknack Is Gone 217 
 
 morning. That is thej tried to look out, but 
 it was little indeed that they could see. For 
 some of the windows from which they had 
 had a glimpse of the outer world the day 
 before were completely covered now. 
 
 "We'U have to do some digging to get to 
 the opening of the tunnel," said Daddy 
 Martin to Uncle Frank, *'and we'll have to 
 dig all day to get to the barn. But we've 
 got to do it." 
 
 "That's right!" agreed Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Couldn't I help?" asked Teddy. 
 
 "No, I'm afraid not, Curlytop," answered 
 his father. "It's pretty hard work for us 
 men." 
 
 "But wiU you let me go out and see Mck- 
 nack as soon as you dig to his stable?" the 
 little boy asked. 
 
 '■'I'll see about it — ^if the snow isn't too 
 deep," his father replied. 
 
 "I want to come, too!" added Janet. 
 
 "Well, maybe you can," said Uncle 
 Frank. "Well see." 
 
 Then, after they had had a warm break- 
 fast, the two men started the digging again. 
 Teddy and Janet could not see them be- 
 cause they were so far inside the tunnel. 
 And as the Curlytops could not be out to 
 
218 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 play they had to amuse themselves as best 
 they could in the house. 
 
 Aunt Jo played with them and Trouble. 
 Baby WiUiam was the hardest to amuse, as 
 he was very active. He wanted to run about 
 and do everything, and two or three times, 
 when they looked for him, they found he had 
 slipped away and was out in the kitchen, 
 teasing Nora to let him make a cake. 
 
 It was well on in the afternoon when there 
 came a stamping and pounding in the back 
 entry. 
 
 "Oh, there's daddy and Uncle Frank 
 knocking the snow ofE their feet I" exclaimed 
 Janet. 
 
 "Maybe they've been out to the barn," 
 said her brother. 
 
 "And maybe they've brought Mcknack 
 in," added Janet. 
 
 The Curlytops ran to the kitchen, not 
 stoppiug to wait for Trouble, who cried to 
 be taken along. There in the entry, brush- 
 ing the snow from them and stamping it 
 from their boots, were Daddy Martin and 
 Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Did you get to the barnf" inquired 
 Teddy. 
 
 "Yes, we got there all right." 
 
Nicknack Is Gone 219 
 
 "And is our horse and cow all right?" 
 Janet inquired. 
 
 "Yes, they're all right, and were glad to 
 see us." 
 
 "Did you see our goat?" cried Teddy 
 next. 
 
 "No, we haven't dug out to his stable yet. 
 We're going to in a minute," said Daddy 
 Martin. 
 
 "We thought we'd come in and get you 
 two Curlytops and take you out to see Jim 
 and the cow," added Uncle Frank. 
 
 "It isn't snowing quite as hard as it 
 was, and it isn't quite so cold. We thought 
 it might do the children good, for they've 
 been cooped up all day," the children's 
 father explained to his wife. 
 
 "So they have, but they haven't fretted 
 much, except Trouble, and he didn't know 
 any better. All right, take them out and 
 then come in. We'll have an early supper. 
 I do hope the storm will be over by to-mor- 
 row." 
 
 "I think it surely will," her husband 
 said. 
 
 Teddy and Janet were soon warmly bun- 
 dled up and were taken out of doors by their 
 father and uncle. The keen wind cut their 
 
220 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 faces and the snowflakes blew in their eyes, 
 but they liked it. 
 
 Through the snow tunnel they were car- 
 ried to the bam door, which was open. It 
 opened right into the snow tunnel, and in- 
 side was a lantern, for the barn was dark, 
 being more than half covered with snow and 
 there being only one or two windows in it. 
 
 Jim, the horse, whinnied when he heard 
 his friends come in, and the cow mooed. 
 
 "They're glad to see us," said Janet. 
 
 "Yes, I guess they are," laughed her 
 father. "I'm going to milk the cow. Then 
 we'll shake down some hay for her and Jim, 
 and give them more water, too. I'm glad 
 the pump wasn't frozen." 
 
 So while Daddy Martin milked the cow. 
 Uncle Frank tossed down hay from the mow 
 upstairs in the bam and pumped some 
 water. 
 
