Nicknackwas 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 pulled the Curlytops a little while before.
"Oh, look!" cried Janet.
"You'd better catch him 'fore he gets hurt!" added Tom.
"I never knew a goat could ride downhill!" laughed Jack Turton, a funny, fat, little fellow.
"Did you teach him that trick, Curlytop?" 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," saidJanet. "Go on away, you bad dog!" 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 downhill 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 hill 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, Nicknack rode down the hill, and the big sled kept going faster and faster as it glided over the slippery snow.
"Get out, Nicknack! Get out!" cried Janet, as she saw what was happening to her pet. "You'll be hurt! Jump out of the sled!"
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 Nicknack won't get hurt."
"The snow is soft," said Lola.
"Look, heisgoing to upset!" cried Ted, who had stopped running and, with the other children, was looking down the hill. Nicknack 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 Nicknack went flying, head first, into a big, white drift.
"Oh, our nice goat will 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. "Goats often land head first ontheir 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 all right. See! He's getting out of the drift now."
And so Nicknack 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, Nicknack 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.
"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 Curlytops 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 Nicknack could be hitched, was not easy to pull up the hill, but Ford managed to do it. Then, after Ted, his sister and their playmates had coasted all they wanted to, the goat was harnessed 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 Nicknack trotted along. The goat went quite fast, for I suppose he knew a nice supper 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?" askedUncle Frank, as the Curlytops came home.
"Fine!" cried Janet.
"And Nicknack had a ride downhill!" added her brother.
"No!" exclaimed Uncle Frank, in surprise. "Now 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 Martin. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, so if we get snowed in we'll have plenty to eat."
"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 Frank had to say. The Curlytops loved company as much as you children do.
Trouble had been put to bed, though not before he had made his sister and brother 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 you?"
"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. "I think a door is open. It comes from the front. Did you shut the hall door, Dick?"
"Yes, I closed it after I came in from lookingat the thermometer," answered her husband.
"Well, I'm going to see what makes such a draft on my back!" exclaimed Mrs. Martin, 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! 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 see snow," was the answer.
"It is snowing, and snowing hard!" exclaimed Ted. "Hurray, it's a regular blizzard!"
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 piles. 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 shesaw her mother up and dressed. "What you dressed for at night, Mother?"
"Hush! Don't wake Trouble. He was restless all 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 all the windows, especially on this side of the house."
"Is it snowing yet?" asked Jan.
"Yes; snowing hard," her mother answered.
"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!"
Teddyand 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 hall 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 windowsat the back of the house. The snow isn't so high there, and you can see what a lot has fallen in the night."
"Where's daddy?" asked Ted.
"He's getting ready to go out to the barn to see if the horse and cow are all right." The Martins had lately bought a cow, and they had had a horse for some time, though the children would rather ride behind their goat Nicknack than in the carriage with old Jim, who was not a very fast horse.
"Come on, Jan!" called Ted. "We'll get dressed and we'll go out and have some fun."
"Oh, no, you can't go out!" exclaimed his mother. "And please don't make much noise."
"Why can't we go out?" asked Janet at once.
"Because the snow is too deep. It's over your heads in some of the drifts, and it's so cold and still snowing so hard that I wouldn't dream of letting you Curlytops go out."
"Not even with our new rubber boots?" Teddy asked. "They are good and high and we could wade through the snow with them."
"Not even with your new rubber boots,Teddy boy. Now be good and don't tease. Get washed and dressed, and Nora will give you some breakfast."
"Come on!" called Ted in a whisper to his sister. "We'll have some fun anyhow! 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 with snow. The window sills had drifted full of the white flakes, and more had been piled ontop 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 until from some of the windows nothing 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!" 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—just 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 guess there won't be any paper for a few days if this storm keeps up, for the boys can't get around to deliverit. 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 thisstorm."
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 again. The yard was indeed filled with great heaps of snow, many of them higher than the heads of thechildren. The yard was a big one and at the far end was the barn.
"Oh, look!" cried Ted. "Our snow bungalow is gone, Janet!"
"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 in 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 bungalow."
"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 had there. I was going to come back and make-believeI 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 gust of wind just then and a cloud of snow hid the yard from sight. All the children could see was a lot of whiteness.
