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diff --git a/30629.txt b/30629.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f3734b --- /dev/null +++ b/30629.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10667 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Chicken Little Jane on the Big John, by Lily +Munsell Ritchie + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Chicken Little Jane on the Big John + + +Author: Lily Munsell Ritchie + + + +Release Date: December 8, 2009 [eBook #30629] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHICKEN LITTLE JANE ON THE BIG +JOHN*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 30629-h.htm or 30629-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30629/30629-h/30629-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30629/30629-h.zip) + + + + + +CHICKEN LITTLE JANE ON THE BIG JOHN + + +[Illustration: Came half way across and held out his hand.] + + +CHICKEN LITTLE JANE + +by + +LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE + + + + + + + +New York +Britton Publishing Company + +Copyright, 1919, by Britton Publishing Company, Inc. + +Made in U. S. A. + +All rights reserved. + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I With Huz and Baby Jill in the Pasture 11 + II Harking Back To Centerville 27 + III Chicken Little Pays a Visit 43 + IV A Cherry Penance 62 + V The Guests Arrive 81 + VI A Hunting Party 100 + VII Pigs 123 + VIII A Party and a Picnic 141 + IX Bread and Polliwogs 161 + X Supper at the Captain's 179 + XI Calico and Company 195 + XII Dick and Alice Go On Alone 215 + XIII Chicken Little and Ernest 238 + XIV Off to Annapolis 255 + XV School 273 + XVI The Prairie Fire 295 + XVII The Lost Oyster Supper 315 + XVIII An April Fool Frolic 338 + XIX Sherm Hears Bad News 355 + XX The Captain Finds His Own 373 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WITH HUZ AND BABY JILL IN THE PASTURE + + +"Chicken Little--Chicken Little!" + +Mrs. Morton's face was flushed with the heat. She was frying doughnuts +over a hot stove and had been calling Chicken Little at intervals for +the past ten minutes. Providence did not seem to have designed Mrs. +Morton for frying doughnuts. She was very sensitive to heat and had +little taste for cooking. She had laid aside her silks and laces on +coming to the ranch, but the poise and dignity that come from years of +gentle living were still hers. Her formal manner always seemed a trifle +out of place in the old farm kitchen. On this particular morning she was +both annoyed and indignant. + +"She is the most provoking child!" she exclaimed in exasperation as Dr. +Morton stepped into the kitchen. + +"Provoking--who?--Chicken Little? What's the matter now?" + +"That child is a perfect fly-away. I can no more lay my hands on her +when I need her than I could on a flea. She is off to the pasture, or +out watching the men plow, or trotting away, no one knows where, with +the two pups. And the worst of it is you encourage her in it, Father. +You forget she is thirteen years old--almost a woman in size! She is too +old to be such a tomboy. She should be spending her time on her music +and sewing, or learning to cook--now that school's out for the summer." + +Dr. Morton laughed. + +"Oh, let up on the music for a year or two, Mother. Chicken Little's +developing finely. She's a first rate little cook already. You couldn't +have prepared a better breakfast yourself than she gave us that morning +you were sick. You don't realize how much she does help you, and as to +running about the farm, that will be the making of her. She is growing +tall and strong and rosy. You don't want to make her into an old woman." + +"It is all very well to talk, Father, but I intend to have my only +daughter an accomplished lady, and I think you ought to help me. She is +too old to be wasting her time this way. But have you any idea where she +is? I want to send her over to Benton's after eggs. I have used all mine +up for settings, and I can't make the custard pies you are so fond of, +till I get some." + +Dr. Morton laughed again. + +"Yes, I have an exact idea where she is. Set your kettle back on the +stove a moment and come and see." + +Mrs. Morton followed him, leaving her doughnuts rather reluctantly. +Ranch life had proved full of hardships to her. The hardships had been +intensified because it was almost impossible to secure competent +servants, or, indeed, servants of any kind. The farmer's daughters were +proud--too proud to work in a neighbor's kitchen even if they went +shabby or, as often happened among the poorer ones, barefoot, for lack +of the money they might easily have earned. Mrs. Morton was not a strong +woman and the unaccustomed drudgery was telling on her health and +spirits. Dr. Morton, on the other hand, enjoyed the open-air life and +the freedom from conventional dress and other hampering niceties. + +Mrs. Morton followed her husband through the long dining room and little +hall to the square parlor beyond. He stopped in the doorway and motioned +her to come quietly. Jane sat curled up in a big chair with two fat, +limp collie pups fast asleep in her lap. She was so lost in a book that +she scarcely seemed to breathe in the minute or two they stood and +watched her. + +"Well, I declare, why didn't she answer me when I called?" + +"Chicken Little," Dr. Morton called softly. Chicken Little read placidly +on. + +"Chicken Little,"--a little louder. Still no response. + +"Chicken Little," her father raised his voice. Chicken Little never +batted an eyelash. One of the dogs looked up with an inquiring +expression, but apparently satisfying himself that he was not to be +disturbed, dozed off again. + +"Chicken Little--Chick-en Lit-tle!" + +"Ye-es," the girl came to life enough to reply absently. Dr. Morton +turned to his wife with a triumphant grin. + +"Now, do you see why she didn't answer? She is several thousand miles +and some hundreds of years away, and she can't get back in a +hurry--blest be the concentration of childhood!" + +"What is it she's reading?" + +"Kennilworth. Amy Robsart is probably waiting for Leicester at this +identical moment. Why return to prosaic errands and eggs when you can +revel in a world of romance so easily?" + +"Father, you will ruin that child with your indulgence!" + +Mrs. Morton walked deliberately across the room and removed the book +from her daughter's hands. + +Jane came to herself with a start. + +"Why, Mother!" + +"How many times have I told you, little daughter, that there is to be no +novel-reading until your work and your practising are both done? Here I +have been calling you for several minutes and you don't heed any more +than if you were miles away. I shall put this book away till evening. +Come, I want you to go over to Benton's and get me four dozen eggs." + +Jane got up inwardly protesting, and in so doing, tumbled the two +surprised and grumbling pups upon the floor. She didn't mind doing the +errand. She was unusually willing to be helpful though often very +heedless about noticing that help was needed. + +"Can I go by the pasture, Father? It's a lot shorter than round by the +road." + +"Yes, I think it's perfectly safe. There are only about thirty head of +steers there now, and they won't pay any attention to you. Well, I must +be off. Do you want anything from town, Mother?" + +"Yes, I have a list." + +"Get it ready, will you, while I go across and see what Marian's +commissions are." + +"Across" meant across the road to the white cottage where Frank and +Marian and their beloved baby daughter, Jill, lived. Little Jill was two +and a half years old and everybody's pet, from Jim Bart, the hired man, +to "Anjen," which was Jilly's rendering of Auntie Jane. Even Huz and +Buz, the two collie pups, followed her about adoringly, licking her +hands and face when opportunity offered, to her great indignation. + +"Do way, Huz, do way, Buz," was frequently heard, followed by a wail if +their attentions persisted. + +The family watched Dr. Morton drive away in the spring wagon down the +long tree-bordered lane. When he was out of sight, Jane picked up the +egg basket and started off toward the pasture gate. + +"Where are you going, Chicken Little?" Marian called after her. + +"To Benton's for eggs." + +"To Benton's? Let me see, that's less than a quarter of a mile, isn't +it? I wonder if you'd mind taking Jilly along. She could walk that far +if you'd go slow, and it's such a lovely day, I'd like to have her out +in the sunshine--and I'm horribly busy this morning." + +"Of course, I'll take her. Come on, Jilly, you lump of sweetness, we'll +pick some pretty flowers. You aren't in a great hurry for the eggs, are +you, Mother?" + +"Oh, if you get back by eleven it will be all right. I have to finish +the doughnuts and do several other things before I will be ready for the +pies." + +"That's a whole hour--we can get back easy in an hour--can't we, +Jilly-Dilly?" + +Marian in spite of her busy morning watched them till they entered the +pasture, the sturdy little baby figure pattering along importantly +beside the tall slim girl. + +"How fast they're both growing," she thought. "Jane's always so sweet +with Jilly--I feel safe when she's with her." + +"O Jane," she called a moment later, "I wouldn't take the pups along if +you are going through the pasture. The cattle don't like small dogs." + +Huz and Buz, after lazily watching the children walk off, had apparently +decided to join them, and were bringing up the rear a few yards behind. +They were fat, rollicking pups, too young and clumsy to be very firm on +their legs as yet. Jane turned round and ordered the rascals home. +Marian called them back also, and after deliberating a moment +uncertainly, they obeyed. They were encouraged to make a choice by a +small stick Chicken Little hurled at them. + +"Go on," said Marian, "I'll see that they don't follow you." + +She coaxed the dogs round to the back of the house and saw them greedily +lapping a saucer of milk before she went back to her work. + +Buz settled down contentedly in the sunshine after the repast was over, +but Huz, who was more adventurous, hadn't forgotten that his beloved +Jane and Jilly were starting off some place without him. He gave the +saucer a parting lick around its outer edge to make sure he wasn't +missing anything, then watched the kitchen door for some fifty seconds +with ears perked up, to see whether any further refreshments or commands +might be expected from that quarter. Marian was singing gaily about her +work in a remote part of the cottage, and Huz presently trotted off +round the corner of the house after the children. + +They had gone some distance into the pasture, but he tagged along as +fast as his wobbling legs would carry him, whining occasionally because +he was getting tired and felt lonesome so far behind. Huz had never gone +out into the world alone before. + +Jane and Jilly were enjoying themselves. It was late May and the +prairies were billowy with soft waving grasses and gaily tinted with +myriads of wild flowers. + +"Aren't they lovely, Jilly?" + +Chicken Little filled one tiny moist hand with bright blossoms. + +"And see, dear, here's a sensitive plant! Look close and see what the +baby leaves do when Anjen touches them. See, they all lie down close to +the mamma stem--isn't that funny?. Now watch, after a little they'll all +open up again. Here's another. Jilly, touch this one." + +Jilly poked out one fat finger doubtfully, and after some coaxing, gave +the pert green leaves a quick dab. They drooped and the child laughed +gleefully. + +"Do, Mamma, 'eaves do, Mamma!" she shouted. She insisted on touching +every spray in sight. So absorbed were they in this pretty sport they +did not notice that a group of steers off to the right had lifted their +heads from their grazing and were looking in their direction. Neither +did they see a small black and white pup, whose pink ribbon of a tongue +was lolling out of his mouth as he, panting from his unusual exertions, +approached them. + +Huz had been game. Having set out to come, he had come, but Huz was +intuitive. He realized in his doggish consciousness that he wasn't +wanted and he deemed it wise not to make his presence known. + +While Chicken Little and Jilly loitered, he stretched himself out for a +much-needed rest, keeping one eye on them and the other on the grazing +steers, who stopped frequently to cast curious glances at the intruders. + +Presently the children walked on and Huz softly pattered along a few +paces in the rear. All went well until they came abreast of the steers. +Chicken Little was amazed to see the foremost one lift his head, then +start slowly toward them. + +"Oh, dear," she thought, "perhaps he thinks we've got salt for him." + +Huz saw the movement, too, and some instinct of his shepherd blood +asserted itself. He evidently considered the approach of the steer +menacing and felt it his duty to interfere. With a sharp little staccato +bark he dashed off in the direction of the herd as fast as his fat legs +would carry him. His dash had much the effect of a pebble thrown into a +pool, which gradually sets the whole surface of the water in motion. One +by one the steers stopped grazing and faced in his direction, snuffing +and hesitant. Huz yapped and continued to approach them boldly. + +Chicken Little saw the culprit with a shiver of dismay. + +"O Huz--you rascal! Oh, dear, and cattle hate a little dog! Come back +here, Huz--Huz! Huz--shut up, you scamp!" + +But Huz, like many misguided human beings, thought he saw his duty and +was doing it, regardless of possible consequences. He heeded Chicken +Little to the extent of stopping in his tracks but persisted in his +sharp yapping. The nearest steer began to move toward him, the others, +one by one, gradually following. + +Chicken Little was frightened, though at first, only for poor foolish +little Huz. + +"Oh, they'll kill him if he doesn't stop! He can't drive cattle, the +silly goose! Huz! Huz! Come here! Hush up!" + +Huz retreated slowly as the steers approached. The many pairs of hostile +eyes and the long horns pointed in his direction were beginning to +strike terror into his doggish heart, but his nerve was still good and +he barked to the limit of his lungs. + +The steers came on faster. + +Jane's breath grew quick and short as she watched them. The children +were too far from either fence to escape the steers by flight. Even if +she were alone, she could not hope to outrun them, and with Jilly, the +case would be hopeless. There was only one thing to be done. She had +seen enough of cattle during the past three years to know exactly what +that was--she must drive them back. Putting Jilly behind her, she +gathered up some loose stones and commenced to hurl them at the +advancing steers. + +"Hi there! Hi, hi!" she yelled fiercely, starting toward them +brandishing her arms. The cattle paused, wavered, might have turned, but +Huz, being thus reinforced, barked lustily again. The steers edged +forward as if fascinated by this small, noisy object. + +"Huz, Huz, why can't you be still?" + +Gathering up Jilly in her arms and bidding her hold tight and be very +quiet, Chicken Little started on the run to Huz and speedily cuffed him +into silence. But the steers were still curious and resentful. As she +started to walk on, with Huz slinking crestfallen at her heels, the +cattle moved after them. + +"I'll have to get him out of sight!" + +She picked him up by the scruff of his neck and put him into Jilly's +chubby arms. + +"Here, Honey, you hold Huz, and slap him hard if he barks. Bad Huz to +bark!" + +Jilly hugged the dog tight. "Huz bark, Jilly sap," she remarked +complacently. + +The cattle stopped when the dog disappeared from the ground. Chicken +Little started toward them carrying her double burden and yelling "Hi, +hi!" until they gave back a little. She persisted until she succeeded in +heading them away from the road. Then she started on across the pasture +still carrying Jilly and Huz, afraid to set either of them down lest +they should attract the cattle. + +But the herd's curiosity had been thoroughly aroused. They were uneasy, +and by the time Chicken Little had walked a hundred yards further on, +they had faced toward her again and stood with heads up and tails +waving, watching her. She began to walk rapidly, not daring to run lest +she should give out under the child's weight. Another twenty yards and +the steers were following slowly after her. She quickened her pace; the +herd also came faster. Chicken Little knew cattle were often stampeded +by mere trifles. Jilly, seeing the bristling horns approaching, +commenced to whimper. + +"Do home, Anjen, do home--Jilly's 'faid!" + +Jane soothed the child in a voice that was fast growing shaky with +terror. "I mustn't get scared and lose my head," she argued with +herself. "Father says that's the worst thing you can do in danger. I +must keep them back! Marian trusted me with Jilly--I must be brave!" + +Turning resolutely she confronted the herd, yelling and waving till with +great exertion she headed them about once more. This time she gained a +couple of hundred yards before they followed. Jilly, peeping fearfully +over her shoulder, gave her warning. When she looked back and saw those +thirty pair of sharp horns turned again in their direction, the girl +gave a sob of despair. + +There was not another human being in sight. + +The soft, undulating green of the prairie seemed to sweep around them +like a sea. Jane looked up into the warm, blue sky overhead and prayed +out loud. + +"O Lord, please keep them back. I'm doing the best I can, God, +but--but--it's so far to the fence! I truly am, Lord, and Jilly's so +little!" "Hi there, hi, hi! Yes, Jilly, yes, course Anjen'll take care +of you!" + +Her panic-stricken tones were hardly reassuring, the child wailed +louder, casting frightened glances at the steers, then burying her face +on Jane's shoulder. The cattle were approaching on the trot, their great +bodies swinging and jostling beneath that thicket of horns as the +animals in the rear pushed and crowded against the leaders. The steady +thud of their hoofs seemed to shake the ground rhythmically. Jilly could +hear even when she couldn't see, and clung convulsively to Anjen with +one arm while the other squeezed tight the chastened Huz. Chicken Little +sent up a last petition, as gathering up her remaining shreds of +courage, she charged once more. + +"O God, please, please, help a little!" + +She never knew exactly what happened after that. Jilly was past all +control. She was screaming steadily but her anguished howls were almost +providential for they helped out Jane's weakening shouts. Again and +again Jane turned the steers, her voice growing fainter and hoarser. The +cattle seemed to gather impetus with each rush--the distance between +them was fast lessening and the beasts became more and more unruly about +going back. But in some miraculous way she kept them off until Mr. +Benton, plowing in a field near the fence, was attracted by Jilly's +screams and rushed to their rescue. Driving away the steers, he lifted +Jilly and Huz from Chicken Little's aching arms, and took them all in to +his wife to be comforted. + +It was some little time before Chicken Little could give the Benton's an +intelligible account of what had excited the steers. Mr. Benton's +astonishment was unbounded. + +"Well, Chicken Little, I'll never say another word 'bout city folks +being skeery. You ain't so bad for a tenderfoot. How'd you know enough +to face them that way instead of running? If you'd run they'd trampled +you all into mince meat! Steers are the terablist critters!" + +Chicken Little was too shaky to answer with anything but a smile. + +Mrs. Benton refreshed them with milk and cookies and after the children +had recovered from their fright, Mr. Benton drove them home. + +Frank came to lift Jilly from the buggy and Mr. Benton related their +adventure with a relish. + +"Clean grit, that sister of yours!" he ended. "She never even let go of +that plaguey dog. The tears was a streamin' down her face and I low +she'd pray one minute and let out a yell at them blasted steers the +next." + +The tears stood in Frank's eyes as he hugged both Jane and Jilly close +after Mr. Benton drove away. + +"I'll never forget this, little sister." + +"Why, Frank, it was the only thing I could do. Marian trusted Jilly to +me and I couldn't let poor little Huz be killed!" + +Huz evidently approved this last sentiment, for he gambolled around the +group, doing his doggish best to please. + +Chicken Little's modesty, however, was destined to be short-lived. By +the time her mother and Marian and Ernest had all praised and made much +of her exploit, she felt herself a real heroine. She was a natural-born +dreamer, and she spent the remainder of the day in misty visions of +wondrous adventures in which she always played the leading part. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HARKING BACK TO CENTERVILLE + + +Mrs. Morton was sitting by the dining room window one afternoon about a +week later, busily knitting. + +"Here comes Father, Jane. Run out and get the mail. There should be a +letter from Alice telling about the wedding and when they are coming." + +"Oh, I do hope there is!" Chicken Little flew out the door and down the +path to the road where Father was unloading bundles before he drove on +to the stables. + +"From Alice? Yes, and one from Katy and Gertie, and three for Marian. +She's the popular lady this time." Dr. Morton handed out the treasures. + +"Hurry, Mother," Chicken Little fairly wriggled with eagerness as she +tossed the letters into her mother's lap. + +"Don't be so impatient, child! Little ladies should cultivate repose of +manner. Where are my spectacles? I was sure I laid them on the desk." + +Mrs. Morton was peering around anxiously on desk and table and mantel, +when Chicken Little suddenly began to laugh. + +"On your head, Mumsey, on your head! Hurry up and read the letter--I +just can't wait." + +Her mother carefully unfolded the sheets and read them to herself +deliberately before satisfying Jane's curiosity. + +"They are not coming until the last of June," she said finally. "Dick +has an important case set for the tenth and they would have to make a +hurried trip if they came before that, so they have settled down in the +old home till the law suit is over. Then they are coming for a nice long +visit. Alice says if Dick wins the case they are going clear to San +Francisco, but if he doesn't, they'll go only as far as Denver. Oh, +here's a note for you, Chicken Little, from Dick. And Alice says, +perhaps they'll bring Katy and Gertie with them, if it is convenient for +us to entertain so many, and leave them here while they go on out West. +Dear me, I don't know! Gertie hasn't been very well, it seems, and Mrs. +Halford is anxious to have her go to the country somewhere. Why, +child----" + +Jane had paused with Dick's cherished note half-opened to skip and jump +deliriously till she was almost breathless. + +"O Mother, wouldn't that be glorious? You could put another bed in my +room, and, maybe, they'd stay all summer. Oh, goody-goody, goody, goody, +goody!" + +Dr. Morton coming in, caught her in the midst of her war dance and gave +her a resounding kiss. + +"Here, Mother, where did you get this teetotum? We might sell her for a +mechanical top--warranted perpetual motion. When the legs give out, the +tongue still wags." + +"I don't care, Father, Katy and Gertie are coming. I just can't wait!" + +Jane hugged her father and did her best to spin his two hundred pounds +avoirdupois around with her. + +When she had sobered down a little she remarked doubtfully: "But, +Mother, Katy and Gertie didn't say a single word about coming, in their +letter." + +"Probably Mrs. Halford hasn't told them. She would naturally write to me +first, to find out if it is perfectly convenient for us before she +roused their expectations. I presume Alice's letter is only a +suggestion, and if I reply to it favorably, Mrs. Halford will write. I +shall think it over." + +"Think it over? Why, Mother, you're going to ask them to come, aren't +you?" Chicken Little's eyes were big with pained surprise. + +"My dear, I think it likely that I shall invite them--it would be good +for you to have companions of your own class once more. But it will mean +a great deal of extra work, and unless I can get someone to help me, I +do not see how I can manage it." + +"Mother, I'll help, and Katy and Gertie won't mind washing dishes." + +"Now, little daughter, we will let the matter rest for a day or two. +Don't you want to hear about Alice's wedding?" + +"Read it aloud, Mother Morton." It was Marian speaking. She was standing +in the door with Jilly fresh and rosey from a long nap. + +Mrs. Morton looked up. + +"Jilly doesn't seem any the worse for her bump this morning, does she?" + +"No, that's the blessed thing about children, they get over things so +easily. By the way, Father, Frank told me to tell you that he had taken +Ernest with him over to the Captain's after a load of hay. They'll +probably have supper there and be late getting home--that is if Captain +Clarke asks them to stay--he is such a queer old duck." + +"He doesn't seem very neighborly, according to reports. I've found him +pleasant the few times I have met him," said Dr. Morton, "but let's have +Alice's letter." + +Mrs. Morton adjusted her spectacles and began to read. + +"Dear, Dear Mrs. Morton: + +"If we could only have had all the Morton family, great and small, +present, the Harding-Fletcher Nuptials, as Dick insists upon calling our +wedding--he quotes from the Cincinnati paper--would have been absolutely +perfect. Uncle Joseph and Aunt Clara couldn't have done more for me if I +had been their very own. Aunt Clara insisted upon having the big church +wedding, which I fear your quiet taste would not approve, but it was +very lovely. And I do think the atmosphere of a big church and the +beautiful music are wonderfully impressive. Dick says it's the proper +thing to tie the bridal knot with all the kinks you can invent--it makes +it more secure. He said it was miles from the vestry to the chancel and +his knees got mighty wobbly before he arrived, but after thinking it +over, he concluded I was worth the walk--the heathen! Oh, I almost +forgot to tell you that the sun shone on the bride most gloriously and +the old church was a perfect bower of apple-blossoms and white lilacs. +My wedding dress was white satin with a train. I wore Aunt Clara's +wedding veil. It was real Brussels lace and I was scared to death for +fear something would happen to it. I warned Dick off until he declared +that the next time he got married the bride should either be out in the +open, or have a mosquito net that wasn't perishable. I'm not going to +tell you about my trousseau because I intend to bring it along to show +you. I want you to be surprised, and oh! and ah! over every single +thing, because it is so wonderful for Alice Fletcher to have such +beautiful clothes. Dick is looking over my shoulder and he says he +thinks it's time I learned that my name is Alice Harding. He says he's +going to have a half-dozen mottoes printed with---- + + 'My name is Harding. + On the Cincinnati hills + I lost the Fletcher!' + +on them, and hang them about our happy home. Tell Chicken Little I've +saved a big chunk of bride's cake for her, and I'm dying to see her. It +doesn't seem possible that she is almost as tall as Marian." + +The letter ran on with much pleasant chatter of the new home, which was +the same dear old one where Alice had been born, and where the Morton +family had spent the two happy years that were already beginning to seem +a long way off. + +Alice had graduated the preceding year, but Uncle Joseph would not +listen either to her plea that she should pay the money back from her +little inheritance, or that she should carry out her plan of teaching. +He said it would be bad enough to give her up to Dick just as they had +all learned to love her--she must stay with them as long as possible. + +Dick's letter was as full of nonsense as Dick himself. It was written +with many flourishes to: + + "Miss Chicken Little Jane Morton, + Big John Creek, + Morris County, Kansas. + + "Dear Miss Morton, + + "I would respectfully inform you that your dear friend Alice + Fletcher is no more--there ain't no such person. She made a noble + end in white satin covered with sticky out things, and her stylish + aunt's lace curtain. She looked very lovely, what I could see of her + through the curtain. My dear Miss Morton, I beseech you when you get + married, don't wear a window curtain. Because if you do the groom + and the sympathizing friends can't see how hard you are taking it. + Alice didn't look mournful when the plaguey thing was removed, but + her aunt wept copiously at the train and took all the starch out of + Alice's fresh linen collar. And Alice said it would be a sight, if I + mussed it. I don't see the connection, do you? Dear Chicken Little, + I thought about you all the time I wasn't thinking about Alice, + because I remembered a certain other wedding where the dearest small + girl in the world introduced me to the dearest big girl in the + world. I thought also of the little partner who wrote a certain + letter and of many other things--I didn't even forget the baby mice, + Chicken Little! Alice says she would like to have your name on her + diploma along with the president's because--well, you know why. And + they tell us you are Chicken Big now. Thirteen going on, is a + frightful age! The worst of it is you can never stop 'going on.' I + suppose I need not expect to be asked to any doll parties, but, + Jane, wouldn't you--couldn't you, take me fishing when we come? I + will promise to be as grown up as possible. + + "Yours, + + "Dick." + + "P. S. Do you still read Mary Jane Holmes?" + +"Well, it is evident Dick Harding is the same old Dick, all right. Three +years and getting married don't seem to have changed him a particle," +laughed Marian. + +"Three years isn't a lifetime," retorted Dr. Morton, "if it does seem +'quite a spell' to young people. Thank heaven, it has changed you, +Marian, from a fragile, pale invalid to a hearty, rosy woman! Dr. +Allerton knew what he was about when he sent you to a farm to get well." + +"Yes, I can't be thankful enough, Father Morton, and I don't forget how +kind it was of you all to come out so far with us." + +"Mother is the only one who deserves any thanks--the rest of us were +crazy to come. We were tickled to death to have an excuse, eh, Chicken +Little?" He tweaked her ear for emphasis. + +"Oh, I love the farm, Father, only I wish Ernest could go away to +school. He's awfully worried for fear you won't feel able to send him to +college this fall. He studies every minute when he isn't too tired." Dr. +Morton's face grew grave. + +"Yes, it's time for the boy to have a better chance. I wanted him to go +last year, but the drought and the low price of cattle made it +impossible. And I don't quite know how it will be this fall yet." + +"There mustn't be any if about it this fall, Father. Ernest is working +too hard here and now is the time for his education if he is ever to +have one," Mrs. Morton spoke decidedly. + +"I know all that, Mother, but college takes ready money, and money is +mighty scarce these days. He's pretty well prepared for college. I've +seen to that, if we do live on a Kansas ranch." + +"It isn't just the studies, though, Father Morton," said Marian. "Ernest +needs companionship. He doesn't take to most of the boys around here, +and I don't blame him. They're a coarse lot, most of them. The McBroom +boys are all right, but they live so far off and are kept so busy with +farm work, he never sees them except after church once a month or at the +lyceums in winter." + +"Marian's just right, Father. The boy needs the right kind of +associations; his manners and his English have both deteriorated here," +added Mrs. Morton. + +"Perhaps, Mother, but the boy is sturdy and well and his eyes are strong +once more, and he is going to make a more worth while man on account of +this very farm life you despise. But he does need companions. I wonder +if we couldn't get Carol or Sherm out here for the summer along with the +rest." + +"Father, do have some mercy on me. I can't care for such a family!" Mrs. +Morton gasped at this further adding to her burdens. + +Marian studied for a moment. + +"Mother, if you want to ask him, I'll take Sherm, and Ernest, too, while +Dick and Alice are here. I'd rather have Sherm than Carol, and Mother +said in her letter that the Dart's were having a sad time this year. Mr. +Dart has been ill for so long." + +Chicken Little had listened in tense silence to this conversation, but +she couldn't keep still any longer. + +"You are going to ask Katy and Gertie, aren't you, Mother?" + +Mrs. Morton smiled but made no reply. + +"You'll have to go to work and help Mother if you want any favors, +Jane," her father admonished. + +The following week apparently wrought an amazing change in Chicken +Little. She let novels severely alone--even her precious set of Waverly +beckoned in vain from the bookcase shelves. She waited upon her mother +hand and foot. She set the table without being asked, and brought up the +milk and butter from the spring house before Mrs. Morton was half ready +for them. Indeed, she was so unnecessarily prompt that the butter was +usually soft and messy before the meal was ready. She even practiced +five minutes over the hour every day for good measure, conscientiously +informing her mother each time. + +"Bet you can't hold out much longer, Sis," scoffed Ernest, amused at her +efforts to be virtuous. "You're just doing it to coax Mother into +inviting Katy and Gertie." + +"I just bet I can, Ernest Morton. Of course I want her to invite Katy +and Gertie, but I'm no old cheat, I thank you, I'm going to help the +best I can all summer if she asks 'em." + +"And if she doesn't?" + +"Don't you dare hint such a thing--she's going to--I think you're real +hateful! I just don't care whether you get to go to college or not." + +"Maybe I don't want to." + +Something in Ernest's tone made Jane glance up in surprise. + +"Don't want to? Why, you've been daffy about it--you haven't thought +about anything else for a year!" + +"That's so, too, but I guess I can change my mind, can't I?" + +Ernest lounged on the edge of the table and looked at his sister +teasingly. + +He was almost six feet tall, slim and muscular, with the unruly lock of +hair sticking up in defiance of all brushing as of old, and a skin that +was still girlishly smooth though he shaved religiously every Sunday +morning to the family's secret amusement. The results of this rite were +painfully meager. Both Chicken Little and Frank chaffed him unmercifully +about it. Jane loved to pass her hands over his chin and shriek +fiendishly: + +"Ernest, I believe I felt one. I think--really, I think you'll cut 'em +by Christmas!" A lively race usually followed this insult. + +Frank was even meaner. He came into Ernest's room one morning while he +was shaving and gravely pretending to pick up a hog's stiff bristle from +the carpet, held it out to him. + +"Why Ernest, you're really growing quite a beard!" + +But Ernest was a man in many ways if he had but little need of a razor. +Seeing other boys so seldom and being thrown so much with men had made +him rather old for his years and more than ordinarily capable and +self-reliant. He loved horses and was clever in managing them, breaking +in many a colt that had tried the patience and courage of his elders. +But his day dream for the past twelve months had been college. He had +confided all his hopes and fears to Chicken Little. The love between the +two was very tender, the more so that they had so few companions of +their own ages. + +So Chicken Little, knowing that he had fairly lived and breathed and +slept and eaten college during many months, might be pardoned for her +amazement at his mysterious words. + +"Ernest, tell me--what's the matter?" + +"Nothing's the matter--I've got a new idea, that's all." + +"What is it? Where'd you get it?" + +"From the old captain. Say, you just ought to see his place--it's the +queerest lay-out. Snug and neat as a pin. He's tried to arrange +everything the way it is on shipboard. He's got a Chinaman or a Jap, I +don't know which, for a servant. He is the first one I ever saw, though +they say there are lots of them in Kansas City. This chap can work all +right. We had the best supper the evening Frank and I went over for +hay." + +"My, I wish I could see it. Do you suppose Father would take me over +some time?" + +"I don't know. They say he hates women--won't have one around." + +"Pshaw, you're making that up, but what's the idea? Oh, you old hateful, +you're just teasing--I can tell by your eyes!" + +"Honest Injun, I'm not any such thing, only you interrupt so you don't +give me a chance. You know the Captain has been at sea for twenty-five +years--never'd quit only his asthma got so bad the doctor told him he'd +have to go to a dry climate, and bundled him off here to Kansas. Well, +he seemed to take a shine to me, and he asked me a lot of questions +about what I was going to do. Finally, he wanted to know why I didn't +try to get into the Naval Academy instead of going to college. Said if +he had a son--and do you know, he turned kind of white when he said +that, perhaps he's lost a boy or something--he'd send him there." + +"O Ernest, and be an officer? I saw a picture of one at Mrs. +Wilcox's--her nephew--and his uniform was perfectly grand." + +"Just like a girl--always thinking of clothes! But I've been thinking +perhaps I should like the life. I always like to read about naval +fights, and our navy's always been some pumpkins, if it has been small. +And the captain says a naval officer has a chance to go all over the +world. Think of your beloved brother, who has never been on a train but +six times, sailing away for China or Australia!" + +Chicken Little gave a gasp, "Ernest Morton, it wouldn't be a bit fair +for you to go without me!" + +"Don't worry, I don't suppose there's one chance in a hundred that I +could get the appointment. Father knows Senator Pratt, and the Captain +said he didn't think there was as much competition for Annapolis out +here as for West Point. It's so far from the sea. But mind, Jane, not a +word to anybody till I think it over some more. I'm going to see the +Captain again." + +"O Ernest, what if you should go clear round the world?" + +"'Twouldn't hurt my feelings a bit. But mum's the word, Sis." