Ms. Hilden was an elderly, unmarried woman with no children. She was, however, very maternal. She ran a boarding house in a small town called Greenfield. It was a gratifying role for the landlady, as Ms. Hilden loved cooking dinner for the boarders, looking after the garden out back, and being there for anybody that just needed to talk. Ms. Hilden’s guests could never think badly of her.
As the house and its residents were settling into early November, an unusual boy arrived at the Hilden House. His behavior troubled our kind landlady because he refused to eat or socialize with the others. Ms. Hilden would occasionally attempt to engage him in friendly conversation but all she could get from him was his name, which was Art.
She was troubled further by the fact that every day, for hours at a time, Art would disappear, only to return to his room in a state so cold that he was shaking.
Ms. Hilden had for a time wanted to find out what the child was doing, but that autumn was so deathly frozen, it was dangerous for her to stay out too long. So she asked a friend and boarder, a barber named Mr. Samson, to keep an eye on Art and perhaps discover what he was up to.
Rats and Hats 