 "And now can't we get Nicknack'?" asked 
 Teddy, when a foaming pail of milk was 
 ready to be carried to the house. 
 
 "Yes, I think so," answered his father. 
 
 "I called to him but he didn't answer," 
 said Janet. 
 
 "I'll soon dig a way to Mcknack's place," 
 said Uncle Frank, and he started at a point 
 
Nicknack Is Gone 221 
 
 where the tunnel ran to the barn door. It 
 did not take him long, with the big shovel, to 
 clear a place so that the door to Nicknack 's 
 stable was free, for the drifts were not so 
 deep on this side of the bam. 
 
 "Now for the goat!" cried Daddy Mar- 
 tin. "Stand back, Curlytops, and let Uncle 
 Frank go first," 
 
 Uncle Frank, holding the lantern over his 
 head, entered the goat's stable. He stood 
 still for a few seconds. 
 
 "Is he all right?" asked Teddy anxiously. 
 
 "Well, I can't see him at aU," Uncle 
 Frank answered. 
 
 "You can't see him?" echoed Mr. Mar^- 
 tin. 
 
 "No, Nicknack isn't here. He's gone I" 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 WHAT NICKKTACK BEOTJGHT 
 
 Teddy and Janet were so surprised they 
 did not know what to say. They just stood 
 and looked at one another in the light of the 
 lantern their father held after having 
 milked the cow. Uncle Frank was in Nick- 
 nack 's little stable with another lantern. 
 
 **Are you sure he isn't there?" asked Mr. 
 Martin, for weU he knew how sorry the Cur- 
 lytops would feel if anything happened to 
 their goat. 
 
 "There isn't a sign of him," answered 
 Uncle Frank. "You can come and look for 
 yourselves." 
 
 "Maybe he's lying down asleep," sug- 
 gested Teddy. 
 
 "I've looked aU over," said Uncle Frank. 
 
 Teddy darted out of the barn, followed by 
 Janet. 
 
 "Here! Come back!" cried their father. 
 
 222 
 
What Nicknack Brought 223 
 
 **Tou may get lost in the storm. It's snow- 
 ing and the wind is blowing and it's hard 
 to see where you're going, especially after 
 dark." 
 
 "We want to see where Nicknack is," 
 pleaded Teddy. 
 
 "Wait, and III go with you," his father 
 remarked. * * Perhaps he has burrowed down 
 under the hay or straw to keep warm." 
 
 But when all four of them stood in front 
 of Mcknack's little stable, which was too 
 small for more than two to get in at a time, 
 the Curlyiops saw that their pet was not 
 there. Uncle Frank flashed the lantern up 
 high and down low, but no goat was to be 
 Been. 
 
 "Where can he be?" asked Teddy, 
 anxiously. 
 
 "Was the door fastened?" Daddy Mar- 
 tin inquired. 
 
 "Yes, it was shut and the catch was on. 
 I had to take it off to get in," replied Uncle 
 Prank. "Mcknack couldn't have gotten 
 out that way." 
 
 "And there is only one door," went on 
 Mr. Martin. "Did you look to see if any 
 boards were loose on the sides of the stable, 
 Uncle Frank?" 
 
224 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "No, I didn't, but I will." 
 
 With his lantern Uncle Frank began 
 looking around the goat's stable, pushiug 
 against the boards, on the outside of which 
 the snow was piled. Pinally Uncle Frank 
 gave a shout. 
 
 "What is it?" cried Teddy. "Have you 
 found Mcknack?" 
 
 "No, but I've found the place where he 
 got out. Look!" 
 
 Holding the lantern so all could see, 
 Uncle Frank showed where a large board 
 had been knocked loose. It swung to one 
 side and showed a hole in the snow outside. 
 
 "Is he in there?" asked Jan, as she saw 
 the hole. It was like the tunnel her father 
 and Uncle Frank had dug, but smaller. 
 
 "I don't know whether he's there or not,'* 
 answered Uncle Frank. "I'll have a look, 
 though." 
 
 He pulled the board loose. It hung by 
 one nail only. Then, stooping down so he 
 could look into the hole, which seemed to 
 have been dug in the snow outside, and flash- 
 ing his lantern into it, Uncle Frank called: 
 
 "Here, Nicknack! Are you there? Come 
 here!" 
 
