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 just _love_ a 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," began Uncle 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