ON THE SLIPPERY HILL
Janet Martin had only a glimpse of the face of the man looking in
through the window at her after he had tapped on the glass. As soon as
he saw some one peering out at him, and as soon as he heard Janet
scream--as he must have heard--the man sprang away.
He was soon lost to sight in the woods around the cabin. The moon shone
faintly--had it not been for this Jan would never have seen the man's
face--but it was not bright enough in the forest to see him after he
leaped away from the cabin.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" screamed Janet. Her voice rang out in the empty room and
was heard by Uncle Toby, Aunt Sallie and the children playing hide and
go seek.
"What's the matter? What's the matter?" asked Uncle Toby, who was
putting wood in the fireplace.
"Oh, it's a man! A man!" cried Janet, running out from Uncle Toby's
bedroom into the living apartment where they were now all gathered. "A
man looked in the window at me and he tapped on the glass!"
"Who was he?" asked Uncle Toby, grasping a heavy stick of wood. Tom, Ted
and Harry at once began to think they had better take some sticks, too,
in case there might be a fight. "Was it Jim Nelson?" went on Uncle Toby.
"Sometimes he taps on my window when he comes around by the side path."
"I--I couldn't see who it was--except that he was a man," stammered
Janet. "As soon as he saw me looking at him he ran away."
"Jim Nelson wouldn't do that unless he was playing a trick," decided
Uncle Toby. "And Jim isn't that kind of a man. He wouldn't scare
children. I must see who this is!"
"Maybe he's the tramp we saw over at the place where you got the pail of
water this afternoon," said Ted.
"Maybe," agreed Uncle Toby. "Well, if he's a poor man and in trouble I'm
sorry for him. But he hasn't any right to come sneaking around my
cabin, tapping on the window. I'll see about this!"
Uncle Toby went outside, and the boys followed. Trouble wanted to go
with Ted, but Janet held back her little brother.
In the moonlight, which was brighter now, as the clouds had blown away,
Uncle Toby made a trip around the cabin, taking Skyrocket with him,
while the boys, each with a chunk of wood as a weapon, followed Mr.
Bardeen.
Uncle Toby called loudly to know who was in the woods, and the dog
barked, but no man answered.
"I can't find any one," Uncle Toby announced, coming back into the cabin
with the boys. "It's too dark to see if there are any strange footprints
in the snow, and I don't believe we could tell by them anyhow, as Jim
Nelson and some of his friends have been tramping around here the last
few days, bringing in wood and things. Are you sure you saw a man at the
window, Janet?"
"Sure, Uncle Toby. And I heard him tapping on the glass, too."
"Well, I don't believe he meant any harm. Maybe he was the tramp we saw
at the lonely cabin, or it may have been another. He may have wanted
shelter for the night, and something to eat. But when he heard you
scream it must have frightened him off, as he may have had an idea he'd
be scolded for frightening a little girl. Anyhow, no harm is done, and
there will be no danger. Go on with your game."
However, the children were too excited over what had happened to do
this. Janet was trembling, and the others wanted her to tell over again
just what had happened. And as Janet told and retold it she became less
frightened, until finally she was laughing as though it had been a joke.
"But if I'd 'a' got that man I'd 'a' hit him with a stick of wood!"
threatened Ted.
"So would I!" declared Tom and Harry.
"Perhaps it's just as well you didn't find him then," said Uncle Toby,
with a laugh.
After the children had gone to bed--and Uncle Toby said the look of them
all tucked in made him think of a boarding school--he and Aunt Sallie
sat up a bit longer.
"Do you really think Janet saw a man?" asked Aunt Sallie. "And if so,
who was he?"
"That's more than I can tell," Uncle Toby answered. "Janet isn't the
kind of girl to imagine things. I believe it was a man. Probably the
same fellow we saw running away from the lonely cabin. To-morrow I'll
take Jim Nelson and some of the men and we'll have a look around. I
don't want rough and strange men roaming these woods when I have a lot
of children out here for the holidays."