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +CHICKEN LITTLE PAYS A VISIT + + +Mrs. Morton was sitting at her desk writing a letter. Jane hovered +about inquisitively. She was almost sure it was to Mrs. Halford. And if +so, she must surely be inviting Katie and Gertie. If she could only be +sure. She tried in vain to get a glimpse of the heading, but her +mother's hand rested on the paper in such a way as to effectually +conceal it. Mrs. Morton did not believe in encouraging curious young +daughters. But opportunity was kind; some one called her mother away. +She left the letter lying there partly finished. Chicken Little started +joyfully across the room, but before she had reached the desk, something +held her back. She had been most carefully trained as to what was +honorable; sneaking was not tolerated in the Morton family. + +"No," she said to herself regretfully, "I mustn't peep behind her back! +I couldn't look anybody in the face if I did." + +She slowly turned away. When her mother returned, she glanced sharply at +Chicken Little quietly reading on the opposite side of the room. The +girl did not realize that her face proved her innocence. It was so sober +that her mother felt sure she had not meddled with the letter. Jane had +not learned to conceal her emotions. + +Dr. and Mrs. Morton were both going to town that day. Mrs. Morton drove +away without satisfying Chicken Little's curiosity, which was probably +largely responsible for what happened. Jane felt injured. She thought +her mother might tell her whether she could have the girls or not. Ten +days was enough time for anybody to make up her mind. + +Frank and Ernest were out in the fields harrowing; Marian, busy sewing. +Chicken Little soon finished the few tasks her mother had left for her +and time began to hang heavy on her hands. She couldn't seem to fix her +thought on a book because she kept wondering every minute if that letter +was to Mrs. Halford. She wandered out into the June sunshine and wished +she could have gone to town, too. Presently she began to feel aggrieved +because her parents hadn't taken her with them. + +Across the fields she could see the men at work and could occasionally +hear them calling to the horses. She wished she had a horse to ride. The +pony that was called hers by courtesy was the mainstay for the herding +and she could seldom use him at this season. Finally, after digging her +heels into some loose earth beside the path, she had an inspiration. She +debated it a moment with herself, then slipped back into the house, +combed her hair over carefully, tied it with her best ribbon, and +arrayed herself in her new blue lawn which her mother had distinctly +told her was to be her second best for the summer. + +She smoothed it down complacently--pale blue was becoming to her clear, +rosy skin--but her conscience pricked. She succeeded in lulling this +annoying mentor by reasoning that her mother wouldn't want her to go +visiting in an old dress. She tried to ignore the fact that her mother +hadn't given her permission to go visiting at all. + +Slipping out the back way to avoid disturbing Marian, in case she should +be looking out her window or Jilly should be on the watch, Chicken +Little whistled softly to Huz and Buz. The puppies were three weeks +older and stronger than when Huz so nearly caused disaster, and trotted +after Jane on all her tramps. She was seldom lonesome when she had them +rolling and tumbling along beside her. + +Making a wide detour around the white cottage, she struck into a faint +track skirting the upper fields. There was a nearer way through the +lower fields along the slough, but Frank had killed several big bull +snakes there the preceding week. To be sure, these were usually +harmless, but they were frightful enough to be unpleasant company. +Besides, Frank or Ernest might see her and ask her where she was going. + +But the fates speeded her undertaking. No one saw her save a few quail +and nesting plover that whirred up at her approach and tried to lure her +and the dogs away from their nests by pretending to be hurt and running +a few paces ahead on the ground. Chicken Little had seen this bird ruse +too often to be fooled by it, but Huz and Buz pursued each bird +hopefully only to come sneaking back, when the mother bird suddenly +soared off as soon as they had left the nest safely behind. + +"You sillies," Jane admonished them each time. "Won't you ever learn not +to be fooled?" + +She found it delightful to loiter herself. The whole day was before her. +The wild blackberry bushes along the fence still hid bunches of bloom +among the half-formed berries. Clumps of white elderberry blossoms +spilled their fragrance, and the wind rustling through the long stems of +the weeds and prairie grass droned monotonous tunes. She found tufts of +crisp sour sheep sorrel which she liked to nibble, while she made ladies +out of the flowers, and the pups snapped at the grasshoppers and +butterflies. Chicken Little was taking her time for this expedition. She +knew her parents would not return before evening, and if Marian hunted +her up, she would think she had gone down to eat her lunch with Frank +and Ernest. + +It was almost noon before she entered the belt of timber along the creek +at the southern boundary of their ranch. Across the stream, she knew, +lay the Clarke ranch, and she had heard the house and stables were close +to the timber. Jane had resolved to call on the Captain, and going on +foot, had selected the shortest route. It was over two miles between +houses by the road. Further, Chicken Little, preferred that her visit +should seem accidental--at least to the Captain. She hardly expected to +convince her family that she had wandered over there without intending +to. But she felt sure the Captain would receive her more kindly if he +thought she were taking a walk and got lost. She would be very hot and +tired when she arrived, and ask for a drink so politely that not even a +woman-hater would have the heart to let her go on without asking her in +and offering her some refreshment. + +She had never been in this part of the woods before. It was very +different from the timber and groves near the ford where they often +picnicked in summer or went nutting in the fall. There, the cattle and +hogs had been allowed to range, at certain seasons of the year, until +most of the thick undergrowth was nicely cleared away. But the wood, +here, was dark and shadowy. Dead branches and tree trunks lay where they +had fallen or been torn down by storms. Weeds and flowers had grown up +among these, and the wild cucumber vines and clematis festooned the +rotting logs with feathery green. It was a wood full of creepy +noises--noises that made one keep still and listen. The coarse grass and +herbage were so rank you could scarcely see the ground. It looked +decidedly snaky, Chicken Little reflected dubiously. And water moccasins +were abundant along the creek, and poisonous, as her father had often +warned her. Chicken Little was usually plucky when she actually saw a +snake, but the snakes she feared she might see always made her panicky. + +Still she hated to give up anything she had undertaken. She stood +staring into the thickets for some minutes. Huz sat on his haunches +beside her and stared too, whining occasionally as if he didn't quite +like the prospect either. Buz had found a gopher hole and was having a +merry time trying to dig it out. She could hear the creek singing over +the stones a few rods away. + +"It can't be so awfully far," she said aloud, "and I guess the dogs +would scare away the snakes." + +Something stirred among the weeds near her. Chicken Little gave a little +scream. But it was only a squirrel, as Huz immediately discovered. He +barked loudly and started in pursuit, which sent Mr. Squirrel flying up +a tree. Jane set her lips together firmly and started forward. + +"There's no sense in being so scary!" she admonished Huz. "Snakes most +always run away as fast as ever they can, anyway." + +Nevertheless, she picked her way daintily and gave a cry of delight when +after pushing a short distance into the thicket, she found an old rail +fence apparently leading off in the direction she wished to go. She +climbed it promptly and worked slowly along its zig zag course--a means +of locomotion that was comfortingly safe, if somewhat slow. The pups +complained over this desertion for they had to worm through the tangle +of weeds and brambles below. + +They soon reached the creek only to be confronted by a new problem. +There were neither stepping stones nor a fallen log to cross upon. +Chicken Little had to hunt for a shallow place, strip off her shoes and +stockings, and wade. She wore good old-fashioned high laced shoes and +lacing up was a tedious process. The woods were a little more open +beyond. She had no further need of the fence--it had indolently stopped +at the creek anyhow. But, alas, she had gone but a short way farther +when she came to the creek again. + +Chicken Little sputtered volubly to the dogs but the stream flowed +placidly on. There was nothing for it, but to take off her shoes and +stockings a second time, and wade. By the time she had laced them, she +remembered having heard Frank say that the creek was very winding here +and kept doubling back on its tracks. She was in for it, now, she +decided, and might as well go ahead. It was long past noon. She was +getting hungry. She did hope the woman-hater would offer her something +to eat. She felt a little doubtful about her looks. Sitting down on the +damp earth had left sundry grass stains and one long black streak on the +dainty blue lawn, and her hair was wind blown, and mussed where some +twigs had caught and pulled it. + +Once more Jane unlaced those exasperating shoes, drying her feet on a +woefully limp and dirty handkerchief. This time she lazily wound the +lacings around her ankles until she could be sure the creek was safely +behind her. Presently she heard the cackling of hens and the grunting of +pigs that assured her she was nearing somebody's farmyard. + +"Gee, but I'm glad!" she muttered thankfully. She sat down and laced her +boots neatly, then smoothing her hair and ironing out her rumpled dress +with nimble fingers, she struck off joyfully in the direction of the +sounds. She was approaching the house from the rear and the barn and +out-buildings were soon visible through the trees. She hurried forward +joyfully only to be confronted by that horrible creek flowing once more +between her and her goal. + +Chicken Little didn't often lose her temper completely, but this was the +last straw. "Darn," she exclaimed spitefully, "darn you, you old creek, +I'd like to beat you. I won't take my shoes off again! I just won't!" + +She scanned the bank carefully to see if she could find any rock or log +to help her out. Nothing available could be seen, but help appeared from +a most unlooked for quarter. A tall, severe-looking man rose from a +rustic seat behind a tree which had hidden him. + +"Can I be of any service, Miss?" he asked courteously. + +With an awful sinking of the heart she realized this must be Captain +Clarke himself. Oh! and he must have heard her swear. Chicken Little +turned the color of a very ripe strawberry and stared at him in horror. + +A faint flicker of amusement lighted the man's face. + +"Just wait an instant and I will put a board over for you, if you wish +to cross." + +Jane distinctly did not wish to cross this particular moment. She wished +to run home. + +"Oh, I--I--please don't go to any trouble, I oughtn't to be here, and +please I didn't mean to swear but--but--Mother would be dreadfully +ashamed of me if she knew." + +She was telling the whole truth most unexpectedly to herself. Captain +Clarke surveyed her sharply but his voice seemed kind. + +"You must be Dr. Morton's daughter. Did you get lost?" + +This was an embarrassing question. Jane looked at him doubtfully before +replying. If she said "yes" she would be telling a lie, and if she said +"no," he would know she came on purpose. She compromised. + +"I wanted to see your house awfully," she faltered. "Ernest said it was +most like a ship and I've never seen a ship," a sudden remorseful +thought crept into her mind. "But you mustn't blame Mother; she didn't +know I was coming." + +The Captain's eyes lost their severe look--the suspicion of a twinkle +lurked in their blue depths. + +"I see, you didn't wish to embarrass Mother, so you came without leave. +I am honored by your visit, Miss----" + +"Jane, but people don't call me Miss, except Dick Harding, and he does +it for a joke. I'm only thirteen." + +The Captain was sliding a stout plank across a narrow part of the +stream. This accomplished, he came half way across and held out his +hand. "Come, I'll help you over." + +Chicken Little didn't in the least need assistance. She was as +sure-footed as a young goat, but she was too much overcome by this +delicate attention to refuse. Placing her hand gingerly in his, she let +him lead her across, then followed meekly up to the low white house. It +was a one-story structure, divided in the middle by a roofed gallery. +The entire building was surrounded by a broad veranda, open to the sky, +and enclosed by a rope railing run through stout oak posts. The Captain +gravely assisted her up the steps. + +"I call this my quarter-deck," he explained, seeing the question in her +eyes. "I have been accustomed to pacing a deck for so many years that I +didn't feel at home without a stretch of planking to walk on." + +"Oh, isn't it nice? I've seen pictures of people on ships. My mother +came from England on a sailing vessel. I'm sure I'd just love the +ocean!" + +Captain Clarke smiled at her encouragingly but made no reply. + +Chicken Little rambled on nervously. She was decidedly in awe of her +host but having begun to talk, it seemed easier to keep on than to stop. + +"I guess it must be wonderful out at sea when the sun is coming up. +Sometimes I get up early and go out on the prairie to watch it. It just +keeps on getting lighter and lighter till finally the sun bobs up like a +great smiling face. I always feel as if it were saying 'Good morning, +Jane.' I suppose it's a lot grander at sea where you can't see a single +thing but miles and miles of waves. Why, I should think you'd feel as if +there wasn't anybody in the world but you and God. I always feel a lot +more religious outdoors than I do in church. But Mother says that's just +a notion. But, you know, the people are always so funny and solemn in +church and the ministers most all talk through their noses or say 'Hm-n' +to fill in when they don't know what to say next. But, oh dear, I guess +you'll think I'm dreadful! And please don't think I swear that way +often. I haven't for ever so long before." + +The Captain's face twitched, but he replied gravely: + +"Don't worry about the 'Darn,' child, I've heard worse oaths, though I +believe young girls are not supposed to use strong language. I feel as +you do about church and the outdoors. I find it irksome to be cooped up +anywhere. But come in, and I will have Wing Fan give you some pigeon +pot-pie. We had a famous one for dinner and you surely must be hungry. +Afterwards, I'll show you through The Prairie Maid as I sometimes call +this craft." + +Chicken Little began to feel at home. "And to think Ernest said he +didn't like women and girls! Pooh, I knew he was just fooling." + +Wing Fan found other things beside the pot-pie, and Chicken Little was +soon feasting luxuriously with the Chinaman waiting on her most +deferentially. Her host watched her with a keener interest, had she but +known it, than he had shown in any human being for many months. + +He was a man of fifty odd. Naturally reticent, his long voyages in +command of merchant vessels had fostered an aloofness and love of +solitude, which had later been intensified by a great grief. His stern +bearing had repelled his country neighbors in the year he had lived on +Big John. He was satisfied that it should be so, yet he was intensely +lonely. + +But Chicken Little knew nothing of all this. The thick sprinkling of +white in his black hair and the deep lines in his face, made her +entirely comfortable--they were just like Father's. She was too curious +to verify Ernest's tales of the queer house, to give much attention to +her host at first. She stared around her with wide eyes. Yes, there were +the funny little built-in cupboards and window seats, and the plate +racks, and the shelves that let down with gilt chains. Every single +thing was painted white. "My, how lovely and clean it all looked!" And +the blue Chinese panels; she had never seen anything like them. And +there were five pictures of ships. + +Even the dishes were a marvel to her. Jane had seen plenty of fine china +but never any so curious as this old Blue Canton with its landscapes and +quaint figures. The Captain was pleased with her ingenuous admiration. + +When she had finished her dinner, he took her across the gallery to his +library, a room seldom shown to the residents of the creek. Even Ernest +and Frank hadn't seen it, Jane learned later. This apartment was quite +as marvellous as the dining-room. A long, low room it was, with many +lacquered and carved cabinets and tables. The wall space above these was +pictureless, but two great ivory tusks were crossed over a doorway. +Above the fireplace rows of weapons were ranged--queer swords and +daggers with gold and mother-of-pearl on their hilts, a ship's cutlass, +several scimitars, and the strangest guns and pistols. Chicken Little +was fascinated with the frightful array. A huge bearskin lay on the +floor among strange, beautifully colored rugs, which reminded her of her +mother's India shawl. Rugs where queer stiff little men and animals that +looked as if a child had drawn them, wandered about among curlicues and +odd geometrical patterns. A tiger-skin, head and dangling claws +distressingly lifelike, hung in the middle of one wall. She was +spell-bound for a few minutes with the strangeness of it all. + +Her host seemed to enjoy her wonder. He explained most patiently a great +compass set on a tripod in one corner. After she had roamed and gazed to +her heart's content, he opened the locked cabinets, and let her take +miniature ebony elephants from Siam into her hands. He had her look +through a reading glass at intricate ivory carvings, so tiny, it did not +seem that human fingers could ever have wrought them. There were boxes +of sandalwood and ugly heathen idols with leering faces. The drawers +were crowded with prints and embroideries. The Captain pulled one out +that had girl's things in it. She caught a glimpse of a spangled scarf, +and fans and laces, even gay-colored beads. But he shut this drawer +hastily. She did not have time to wonder much about this incident just +then, but she thought about it a good deal afterwards. The things looked +quite new as if they had never been used. + +Chicken Little had natural taste and had read more than most girls of +her age. She handled the Captain's curios reverently, drinking in +eagerly his explanations and the strange tales of where he had found +these wonders. + +So absorbed were they both, that the shadows were lengthening before +Captain Clarke realized the afternoon was slipping away, and that home +folk might be disturbed if he kept his young guest too long. Chicken +Little was distressed too. + +"Oh, I'm afraid Father and Mother will get home before I do. They'll be +awfully worried!" + +"You mustn't try to go back through the woods. They are too dense to be +a very safe route for a child, and it would be dark before you could +reach home. I'll have one of the men hitch up, and I'll drive you over." + +Chicken Little commenced to fidget. It would not make her coming +scolding any lighter, if her parents learned that the Captain had felt +in duty bound to bring her home. But she did not wish to be rude and it +was a long walk by the road. + +Captain Clarke saw she was disturbed and began to laugh. Her naivete +charmed him. + +"If my program doesn't suit you, won't you tell me what is wrong? I +haven't enjoyed anything so much in years as your visit, my dear. I +should like to pay my debt by doing whatever you would like." + +Jane was radiant by the time he had finished. + +"Didn't you truly mind my coming? You aren't just being polite?" + +"Mind? Child, if you ever come to be as lonesome and as old as I am, you +will know what a comfort it has been to have anyone as young and sweet +and fresh as you are, around. Just a moment, I want to show you one +thing more." + +He went into his bedroom and returned with an old photograph. It was a +likeness of a two-year-old child. + +She took a good look at it, then turned to her host. + +"It is the picture of the little boy I--I--lost. He was my only one. +He--he would be seventeen now." + +"Why that's just Ernest's age!" + +"Your brother? The one who was here the other evening?" + +"Yes, he was seventeen his last birthday. I'm so sorry you lost your +little boy." Chicken Little slipped her hand into his to express her +sympathy. + +The Captain did not reply except with an answering pressure. She laid +the picture down gently. + +"He was a beautiful baby--it almost seems to me I've seen someone who +looks like him--especially the eyes. And that merry little twist to his +mouth. I can't seem to think who it is." Jane puckered her forehead and +the Captain observed her closely. + +"Was it some boy?" He seemed interested in this resemblance. + +"Yes, how silly of me not to remember. It's Sherman Dart, one of +Ernest's old friends back in Centerville." + +"Centerville? That is in Illinois, is it not?" + +"Yes, where we used to live. And the eyes are exactly like Sherm's and +Sherm always twisted his mouth crooked like that when he smiled." + +"This boy, he wasn't an orphan, was he?" + +"Oh no, Mr. and Mrs. Dart are both living though Mr. Dart's been sick a +long time." + +The Captain seemed to have lost interest. + +"Well, my dear, am I to have the pleasure of driving you home--I'm +afraid your parents will be distressed about you." + +Jane had a bright idea. + +"Captain Clarke," she spoke rather hesitatingly. + +"Yes?" + +"Would you mind--of course it sounds awful of me to ask you--but--it'd +be so much easier for me with Mother if you'd just tell her, oh, what +you said about my being a comfort and not bothering." + +Chicken Little was both ashamed and eager. + +The Captain threw back his head and laughed until the tears came into +his eyes. + +"My dear, I'll make this call all right with your mother, never fear, +for I want you to come again. I am going to ask her if you and Ernest +can't both honor me by coming to dinner next Sunday." + +He was as good as his word but when Chicken Little went to bed her +mother said sorrowfully: "Chicken Little, I shan't scold you because I +promised Captain Clarke I would let you off this time--but I didn't +think you would do such a thing--behind my back, too." + +And her mother had asked Katy and Gertie! She had told her after she +came home that evening. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A CHERRY PENANCE + + +Chicken Little awoke the next morning with a bad taste in her mouth. +She was ashamed to have grieved her mother by her escapade the day +before, especially when Mother was undertaking all this extra trouble +for her happiness. But she just couldn't be sorry she had gone to the +Captain's! It would be something to remember all her life. She gave a +skip of delight every time she thought of all the lovely things--and the +Captain's stories. No, she simply couldn't be sorry, but she knew Mother +expected her to be sorry. Of course, she might have got acquainted with +him some other way, but her father wouldn't promise ever to take her. +"Little girls have too much curiosity for their own good, Humbug," was +all she had been able to get from him. + +She could see at breakfast that Mother expected an apology right away. +She could feel disapproval in her good morning and in the way she kissed +her. Mother seemed to have the power to make her feel mean and guilty +all over. But she wasn't sorry. + +While they were doing the dishes she told her mother all about the +wonderful things she had seen. Mrs. Morton listened in silence. She was +waiting. Chicken Little heaved a deep sigh and did her best. + +"I know it was wrong for me to go without permission, Mother, and I +won't ever do it again, and I think you're just beautiful to ask Katy +and Gertie. I'll help every single bit I can; you see if I don't." + +"I am glad you realize you did very wrong, little daughter, is that all +you have to say to me?" + +Chicken Little looked at her Mother and fidgeted. Her Mother returned +her look gravely. Still she couldn't--it would be fibbing if she did. +The silence became oppressive. + +"You may go and pick a couple of quarts of cherries, Jane." Mrs. Morton +handed her the tin lard pail, searching her face once more. + +It was a glorious June morning and Jane enjoyed picking cherries. Marian +saw her and came too, establishing Jilly comfortably at the foot of the +tree with a rubber doll and the two pups as companions. Jilly was +usually a placid baby and she settled down contentedly to trimming up +her doll with dandelions. Buz, the indolent, curled himself at her feet +and was asleep inside of five minutes, but Huz looked up longingly into +the tree at Jane. He seemed to be racking his doggish brain as to the +best method of reaching her. He kept making little futile leaps, whining +impatiently. Finally, he stood up on his hind legs, planted his fore +paws against the tree trunk, and barked dolefully. Jane bent down and +mischievously dropped a cherry into his open mouth. Huz choked, +sputtered, and after a first rapturous crunch, hastily deposited the +acid fruit upon the ground. He looked reproachfully at Chicken Little. + +"There now," said Marian, "he'll never trust you again." Marian raced +Chicken Little with the cherry picking and the pails were filled far too +soon. + +"Jane," said Marian as she started reluctantly back to the house, "if +Mother Morton can spare you this morning to help me pick them, I believe +I'll get some cherries to put up--there are loads ripe this morning." + +"I'd love to, Marian, I'll take these in and find out if she'll let me." + +She came flying back in a jiffy with two big milk pails. "All right, +Mother says I may help you till noon." + +They had a merry morning. The cherry trees lined the lane which was also +a public road, and several neighbors going by, stopped to exchange a few +words. Mr. Benton had his joke, for he discovered Jane swinging up in +the topmost boughs and reaching still higher for certain unusually +luscious ones that eluded her covetous fingers. + +"Well, Mrs. Morton," he said, addressing Marian and ignoring Chicken +Little, "that's the largest variety of robin I've ever seen in these +parts. I 'low you must have brought the seed from the east with you. You +wouldn't mind if I took a shot at it, I 'spose. 'Pears like birds of +that size must be mighty destructive to cherries." + +"Why Mr. Benton, we shouldn't like to have you kill our birds; we're +attached to them. But you are mistaken, that isn't a robin, it's a Jane +bird--they're rare around here." + +Mr. Benton laughed and Chicken Little got even by hurling a big cluster +of cherries at him. She aimed them at his lap, but they struck him full +in the face to her great glee. + +"Well now, them Jane birds ain't so bad." Mr. Benton remarked eating the +fruit with a relish. + +The morning sped by briskly. Jilly created a diversion by getting her +small self into trouble. Marian noticed that she was picking something +off the tree trunk and putting it into the pocket of her little ruffled +apron. + +"What's Jilly getting there? Can you see, Chicken Little?" + +Chicken Little twisted and peered until she could take a good look. + +"Why--Marian, I do believe it's ants! The silly baby--they'll bite her!" + +Marian hurried down the tree to rescue her offspring, but not before +Jilly set up a wail of anguish. + +"Naughty sings bite Jilly!" she moaned, as her Mother picked the small +tormentors off her arms and bare legs. But Jilly was a sunny child, and +as soon as the pain eased, found a smile and remarked complacently: +"Ants bite Jilly, too bad, too bad!" + +Jane braced herself firmly in a crotch where the red fruit was thickest +and picked mechanically while she unburdened her mind of the previous +day's doings. She chattered about her adventures till Marian could have +repeated every word of her conversation with the Captain off by heart, +and might have given a pretty accurate inventory of his possessions, or +at least the portion of them that Jane had seen. + +Marian was genuinely interested and liked to hear Chicken Little tell it +all, but she wondered what Mrs. Morton had thought about the junketing. + +"But what did your Mother say, dear?" she asked finally. + +"She didn't like it." + +"You didn't suppose she would, did you?" + +"N-o-o, but----" + +"Yes?" + +"I'd never have got to go if I'd waited for permission. And, Marian," +Chicken Little thought it was time to change the subject, "how do you +make yourself be sorry, when you ought to be and aren't?" + +Marian wanted to laugh but she saw her young sister had not intended to +be funny. She half guessed the situation. + +"Why Jane, I hardly know, the old monks used to set themselves penances +to atone for their sins." + +"Did it make them really sorry? Do you think?" + +"Well, yes, I should think it must have or they would never have had the +courage to persist in them. Some of their penances were terribly severe +such as beating themselves with knotted ropes, but I shouldn't advise +anything of that kind for you. You might try to make up for your fault +in some way. Perhaps you might give up something you like very much." + +Jane didn't say anything more, and it was a day or two later before +Marian learned the effect of her words. + +The cherry trees seemed full as ever after they had gathered all Marian +wanted, and in the evening Mrs. Morton sent Chicken Little out to gather +more for her. Marian offered to help her, and they were once more aloft +in the trees when Mr. Benton returned from town. + +Marian began to chuckle. + +"He'll think we have been here all day, Jane. Let's pretend we have." + +"Dear me, Mr. Benton, back so soon. How fast the day has gone by. Jane, +you must be awfully hungry, I hadn't realized it was so late!" + +"Well now, time does beat everything for speed, but I 'lowed it was only +our ancestors as lived in trees all the time, Mrs. Morton. But then I've +heard they're gettin' a lot of new-fangled ways down east. You're not +calculatin' to take up your residence permanent like in them cherry +trees, are you? In case you don't want the cottage any more, we might +move it over to our place just by way of being neighborly." + +"Thank you, Mr. Benton, I'll remember your kind offer if it ever gets in +our way." + +It was not many days before the mail brought a grateful letter from Mrs. +Halford, and ecstatic ones from the girls, in reply to Mrs. Morton's +invitation. They would arrive with Alice and Dick and Sherm--for Sherm +was coming, too--on the twentieth. + +"Not quite two weeks. That means we must begin getting ready at once, +and you mustn't think because we have a servant coming, that you won't +need to help, Jane. One girl can't do all the work for so many." + +Chicken Little had not yet said she was sorry and her Mother was +inclined to be severe with her in consequence. Mrs. Morton was rather +worried, too, because she had seemed pale and listless for two or three +days past. But when she asked if she were not feeling well, Chicken +Little had replied carelessly: + +"Why, I'm all right, Mother." + +They were hurrying to get the cherry crop cared for before the guests +arrived. There would be enough to do after they came to keep them all +busy without preserving, Mrs. Morton declared. One day when they were +seeding cherries, Marian noticed that Jane was eating only half ripe +ones. + +"What on earth are you eating those green things for, child?" + +"Oh, just for fun." + +"Well, it won't be funny if you eat many of them. I don't know anything +that'll make you sick quicker than green cherries. They're acid enough +when they're ripe." + +In the hurry of preparing for the guests, Marian thought nothing further +about it. Three nights later, Dr. Morton wakened them at midnight to +know if they had any calomel. "The Chicken's mighty sick," he said. "And +I gave the last I had to Mrs. Benton for Mary." + +"I haven't any calomel, Father, but I've got some castor oil," Marian +announced after some rummaging. + +"That will go hard with Jane, she loathes it. But she'll have to take it +down I guess. I can't imagine what ails her, she's vomiting and has a +high fever." + +A sudden recollection struck Marian. + +"Maybe she has been eating too many cherries." + +"Ripe cherries oughtn't to hurt her and they have been plentiful so +long, I shouldn't think she would overeat." + +"But I have seen her eating them when they weren't ripe. I believe +that's what is the matter." + +"I hope so, I have been a little afraid of scarlet fever from her +symptoms." Dr. Morton seemed relieved. + +When he had gone, Marian turned to Frank. She had been recalling several +things and putting them together. + +"Frank Morton, I verily