JAN WENT THROUGH THE ICE INTO THE BLACK WATER.The Curlytops Snowed InPage 111
He ate that all up, and then, when Teddy and Tom went in and told Nora what had 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 with 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, all being washed away.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Jan, as she looked out of the window. "This isn't like winter at all! We can't have any fun!"
"Wait till it freezes," said Ted. "Then we'll have lots of fun skating on the pond."
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!" cried Ted, after school the first day of this cold weather. "Well have a race on the ice, Jan."
"All right," she answered. "I can skate faster than you if I am a girl!"
"No, you can't!" exclaimed Ted.
"I want to come!" cried Trouble, as he saw his brother and sister starting out with their skates on straps over their shoulders.
"Oh, no! 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 mighthelp her bake a cake. This pleased the little 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!"
"No, you won't!" she exclaimed, and the Curlytops started off on their race, the others 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'll go through!" 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!" calledTom to the others. "Get off the ice or you'll go in, too!"
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. "Stop!"
Ted tried to, digging the back point of his skate into the ice as he had seen other skaters 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!" 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 Teddropped 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 sobbing.
"Lookout, Teddy! Look out, or you'll 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 answered. He pressed hard with 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 managed to stand up. Her feet, with the skatesstill 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, Curlytop. Don't stand up, or you might fall down where the ice is thin and crack a hole in it. Crawl back to shore!"
"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 hewas quite tall the water did not even come to his knees.
"Don't cry. You'll 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 toward 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 cracking ice in time to get off before they broke through, followed, so there was quite a procession 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'll be soaking wet and cold. Get some hot waterready, 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 before, 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 answered.
"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 sippedher 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 Nora 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 having gone through the ice and of how Ford had pulled her out of the mud.
Altogether there was a great deal of excitement, 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.
"But when are we going to build the big snow house?" asked Jan one night at supper, 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 have!"
"Is grandpa or grandma coming to see us this year?" asked Jan.
"No, 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 danger 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!" cried Jan joyfully. "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.
"Well, maybe," and Mrs. Martin laughed.
The weather grew colder as Thanksgiving came nearer. There were two or three flurries 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 ever!" declared Ted. "And maybe we'll turn it into a fort and have an Indian fight!"
"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'll 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 Thanksgiving?" asked the Curlytops again and again.
"Yes, I think so," their mother would answer.
Such busy times as there were at the Martin house! Mrs. Martin and Nora were inthe kitchen most of each day, baking, boiling, 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 Thanksgiving," 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 happened. Teddy and Janet had not yet come home from school, and Mrs. Martin and Nora were in the kitchen baking the last ofthe 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. Martin 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, looking 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 children to come home from school.
A man passing in the street saw Mrs. Martin gazing up and down the sidewalk.
"Are you looking for someone?" he asked.
"Well, someone just rang my bell," answered Mrs. Martin. "But I don't see anyone."
"I saw a lame boy go up on yourverandaa 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 around the corner, limping."
"He did?" cried Mrs. Martin. "Why, how strange! 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 ringing," answered Mrs. Martin. "I wonder if it could have been the boy who was at Mr. Martin's store, and who might know something about the stolen pocketbook, even ifhe 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. Martin 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 speak 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 supper talking of the fun they would have, and when Trouble was going to sleep in his mother's lap, Daddy Martin went to the window to look out.
"It's snowing hard," he said.
"Oh, goodie!" laughed Jan.
"Now we can build the big snow house!" cried Ted.
Just then the doorbell rang loudly.
"Who'sthat?" asked Mrs. Martin, without 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 going to run away," remarked the Curlytops' father. "They're stamping the snow off their feet as if they intended to come in."
"Oh, I wonder if it could bethem?" said Mrs. Martin questioningly.
"Who, Mother? Who do you think it is?" asked Jan, but her mother did not answer.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 regular 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 thelady. "I'd hug you, only I'm wet. But I'll 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!" 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!"
"Is it Uncle Frank from out West where the cowboys and Indians live?" asked Ted, stopping his dance to think of this new interest.
