About noon
After breakfast Uncle Ike came into the kitchen and received a warm welcome from Swiss . Uncle Ike told Mandy and Mrs. Crowley the well-known story of the rescues of lost travellers made by the St. Bernard dogs on the snow-clad mountains of Switzerland . When Mrs. Crowley learned that Swiss had come from a country a great many miles farther away from America than Ireland was , he rose greatly in her estimation and she made no objection to his occupying a warm corner of the kitchen . About noon , when the storm was at its very worst , Mandy , who was looking out of the kitchen window , espied something black in the road about halfway between Deacon Mason 's and the Pettengill house . She called Mrs. Crowley to the window and asked her what she thought it was . `` That 's aisy , '' said Mrs. Crowley , `` It 's a man coming down the road . '' `` What can bring a man out in such a storm as this ? ''