 There was no answer, the only sound be- 
 
What Nicknack Brought 225 
 
 ing the howl of the wind and the swish of 
 the snowflakes in the storm. 
 
 "Isn't he there?" asked Teddy, his voice 
 sounding as though he wanted to cry. 
 
 *'I can't see him," answered Uncle Frank. 
 "But I think he must be in the snow some- 
 where around here. We'll have to dig him 
 out just as we dug you out of the big drift, 
 Teddy." 
 
 "Is Nicknack in a drift?" Janet whis- 
 pered. Somehow, if Nicknack were in a 
 drift, it seemed better to Jan to talk in 
 whisper. 
 
 "I can't imagine where else he would be," 
 TJncle Prank said. "He must have gotten 
 tired of staying here aU alone, so, with his 
 horns and head he just knocked this big 
 board loose. That gave him room enough 
 to get out, and then he began to dig his way 
 through the snow. There was a little hol- 
 low place in the edge of the drift that is on 
 this side of his stable, and that gave him a 
 chance to start. He didn't paw any snow 
 inside his stable, and that's why I didn't at 
 first see which way he had gone." 
 
 "But how can we get him?" asked Jan, 
 who felt the tears coming into her eyes. 
 
 "Oh, we can dig him out," her father 
 
226 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 said. "Don't worry. We'll soon get Mck- 
 uack for you." 
 
 "To-night?" Teddy demanded. 
 
 "Well, maybe not to-night," his father 
 answered. "It's pretty late now, and get- 
 ting colder. And there's no telling how far 
 away Meknack has dug himself into the 
 snow bank. He 's a strong goat, Meknack is, 
 and once he started to burrow through the 
 snow, one couldn't say when he'd stop. He 
 might even dig his way to the house." 
 
 "Honest and truly?" asked Teddy. 
 
 "Well, he might," said Mr. Martin. 
 "Anyhow, well wait until morning before 
 we start digging for him." 
 
 "But won't he die?" asked Janet. 
 
 "No, he can get air under the snow for 
 quite a while, just as Teddy could when he 
 jumped into the drift. And if he gets hun- 
 gry he can wiggle his way back to his stable 
 the same way he wiggled out. The way is 
 open and we'll leave this board off so he can 
 get in easily. There is hay and water here. 
 The water didn't freeze, being warm under 
 so much snow and down in the hay where 
 you put the pail, Teddy. So Meknack will 
 be all right until morning I think," 
 
 "What ar«ide him go out?" asked Teddy. 
 
What Nichnack Brought 22t 
 
 "I think he got lonesome," laughed Uncle 
 Frank. "He missed you two Curlytops, 
 and he wanted to come to see you." 
 
 "But where is he?" asked Janet. 
 
 "Oh, somewhere in the snow between here 
 and the house," answered her father. 
 "Don't worry about Nicknack. He's able 
 to take care of himself. Maybe he'll be back 
 in his stable in the morning." 
 
 Janet and Teddy were not at all sure of 
 this, but they hoped it might prove true. 
 They liked their goat very much. He was % 
 fine playfellow for them. 
 
 "Let us call, Jan," suggested Ted. "Mck- 
 nack Ukes us, and maybe he'll answer if 
 we hoUer. You call first." 
 
 * ' All right, "Jan responded. Then, at the 
 top of her voice, she yelled : "Nicknack, come 
 herel" 
 
 Then Teddy shouted: "Nicknack! Oh, 
 Nicknack!" 
 
 Then they all waited in silence, but heard 
 nothing in reply to their calls. 
 
 "Well, it's of no use to stay here any 
 longer," said Daddy Martin, as they stood 
 looking at Nicknack 's empty stable. * * We '11 
 leave everything as it is and come heye in 
 the morning. It will be easy enotigh for 
 
228 The Curlytops Snotved In 
 
 us to get out, now that we have the tunnel 
 made." 
 
 "Yes, come on back to the house, and I'll 
 tell you some stories about my Western 
 ranch," added Uncle Frank. "Some day 
 I want you Curlytops to come out there and 
 have pony rides." 
 
 "Oh, can we?" cried Teddy. 
 
 "To be sure you can." 
 
 "And shall we get snowed in?" asked 
 Janet. 
 