"That's who I am, young man!" answered 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 whereare the children with such curly hair? I want to see 'em!"
"Here they are," answered Daddy Martin. "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 together," added Uncle Frank. "Thought we'd give you a surprise."
"Glad 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 in!" 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:
"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 call him Trouble," said Ted, who was looking eagerly at his big uncle 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.
"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 listen—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 keeps 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," remarked Uncle Frank. "It's starting in like one of our worst blizzards."
"Then we'll be snowed in like the hermit said we'd be!" cried Ted. "That'll 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 besnowed in," said Uncle 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 Uncle Frank's knees and Jan was on the other.
"Oh, lots of times," was the answer.
"Tell us about it!" eagerly begged the Curlytops.
"I think you had better hear Uncle 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. "Courseyoutell us nice stories, Mother, and so doesDaddy, but can't Uncle Frank tell us justone?"
"I don't know," returned Mother Martin, as if not quite sure.
"Oh, please!" begged Jan and Ted together, for they thought they saw signs of their mother's giving in.
Trouble seemed to know what was goingon. 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.
"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! ha!" laughed Uncle Frank. "Well, maybe after you hear about what happened to me you won't want anything like it yourselves. However, here we go!"
He settled himself in the easy chair, cuddled 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 justlovea 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 little girl.
"Go on, Uncle Frank," begged Teddy.
"Once upon a time, a few years ago," beganUncle 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 settle in before I built my log cabin.
"I took my gun and rod, as well as something 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 throughthe 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 mountain 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 hollow log and crawl into that.
"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 before 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 morning,but I couldn't see in the dark log. Anyhow, 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 amancrawling out the other end of the log, there was a big, shaggybear!"
"Really?" 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," answered 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 frightened then.
"Out of the log scrambled the bear, 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 findmy way back to the town I had left. But I was glad the bear got in the log with me, 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 Curlytops must go to bed! Hello! Trouble'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 tell 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,Mother?" asked Jan, as she slid off her uncle's knee.
"Well, I had an idea," was the smiling answer.
"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 that she was of the same mind.
When the Curlytops were in bed Aunt Jo and Uncle Frank told Mr. and Mrs. Martin of their journey. For some time each one had been planning to come to visit their relatives, Aunt Jo from her home in Clayton and Uncle 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 railroad 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.
"Well, 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 expected. Now I expect they'll hardly sleep,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 tell them if they did not get quiet they could not have fun with Aunt Jo and Uncle Frank.
"Oh, it's snowing yet, Jan!" cried Ted, as he jumped out of bed the next morning. "It's going to be a fine storm!"
"That's good!" laughed Janet. "I wonder if Uncle Frank knows how to build a snow house."
"We'll ask him. Come on! 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 build 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," explainedher aunt. "There is no upstairs to it."
"We did build a snow house, and it hadn't any upstairs," said Ted. "But Nicknack, our goat, saw his picture in one of the glass-ice windows, and he butted a hole in the wall."
"Well, he's a great goat!" laughed Uncle Frank. "But if you're going to build another 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'll build the snow bungalow!"
"Better get your breakfasts first," said his mother.
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.
"Whatsort 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.
"Well, I call it a shack, though your aunt calls it a bungalow," was the answer. "Between us I guess we'll manage to make something 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. Itwill stand up almost all winter, if you don't let a goat knock it down," he added with a laugh.
"We won't let Nicknack knock this snow bungalow down," said Janet.
"No, we'll 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 Taylor on Thanksgiving day morning, when he came over to play with Jan and Ted.
"Making a snow bungalow," Ted answered. "Want to help?"
"My, yes!" answered Tom. "Say, it's goingto 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 barn. 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, reaching over to hug Baby William.
"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 turkey,while Mother Martin dished out the red cranberry sauce.
I will not tell you all the good things there were to eat at the Martins' that Thanksgiving, for fear I might spoil your appetite for what you are going to have to-day—whatever day it happens to be. Not that you might not have just as nice a dinner, but it will 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 laughter and more eating and more talking and more laughter and then they began all over again.
