g hard," said Teddy.

"And maybe we'll be snowed in!" added his sister.

All night the storm raged. The wind blew hard and the snow came down in
great, white feathery piles. Ted and Jan slept soundly, for they had
played hard the day before. It was late in the day when they awakened,
and they saw a light in the hall outside their room.

"What's the matter?" asked Janet, as she saw her mother up and dressed.
"What you dressed for at night, Mother?"

"Hush! Don't wake Trouble. He was restless all night, but he is sleeping
now. It isn't night, it's morning."

"But what makes it so dark?" asked Teddy.

"Because the snow covers nearly all the windows, especially on this side
of the house."

"Is it snowing yet?" asked Jan.

"Yes; snowing hard," her mother answered.

"Are we snowed in?" asked Ted.

"Yes," replied Mrs. Martin, "I'm afraid we are snowed in, Teddy boy.
It's a terrible storm, and very cold!"

CHAPTER XV

DRIVEN BACK

Teddy and Janet, who had put on their bath robes as they crawled out of
bed, looked at one another in the light that streamed into their
mother's room from the hall. Their faces were happy. They were not
afraid of the big storm. It was just what they had hoped would happen.
But they did not know all the trouble that it was to cause.

"Are we really snowed in?" asked Janet.

"Yes, I think we really are," answered her mother, motioning to the
children to come out into the hall so they would not awaken Trouble.

"Just like that hermit grandpa wrote about said we'd be?" Ted wanted to
know.

"Well, I don't know just how big a storm that hermit thought would
come," said Mrs. Martin; "but this is certainly a bad one. If you get
dressed you can look out of the windows at the back of the house. The
snow isn't so high there, and you can see what a lot has fallen in the
night."

"Where's daddy?" asked Ted.

"He's getting ready to go out to the barn to see if the horse and cow
are all right." The Martins had lately bought a cow, and they had had a
horse for some time, though the children would rather ride behind their
goat Nicknack than in the carriage with old Jim, who was not a very fast
horse.

"Come on, Jan!" called Ted. "We'll get dressed and we'll go out and have
some fun."

"Oh, no, you can't go out!" exclaimed his mother. "And please don't make
much noise."

"Why can't we go out?" asked Janet at once.

"Because the snow is too deep. It's over your heads in some of t