iam.

Poor Trouble! No one seemed to want him!

"Oh, let him stay," begged Mary, "I'll watch him."

"All right," sighed Jan. She was trying to make the snowman's face, and
it was not easy work.

Just how it happened no one seemed to know but the boys forgot all about
Trouble in the excitement of making their fort. And though Mary had
promised to keep watch over the little fellow she forgot when she went
to the shed to get two pieces of coal to make eyes for the snowman.

It was not until after the snowman was finished and Ted had shouted what
fun it would be if they could put him in the fort that Trouble was
missed.

"Where is he?" asked Janet, looking around the yard.

"He was here a little while ago," said Lola.

"I saw him too," added Tom.

But now Trouble was not in sight.

"Maybe he went into the house to get something to eat," suggested Mary.

Jan ran to the door and asked Aunt Sallie.

"Why, no," she answered. "Trouble didn't come in here!"

"Oh, where can Trouble be?" half sobbed Janet.

CHAPTER XII

OFF TO CRYSTAL LAKE

This was not the first time Trouble Martin had been lost or missing. It
happened more or less often at home in Cresco, and once when the
Curlytops had come to Uncle Toby's. But he had never before been lost
after a big snow storm--that is, as far as Janet or Teddy could
remember. What Janet was afraid of was that her little brother might
wander off and fall into some drift. For the snow was deep in places not
very far from Uncle Toby's house.

"Oh, we'll find him!" declared Ted. "He can't be far off. We didn't want
him playing around our fort for fear he'd spoil it."

"And I sent him away from our snowman on the same account," sighed
Janet. "I wish I had kept him by me."

Aunt Sallie came out of the house, her apron thrown over her head.

"Did you find Trouble?" she asked.

"No'm," chorused the children.

"Dear me!" exclaimed the old lady. "You must call Uncle Toby and tell
him. He's out in the barn working over the auto, getting ready for the
trip to Crystal Lake. Go tell him Trouble is missing."

Janet and the others thought this would be the best thing to do, and
Uncle Toby soon heard the latest happening regarding the Curlytops.

"If Trouble isn't in the house nor around where you are playing, he must
have wandered off down the street," said Uncle Toby. "The walks have
been pretty well cleaned off by this time. The snowplow has been along."
For in Pocon