 "Well, not if I can help it. But come in 
 the summer when there won't be any snow. 
 You'll like it out on my ranch in Montana." 
 
 The Curlytops were sure they would, and 
 they were so anxious to hear more about it 
 and talk of getting pony rides among the 
 cowboys that, for the time, they forgot about 
 Nicknack's trouble. 
 
 Back to the house they went, locking the 
 stable door after seeing that the horse and 
 the cow had plenty to eat. Daddy Martin 
 carried the pail of milk, of which Trouble 
 was to have his share, for he drank a great 
 deal of it. 
 
 "Nicknack's gone!" cried Teddy as they 
 entered the house, after brushing and shak- 
 ing off the snow. 
 
Wha t Nicknack Brought 229 
 
 "Gone!" cried Mother Martin. 
 
 And then she and Aunt Jo were told what 
 the Curlytops had discovered when they; 
 went to the goat's stable. 
 
 "Well, maybe he'll come back," said Aunt 
 Jo. "After supper I'll tell you about a new 
 bungalow I'm going to build at Ruby Lake, 
 and I want you two Curlytops to come to 
 Bee me there." 
 
 "Oh, won't we have fun at Uncle Prank's 
 ffanch and Aunt Jo's bungalow!" cried 
 Teddy. 
 
 "Yes, we will!" echoed his sister. 
 
 After supper Uncle Frank began to teU 
 a Western story of things that had hap- 
 pened at his ranch. He told of Indians hav- 
 ing taken some of his ponies, and of how he 
 and his cowboys chased and caught the Red- 
 men and took back the little horses. 
 
 "We didn't want them to steal our 
 ponies," he said. 
 
 "Daddy didn't want that lame boy to 
 take the pocketbook in his store, but the 
 lame boy did," said Janet, who was fast fall- 
 ing asleep. 
 
 "What made you think of that?" asked 
 her father. 
 
 "Oh, I was just thinking," answered the 
 
230 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 little girl. "Maybe that lame boy was hun- 
 gry like Uncle Frank said the Indians 
 were." 
 
 "Maybe," agreed her mother. "But it 
 isn't sure he took the pocketbook. You 
 never found out who he was, did you?" she 
 asked her husband. 
 
 "No, the poor fellow seemed to be too 
 frightened to come back. I hope nothing 
 happened to him. I'd rather lose the money 
 than have him hurt, though, of course, 
 I wouldn't want to learn that he would take 
 what was not his. But now, Aunt Jo, it's 
 v^our turn to tell about your new bungalow." 
 
 So Aunt Jo began her story, and by the 
 time it was finished Teddy and Janet were 
 ready for bed, where Trouble had gone long 
 before. 
 
 "Still snowing," said Uncle Frank, as he 
 went to the back door and looked out. "I 
 imagine this is the biggest storm you folks 
 in the East ever had." 
 
 "Yes, it is," agreed Daddy Martin. 
 
 The house was soon dark and quiet, while 
 outside the cold wind blew and the snow 
 piled in big drifts. 
 
 Janet and Teddy had fallen asleep, won- 
 dering what had happened to their pet goat. 
 
What Nicknack Brought 231 
 
 and the first thing they asked, on awaken- 
 ing in the morning was : 
 
 * 'Is Nicknack here ? ' * 
 
 "We haven't seen him," answered their 
 mother. "But daddy and Uncle Frank are 
 going to dig for him after breakfast." 
 
 When the meal had been finished it was 
 foimd that the snow had stopped, at least 
 for a time, and that the weather was a little 
 warmer. Janet and Ted were allowed to 
 play out in a cleared place in the yard. 
 
 "Part of the tunnel caved in during the 
 night," said their father, "and we'll have to 
 dig it out before we can get to Nicknack*s 
 stable. But we'll call you as soon as we 
 find him." 
 
 It took some time to dig through the snow, 
 and while their father and Uncle Frank 
 were doing this Ted and Janet made a little 
 hill in the yard and slid down that on their 
 sleds. 
 
 Then they saw Uncle Frank coming to- 
 ward them. 
 
 "Did you find Nicknack ?" called the Cux- 
 lytops. 
 