"Oh, what about Nicknack?" asked Jan suddenly.
"What you mean?" asked her brother.
"I mean will he have enough to eat? Maybe 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. Anyhow Daddy and Uncle Frank are going out to the barn and they can feed our goat."
Nicknack had a little stable, like a big dog house, built 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 thestorm," said Mrs. Martin, coming into the kitchen just then. "Trouble is waking up and I'll 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 windows," 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 really so high in front of the windows, that it was impossible to look out.
"It is an awful big storm!" cried Janet as she went back to the warm dining-room. Not much could be seen from those windows, either.
"Maybe it will stop in a little while," said Teddy, "and then we can go out and have a ride with Nicknack."
"Indeed, Nicknack 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!"
"Hurray!" cried Teddy.
"It'll be fun," added Janet.
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. Martin. "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 windows to see their father and Uncle Frank try to dig their way to the barn. And the men really 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 snowwas still blowing and drifting. Now and then they saw their father or their Uncle Frank 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. Martin. "Couldn't you get to the barn, 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 barn, 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 barn. We surely are snowed in!"
Evenseeing their father and uncle so tired out from shoveling snow and from struggling with the storm did not make the Curlytops 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."
"It's cold enough for me!" exclaimed Mr. Martin. "Here, Jan," he called 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 cold!" she cried with a little shiver.
"I know it is!" laughed Mr. Martin. "That's what made me afraid it was going to drop off. I'm glad I still 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. Martin. "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 doing?" asked Aunt Jo.
"Goin' make a cake," the little fellow answered. "Make cake an' have p'ay party."
"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 Island?" 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 barn, somehow."
"Yes," agreed the father of the Curlytops. "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 we'll 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.
"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 bungalow!"
"Don't dare try it!" cried Daddy Martin. "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 Prank, "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," remarked Janet, and she and Teddy, with Trouble between them, perched on chairswith their faces close against the snow covered glass. Of course the snow was on the outside, but it made the inside of the window-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 daddy's was!"
"So's mine!" exclaimed Ted, feeling of his nose.
"Mine cold, too!" 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. We'll 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 theirfather 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 init even with a blanket and a piece of carpet."
"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's!" agreed Jan. "It's lots of fun!"
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 bells. 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 itwas, and whoever guessed first was next in turn 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 spell the things he thought of, though he could 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'll 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."
"All right!" laughed the little fellow, and then they told him all over again so he would be sure and not forget.
"Maybe you look where I put it," said Trouble, when he was about to take the bag and hide it.
"No, well 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!" 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 William, and when they looked they saw him sitting on the floor near the chimney.
Then began the hunt for the bean bag.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 everywhere.
"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—Isittin'on it!" 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-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 proposed Ted. "Then we can get a little snow and make snowballs and play with 'em in here."
"Oh, let's!" 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."
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 window did not go up.
"Push harder!" cried Teddy.
"I am!" 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 snowflakes blown in through the broken window.
"Oh, it's busted!" cried Teddy. "You did it, Janet Martin!"
"Oh, The-o-dore Baradale Martin! I did not! You pushed it yourself!"
"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 handfuls 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 theroom. On the carpet was a white drift that had fallen from the window sill.
"Oh, children! whatareyou 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 something over the hole. Trouble, come away from that snow!"
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 blanketover 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 excitement 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 fun!" exclaimed Jan.
"Whatare you men going to do now?" asked Mrs. Martin, as her husband and Uncle Frank sat near the stove in the kitchen warming their feet, for they were very cold, having come in after a second attempt to make a path to the barn.
"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 tunnel out to the side of the barn."
"What good will that do?" asked Aunt Jo.
"When we make a tunnel it will have a top on it, like a roof over a house. It willbe 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 enquired. "You'll have to dig ahead and pile the snow back of you and you'll be just as badly off."
"No," said her husband. "In front of the house is a big drift that goes all the way to the barn. 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 snow we can bring it back to this hole and dump it outside. If we work long enough we'll have a tunnel right through to the barn."
"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 barn. Come on, Uncle Frank! If your feet are warm enough we'll begin. The horse and cow will 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 snowaround 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 tunnel was to be started.
