Uncle Tobywas much surprised at what Ted called to his attention. Turning around, as he was going toward the well, Uncle Toby looked to where the Curlytop boy pointed. He saw the form of a man vanishing from sight over the top of a little hill just behind the lonely cabin.
"Hello there!" cried Uncle Toby, in such loud tones that Skyrocket began to bark fiercely. "Hello there! Who are you? What are you doing?"
The man did not stop, turn around, nor answer. Instead he ran into a little clump of trees and was soon lost to sight. With another loud bark Skyrocket took after him.
"Oh, don't let our dog go!" cried Jan. "Make him come back, Uncle Toby. That man might hurt him."
"Just what I think," said Uncle Toby."Here, Sky!" he called, for sometimes the Curlytops' dog was given that short name. "Here, Sky! Come back. Come back!"
Skyrocket didn't want to. He dearly loved a chase, and this man seemed willing to run. That the man was out of sight made no difference to the dog. Skyrocket loved a game of hide and go seek, and perhaps he thought that was what the stranger was playing.
"Come back here, Sky!" called Uncle Toby.
"Here, Skyrocket! Here!" shouted Ted.
Janet added her voice to that of her brother and Trouble chimed in. Perhaps all these had an effect on the dog, or he might have thought that Uncle Toby would punish him if he did not mind. At any rate, after a few more barks and some growls, looking meanwhile toward the clump of trees into which the man had disappeared, the dog came back, wagging his tail and seeming a bit disappointed.
"Who was that man, Uncle Toby?" asked Janet.
"I don't know," was the answer. "No one has lived in that cabin for years. I guess he is some tramp who didn't have any other place to stay."
"He didn't look like a tramp," observed Tom.
"No, his clothes weren't ragged," added Ted.
"That's so," agreed Uncle Toby. "From the little look I had of him he wasn't very ragged. But then maybe he hasn't been a tramp very long, and it takes quite a while to make one's clothes ragged."
"It doesn't take Trouble long!" laughed Jan. "He can go out with a good new suit on and come back in half an hour with it all full of cuts and holes."
"Oh, well, Trouble is different," said Uncle Toby, with a chuckle.
Uncle Toby stood for a few moments looking toward the woods into which the strange man had run, and then, going to the well, filled the pail with water and put some in the radiator of the automobile. After that Uncle Toby went around to the back of the old cabin.
"Are you going to see if anybody else is there?" asked Jan, while Lola and Mary waited with curiosity for an answer.
"Let me come and help look!" cried Ted.
"So will I!" added Tom.
"If you fellows are going I might as well go, too," said Harry.
"No, you children stay where you are," called Uncle Toby. "I'm just going to take a look around, and then we'll go on to Crystal Lake. Stay where you are!"
Ted, Janet, and the others remained in the automobile, waiting for Uncle Toby to come back. Aunt Sallie was almost ready to doze off in a little sleep when Mr. Bardeen was seen coming around the corner of the cabin. No one was with him, and there was no further sight of the man.
"Was anybody else in there?" asked Ted.
"No one," replied Uncle Toby. "The cabin was empty as far as I could see. I guess the man just stopped in there for shelter, and when he saw us he thought we owned the place and ran out."
"Who does own it?" asked Tom.
"It belongs to a lumberman named Newt Baker," answered Uncle Toby. "He used to stay here in the summer, and sometimes part of the winter. But he went away and since then no one has lived here—except that tramp," he added with a laugh. "Poor man," he went on, "I hope he finds some place to stay this winter. It looks as if itmight be a hard one from the early snow we had."
Once more they started off; and a little later, nothing more having happened, they arrived safely at Crystal Lake.
"Oh, what a fine place!" cried Tom Taylor, as he saw the big body of water, on the shore of which was perched Uncle Toby's cottage. The lake was not frozen, except with a "skim" of ice here and there in little coves.
"It would be lovely in summer for picnics," said Lola. Neither she nor her brother had been to Crystal Lake before, but the Curlytops had visited it once or twice with Uncle Toby, though they had almost forgotten.
"Well, here we are, children!" called Uncle Toby, as he stopped the automobile near his "shack" as he often called it. "Now if you'll see that they get safely inside, Aunt Sallie, I'll soon be with you and we'll look after supper and get the beds ready."
"I not goin' to bed now!" cried Trouble. "I not goin' to bed now! I goin' to stay up an' see—an' see—Santa C'aus!" he burst out, after a moment of thought.
"Oh, you little tyke!" laughed Lola, catching him up in her arms. "Santa Claus won't be here for over a month."
"And you don't have to go to bed right away," added Janet.
Out of the auto piled the boys and girls, Skyrocket scrambling ahead of them to smell around and find out what sort of place this was that he had been brought to.
As Aunt Sallie, the Curlytops and their playmates went toward the front door of the cabin, the door was opened and a smiling man looked out.
"Hello, folks!" he called. "I've got it good and warm for you, though it isn't as cold as it was." He was the man Uncle Toby had engaged to start the fires and to have everything in readiness for the coming of the Curlytops.
"Well, we're glad to get here, Jim Nelson," said Aunt Sallie, for she knew the man.