"I should say not!" exclaimed Aunt Sallie. "I wouldn't like it myself!
And maybe he's the man who's been taking things."
"Maybe," agreed Uncle Toby.
However, there were no more alarms nor any trouble that night, and after
a few minutes of lying awake Janet went to sleep as soundly as the other
children. They slept rather late the next morning, for they were tired
with the travel of the day before, and when Jan and Lola came down to
the kitchen they found Aunt Sallie getting breakfast.
"Oh, we said we'd get up and help!" exclaimed Jan. For she had promised
her mother, on leaving home to visit Uncle Toby and Aunt Sallie, that
she would help with the housework.
"And I used to get breakfast all alone," said Mary. "That is after
mother was sick," and she could not keep back a few tears, though she
turned her head away so the other girls would not see them.
"Never mind, my dear," said Aunt Sallie, with a laugh. "I didn't want
you to get up early. Uncle Toby told me to let you girls and the boys
sleep."
"Oh, aren't the boys up yet?" asked Jan, with a laugh.
"Don't tell me we've beaten!" added Lola, with a giggle.
"They said they were going to get up and see the sun rise," remarked
Mary.
"I guess they forgot it, or else they thought they could see the sun
some other morning," laughed Aunt Sallie. "For they aren't down yet,
though it's almost time to call them, for I'm going to start to bake the
pancakes soon."
"Oh, are you going to have pancakes?" cried Jan.
"Yes, and with maple syrup," Aunt Sallie answered.
"Oh, I love them!" exclaimed Lola. "Don't you, Mary?"
"I--I don't know," was the hesitating answer. "I--I guess I never had
any."
"Oh my, just--" but Lola stopped. She was going to say "just fancy a
girl never having eaten pancakes with maple syrup!" But she thought it
would not be polite to say that, so she changed it to:
"Just you wait until you try them! You'll love them!"
"I know Ted does, so I'm going to call him!" exclaimed Janet. "He
wouldn't want to keep on sleeping and miss the cakes."
"Tom wouldn't, either," declared Lola.
So they called the boys, who soon rushed downstairs, as hungry as ever
any boys were. And the girls were quite as hungry. As for Trouble, he
always thought he was hungry whether he was or not.
Uncle Toby came in, having been out to do the chores, he said. He had
also been over to Jim Nelson's cabin to talk about the man who had
tapped on the window, scaring Janet. But Uncle Toby said nothing about
this. Instead he said:
"Getting colder, boys and girls. Hope you brought your skates."
"Why," asked Ted, "is there skating?"
"No; but there will be. Shouldn't wonder but what part of the lake would
freeze over by to-morrow. But don't any of you go on until I try the
ice to see if it's safe."
"Guess there isn't any danger of me going on," remarked Harry Benton.
"Why not?" asked Ted. "Don't you like to skate?"
"Sure I do!" Harry answered. "But I haven't any skates."
"I brought some extra pairs along," remarked Uncle Toby. "I think I have
some that will fit you and Mary."
"Oh, goodie!" cried Mary, for she felt she could now have fun like the
other girls.
"But it hasn't frozen yet, though it soon will be," said Uncle Toby.
"Well, I'm going to leave you youngsters to amuse yourselves for a
while, as I have some things to look after."
Uncle Toby paused for a moment and then went on.
"Now about school."
"Yes," said Ted, in a low voice. "I s'pose we'll have to go," he added,
with a sigh.
"No!" exclaimed Uncle Toby. "That's the queer part of it. You can't go.
I told your folks you could, but you can't."
"Why not?" asked Jan, and neither she nor any of the others seemed
disappointed.
"The teacher they had here was taken sick, I've just heard, and they
can't get another until after the holidays. So it doesn't look as though
you could go to school. I'm sorry--"
"Oh, ho!" cried the Curlytops and their playmates. "No school! Hurray!"
"Now we'll go out and have some fun!" shouted Ted, as Uncle Toby left
the cabin.
"Me come!" cried Trouble.
"Yes, we'll take you," answered Lola.