 "No. We dug through the hole he made 
 in the snow, but it came to an end at your 
 bungalow, and there's no sign of the goat" 
 
232 The Curlytopg Snowed In 
 
 "Maybe he's in our play bungalow," said 
 Teddy. 
 
 "The door is closed," went on his uncle. 
 "I'm afraid your goat is snowed under 
 farther off. We're going to dig some more 
 after dinner. But we'U find him." 
 
 Janet and Teddy were worried about 
 Nicknack. 
 
 "Please dig hard for him!" begged 
 Janet, as the two men started out with their 
 shovels after dinner. 
 
 "We will," they promised. 
 
 Just as they were going out to the kitchen, 
 to get their shovels which they had left in 
 the back entry, there came a pounding in 
 that very place as though some one were 
 stamping snow off his boots. 
 
 "What's that?" asked Uncle Frank. 
 
 "Someone coming to see us — one of the 
 neighbors perhaps," remarked Mr. Martin. 
 "This is the first any of them have broken 
 out after having been snowed in." 
 
 Once more the pounding noise sounded. 
 
 "Come in!" cried Uncle Frank, as he 
 started toward the door. 
 
 "Baa-a-a-a!" came the answer. 
 
 "Nicknackl" cried Teddy and Janet joy- 
 ously. 
 
Wha t Nicknack Brought 233 
 
 Uncle Frank threw open the door. There 
 stood the goat, covered with snow, and 
 stamping to get off as much as he could. 
 Into the kitchen he walked as though he 
 felt at home there, and Teddy and Janet 
 began to hug him. 
 
 "Hold on there ! Wait a minute I" called 
 their father. 
 
 "What is it?" asked Mrs. Martin. 
 "What's the matter, Dick?" 
 
 "There's something on that goat's neck I" 
 
 "Something on his neck?" 
 
 "Yes, a note or something. Mcknack has 
 brought in something out of the storm. We 
 must see what it isl" 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 m THE BUNOALOW 
 
 The Curl3^ops were very much excited 
 when they heard their father say Mcknack 
 had something on his neck. They had been 
 so anxious to hug their pet that they had 
 not thought of anything else, and had not 
 noticed anything. 
 
 "We thought you were lost in the snow," 
 murmured Janet. 
 
 "So he was," declared Teddy. "But he 
 came in out of the snow," he added. 
 "Didn't you, Nicknack?" 
 
 "Yes, and he brought something with 
 him, ' ' went on Mr. Martin. * * You must stop 
 hugging Nicknack, Curlytops, until I see 
 what it is." 
 
 He led the goat gently away from the chil- 
 dren. Nicknack bleated again. 
 
 "I guess he's hungry," said Teddy. 
 
 "I'U get him a cookie !" offered Janet. 
 234 
 
In the Bungcdoia 235 
 
 "You'd better give him a real meal," put 
 in Nora. "He'll be hungry and want more 
 than cookies, I'm thinkin'." 
 
 "Get him anything you like," said Mr. 
 Martin, "as long as I get this off his neck. 
 It is a note!" he cried. "It's tied on with 
 a piece of string. It 's a note — a letter ! ' ' 
 
 "Who in the world would send a note by 
 Meknack in that queer way, I wonder," 
 remarked Mrs. Martin. 
 
 "I've read of persons lost in the moun- 
 tains sending a note for help tied around 
 the neck of a St. Bernard dog," said Uncle 
 Frank. "Maybe somebody used Mcknack 
 as a dog." 
 
 Meanwhile Teddy and Jan had to run to 
 the pantry to get Mcknack something to 
 eat. Trouble was now petting the goat and 
 asking: 
 
 "Where you been, Mcknack? Where 
 you been all dis while?" 
 
 "It is a note from some one in trouble!'* 
 cried Daddy Martin as he pulled the bit of 
 paper from Mcknack 's neck. 
 
 "What does it say?" asked Uncle Frank. 
 
 "And who is it from?" Mrs. Martin in- 
 quired. 
 
 "It's signed *The Lame Boy,* " answered 
 
236 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 her husband. "And he must be in the snow 
 bungalow the children built!" 
 
 "In the snow bungalow I" cried Aunt Jo 
 in surprise. 
 
 * * That 's what it says. I '11 read it to you, " 
 went on Mr. Martin. Then, while Teddy 
 and Janet fed cabbage leaves and pieces of 
 cookie to their goat, their father read aloud 
 the short note. 
 