Uncle Toby put the car in the barn and came in with some of the boxes and bundles that had been piled in the automobile—bundles of clothes and things for the children.
"Well, you got here all right, I see," remarkedJim Nelson. "Have any trouble on the way?"
"Not to amount to anything," answered Uncle Toby. "Funny thing, though, down at Newt Baker's cabin. I stopped there to get some water from his deep well. And as I got near the cabin a man ran out and down the hill."
"A man!" exclaimed Mr. Nelson, while the children listened to the talk. "I didn't know anybody was living there."
"There isn't—that is, not living there regularly," said Uncle Toby. "But a man ran out. I took him for a tramp at first, only he wasn't ragged. But after he ran away I went and looked in."
"What did you see?" asked Mr. Nelson, and this the Curlytops and others wished to hear about.
"Well, it looked as if he'd been living there and doing his cooking for some time," went on Uncle Toby. "There were a lot of tin cans and odds and ends of loaves of bread, cracker crumbs, and the like on the table in the kitchen. Looked to me as if this man had been camping out in Newt Baker's shack."
"Very likely," said Mr. Nelson. "Idon't like such characters hanging around Crystal Lake. We'll have to keep watch for him. If there are tramps around they may take things. As a matter of fact, food and little comforts of small value have been taken from some of the cottages and camps. Fred Tuller's son Tom wrote to the Pocono paper and made a whale of a story out of it. But from what you say the matter may be of more importance than we thought. At any rate, we'd better look into it."
"We'll keep a lookout, then," said Uncle Toby. "And I'll take another run down to the cabin some day, after I get the Curlytops settled here having fun," and he laughed at the boys and girls so they would not be afraid of the talk of tramps and men who might take things.
Mr. Nelson left a little after this, promising to come over the next day to see how they were.
Then came busy times in Uncle Toby's cabin at Crystal Lake. Aunt Sallie and the three girls got ready the supper, while the boys opened boxes and bundles. Skyrocket ran about here and there, poking his nose into everything, and Trouble was almost asbad, for he, too, wanted to see everything that was going on.
At last, however, things began to get "straightened out," as the Curlytops' mother would have said, and they sat down to a fine supper. Every one had a good appetite, even Skyrocket, who had gnawed clean the bone Uncle Toby got him at the butcher shop.
"Let's play hide and go seek before we go to bed," proposed Jan, as they sat about the open fireplace in the big living room after supper.
"Will it be all right?" asked Mary.
"Will what be all right?" Jan wanted to know.
"I mean won't your uncle be mad if we play in his house?" went on Mary.
"Oh, dear no!" laughed Jan. "That's what he brought us up here for; didn't you, Uncle Toby?"
"Didn't I what, Jan?" he asked, for he had been talking to Aunt Sallie about the beds.
"Didn't you bring us up here so we could have a good time?"
"Of course I did!" exclaimed Mr. Bardeen. "What do you want to do now?"
"Play hide and go seek. May we?"
"Yes, go ahead. Run about as much as you please, but don't get hurt. There isn't any fancy furniture here to break."
This was true, for everything in the cabin at Crystal Lake was heavy and strongly made to stand rough handling. So the children could do no harm racing about the cabin.
Soon a merry game was in progress, even Trouble taking part, though he could hardly be said to play it right. His idea was to hide and keep on yelling for some one to come and find him, his voice easily telling where he was. The only thing to be done in his case was to pretend not to know where he was, even if one saw him. This always made Trouble scream with delight, and he would say, over and over again:
"You couldn't find me, could you?"
And of course they always said they couldn't, though they could if they had wished.
So the game went on, Trouble taking his part in it. Finally came the turn of Mary to "blind," and as she covered her face and began to count slowly, the others tiptoed into the different rooms to hide. The cabinwas built on the bungalow style, with a number of rooms on the first floor, and there were many fine hiding places.
Janet went into a room at the far end of the cabin, a room that no one, so far during the evening, had entered. It was where Uncle Toby was going to sleep.
"No one will find me here," thought Janet, as she crouched down behind a chair near one of the windows. She looked through the glass, and dimly saw the dark forest all around the cabin. "No one will think of coming here," said Janet to herself.
She cuddled herself into as small a nook as possible down behind the chair, in a place where she could look out through the other rooms and could see the lamplight and firelight in the big living apartment.
It was in this living apartment that Mary was counting with her eyes shut and soon she would call: "Ready or not I'm coming!" Then she would walk around and try to find the hiding ones.
"But she won't find me," thought Janet, "and I can get in home free."
From the distance Janet heard Mary say she was coming, and then suddenly the littlegirl was startled by a tapping on the window just back of the chair behind which she was hiding.
At first Janet thought it was the brushing of some tree branch against the glass that had made the tapping sound. But when it came again, several times, and very regular, the little girl knew some hand must be doing it.
"Maybe Tom or Ted has gone outside and is trying to scare me," thought Janet. "I'll take a peep and see."
Slowly she raised herself up from her crouching position behind the chair. And then the tapping sound on the glass came again. Janet looked out and gave a scream as,looking in through the window, she saw the face of a man on which the moon faintly shone.