believe that sister of yours has been eating +half-ripe cherries for a penance." + +"Penance? Penance for what?" + +"I don't exactly know, but it has something to do with her running off +to the Captain's." + +"Well, if she's as big a fool as all that, she deserves to have a +stomach ache. Come, stop worrying." + +"But Frank, I'm afraid I'm the guilty one who suggested the idea to her. +Goodness knows, I hadn't the slightest intention of doing so." Marian +related the whole story. + +"Well, Sis certainly gets queer notions into her head, but it may not be +that at all. Anyhow, you can't do anything to-night." + +A very pallid forlorn girl sat propped up in bed about noon the +following day. The family, having discovered that it was nothing +serious, and that she had probably brought it on by her own folly, were +not sympathetic. + +"What in the dickens did you want to go and eat green cherries for, when +there were pounds and pounds of ripe ones going to waste on the trees?" +Ernest's look of utter disgust was hard to bear. + +Frank came over with a handful of minute green walnuts interspersed with +a choice assortment of gooseberries and green plums. He handed them to +her with a mocking bow. + +"In case you get hungry, Jane dear, I thought you might like to have a +supply of your favorite food on hand." + +Chicken Little thanked him spunkily, but when the door closed behind +him, she buried her face in the pillow and mourned over her woes. + +"I'll never try to be good again, so there, and I think they're all just +as mean as can be." + +Her pillow was getting wetter and wetter and her spirits closer and +closer to zero, when the door gently opened and her father came in. + +"Why Chicken Little, crying? This won't do. Come, tell Father what's the +matter. You aren't feeling worse, are you?" + +Chicken Little swallowed hard and did her best to choke back the tears, +but the tears having been distinctly encouraged for the past ten minutes +had too good a start to be easily checked. Dr. Morton gathered her into +his arms and patted and soothed her till she was able to summon a moist +smile. + +"Hurry up and tell me now--a trouble shared is a trouble half cured, you +know." + +But Jane was beginning to be ashamed of herself. + +"'Tisn't anything really, Father, only I feel so miserable and the boys +have been making fun of me." + +"Making fun, what about?" + +"Oh, just because." + +"Because what, out with it!" + +"Because I ate green cherries, I suppose." + +"How long have you been eating green cherries, Jane?" + +Jane considered. "Most a week." + +"And don't you think you deserve to be laughed at, for doing anything so +foolish?" + +"They didn't laugh at the monks--and they were grown-up men." + +"Monks? What do you mean?" + +"Well, I just guess they did things that made them sicker than eating +green cherries, and I didn't intend to eat enough to make me sick, but I +didn't seem to feel any sorrier and----" + +Chicken Little was stopped suddenly by the expression of her Father's +face. He tried to control himself but the laugh would come. + +When they had finally got the atmosphere cleared a bit, he inquired, +still smiling: "Well, are you sorry now you went to the Captain's?" + +Chicken Little smiled back. "No, I'm just sorry I grieved Mother." + +"Then suppose we vote this penance idea a failure and don't try it +again." + +The next few days were so full of the bustle of preparation that Jane +soon forgot she had ever been sick. Further, there was a mystery on +foot. She and Ernest had not been permitted to accept the Captain's +invitation to dinner for reasons that Mrs. Morton explained with great +care to that gentleman. But he had been invited over to dine with them. +He was so reserved and silent on this occasion that both Mrs. Morton and +Marian wondered at Jane's devotion. After dinner he had a long +conversation with Dr. Morton and Ernest, and no teasing on Jane's part +could extract the faintest hint from either as to what it had been +about. + +"It was about your going to Annapolis, I bet." + +"Nope, you're a long way off. We didn't say anything more than what you +and Mother heard. Father's written to the Senator. Captain Clarke got +him all enthused; the Captain promised to write, too. But you'll never +guess the other, and it has something to do with you." + +She had been obliged to give it up. Ernest had at length reached an age +where he could keep a secret. The exasperating part of it was that +Ernest was going over to Captain Clarke's every evening and she wasn't +asked once. Her pride was so hurt that she came near being sorry she had +gone to see the Captain. + +The evening before the fateful twentieth, Mrs. Morton and Jane were +putting the last touches on the guest room and on Chicken Little's own +chamber, which Katy and Gertie were to share with her. The fresh fluted +muslin curtains were looped back primly. The guest room had been freshly +papered with a dainty floral design, in which corn flowers and wheat +ears clustered with faint hued impossible blossoms, known only to +designers. Both rooms looked fresh and cool and summery, and the windows +opening out upon the garden and orchard revealed also wide stretches of +the prairie beyond. + +Chicken Little had re-arranged the furniture in her room at least six +times in a resolute endeavor to get the best possible effect. Marian had +given her a picture of some long stemmed pink roses that exactly matched +the buds in her paper, and she had begged an old Japanese fan from her +Mother. This was decorated with a remarkably healthy pink sunset on a +gray green ground, and she tacked it up as a finishing touch above the +bed lounge, which was destined to be a bone of contention among the +three little girls for the remainder of the summer. At first, not one of +the three was willing to be cast upon this desert island of a bed, while +the other two were whispering secrets in the big walnut four-poster. But +as the weather grew hotter, the advantages of sleeping alone became more +obvious, and they had to settle the matter by taking turns. Chicken +Little did her very best to make her room look like the Captain's, but +except for her Mother's concession of fresh white paint, a few books on +a shelf, and the foreign fan, it was hard to detect any very marked +resemblance. Nevertheless, both Jane and her Mother gazed upon their +handiwork with deep satisfaction. + +"If Annie will only stay through the summer," sighed Mrs. Morton, "she +is doing so beautifully I'm afraid she is too good to last. But I +mustn't borrow trouble. If she deserts me, our guests will simply have +to turn in and help, much as I should dislike to have them." + +Ernest came in to supper so excited he could scarcely eat. And Dr. +Morton seemed almost as interested as Ernest. They were both provokingly +mysterious during the entire meal, talking over Jane's head in a way +that was maddening. + +"Does Mother know?" she demanded finally. + +"Yes, Mother knows. I tell Mother when I go over to the Captain's." + +"Come now, Ernest, that's been harped on enough," said Dr. Morton, then +turning to Jane, "If you will hurry and get into your riding habit, you +shall know the secret inside of an hour." + +It is needless to say that Chicken Little hurried. The black +brilliantine skirt fairly flew over her head, the border of shot in its +hem rapping her rudely as it slid to the floor with a thud. + +"Oh dear, I don't see why girls have to wear such long, silly skirts and +ride sidewise. It's so much easier to ride man fashion." + +Chicken Little had been permitted to ride man fashion since she had been +on the ranch, for safety. But this year her Mother had decided she was +too big to be playing the boy any longer, and had made her a woman's +habit, in spite of the Doctor's protests. Jane was proud of the smart +basque with its long tails and glittering rows of steel buttons, but she +loathed the skirt. + +Hastily fastening the black velvet band with its dangling jet fringe +below her stiff linen collar, she cast a parting glance at the oval +mirror and skurried down the stairs, not stopping for such small matters +as gloves or cap or even her beloved riding whip. Ordinarily, she would +not have budged without the whip. It had been a Christmas present from +Ernest and was her special pride. Her haste was in vain. After one look, +her Mother sent her back for cap and gloves. "I do not wish my daughter +riding around bareheaded like some half wild thing. I don't mind on the +ranch, but when you go abroad I wish you to look like a lady." + +Jane reluctantly obeyed and did not forget the whip this time. She had a +fresh rebuff when she reached the road. Instead of the saddle horses she +expected to see, Dr. Morton and Ernest were awaiting her in the spring +wagon. + +"Why, Father, I thought you said to put on my riding habit." + +"Maybe I did. But never mind, jump in just as you are--it's getting a +little late." + +Chicken Little tried to hide her disappointment. She maintained a +dignified silence until they had crossed the ford and Ernest turned the +horses toward Captain Clarke's. + +"Oh, it's at the Captain's." + +Her Father nodded and began talking carelessly to Ernest about putting +the orchard in clover another year. She saw there was no information to +be had, until he was good and ready. Ernest took pity on her, however, +just as they turned in the Captain's gate. + +"In exactly six minutes you will see the surprise, even if you don't +recognize it." + +Chicken Little strained her eyes half expecting to see Katy or Gertie +appear miraculously from nowhere. But they drove into the door yard +without seeing anything or anybody that could possibly interest her. + +The Captain was evidently watching for them. He helped her down from the +high wagon in his most courtly manner. + +"I am consumed with curiosity to know whether you have pried the secret +from that brother of yours. I infer you have from your habit." + +"Habit?" Jane glanced swiftly from her host's quizzical face to her +father and Ernest. They were both smiling broadly. + +"Oh, it has something to do with horses--but----" + +She never finished the sentence for at that moment one of the Captain's +hands appeared leading two Indian ponies, one a red and white piebald +with a red blanket and side saddle; the other a black, with a blue +blanket and a Mexican cowboy's equipment. + +She stared at the horses and she stared at the Captain, not daring to +even hope what had come into her mind. Captain Clarke took the bridle +off the piebald and held down his hand for her foot. + +"Up with you, I have persuaded your Father to share his children with me +to the extent of letting me add something to your pleasure and that of +your guests this summer. Ernest, however, has left me his debtor in +advance, for he has not only finished breaking these in to the saddle +but he has tamed the worst-tempered colt on the place as well." + +Chicken Little was surprised to see Ernest flush up and stammer. + +"Why I--I don't want any pay--I was glad to help out a neighbor." + +"That's exactly what I am going to ask you to do, my boy, to help me out +by letting me feel that I can still give somebody pleasure. The ponies +are part of a large herd I bought in Texas and cost me very little. I +have argued this all out with your Father and he understands my feeling. +Won't you be as generous?" + +Before Ernest could answer, Chicken Little reached up both arms and gave +the speaker a hug and a kiss that were warm enough to satisfy the +loneliest heart. Before she had released him, Ernest had hold of his +hand and was trying to make up by the vigor of his hand shake for the +embarrassing dumbness which had seized him. + +Dr. Morton relieved the situation by remarking mischievously: + +"Ask Ernest who's surprised now, Chicken Little?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE GUESTS ARRIVE + + +The Morton family were up early the next morning. Jane was in a state +of prickly excitement between her delight over her wonderful pony, all +her very own, and the expected pleasure of seeing Katy and Gertie. + +"If the others have grown as much as you kids, we shan't recognize +them," said Frank. + +"Anyhow, we can tell which bunch to cut out by Alice and Dick," Ernest +answered. + +Mrs. Morton was horrified. "Ernest, the idea of your talking about our +friends as if they were cattle! I do trust you children will not mortify +me before our guests by using such vulgar expressions." + +"Never mind, Mother," Frank consoled her, "Alice and Dick will revel in +these vulgar westernisms. See if they don't. Why Mother, it's by slang +that a language is enriched, didn't you know that?" + +"That will do, Frank. I should think you would try to help me keep up +correct standards instead of hindering. You will feel very differently +when Jilly is a little older." + +The train was due at two-thirty at the neighboring town of Garland--the +neighboring town being some nine miles distant. They decided to have an +early dinner at home, then Dr. Morton would drive the spring wagon in +for the guests, Frank would take the farm wagon for the trunks, while +Jane and Ernest formed a sort of ornamental body guard on their new +ponies. + +"My, but you present an imposing appearance!" laughed Marian coming out +to the road with Jilly to see them off. + +"We do look rather patriarchal," said Frank, glancing around at the +impressive array. "If we only had you and Mother mounted on donkeys, the +reception committee would be complete. I will do my best to apologize +for your absence." + +"If you are late, send Jane on ahead, they can see her a mile off on +that calico pony." + +"The piebald is conspicuous," said the Doctor, "I guess Captain Clarke +picked him out for the Chicken so her mother could see her from afar." + +Chicken Little ignored this pleasantry. "Thank you for saying calico, +Marian. I was just wondering what to call him and that will do +beautifully." + +"Oh, have some mercy on the poor beast," put in Ernest. "Think of his +having to answer to the name of Calico. Why don't you call him gingham +apron or something really choice?" + +"Allee samee, his name's Calico. If you want to call yours, Star of the +Night or Aladdin or something high falutin, you just can." Jane set her +lips firmly. She didn't specially care for Calico but she wasn't going +to be laughed out of it. + +"That will do, children, it's time to be off." Dr. Morton suited the +action to the word by clucking to the team of bays he drove, and the +procession started. + +They reached the station in good time. Both Ernest and Chicken Little +wanted to stay on their mounts and dash up beside the train, but their +father forbade it. + +"Those ponies have never been properly introduced to an engine, and I +don't wish to take you back in baskets. You can show off sufficiently +going home." + +So the ponies were left with the teams at a safe distance from the +railroad. + +The train was twenty minutes late and it seemed an age to Chicken +Little. "I don't see why you always have to wait for nice things, while +the unpleasant ones come along without ever being asked," she +complained. + +"What about the ponies? Do you class them with the unpleasant things?" +queried her father. "But here comes the train." + +Jane watched it puff in with a roar and a rattle and sundry bangs, her +eyes strained for the first glimpse of Katy and Gertie, Alice and Dick. +She really didn't know which one she wanted to see worst. + +"Bet Sherm will be the first one out," said Ernest. + +"Bet you Katy will!" + +But it was Dick who hailed them first, before he turned to help down the +little girls. Alice came next, with Sherm who was still rather bashful, +bringing up the rear loaded down with satchels and lunch baskets. Katy +and Gertie fell upon Chicken Little instantly and Alice had to embrace +the whole bunch, because they kept on hugging and kissing Jane, laughing +hysterically. + +"Here, where do I come in?" Dick rescued Jane from her friends and gave +her a resounding smack himself. After which he held up his hands and +exclaimed: "Say, Doctor Morton, what do you feed these infants on to +make them grow so fast? Jane's a half head taller than either Katie or +Gertie and we thought Sherm would surely top Ernest. In fact, we had our +money on him to beat any of your mushroom Kansas effects, but Holy +Smoke, I have to look up to Ernest myself." + +Alice and Katie and Gertie were looking at Jane's riding habit, Gertie +in considerable alarm. + +"We don't have to ride to the ranch on horseback, do we?" + +Before the doctor could reassure them, Frank replied gravely: + +"Of course, what did you expect in Kansas? We've brought six horses and +we thought two of the girls could ride in front of Dick and myself. It's +only nine miles and the horses don't gallop all the way." + +The girls looked panic-stricken, even Alice seemed a little dazed, Frank +was so very plausible. Dick helped him on delightfully. + +"I told you, Alice, you'd better put your riding habit in your satchel. +I suppose the horses are gentle, Frank." + +"Oh, they don't often throw anyone that's used to them. Naturally, +they're a little gayer in summer when they're in the pasture so much." + +Ernest could not resist adding his bit. "I was thrown three times last +week, would you like to try my pony, Katy?" + +This revealed the game to Alice. + +"You awful fibbers, don't you believe a word they say, girls." + +"Honest Injun," said Ernest, "I was." + +"It's the truth," Frank confirmed. + +Poor little Gertie, who was already beginning to realize that she was +very far from home and in a strange land besides, commenced to cry. + +Dr. Morton came promptly to the rescue. + +"That'll do, boys. Save your joking till our guests are rested from +their journey at least. Frank, you and Dick look up the trunks while +Ernest and Sherm help me bring up the wagons. It's all right, dear," he +put his arm reassuringly around Gertie, "you shall ride in one of the +most comfortable of vehicles if we haven't a carriage to offer you. You +mustn't pay any attention to their teasing." + +After the first two miles of their homeward journey, Chicken Little gave +up her pony to Sherm and climbed in with the girls. Ernest offered to +change saddles, but Sherm declared he didn't mind the side saddle and +cheerfully bore all the jokes the party cut at his expense. Dr. Morton +watched him approvingly. "Good stuff," he said to himself, as Sherm +returned the sallies without wincing. The boy's long legs dangling from +the side saddle were a comical sight. Sherm, if not quite so tall as +Ernest, was rather better proportioned and delightfully supple and +muscular. He was the same matter-of-fact, straight-forward boy he had +always been, but his father's long illness had sobered him, though he +could be hilarious, as he was proving now. + +"Say, Sherm," Katy prodded, "why don't you borrow Jane's riding skirt +too?" + +"Yes, Sherm, go the lengths--you'd make a beautiful girl," teased Alice. + +Sherm laughed. "Chicken Little may have something to say to that!" + +"I thought you'd be making excuses." + +Sherm was not to be bluffed. "Not much, hand it over, Chicken Little." + +"You never can get into it, Sherm." + +"What'll you bet?" + +"It'll be too small around the waist." + +Dr. Morton stopped and Jane hastily slipped off the skirt, presenting +rather a funny appearance herself with her habit basque and the blue +lawn dress showing beneath. Sherm dismounted, turning Calico over to +Ernest to hold. The entire party shouted when Jane reached up on tiptoe +to throw the clumsy skirt over his head. Sherm neglected to hold it, and +the shot in the hem promptly dropped it to the ground. + +"Gee," exclaimed Sherm, "the cranky thing seems to have a mind of its +own." + +"I don't know what the girls want to wear the pesky things for," +grumbled Ernest. + +"They don't want to wear them--but their pernickety brothers and fathers +and husbands consider them modest," Alice hit back promptly. + +"I consider them very dangerous," said Dr. Morton. + +While this bantering was going on, Chicken Little was vainly endeavoring +to fasten the band around Sherm's waist. + +"You'll just have to squeeze in, Sherm. I can never make it meet," she +giggled. + +"I'm squeezing in, I tell you." + +With a triumphant pull, Jane got the band buttoned and Sherm heaved a +sigh of relief--a disastrous sigh--it sent the button flying and the +weighted skirt once more slid to the ground. + +"Drat it!" Sherm groaned. + +"Now, you said you'd wear it. Don't let him back out, Chicken Little," +Katy urged. + +"Who said anything about backing out?" + +"You'll have to get a string, Jane. Haven't you a piece in your pocket, +Frank?" + +Frank produced the string and by dint of using it generously, the skirt +was finally secured and Sherm still allowed some breathing room. + +But the girls were not yet satisfied. Katy insisted upon lending him her +leghorn hat and Alice contributed a veil. Gertie offered a hair ribbon +which Chicken Little slyly pinned to the collar of Sherm's coat. + +He was a sight for the gods when he finally remounted. But he carried it +off with a dash, assuming various kittenish airs and coquetries, even +waving saucily at two cowboys who passed them and turned to stare in +bewilderment at his bizarre costume. + +The ride home passed quickly with all this fun. Gertie cheered up and +enjoyed the prairie sights as much as the others. Gertie seemed the same +little girl of three years before except for her added inches, but Katy +had many little grown-up airs and graces and evidently felt the +importance of her fourteen years. + +"Almost fifteen," she answered Dr. Morton when he inquired her age. The +two girls were dressed alike still, but Katy managed in some subtle way +to give her clothes a different air from Gertie's. "I don't know just +what the difference is," Marian remarked to Alice a day or two after +their coming, "but Katy is stylish and Gertie demurely sweet in the +self-same dress." + +"Personality will out, even in children," Alice replied. "They are both +unusually bright and well brought up, but Katy is ambitious and likes to +cut a bit of a dash, and Gertie doesn't. She is a home and mother girl. +I am amazed that she screwed up her courage to come so far without her +mother. I fear she is already a trifle homesick, though she is enjoying +every minute, and is enchanted with the chickens and pups and all this +outdoor life." + +Chicken Little found out these things more gradually. On the long ride +home from the station they chattered busily. All three felt a little shy +for the first minutes but there was so much to tell. Katy had finished +her freshman year in the High School and spun great tales of their +doings. Carol had graduated the week before. + +"He is awfully handsome, Chicken Little. All the girls are mashed on +him." + +"Are what, Katy?" demanded Alice who had been listening to Dick and Dr. +Morton with one ear open for the girl's confidences. She felt rather +responsible to Mrs. Halford for Katy and Gertie. + +Katy colored. "I don't care, Alice, that's what all the girls say, and I +can't be goody-goody and proper all the time." + +"All right, Katy, if you think Mother likes that kind of slang, I don't +mind." + +Katy didn't say anything further to Alice, but when she resumed her +story to Jane, she said: "Well, I don't care what you call it, but they +all are! And he just smiles in that lazy way of his and doesn't put +himself out for anybody. He didn't even take a girl to the senior party, +and lots of the Senior girls had to go in a bunch because they didn't +have an escort." + +"But he had awfully good marks," added Gertie, "and Prof. Slocum said he +could have been Valedictorian just as well as not if he had tried a +little harder." + +"That's the trouble--he's too lazy to try. I guess if he goes to the +Naval Academy as he wants to, he'll have to get over being lazy." Katy +evidently wasted no sympathy on Carol. + +The mention of the Naval Academy fired Jane. She shouted the news to +Ernest who was some distance ahead with Sherm. + +"Yes, Sherm's just told me," he called back, "wouldn't it be scrumptious +if we both got to go?" + +"Oh, is Ernest going?" Katy and Alice and Dick all exclaimed nearly in +unison. + +Chicken Little told them all about Ernest's plans and about the Captain. +Katy wished to call on this fascinating individual immediately. But Dr. +Morton suggested that he thought they would all be tired enough to rest +for the remainder of the day by the time they arrived at the ranch. They +were, but not too tired to enjoy Mrs. Morton's hearty country supper. + +Dick ate hot biscuit and creamed potatoes and fried chicken till Alice +declared she shouldn't have the face to stay a month, if he gorged like +that all the time. + +"You'll stop keeping tab on his appetite before you have been here many +days, Alice. You'll be busy satisfying your own. You will find country +air a marvellous tonic," Dr. Morton assured her. + +They were all amused to see Katy looking in shocked amazement at Gertie +who had just been persuaded to have a second heaping saucer of +raspberries and cream. To be sure, Katy herself had had two drumsticks +and a breast. But she considered being served twice to dessert away from +home highly improper. + +"I wish it were a little later in the season so Ernest could bring us in +quail for you," said Mrs. Morton. + +"Quail?" Dick's face lighted. "Is the hunting still good around here?" + +"Excellent for quail and prairie chicken, and the plover are plentiful +at certain seasons," Dr. Morton replied. + +"They found two deer on the creek last winter," added Ernest. + +"Yes, there are a few strays left but the day for them has practically +gone by." + +"Dick, if you go hunting you've got to take me." Alice put her hands on +her husband's shoulders and rested her chin on his hair. + +"Barkus is willing if you can stand the tramp." + +"We don't tramp, we drive. It's a trifle too early for hunting, but by +the latter part of next week, you might try it. You can take the boys +and spring wagon and have an all-day picnic. I can spare them, and +Ernest for a guide." + +"Can we all go?" Katy started up excitedly. + +"Of course, I can shoot a little," Chicken Little sounded patronizing. + +"Yes, Chicken Little can shoot but she never hits anything--she always +shuts her eyes before she pulls the trigger," Ernest called her down +promptly. + +"It's no such thing, Ernest Morton, I killed a quail once, didn't I, +Father?" + +"Dick, if you'll come and unrope our trunks, I think we'd better be +getting our things out," said Alice an hour later. + +"Yours to command, Captain. I am perishing to have Chicken Little see my +present." + +"Yes, Jane, what do you think? Dick had to go and pick you out a gift +all by himself--he wasn't satisfied with my efforts. And he has the +impudence to insist that you will like his best." + +"We've got a package for you, too, but I don't know what's in it. Mother +wouldn't let us see. Let's go unpack quick, Gertie, and find out." + +"And I want to show my trousseau! Shall I get it out to-night, Mrs. +Morton, or wait till morning?" + +"To-night, Alice," spoke up Marian, "I want to see it and I'll be busy +in the morning. I am pining to see some pretty clothes." + +Dick had already vanished into the upper regions and he called down +airily: "Doors open, ladies. World renowned aggregation of feminine +wearing apparel, including one pair of the very latest hoops and the +youngest thing in bustles, now on exhibition." + +Mrs. Morton looked shocked, and Marian and Alice tried to control their +amusement. "The heathen, I warned him to be good." Alice laughed in +spite of herself with an apologetic glance at Mrs. Morton. The girls had +bolted upstairs at the first words of Dick's invitation. + +"Come on, Mother, don't mind Dick's nonsense," said Marian, linking her +arm in hers and gently drawing her up. "It will do you good to see +Alice's pretty things." + +Dick held the door open for them with a deep salaam. Alice held up a +finger warningly with an imperceptible gesture in Mrs. Morton's +direction. He shrugged his shoulders repentantly. + +"Now, Alice, if you'll just dig out my particular parcel I'll vamoose. +Women complain that men never take an interest in their affairs and then +if a misguided chap tries to act intelligent, he is snubbed." Dick's +tone sounded injured. + +Alice kissed the tip of his ear and shoved him out of the way. "You're +so big, Dick, there's never room for anyone else when you're around." + +Alice deftly opened trays and lids, pulling out protecting papers; she +handed Dick a large flat parcel. + +Dick received it with his hand on his heart, then striking an oratorical +attitude, addressed Jane in the formal tone he used in court. + +"Ladies, Miss Chicken Little Jane Morton, I have the great honor on this +suspicious occasion to present to you on behalf of my unworthy self, a +slight testimonial of my deep respect and undying affection--Alice, stop +winking at Marian--Mrs. Morton, is it fitting for a wife to stop the +flow of her husband's eloquence by winking? I wish you'd take Alice in +hand. I think she needs some lessons in the proprieties. As I was +saying, I wish to present this trifle to you, and the only expression of +gratitude I desire in return, is thirty kisses to be delivered one +daily, on or before the twelfth hour of each day, to which witness my +seal and hand." + +With another bow, he resigned the parcel to Chicken Little. + +She promptly tendered one kiss in advance. Then stripped off the papers +with eager fingers. A charming white leghorn hat appeared. It was faced +with pale blue and trimmed with knots of apple blossoms and black velvet +ribbon. + +"How charming!" exclaimed Mrs. Morton. + +"Dick, I didn't suppose you had such good taste!" added Marian. + +"Try it on quick, Chicken Little." + +Chicken Little's shining eyes and clear, fair skin fitted like a charm +under the pale blue. + +Dick was jubilant. "I saw that hat in a shop window and I thought it +looked exactly like Chicken Little. Who says a man can't pick out a +hat?" + +He departed without waiting for any disparaging remarks. + +Alice's present came next, a charming muslin with sash and hair ribbons +the exact shade of the blue hat facing. + +"If it only fits, Jane. I left some to let out in the hem, but you are +bigger every way than I thought. I tried it on Katie." + +"Changing it a little at the waist will make it perfect," Marian +reassured her. + +"Oh, I am so glad it is snug, and just the right length, Alice. +Mother--" Chicken Little stopped suddenly, she couldn't be criticising +mother before company. "You see I grow so dreadfully fast that Mother +has to make everything too big so it'll last a while." + +Marian supplemented this explanation later to Alice. + +"Poor child, Mother Morton does make her clothes too big! And it doesn't +do a bit of good for they hang on her the whole season and by the next +they're either worn or faded--and she generally manages to out-grow +them, in spite of their bigness." + +The girl's parcel was found to contain candy and a duck of a fan. + +But Alice's wedding things soon put everything else in the shade. The +dainty sets of underwear with their complicated puffs and insertings, +frilled petticoats, silk and muslin and poplin gowns, hats and parasols, +lay in a rainbow colored heap on the bed and chairs. + +"Alice," said Marian, caressing some of the dainty lingerie, "who is +going to iron all these puffs and ruffles? It would take hours to do +them right, especially the petticoats." + +"I know, Marian--I asked Aunt Clara the same question. And do you know +what I have done?" + +Her audience looked interested. + +"I just went down town the minute I got to Centerville and got some nice +strong muslin and I've been making it up perfectly plain except for a +tiny edge. They are heaps more comfortable--and I wear these others for +best. Why, I couldn't keep a maid and hurl all that stuff at her every +week!" + +"Are they wearing hoops pretty generally?" Mrs. Morton inquired as Alice +laughingly held a pair up for inspection. + +"Yes, and bustles too. See this buff poplin with the panniers just has +to have a bustle. Thank goodness they're young yet, as Dick says, but I +suppose they'll keep on getting bigger." + +"Oh, I should think they'd be so hot and horrid." + +"They are, but the hoops are delightfully cool, only you have to be on +your guard with the treacherous things or they swing up in front when +you sit down, in a most mortifying fashion." + +"I have a pair to wear with my muslin dresses--it makes them stand out +beautifully," said Katy complacently. "But Mother wouldn't let Gertie +have any. She said she was too young." + +"I didn't want the old things," Gertie protested. "And you wouldn't have +got yours if you hadn't teased perfectly awful, and I heard Mother say +she guessed you'd soon be sick enough of them." + +"I agree entirely with your mother, Gertie, I consider them unsuitable +for little girls. But they do set off a handsome dress to advantage. I +remember during the war we used to wear such large ones we could hardly +get through a door with them." + +"Mother Morton, I bet you were a lot more frivolous than we are now." +Marian put her hand lovingly on the wrinkled one that was smoothing the +folds of a rich silk. + +Mrs. Morton smiled. "Well, we had our pretty things. Alice's dresses are +lovely, but she hasn't anything more elegant than my second day dress. +It was a brown and silver silk brocade with thread lace chemisette and +under sleeves. And my next best was apple green and pink changeable, +trimmed in yards and yards of narrow black velvet ribbon all sewed on by +hand." + +"How I should love to have seen them!" Alice smiled wistfully. "You know +I didn't have any of my mother's things." + +"Come on, girls, it's getting late, let's help Alice put her treasures +away. They couldn't be nicer, Alice, and I think you are going to be a +very happy woman to make up for that desolate girlhood of yours." + +Marian was already folding the garments. They were soon laid away snugly +in trunk and closet and drawers, and the whole family packed off to bed +to be ready for the early farm breakfast on the morrow. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A HUNTING PARTY + + +The day following the arrival of the guests was spent in resting and +seeing the ranch. Katy and Gertie had never been on a large farm before, +and the thousand acres of field and prairie and woodland, seemed as +marvellous as the tales they had read of the big English estates. Alice +and Dick were also fascinated by all this space and freedom, but they +saw deeper than the little girls. + +"It's a wonderful place," said Dick, "and I don't wonder the Doctor is +proud of it. But he is too well along in years to handle such a big +undertaking. I doubt if the ranch pays for ten years to come, and it +means hard work and a lonely life for all of them. It's all right for +Frank and Marian, but I'm sorry for the rest of the family." + +"Mrs. Morton is growing old fast with all this unaccustomed drudgery, +and she is worried about the children's education, I can see," replied +Alice. + +"Yes, there are two sides to it. I guess we'll stick to the law and +little old Centerville; we may not die rich, but we'll be a lot more +comfortable as we go along." + +Sherm took to the farm like the proverbial duck to the pond. He donned +overalls that first morning and was off with Frank and Ernest to the +fields before the little girls were out of bed. After breakfast Jane +took Katie and Gertie to see the sights of the ranch. First to the +spring under the old oak where the cold, clear water gushed from the +rocks into a little basin, and then tumbled down a rocky channel under +the springhouse and on for some hundred of yards farther before it +widened out into the pond. + +"We can go swimming in the pond but there is a nicer place in the creek +above the ford." + +"Oh, I'd love to learn to swim but we haven't any bathing suits." + +"Pooh, that doesn't matter, we just take some old dresses--there isn't +anybody to see you, especially down at the creek. You know it's private +ground and the trees hang over the pool all around so the sun only comes +in a little bit. We'll get Marian to go with us." + +"I should think you could skate, too." + +"We do. I had a great time once last winter--Father told me the ice was +too thin, but I saw a yearling calf go over all right and I thought the +ice would bear me. But I guess calfie had more sense about the weak +places. At any rate, I went through, near the middle. The water was up +to my shoulders. Gee, it was cold and the ice kept breaking when I tried +to climb out--and the men were all away. I most froze before I got to +the bank, and then my skate straps were so wet I couldn't loosen them, +besides my fingers were too numb to bend. I had to walk on the skates +all the way to the house. My teeth chattered till they almost played +tunes by the time I got to the door." Chicken Little shivered at the +recollection. + +"What's the cunning little stone house for?" Gertie's attention was +caught by a tiny hut without windows on the edge of the pond. + +"Oh, that's the smokehouse. We're so far from town that we put away a +lot of meat every winter. The hams and sides of bacon are smoked there." + +"And that wooden building over yonder?" + +"The granary--for the wheat and rye. Those open log houses are the corn +cribs." + +"My, it takes a lot of buildings to make a ranch." Katy was impressed in +spite of herself. + +"We haven't been to the barns and corrals yet. I love the hay mow." + +Chicken Little had not forgotten lumps of sugar for Calico and Caliph. +Ernest had given his pony a high-sounding name. The intelligent beast +was proud and dainty enough to deserve it. He was shy about coming for +his lump, but when he once got the taste, he nosed around Chicken Little +for more. + +They ended the morning's wanderings in Jane's own particular bower, +known to the family as the Weeping Willows because she had once retired +there to cry out her troubles, and had been discovered in a very moist +state by Frank, who was a merciless tease. + +There were two rows of the old willows. They formed a long leafy room on +the edge of one of the orchards, out of sight both of the house and +road. Chicken Little had been known to flee thither on more than one +occasion when she did not wish to be disturbed in the thrilling place in +a novel. For you really couldn't hear any one calling from the house in +this leafy fastness. Ernest had made her two or three rustic seats, and +a little cupboard where she could keep her treasures sheltered from the +sun and rain. + +Katy and Gertie were charmed with this retreat. + +"If there was only a table, I could write all my letters home out here. +Wouldn't it be romantic?" Katy loved the unusual. + +"It's lovely, Jane, let's stay out here lots." Gertie settled down on +one of the seats with a little sigh. "I wish I had my old doll here; it +would make such a dandy playhouse." + +"Gertie Halford, the idea of a great, big girl like you wanting to play +with dolls." + +"I get Victoria out sometimes and dress her up," confessed Jane. "It +isn't much fun all alone, but I like to see her sometimes. If you'd like +to, Gertie, we'll have a doll sewing bee this afternoon and you can be +Victoria's mother and Katie and I will be dressmaker's though I never +could sew decently. Mother's about given me up in despair." + +Chicken Little had noticed a little far-away look in Gertie's eyes ever +since she came. Marian had warned her the night before that she had +better keep Gertie pretty busy for a day or two, or she would be +homesick. + +Unfortunately, Chicken Little's kindness precipitated the catastrophe +she was trying to avoid. She was so motherly she reminded Gertie afresh +of the dear little mother she had left so many miles behind and the +tears came in spite of her. + +Chicken Little coaxed and comforted, and Katy coaxed and scolded, +but Gertie's tears were apparently turned on for keeps and the +Weeping Willows was earning its name again. Gertie cried till she +got all shivery, declaring solemnly whenever she could command +her voice sufficiently to talk, that there wasn't a thing the +matter--only--only--she--was a little bit homesick. + +She wouldn't hear to Jane's going to fetch Alice or Mrs. Morton or +Marian. "She'd be all right in a minute, if they'd just let her alone." + +But the minutes went by and she still cried, and in spite of the warm +June sunshine, her hands felt cold and her shoulders shook as if with an +ague. Chicken Little and Katy were both getting worried when help came +in the shape of Marian and Jilly. + +Marian understood at a glance, and dropping to the ground beside her, +drew her into her lap and chafed the cold hands while she bade Jilly hug +poor Gertie. Jilly was a born comforter and she half smothered the +patient with her energetic hugs and moist, warm kisses. + +"Too bad, too bad--ants bite Gertie, too bad! Jilly fine 'em." + +Jilly had not forgotten her own sad experience with the ants and not +seeing any visible cause for Gertie's woes, evidently thought they were +the guilty ones again. + +Jilly was irresistible. Gertie had to laugh, even if the tears running +down her face, did leave a salty taste in her mouth. She hugged the +small comforter. Jilly, however, was not to be turned from her hunt. She +insisted upon pulling down Gertie's stockings and making a minute search +for the culprits. Her little tickling fingers and earnest air completed +Gertie's cure, and Jilly adopted her as her own particular property from +that day on, seeming to consider her in need of protection. + +Marian declared they must all come and have dinner with her. Ernest and +Sherm were already there and they had a merry meal in the little +cottage, for Marian made them all help--even the big boys. She tied a +blue apron around Sherm and set him to stirring gravy while Ernest +watched four cherry pies almost ready to come out of the oven. She had +despatched Katy and Jane to the springhouse after milk and butter. +Gertie, assisted by Jilly, set the table. + +Sherm had burned a nice fiery red during his morning's plowing. He was +immensely proud of his efforts. + +"I tell you Sherm's some farmer for a tenderfoot," said Ernest, telling +about the number of corn rows he had done. + +"Better come stay with us, Sherm." + +"Haven't I come--I love the ranch. But I suppose I've got four years of +college ahead of me." + +"You'll have time enough after that, Sherm," said Frank, "but if you +should want to try ranching, you'd better come out this way." + +"No ranching for me." Ernest thumped the table with his fork +emphatically. "You can have my berth, Sherm, and welcome. The only thing +I care for here, is the hunting. By the way, Frank, are you and Marian +going hunting with us?" + +"I'd like to. What do you say, Marian?" + +"Why, if there's room for so many." + +"I wish we could ask Captain Clarke," Chicken Little spoke up. + +"My, you are daffy about the Captain, Jane. He wouldn't go--you couldn't +hire him to if he knew Alice and I were to be of the party. Queer he is +so charming with Jane, and with the men and boys, and so very reserved +and stiff with women." + +"He probably has some reason for disliking your sex. Perhaps, if we'd +let him go with the children and the boys, he might be persuaded to +come. He'd only see you at luncheon time. What's the matter, Katie?" + +"I'm not a child," said Katy with dignity. + +"All right, you may come with us grown-ups and let the Captain have the +children and the boys." + +"You'd better find out whether the Captain is willing before you plan so +definitely, Frank." + +"We'll send Chicken Little and Sherm over on the ponies as a special +deputation to invite him. You must coax your prettiest, Sis." + +"I'd love to. I just know I can get him to come. Will you go with me, +Sherm?" + +"Nothing I'd like better," responded Sherm heartily. + +The next few days fairly twinkled by. The girls roamed the woods and the +fields with Dick and Alice, and went in bathing, and fed chickens, and +even made little pats of butter down in the cool springhouse. Gertie +mourned because she could not send hers home straightway to Mother. +Chicken Little and Sherm waited until Sunday to go over to the +Captain's. + +Sherm found Caliph and the Mexican saddle rather more to his taste than +Chicken Little's outfit had been on the ride from town. He had about all +he could do for the first five minutes to manage Caliph for he had had +little opportunity for riding at home. But he had a cool head, and with +a few suggestions from Jane, he soon convinced Caliph that he had a new +master as determined as Ernest, if not quite so skilful a horseman. They +did not talk much. Sherm considered Jane a little girl and Jane stood +rather in awe of Sherm. But they enjoyed the brisk ride none the less. +The swift motion with the wind in their faces, the wide stretches of +prairie bounded on the distant horizon by a faint line of timber, were +novel and delightful to Sherm. To Jane, they were familiar and dearly +loved. Besides, she liked having Sherm with her. + +He glanced at her from time to time. Chicken Little glanced back with +sweet, friendly eyes. It was she who finally broke the ice. + +"I do hope the Captain will go. I'm most sure he'll like you, because +his little boy looked a lot like you. He showed me the picture." + +"He seems to like you all right from what they say." + +Chicken Little laughed merrily. + +Sherm couldn't quite see the connection. + +"Well, what's so funny about that?" + +"Will you cross your heart never to tell, Sherm? Frank and Ernest would +tease the life out of me if they knew." + +"Cut my heart out and eat it, if I ever breathe a word." + +Chicken Little related the swearing episode which she had not seen fit +to trouble even Marian with, at home. "I guess," she concluded, "he felt +sort of sorry for me right at the start and that made him like me." + +"'Twouldn't be such a hard job as you seem to think, Jane," Sherm +surprised himself by saying. + +Chicken Little flushed and looked up hastily at Sherm who also felt his +face getting warm to his great disgust. Sherm hated softies of any kind. + +"Oh, I believe there's the Captain now over by the pasture fence." + +Captain Clarke was riding round the pastures inspecting the barbed wire +fencing. He soon hailed them. + +"Hello, Little Neighbor, is the piebald behaving himself?" + +Jane introduced Sherm as soon as they came abreast. + +"Captain Clarke, this is Ernest's friend, the Sherman Dart I told you +about." + +Captain Clarke scanned the boy's face curiously. His own went a little +white after an instant's inspection. + +"You are right--he is marvellously like what my boy might be to-day. I +beg your pardon for my rude scrutiny. Possibly Jane has told you of the +resemblance. You will come up to the house and let Wing give you some +lemonade. It is hot this afternoon." + +Chicken Little declined to take him from his course and told him their +errand. He hesitated. "You say Mr. and Mrs. Harding and your brother and +his wife are going. Would you think me very rude and unappreciative if I +declined, dear? I am poor company for anyone these days and----" + +Chicken Little looked so disappointed that he paused ruefully. + +"Please, just this once, Katie and Gertie want to see you dreadfully and +you could go with us. Pretty please." + +She thought she saw signs of weakening. Sherm also noticed the Captain's +hesitation. + +"We've all sort of set our hearts on having you, Sir. Chicken Little and +Ernest have talked so much about you we feel acquainted, and Dr. Morton +says you're a dead shot. I've never hunted anything but squirrels +myself." + +Captain Clarke stared at Sherm as if in a dream for a minute. The boy +was embarrassed by his silence and smiled his little crooked smile to +cover it. Their host passed his hand over his eyes and sighed. Then he +smiled. + +"It's no disgrace to surrender to a superior force. I am yours to +command. But I stipulate that you two stand by me." + +Chicken Little gave a bounce in her saddle to emphasize her delight and +Calico took this as a hint to go on. + +"Whoa, Calico! Thank you--bushels! Oh, I just know we'll have the best +time! Would you mind if we children all went with you because nobody's +going to be willing to be left out?" + +"I can take five nicely and have plenty of room for guns and lunch +baskets besides. By the way, please tell your mother that Wing Fan will +never forgive me if he is not permitted to get up the lunch for all the +young people at the very least." + +"Have you a gun with you?" he asked Sherm as they were going. + +"No, but Ernest said I might take his." + +"I have a new shotgun. I should be glad if you would share it with me." + +They found Alice and Dick, Marian, Katie, Gertie and Jilly, not to +mention Huz and Buz, waiting for them on the Morton side of the ford. + +"What luck?" + +Sherm didn't give Jane a chance to reply. + +"Oh, Chicken Little just put on her company smile and the Captain held +out his hands and said: 'Handcuffs, please.'" He was meeker than Buz. + +"Sherman Dart, you old--" Chicken Little flicked Caliph lightly by way +of revenge, and Sherm had his hands full for several seconds, for Caliph +resented the indignity. + +It was arranged to start early the following Saturday morning. Mrs. +Morton and Annie were up soon after daylight busy with the mysteries of +fried chicken and fresh rolls. The men of the party were equally busy +cleaning guns and routing out all sorts of hunting toggery. The girls +tried to help everybody impartially, succeeding for the most part in +making a general nuisance of themselves. + +At exactly seven-thirty Captain Clarke drove up with a wonderful team of +blacks. His hunting jacket was belted in with a formidable looking +cartridge belt, two shotguns were slid in on the floor of the spring +wagon, and lunch baskets and a great earthenware jug of lemonade were +wedged in under the seats. He gave a shrill hunting halloo as he drew up +at the gate. + +Mrs. Morton was a little disturbed at the gay looking team. + +"Are you quite sure they are safe with the guns? You know young people +are often reckless and this is a very precious load." + +"My dear madam, I think I can answer for Jim and Jerry. I took them out +for an hour yesterday and used the gun over their heads to make sure +they hadn't forgotten their manners." + +The Captain met the strangers of the party in his usual courteous +reserved fashion, but his eyes lighted when Chicken Little ran down the +walk. He established Ernest and Katie and Gertie on the back seat and +swung Jane up in front to the driver's seat with Sherm on her left. + +"Ernest, I'll handle the ribbons going, if it suits you, and you can +drive us back. I have an idea you will have the sharpest eye for game of +any of this crowd. We ought to do our best work the next two hours for +snipe. We probably won't find many prairie chickens until we get over on +Little John. By the way, boys, be careful not to disturb the mother +birds--there are still some on the nests. I really don't like to hunt +quite so early in the season as this, although a good many of the young +birds are shifting for themselves already--bird parents have a beautiful +faith in Providence. They don't worry long about their young." + +A light shower had fallen the night before and the air was fresh and +fragrant with the smell of wet grasses and moist earth. + +The rattle of wheels close behind assured them that Frank and his load +were near. + +"Kansas certainly takes the cake for climate," Dick called to them, +happily reckless about corrupting the young folk with his slang. Alice +promptly reproached him. + +"Mrs. Morton would send you home by the first train if she heard you." + +Dick assumed an air of mock woe. "Oh, I say there, Chicken Little, don't +mention that little matter of the cake--that particular cake isn't +respectable, Alice says." + +It was Frank who got the first shot. + +"Here, Marian, take the lines quick. Hold them tight--they may jump when +I fire. Turn out of the road--to the right--slowly now. Stop!" + +Frank drew the gun to his shoulder and took careful aim while the others +were still vainly trying to see something to shoot at. A snap, a flash, +and a bird whirred up a hundred paces away, flew a few feet from the +ground, and fell. + +Frank ran to the spot and held up a good-sized plover. Marian and Alice +examined it pitifully. + +"What a slender delicate thing it is! It seems a shame to kill it. I +like the excitement of hunting but I always want to cry over the +victims," said Alice with a sigh. + +Sherm caught sight of a covey soon after. He and Ernest slipped out of +the wagon and stole up as close as possible. Ernest got two with the +scattering bird shot, but Sherm missed. + +"You were too anxious, lad. Stop an instant always before you fire to +make sure your hand is steady," the Captain consoled him kindly. + +Sherm profited by this advice and brought down his next bird. Captain +Clarke left the game to the boys until their first zest for the sport +was satisfied. Chicken Little frequently discovered the birds before +either of the boys, and was eager to have a turn herself, as was also +Katy. Gertie put her hands to her ears every time a gun was fired and +openly hoped they wouldn't find any more game to shoot at. Captain +Clarke advised the girls to wait a little, and watch the boys carefully +to see exactly how they aimed and rested their guns, and he would help +them both a little later. But Ernest soon undertook Katie's education +and was surprised to find he had a very apt pupil. Katy had as steady a +nerve and as true an eye as either of the boys. Ernest began to be +alarmed lest his pupil win his honors away from him. + +"You must have shot before, Katy." + +"I have with a revolver. Uncle Sim used to let me shoot at a target. And +he had an archery club last summer." + +The Captain did his best for Chicken Little but she did not do nearly so +well as Katy, though she made one shot the Captain considered quite +extraordinary. + +"It's a pretty long range for a novice, little neighbor, but you can try +it." + +Two birds flew up where she had seen one. "Oh, dear, I missed," she +lamented. + +"I'm not so sure," said Sherm. "Let's go see." + +He helped her down and they made a brisk run toward the spot where the +grouse had risen. After a few minutes, Sherm stooped and picked up a +bird considerably to the right of where Chicken Little had aimed. + +"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed with a puzzled expression. "You +did get one." + +He stood looking down thoughtfully at the ground. Chicken Little hurried +to him elated, but her joy was short-lived. Snuggled among the grasses +was an empty nest. + +"Oh, do you 'spose she was on the nest? But I couldn't have seen her if +she had been--and it's empty." + +By way of reply, Sherm stooped again and picked up a baby grouse from a +clump of weeds. Fear had frozen it into a motionless wee brown image. + +"Oh, the poor little darling! I took its mother." Chicken Little looked +ready to cry. + +Bending down Sherm parted the weeds and grasses cautiously. + +"Here's another--and another. We must hunt them, Chicken Little, and +take them home or they will all starve. Gee, what can we put them in?" + +Jane slipped her hat elastic from under her braid, and taking a handful +of long grass to line it with, soon made a snug nest. They tucked the +mottled downy bunches into it. + +"What in Sam Hill are you people doing over there?" called Ernest. + +"Little grouse--come help us find them," Sherm called back. "Be careful +now or you'll step on them," he warned as Ernest and the girls came +running up. "They are the slyest little codgers--you don't see them +until you are right on them." + +Gertie was on her knees peering before the words were out of his mouth. +She lifted a fourth mite from its hiding place, and a fifth, and a +sixth, almost as fast as she could pick them up. "Oh, aren't they dear? +May I hold them, Jane, when we get back to the wagon?" Gertie was +caressing them with hands and eyes. + +There were ten chicks cuddled in the hat, when after a thorough search +of the weeds, Ernest announced that they must surely have them all. But +to make sure they went over the ground in all directions once more. + +Jane was very sober. Sherm tried to cheer her. + +"You couldn't help it, Chicken Little. You didn't mean to." Sherm smiled +his funny smile as he said this. + +"Why are you smiling? Oh, I know--I believe so, too." + +"What secrets are you talking?" Katy was curious. + +"Yes, speak United States, it isn't polite to leave your guests in the +dark this way," growled Ernest. + +Jane haughtily declined to explain just then. When they returned to the +wagon, they found the Captain as much interested in the shot, as he was +in the prairie chicks. + +"That was really a wonderful hit, little girl. I congratulate you." + +Jane stole a glance at Sherm. He wasn't looking at her, but he was +smiling. Jane smiled, too. + +"Yes, Captain Clarke," she replied demurely, "it was rather +astonishing." + +This was too much for Sherm who chuckled openly. Captain Clarke looked +from one to the other inquiringly. The others were completely mystified. + +"Well, I'd just like to know what you two are up to." Katy wrinkled her +nose in disgust. + +"Can't a fellow laugh without having to give an account of himself?" +Sherm parried, still trying to stave off the mirth that possessed him. + +Chicken Little's face was sweetly sober. "He's appreciating +my--skill--the rest of you don't seem to realize what a feat----" A +sound, something between a crow and a suppressed steam whistle +interrupted her. Sherm whooped until he was red in the face. Chicken +Little regarded him reproachfully, but continued: "You see most anybody +can hit the chicken they aim at, but it takes a fine shot to hit one you +didn't know was there." She grinned mischievously up at the Captain who +grinned back delightedly. + +"Really, Chicken Little?" + +"Really." She joined in the general laugh. + +"What did you want to tell for?" Sherm had enjoyed having the joke to +himself. + +She didn't answer then, but later she whispered: "Because the Captain--I +didn't want him praising me that way!" + +Noon found them fifteen miles from home with a bag of six snipe and ten +prairie chickens, and appetites that fairly clamored. Frank found an +ideal camping place in a grove of walnut trees beside a small creek. + +"I camped here once two years ago and there's a fine spring somewhere +near. Come along, Katie, we'll go hunt it. Ernest, picket the +horses--there's oats under the back seat. And Sherm, if you'll just +start a fire for the coffee." + +Marian and Alice spread the luncheon out on a long tablecloth laid over +the dust robes on the ground. Gertie and Chicken Little fed the little +grouse with some moistened bread crumbs, finding it difficult at first +to induce them to eat. But they would swallow, when the girls pried open +their tiny beaks and stuck a crumb inside. Captain Clarke showed them +how, and patiently helped them until each tiny craw was at least partly +filled. + +Marian and Alice watched him furtively. + +"He is gentle as a woman," Alice whispered, "and his face lights up +wonderfully when he smiles, though it is stern usually." + +"Yes, I can see now why Jane is so fascinated. Do you know his smile is +very much like Sherm's? See--no, just wait a minute. Now--watch his +upper lip--his mouth twists crooked exactly like Sherm's. Chicken Little +spoke of his baby's picture having the same smile." Marian dropped her +eyes hastily as the Captain chanced to turn in their direction. + +"I imagine lots of people have that kind of a smile only we never +noticed them," replied Alice. + +"Of course, I didn't mean to suggest anything. Will you cut the lemon +cake?" + +After the luncheon was eaten, the shady grove tempted them to linger on +with its woodsy coolness. The younger folk dragging the Captain, a +willing victim, along with them, went off on an exploring expedition +while the others stretched out luxuriously on the coarse grass that grew +rank along the slope. + +It was four o'clock before they could tear themselves away for the +homeward ride. + +"You'd better hurry," Frank called to the stragglers, "it will be almost +dark before we get home even if we don't stop to shoot." + +They picked up a few quail on the divide soon after they started, but +their zest for the sport seemed to have waned. Chicken Little declined +to try any further. + +"I know, it's the baby grouse," said Katy. + +"Yes," said Captain Clarke, "I think the baby grouse have rather taken +the zip out of it for all of us." + +The moon was just peeping above the tree tops as they crossed the home +ford. A huge grotesque shadow of the horses and wagon with its load, was +reflected upon the silvered surface of a deep pool just beyond the +ripples where they had stopped to let the horses drink. The blacks +having satisfied their thirst, began to dash the water about with their +hoofs. + +"They love it, don't they?" Katy watched them. + +"Yes," said the Captain thoughtfully, "I guess every living thing enjoys +this beautiful world of ours--when it is given the chance." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PIGS + + +"Take a hand to a wooster? Take a hand to a wooster!" + +Dick Harding was standing out in the road near the white cottage one +morning about two weeks after the hunting party, trying to decide +whether he would take a walk or a ride to settle his breakfast. He +glanced down into Jilly's sober little face lifted to his appealingly. + +"Take a hand to a wooster? Charmed, I'm sure. Point out the rooster. But +what has his rooster-ship done, and how can I make him keep still long +enough to lay hands on him, Jilly Dilly?" + +Jilly clasped five fat fingers around two of his, smiled confidingly and +made her plea once more: "Take a hand to a wooster." + +Dick looked puzzled, but Jilly was pulling and he meekly followed her +guidance. "I haven't the faintest idea what you are getting me into, +young lady, but go ahead, I'm at your service." + +Jilly pattered along not deigning to reply to his remarks. Jilly +considered words as something to be reserved for business purposes only. + +She led him to the chicken yard, pressed her small face against the wire +netting that enclosed it, and contemplated the fowls ecstatically. Dick +contemplated also, trying to pick out the offending rooster. + +"Which rooster, Jilly?" + +But Jilly only smiled vaguely. "Feed a wooster," she commanded after +another season of gazing. + +"Yes, to be sure, but what would you suggest that I offer him? There +doesn't seem to be anything edible round here." + +The chickens seconded Jilly's suggestion, coming to the fence and +clucking excitedly. + +Jilly looked pained at Dick's indolence and, taking his hand, led him +over to a covered wooden box, which was found to contain shelled corn. +The chickens were duly fed, but Dick still puzzled over the unchastized +rooster until Marian enlightened him later. + +"I shall have to give you a key to Jilly's dialect," Marian +laughed--"she merely wanted you to go with her to see the chickens." + +Chicken Little was enjoying her guests. Her resolve to help mother was +carried out only semi-occasionally when there were raspberries or +currants to be picked or peas to be shelled, under the grape arbor so +they wouldn't be in Annie's way in the kitchen. At first, Mrs. Morton +had counted on having the girls help with the breakfast dishes, but they +developed such a genius for disappearing immediately after breakfast +that she gave it up as more bother than it was worth. + +They tramped and rode, and waded and splashed and finally swam, in the +bathing hole down at the creek, under Marian's or Alice's supervision, +till Katie and Gertie were brown and hearty. + +"Mrs. Halford wouldn't know Gertie--she's fairly made over," Alice +observed one morning. + +Gertie was fast losing her timidity and had so much persistence in +learning to ride that she bade fair to have a more graceful seat in the +saddle than Jane herself. Sherm was deep in farm work and the girls saw +little either of him or of Ernest, except in the evenings and on +Sundays. Dick ran the reaper in the harvest field for Dr. Morton for +three days, but his zeal waned as the weather got hotter. + +"This is my vacation and I don't want to sweat my sweet self entirely +away 'in little drops of water.' Think how pained you'd be, dearest," he +told Alice. + +"I never dreamed there was so much farming to a ranch," Alice remarked +to Dr. Morton one day. "I thought you attended to the cattle----" + +"And rode around in chaps and sombreros, looking picturesque, the rest +of the time," interrupted Dick. "My precious wife is disappointed +because she hasn't seen any cowboys cavorting about the place shooting +each other up or gambling with nice picturesque bags of gold dust." + +"Dick Harding! I didn't. But we'd hardly know there were any cattle +round if we didn't go through the pasture occasionally." + +"Our big pastures take them off our hands pretty well in summer, but in +winter they have to be fed and herded and looked after generally, don't +they, Chicken Little? Humbug has played herd boy herself more than once. +You are thinking of the big cattle ranges in Colorado and Montana and +Wyoming, Alice. This country is cut up into farms and the ranges are +gone. And we have to raise our corn and wheat and rye, not to mention +fruits and vegetables. It's a busy life, but I love its independence." + +A day or two after this conversation, Ernest came in late to dinner, +exclaiming: "Father, the white sow and all her thirteen pigs are out." + +"The Dickens, have you any idea where she's gone?" Dr. Morton looked +decidedly annoyed. "I told Jim Bart that pen wasn't strong enough to +hold her--she's the meanest animal on the place." + +"One of the harvest hands said he thought he saw her down along the +slough. I am sorry for the porkers if she is--they aren't a week old +yet." + +"Go down right after dinner and see if you can see anything of her. The +old fool will lose them all in that marshy ground. And I don't see how +we can spare a man to look after them. It looks like rain and that wheat +must be in the barns by night." + +Ernest came back from his search to report that the sow and one lone pig +had wandered back to the barnyard and Jim Bart had got them into the +pen. + +"One pig! You don't mean she has lost the other twelve? That's costly +business!" + +"Looks that way. They're such little fellows--I suppose they're +squealing down there in the slough in that swamp grass--it's a regular +jungle three or four feet high." + +Dr. Morton studied a moment, perplexed. "Well, the grain is worth more +than the pigs. I guess they'll have to go until evening and then we'll +all go down and see how many we can find. They won't suffer greatly +before night unless they find enough water to drown themselves in." + +"Oh, the poor piggies!" exclaimed Chicken Little. "Why, they'll be most +starved and maybe the bull snakes might get them." + +"I hardly think they could manage a pig. But I can't help it, unless you +think you could rescue them, daughter." Dr. Morton said this last in +fun, but Chicken Little took it seriously. + +"What could I put them in, Father?" + +"Oh, you might take a small chicken coop," replied her father +carelessly. The wagons coming from the barn were already rattling into +the road and he was in a hurry to catch one and save himself the hot +walk to the fields. + +Chicken Little was thinking. She sat twisting a corner of her apron into +a tight roll. "I believe we could do it," she said presently, "and the +bull snakes are perfectly harmless if they are big, ugly-looking things. +Will you help me, Katie?" + +"Ugh, are there really snakes there, Jane?" + +"Yes, but we've never seen any poisonous ones along there, though I saw +a water moccasin once right down by the spring, so you never can tell. +But snakes sound a lot worse than they really are, 'cause they're such +cowards they always run." + +Katy considered. The task did not sound attractive, but Katy was plucky. +"I guess, if you can do it, I can." + +Jane had not thought of asking Gertie and she was surprised to hear her +say: "I'm coming, too." + +"Oh, Gertie, won't you be afraid?" + +"Yes, I'm afraid, but I don't want the little piggies killed--just think +how you'd feel if you were lost in such a dreadful place and there were +snakes and awful things. If I see a snake I'll yell bloody murder, and I +guess it'll let me alone." + +Jane threw herself on Gertie and hugged her. "Gertie Halford, I think +you'd make a real, sure enough book heroine, because you do things when +you think you ought to, whether you're scared or not." + +"I wish Dick hadn't gone to town to-day," said Katy. + +Chicken Little had her campaign already planned. "I'm going to get +Ernest's and Frank's and Sherm's rubber boots for us. They'll be lots +too big, but we can tie them around the legs to make them stick on. They +will be fine in the mud and water if we have to wade in the slough. Yes, +and they will protect us from the snakes, too. We won't put them on till +we get down there; they will be too hard to walk in. And we can take +Jilly's red wagon and put the smallest chicken coop on it. It isn't +heavy." + +Mrs. Morton had gone to town with Dick and Alice for the day or the +girls would probably not have been permitted to carry out their unusual +undertaking. They quickly made their preparations with much joking about +the boots, and twenty minutes later came to the banks of the slough. The +slough was in reality a continuation of the spring stream, which spread +out in the meadows below the pond until it lost all semblance of a +stream and became merely a marshy stretch, whose waters finally found +their way into the creek. In the meadows adjoining, the finest hay on +the place was cut each year. + +The girls sat down on the grass and fastened on the boots. The effect +was somewhat startling, for they reached well above the knee on Chicken +Little, who was the tallest of the three, while poor Gertie seemed to be +divided into two equal parts. + +Both Katy and Jane giggled when she got laboriously to her feet. + +"There's more boots than girl, Gertie," laughed Jane. + +"You don't need to be afraid, Sis, you'll scare anything, even a snake!" +Katy remarked unfeelingly, though her words reassured Gertie +wonderfully. + +"I don't feel so afraid in these," she said. + +Chicken Little was slowly making her way in to the slough. "Jim found +the mother pig near here, Ernest said, but the little scamps may be most +anywhere. Let's listen and see if we can hear any squeals or grunts." + +"Yes, I did--I'm most sure, but it didn't sound very close by," Gertie +answered. + +Chicken Little listened. "Which way did the sound come from?" + +"Toward the creek, but I don't hear it any more." + +[Illustration: They had a pretty chase.] + +"We'd better search pretty carefully as we go along so we won't have to +come back over the same ground," remarked Katy, who had a genius for +organizing--even a pig hunt. "You are the tallest, Jane, so you take the +tallest grass next the water, and I'll come along half way up the bank +and Gertie can walk through the meadow grass--that way we can't miss +them." + +"No, for they must be on this side of the slough: they're too little to +wade across it." + +Chicken Little made the first find, two discouraged little porkers, +hopelessly mired and grunting feebly when disturbed. They had no trouble +in catching these, but holding their wet, miry little bodies was a +different matter. They were slippery as eels. Chicken Little and Katy, +who each had one, found them a handful. + +"Oh, mine most got away! And I'm all over mud--we'll be a sight!" Katy +giggled hysterically. "I wonder what mother would think if she could see +me now." + +"Well, it will all wash off. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so hard +to clump along in these old boots. It takes forever to get any place." + +They had sent Gertie on ahead to open the coop door. With a sigh of +relief, Katy shoved hers into it. Jane was not so lucky. Instead of +going in, as a well-regulated pig should, the small, black-and-white +sinner shot off to one side and made for the slough again. They had a +pretty chase before he finally tangled himself up in the grass and was +captured once more. + +They plodded back to take up the search where they had left off, going +through the shorter grass till they should reach the point where they +had found the pigs. They were clumping along, chattering gaily, when +Katy jumped and let out a yell that could have been heard a block away. + +"Oh, there's the biggest snake I ever saw--over there near that +rock--don't you see?" + +Gertie turned white, but Chicken Little encouraged her by starting +toward the monster, which was indeed a huge bull snake fully five feet +long, as Ernest and Sherm found by actual measurement that evening. + +"Pooh," said Chicken Little, "it looks dreadful, but it won't hurt you. +If I can find some stones I'm going to try to kill it." + +"Don't you dare go near it." Katy grabbed her dress and held on tight. + +"But we'll all be scared to death all the time, for fear we come across +it again, if I don't. There are some rocks over there big enough, if I +can get them out of the ground." + +She went resolutely over and, prying with a stick, secured two +good-sized rocks. Armed with these, she started toward the snake coiled +up asleep in the hot July sunshine. Katy and Gertie watched her +breathlessly. Chicken Little advanced with caution. She didn't like the +job herself, though she was sure the snake wouldn't do anything worse +than run. She had seen her elders kill them more than once, and they had +always been cowardly. Nevertheless, her heart thumped and her breath +came fast, as she crept nearer. She must go close and aim at the head if +she hoped to do any execution. Step by step she crept forward till she +was within four feet of that ugly coil. Stopping, she raised the heavy +stone and took careful aim. At this instant her presence disturbed the +snake. It raised its oval head, fixing her with its beady, bright eyes. +A thrill of horror shot through her. What if it should fascinate her so +she couldn't move? She had heard of such things. She heaved the stone, +shutting her eyes tight as it left her hand. + +Katy and Gertie both screamed and jumped back. Jane opened her eyes +quickly to see the snake uncoil and start to glide away. She saw +something else, too. She saw that her stone had wounded it just behind +the head. Her courage flowed back in a trice. She raised the other stone +and moved forward. The snake was slipping over the ground at a swift +pace. She had to run, catching up with it as it came to its hole, a few +feet distant. She smashed down the second rock almost in the same place +she had hit before. The reptile moved feebly about six inches farther +till its ugly head was hidden inside the hole, then thrashed its heavy +body through another undulation, and lay still. + +Chicken Little stood looking at it in dazed surprise for several +seconds. She was white and trembling with excitement. Seeing that it did +not move, Katy and Gertie crept a little closer. No one said a word for +a full minute, then Chicken Little came to life, her face convulsed with +loathing. + +"Ugh, the nasty thing--I hate them. I don't see what God wanted to make +such horrid, wicked things for!" + +"Well, the Bible says they weren't wicked till Eve ate the apple," Katy +replied, staring curiously down at the snake. She had never seen such a +big one outside of a circus. "But I think they must have always looked +wicked, anyhow. How did you ever dare, Chicken Little, to tackle it? I +was expecting it to wind right round you like that picture of Laocoon in +our mythology." + +"I shouldn't have dared if I hadn't seen so many of them before. I guess +being brave is mostly being used to things. But I hate snakes worse than +anything in the world--I don't feel a bit sorry about killing them!" + +"Oh, dear," said Gertie, shuddering, "I s'pose we have got to find the +rest of the pigs." + +Katy and Chicken Little each echoed the sigh. They all started ahead +resolutely. But they kept closer together for a time. They went some +little distance without finding any further signs of the lost animals. + +"You don't suppose we could have passed them, do you?" Katy inquired +anxiously. + +"We couldn't, if they are on this side of the slough." + +A few rods farther on something moved in the swamp grass. All three +jumped and screamed: their nerve had been sadly weakened by the bull +snake. + +A squeal and chorus of grunts reassured them. + +"Here they are--a lot of them. Oh, dear, I wish we'd brought the coop +along so we wouldn't have to go back." Jane parted the tall grass and +discovered five of the fugitives huddled together. They were much +livelier than the first ones and showed symptoms of bolting if the girls +approached nearer. + +"I'll go back for it," said Katy. "I'll go through the short grass and I +won't be afraid." + +Chicken Little and Gertie watched and waited. + +"Isn't that little white one with the pink ears and curly tail cunning? +I didn't suppose pigs could be so pretty." + +"They are only pretty when they are weenties. As soon as they grow old +enough to root in the mud, they are horrid." + +When Katy returned they anchored the red wagon with the chicken coop and +the two captured piglets as close to the slough as possible. All three +crept upon the pig cache cautiously. + +"Pick out which one you'll grab, for they are going to run sure," +Chicken Little admonished. + +They made a dash and each got a pig, but, alas, the two free ones made a +dash also--a break for liberty worthy of an Indian. They selected routes +immediately in front of, and immediately behind Chicken Little, whose +attention was absorbed with trying to hold a squealing, squirming pig. +The result was disastrous to all concerned. Pig No. 1 tripped her up +neatly and she sat down hastily and unexpectedly upon Pig No. 2, who +gave one agonized squeal, in which the pig in her arms joined. +Fortunately, her victim did not get her whole weight or there would have +been one pig the less in this vale of tears. Chicken Little squashed him +down gently into some two inches of oozy mud and water. It splashed in +all directions, baptizing Katy and Gertie and the fleeing pig as well as +completing the ruin of Jane's pink gingham frock, fresh that morning. + +The sight of her amazed and disgusted face generously decorated with +mud, was too much for Katy. She giggled till the tears stood in her +eyes. Chicken Little was indignant. + +"I guess you wouldn't think it was so funny, if it was you," she replied +with dignity. Dignity did not become her tout ensemble. Katy went off +into fresh screams of mirth. Chicken Little had stood about all she +could that afternoon. Her face flamed with wrath, and, gathering up the +struggling pig in her arms, she hurled it at Katy, as the only missile +within reach. Piggy just missed Katy's head, tumbling harmlessly into +the ooze. Chicken Little was instantly remorseful, not on Katy's account +but on Piggy's. + +Katy was furious. She didn't say a word, but walked deliberately over to +the coop, deposited her pig very gently and started toward the house. + +Gertie tried to stop her, but she shook her off. Chicken Little, too +angry to care what happened, relieved herself of the rest of her +ill-temper. + +"Go off and be hateful if you want to--a lot I care, Miss Katy Halford. +I should think you'd be ashamed to act so when you are most fifteen." + +A swift retort rose to Katy's lips, but she decided it would be more +impressive to remain dignifiedly silent. She stalked on. Gertie +hesitated as to which of the belligerents she should follow, but finally +decided in favor of the one who needed her worst. She put her pig in the +coop and came to help Jane up. The latter was already ashamed of her +outburst, but was far from being ready to acknowledge it. The other +three pigs had not gone far and they soon had them safely in the coop. +They were debating as to whether they should give up hunting for the +others, when a hail from the road brought aid and comfort. Katy had met +Dr. Morton coming from the field on an errand and had told him what they +were trying to do. He was delighted and surprised to see the seven +rescued pigs. + +"Why, Chicken Little, I didn't really suppose you were in earnest +or----" Dr. Morton stopped suddenly, he had just taken a good look at +his only daughter--the look was effective. He threw back his head and +roared. + +"Oh, if you could just see yourself, Jane!" + +This was adding insult to injury and Chicken Little burst into tears. +"You can just hunt your old pigs yourself--I don't think it's nice of +you to laugh when I tried so hard!" + +"Come, come, I beg your pardon, but you are enough to make an owl laugh, +Humbug. It was fine of you to try to rescue the pigs. You girls deserve +a great deal of credit, for it is a disagreeable, muddy job. I guess +I'll have to make it up to you. I'll tell you what I'll do. You may have +this litter for your very own, and we'll send the little girls their +share over the cost of keeping, when the pigs are sold. How will that +do?" + +Chicken Little was not in the mood to be easily appeased. + +"Yes, but you say things are mine till you want to sell them, and then I +never see the money." + +This was touching a sore point. The Doctor had been a little remiss on +the subject of the children's ownership of their pets. He was nettled by +this accusation. + +"My dear, when I say a thing I mean it. I was about to add, though, that +if I give you the entire proceeds of the pigs I shall expect you to +attend to feeding them until they are big enough to be turned in with +the drove." + +"I thought the mother fed them." + +"Well, the mother pig has to be fed." + +"Do you really, truly, mean it, Father?" + +"Truly." + +Chicken Little forgot the late unpleasantness. "Oh, goody, let's call +Katy back and tell her!" + +Katy was not so far away as might have been anticipated. Her wrath was +dissipating also. + +Dr. Morton lingered to help them a few moments and to satisfy himself +that they could not do themselves any damage that a bath and the wash +tub could not repair, then left them once more to their own resources. + +By four o'clock they had all but one of the missing pigs safely stowed +in the coop. They were very tired and hot, and decided to save the joy +of hunting for the last pig for Ernest and Sherm in the evening. + +It was well they did. The wee stray would have led them a chase. He had +found his way almost to the creek, and it took the boys a good hour of +wading and beating the swamp grass to discover him. + +Just as Chicken Little was dropping off to sleep that night, Katy roused +her. + +"Do you suppose we'll get as much as five dollars apiece from those +pigs?" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A PARTY AND A PICNIC + + +Gertie looked wistful. Dick and Alice were going on to Denver that +morning to return a month later for the little girls. All three were to +drive into town with Dr. Morton to see them off. The mere thought of +anyone going away made Gertie a little homesick. She went out to the +chicken yard, where nine of the young prairie chickens were flourishing +under the care of a much-deceived hen, who had adopted them with the +mistaken notion that they were her own egg kin. The little mottled +things seemed very much out of place among the domestic fowls. They were +wild and shy and astonishingly fleet on their reed-like legs. Gertie +loved to watch them. Two of the chicks had died the first night, and +one, two days later. But the rest survived, and, in the course of time, +flew away to join their wild mates. + +"Dear me, I wonder what we can do next?" said Chicken Little, as they +watched the train pull out with Dick waving from the rear platform. + +Dick's and Alice's going seemed to have finished things, at least for +the time being. Her question was answered as soon as she got home. + +"Jane," said her mother, "I have just received an invitation for you and +the girls that I am a little doubtful about. Ernest and Sherm are +invited, too, but not to remain for the night." + +"Stay all night? Where, Mother, where?" + +"With Mamie Jenkins. The Jenkins family are hardly as refined as I could +wish for your associates; still they are good religious people, if they +are plain, and Katy and Gertie might enjoy going to a country party." + +"A party? O Mother, please let us go." + +"I don't mind so much your coming to the party, but they want to have +you stay overnight and attend a picnic some of the young people are +getting up for the next afternoon." + +Katy was as eager as Jane for the festivity and Mrs. Morton was at +length persuaded to pocket her scruples and permit the girls to accept +Mamie's invitation. Ernest and Sherm were also delighted at the prospect +of a frolic. They were to take the girls over and leave them for the +night, returning the next afternoon for the picnic, which was to start +from the Jenkin's farm. + +But when the day of the party arrived, Gertie backed out, begging to be +left at home with Mrs. Morton. The thought of meeting so many strangers +frightened her. + +"I doubt if she would enjoy it. She would be the youngest one +there--most of them will be from fourteen to twenty. The neighbors live +so far apart, they have to combine different ages in order to find +guests enough for a party." + +At first, Chicken Little would not hear to Gertie's remaining behind, +but finding that she would really be happier at home, stopped urging +her. Jane and Katy were soon joyfully planning what they should wear. +They were to go in their party frocks, each taking another dress along +for the morning and the picnic. Jane was to wear Alice's gift. Katy had +a dainty ruffled muslin with cherry-colored sash and hair ribbons. + +"I was afraid I wasn't going to have a single chance to wear it here," +she remarked naively. + +The boys were busy shining their shoes, and performing certain mysteries +of shaving with very little perceptible change in their appearance. +Ernest felt that he could not possibly go without a new necktie, but as +no one was going to town before the event, he had to content himself +with borrowing one from Frank. + +It took the combined efforts of Marian and Gertie and Mrs. Morton to get +the revellers dressed to their satisfaction. Gertie waited on the two +girls as patiently as any maid. Marian was in great demand by the boys +to coax in refractory cuff buttons and give a "tony" twist to the ties. + +"Is tony the very latest, Ernest?" + +"That's what Sherm says. Just make the bow a little more perky, can't +you, Marian? I don't want to look like a country Jake." + +"Ernest, you are just the boy to go to Annapolis; you are so fussy about +your clothes." + +"Golly, I hope I do get to go. Father hasn't heard from the Senator yet, +but he may be away from home." + +Sherm was struggling with his tie, getting red and hot in the process. +He had just tied it nearly to his satisfaction, when he carelessly gave +it a jerk and had it all to do over again. + +"Caesar's Ghost!" he exclaimed vengefully, "what do they make these +things so pesky slippery for?" + +Marian laughed and Sherm colored in embarrassment over his outburst. + +"Please excuse me, but this is the fifth time I've tied the critter." + +"Let me try." Marian turned him to the light and had the bow nicely +exact in no time. + +The girls found their source of woe in their hair. Katy, having learned +that most of the young people would be older than themselves, decided to +put her hair up, and look grown up, too. Mrs. Morton was horrified and +made Katy take it down. Katy, though rebellious, dared not oppose her +hostess openly. She contented herself with taking a handful of hair pins +along and putting it up after she reached Mamie's. To be sure the heavy +braids piled upon her small head looked rather queer, especially with +her short skirts, which she could not contrive to lengthen. But Katy +made up for this defect by an unwonted dignity, and actually persuaded a +majority of the people she met that she was sixteen at the very least. + +Country folk gather early and they found the fun well started when they +arrived. The Jenkins family had come to the neighborhood about a year +before from Iowa. + +The farmhouse was new and rather more pretentious than most on the +creek. Lace curtains with robust patterns draped the windows in +fresh-starched folds. A green and red ingrain carpet covered the floor, +while the entire Jenkins family--there were four olive branches--done in +crayon by a local photographer, adorned the walls. It would be more +truthful to say, adorned three walls. The fourth was sacred to a real +oil painting in an unlimited gilt frame, which had come as a prize for +extra subscriptions to the St. Louis _Globe-Democrat_. Mrs. Jenkins +regarded this treasure almost with reverence. "I do think it is real +uplifting to have a work of art in the house, don't you, Mrs. Brown?" +she had been heard to remark to a neighbor who failed to notice this +gem. The family bible and a red plush photograph album rested on the +marble-topped table, usually placed in the exact center of the room. +To-night, it was pushed back against the wall to make more room for the +games. + +Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins were rigid Methodists and would not tolerate any +such worldly amusement as dancing. Kissing games were substituted, and +if, as the Jenkins believed, these were more elevating, they were +certainly coarser and rougher than the dancing would have been. + +Mamie had attended the Garland High School for one year and had acquired +different ideas. She would have much preferred the dancing, but her +parents were firm. Mamie deemed herself a full-fledged young lady at +fifteen. Her highest ambitions were to have "style" and plenty of beaux. + +Ernest and Sherm had to find a place to tie the horses. They lingered +also a moment at the pump to wash the leathery smell of the harness from +their hands--a fastidious touch that would have subjected them to much +guying if the other boys had seen them. + +So Chicken Little led Katy into the crowded room, unsupported. There was +no hall or entry and they were plunged directly into the thick of the +party. Many of the country lads and lasses were her mates at the +district school and greeted her cordially, eyeing Katy, however, with +frankly curious stares. Mrs. Jenkins relieved her embarrassment by +taking them upstairs to remove their wraps. She introduced herself to +Katy before Jane could get out the little speech of presentation her +mother had urged her not to forget, since Katy, being a stranger, should +be made to feel at home as quickly as possible. Chicken Little hated +introducing people and had been dreading the ordeal, but kindly Mrs. +Jenkins took Katy by the hand and presented her to the whole roomful at +one fell swoop. + +"This is Miss Katy Halford, young folks, and I want you all to introduce +yourselves and see that she has a good time or she'll think you are a +lot of green country jays who haven't any manners." + +"King William was King James's son" was in full swing. The young folks +made places for the two girls in the ring and promptly drew in Ernest +and Sherm as soon as they entered. The lilting tune was sung lustily +while the supposed victim in the center, a handsome lad of sixteen with +bold, black eyes and dark curls, surveyed the girls, big and little, +with an evident enjoyment of his privileges. + +Several of the older boys interrupted their singing to give him advice. + +"Take the city girl, Grant, buck up and show your manners." "Bet you +knew who you'd choose before you left home." "Don't let on that you +don't know which girl you want--Mamie's biting her lips already to wash +off that kiss." + +The boy returned or ignored this badinage as he saw fit. + +Mamie, however, was indignantly protesting that he needn't try to kiss +her. Grant looked in her direction and smiled as the fateful instant +arrived. Indeed, he started toward her, then mischievously whirled +around and seizing Chicken Little, who was whispering to Katy that Grant +was Mamie's beau, kissed her with a resounding smack. + +Chicken Little was taken so unawares that she had time neither to blush +nor to protest or struggle, as was considered etiquette on such +occasions. She didn't even try to rub it off, as was also customary. She +just looked at him with such a funny mixture of surprise and dismay that +everybody roared, including Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins and some of the older +neighbors who had come in to see the fun. + +"Here, Chicken Little, you need practice," and "Chicken Little acts as +if she didn't know what kisses were. You'll have to have a rehearsal +beforehand next time, Grant!" "Why, Grant? What's the matter with the +rest of us?" These comments were open and noisy. + +Ernest took all this coarse bantering at his young sister's expense +good-naturedly. He knew no offence was intended. He had been present at +a number of these rural frolics. But Sherm, town-bred and unaccustomed +to this form of amusement, was distinctly displeased both at the kiss +and the talk. He got Chicken Little off to one side as soon as he could. + +"Say, Chicken Little, don't let the boys kiss you." + +Chicken Little looked concerned. "I don't like them to, Sherm, but I +can't help it if I play--and they'd think I was awfully stuck up and +rude if I refused." + +"Does your mother know they have this sort of games?" + +Chicken Little made a little grimace. "Don't go and be grown-up and +horrid, Sherm. Everybody does it here. They'll stop this pretty soon and +play clap in and clap out or forfeits." + +Her big brown eyes were lifted so innocently and sweetly that Sherm +couldn't say any more, but he felt a curious desire to fight every time +a big boy so much as stared at Jane. + +"She's such a kid!" he explained the feeling to himself, "and Ernest +isn't looking after her at all." + +Katy entered into the romping heart and soul. Katy was playing young +lady. Her pink cheeks and laughing eyes and little flirtatious ways were +very popular with the boys--so popular that Mamie was vexed because many +of her mates seemed to have eyes only for the city girl, as she called +her behind her back. + +Mamie eased her mind by treating her special friends haughtily. She got +even with the recreant Grant by choosing Ernest the very first time in +Post Office. She even put some of the girls up to boycotting the boys +who were hanging round Katy, for one entire game, persuading them to +choose Ernest and Sherm alternately till the others were jealously +wrathful without being quite sure whether it was accident or conspiracy. +Considering his scruples about kissing, Sherm submitted most meekly. He +had the grace to color when Chicken Little remarked carelessly: "It +wasn't so bad as you thought it would be, was it, Sherm?" + +"Oh, it's different with boys," he retorted loftily. "Little girls like +you don't understand." + +"Little girls! I suppose you think yourself a man grown. You needn't +feel so big because you're most seventeen. I heard Dick say a boy of +seventeen wasn't really any older than a girl of fifteen, because girls +grow up quicker. So there, you're not much more than a year older than I +am!" + +Sherm's "little girl" rankled not only that evening but for weeks +afterwards. She told Katy and Mamie in strict confidence after they had +gone upstairs that night. + +"I'd show him if I were you, Jane," advised Mamie the experienced. + +Chicken Little needed no urging, but she was in doubt how to proceed. + +"My, I wish I was awfully beautiful and grown up. I'd make him fall so +many billions deep in love with me he couldn't squeak." Jane felt +positively vindictive whenever she thought of Sherm's patronizing tone. +She had neglected to mention to the girls the little conversation that +had preceded her remark to Sherm. She didn't consider it necessary to +tell everything she knew. + +Mamie tittered. "Pooh, you sound as if you had been reading Sir Walter +Scott. They don't do things that way nowadays. When I was in town last +winter at school I had lots of boys gone on me, and I'm not a raving, +tearing beauty either." + +Mamie looked as if she expected her guests to contradict her, but they +were too much impressed with her conquests to do anything so rude. A +little disappointed, but finding their absorbed expressions encouraging, +Mamie preceded to retail her adventures. Boiled down, these were mainly +a box of candy and various walks taken at recesses and noons, with an +occasional escort to a party. They were sufficiently thrilling to the +others, who had never been permitted even such mild forms of +dissipation. + +"My, wouldn't I catch it if Papa ever caught me walking with a boy!" + +Katy painted the paternal wrath with a real relish. It seemed to furnish +an adequate excuse for her having nothing to relate and put her on a +little pinnacle of superior breeding as well. Her parents looked after +her. It was only more ordinary people who permitted their daughters to +run about at fifteen. + +Mamie was keen enough to realize this and she promptly resented Katy's +patronizing tone. + +"Oh, Pa would have been mad, too, if he had known. But I was staying +with my aunt. She didn't care what I did, just so I was on time to meals +and didn't run around after dark." + +Katy was determined to keep up her end. "We used to have wonderful times +at the church oyster suppers. One night last winter Dr. Wade--you don't +remember him, Chicken Little, he's only been in Centerville about a +year. Well, he took me in for oysters and bought me candy and three +turns at the grab bag. And he is a grown-up man--he's been a doctor for +over two years." + +Katy would hardly have told this story if Gertie had been there. She +neglected to mention that Dr. Wade had kindly included Gertie and five +other young girls in these courtesies. Or that he had remarked to Mrs. +Halford that he loved to be with children because he missed his own +brothers and sisters sadly. But Gertie was not present to mar the effect +of this story with further particulars. Mamie began to rack her brain +for forgotten attentions worthy to be classed with this superb +generosity. Poor Chicken Little was hopelessly out-classed. Nothing more +thrilling than being singled out in games and Blackman at school had +happened to her. + +"Grant Stowe said you had the prettiest eyes of any girl here to-night. +I heard him tell Jennie Brown so when she asked him whether he liked +blue eyes or brown best. She is the awfulest thing--always fishing for +compliments." + +This was generous of Mamie, for Grant was the one who had passed her by +so recently. But Katy's eyes were also distanced and Mamie had been very +much thrilled by hearing that Ernest might go to Annapolis. Further, he +had chosen her twice that evening. She felt amiably disposed toward +Ernest's sister. + +When the tales of past glories were exhausted, the conversation grew +intermittent, being punctuated by frequent yawns. They were just on the +point of dropping off to sleep when Mamie suddenly opened her eyes and +sat up in bed with a jerk. + +"Music! Don't you hear it? I shouldn't wonder if some of the boys were +out serenading. Oh, I do hope they'll come here." + +Katy and Chicken Little listened breathlessly. + +"It is!" + +"Yes, and it's coming nearer." + +All three hopped out of bed and crouched down by the window. The moon +was setting, but there was still a faint radiance. The strains were +growing more distinct. + +"I bet it's Grant Stowe and his two cousins from the Prairie Hill +district. They are staying all night with him and are going to the +picnic to-morrow. Don't you remember that red-headed boy?" + +"It sounds like a banjo and guitar," said Katy. "Oh, I do love a guitar. +It always makes me think of 'Gaily the troubadour.'" Katy gave a wriggle +of delight at this romantic ending to the night's festivities. She was +already planning to tell the girls at home about the wonderful serenade. + +The tinkle tinkle of the thin notes grew stronger and clearer and they +found that a third instrument, which had puzzled them, was a mouth +organ. + +"I didn't suppose anybody could really make music with a mouth organ, +but it goes nicely with the others." Chicken Little, like Katy, was more +excited over the serenade than the party. It seemed so delightfully +young ladyfied. + +The trio had one awful moment, for the music seemed to be dying away and +still there was no human in sight. Suddenly it stopped altogether. They +listened and waited--not a sound rewarded them. + +"I think it's downright mean if they've gone by." Mamie's tone was more +than injured. + +The words were hardly out of her mouth when a stealthy foot-fall came +directly beneath their window, and guitar, mandolin, and mouth organ +burst forth into "My Bonnie," supported after the opening strains by +half a dozen boyish voices. + +The boys had crept in so close to the wall of the house that the girls +had not discovered them. The young ladies ducked at the first sound, and +hastily slipped their dresses over their night gowns so they could look +out again. + +"O dear," said Mamie, "I almost forgot my curl papers." + +They were arrayed in time to reward the serenaders with a vigorous +clapping of hands, Father and Mother Jenkins joining in from the window +of their bedroom downstairs. + +"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" floated up next, followed by "Over the Garden +Wall," which, if not choice, had the distinction of being sung in New +York, as Grant Stowe proudly informed them. + +It was three o'clock past, before they finally settled down in bed once +more. Faint suggestions of dawn were already apparent. + +"It's not much use to go to bed, Father always gets up at six," mourned +Mamie. + +A brilliant idea struck Katy. "Suppose we stay up all night. Grace Dart +said she did once when her father was so sick, and she said it was the +most wonderful thing to see the sun rise when you hadn't been to bed at +all." + +This proposal met with instant favor. They clambered out of bed and lit +the small oil lamp, wrapping themselves in quilts and petticoats +impartially, for the air was growing chilly. The next three hours were +the longest any of the three had ever known. In spite of fortune +telling, and a thrilling story which Mamie read in tragic whispers, the +minutes shuffled along like hours. Yawns interrupted almost every +sentence and much mutual prodding and sharp reproaches were necessary to +keep their heavy eyes open. They were too sleepy to care whether the sun +rose in the usual sedate way or pirouetted up chasing a star. In fact, +they forgot all about the expected sunrise. They wanted just two +things--sleep and something to eat. + +The call to breakfast was even sweeter than the serenade had been. +Father and Mother Jenkins were concerned at their jaded appearance. + +"Seems like parties don't agree with you young ones none too well. I +reckon we won't have them very often," Father Jenkins remarked tartly. +His own eyes smarted from loss of sleep. + +"I don't believe you ought to go to the picnic this afternoon if you are +feeling so played out," Mother Jenkins added. "Your Ma will think I +haven't taken good care of you. It was them good-for-nothing boys +a-coming that wore you plumb out." + +Generous cups of strong coffee--a luxury not permitted to either Chicken +Little or Katy at home--woke them up and they got through the morning +nicely. Not for worlds would they have missed that picnic. + +But even the coffee could not carry them through the afternoon. They +were the butts of the entire party on account of their dullness and +heavy eyes. + +Ernest expressed his disgust with his sister openly. "Well, I think +Mother'd better keep you at home till you're old enough not to be such a +baby." Jane had been nodding in spite of herself. + +"Looks to me as if you girls had stayed up all night!" exclaimed Grant +Stowe. + +Mamie roused enough to retort: "Well, I guess you didn't get any too +much sleep yourself." + +"We can keep awake if we didn't. But if it has this kind of effect on +you, we'll leave you out the next time we go serenading." + +It had been arranged that they should catch fish for the picnic supper. +The girls had brought a huge frying pan and the butter and corn meal to +cook them in. As soon as the teams were cared for, the boys got out +fishing tackle and bait and the party broke up into small groups for the +fishing. Grant Stowe offered to help Chicken Little with her line. She +found this courtesy on his part embarrassing, for Katy and Mamie +exchanged looks, and she was so utterly sleepy, that she would have +preferred Ernest or Sherm so she wouldn't be expected to talk. Chicken +Little had gone to school with Grant the preceding winter. He was always +a leader in their school games and a great favorite. + +Grant found a snug place beside a deep pool that promised catfish at the +very least, and might be expected to yield a few trout. He made her +comfortable on the spreading roots of an elm growing upward with +difficulty from a steep bank. Grant smiled at her as he handed her the +rod and tossed the baited hook into the stillest part of the pool. + +"There, you ought to get a bite soon. This is one of the best places on +the creek for catfish. Say, what did you girls do to yourselves that you +are so used up to-day? You didn't take a five-mile walk or anything +after we left, did you?" + +Jane laughed. "Don't you wish you knew?" + +"Oh, I'll find out, but I wish you'd tell me." Grant looked at her from +under his long black lashes. His tone was distinctly wheedling. + +Chicken Little laughed again and shook her head. + +Grant threw his own line in, seating himself a little lower down on the +bank; and quiet reigned for several minutes. + +But the boy was determined to get the secret from her. After a tedious +silence, he began in a low tone so that he would not disturb the fish: +"You know, Chicken Little, I always did think you were the prettiest +girl in school, but you were such a kid you never took the trouble to +look at a fellow. Seems to me you might be nice now and tell me what you +did." + +He neglected to mention the fact that he had bet Mamie a silk +handkerchief against a plate of taffy that he would find out what they +had been up to before night. He received no response. + +"Oh, come now, be a trump and tell a fellow." + +He glanced around this time with a tenderly reproachful look. This +tenderness speedily vanished. Jane was peacefully asleep, her head +supported against the tree trunk. + +The boy's face flushed wrathfully for an instant, but he had a saving +sense of humor. "Serves me right for trying to get the best of a kid, I +guess," he said to himself. He let her sleep on undisturbed until the +sound of voices announced the approach of some of the others, when he +hastily wakened her. He did not intend to be laughed at for the rest of +the day. + +Chicken Little found it hard to wake up and was heavy-eyed and stupid +the remainder of the afternoon. Fortunately for her and Katy, Ernest had +orders from his mother to be home by dark. + +Patient Gertie was waiting expectantly to hear about the good times, but +she could hardly extract three words from either of the revellers. +Parties and boys and finery were all stale, but their neatly made bed +looked like heaven. + + + + +Chapter IX + +BREAD AND POLLIWOGS + + +Three days elapsed before Katy and Jane could settle down to the quiet, +daily life of the ranch. If Gertie had found them disappointingly mute +that first evening, she never had to complain again. They went over and +over the thrilling events of the night and the picnic the next +afternoon, till Gertie got sick of hearing what "Mamie said" and how +_he_ looked and how wonderful the serenade had been. Indeed, these +events seemed to grow in importance the farther off they were. Gertie +was seldom pettish, but Katy's seventeenth repetition of what Grant +Stowe's cousin said to her while they were fishing left her cold. + +"Shut up, Katy, I'm sick of hearing about it. I don't care what he said +and I just know he thought you were a silly little girl trying to seem +grown up when you aren't! You know Mother wouldn't like you to act so, +and I guess Mrs. Morton'd be ashamed of you, too, if she knew." + +"Gertie Halford, if you dare tell!" + +"Thank you, I'm no tattle tale! I intend to forget all about it as soon +as ever I can. But I know Sherm thought you were silly from something he +said." + +Chicken Little related the most presentable of their doings to Marian. +Marian didn't say much at the time, but some days afterwards she told +them tales of the adventures of her own early teens. She ended a little +meaningly: "Do you know, I believe girls can be sillier from thirteen to +sixteen than at any other age? They're exactly like that little buff +cochin rooster you laugh at, because he tries to crow and strut before +he knows how. I hope you girls won't be in a hurry to grow up. There are +so many nice things you can do now that you will have to give up after a +while." + +July was growing unpleasantly hot. The mornings were dewy and fresh, but +by noon they were glad to hunt a shady place. The apple orchard was a +favorite haunt, and the Weeping Willows when the wind was from the right +direction. They took books and crochetting, sometimes the checker board +or dominoes, and spent the long summer afternoons there, with Jilly +tumbling over their feet and Huz and Buz dozing alongside or lazily +snapping at the plaguing flies. + +They had been picking blackberries mornings for Mrs. Morton's +preserving. The rescued litter of pigs was also taking much time. The +mother pig had developed an appetite that was truly appalling. It seemed +to take endless gallon pails of sour milk and baskets of fruit parings +to satisfy her. Dr. Morton would not let them feed corn in summer. + +"Dear me," said Katy, "how big do little pigs have to be before they can +be turned into the corral with the others?" + +"Oh, six or eight weeks, I guess." + +"They are getting awfully smelly!" remarked Gertie, holding her nose, +"and they aren't a bit pretty any more." + +"I know and Father said last night we'd have to begin and feed the pigs +some, too, before long." Chicken Little sighed. This speculation in pigs +had its unpleasant side. + +"I guess we'd have to bring a lot more stuff if Ernest and Sherm didn't +help us out. They give them things to eat lots of times. But I think Jim +Bart might keep the pen a little cleaner," Katy observed. + +"He's so busy he doesn't have time." + +Another morning occupation was bread-making. Dr. Morton had offered a +brand new dollar to the girl who would bring him the first perfect loaf +of bread. They were taking turns under Mrs. Morton's teaching, but it +did seem as if more things could happen to bread. Katy would have had +her perfect loaf, if she hadn't let the dough rise too long. The loaves +were beautiful to look at, but slightly sour, alas! Chicken Little +spoiled her prize batch by sitting down to read and letting it burn. + +Gertie's first and second were very good, but a trifle too solid. Katy +won out on her third, and produced a loaf so light and crisply brown +that Marian said she was envious. + +The others wanted to stop when Katy secured the dollar, but Mrs. Morton +persuaded them to persist until they could equal Katy's. + +"You may send one to Captain Clarke, if you wish." + +This stimulated their waning interest and they tried to produce that +perfect loaf. A week went by before Mrs. Morton nodded approval, saying: +"Yes, that is nice enough for a present. I am sure the Captain will like +it." + +The girls had planned to take it over on the ponies, but Mrs. Morton +wanted to send over two gallons of blackberries also, which was more +than they could manage. + +"I am sending Ernest and Sherm down the creek this evening on an +errand," said Dr. Morton, "and they can stop at Captain Clarke's and +leave the things. You girls can go some other time." + +Chicken Little decided to send some of her spare pinks. She came in with +a great handful just as the boys were ready to start. + +"Where is your loaf, Chicken Little?" asked her mother. + +"O dear, I forgot to wrap it up. It won't take a minute." + +"Take one of the fringed napkins to wrap it in, then put paper around +that," called her mother. + +"Where did you put the bread, Mother?" + +"In the bread box, of course, child, where did you suppose?" + +"There isn't anything but old bread in the box." + +"Well, ask Annie." + +"She's gone to Benton's." + +"Well, I think you're old enough to find four loaves of bread in a small +pantry." Mrs. Morton got up, disgusted. + +Sherm stood waiting with the tin pail of berries and the bunch of +flowers in his hands. Ernest was holding the team out at the road. + +When Mrs. Morton disappeared Sherm remarked placidly: "Well, I guess I +might as well take these things out. I'll come back for the bread." + +Mrs. Morton could be heard exclaiming about something in the kitchen. +Sherm smiled a fleeting smile and departed. + +Sounds of hurried footfalls, of boxes and pans being moved, came from +the kitchen. Somebody ran hastily down cellar. "It isn't here, Mother." +Jane's tone was emphatic. + +"What do you suppose is the matter?" exclaimed Katy. She departed to +see, followed by Gertie. The sound of fresh disturbances floated in from +the cuisine. Dr. Morton grew curious and went out to investigate. Sherm +came back as far as the front door and stood waiting. + +Presently, Mrs. Morton entered, flushed and annoyed. + +"It's the queerest thing I ever heard of--that entire baking of bread +has vanished. Annie is perfectly honest and she knew we were expecting +to send a loaf to the Captain. You haven't seen any tramps about, have +you, Sherm? You don't suppose the dogs could----" Mrs. Morton glanced +suspiciously at Buz asleep on the path outside. + +"Nonsense, Mother, the dogs couldn't get away with whole loaves of bread +and leave no trace. They are not overly fond of bread, anyhow." + +"Possibly Annie may have put it in some unheard-of place--girls are so +exasperating. I'll go look again." + +A third search was no more successful than the previous ones had been. +They were obliged to send the boys on without the bread. + +Both Chicken Little and Gertie mourned, for they had combined forces in +this baking and were immensely proud of their effort. + +"We never can get it so nice again--I just know!" + +Mrs. Morton had been studying. "You don't suppose the boys could have +meddled with it, do you?" + +Katy looked up with a gleam in her eye. "They were laughing about +something fit to kill just before supper and they wouldn't tell what it +was." + +"But why--I don't see." Mrs. Morton was puzzled. + +"To tease the girls, possibly. But I don't see how they could make away +with four big loaves without being noticed." + +"If Ernest Morton took that bread, I'll never forgive him as long as I +live!" Chicken Little's jaw set ominously. "You just watch me get even." + +"Come now, Chicken Little, we're merely guessing the boys took it. Annie +may have put it away in a new place, forgetting that you would want it +to-night," her father tried to pacify her. + +Gertie didn't say much, but it was plain that she sympathized with Jane. +An hour later the three girls went out to the road to watch for the +boys' return. The lads were evidently taking their time. Nine o'clock +came--half-past nine--still no boys! Mrs. Morton came out and sent the +girls in to bed. They were just dropping off to sleep when the lads +drove up. + +At breakfast the next morning the entire family fell upon Ernest and +Sherm and demanded news of the bread. Annie had returned and assured +Mrs. Morton that it had been safely stored in the bread box before she +left the house the evening before. + +"Bread? What bread?" asked Ernest, rather too innocently. + +"Ernest Morton, you did something with that bread I was going to send +the Captain. You have got to tell me where you hid it." + +"Chicken Little Jane Morton, I give you my word of honor I didn't touch +your old bread and I don't know where it is." + +Ernest assumed a highly injured air. Sherm took a hasty swallow of water +and nearly choked. + +The family had come near believing Ernest, but Sherm's convulsed face +roused their suspicion afresh. + +"If you didn't, you got Sherm to," said Katy shrewdly. "That's what you +were laughing about last night--I know it was." + +"That's like a girl always suspecting a fellow of being up to some +deviltry. Maybe you think we'll keep on feeding your old pigs if you +treat us this way." + +Dr. Morton scanned the boys closely, but did not say anything. + +Jane and Katy turned on Sherm. + +"Did you take the bread?" Chicken Little had fire in her eye. + +Sherm tried guile. "Chicken Little, do I look hungry enough to steal +your bread? Mrs. Morton has been feeding me on good things ever since I +came, why should I want to make away with four loaves of bread?" Sherm +was almost eloquent. + +"Nevertheless," observed Katy, "you don't deny that you took it." + +Try as they would, they could get no satisfaction from the boys. + +"Well, I know they did and I'm going to make 'em wish they hadn't." +Chicken Little puckered up her brow to think hard. + +"Of course they did or Sherm would have denied it instanter. Let's think +up something real mean." Katy stood ready to second any effort. + +Gertie had been in a brown study. "The boys are going off some place +to-night. I heard Ernest ask your mother if she had cleaned that spot +off his Sunday suit, where somebody spilled ice cream on him at the +party." + +"I bet they're going to see Mamie Jenkins ... they're trying to sneak +off without our knowing it." Jane's indignation was not lessened by this +news. + +Katy leaned forward and whispered something. + +Jane and Gertie clapped their hands. + +"All right, the very thing." + +At dinner the boys were rather surprised to find that the young ladies +had dropped the subject of the bread. They were inclined to take it up +again, but nobody seemed interested. Ernest was a little vexed to have +his father say before them all: "It will be all right about Sherm's +riding the bay, only don't stay out late, boys." + +The girls went upstairs soon after dinner and there was much giggling +from their room for the next two hours. + +"Where ever can we put the clothes where they can't find them? They make +such a big bundle." + +"O Chicken Little, I've thought of something that will be better than +hiding!" Katy's eyes sparkled with mischief as she unfolded her scheme. +"Let's hurry and fix a cord." + +"There's a hook there already we can use. Mother had a hanging basket +outside the window one summer." + +"We can pretend to take a walk," added Katy. + +"Pshaw, I want to hear them--it will be half the fun," Gertie objected. + +"I said pretend--we will sneak back through the orchard. Of course, we'd +have to be here to do it, Goosie." + +That night Mrs. Morton had an early supper at the request of the boys. +Immediately after, they armed themselves with sundry pitchers of hot +water and retired upstairs. The girls also disappeared. + +All went well for some minutes except that Ernest cut himself in his +haste to shave. Presently, a call for mother floated downstairs. Mrs. +Morton had gone across the road to visit with Marian. Receiving no +reply, Ernest called again lustily. Dr. Morton, coming in just then, +replied: + +"Your mother is not here, what do you want?" + +"Send Chicken Little then." + +"She's gone for a walk with Katy and Gertie." + +"Thunderation! I've got to have somebody. Won't you please call Mother?" + +At this moment three girlish forms slipped into the grape arbor +immediately below the boys' window, and concealed themselves in its +deepest shadow. + +Mrs. Morton came patiently home to attend to the needs of her favorite +son. + +"What is it, Ernest?" + +"Where did you put our Sunday clothes?" + +"Dear me, aren't they in the closet?" + +"In the closet? Do you suppose I'd call you home if they were in the +closet? They aren't anywhere!" Ernest's tone verged on the +disrespectful. + +Mrs. Morton toiled upstairs with a sigh. Was there to be a repetition of +the bread episode? + +Ernest had spoken the truth, the aforesaid clothes were not anywhere. +The boys exchanged glances both wrathful and sheepish. Ernest had +already exhausted every swear word that his mother's presence permitted. +Sherm, also restrained by her presence--he had retired to bed while she +searched their room and closet--thought all the exclamations he +hesitated to utter. Three young young ladies in the arbor beneath +listened to such fragments of conversation as floated down to them with +unholy glee. + +"Well, Ernest, they're certainly not here; I'll go look in Chicken +Little's room." + +Ernest accompanied her. Sherm scrambled out of bed and speedily resumed +his ordinary wearing apparel. He was startled to perceive a bulky object +suddenly darken their window. It was a peculiar-looking bundle from +which coat sleeves and trousers' legs dangled indiscriminately. He had +no difficulty in recognizing their missing clothes. He rushed to the +window and raised the screen, calling to Ernest excitedly. He half +expected to see the things disappear as mysteriously as they had come, +but the bundle remained stationary. It had been raised to the window by +means of a pulley contrived from an old clothes line and the hanging +basket hook. The end of the cord was hidden in the arbor. + +The boys secured their possessions, hastily assuring themselves that +they were all there. Mrs. Morton started thankfully downstairs, but had +barely reached the foot when a vigorous exclamation and a loud "Mother!" +recalled her. + +Mrs. Morton had never seen Ernest so furious. Sherm didn't say much, but +his face was wrathfully red. + +"What now?" + +"Look at this!" Ernest's voice was tragic as he held the garment up to +view. His trousers' legs had been neatly stitched across twice on the +sewing machine. Sherm's, ditto. All four pair of sleeves were also +carefully stitched with a tight tension, so they could not be readily +ripped out. + +Mrs. Morton looked aghast. "It will take an hour to get that out!" + +"Confound those kids! Mother, you can just make those smarties come rip +that stitching out!" + +"My son, whom are you addressing?" + +"Well, Mother, I didn't mean to be disrespectful, but this is a little +more than I can stand! Wait till I get my hands on Jane!" + +"You would do well to remember, Ernest, that you started this practical +joking yourself. I hope it will be a lesson to you to refrain from such +pranks in future." + +"We didn't do anything but carry the bread over to the Captain without +telling them. That's where they wanted it to go." + +Mrs. Morton gasped. "Did you take the whole baking?" + +"Sure, wasn't that what you wanted?" + +Mrs. Morton considered a moment before replying. + +"Well, Ernest, you boys have brought this annoyance upon yourselves--I +think you will have to accept the consequences. I am too tired to fuss +with the stitching to-night. If you go to Jenkinses you will have to +wear your every day suits." + +"But Mother!" + +Mrs. Morton was already descending the stairs; she did not respond. + +Ernest turned in despair to Sherm, who was examining the neat stitching +ruefully. + +Sherm grinned; "Guess we might as well take our medicine. Score one for +the kids!" + +"I think they might take a joke the way it was intended." + +"They seem to have taken the joke and a few other things besides." + +Sherm chuckled. Ernest laughed, too, a little sulkily. + +"We're elected to stay at home all right, but I'll get ahead of them if +it takes a month!" + +By the time the boys had rearrayed themselves and come downstairs, the +occupants of the grape arbor had vanished. They didn't return until the +enemy had departed for a ride to soothe its ruffled feelings. + +The girls retired to bed early, as innocent young people should. + +"Did you have a good time at Mamie's last night?" asked Chicken Little +at breakfast the next morning. + +"Mamie's? We didn't go to Mamie's." + +"No? I thought you intended to." This from Katy. + +"You girls do get the queerest notions in your heads," observed Ernest +loftily. + +Gertie giggled. The boys looked at Gertie; they hadn't suspected Gertie. +Katy also giggled, likewise Chicken Little. There is something +exceedingly contagious about giggling. + +Ernest became even loftier. + +"You girls seem to spend about half your time cackling--I hope you know +what you are cackling about." + +"We do," retorted Chicken Little, still sweetly. + +Ernest and Sherm exchanged glances. After breakfast Ernest asked his +mother if she had told the girls what happened the night before. + +"Not a word. They didn't ask me." + +"Humph!" The boy was puzzled. + +At noon they took another tack. + +"I forgot to tell you that Mamie sent her regards to you and Katy," +Ernest remarked casually. + +"She said she was sorry you didn't come, too," added Sherm. + +Jane lifted her eyebrows at Katy. Katy shook her head. + +"By the way, Sis, I forgot to tell you that Captain Clarke invited us +all to come over to supper to-morrow night. He said to tell you he +appreciated that bread very much. And while I think of it, if you can +spare a little of your valuable time, I'd thank you to rip that +stitching out of our clothes. I want to wear mine to the Captain's." + +"All right, we'll rip out the stitching if you'll bake us a batch of +bread as good as the one you took." + +"Not much, Mary Ann! We took the bread to the Captain, all right." + +"Yes, but we only intended to send one loaf--and, besides, you made us a +lot of trouble." + +"Mother, haven't the girls got to take out that stitching?" + +"I think Jane's proposition is a fair one, Ernest," observed Dr. Morton +dryly. + +The boys retired to their room early that night where they worked most +industriously with scissors and penknife and clothes brush. They had +paid a hurried visit to Chicken Little's room when they first came +upstairs. This visit did much to sweeten their hour of labor. + +The girls were spending the evening at Frank's. They were late in +getting home. The night was hot and they hated to go to bed until it +began to cool off. Dr. and Mrs. Morton were sitting on the front porch. + +"Go to bed, children. Father was just starting over to call you." Mrs. +Morton kissed them each goodnight. + +Dr. and Mrs. Morton followed them in and had barely settled themselves +for the night, when an unearthly shriek rent the air, followed by +another and yet another. + +"What in thunder are those children up to now?" Dr. Morton spoke in the +tone of one who considered that patience had ceased to be a virtue. + +"O Mother, come quick--there's snakes or frogs or something in our bed +and we haven't any light!" + +Mrs. Morton hurriedly lit a lamp and went to the rescue, followed by the +doctor armed with a stick. + +Holding the lamp aloft they went into the room, the three girls, who had +retired in a panic to the head of the stairs, bringing up the rear. Katy +had scrambled into bed and out again in haste, dragging the coverlet and +sheet half off on the floor. The interior of the bed was fully exposed +to view. It was already occupied--not by snakes, but by a handful of +fat, squirming, little polliwogs. + +"Ugh, I thought it was a snake--they were so slimy and cold!" Katy +shivered at the recollection. + +Dr. Morton grimly gathered up the polliwogs, then, leaving his wife to +restore order, went into the boys' room and held a conversation behind +closed doors. No report of what was said ever reached the girls, but the +practical jokes ended then and there. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +SUPPER AT THE CAPTAIN'S + + +Their late unpleasantness had made the young people unusually polite to +each other. Irritating subjects were carefully avoided the next day. +When they set out for the Captain's, Sherm gallantly handed Katy in to +the front seat to sit beside Ernest, while he sandwiched himself between +Jane and Gertie. The boys had finally concluded that the real joke was +on them and were trying to make up. + +The Captain received them at the gate. + +"I can't be grateful enough for that bread. I haven't had such bread +since I was a boy at home. I believe I am indebted to both Chicken +Little and Gertie for the treat. Wing Fan is consumed with envy and +asked me to-day if I would ask the honorable miss to tell him how she +make the so wonderful bread." + +"I'd be delighted to," replied Chicken Little, "only it took more than +telling for Gertie and me. We tried ever so many times before we got it +just right, but, of course, Wing understands more about cooking than we +did." + +"Well, judging by the bread, you seem to know a good deal about +cooking." + +Sherm could not resist. "Yes, and the girls are first rate at sewing, +too!" + +This was too much for them all. They laughed until the Captain begged to +be let in on the fun. + +Their host had an unexpected treat for them. "You are to help me +christen my new row boat. It came four days ago, but I have been saving +it until you could all go with me." + +He led the way down the creek to a long, deep pool, where a blue and +white skiff floated gaily at anchor. A piece of white cardboard was +tacked over the name so they could not see it. + +"I covered it up to see if you could guess it. I'll give one of those +Siamese elephants to the one who gets it first." + +A lively contest followed. The girls suggested all the poetical names +they could think of from Sea Rover to Bounding Billow. The boys, after a +few wild guesses, settled down to the names of places in the +neighborhood, and women's names. + +The Captain laughed at their wild hazards. + +"It isn't the name of any ship or famous naval hero?" Ernest asked this +question for the second time. + +The Captain shook his head. "Some of your neighborhood guessers were the +nearest. There's one thing I'm sure of, Chicken Little won't guess it." + +This was hint enough for Sherm. "Chicken Little," he sang out instantly. + +"Bright boy, the elephant is yours." + +"Did you really?" Chicken Little eyed the long strip of cardboard that +concealed the name, incredulously. + +The Captain took out his penknife and deftly ripped the covering off. +There it was--the letters an inch tall in white paint: "Chicken Little." + +"I think we should have a proper christening ceremony while we are at +it. Ernest, would you mind stepping up to the house and asking Wing for +a bottle of ginger ale?" + +When Ernest returned with the bottle of amber-colored liquid, Captain +Clarke turned to Gertie. + +"We must divide the honors, will you break the bottle over the bow while +Sherm pushes off? Champagne is customary, but this is better for a +prohibition state, and for young folks in any state." + +Gertie took the bottle and waited for directions. The others looked on +curiously. Sherm untied the boat, and, holding the cord in his hand, +also waited. + +"Perhaps we'd better consider Ernest the crew; that cord is hardly long +enough to permit the _Chicken Little_ to float off in style, and we +don't want to have to swim, to bring her back. Jump in, Ernest; you know +how to handle an oar in fresh water, don't you?" + +"I think I can manage it." + +Captain Clarke explained to Gertie exactly how to strike the blow that +should send the ginger ale foaming over the bow, and repeated the formal +words of christening until she knew them by heart. Gertie was so +interested she forgot to be shy, and performed her office with much +spirit, repeating the "I christen thee, _Chicken Little_," as +solemnly as if she were standing beside a battleship instead of a +blue-and-white row boat. It was a pretty ceremony, but it took so long +that Wing Fan came to announce supper before they were all fairly packed +away in the boat for their promised ride. The six were a snug fit. + +Supper was served on the uncovered veranda. A stream of late afternoon +sunshine filtered through the trees, and, with the lengthening shadows, +cast a sunflecked pattern of branch and foliage on the white linen +tablecloth and shining glass and silver. Some of Chicken Little's own +clove pinks, mingled with feathery larkspur and ribbon grass, filled a +silver bowl in the center of the table. + +"How did you keep them fresh so long?" Chicken Little asked curiously. + +"Wing Fan performed some kind of an incantation over them. You'll have +to ask him." + +Wing was delighted to have Jane notice them. "Velly easy keep--put some +away in box with ice all same butter." + +Captain Clarke had been the first person on the creek to put up ice for +summer use and Wing was the proud possessor of a roomy ice box. + +"It seems like home to have ice again." Katy was stirring the sugar in +her tea for the sheer satisfaction of hearing the ice tinkle against the +sides of the glass. A sudden thought disturbed her. "Though there +couldn't be anything nicer than your spring house for keeping things. I +don't believe our melons at home ever got so nice and cold all through +as yours do down in the spring stream." + +"That's a wonderful spring you have over on the place." Captain Clarke +came to Katy's rescue. "And that big oak above it is the finest tree in +this part of the country. I'll venture it has a history if we only knew +it." + +"Yes, Father is very proud of the old oak. He says it is at least two +hundred years old. He wouldn't take anything for it," Ernest replied. + +"Everybody calls Kansas a new country," said Sherm, "but I guess it is +pretty old in some ways. Kansas had a lot of history during the war." + +"Yes, and lots of the people who helped make the history are living down +at Garland now. The old Santa Fe trail runs clear across our ranch. You +can tell it still--though it hasn't been traveled for almost twenty +years--by the ruts and washouts. And even where the ground wasn't cut up +by the countless wheels, it was packed so hard the blue stem has never +grown there since. It is all covered with that fuzzy buffalo grass. In +winter this turns a lighter brown than the prairie grass and you can see +the trail for miles, distinctly." Ernest loved history and politics. + +"What was the Santa Fe trail? I have heard you speak of the trail so +much and I never knew what you meant." Katy asked eagerly. + +The Captain answered: "The old trans-continental wagon road to the gold +fields of California. You know there was a time when Kansas didn't have +anything so civilized as a railroad and people traveled by wagon and +horseback--even on foot, all the way to the coast." + +"Yes," added Ernest, "and lots of them died on the way or got killed by +Indians." + +"Indians?" said Katy, "why, we haven't seen a single Indian and Cousin +May said she'd be afraid to come out here because there were lots of +them still about." + +"Not in this part of Kansas--you needn't lose any sleep. The Kaw +reservation isn't so very far away and parties sometimes come this way +to revisit their old hunting grounds, but the Kaws were a peaceable +tribe even in their free days." + +"There are lots of Indian mounds and relics around here," put in Chicken +Little. "Father got those arrow heads, and that stone to pound corn, and +his tomahawk heads out of a mound over on Little John." + +"Yes, and there's a tree on the main street in town that used to be a +famous meeting place for the Indians. Oh, we must take you all to see +the old Indian Mission. It was used as a fort, too, more than once, they +say. The walls are fully two feet thick." + +"Whew, I didn't know you had so many interesting things round here!" +exclaimed Sherm. + +"We are so used to them we hardly think of them as being interesting. +Have I ever told you about the hermit's cave?" + +"Hermit's cave? No, where is it?" + +"On the side of that big bluff just west of town. Oh, that's some story. +The hermit lived there until about ten years ago. Some said he was a +Jesuit priest who lived a hermit's life to become more holy, and others +that he was an Italian Noble who had fled from Italy to escape +punishment for a crime. Nobody ever really knew much about him except +that he was highly educated and read books in several different +languages. But the cave is still there, in the ledge of rocks near the +top of the bluff." + +"Oh, I'd love to see it." Gertie liked romantic things. + +"So would I," Katy added. + +"Me too," echoed Sherm. + +"Count me in," said the Captain, "or rather let me take you all to town +some day to explore these marvels." + +"They really aren't much to see--they're more interesting to tell about. +But I'd be glad to see them all again myself," Ernest replied. + +Wing Fan had prepared so many good things for them that none of the +party felt energetic enough for rowing immediately after supper. They +were glad to linger over the peach ice cream which was Wing's crowning +triumph, and nibble at the Chinese sweetmeats about which they were +rather doubtful. + +"I don't believe I ever tasted such good ice cream," exclaimed Katy. + +"I think Wing Fan must say magical words over everything he cooks--his +things are so different and taste so good. I never thought I liked rice +before, but his was delicious." + +[Illustration: And he brandished it fiercely.] + +"Wing Fan knows all about the family history of rice. He talks to each +grain separately," laughed the Captain. + +The boys didn't praise Wing's efforts in words, but their appetites kept +Wing on the broad grin. He could not resist looking proudly at his +employer when Sherm accepted his third saucer of cream. + +The Captain invited them into the library to pick out Sherm's elephant. +They were all so interested in the curios and asked so many questions +they came near forgetting the boat ride. Ernest picked out a ship's +cutlass the first thing. The Captain took it down for him to examine and +he brandished it fiercely. + +Captain Clarke smiled. "I fear you wouldn't do much execution if you +handled it that way, Ernest. A cutlass has tricks of its own. Here, this +is the way." He showed the boy how to get the proper hold and how to +swing it. + +Ernest struck an attitude. "Behold your sailor brother as he skims the +briny deep, Chicken Little." + +"Pooh, naval officers don't carry cutlasses, do they, Captain Clarke?" + +"No, I believe the sword used now is straight. But this cutlass has a +history I think might interest you." + +"Tell us." + +"If you like. It won't take long. Boys, will you draw up chairs for the +girls?" Captain Clarke reached out his hand for a big easy chair nearby +at the same moment that Sherm laid his hand upon it to draw it nearer +for their host himself. The two hands rested in almost the same position +on the opposite arms of the chair. They were singularly alike. Katy, the +observing, noticed this instantly. + +Captain Clarke studied Sherm's hand for a minute, then his gaze shifted +to his own. + +"I doubt if my hand was ever as good looking as Sherm's," he said +easily. "You have a hand that denotes unusual strength and will power, +according to 'palmology.' You will have to live up to it." + +But Katy was persistent. "It's almost exactly like yours, Captain +Clarke, only yours isn't so smooth and has more lines. Don't you see +it's a square hand with unusually long fingers. The thumbs are shaped +just the same, too." + +"You should be an artist, Katy, you are such a close observer," replied +the Captain. + +They settled down comfortably for the story. Chicken Little noticed +Sherm regarding his own hand rather critically and glancing from it to +the Captain's, who used frequent gestures as he warmed with his talk. + +Gertie could not take her eyes from the cruel steel blade of the +cutlass. "I wish there were no awful things to kill people with. I don't +believe God meant people to kill each other in battle any more than to +kill each other when they get mad." + +Captain Clarke smiled at her disturbed look. "That is one of the most +terrible questions human beings have ever had to answer, little girl. I +thought as you do once, Gertie, before the Civil War broke out. I +loathed the histories and pictures of fighting. My schoolmates used to +dub me a sissy because I hated the sight of blood. But when President +Lincoln called for volunteers to save our country, when I realized that +it was a choice between having one great free country with liberty in it +for both blacks and whites, or letting our own race and kin leave us in +hatred to continue the wickedness of human slavery right at our doors, +it didn't take me long to decide. War and all unnecessary suffering +inflicted by human beings upon each other, are hideous. But have you +ever thought how much more of such suffering there would be if parents +didn't inflict suffering upon their children to make them control their +ugly passions? If our courts didn't punish people for being cruel to +other people? And when it isn't a child or one or two grown men or women +who try to be cruel or unjust, but a whole nation, what then? Surely +other nations should come to the rescue of the right, even if it means +war. You wouldn't let a big dog kill a little one without trying to save +it, would you, Gertie?" + +Gertie mutely shook her head. + +"Neither should Christian nations allow weaker peoples nor any part of +their own people to be unjustly treated, when it is in their power to +prevent it. 