e window. "Why won't it?"

"Because it seldom snows long when the flakes are so big. The big flakes
show that the weather is hardly cold enough to freeze the water from the
clouds, which would be rain only it is hardly warm enough for that. It
is just cold enough now to make a little snow, with very large flakes,
and I think it will soon turn to rain. So you had better wear your
rubbers to school and take an umbrella. And, Teddy, be sure to wait for
Janet on coming home. Remember you're a year older than she is, and you
must look after her."

"I will," promised Teddy. "If I have to stay in, Jan, you wait for me
out in front."

"Will you have to stay in, Teddy?"

"I don't know. Maybe not. But our teacher is a crank about things
sometimes."

"Oh, The-o-dore Mar-tin!" exclaimed his mother, speaking his name very
slowly, as she always did when she was displeased or was quite serious,
"you must not say such things about your teacher."

"Well, the other boys say she's cranky."

"Never mind what the other boys say, you must not call her that.
Teachers have it hard enough, trying to see that you children know your
lessons, without being called cranks. Don't do it again!"

"I won't," promised Teddy, just a bit ashamed of himself.

"And get ready to go to school," went on his mother. "Did you clean your
teeth--each of you--and comb your hair?"

"I did," said Janet.

"I cleaned my teeth," announced Ted, "but my hair doesn't need combing.
I combed it last night."

For most boys this would hardly have been of any use, but with Teddy
Martin it was different. Teddy's hair was so curly that it was hard work
to pull a comb through it, even though he went slowly, and when he had
finished it was curlier than before, only more fluffed up. Janet's was
the same, except that hers was now getting longer than her brother's.

No wonder then that the two children were called "Curlytops;" for their
hair was a mass of tangled and twisted ringlets which clung tightly to
their heads. Everyone called them Curlytops, or just Curlytop, of
course, if one happened to meet Teddy or Janet alone.

"I think you'd better give your hair a little brushing this morning,
anyhow, Teddy," his mother said. "You can get a few of the wrinkles
out."

"Well, if I do they won't stay," he answered. "Oh, but look at it snow!"
he cried. "The flakes are getting smaller; don't you think so, Jan?"

"I think so--a little."

"Then it'll last and be a big sto