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Janet Martinhad only a glimpse of the face of the man looking in through the window at her after he had tapped on the glass. As soon as he saw some one peering out at him, and as soon as he heard Janet scream—as he must have heard—the man sprang away.
He was soon lost to sight in the woods around the cabin. The moon shone faintly—had it not been for this Jan would never have seen the man's face—but it was not bright enough in the forest to see him after he leaped away from the cabin.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" screamed Janet. Her voice rang out in the empty room and was heard by Uncle Toby, Aunt Sallie and the children playing hide and go seek.
"What's the matter? What's the matter?" asked Uncle Toby, who was putting wood in the fireplace.
"Oh, it's a man! A man!" cried Janet, running out from Uncle Toby's bedroom into the living apartment where they were now all gathered. "A man looked in the window at me and he tapped on the glass!"
"Who was he?" asked Uncle Toby, grasping a heavy stick of wood. Tom, Ted and Harry at once began to think they had better take some sticks, too, in case there might be a fight. "Was it Jim Nelson?" went on Uncle Toby. "Sometimes he taps on my window when he comes around by the side path."
"I—I couldn't see who it was—except that he was a man," stammered Janet. "As soon as he saw me looking at him he ran away."
"Jim Nelson wouldn't do that unless he was playing a trick," decided Uncle Toby. "And Jim isn't that kind of a man. He wouldn't scare children. I must see who this is!"
"Maybe he's the tramp we saw over at the place where you got the pail of water this afternoon," said Ted.
"Maybe," agreed Uncle Toby. "Well, if he's a poor man and in trouble I'm sorry for him. But he hasn't any right to comesneaking around my cabin, tapping on the window. I'll see about this!"
Uncle Toby went outside, and the boys followed. Trouble wanted to go with Ted, but Janet held back her little brother.
In the moonlight, which was brighter now, as the clouds had blown away, Uncle Toby made a trip around the cabin, taking Skyrocket with him, while the boys, each with a chunk of wood as a weapon, followed Mr. Bardeen.
Uncle Toby called loudly to know who was in the woods, and the dog barked, but no man answered.
"I can't find any one," Uncle Toby announced, coming back into the cabin with the boys. "It's too dark to see if there are any strange footprints in the snow, and I don't believe we could tell by them anyhow, as Jim Nelson and some of his friends have been tramping around here the last few days, bringing in wood and things. Are you sure you saw a man at the window, Janet?"
"Sure, Uncle Toby. And I heard him tapping on the glass, too."
"Well, I don't believe he meant any harm. Maybe he was the tramp we saw at the lonely cabin, or it may have been another. Hemay have wanted shelter for the night, and something to eat. But when he heard you scream it must have frightened him off, as he may have had an idea he'd be scolded for frightening a little girl. Anyhow, no harm is done, and there will be no danger. Go on with your game."
However, the children were too excited over what had happened to do this. Janet was trembling, and the others wanted her to tell over again just what had happened. And as Janet told and retold it she became less frightened, until finally she was laughing as though it had been a joke.
"But if I'd 'a' got that man I'd 'a' hit him with a stick of wood!" threatened Ted.
"So would I!" declared Tom and Harry.
"Perhaps it's just as well you didn't find him then," said Uncle Toby, with a laugh.
After the children had gone to bed—and Uncle Toby said the look of them all tucked in made him think of a boarding school—he and Aunt Sallie sat up a bit longer.
"Do you really think Janet saw a man?" asked Aunt Sallie. "And if so, who was he?"
"That's more than I can tell," Uncle Toby answered. "Janet isn't the kind ofgirl to imagine things. I believe it was a man. Probably the same fellow we saw running away from the lonely cabin. To-morrow I'll take Jim Nelson and some of the men and we'll have a look around. I don't want rough and strange men roaming these woods when I have a lot of children out here for the holidays."
"I should say not!" exclaimed Aunt Sallie. "I wouldn't like it myself! And maybe he's the man who's been taking things."
"Maybe," agreed Uncle Toby.
However, there were no more alarms nor any trouble that night, and after a few minutes of lying awake Janet went to sleep as soundly as the other children. They slept rather late the next morning, for they were tired with the travel of the day before, and when Jan and Lola came down to the kitchen they found Aunt Sallie getting breakfast.
"Oh, we said we'd get up and help!" exclaimed Jan. For she had promised her mother, on leaving home to visit Uncle Toby and Aunt Sallie, that she would help with the housework.
"And I used to get breakfast all alone,"said Mary. "That is after mother was sick," and she could not keep back a few tears, though she turned her head away so the other girls would not see them.
"Never mind, my dear," said Aunt Sallie, with a laugh. "I didn't want you to get up early. Uncle Toby told me to let you girls and the boys sleep."
"Oh, aren't the boys up yet?" asked Jan, with a laugh.
"Don't tell me we've beaten!" added Lola, with a giggle.
"They said they were going to get up and see the sun rise," remarked Mary.
"I guess they forgot it, or else they thought they could see the sun some other morning," laughed Aunt Sallie. "For they aren't down yet, though it's almost time to call them, for I'm going to start to bake the pancakes soon."
"Oh, are you going to have pancakes?" cried Jan.