'Am I my brother's keeper?' will some day be a question +every nation must answer as well as every individual." + +"But most of the world's wars have been to take other nations' rights +away from them, not to protect them," objected Ernest. + +"Yes, on one side, but in every war there has always been the side that +fought to protect its loved ones and its homes from the brutality of +conquerors. There is hideous wrong in every war, but the wrong is in the +hearts of those who would rob and oppress those weaker than themselves, +not in the patriots and heroes who resist. But I didn't mean to deliver +a lecture. I'd rather tell you about the brave boy who wielded this +cutlass." + +Chicken Little drew her chair closer. + +"It was in '65--soon after I was mustered out of service at the close of +the war, I was offered the command of a freighter going round The Horn +to the Orient. I hated to leave my wife and little boy for a year's +voyage, especially after being away so long during the war, but it was +the only opening worth while I could find. I guess I had the +get-rich-quick idea, too, but never mind, that has nothing to do with +the story. We had a terrible voyage. Storms and bad luck of every kind. +The rigging was shrouded with ice for weeks--two men were frozen to +death on watch. I don't know that I blame the men as I look back. I had +been so hardened myself by the terrible discipline and sights of war, I +guess I didn't take much trouble to make my crew see the necessity of +some of our hardships. At any rate, they mutinied and would have killed +me while I slept, but for my cabin boy. He was only sixteen, but he +discovered the conspiracy and roused me. With the help of the other +officers and a few loyal sailors we stood them off. Hot work it was." +The Captain stopped an instant, musing. + +The young people waited, expectant. Captain Clarke held up the cutlass +reverently. "Charlie used this to good purpose after he had fired his +last round of ammunition. I was wounded--had propped myself against the +rail and was aiming my last precious bits of lead at the ring-leader, +when some one jabbed a bayonet at me from the side. Charlie knocked it +up, cutting the dastard down with a second blow that was a marvel. Those +two strokes saved my life and saved the ship. Do you wonder this ugly +thing looks beautiful to me?" + +"And the boy?" Katy asked softly. + +"Commands a vessel of his own in the Pacific trade. I had a letter and a +Satsuma jar from him a few weeks ago. But we are neglecting the +_Chicken Little_! That will never do." + +A crescent moon was visible in the sky as they came back to the place +where the boat was moored. + +"I fear I detained you longer than I intended with my yarn," said the +Captain. "It will soon be dark and that moon is too young to be very +useful." + +"Oh, it will give a good deal of light for two or three hours. I know +every inch of the road, and even if I didn't, the horses do," Ernest +replied. + +"Will you boys take the oars together or one at a time? Chicken Little, +you girls may take turns in the bow and the rest of us will make a nice +tight fit here in the stern." + +The boys preferred to try their luck singly. Ernest picked up the oars +awkwardly. He had had little experience in rowing and he felt +self-conscious under the Captain's eye. His first stroke sent a shower +of drops flying over them. + +"Here," called Sherm, "that isn't a hose you're handling!" + +"Anyhow, the drops feel lovely and cool." Katy was inclined to defend +Ernest. + +"A longer, slower stroke will do the work better and not blister your +hands so quickly," admonished Captain Clarke. "Our future admiral must +learn to row a boat skillfully. You boys are welcome to use it whenever +you see fit." + +Ernest set his lips together firmly and soon had the boat skimming along +rapidly, though still rather jerkily, his strokes being more energetic +than regular. The woods were already echoing with soft night noises, +frogs croaked; the clicking notes of the katydids mingled with the +whining of the wind through the boughs overhead. Part of the pool +disappeared in the shadows; the rest broke into shimmering ripples with +every stroke of the oars. + +"Oh, I love the night time!" exclaimed Chicken Little. "Seems as if +everything in the world had done its day's work and was sitting down to +talk it over--even the frogs. Don't you s'pose they're glad or sorry +about things when night comes, just as we are?" + +Sherm looked at Chicken Little, who was leaning over the side of the +boat, trailing her hand in the water. + +"Chicken Little, you work your imagination overtime--it will wear out if +you aren't careful." + +She rewarded him with a grimace. + +"You are getting a much evener stroke, Ernest," observed the Captain. + +"I bet he's getting a blister on his hand, too," said Katy. + +"Yes, Ernest, you'd better let me have a turn." Sherm slid over to the +rower's seat and reached his hand for the oars, which Ernest yielded +reluctantly. + +Sherm had spent one summer near Lake Michigan and was a better oarsman +than Ernest. The boat skimmed along smoothly. "Good for you, Sherm, you +have a strong, even stroke," the Captain praised. + +Presently the girls began to sing, Ernest and Sherm joining in. Captain +Clarke listened happily to the young voices until they struck up "Soft +and Low over the Western Sea." They all loved it and were crooning it +sweetly, but the Captain's face went white as they sang: "Father will +come to his babe in the nest." "Don't!" he exclaimed involuntarily. + +They all looked at him in surprise. He regained his self-possession +instantly, saying with a smile: "Go on--don't mind my twinge of +rheumatism--I slept in a draught last night. That is one of the +loveliest things Tennyson has ever written." + +The young people finished the song and began another, but they wondered. +The spell of the evening was broken. Soon after, they started home. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +CALICO AND COMPANY + + +Mrs. Morton passed the muffins for the fifth time to Ernest. Ernest's +appetite for muffins was prodigious. Sherm was also ready for another. +Chicken Little hadn't quite finished hers, but at the rate they were +disappearing--she thought she'd better. Katy said: "Yes, thank you," and +Gertie, who ate more slowly than the others, had only had one. Dr. +Morton was merely waiting to be urged. Mrs. Morton rang the bell +doubtfully. Annie had filled the plate three times already. Annie +appeared with a questioning grin. + +"Shall I bring some bread, Ma'am? They ain't no more muffins." + +Dr. Morton laughed. "Our appetites do credit to your cooking, Annie." + +Mrs. Morton sighed, then smiled as she surveyed the rosy, tanned faces. + +"There is certainly nothing like country air to make people eat. I +wonder when Alice and Dick will be getting back. Dick said the first +week in August probably." + +"Oh, dear," said Chicken Little, "I want to see Alice and Dick again, +but I don't want Katy and Gertie and Sherm to go home. They can only +stay a few days this time, Alice said so." + +"I don't want to go home a bit," replied Katy. + +"There's nothing to do at home till school begins." + +"I'd like to go home and see Mother, and then come back." Gertie looked +a little wistful. She did want Mother within reach. + +"I wish we could keep you all till September." Dr. Morton liked to have +the clatter of the young people about. "If we only knew some one going +back to Illinois at that time to look after you. I don't suppose Mrs. +Halford would like to have you girls travel so far without some grown +person along. But I don't see why Sherm can't just as well stay till +time to get ready for college." + +"I'd like nothing better, and I'm not dead sure I'm going to college +this fall. Father seemed a little doubtful when I left, and the folks +haven't said anything about it in their letters. If I can't, I guess +I'll try for a clerkship in the post-office when I go back." + +Dr. Morton studied a moment. "How would you like to work here on the +ranch if you don't go to college, Sherm?" + +"Do you mean it, Dr. Morton?" + +"I surely do. Of course, Ernest's going is not quite settled yet, but I +have practically made up my mind that he must go off to school +somewhere. We shall need some one to take his place and it would be very +pleasant to have you. Chicken Little here wouldn't be quite so homesick +for Ernest, perhaps, if you would let her adopt you in his place." + +Jane jumped up and down in an ecstasy. + +"Oh, Sherm, please do--I thought I'd just die with lonesomeness this +winter with all of you gone, and Ernest, too." + +Sherm looked pleased at her eagerness. His news from home was still +depressing and Sherm, if not homesick, had his lonely hours. + +"I would pay you regular wages--whatever is customary for boys of your +age. I should have to make some inquiries," continued Dr. Morton. + +"Yes, and we could go to the lyceums--they most always have one every +winter over at the Fair View Schoolhouse. It's heaps of fun when there's +snow on the ground. Frank puts the big wagon bed on runners and we fill +the bottom with straw and buffalo robes and all snuggle down together. +You just must stay, Sherm!" + +"Perhaps he will, if you don't talk him to death, Chicken Little. You +haven't given him a chance to get in a word edgeways." Ernest reproved +his sister sharply after the manner of brothers slightly older. + +"What about you?" retorted Chicken Little. "Sherm, we'll all keep quiet +and let you have a chance." + +"I'd like to, if college is ruled out, and Mother and Father will let +me. They may want me at home, especially if Father grows worse." Sherm +gave a little gulp. He was very fond of his father. + +"I'll write to him to-day, Sherm, and you might write, too, for I'm +going in to town about noon. Any commissions, Mother? Why don't you drop +things and come along? A change will do you good--you haven't been off +the place for two weeks or more." + +"I don't know but I will. Chicken Little, you girls might get up a +little picnic lunch for yourselves and the boys, and have it out in the +orchard. Annie has a big ironing to-day and it would help her out not to +have a dinner to get. Then we'll have a hearty supper this evening." + +"Yes, and Chicken Little, did you girls feed the porkers last evening? I +heard them squealing and grunting in the night." + +"Golly!" said Chicken Little, sitting up with a start and looking at +Katy. Katy looked guilty, and Gertie concerned. + +Dr. Morton did not need any further answer. "Well, you'd better run +right out. Remember dumb beasts must never be neglected, daughter." + +"And Jane, I don't want to hear you say Golly again. By-words of any +kind are objectionable for young girls, and that is particularly rough +and coarse," Mrs. Morton added severely. + +"You never say it is coarse when Ernest says it--and he uses it an awful +lot." + +"My dear, you are not a boy," Mrs. Morton replied with a dignity that +was final. + +"I don't care," said Chicken Little when the trio got out doors, "it's +not one bit fair to let boys do so many more things than girls! You just +wait, if I ever have a daughter she's going to do every single thing her +brother does. So there!" + +Sherm overheard and later in the day when he and Jane were talking +together, he remarked: "Chicken Little, I don't think it is exactly fair +either to hold the girls in so much tighter than boys, but your mother +is right, allee samee. I have heard the fellows talk often enough to +know they think a lot more of a girl who isn't slangy, than of one who +is. Of course, mild ones like 'Oh dear' don't matter, but you see a man +kind of likes to have a girl, well--different." Sherm was getting in a +little beyond his depth. + +The girls carried two pails of sour milk and a great basket of parings +to their greedy pigs and watched them feed without interest. + +"The only reason I'm glad to go home is I won't have to feed these +horrid pigs any more. I never saw anything grow and eat like they do. +They ought to be worth a lot of money after all the stuff they've +eaten." Katy kicked her toe against the log pen to emphasize her +remarks. + +"I don't think they're worth so very much yet." Chicken Little was +regarding them with no very friendly eye. + +"I wouldn't mind so much if they weren't getting so ugly and smelly," +said Gertie plaintively. + +Frank, happening by just then, was amused to see their disgusted +expressions. + +"Say, Frank, how soon will these pigs be big enough to go in the corral +with the others?" + +Frank's eyes twinkled. He came up and scanned the ten muddy, impudent +pigs, who were already coming up to the sides of the pen, grunting for +more. "Well," he said judicially, "I think perhaps you will be rid of +them inside of two or three months, but they'll eat a lot more from now +on." + +The three set up a united protest. + +"Father said it would only be a few weeks when we caught them, and it's +been five already," Chicken Little remonstrated hotly. + +"Well, don't go for me. You asked for my opinion and I gave it to you." + +Frank grinned so broadly that Jane grew suspicious. "Pooh, you're +teasing, I'll ask Father to-night." + +The girls scoured the pantry and spring house for provender for the +picnic. Sherm and Ernest would be in from the meadow where they were +cutting down thistles about half-past twelve. Bread and butter and cold +ham were flanked with cookies, pie, and musk melons. Annie wanted them +out of her road as speedily as possible, so they took their stuff all +down to the orchard and stowed it away in the shade. + +"Now what?" demanded Katy. + +"I don't know. Wish we could think of something new." Chicken Little +stared up and down the rows of apple trees, seeking an inspiration. + +Her glance fell upon a lone apple tree standing in the center of an open +space, apart from all its fellows. Katy's glance followed hers. + +"Why is that old tree all by itself that way?" + +"I don't know--they were all big trees when we came here. It is a +bell-flower and we call it Old King Bee. Say, I've got an idea. Let's +get Calico and Caliph and play riding school--you remember that article +in 'The Harper's' about a riding school in New York, and you said you +wished you could go." + +"Would Ernest let us take Caliph?" + +"I don't know, but I know I could ride him if I tucked my skirts up and +used the man's saddle. There can't a soul see us here; it's so shut in +by the trees." + +"It would be fun. Let's try to ride bare back and do stunts to surprise +the boys. I wish we could take our skirts clear off--they catch so on +the saddle horn and in the stirrup buckles." + +"I tell you what we'll do." Chicken Little's eyes danced impishly. +"There are lots of Ernest's old trousers in the lumber-room closet that +he outgrew ever so long ago. I believe we could find some to fit all of +us. Let's go see." + +A swift rummage of the dusty closet set them all sneezing, but they +triumphantly brought forth an armful of defunct trousers and carried +them up to their room. For the next fifteen minutes such giggles and +exclamations and shrieks of laughter escaped from their room that Annie +left her ironing to see what was up. An astonishing sight met her gaze. +Once started upon the dressing-up craze, the girls had not been content +with one garment. Chicken Little had daringly ransacked not only +Ernest's bureau, but Sherm's possessions, in quest of shirts and ties. + +She had decked herself in a blue checked cheviot shirt, tucked into blue +serge trousers, liberally patched at the knees. Sherm's best red tie was +neatly knotted at her throat, and an old straw hat adorned with a red +hair ribbon, topped her brown braids. Katy was resplendent in a tan +colored shirt, with a bright green tie popularly supposed to belong to +Ernest. Her own black sailor finished her off nicely. Gertie had a faded +pink shirt, which dated back to Centerville days--all Ernest's more +recent garments being too big for her slim little figure. + +Annie threw up her hands. "You're a pretty-looking lot. I'd just like to +have the Missus see you now. I bet you'd catch it." + +But Annie had troubles of her own and retired to her ironing. + +The trio slipped out the back way--they didn't care to have Marian see +them, and they didn't wish to bother with Jilly. The stable was +deserted. They quickly saddled Caliph after making friends--with sundry +lumps of sugar. Calico was equipped only with a saddle blanket and +girth. Gertie decided that she would let the others experiment first, so +she walked back to the orchard. + +"Let's try them down the lane first. They will be easier to manage on a +straight road than in among the trees, if they are fractious." + +Jane helped Katy upon Calico's back and showed her how to press her +knees against the sides to secure her seat in the place of stirrups. + +"You can put your hand under the girth if you begin to slip." + +Katy took a turn or two and decided she could stick on if Calico didn't +trot. He was a single footer and had a very easy gait except on the rare +occasions when he insisted upon breaking into a hard trot. Chicken +Little led Caliph to the fence. She wanted to be sure that she was well +in her seat before Caliph discovered she was a girl. + +But Caliph liked Chicken Little, and not having any skirts to make him +suspicious, seemed inclined to take her for what she seemed. He noticed +only that he had a lighter hand on the reins. He dashed off as lightly +and smoothly as if Ernest or Sherm were on his back, and Chicken Little +was in a transport of pleasure and triumph to think she could ride him. +Katy had a harder time, but she stuck on pluckily for three turns up and +down the lane. + +They didn't dare linger too long lest some neighbor come by and see +them. So they presently turned off upon the faint track that led through +the gate into the orchard. Gertie was awaiting them under the big tree. +Katy slipped off Calico to give Gertie her turn. Chicken Little led the +way on Caliph and they went round and round the tree, faster and faster, +till both were ready for a rest. The ponies were fresh and seemed to +enjoy the sport as much as they did. + +Katy tried Calico next, enchanted to find she could stick on at a +canter. By this time they were ready for something new. + +"Do you suppose we could ride backwards?" Katy was in a daring mood. + +They could and they did, though Calico was a little doubtful as to +whether he approved of this innovation. It was not exactly comfortable +for anyone concerned and they soon gave it up. But when Chicken Little +tried to make the intelligent pony dance on his hind legs, Calico waxed +indignant. Instead of rising gracefully, he gave two short, plunging +leaps, descending with forelegs rigid and head down, a maneuver which +sent his mistress flying over his head. + +The turf was soft and she was up in a trice, gripping Calico's rein +before he could make use of his freedom. The crowning feat of the +morning was another of Chicken Little's brilliant ideas. They had +tethered the ponies by their bridle reins and were letting them graze on +the orchard grass while they stretched out and rested. Suddenly Jane sat +up with a start and began to take off her shoes. + +"What on earth are you going to do now, Jane Morton?" demanded Katy +sharply. + +"Wait and see. I'm most sure I can. I want you to lead Calico very +slowly." + +Katy obediently followed directions. Chicken Little put her hand on the +girth and vaulted on his back. She rode once around the tree tamely, +then slowly got to her feet on Calico's slim back, bidding Katy steady +her. She succeeded in going about three feet with this precarious +footing before she lost her balance and slid harmlessly down on the +pony's back. Calico did not look specially pleased at the jounce she +gave him as she lit. She persevered until she could go round the tree, +then insisted upon trying it alone. Katy and Gertie both remonstrated. + +"You'll get killed! Calico doesn't like it a bit." + +"I won't--I tried once all by myself last summer on old Kit, but +Calico's harder, because he isn't so fat. You wouldn't hurt me, would +you, Calico?" She put her arm around his neck and squeezed him hard. + +Calico whinnied and began to nose her for sugar. She produced two lumps, +and stroked him, talking to him in whispers while Katy hooted. + +"A lot of good that will do." + +Chicken Little got up again with Katy's help, then started off slowly by +herself. Calico moved carefully at a snail's pace. She made the entire +circuit of the tree successfully this time. Again she went around, +increasing the speed of Calico's walk. She was so jubilant she grew +reckless and clucked, which was Calico's signal to canter. He responded +promptly and with equal promptness, she slid down on him kerplunck. +Calico laid back his ears in disapproval, and looked around inquiringly. + +By this time Katy had plucked up her courage and wished to try it. She +was entirely willing, however, to have Chicken Little at the pony's +head. Katy slipped, too, but she was lighter, and Calico was growing +used to it and did not mind so much. Chicken Little patted him each time +and he soon ceased to notice the bumps. Gertie preferred to be a +spectator at this stunt, but the others persisted until Jane succeeded +in going round the tree once with Calico pacing. + +"Golly, I wish Ernest and Sherm could see us!" Chicken Little was +already sighing for new worlds to conquer. + +"You said Golly again." + +"Golly, I did, didn't I? It's awfully hard to quit anything like that. +Say, I want you girls to pinch me every time I say it, then I'll +remember." + +"You'll get mad if we do," replied Gertie, wise beyond her years. + +"No, I won't! Honest to goodness I won't. I truly want to stop it." + +"All right," said Katy firmly, "but you will get more pinches than you +are expecting." + +Katy and Gertie and poor Calico were all ready to settle down for a +rest. But Chicken Little was burning to show off before Ernest and +Sherm. She untied Caliph and took several turns around the tree, going +faster and faster. + +"Pooh," she said after a while, "I bet I could ride Caliph anywhere. +Suppose we go meet the boys. You and Gertie can both ride Calico bare +back. I guess they'll be surprised. It's most noon; I can tell by the +sun." + +"But Jane, we can't go to meet the boys this way." Gertie looked +distressed. + +"Oh, I forgot. What can we do? I'd be afraid to ride Caliph with even a +short skirt--he's never had a woman on him before." + +"What if the boys do see us? Nobody else is likely to come along just at +noon. Anyway, your father thinks it's dangerous for girls to wear long +skirts to ride in. I heard him say so." Katy was plausible and Chicken +Little wanted to be persuaded. + +"I don't care, if you don't." + +"All right, let's do it. I think you look real nice that way, Chicken +Little, honest I do." + +"Well, they're heaps more comfortable. I feel so light. You make an +awfully cute boy, Katy, and Gertie is just sweet. And you couldn't ride +bare back half so well sidewise." + +It took some persuasion to secure Gertie's consent, but she finally gave +in. + +They rode gaily out into the lane. Calico was too tired to make any +protest to his double burden. Once in the lane, they waited in the +shade. But the boys did not come. They waited until Jane was sure it +must be one o'clock and their appetites suggested two at the very +earliest. Calico waited patiently enough, but Caliph was uneasy over the +flies. Finally, they decided to give the boys up and go back and have +their picnic alone. + +"We might take one gallop down the line to the creek to make sure +they're not in the meadow," Katy suggested. + +"I bet they finished the weeds sooner than they expected and went +fishing." Chicken Little strained her eyes in the direction of the +meadow. + +They started the horses off at a smart pace, then faster and faster, +till they broke into a swift gallop. + +"Isn't it glorious?" Chicken Little called back. She was several lengths +ahead. + +She did not hear Katy's response. A jack rabbit, frightened by the +approaching horses, broke cover from some wild blackberry bushes that +grew over the stone wall, and dashed across the road directly in front +of Caliph. The spirited beast shied violently, then leaped forward, +throwing Chicken Little neatly off into the exact middle of the dusty +lane. Her pride was more hurt than she was. She tried to stop him by +calling "Whoa" lustily. But Caliph seemed to have a pressing engagement +elsewhere. He quickly disappeared around a bend in the lane. + +The girls looked at each other in dismay. + +Chicken Little got hastily to her feet. There was no time to nurse +bruises. She must catch Caliph somehow. + +"Golly, he's got that beautiful Mexican saddle on and he may take a +notion to roll. I knew I hadn't any business to take it, but I wanted to +ride him just as Ernest does." + +Katy and Gertie noticed the "Golly," but there seemed to be more +important business on hand. + +"Do you suppose you could take Calico and catch him?" asked Katy +anxiously. + +"I don't know, but I guess I'll have to try." + +Katy and Gertie climbed down and Chicken Little swung herself up. + +"Maybe one of you'd better come, too, to hold Calico and ride him home +if I catch Caliph." + +"I'll come, and Gertie had better run and change her clothes and go back +to the orchard to give the boys their lunch, if they come before we get +back. Don't tell them where we're gone." + +"Nor about Caliph, Gertie, you can say we'll be back in a minute." + +Katy had mounted behind Jane while she was giving this last direction +and poor Calico started off at a gallop. They crossed the creek and came +to the place where the road forked just beyond the timber without seeing +hide or hair of Caliph. + +"He must have streaked it. I don't think he'd take the road to town--he +must have gone straight home to the Captain's. Oh, dear, I'll have to +tell him I used Ernest's horse without permission, and I've got these +awful clothes on! It just seems as if the Captain has to know every +single bad thing I ever do." Chicken Little heaved a long sigh and +clucked to Calico. + +They had almost reached the Captain's gate when they saw Wing Fan +approaching on horseback, leading the truant Caliph. Chicken Little was +immensely relieved to find, as they came near, that neither saddle nor +bridle had suffered from the run away. + +Wing Fan was also greatly relieved to find that no one had been hurt. + +"Me velly 'fraid honorable brother have bad fall. Captain Clarke no +home. I bring horse, find out." + +Wing held Caliph while Jane mounted, and rode a little way with her to +make sure he would not be fractious, but Caliph seemed to have had his +fling and bowled along smoothly. + +In the meantime Ernest and Sherm had arrived and were plying Gertie with +questions between mouthfuls. Gertie parried as long as she could, +shutting her lips together tight when they began to press her too hard. + +"I'd just like to know what they are up to now. That precious sister of +mine can get into more scrapes than any kid I ever saw." + +"And Katy isn't far behind her," added Sherm, hoping Gertie would try to +defend her absent sister and let something out. + +Chicken Little and Katy took the horses to the barn, carefully unsaddled +Caliph, and rubbed both horses down and fed them, before going back to +the orchard. They forgot all about their unusual dress. + +They arrived there, tired and flushed, in time to help the boys finish +the last melon. + +"You mean things to eat the melons all up." Chicken Little almost forgot +her own offense in her disgust over their greediness. + +The boys did not waste time defending themselves; their attention was +concentrated on the girls' peculiar costume. + +"Well, what in the demnition bow wows have you been doing now, Chicken +Little Jane Morton?" Ernest's gaze wandered from his sister to Katy, who +suddenly became self-conscious and tucked her feet and as much of her +trouser-clad legs as she could manage, underneath her. + +Chicken Little gave a start of surprise, then faced Ernest boldly. + +"Oh, just having a little fun." + +By this time Ernest was beginning to grasp details. "Suppose next time +you start out to have fun you let my things alone. Isn't that Sherm's +best tie you've got on?" + +Chicken Little clutched the offending tie and glanced hastily at Sherm. +The boy was regarding her with a peculiar expression, both admiring and +disapproving. There was no denying that Chicken Little made a most +attractive boy. + +The swift color swept into the girl's face as she caught Sherm's glance. +"Oh, dear, and he had told her only that morning that girls should be +different!" She liked Sherm--she didn't want him to think she was a +bold, awful girl. Some way their prank seemed to need excusing. She +replied to the look in Sherm's eyes rather than to her brother's +accusation. + +"We--I wanted to ride Caliph--I just knew I could if I didn't have a lot +of horrid skirts to frighten him. And we did beautiful stunts and we +couldn't, if we hadn't put on your old things. I bet if you had to wear +cluttering things like skirts all the time you'd be glad to take them +off some times, too." Chicken Little's big brown eyes sought Sherm's +appealingly. + +Ernest answered before Sherm could say anything. + +"Well, you can settle with Mother about the skirts, but I'll thank you +to let Caliph and my best ties alone." + +"Did you ride him?" asked Sherm. "You're welcome to my tie, Chicken +Little. It's very becoming." + +Chicken Little felt subtly consoled. "Yes, I rode him, but he threw me +once," she confessed. + +"He threw me once, too," said the boy. "You'd better be a little +careful." + +Sherm grinned and Chicken Little smiled back happily. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +DICK AND ALICE GO ON ALONE + + +Dr. and Mrs. Morton got home about four o'clock. The girls had studied +some time as to whether they should make a clean breast of the morning's +doings, but Ernest, urged on by Sherm, had discouraged them. + +"You needn't be afraid I'll peach, Sis. You're an awful good rider for a +girl and I don't mind your taking Caliph so long as you didn't get hurt. +And I guess it was sensible of you not to try him with skirts. But you'd +better be careful. You're getting most too big for such tom boy +business." + +"It wasn't anything really wrong," argued Chicken Little. + +"I know my mother wouldn't have cared way off out here in the country." +Katy added her mite to the whitewashing. + +"I don't think it was wrong, but I guess your mother wouldn't be pleased +to hear about it," observed Gertie sagely. + +"She isn't going to," said Chicken Little with decision. "I shall tell +Father instead." + +Father only laughed. Mrs. Morton did not learn of it until the girls had +gone home to Centerville, when Chicken Little, wishing to convince her +that she could ride Caliph safely, let it out, and received the +long-delayed scolding. + +Two days after the riding school, a letter came from Dick and Alice, +saying they would arrive Sunday and must leave for Centerville the +following Saturday. The same mail brought a letter for Sherm from his +mother, and another from Mrs. Dart to Dr. Morton. The doctor did not +mention the contents of his until the boy had finished reading his own. +Then he stepped over to his side and laid his hand gently upon his head. +Sherm was looking pretty sober. "Can you be content to be our boy this +winter, Sherm?" + +"Thank you, you're mighty good to want me. I--I guess there's no college +for me this winter. Father's no better. I wish--excuse me." Sherm +finished abruptly and bolted out of the house. + +Chicken Little looked after him with some concern. She turned +inquiringly to her father. + +"Poor lad," he said in response to her look, "his father is no +better--will be a helpless invalid to the end, I judge, more from what +Mrs. Dart doesn't say than from what she does. I'm afraid their affairs +are in bad shape. Dart's illness must have cost enormously and they have +had no man to look after their business. She writes that Sue is to be +married quietly next month. She says they are sadly disappointed not to +have Sherm home for this event, but feel that he will be better off to +stay with us this winter, and she can hardly afford to have him come so +far just for a short visit. There is something sort of queer about the +letter--something mysterious, as if she were keeping the really +important facts to herself. See what you make of it, Frank." + +He handed the letter to Frank, who had just walked in with Jilly perched +on his shoulder. + +Chicken Little did not wait for Frank's verdict, she slipped out the +door in search of Sherm. Her first guess was the stables and she made a +hurried survey of stalls and hay mow. He was not there. She tried the +orchard next, then the arbor. Perhaps he had taken one of the ponies and +gone for a ride. No, she remembered both Calico and Caliph had whinnied +as she went by their stalls. He might have walked down the lane. She +went clear to the ford and hunted among the trees for a short distance +up and down the bank. He was nowhere in sight. Coming back, she caught +sight of the tops of the Weeping Willows and, remembering that Sherm +sometimes went there Sundays with a book, she stole up quietly. He had +thrown himself down on the ground under the interlacing branches. No, he +was not crying--just lying perfectly still, staring up into the boughs +above him with such misery in his face, it hurt her to see him. + +She hardly knew what to do. She knew Ernest generally preferred to be +let alone when things went wrong, but then Ernest had never come up +against any real trouble. She suspected that Sherm's was very real. +Chicken Little watched him for several minutes, undecided. He did not +stir. Finally, she decided she didn't care whether Sherm wanted her +round or not, she wasn't going to go off and leave him to grieve all +alone. + +"Sherm," she called softly. The boy raised up on his elbow. "What do you +want?" he asked rather gruffly. + +His manner didn't suggest any longing for her society, but she +persevered. "I won't bother you but just a minute, Sherm, but I'm awful +sorry--about your father--and college and everything." + +Sherm did not answer or look at her. The tender note of sympathy in her +voice was imperilling his self-control. He didn't mean to play the baby, +especially before a girl. But the braver the boy was, the more Chicken +Little burned to comfort him. She stood for a moment staring at him +helplessly, the tears welling up into her own eyes. Then on a sudden +impulse she dropped down beside him, and before he could protest, began +to stroke his hair. Sherm tolerated the caressing fingers for a few +minutes, but his pride would not let him accept even this comforting. He +dabbed his eyes fiercely. "Don't, Chicken Little, don't! You're a trump +to stand by a fellow this way. I am all right--I just got to thinking +about Father--and Sue's going." + +Sherm would have carried it off beautifully if he hadn't attempted a +smile, but his heart was too sore to quite manage that. The smile +vanished in a hasty gulp, and, burying his face on his arm, he had it +out. + +Chicken Little's eyes were redder than Sherm's when she got up to go +back to the house. Sherm noticed her tear-stained appearance. "Wait a +minute," he ordered bruskly. He ran down to the spring stream just +beyond the willows and soaking and rinsing out his handkerchief, brought +it dripping to her. "Mop your eyes, Jane, they look awful. There--that's +better. I'll be along pretty soon!" + +Mrs. Morton had not considered it necessary to inform Katy and Gertie +that she had also written to their mother, asking if their visit might +be prolonged until the last of August. Mrs. Morton was firm in the +opinion that every detail of children's lives should be settled by their +elders for their best good, and she expected the children to be properly +thankful. Her expectations had not always been realized with her own +children--all three having often very definite ideas of their own as to +what they wanted and what they didn't want. But in this instance she was +not disappointed. The joy was general when Mrs. Halford wrote that the +girls might remain until the twenty-eighth, when a business friend of +Mr. Halford's would be coming through Kansas City, and would meet the +girls there and bring them on home. To be sure, Gertie had a bad half +hour thinking how much longer it would be before she could see Mother, +but she soon forgot all this in the bustle of preparation for Alice and +Dick. + +Marian and Frank had arranged several excursions for their last days at +the ranch. They had seen fit to include the young folks in only one of +these--a day in town when they were to go to the old Mission and look up +some interesting Indian Mounds in the neighborhood. Captain Clarke was +to be of the party, and, true to his promise, insisted upon driving the +boys and girls in himself. + +The afternoon Alice and Dick were expected, the girls were down the lane +watching for the first glimpse of the bay team, to greet them. They had +arrayed Jilly in white with a wreath of forget-me-nots on her blonde +curls and a small market basket full of hollyhock blooms to scatter in +the pathway of the expected guests. Frank was responsible for the +hollyhocks. Flowers were becoming scarce, it had been so dry, and +Chicken Little was bemoaning the fact that they could hardly find enough +to trim up the house. + +"Hollyhocks, sure. There's a whole hedge of them right at your hand. +Nothing could be more appropriate for returning honeymooners. Further, +they're gaudy enough to compete with the two inches of dust in the lane. +If we don't have rain pretty doggoned soon we won't have any crop." + +Both Mrs. Morton and Marian looked up anxiously. + +"You don't think----?" Marian hesitated. She did not wish to burden Katy +and Gertie with family worries. + +"No, I don't think, not being in the weather man's confidence. But a +rain inside of the next three days would mean hundreds of dollars to the +Morton family and the whole Eastern half