 "I am out in a little playhouse in youi 
 yard," the note read. "I hurt my foot so 
 I can't walk and I am snowed in. This goat 
 came in to see me and I tied this note on his 
 neck. I thought maybe he would take it to 
 somebody who would help me. I have only 
 a little piece of bread left to eat. Please 
 help me, whoever finds this." 
 
 "Help him I Of course we wiU!" cried 
 Uncle Frank. "Where's my shovel? Come 
 on, Dick I "We 've got to dig him out I Come 
 on, everybody!" 
 
 "I want to help!" cried Teddy. 
 
 "So do I!" added Janet. 
 
 "Let me dig!" begged Aunt Jo. "lean 
 handle a snow shovel as good as a man, and 
 you must be tired. Uncle Frank." 
 
In the Bungalow 237 
 
 "No, we'll soon dig him out," said Daddy 
 Martin. "The rest of you stay here. 
 Ruth," he went on to his wife, "get some 
 hot water ready, and a bed. If that poor 
 boy has been snowed up in that bungalow 
 for two or three days he must be almost 
 dead, and half starved, too." 
 
 "But how did he get there?" asked Mrs. 
 Martin. 
 
 "And who is he ?" asked Aunt Jo. 
 
 "All I know is what I read in the note," 
 replied the father of the Curlytops. "It 
 may be the same lame boy who was in my 
 store and ran away before I had a chance to 
 talk to him." 
 
 "And maybe he's the one who you thought 
 might have taken the pocketbook," added 
 Uncle Frank. 
 
 "WeU, we won't talk of that now," said 
 Daddy Martin. "We'll get him dug out of 
 the snow first, and ask him questions later. 
 Come on!" 
 
 "How do you suppose Mcknack got to 
 the bungalow?" asked Teddy. 
 
 "Oh, I guess he just dug his way through 
 the snow, making a tunnel for himself from 
 his barn," answered Mrs. Martin. 
 
 Whatever had happened to Mcknack he 
 
238 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 seemed, glad now to be with his Curlytop 
 friends. He ate the pieces of cookie and the 
 cabbage leaves they gave him, and bleated to 
 ask for more. 
 
 Turnover, the cat, and Skyrocket, the dog, 
 who had been in the house ever since the big 
 storm, were also glad to see their friend the 
 goat. 
 
 "And we'll be glad to see that lame boy, 
 whoever he is, when daddy and Uncle Frank 
 dig him out," said Mother Martin. 
 
 With their big shovels it did not take the 
 two men long to dig their way to the snow 
 bungalow. The pile of white flakes was 
 deep over it but not so deep that a tunnel 
 had to be cut, though it was through a tun- 
 nel, as they found out afterward, that Mck- 
 nack had made his way from the bungalow 
 to the house. Only it was a small tunnel, 
 such as an animal would make wallowing 
 his way through the drifts. 
 
 The day before, when looking for Nick- 
 nack, Uncle Prank and Daddy Martin had 
 tunneled to the bungalow door, but in the 
 night this tunnel had caved in, so they had 
 to do the work over again. 
 
 "Here we are 1" cried Uncle Frank, as his 
 shovel struck on some wood. "This is the 
 
In the Btrngahio 239 
 
 bungalow. Now to see who's inside of it!" 
 
 "Here's the place where the goat got 
 out," went on Mr. Martin. "Whoever tied 
 that note on his neck must have pulled loose 
 a board to let him get out into the snow. 
 HeUo in there !" he called, striking with bis 
 shovel on the bungalow. 
 
 "Yes — I'm here," came back the faint 
 answer. 
 
 "We'll have you out in a few minutes," 
 cheerfully called Daddy Martin. "You^l 
 soon be all right !" 
 
 Then he and Uncle Frank made larger the 
 hole where the board had been torn off, for 
 the snow was piled tip against the door, hav- 
 ing drifted heavily during the night. 
 
 As they entered the bungalow, after 
 knocking off more boards, they saw, lying 
 on the rug and a piece of carpet in the cor- 
 ner, a boy who, when he tried to stand up, 
 almost fell. 
 