"Yes, and with maple syrup," Aunt Sallie answered.
"Oh, I love them!" exclaimed Lola. "Don't you, Mary?"
"I—I don't know," was the hesitating answer. "I—I guess I never had any."
"Oh my, just—" but Lola stopped. She was going to say "just fancy a girl never having eaten pancakes with maple syrup!" But she thought it would not be polite to say that, so she changed it to:
"Just you wait until you try them! You'll love them!"
"I know Ted does, so I'm going to call him!" exclaimed Janet. "He wouldn't want to keep on sleeping and miss the cakes."
"Tom wouldn't, either," declared Lola.
So they called the boys, who soon rushed downstairs, as hungry as ever any boys were. And the girls were quite as hungry. As for Trouble, he always thought he was hungry whether he was or not.
Uncle Toby came in, having been out to do the chores, he said. He had also been over to Jim Nelson's cabin to talk about the man who had tapped on the window, scaring Janet. But Uncle Toby said nothing about this. Instead he said:
"Getting colder, boys and girls. Hope you brought your skates."
"Why," asked Ted, "is there skating?"
"No; but there will be. Shouldn't wonder but what part of the lake would freeze overby to-morrow. But don't any of you go on until I try the ice to see if it's safe."
"Guess there isn't any danger of me going on," remarked Harry Benton.
"Why not?" asked Ted. "Don't you like to skate?"
"Sure I do!" Harry answered. "But I haven't any skates."
"I brought some extra pairs along," remarked Uncle Toby. "I think I have some that will fit you and Mary."
"Oh, goodie!" cried Mary, for she felt she could now have fun like the other girls.
"But it hasn't frozen yet, though it soon will be," said Uncle Toby. "Well, I'm going to leave you youngsters to amuse yourselves for a while, as I have some things to look after."
Uncle Toby paused for a moment and then went on.
"Now about school."
"Yes," said Ted, in a low voice. "I s'pose we'll have to go," he added, with a sigh.
"No!" exclaimed Uncle Toby. "That's the queer part of it. You can't go. I told your folks you could, but you can't."
"Why not?" asked Jan, and neither shenor any of the others seemed disappointed.
"The teacher they had here was taken sick, I've just heard, and they can't get another until after the holidays. So it doesn't look as though you could go to school. I'm sorry—"
"Oh, ho!" cried the Curlytops and their playmates. "No school! Hurray!"
"Now we'll go out and have some fun!" shouted Ted, as Uncle Toby left the cabin.
"Me come!" cried Trouble.
"Yes, we'll take you," answered Lola.
"Take good care of Trouble!" called Aunt Sallie to the boys and girls as they started from the cabin. They were warmly dressed, as it was getting colder, just as Uncle Toby had declared.
"We'll watch him!" called back Jan.
Off through the trees, under which, here and there, were patches of snow, wandered the Curlytops and their playmates. They laughed and shouted, running here and there until they were nearly as warm as on a summer's day. It was sheltered under the trees, but out in the open was getting colder, and in places thin ice was forming on Crystal Lake.
They walked along, sometimes all togetherand again with the boys running ahead of the girls, until they came to a little hill, covered with pine trees. The wind had swept the ground bare of snow here, or else it had melted, and in places were patches of the long, smooth and slippery pine needles.
Tom, Ted, and Harry had run off to one side, for Skyrocket had scared up a rabbit and the boys wanted to see the bunny, though they would not have let the dog harm it. Trouble started to follow his brother and the other two lads, but as he reached the top of the pine-needle-covered hill Janet called him back.
"Trouble, come here!" she exclaimed.
"No!" he answered. "I go see bunny rabbit!"
"No, you must stay with me," said Janet, starting after him. Trouble gathered himself to spring away on a run, but suddenly there was a queer screeching call in a tree over his head, and a moment later the little fellow went sliding and slipping down the hill and out of sight.
"Oh, dear!" cried Janet
"Was it an eagle that screamed?" asked Lola, who did not know much about birds.
"Maybe the eagle carried him off," suggested Mary, who knew even less about the creatures of the woods.
"There aren't any eagles around here, I hope," said Janet. "But something happened to Trouble! I hope he isn't hurt!"
Again came that shrill, harsh call. It sounded like:
"Hay! Hay! Hay!"
"Somebody is laughing because Trouble fell downhill," said Lola. "I wonder if it's that horrid old man?"
A moment later there was a rustling in the bushes, and a large bird with bright blue feathers marked with patches of white flew up into a tree harshly crying:
"Hay! Hay! Hay!"
"Oh, it's a blue jay!" exclaimed Janet, as she ran to the top of the hill to see what had happened to William. It was nothing serious. He had merely slid down on the smooth brown pine needles which covered the ground and made it almost as slippery as a coasting hill. Perhaps the sudden cry of the blue jay had made Trouble give a nervous jump and this had thrown him off his balance, causing him to fall.
"Was that bird chase me?" he asked, as he heard the blue one cry and saw it flitting about.
"Oh, no," answered Lola. "You chased yourself, I guess. Are you hurt?"
"I—I'm all—bumped," explained Trouble.
