there
was no way of telling who was at the door until it was opened.

"I'll go to see," offered Daddy Martin.

"Oh, maybe it's that queer lame boy," suggested Ted.

"Don't let him get away until you talk to him," cautioned Mother Martin.
"I'd like to know who he is."

"Whoever is there doesn't seem to be going to run away," remarked the
Curlytops' father. "They're stamping the snow off their feet as if they
intended to come in."

"Oh, I wonder if it could be _them_?" said Mrs. Martin questioningly.

"Who, Mother? Who do you think it is?" asked Jan, but her mother did not
answer. She stood in the hall while her husband went to the door.
Outside could be heard the voices of people talking.

Then the door was opened by Mr. Martin, letting in a cloud of snowflakes
and a blast of cold air that made the Curlytops shiver in the warm
house.

"Well, here we are!" cried a jolly voice.

"Sort of a surprise!" some one else added; a woman's voice Jan decided.
The other was a man's.

"Well, how in the world did you get here at this time of night?" asked
Daddy Martin in surprise. "Come right in out of the storm. We're glad to
see you! Come in and get warm. It's quite a storm, isn't it?"

"Yes. And it's going to be worse," the man's voice said. "It's going to
be a regular blizzard, I imagine."

"Oh, goodie!" murmured Ted.

"But who is it--who's come to see us so late at night?" asked Janet.

"Pooh! 'Tisn't late," said her brother. "Only a little after eight
o'clock. Oh, it's Aunt Jo!" he cried a moment later as he caught sight
of the lady's face when she took off her veil and shook from it the
snowflakes.

"Yes, it's Aunt Jo, Curlytop!" cried the lady. "I'd hug you, only I'm
wet. But I'll get dry in a minute and then I will. Where's my little
Curlytop girl, and where's that dear bunch of Trouble?"

"Here I is!" cried Baby William, who had been awakened when the bell
rang. He had been put on the couch by his mother, but now came toddling
out into the hall. "Who is it?" he asked, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

"It's Aunt Jo!" cried Ted. "Aunt Jo's come to visit us for Thanksgiving.
Oh, I'm so glad!" and Teddy danced wildly about the room.

"And it's Uncle Frank, too!" cried Mother Martin. "You children don't
know him as well as you do Aunt Jo, for you haven't seen him so often.
But here he is!"

"Is it Uncle Frank from out West where the cowboys and Indians live?"
asked Ted, stopping his dance to think of this new int