e back, with some other boys and girls, and they
coasted down the toboggan slide one after the other. Trouble was put to
bed for his afternoon nap, and so neither Ted nor Jan had to watch him,
which gave them more time for fun.

"Say, it's getting real cold!" exclaimed Bob, blowing on his red hands
after a coast down the wooden hill. "I guess maybe it will freeze
to-night."

"Do you think it will, Tom?" asked Ted of his best chum.

"Well, it's pretty cold," was the answer. "But I don't believe it will
freeze ice enough for skating."

"If it only freezes a little ice that would be enough," Ted declared.

"No, it wouldn't!" asserted Tom. "They won't let us skate on the pond
lessen the ice is real thick."

"I wasn't thinking of the pond," said Ted. "I have an idea! Come on over
here, Tom, and we'll talk about it. I'm sorter--now--tired of coasting
on a wooden hill. I'd like some snow."

"Maybe it'll snow and freeze, too," said Tom, as he and Ted walked off
by themselves to talk.

That evening, after an afternoon of fun on the toboggan, the Curlytops
sat in the living room reading on one side of the table, while Mr. and
Mrs. Martin were talking in low voices on the other side. Trouble had
been put to bed. It was Friday night. There had been no school that day
on account of an educational meeting which all the teachers had to
attend, and there was no home work for Ted and Janet to worry about. So
they could sit up and read until bedtime.

But, for some reason or other, Ted did not seem very intent on his book.
Every now and then he would look up from it and appear to be listening.

"What's the matter?" Janet asked him after one of these periods of
listening.

"Oh, nothing," her brother answered.

Janet, too, was not as much interested in her story as she ordinarily
was. What her mother had said that afternoon, about having to go away
with daddy leaving the children at home, was worrying the little girl
more than she liked to admit.

Mr. Martin was just saying something about getting ready to leave in
about a week, and Janet was going to ask who would come to keep house
and stay with them, when a shrill whistle sounded out in the street.

"There's Tom!" cried Ted, dropping his book and fairly jumping from his
chair.

"You aren't going out now!" said Mr. Martin. "It's after eight o'clock,
Ted."

"I'm just going out in the back yard a minute," Ted answered. "I
promised Tom I'd meet him there."

"All right