And this, really, was all that had happened to him. The pine hill was so smooth that no one could have been hurt on it. The girls found it so slippery that they could hardly stand up on it while helping Trouble up.
"Let's try—" began Mary. She was about to say "try a slide," when her feet suddenly went from under her and she did as Trouble had done. She burst out laughing, as did William and the other two girls, and the woods echoed to the merry sound, bringing the boys over on the run. They had not seen the rabbit after the first fleeting glimpse.
"What's the matter?" asked Ted.
"We've found a slippery place," answered his sister.
"Come on, let's try it!" suggested Tom.
They all did, making efforts to go down the slippery pine-needle hill standing up. But every one toppled before reaching thebottom of the hill. However, this was part of the fun, and Trouble enjoyed it with the others.
Now and then the blue jay would flit to and fro, alighting on the trees or bushes, and shrilly cry:
"Hay! Hay! Hay!"
"Maybe he wants to play, too," suggested Mary, who liked to look at one of our most brilliantly colored winter birds.
"He's making enough fuss about it, anyhow," said Tom.
The children had lots of fun in the woods that day and the next. No more tappings on the window were heard, and the Curlytops and their playmates forgot all about the little scare. The weather grew colder and colder. One morning Uncle Toby came in from the barn. He rubbed his red hands before the fire and said:
"Lake's frozen over! Now you can go skating!"
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"Let'shave a race!" cried Ted, as soon as his skates were fastened on his shoes, for as soon as breakfast was over the children had gone out on the ice with their skates.
"All right!" shouted Tom, who was quite ready for this sort of fun. "I can beat you, Ted Martin!"
"And I can beat you, Tom Taylor!" exclaimed Lola, his sister, who was a very good skater.
"Oh, wouldn't it be fun if we two could beat them?" suggested Jan to Lola.
"We'll try," was the answer.
Meanwhile, though Mary and Harry had put on their skates, they took no part in this talk and stood about on the ice as if they hardly knew what to do.
"Will you join in the race?" asked Lola of Mary. "We three girls against the boys."
"I don't believe I can skate well enough to race," Mary answered, and her brother joined in with:
"You see we never had much chance to skate, and about all we can do is to move along in a straight line." He laughed good-naturedly over his own lack of skill.
"Oh, that's all right!" cried Ted, in jolly fashion. "We won't have any race then—that is, until after you two get more used to your skates."
"Oh, don't let us stop you from having fun!" exclaimed Mary.
"We can have just as much fun not racing. I don't care much for it, anyhow, do you, Jan?" said Lola.
"No, indeed!" answered the Curlytop girl. Thus did they try to make Mary and Harry feel happier, and they succeeded.
"I tell you what we can do," suggested Tom Taylor. "Ted and I can show you a few easy tricks on skates, Harry, and Jan and Lola can do the same with Mary."
"That will be fine!" exclaimed Harry. "Then, when we know more about it, we can have a race."
So it was decided, and then and there began lessons for the two poor children whomUncle Toby had brought to Crystal Lake so they might have a good time over the holidays. Harry and Mary were quick to learn, and though it would be some time before they could beat any of the other four children in a race, they did very well for beginners.
"See if you can do this!" cried Ted, after having shown Harry how to "grind the bar" backward, a trick Harry soon learned.
"Watch me!" cried Ted, as he began doing what he called a grapevine twist. To do it he darted farther out from shore than any of them had yet gone, and just as he was dong some fancy skating there was a loud booming, cracking sound that sent a shiver all through the ice on which the others were standing.
"Oh, come! Come back!" cried Jan to her brother. "The ice is going to break! We'll fall in!"
"That's right!" yelled Tom. "Come on back, Ted!"
Ted needed no urging, but skated as fast as he could toward shore, whither the others were fleeing as fast as they could strike out on their skates. They reached land safely, and, to their surprise, no big cracks or holesappeared in the ice. It seemed as solid as ever.
"I wonder what made that?" asked Janet, whose heart was beating fast.
"The ice broke somewhere," declared Lola.
"We'd better not go on it any more," said Mary.
"Well go up and ask Uncle Toby about it," suggested Ted. "I don't want to stop skating."
As the children were about to take off their skates to go back to the cabin, Aunt Sallie was seen coming down, dragging Trouble on a sled. There were patches of snow here and there so it was not hard to pull the sled along. And Trouble was not very heavy.
"Oh, Aunt Sallie, you ought to hear the ice crack!" called the children in a chorus.
"Is it dangerous?" asked Mary.
Uncle Toby came out of the bungalow and heard what was asked.
"That rumbling, cracking sound isn't anything dangerous," he said. "The ice often does that, and often big cracks come in it out in the middle of the lake. But it is thick enough, and it won't breakthrough with you or I shouldn't have let you go skating. But, even with all I have said, don't go too far out."
The children felt safer, now that Uncle Toby had told them this, and Ted again started to show Harry how to do a grapevine twist. Aunt Sallie gave the sled and Trouble over in charge of the girls, and they skated up and down pulling William to and fro, to his great delight.
The boys, now that Harry felt more at home on his skates, began to try to outdo each other in tricks, and when Harry said he would be the judge, Tom and Ted had a race, Ted winning.
