"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 the drifts, and it's so cold and still snowing so hard that I wouldn't dream of letting you Curlytops go out."