"Take good care of Trouble!" called Aunt Sallie to the boys and girls as
they started from the cabin. They were warmly dressed, as it was getting
colder, just as Uncle Toby had declared.
"We'll watch him!" called back Jan.
Off through the trees, under which, here and there, were patches of
snow, wandered the Curlytops and their playmates. They laughed and
shouted, running here and there until they were nearly as warm as on a
summer's day. It was sheltered under the trees, but out in the open was
getting colder, and in places thin ice was forming on Crystal Lake.
They walked along, sometimes all together and again with the boys
running ahead of the girls, until they came to a little hill, covered
with pine trees. The wind had swept the ground bare of snow here, or
else it had melted, and in places were patches of the long, smooth and
slippery pine needles.
Tom, Ted, and Harry had run off to one side, for Skyrocket had scared up
a rabbit and the boys wanted to see the bunny, though they would not
have let the dog harm it. Trouble started to follow his brother and the
other two lads, but as he reached the top of the pine-needle-covered
hill Janet called him back.
"Trouble, come here!" she exclaimed.
"No!" he answered. "I go see bunny rabbit!"
"No, you must stay with me," said Janet, starting after him. Trouble
gathered himself to spring away on a run, but suddenly there was a queer
screeching call in a tree over his head, and a moment later the little
fellow went sliding and slipping down the hill and out of sight.
"Oh, dear!" cried Janet
"Was it an eagle that screamed?" asked Lola, who did not know much about
birds.
"Maybe the eagle carried him off," suggested Mary, who knew even less
about the creatures of the woods.
"There aren't any eagles around here, I hope," said Janet. "But
something happened to Trouble! I hope he isn't hurt!"
Again came that shrill, harsh call. It sounded like:
"Hay! Hay! Hay!"
"Somebody is laughing because Trouble fell downhill," said Lola. "I
wonder if it's that horrid old man?"
A moment later there was a rustling in the bushes, and a large bird with
bright blue feathers marked with patches of white flew up into a tree
harshly crying:
"Hay! Hay! Hay!"
"Oh, it's a blue jay!" exclaimed Janet, as she ran to the top of the
hill to see what had happened to William. It was nothing serious. He had
merely slid down on the smooth brown pine needles which covered the
ground and made it almost as slippery as a coasting hill. Perhaps the
sudden cry of the blue jay had made Trouble give a nervous jump and this
had thrown him off his balance, causing him to fall.
"Was that bird chase me?" he asked, as he heard the blue one cry and saw
it flitting about.
"Oh, no," answered Lola. "You chased yourself, I guess. Are you hurt?"
"I--I'm all--bumped," explained Trouble.
And this, really, was all that had happened to him. The pine hill was so
smooth that no one could have been hurt on it. The girls found it so
slippery that they could hardly stand up on it while helping Trouble up.
"Let's try--" began Mary. She was about to say "try a slide," when her
feet suddenly went from under her and she did as Trouble had done. She
burst out laughing, as did William and the other two girls, and the
woods echoed to the merry sound, bringing the boys over on the run. They
had not seen the rabbit after the first fleeting glimpse.
"What's the matter?" asked Ted.
"We've found a slippery place," answered his sister.
"Come on, let's try it!" suggested Tom.
They all did, making efforts to go down the slippery pine-needle hill
standing up. But every one toppled before reaching the bottom of the
hill. However, this was part of the fun, and Trouble enjoyed it with the
others.
Now and then the blue jay would flit to and fro, alighting on the trees
or bushes, and shrilly cry:
"Hay! Hay! Hay!"
"Maybe he wants to play, too," suggested Mary, who liked to look at one
of our most brilliantly colored winter birds.
"He's making enough fuss about it, anyhow," said Tom.
The children had lots of fun in the woods that day and the next. No more
tappings on the window were heard, and the Curlytops and their playmates
forgot all about the little scare. The weather grew colder and colder.
One morning Uncle Toby came in from the barn. He rubbed his red hands
before the fire and said:
"Lake's frozen over! Now you can go skating!"