Once Jan and Lola skated so fast, pretending they were a team of horses pulling Trouble on his sled, that Jan stumbled and fell down, also tripping Lola. The girls were not hurt, and they slid along over the ice laughing. But the sled was upset, Trouble fell off, and though he was so bundled up that he didn't get hurt, he began to cry.
"I guess we'd better take him in," suggested Jan. "He may be cold. Anyhow, I've had enough skating."
"So have I," said Mary and Lola.
They went up to the cabin, taking Trouble with them. But the boys remained on the ice a while longer, and Harry was rapidly becoming a good skater.
The three lads did not take off their skates until it was time for dinner, and after the meal they went back on the frozen lake again, though the girls stayed in to play with their dolls.
"Make the most of your skating," said Uncle Toby, as he watched the three lads circling around on the ice.
"Why?" asked Tom.
"Because I think we are going to have another storm," was the answer. "It is going to snow, and then all the ice will be covered. Of course you can scrape clean a small place, but it will be hard work. So get all the skating you can while it's good."
This the boys did, that day and the next. But the following morning, when they awakened and looked from the windows, they saw the ground white with snow, and more flakes coming down.
"Hurray!" cried Tom. "Now we can have fun coasting!"
"And maybe we can make a toboggan slide!" added Ted.
"I've seen them," remarked Harry, "but I was never on one."
"We had a wooden one in our yard, but we had to put candle grease on our sled runners first," Ted explained. "It would be great if we could make a regular toboggan slide."
"Let's ask Uncle Toby," suggested Janet.
Uncle Toby laughed in jolly fashion as the Curlytops and their playmates swarmed around him in the cozy cabin.
"A toboggan slide, eh?" he cried. "Well, I don't see why you can't have one, and you don't need to build it of wood, either, for there's a good hill not far away. But how would you like to coast on a regular toboggan instead of your sleds?"
"Oh, could we?" shouted Ted.
"I guess so," was the answer. "There's a French Canadian who lives not far away, and he has a big toboggan. We'll go over in the auto and see if he'll let us take it. I used to have one out here, but I find that it's broken."
"Oh, what fun we'll have!" sang Janet, and the others joined in the chorus of joy.
It kept on snowing, but they couldjourney out in the big, closed automobile even with the storm all about, and this they soon did.
"But if we get the toboggan how can we get it in here? There isn't much room," remarked Ted, for the children and Uncle Toby almost filled the big machine.
"Oh, we'll tie it on behind and pull it over," said Uncle Toby. "A toboggan can go faster than any auto."
"I ride on it!" said Trouble, and the others laughed, for of course he didn't know what he was talking about.
The road to the cabin of the French Canadian lumberman who owned the big toboggan ran past the lonely shack where Uncle Toby had once stopped for water and from which the strange man had run away. As they neared this cabin again Ted asked:
"I wonder if that man is in there now?"
"I don't know," said Uncle Toby. "But I think I'll take a look. Jim Nelson and I meant to do it before this, but we haven't had a chance. We don't want any tramps living in our woods."
He stopped the machine near the cabinand got out. The boys wanted to follow him, but he told them to remain with the girls.
"I'm just going to look in the window," said Uncle Toby.
He did this, first at the front windows, and evidently saw nothing, for he soon went around to the rear. And suddenly the children in the automobile heard shouting, and the shouts came from inside the cabin.
"Somebody's there!" cried Ted, starting to get out.
"You stay here!" cried Janet, catching her brother by the coat. "Uncle Toby told you to stay here!"
As Ted sank back in his seat they could all hear Uncle Toby saying:
"Who are you? What are you doing in there?"
The man in the lonely cabin answered, but what he said the Curlytops and their playmates could not tell. There was more shouting to and fro between Uncle Toby and the unknown man, and then Mr. Bardeen came around to the front of the cabin.
"Is he there? Who is he? What does he want?" The children quickly asked these questions.
"Oh, he's just a tramp I guess," answered Uncle Toby. "I couldn't make much out of him. But I'll tell Jim Nelson and some of the lumbermen, and we'll see what he's doing there. He can't do much harm, for there isn't anything of value in the old shack. But it's just as well not to have a tramp in there."
Once again Uncle Toby started the machine, and soon they were at the cabin of the French Canadian.
"Could we borrow your toboggan, Jules?" asked Uncle Toby.
"Oh, of a sure yes!" was the answer, Jules doing his best to speak what to him was a new language. "I bring she out to you!"
He ran around to the back of his shack, and soon came into view again with a real toboggan, at the sight of which the children set up a joyous shout.
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TheFrenchman's toboggan was a large one. It would hold all of the Curlytops and their playmates, with room to spare. I suppose most of you have seen toboggans, or pictures of them, and know what they are. Instead of being made like a sled, with steel runners, a toboggan is like a thin, flat board, with the front end curled up like the old fashioned Dutch skates. Only instead of being made of one flat piece of wood, a large toboggan is made of several strips fastened together so it will not so easily break.
On the side of Jules's toboggan were hand rails, to which the riders could hold. There was also a cushion on which to sit, and altogether it was a very fine way of coasting downhill.