At last even Uncle Frank, who was a bigger man than Daddy Martin, said he had had enough to eat. So the chairs were pushed back, after Nora 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.
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 want!"
"What?" asked Mother Martin.
"They want to go out into the yard and finish the snow bungalow! Don't you, Curlytops?"
"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, too!" 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 rubbers."
"Me come, too!" cried Trouble, who had fallen asleep after dinner, but who was now awake.
"Yes, bring him along," said Daddy Martin.
They were soon all out in the yard. Thestorm 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 cabin, 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 covered 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 Nicknack can't knock it down, either," added Ted.
"Well, he'll 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 ofthe pieces of wood left over and Uncle 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 sister 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 without 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 until 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,and now it was the hour for Jan and Ted to come in.
"We'll go coasting to-morrow, Tom!" called Ted to his chum.
"All right," was the answer. "I'll call for you right after breakfast."
"We'll hitch Nicknack 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 harnessed. 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 having spent most of the afternoon in the snow bungalow. "I don't suppose you are hungry 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 after you brought him in!" exclaimed Ted.
"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,"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 call through the house. He may not have gone out at all."
Mrs. Martinhurried 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. Martin."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 William 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 fellow I ran away and hid, and they found mean 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'll 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 room!" 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."
"If he was crying we'd hear him," remarked 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, coming 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! It's moving again!" cried Aunt Jo.
She pointed to the suitcase. It was anextra 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 sleeping, was the lost Trouble!
"Oh, Trouble, what a fright you gave us!" 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 suitcasemove, 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 all the reason 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 William."
"Iss, I not do it. I'se hungry!"
"No wonder! It's past his supper time!" cried Aunt Jo.
"Did you find him?" called the anxious voice of Daddy Martin from the front door. He had just come in. "He wasn't down at the Simpsons'," he went on.
"He's here all right!" answered Uncle Frank, for Mrs. Martin was hugging Trouble 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!" saidMr. Martin, when he had been told what had happened. "Hiding in a suitcase! 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 suffer 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.
"And will 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."
"No, 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 liked to do this. Then the Curlytopsand Tom and Lola Taylor started for the hill.
There they found many of their playmates, and after Nicknack had been unhitched 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 off their sleds and rolling half way down the hill.
"I know what let's do, Teddy," said Jan after a bit.
"I know something, too!" he laughed. "I can wash your face!"
"No, please don't!" she begged, holding her mittened hands in front of her. "I'm cold now."
"Well, it'll make your cheeks nice and red," went on Teddy.
"They're as red now as I want 'em," answered Jan. "What I say let's do is to see can go the farthest on our sleds."
"Oh, you mean have a race?"
"No, not zactly arace," answered the littlegirl. "When you race you see who can go thefastest. But now let's see who can go thelongest."
"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 following after, "like Jack and Jill," as she laughingly told her brother.
When the two children were about half way up the hill, their heads bowed down, for the wind cut into their faces, they heard a shout of:
"Look out the way! 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 sister. "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 hill."
"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 littleboy and girl coasting toward him and Jan kept crying:
"Look out the way! 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 knew, 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.
"Oh!" 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."
"Neither did I," said the little boy, whose name was Wilson Decker. "Me and my sister 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 going 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 going 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'll be a lot of fun!"
So the little boy and his sister, whose sled, with her on it, had first gotten to the bottom of the hill, went up together with Teddy, to where Jan was waiting for him.
"Oh, Teddy!" cried the little Curlytop girl, laughing, "you did looksofunny!"
"I—I sort offeltfunny!" replied Teddy. "They're going to race with us," he went on, as he pointed to Wilson Decker and his sister.
"That'll 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 firstor 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 different 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!"
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, shoutingand laughing, when suddenly a strange dog, which none of the children remembered having seen before, ran along and began barking at Nicknack.
The goat, who was used to the gentle barking 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 Nicknack'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 Nicknack 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 hill.
Right into the sled leaped Nicknack, 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 downhill. Right down the hill slid the sled and Nicknack was in it.
"Oh, your goat's having a ride! Your goat's having a ride!" cried the other children to the Curlytops.