"Oh, I wish I could dig!" cried Ted.
"So do I!" echoed Janet.
"Don't you Curlytops open any more windows, or try to get out where your father and Uncle Frank are making the tunnel," warned Mrs. Martin. "This storm is getting 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.
"Well, here we go!" cried Uncle Frank, as he waved his shovel at the watching children 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 person 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 wish we could be in there," he added.
"So do I," echoed Janet. "Maybe we can when it gets warmer and the snow stops coming down."
"We'll ask mother," decided Teddy.
"I see my papa!" suddenly called Trouble. "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. Sometimes it would be Daddy Martin and again Uncle Frank, as they were taking turns.
"I guess the tunnel must be most finished," 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 barn?" 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."
"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?" 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, when we get the tunnel finished, and if it isn't too cold, I'll 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 hurtthem 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'll 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.
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!" 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 barn and Nicknack.
"Come now, it's time to go in," said AuntJo. "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 pile 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!"
Daddy Martinand 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!" cried Uncle Frank. "Come on, Dick! This will be a new kind of digging for us."
"I should say so!" exclaimed Mr. Martin.
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 fall 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. "Well get Teddy out all right. Did he answer you?" he inquired of Daddy Martin.
"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'll get you out all right, Ted!" shouted his father. "Just keep as still as you can. Can you breathe all right?"
"Yep!" came back the answer, as if from far away.
Then Daddy Martin and Uncle Frank began to dig in the big drifts with their shovels, 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 Aunt Jo. "They'll have Teddy dug out in a minute, and then he can tell her himself what happened to him, and we'll all have a good laugh over it."
"Won't he smother?" asked Janet.
"Oh, no," answered Aunt 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."
Uncle Frank and Daddy Martin were tossing the snow away from the drift by big shovelfuls. In a little while they had dug down to where Teddy stood in a little hollow place he had scooped out for himself withhis 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 little 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 terrace, 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 yet?" asked Aunt Jo.
"No. 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,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 little way," his father answered. "We won't do any more digging to-night," he said to Uncle Frank.
"No, 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, we'll 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. Martin 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 tunnels, but they were black and smoky. This snow tunnel was clean and white, not a speck of dirt being in it. Though it was cutthrough 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.
"Fine," 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 well covered with snow, and we must first see that the horse and cow are all right. It will be time enough to think of play after we have done that."
"And we've got to feed and water Nicknack, 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 lot of hay where he could get it and some water to drink in a pail."
"Well, then maybe he'll have enough until we can dig our way out to him," 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 keepwarm 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 so 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 afterward, 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 Aunt Jo. "I'm just beginning to notice it."
Into the warm house they went, stamping and brushing off 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 snowing 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 a way to the road."
"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 Aunt 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 happened. 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 nextmorning. That is they 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'll 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 will you let me go out and see Nicknack 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. "We'll see."
Then, after they had had a warm breakfast, the two men started the digging again. Teddy and Janet could not see them because they were so far inside the tunnel. And as the Curlytops could not be out toplay they had to amuse themselves as best they could in the house.
Aunt Jo played with them and Trouble. Baby William 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 off their feet!" exclaimed Janet.
"Maybe they've been out to the barn," said her brother.
"And maybe they've brought Nicknack in," added Janet.
The Curlytops ran to the kitchen, not stopping to wait for Trouble, who cried to be taken along. There in the entry, brushing the snow from them and stamping it from their boots, were Daddy Martin and Uncle Frank.
"Did you get to the barn?" inquired Teddy.
"Yes, we got there all right."
"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-morrow."
"I think it surely will," her husband said.
Teddy and Janet were soon warmly bundled up and were taken out of doors by their father and uncle. The keen wind cut theirfaces and the snowflakes blew in their eyes, but they liked it.
Through the snow tunnel they were carried to the barn door, which was open. It opened right into the snow tunnel, and inside 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 barn 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 Nicknack's place," said Uncle Frank, and he started at a pointwhere 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 barn.
"Now for the goat!" cried Daddy Martin. "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 all," Uncle Frank answered.
"You can't see him?" echoed Mr. Martin.
"No, Nicknack isn't here. He's gone!"