"Oh, what fun we'll have on this!" cried Jan.
"Will it go fast?" asked Lola.
"It'll go like an express train!" cried Ted.
"And we fellows will take turns sitting on the back and sticking our feet out to steer," added Tom, for that is how a toboggan is guided, you know.
"If it's going as fast as an express train I don't believe I want to ride," said Mary, who was rather more timid than the other children.
"Don't let those boys scare you," advised Janet. "They're only talking to hear themselves talk. Tom and Ted are always that way—aren't they, Lola?"
"Yes," answered Tom's sister, with a laugh.
The boys were now clustered around the big toboggan, and Trouble had taken his seat in the middle of the cushion.
"You give me wide!" he demanded of his brother.
"Not now—a little later," promised Ted. He wanted to listen to what the Canadian was saying, telling Uncle Toby how the big toboggan was best managed on a hill.
"I'll go down with the children the first few times," said Uncle Toby, "to make sure it's all right. Our hill isn't so very steep,and I don't believe there's much danger."
"On little hill not—no!" exclaimed Jules, with a smile that showed all his white teeth. "But on big hill, steep so like roof of house, toboggan her go like what you say—fifty-nine?"
"I guess you mean like sixty," laughed Uncle Toby.
"Mebby so. Her go very fast. I like for childrens to have good time, but not too fast!"
"I'll see that they are careful," promised Uncle Toby.
After much teasing the three boys were allowed to sit on the toboggan after it was tied to the rear of the automobile for the trip home.
"I won't go very fast," said Uncle Toby. "But if I should have to stop you boys will need to stick your feet down in the snow suddenly to put on the brakes, you know, or you'll bump into my rear wheels."
"We'll do that," promised Tom, Ted, and Harry.
Trouble wanted to ride with the boys on the toboggan as it was drawn along over the snow behind the auto, but he was not allowedto do this, as it was thought his brother and the other two lads would be so full of fun that they would forget to watch him, and he might fall off and be left behind.
The toboggan was made fast with a long rope, the boys took their places, and with many thanks to Jules for his kindness, the trip home was begun.
"Hurray!" cried Ted. "Here we go!"
"Talk about fun!" shouted Tom. "We're having it all right!"
"I never had such a good time in my life," said Harry, his eyes shining with pleasure. He wished his mother might have shared in some of his and his sister's enjoyment, and how he wished that he had a father, such as the other boys had, only he himself knew. But he said nothing of this.
"Hold on tightly now, boys!" called Uncle Toby.
"We will!" they answered, and away they went.
At first everything was all right. The road was slightly uphill and the toboggan kept well back from the wheels of the automobile, so there was no danger of bumping into them. But when the automobilestarted down grade toward Uncle Toby's cabin, the wooden sled slid faster than the automobile was pulling it.
"Put on brakes! Put on brakes!" shouted Ted.
"Stick your feet in the snow!" echoed Tom.
The three boys thrust their feet out on either side of the toboggan, digging their heels into the snow, and in this way they made themselves slow up, so they did not hit the wheels. Even if they had done so no harm would have resulted, because the wheels had large rubber tires on them, and the front of the toboggan came up in a big curve.
Soon they were going uphill again, and the boys did not have to "put on brakes." But as Uncle Toby made the automobile go a bit faster, when they were near his cabin, he and the girls suddenly heard laughing shouts from the boys behind them.
"Oh, something has happened!" exclaimed Jan, looking out of the rear window of the closed car.
"They've fallen off!" added Mary. "I hope they aren't hurt!"
"Can't be much hurt, falling off in thesnow," laughed Uncle Toby, as he brought the car to a stop, got out, and went back, followed by the girls. The toboggan had turned upside down, but was not damaged. The boys, laughing so joyously that they could hardly walk, were coming along, covered with snow.
"What happened?" Uncle Toby wanted to know.
"Oh, the toboggan struck a big lump of snow in the middle of the road and turned right over. It spilled us off!" explained Ted.
"But it was fun!" added Harry. And so it was.
"Well, we're almost there. Better walk the rest of the way," advised Uncle Toby. "Take the toboggan off and pull it."
This was done, two of the boys taking turns pulling the third over the short distance remaining.
"And now for some real tobogganing!" cried Ted, as the cabin was reached.
Uncle Toby, however, would not let the children go down alone for the first few times. He wanted to be sure the boys knew how to manage the big sled, which, though large, was very light, as all toboggans are,and thus are much safer than a sled with steel runners.
There was a long, but not too steep, hill near the cabin, and the Curlytops and their playmates were soon at the top of this, with Uncle Toby and the toboggan.
"All aboard!" called Mr. Bardeen, and they took their places on the cushion, holding to the hand rails. Trouble was not allowed to go down the first time, but Aunt Sallie had all she could do to keep him with her as she stood at the top of the slope watching the coasting party.
"You shall soon have a ride, Trouble," Aunt Sallie promised. "As soon as the hill is made a little smooth."
"All ready?" cried Uncle Toby.
"Let's go!" cried Ted.
Uncle Toby gave a push with his foot, which he had thrust out behind to steer with, and down the snow-covered hill went the toboggan with its happy load. They did not go very fast on this first trip, as the snow needed to be packed down smooth and hard. But after the second or third voyage the toboggan moved more swiftly.
