"Tell us of the time you were snowed in," suggested Jan. "And maybe we'll have something like that happen to us."
"Ha! ha!" laughed Uncle Frank. "Well, maybe after you hear about what happened to me you won't want anything like it yourselves. However, here we go!"
He settled himself in the easy chair, cuddled Trouble a little closer to him, and, after looking up at the ceiling, as if to see any part of the story that might be printed there, Uncle Frank began:
"Once upon a time, not so very many years ago——"
"Oh, I just love a story to begin that way; don't you, Ted?" asked Janet.
"Yep. It's great! Go on, Uncle Frank."
"You children mustn't interrupt or Uncle Frank can't tell, or it will take him so much longer that I'll have to put you to bed before the story is finished," said Mother Martin, playfully shaking a finger at Ted and Jan.
"All right, we'll be quiet," promised the little girl.
"Go on, Uncle Frank," begged Teddy.
"Once upon a time, a few years ago," began Uncle Frank the second time, "I was living away out West, farther than I am now, and in a place where hardly anyone else lived. I had just started to make my living in that new country, and I wanted to look about a bit and see a good place to settle in before I built my log cabin.