One of Mr. Martin"s clerks came up from the store to say that everything was all right down there, and he brought other good news.
"That pocketbook we thought the lame boy took," he said, "has been found."
"Where?" asked Mr. Martin, eagerly.
"It had fallen under a box and I saw it there when I cleaned the store and moved the box," was the answer.
"Oh, I"m so glad!" cried Teddy, when he heard the news.
"So"m I!" added Janet
They did not tell Arthur that, at one time, it was thought he might have taken the money. They did not want to make him feel bad. For he was happy now, with the Curlytops.
"Can he always live with us?" asked Janet.
"I like him," added Ted.
"I"m glad you do," said their father. "But I think it will be best to send him back to the Home for a while, as a doctor told me he could be cured of his lameness if he stayed about a year. So we"ll send Arthur back and in the summer we can go to see him when we visit at Cherry Farm."
Arthur said he would be glad to go back to the Home, for he had many friends there and liked it, though he liked the Curlytops, too. The man who was his guardian tried to make trouble and keep the boy from going back to be cured, but Mr. Martin and Uncle Frank soon had matters straightened out, and another guardian was put in charge of Arthur.
When the big storm was over the Curlytops had more fun on their skates and sleds. Then they got ready for Christmas. Arthur stayed with them until after the holidays. Then, much better than when he ran away and went wandering about in the cold, he was sent back to the Home, where, a year later, he was cured so he did not limp any more.
"And if it hadn"t been that Nicknack found him in the bungalow and brought the note to us through the snow, we might not have known until too late that Arthur was there," said Mother Martin.
"Nicknack is a good goat!" exclaimed Teddy. "We"ll always take him with us."
"Are you going to bring him out to the ranch when you come to see me?"
asked Uncle Frank.
"Are we going out to your ranch?" asked Janet.
"Yes. I have spoken to your father about it, and he says you may come.
But not until winter is over. It is no fun out there when it is cold."
What the children did when they went out to Montana you may learn by reading the next book of this series to be called: "The Curly tops at Uncle Frank"s Ranch; or, Little Folks on Ponyback."
"Well, we had lots of fun being snowed in, didn"t we?" asked Janet of her brother, after New Year"s Day, when Arthur had said good-bye and gone back to the Home.
"Oh, we had an awful good time!" cried Teddy. "The best ever!"
Then Teddy and Janet went skating and had fun, with plenty more in prospect when they should go out West to Uncle Frank"s ranch.
THE END