just where they were at present.

"Then it might have been Hal, after all, who called at your office,"
said Mrs. Martin to her husband. "He may have been near here, and wanted
to stop to see the children, and, not knowing where we lived, he
inquired for your store. But if it was Hal I'm perfectly sure he didn't
take the pocketbook."

"So am I," said Mr. Martin. "And yet we haven't found it at the store,
nor was there anyone else near it while the lame boy was sitting on the
bench. It's too bad! I'd like to find out who he was and what he wanted
of me."

But, for the present, there seemed no way to do this. Ted and Jan
wondered, too, for they would have liked to see Hal again, and they did
not, even for a moment, believe he had taken the money. Hal Chester was
not that kind of boy.

The Curlytops had much fun in the snow. They went riding down hill
whenever they could, and made more snow men and big snowballs. Ted and
Tom Taylor talked of building a big snow house, much larger than the
first one they had made.

"And we'll pour water over the walls, and make them freeze into ice,"
said Ted. "Then Nicknack can't butt 'em down with his horns."

But there was not quite enough snow around the Martin yard to make the
large house the boys wanted, so they decided to wait until more of the
white flakes fell.

"There'll be plenty of snow," said Ted to his chum. "My father had
another letter from my grandfather, and he says the hermit said a
terribly big storm was coming in about two weeks."

"Whew!" whistled Tom Taylor. "I guess I'd better go home and tell my
mother to get in plenty of bread and butter and jam. I like that; don't
you?"

"I guess I do!" cried Ted. "I'm going in now and ask Nora if she'll give
us some. I'm awful hungry!"

Nora took pity on Ted and the other boy who was playing in the yard with
him, and they were soon sitting on the back steps eating bread and jam.

They had each taken about three bites from the nice, big slices Nora had
given them, when around the back walk came a man who was limping on one
leg, the other being of wood. Though the man's clothes were ragged, and
he seemed to be what would be called a "tramp," he had a kind face,
though as Ted said afterward, it had on it more whiskers than ever his
father's had. Still the man seemed to be different from the ordinary
tramps.

"Ah, that's what I like to see!" he exclaimed as he watched the boys
eating the bread and jam. "Nothing like th