 "I — ^I'm sorry," he began, "but I " 
 
 "Now don't say another word!" ex- 
 claimed Daddy Martin. "We 11 take you to 
 the house and you can talk afterward — after 
 youVe had something to eat and when you 
 get warm. You'll be all right! Don't 
 worry!" 
 
240 Th e Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 Picking the boy up in his arms Mr. Mar- 
 tin carried him through the snow to the 
 warm house. There the Curlytops and oth- 
 ers gathered about him. 
 
 "He isn't Hal," whispered Janet after 
 a look. 
 
 "No, ' ' answered her brother. * ' That isn't 
 Hal." 
 
 "But he's lame," went on Janet, as she 
 saw the boy limping across the room to a 
 chair near the fire which Mrs. Martin made 
 comfortable for him with blankets. "He's 
 lame a whole lot!" 
 
 The Curlytops were anxious to hear the 
 boy's story, but Daddy Martin would not let 
 him talk until he had eaten some food and 
 taken some warm milk. 
 
 "N^ow we'll listen to you," said Uncle 
 Frank. "How did you come to go into the 
 bungalow?" 
 
 "I went in there to get out of the storm," 
 answered the boy. "My name is Arthur 
 Wharton, and I used to be in the same Crip- 
 pled Children's Home with Hal Chester. 
 That's how I knew your name and where 
 you lived. Hal told me. And when I was 
 taken out of the Home I came to Cresco to 
 find you, for I thought maybe you would 
 
In the Bungaloto 241 
 
 help me," and he looked at Daddy Martin, 
 
 **Who took you away from the Home?" 
 asked the Curlytops' father. 
 
 "A man who had charge of me after my 
 father and mother died. They put me in 
 the Home to get cured, but when they died 
 this man, who had charge of what money my 
 father left, said there was not enough to 
 keep me there with the other boys and girls. 
 
 "So he took me out and made me go to 
 work. Only I couldn't do much on account 
 of my lame foot. So I ran away from that 
 man. I had a little money saved up, and I 
 came here. I heard Hal say how kind the 
 Curlytops were and I wanted to see if their 
 father could help me." 
 
 "Did you once come to my store?" asked 
 Mr. Martin, 
 
 "Yes, I did, ' ' answered the lame boy. Mr. 
 Martin did not speak of the lost pocketbook 
 and money. 
 
 "Why didn't you wait to see me?" asked 
 Ted's father, 
 
 "Because, after I was sitting in your store 
 waiting for you, I got to thinking and I got 
 seared for fear you'd send me back to that 
 bad man who used me so hard. So I went 
 out when the clerk wasn't looking. I got 
 
242 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 another place to work, and made enough to 
 live on, but it was not as nice as when my 
 father and mother were alive." 
 
 "And did you afterward come to this 
 house and ring the bell?" asked Mrs. Mar- 
 tin. 
 
 "Yes, I was going to ask you to help me. 
 But, at the last minute, I got afraid again 
 and ran away. After that I didn't know 
 what to do. I got a little work, but it wasn't 
 much, and three or four days ago I was dis- 
 charged because I was too slow on account 
 of my lame foot. I worked in a store over 
 at Butler." This was a place about five 
 miles from Cresco. 
 
 "I thought maybe I could get work in 
 your store," went on Arthur to Mr. Martin, 
 "so I started to walk here again from But- 
 ler. I wasn't going to run away from you 
 this time. But the storm came up, I lost 
 my way and in the dark I crawled into the 
 snow-covered house back of yours. First I 
 thought it was a part of the stable. I found 
 some things to eat in it." 
 
 "We left them from our play party," said 
 Teddy. 
 
 "I'm glad you did," went on the lame boy 
 with a smile, "for that is all I had. Then 
 
In the Bwngalo'w 248 
 
 my foot got worse when it began to storm. 
 Then I saw I was snowed in and I knew I '4 
 have to stay. But I got hungry and I had 
 only a crust of bread left, for I ate all the 
 rest of your things, and I had to let snow 
 melt in my hand and drink the water. Then 
 the goat came in. I knew he was your goat, 
 'cause Hal had told me about Mcknack. 
 The goat stayed with me all last night, and 
 I snuggled up to him and kept warm. Then 
 I thought maybe I could send him for help. 
 I'd read of men in the mountains doing that 
 with the dogs. 
 