"Do you like it Mary?" asked Janet.
"Oh, I just love it!" cried the other, with shining eyes.
Uncle Toby, finding that everything was safe, allowed the boys, one after another, to try steering the light, wooden sled. Finding that they could manage all right, he let them have charge of the toboggan, and at last Trouble was allowed to coast down, sitting between Lola and Janet.
Of course Trouble wanted to take his turn at steering with the other boys, but that was out of the question, even though he teased very much. It would not have been safe, of course.
And such fun as the Curlytops and their playmates had! The toboggan was much better than a sled, and safer, even though it went faster. It was almost like flying with the snowbirds, Lola said.
Of course there were little accidents and upsets. Once, when Harry was steering, the toboggan turned completely around when half way down the hill and began sliding backward. And as the back end was blunt, having no curve to slip easily over the snow, there was a turnover, and the children were spilled all the way down the hill.
But they never minded that, only rolling over and over to the bottom, or nearly there, laughing and shouting meanwhile. It was fun for Skyrocket, too, the dog leaping here and there, barking and chasing snowballs which the girls threw for him to race after.
Once they took Skyrocket down on the toboggan with them, or, rather, they took him half way, for midway on the hill Skyrocket decided he didn't like that way of traveling, and with a howl he leaped off. It was too swift for him, I suppose.
But the children had great delight in it, and would have kept on with the toboggan fun all day if Uncle Toby had let them. He did not want them to get too tired, however, nor did Aunt Sallie want Trouble to stay out in the cold too long, though he was a sturdy little chap.
After lunch, when Trouble was having his usual nap, Lola and Jan said they would like to try steering the toboggan, and Uncle Toby said they might.
"Well, we fellows won't ride if you girls steer," declared Ted. "You'd upset us first shot."
"Pooh! You don't need to ride!" laughed Janet. "We can do better without you."
The girls learned to steer, after a lesson or two from Uncle Toby. Even timid Mary managed to do quite well, though Janet and Lola, being more used to outdoor life in the country, did better than Mary. The girls had their little accidents, too, upsetting more than once, but they did not mind this.
For several days, while the snow lasted, the Curlytops and their friends had fun in the snow. The weather was bright and sunny, and not too cold. One day Janet, going out to the kitchen where Aunt Sallie was busy, found the table covered with packages and bundles that Uncle Toby had brought from the village store.
"What's going on?" asked Janet.
"Thanksgiving will soon be going on," answered Aunt Sallie. "I must get my mincemeat made, and do a lot of planning for the big family I expect to have at dinner."
"Oh, I didn't know Thanksgiving was so near!" exclaimed Janet. At first she was joyous, and then a little feeling of sadness came to her. This would be the first Thanksgiving she remembered when daddy and mother were not present. The other children, too, when they were told about thecoming feast at Uncle Toby's cabin, looked a little serious when they realized that none of their grown-ups would be with them. Of course Mary and Harry did not expect this, for they knew their mother could not come from the hospital for a long time, and as for their father—they had given him up as dead, long ago.
"But maybe daddy and mother will be here for Christmas!" said Janet.
"Maybe!" agreed Ted.
"I'm going to write and ask our father and mother to come here for Christmas. May I, Uncle Toby?" asked Lola, for in common with the Curlytops she called Mr. Bardeen by this name.
"Of course!" Uncle Toby answered. "The more the merrier! And if your mother is able to come from the hospital, we'll have her here for Christmas," and he nodded at Mary and Harry. This made that boy and girl very happy, for it is often happiness just to think of something pleasant that may happen.
One morning, several days after the first of the toboggan riding, the boys, who had gotten up ahead of the girls for once, began shouting outside the cabin.
"What's going on, I wonder?" asked Janet.
"Oh, I guess they're just yelling for the fun of it," answered Lola.
"They're saying something about a house," said Mary.
Janet raised the window and listened. Just then Ted shouted:
"Come on out, girls, and help us build a snow house. We're going to make the biggest snow house you ever saw!"
"And when it's finished you can have a tea party in it," added Tom.
"Oh, what lovely fun that will be!" cried Mary.
Soon the boys and girls, with Skyrocket frolicking around them, began making the snow house. The sun had so warmed the snow that it packed well.
First a number of big snowballs were rolled and placed one after the other in the form of a square on the ground. This was to be the foundation of the house.
Other snowballs were lifted on top of the first large ones, and snow packed in the cracks until, when afternoon came, there were four walls of snow, much higher than the heads of the children.
"It looks more like a fort than a snow house," said Lola.
"We've got to put the roof on," Tom answered. "How we going to do that, Ted?"
"I don't know," was the reply. "I never made such a big snow house. If we make the roof only of snow it will fall in on us."
"You'd better ask Uncle Toby," suggested Janet, and this they did.
"I'll show you how to make a good roof," Uncle Toby told the children. "Just get me a lot of poles from that pile over there. I used them to raise beans this summer. Bring me a lot of those long poles."
The children ran to carry them to him, wondering how Uncle Toby could make a roof on a snow house out of poles.