 **I had a pencil, a paper and some string 
 in my pocket. So I wrote a note and tied it 
 on the goat's neck. Then I tore loose a 
 board in the side of the little house and the 
 goat began to burrow out through the snow. 
 The hole he came in by was snowed shut. 
 Then I guess I must have gone to sleep for 
 that's all I remember until I heard you call- 
 ing to me just now." 
 
 "WeU, you have had a hard time," said 
 Mr. Martin, "but now we will take care of 
 you. Don't worry any more." 
 
 And Arthur did not. After a good meal 
 to make him forget his hunger, he was put 
 in a warm bed, and the next day he was much 
 
244 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 better. The storm was over now, and peo- 
 ple were beginning to dig themselves out 
 after having been snowed in for so long a 
 time. 
 
 One of Mr. Martin's clerks came up from 
 the store to say that everything was all right 
 down there, and he brought other good news. 
 
 "That pocketbook we thought the lame 
 boy took," he said, "has been found." 
 
 "Where?" asked Mr. Martin, eagerly. 
 
 "It had fallen under a box and I saw it 
 there when I cleaned the store and moved 
 the box," was the answer. 
 
 "Oh, I'm so gladl" cried Teddy, when he 
 heard the news. 
 
 "So'm II" added Janet. 
 
 They did not teU Arthur that, at one time, 
 it was thought he might have taken the 
 money. They did not want to make him feel 
 bad. For he was happy now, with the Cur- 
 lytops. 
 
 "Can he always live with us?" asked 
 Janet. 
 
 "I Uke him," added Ted. 
 
 "I'm glad you do," said their father. 
 "But I think it will be best to send him back 
 to the Home for a while, as a doctor told me 
 he could be cured of his lameness if he stayed 
 
In the Bungalo'w 245 
 
 about a year. So we'll send Arthur back 
 and in the summer we can go to see him 
 ^hen we visit at Cherry Farm." 
 
 Arthur said he would be glad to go back 
 to the Home, for he had many friends there 
 and Liked it, though he liked the Curlytops, 
 too. The man who was his guardian tried 
 to make trouble and keep the boy from go- 
 ing back to be cured, but Mr, Martin and 
 Uncle Frank soon had matters straightened 
 out, and another guardian was put in charge 
 of Arthur. 
 
 "When the big storm was over the Curly- 
 tops had more fun on their skates and sleds. 
 Then they got ready for Christmas. Arthur 
 stayed with them until after the holidays. 
 Then, much better than when he ran away 
 and went wandering about in the cold, he 
 was sent back to the Home, where, a year 
 later, he was cured so he did not Ump any 
 more. 
 
 "And if it hadn't been that Nicknack 
 found him in the bungalow and brought the 
 note to us through the snow, we might not 
 have known until too late that Arthur was 
 there," said Mother Martin. 
 
 "Mcknack is a good goat!" exclaimed 
 Teddy. "Well always take him with us." 
 
1246 The Curlytops Snowed In 
 
 "Are you going to bring him out to the 
 ranch when you come to see me?" asked 
 Uncle Frank. ^ 
 
 "Are we going out to your ranch?" asked 
 Janet. , 
 
 "Yes. I have spoken to your father 
 about it, and he says you may come. But 
 not until winter is over. It is no fun out 
 tiiere when it is cold." 
 
 What the children did when they went 
 out to Montana you may learn by reading 
 the next book of this series to be called: 
 "The Curlytops at Uncle Prank's Ranch; 
 or, Little Folks on Ponyback." 
 
 "WeU, we had lots of fun being snowed 
 in, didn't we?" asked Janet of her brother, 
 after New Year's Day, when Arthur had 
 said good-bye and gone back to the Home. 
 
 "Oh, we had an awful good time I" cried 
 Teddy. "The best ever!" 
 
 Then Teddy and Janet went skating and 
 had fun, with plenty more in prospect when 
 they should go out West to Uncle Prank's 
 ranch. 
 
 THE END 
 
THE C URLYTOPS SERIES 
 
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 ^^Sgrj" 'X 1. THE CURLYTOPS AT CHERRY FARM 
 
 ""•^ ■ . ^ gf Vacation Days in the Country 
 
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