of Kansas as well." + +Chicken Little's mind flew instantly to Ernest's cherished hopes. "Oh, +can't Ernest go to college if we don't have rain?" + +"Don't bother your head, Chicken, we'll find some way to take care of +Ernest. Go back to your decorations." + +Ernest and Sherm had spent the preceding evening erecting a remarkable +arch over the front gate with "Welcome to Our City" done in charcoal +letters a foot high on a strip of white paper cambric, depending from +it, and an American flag proudly floating above. The girls completed +this modest design by trimming up the gate posts with boughs. + +Mrs. Morton's preparations were more practical. Three peach and three +custard pies crowded a chocolate cake and a pan of ginger cookies on the +lowest pantry shelf. The bread box lid would not shut, the box was so +full, and a whole boiled ham was cooling down at the spring house, not +to mention six dismembered spring chickens which had been offered up in +place of the regulation calf. + +"I shouldn't mind if they had cooked two of the pigs," groaned Katy. +They were giving their charges an extra big feed, being fearful lest +they should forget them in the excitement of the guests' arrival. + +"Neither would I," Chicken Little replied with a sigh. "I'm sick of the +sight of 'em!" + +Gertie threw a carrot and hit the one time beauteous white one with the +curly tail, so smart a rap on his snout that he squealed his disapproval +while his relatives bagged the carrot. + +"I don't care if I don't get any money for my share of 'em," said Katy +after a pause of disgusted contemplation of the pigs. "I'd have to spend +it for something useful like as not, or give some of it to the heathens. +Let's give them back to your father." + +"I'd just as lief, only Frank and the boys would tease us everlastingly +if we backed out now--and we've worked so hard!" + +"I don't care. I'd just as lief quit." Gertie's discouraged expression +was so funny that Chicken Little laughed and Gertie, the patient, +flared. She hated to be funny. + +"Stop it--I am not going to help you feed those horrid pigs another +time, Chicken Little Jane Morton. I've just been doing it to help you +out. And I don't think it's a suitable occupation for girls--or +company!" Gertie climbed down from her perch on the log pen and departed +with dignity. + +"Humph, I guess I never asked you to help me. Besides, you expected to +get as much money as I did. You can just go off and sulk if you want +to." + +"Well, I don't think that is a nice way to talk to your guests." Katy +climbed down and departed to soothe her sister. + +Chicken Little whacked her heels against the logs and made a face at the +nearest pig to relieve her feelings. She loathed the creatures. She +wished she could wipe them off the face of the earth. Katy was half way +to the house when she had an inspiration. "Katy!" she called eagerly, +"Katy, I've got an idea." + +Katy continued her way without glancing 'round. + +"It's something you'll like." + +Katy wavered and unbent enough to ask: "What is it?" + +"Come here and I'll tell you. I'm not going to yell it." + +Katy considered and finally returned reluctantly. + +When she came back to the pen, Chicken Little glanced round to make sure +that no one was about, to overhear, then, to make sure, whispered +excitedly into Katy's ear. + +Katy's face lighted. "All right, let's. Gertie won't care." + +They had entirely made up this slight unpleasantness by afternoon. +Perched on rocks under the shade of the cherry trees they waited +impatiently for Dick and Alice. Jilly had been coached in her little +speech so often that there was no doubt at all that she would get it +wrong. She had been told to say, "Welcome, Uncle Dick, welcome Auntie +Alice." She had said it faultlessly three times already when approaching +wheels started them to their feet expectantly. They were disappointed by +seeing a neighbor drive round the bend in the lane. When the familiar +bays did come into view with their swinging trot, Jilly was so enchanted +she started off pell mell to meet them, spilling her blossoms out +generously as she ran. The girls overtook her before she quite got in +the path of the horses and reminded her of her responsibility. + +Dr. Morton pulled up and Dick leaped to the ground, punctuating her +attempted "Weecome" by tossing her into the air and kissing her noisily. + +Jilly struggled free. Her coaching had not been in vain. + +"Oo muttant--I ain't said it, and oo pillin' ve fowers." + +Dick set the mite on her feet with exaggerated courtesy. "Of course--to +be sure. I beg your most humble pardon, Miss." + +Jilly drew in a long breath and began at the beginning again. She +plunged a fat hand into the market basket and aimed two hollyhock tops +in the general direction of Dick's diaphragm, repeating impressively: +"Wee-come, Unky Dick." She took no notice of his profound bow, but +looking up at Alice, who was leaning out the side of the seat watching +with amused eyes, she showered another handful upon the wheels and +horses hoofs impartially. "Wee-come, An-tee Alish," she said solemnly, +then, with a rapturous look of triumph, turned to the girls for +approval. + +She got it, with numerous hugs and kisses for interest. + +Dick surveyed the remainder of the reception committee critically. + +"Chicken Little, I hate to mention it, but is there anything left on the +ranch to eat? I have been a little nervous all the time we have been +away, remembering the execution Katy and Gertie and Sherm were doing +when we left and now----" He gazed sorrowfully at the girls' plump +cheeks. "I know they have gained ten pounds apiece. Be frank with me, +Jane, is there anything left?" + +"If there isn't, Dick, you might commandeer one of Chicken Little & +Co.'s pigs. They are fat enough to sustain you for a few hours," replied +Dr. Morton, glancing at the girls. + +Katy and Jane also exchanged glances. + +Dick was quite overcome when he caught sight of the triumphal arch and +the flag. + +"Support me, Chicken Little, this reception is so, ah, flattering it +makes me faint with emotion. Young ladies, Dr. Morton," he placed one +hand over his heart and bowed low to each, "and esteemed----" he +hesitated, not seeing anyone but Jilly to include in this last +salutation, "esteemed fellows," he bowed once more, including trees, +bushes, and any other objects handy, with a courtly sweep of the arm, +"it is with deepest gratitude I----" + +"Heart-felt sounds better, Dick," interrupted Alice, laughing. + +Dick gazed at her reproachfully. "'Tis always the way when I try to +soar, my wife seizes my kite by the tail and pulls it down with a jerk. +I thought lovely woman was supposed to inspire a man to higher----" + +Dick was interrupted in the middle of his complaining by Mrs. Morton's +coming out to greet them. + +The next few days fairly flew by. Each member of both families had +thought of a variety of things that Alice and Dick must do before they +went home. Unfortunately, there were only twenty-four hours in a day and +it seemed necessary to spend part of these in sleep. + +"We ought to have at least one more hunting party," declared Chicken +Little. + +"We ought--I shall feel the lack of that hunting party for years to +come, Jane. There will be a vacuum in my inner consciousness. I shall +wake up in the middle of the night sighing for that hunting party. But +you see to-day is Wednesday, and we must leave Friday, and Frank and I +have sworn by every fish in the creek to take to-morrow off for a +fishing trip. Chicken Little, there is only one way out of the dilemma. +Painful as it will be for you, you'll have to invite us to come again." + +The worst of it was that Frank firmly declined to take a single +petticoat along. Neither Marian nor Alice could move him from this +ungallant resolve. + +"My dear wife," Frank replied, "I love you, but I don't love to have you +round when I'm fishing." + +"Never mind," said Marian with decision, "if we can't go we won't get +them any lunch. Will we, Mother Morton?" + +Mrs. Morton was rather horrified at such a breach of hospitality, Dick +and Sherm being included in the boycott, but Marian and Alice both +urged, and she finally promised neither to get up a lunch herself nor to +permit Annie to. + +Marian and Alice looked triumphant. Frank motioned to Dick and the two +promptly disappeared. Marian quickly followed. + +"The villain! He's gone over home to confiscate that batch of doughnuts +I baked this morning. I hope he doesn't find them." + +Mrs. Morton took the hint and locked up her pies and cake. But the two +boys and Dr. Morton had joined the foraging party and food disappeared +most mysteriously at intervals during the remainder of the day. A +custard pie already cut and served on plates on the kitchen table, +reassembled itself in the pie tin and walked out of the kitchen door +when Annie changed the plates in the dining room. One entire loaf of +bread vanished from the earth while Annie was trying to expel Ernest +from the kitchen with a broom. + +The foragers were so capable that even Mrs. Morton ceased to worry about +the men folks going hungry. + +But Marian's blood was up. "We've just got to do something to get even. +The best pool for fish on the whole creek is on Captain Clarke's land +and I know they are not going there. Let's take the spring wagon and +drive over and get the Captain to go fishing with us. He'll take us to +his own pool and with him to help, I'd be willing to wager we can beat +these top-lofty fishermen at their own game." + +Alice and the girls were instantly enthusiastic, but Mrs. Morton +preferred to stay at home and keep cool. + +Marian and Chicken Little left the others to put up the lunch, while +they went out to the stable to hitch up the bays. They were soon on +their way, with a can of bait and a pocket full of fish hooks and stout +cord to rig up impromptu fishing lines, the men having taken all the +poles with them. + +The others had gone soon after daybreak. It was nearing ten when Marian +drove up to the Captain's hitching post. + +"What if he isn't at home?" said Chicken Little. + +"He's got to be," laughed Marian. + +Wing Fan came out, grinning. He did not share his master's reputed +dislike for ladies. + +He ushered them all into the big library and went off to notify the +Captain, who was down in the meadow superintending the hay cutting. + +"I am afraid we are an awful nuisance, but my prophetic soul tells me he +will enjoy the joke and be pleased to have us come to him." Marian was +bolstering up her courage. + +"Of course he will. You don't suppose anybody could resist this crowd, +do you?" Alice encouraged. + +Captain Clarke was both pleased and amused. They were so excited they +all talked at once, and it took several minutes for him to get command +of the situation. + +"They have the advantage in fishing early in the day, but I'll impress +Wing Fan and we'll have more fish, if I have to get out a net and seine +them. We'll go down to the long hole now and see what we can do, and +Wing will come as soon as he gives the men their dinner. If there is a +fish in the creek you can depend on Wing to lure him. He just goes out +and crooks his little finger and they begin to hunt for the hook," he +explained to Gertie. + +The Captain proved to be an expert fisherman himself. He showed them all +his little stock of fisherman's tricks and they had a good catch by noon +when Marian and Alice stopped to prepare the lunch. About two o'clock +Wing Fan appeared, his face one broad, yellow smile. + +"Big missee and little missee have most," he assured them. + +Chicken Little and Katy and Gertie laid off and perched some distance up +the bank behind Wing to watch his methods. He didn't seem to do anything +different, but the fish certainly came to his hook in a most astonishing +manner. + +They fished until four, and the catch exceeded their wildest +expectations. They wanted to leave some with the Captain, but he +wouldn't hear of it. "If the men have more than you, you can send me +some of theirs. I should like to see if the flavor is better." + +They expected their fishermen to drift in about five, and knew they +would bring their fish to the house to display them before taking them +down to the spring stream. Hurrying home, they put away the team and +took their fish down to the spring house. Captain Clarke had saved a +considerable part of their take alive for them, in a wooden cask, which +Wing carefully loaded into the spring wagon. They got a piece of chicken +wire and fastened it across the opening where the water flowed out +underneath the spring house, and then, removing the milk and butter +crocks from the rock-lined channel, turned all the living fish into the +water. The others they spread out on the rock floor to make the best +showing possible. The spring house seemed alive with fish. + +"They'll never beat that!" Alice's eyes were dancing. + +"I don't see how they can." Marian chuckled. "My lofty spouse will have +to come down off his high horse this time." + +"Don't breathe a word, girls. I don't want them to have the least +inkling of what we have been up to, till they see this array." + +The fishermen arrived, hot, dusty, and hungry. After all their efforts, +their supplies had hardly kept pace with their appetites. They displayed +their booty proudly. Frank had three trout and five catfish on his +string. Dick, one trout, and three catfish. Dr. Morton and the boys had +pooled theirs, and boasted twelve altogether. But most of the fish were +small. The ladies obligingly went into ecstasies over their skill. +Chicken Little and Katy admired and ohed and ahed until Marian was +afraid they would rouse suspicion. + +"Do you want them all here at the house or shall we put part of them +down at the spring?" Frank asked, with emphasis on the all. + +"Oh, since there are so many, perhaps you'd better put some away for +breakfast," Marian replied, after an instant's consideration. + +Frank, Dick and the boys started for the spring. The three girls rose to +accompany them. Alice and Marian looked languidly uninterested. + +The spring house was very dark and shadowy, coming in from the bright +sunshine outside. Frank was in the lead. He stopped just in time to +avoid stepping on a fish. He and Dick got their eyes focused to take in +the display at almost the same instant. + +"Well, I'll be darned!" Frank looked at Dick in wild amaze. Dick stared, +speechless, for fully twenty seconds. Then he broke into a roar. The +boys, a few paces behind them, rushed in to see what the fun was. Ernest +took one good look over Frank's shoulder. "Jumping Jehosaphat!" he +ejaculated, making room for Sherm. Sherm gazed his fill and glanced at +Frank. + +Dick came to first and hazarded a guess. "The ladies--God bless +'em--they've been to town and bought out a market." + +"Nonsense, there isn't a fish market in the burg--men sometimes peddle +fish round at the houses, but they never get out here. They've been +fishing on their own hook." + +Dick turned on Chicken Little, who was watching them demurely. "If you +don't tell us how you worked this I'll----" He advanced threateningly. + +"Fished," she replied laconically. And neither coaxing nor threats +extracted any further information from the ladies that evening. + +After supper Marian remarked carelessly: "Frank, there are more fish +than we can use, don't you think it would be nice to send some over to +the Captain?" + +But it was Marian herself who finally let the cat out of the bag the +following morning just before Alice and Dick left. The train would not +leave until evening, but they were all going in to make a tour of the +Indian remains and to do some shopping. Frank was driving for the guests +and Marian; the youngsters were with the Captain. Marian reached down +under the seat to push a satchel out of the way of her feet, and to her +surprise, came in painful contact with a fish hook. She pulled up a +bunch of line and several hooks. + +"Oh, I wondered what became of our lines," she said carelessly. "Wing +must have put them in for us." + +She looked up to find both Dick and Frank regarding her with interest +and Alice looking reproachful. + +"Methinks," remarked Dick, gazing at the heavens thoughtfully, "I see a +great light." + +"I knew they'd let it out," Frank replied meanly. "Women are clever, but +a secret is too many for them every time." + +The day was cloudy but sultry. Collars wilted and little damp spots +appeared between their shoulder blades if they ventured to lean against +the backs of the seats. + +Leaves were curling in the corn fields; the prairies were parched with +the heat. Frank got out and examined several of the ears of corn just +heading out in a field they passed. + +He looked sober when he returned. "Forty-eight hours more like to-day +will finish that field. It's a trifle better on the bottom lands." + +Marian and Alice scanned the heavens. "That cloud bank off to the south +looks hopeful," said Marian after several minutes' silence. + +Whether it was the weather or their unusual exertions of the preceding +day or the menace of the drouth, that weighed upon them, it would be +hard to say, but their interest in the Old Mission and the Indian mound +on the Cook place was languid. Perhaps Ernest had been right when he +declared that they were more interesting to hear about than to see. "It +looks just like other houses, only the walls are thicker and the stone +chimneys go clear down to the ground outside!" Katy exclaimed, +distinctly disappointed at the appearance of the one-time fort. + +"Of course, it was just a schoolhouse. They used it for a fort because +it was stronger than any of the other houses, and, being all of stone, +the Indians couldn't set it on fire so easy." + +The Indian mound looked as if somebody had made a nice symmetrical sand +pile about twenty feet high out in the middle of the prairie and then +grassed it over neatly. + +"If we could cut into it after the fashion of a birthday cake," said +Captain Clarke, "you would find some very interesting things inside, I +imagine, weapons and iron utensils. I should think Mr. Cook would take +the trouble to explore it some day." + +"I guess he isn't interested in anything unless he sees a dollar close +by," Ernest replied. + +They had dinner at the one decently kept hotel in Garland, and scattered +along the comfortable veranda afterwards to rest and cool off. + +Ernest pointed out the place near the top of the bluff where a dark spot +in the rocky ledge revealed the location of the hermit's cave. "Who is +ready for the climb?" he asked, rejoining the others. + +"I pass," said Dick from the depths of a willow porch chair. + +"And I," Marian echoed. + +"I am just dying to go, Ernest, but it wouldn't be proper for me to +desert my liege Lord." Alice shot a mischievous glance at the occupant +of the willow chair. + +"I couldn't think of leaving our guests," Frank stopped smoking long +enough to say. + +"Put it to a vote, Ernest, and save us the trouble of inventing +excuses," remarked the Captain dryly. + +"Resolved--That we stay right where we are until train time. All in +favor----" He was not permitted to continue. A chorus of "Ayes" drowned +him out, the Captain leading. + +And they stayed until train time. + +"What is it," queried Ernest as they started homeward, "about a railroad +train that makes one so crazy to go along?" + +"Is it the train, or merely your love of adventure?" suggested Captain +Clarke. + +"I think it's because a train always seems so--oh, jolly--and exciting," +ventured Katy. + +"That's only part," said Chicken Little, who had been studying; "it's +wondering what's at the other end of the track that tempts you so." + +"Pooh, I know what's at the other end of this track and it tempts me +like sixty." + +"Home?" Katy and Jane asked together. + +"No, supper!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +CHICKEN LITTLE AND ERNEST + + +The household was awakened in the middle of the night by peals of +thunder and the rush of rain against the windows. Chicken Little was +drenched before she could get the window down next their bed. + +"I don't care," she said, as she hunted out a dry gown, "it's raining +and Ernest can go to college." + +They slept late the following morning. The rain was coming down in a +steady, business-like way that gladdened the heart of every farmer on +the creek. Dr. Morton was jubilant. + +"This will save the corn and make thousands of dollars difference in the +hay yield in the country," he remarked at the breakfast table. + +"That's what I don't like about farming," said Ernest. "So much depends +on things that you can't help. A man can work like a dog, and along +comes a drouth or chinch bugs or too much rain during the haying season +and, presto, all his fond hopes are knocked sky high." + +"Well," replied his father, "I guess there are mighty few businesses or +professions where you don't have to take chances. By the way, Son, I'm +beginning to be afraid your hopes of Annapolis may be disappointed. I +don't understand why Senator Pratt ignores my letter this way." + +"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Father, Captain Clarke heard at the hotel +yesterday that Senator Pratt has been seriously ill for several weeks, +but they've been keeping it quiet. They say he's just beginning to take +up his affairs again." + +"We may hear then in a day or two. I believe I'll go to town +to-day--it's too wet to do any work." + +The day dragged for the young people indoors. They tried dominoes and +authors, but the boys soon found these tame and settled down by +themselves to chess as more worthy of a masculine intellect. + +The rain ceased and the sun came out about two o'clock. Gertie was in +the midst of a letter home, but Katy and Chicken Little hurried outdoors +into the moist, fresh air joyfully. + +"Let's go get some of those summer sweetings. I'm hungry for an apple. +My, doesn't the air taste good?" Chicken Little was taking deep breaths. + +They picked their way daintily to avoid the wet weeds and high grass. +The sky once more serene, receded in deep bays above the arches of +foliage. Every now and then a bird, startled by their coming, flew out +from the branches overhead, sending down showers of drops on their hair +and shoulders. + +They found the sweeting tree and Chicken Little soon had an apron full. +It was too wet to linger and they had started back, when Chicken Little +stopped still and made a wry face. "Katy Halford, we haven't fed those +pigs!" + +"No sir, we haven't!" + +"Say, this would be an awful good time to do it--everything's so wet, we +could loosen one of the stones easy. And I guess they'll do the rest +fast enough." + +"If we don't give 'em much to eat they'll want to get out worse." + +The days since Alice's and Dick's coming had been so full they had found +no opportunity to carry out Jane's scheme for ridding themselves +gracefully of their burdensome boarders. Katy had explained the plan to +Gertie, who heartily endorsed it. She went back to the house after her +now, while Chicken Little began scouting to see if there were anyone +about. The coast seemed clear. Jim Bart had gone to look after the +pasture fences, and Marian told her that Ernest and Sherm had taken the +wheelbarrow and started to the south field after a load of watermelons. +"They'll be back in half an hour if you want them for anything, Jane." + +Jane didn't want them for anything: she merely wanted them safely out of +the way. + +She sped back to the house. "Hurry, girls, everybody's gone, and +Marian's putting Jilly to sleep in the bedroom on the other side of the +cottage, so she won't see us. I'll go get the milk and those pea pods +Annie saved." + +Katy and Gertie undertook the feeding, while Chicken Little went to the +tool house for pick and spade. The log pig pen was merely one corner of +the big hog corral, fenced off for the benefit of the new litters to +protect them from the older hogs. Stones had been securely embedded +underneath the lowest rail to keep the pigs from burrowing out beneath. +Chicken Little went into the corral and inspected these, carefully +trying one or two with the pick. + +"Here's one that isn't very big and it's loose at one corner. Let's try +it." + +The stone had been put there to stay and did not yield readily. Jane dug +till she was tired, then Katy took a hand. Gertie had been posted as a +sentinel where she could watch the road. + +They strained and tugged, but the stone was obstinate. Jane was getting +red in the face. + +"The old hateful----I'll get it out or bust!" + +"Perhaps I can help you, Chicken Little." + +The girls glanced up in dismay. Sherm stood there grinning. He had come +back across lots. + +"What you trying to do, anyhow? Have your pets been getting out?" + +There was nothing to do but take Sherm into their confidence. + +"Please promise you won't tell, Sherm--they'd tease me to death if they +know. But we're sick of those pigs. I never want to lay eyes on a pig +again. So we thought we'd just loosen a stone so they could get into the +corral with the others and Father'd think they'd dug out themselves. +Nobody can ever pick 'em out from the others. They are every bit as big +as old Whity's pigs and Father turned them in two weeks ago." + +Sherm chuckled. "Mum's the word. Hand over the pick and we'll do such an +artistic job that the porkers themselves will think they are responsible +for the whole business. I don't blame you. That's not girl's work!" + +The pigs rose to the occasion beautifully. The tiny opening called as +loudly as a pile of corn. They continued the excavating so promptly and +expeditiously that by the time Dr. Morton returned from town, every +piglet had deserted its maternal ancestor and was joyously rooting for +itself in the corral. + +"I don't see how those pigs got out," said Dr. Morton disgustedly. "I +thought that small pen was secure." + +The girls listened attentively. + +"They were there at four o'clock, I saw them," Sherm remarked. + +"Oh, I suppose the heavy rain loosened the earth and it was easy +rooting." + +"Possibly," said Sherm. + +The incident might have awakened more interest if the Doctor had not +returned, bringing a fateful letter. The long-expected letter from +Senator Pratt had come. He would be most happy to give Ernest the +appointment immediately, if he thought he could pass the mental +examinations. An extra examination was to be held on the 30th at +Annapolis. He was sending a catalogue and some special literature as to +the ground to be covered, by the same mail. He would, however, recommend +that Ernest go immediately to some reputable physician and see if he +could pass the physical examination. They had a naval surgeon there in +Topeka, if he cared to incur the expense of a visit to the Capital. + +Ernest was so busy poring over the catalogue that he could hardly be +induced to stop long enough to eat his supper. + +"I'm more afraid of the mathematics than anything else. I wonder if I +couldn't get Prof. Smith to coach me. I could study all week and go in +Saturdays to recite." + +"The first thing to do is to get that doctor's certificate. We'll go to +town to-morrow and have Dr. Hardy look you over, and if he doesn't find +anything suspicious, we'll run down to Topeka to see the surgeon and +call on the senator at the same time. I think I could go Monday." + +The entire family held its breath or at least tried to, for the next few +days. Mrs. Morton quite forgot how badly she had wanted Ernest to have +an education, when she learned that he could only come home once a year, +and then only for a short month. She sighed so much and was so +distraught, that the family were almost afraid to rejoice with Ernest, +when he came home jubilantly waving his physician's certificate. + +"Never mind, Mother, that surgeon may send me packing. Don't worry till +you are sure I'm going. Even if I am vouched for as up to the scratch +physically, I may flunk, alas! Wouldn't that be nice after Father had +put up a lot of money to send me on? You'd be ashamed of me, Mother, you +wouldn't want to see me come home." + +"I am not expecting you to fail, son," said Dr. Morton, "though I wish +we could have arranged matters sooner to give you more time for review. +But with the exception of a little extra mathematics, the requirements +are certainly no worse than for college entrance exams. And you've +tested yourself out twice on those. Aren't you glad I insisted on more +geometry?" + +"He doesn't need to come home if he does fail. He can visit some of our +friends in Centerville till college opens. It would only be a few days," +Frank consoled him. "However, I am not expecting you to fail, old boy. I +have always flattered myself that the Morton family are not lacking in +brains, and you know how to study." + +"I most wish he would fail so he could come to see us. Mother would love +to have him spend the Christmas vacations with us," put in Katy naively. + +"Thank you, Katy, I'd enjoy nothing better, but I've kinder set my heart +on showing this naval outfit that a wild and woolly Kansan can measure +up with some of those down-easters." + +The naval surgeon confirmed Dr. Hardy's judgment. The senator had been +cordial, and after some questioning, said he would send Ernest's name to +the department immediately. He also gave him some helpful suggestions as +to what subjects to put the emphasis on. + +Two weeks seemed a pretty short time for preparation. Ernest thanked his +lucky star that he had done a little studying through the summer in +preparation for his college entrance, and was not rusty. The entire +family waited on him and followed him round till Frank declared they +would ruin the boy, if he didn't get off soon. Chicken Little sadly +neglected her guests whenever it was possible to hang round Ernest. But +Ernest was so busy, she seldom had a word alone with him. The two were +very dear to each other despite their occasional bickering, and Chicken +Little was almost jealous of every one who came near him during those +last few days. + +"Ernest," said his father the Saturday before his departure, "will you +take one farewell turn at herding to-morrow? Jim Bart wants to get off +for the day and I'd like to have the cattle clean off that stubble +field. I think I will plow early and put it in winter wheat this year. I +have promised to drive Mother and the girls to town to church in the +morning. We are to have dinner with the parson and won't be home until +evening." + +That evening Ernest overtook Chicken Little coming up from the spring +with the butter and cream. + +"Say, Sis, don't you want to stay home and help me herd to-morrow? The +girls wouldn't mind this once." + +"Oh, I'd love it. We just haven't had a good talk for ages--but I don't +know what Mother'll say." + +"I'll fix Mother," he answered confidently. + +Later, he whispered: "It's all O. K." + +"Gee, I guess Mother'd give you the moon if she could, she feels so bad +about having you go so far away." + +"Poor Mother, it's mighty rough on her out here on the ranch. Say, Sis, +I don't mind if you want to wear some of my old truck to-day--we'll just +be down in the field and your riding skirt will be a nuisance in among +the cattle." + +This was a mighty concession for Ernest, who had a considerable share of +his mother's respect for the conventions. Chicken Little appreciated it. + +She reached up and gave him a big hug. + +"It's going to be awful hard to have you go, Ernest." + +Ernest didn't say anything in reply, but he squeezed his young sister +tight, as if he were realizing himself that he was about to miss +something precious from his life. + +The two were up early the next morning and off with the herd before the +rest of the family were fairly through breakfast. Sherm was going in +with the others to church. Annie had put up a lunch for Ernest and Jane; +they did not expect to get back to the house until late afternoon. + +The day was an August masterpiece, warm, but not too warm, with a fresh +breeze blowing and shreds of blue haze lingering over the timber along +the creek. + +"It has almost a fall feel," said Chicken Little. + +A brisk half-hour's work, in which Huz and Buz took an active part, +hindering rather more than helping in the cattle driving, was sufficient +to transfer the herd from the pasture to the stubble field. Chicken +Little was thankful she had discarded her skirt, for they had many a +chase after refractory animals through the timber and underbrush. Calico +and Caliph, being mustangs, seemed to enjoy the sport as much as their +riders. + +"Cricky, Caliph is almost human when it comes to heading off a steer, +and he's never done much cattle driving either. He must have inherited +the range instinct." + +"Humph, what about Calico?" retorted Jane. "He turned that roan Father +always says is so mean, three times." + +The cattle scattered over the stubble eagerly. Ernest picketed the +ponies so they could graze after their good work and he and Chicken +Little threw themselves down under a red bud tree near the edge of the +field to rest. + +"They won't stray much till they get their stomachs full," said Ernest, +"and that won't be before afternoon. I brought a book along--Cooper's +'Naval History.' It's great, though Father says it's better romance than +history. Do you mind if I read you a bit?" + +Chicken Little backed up against a tree and settled herself comfortably +and they were soon fighting with Paul Jones, so utterly absorbed that +the herd had drifted down to the farther end of the field before they +realized it. A half dozen adventurous beasts were already disappearing +into the timber, apparently headed for the Captain's cornfield, which +lay just beyond the creek. + +"The pesky brutes! Why can't they be content with a good square meal at +home?" Ernest hated to be interrupted. + +"Perhaps they like to go visiting as much as we do. Besides, they don't +often have a chance at green corn." + +It took some time to recover the truants. By the time they were settled +once more under the tree, the sun was nearing the zenith and they were +growing hungry. + +"It's only half past eleven, but I'm starved. Let's eat now." Ernest +eyed the packet of luncheon hungrily. + +"All right, go fill the water jug, and I'll get it out." + +After lunch they read for awhile, but, presently, the sun seemed to grow +hotter and they commenced to feel drowsy. They decided to take turns +watching the cattle and napping. The cattle also seemed to feel the heat +and were hunting patches of shade, lying down to chew their cuds +contentedly. The air seemed palpitating with the incessant humming and +whirring of insects. Bees, and white and yellow butterflies flittered in +a mat of weeds and wild blackberry vines, which had entirely covered an +angle of the old rail fence near them. + +Ernest's nap was a long one. The boy had been studying hard for his +examinations and was thoroughly tired. He was lying on his side, his +face resting on his hand, and his old straw hat drawn over his face to +keep off the flies. But the nagging insects soon discovered his neck and +hands. Chicken Little fished his bandanna out of his pocket to protect +his neck, covering the hand that lay on the grass with her own +handkerchief. + +He woke at length with a start, smiling up at Chicken Little when he +discovered the handkerchiefs. + +"Thank you, Sis. Whew, I must have slept for keeps," he added, glancing +at the sun. "It's four o'clock. The folks will be along about six." + +He sat up and took a survey of the field. The cattle were all quiet. +Chicken Little was braiding little baskets with a handful of cat tail +leaves she had brought from the slough. Ernest reached over and patted +the busy fingers. + +"Sis, I'm mighty fond of you--do you know it?" + +Chicken Little looked up at him affectionately. "I suspected it, +Ernest," she answered demurely. + +The boy was going on with his own thoughts. "I'm mighty glad to get away +from the ranch. I don't believe I'm cut out for this sort of thing. +Guess, maybe, I'm not democratic enough--you remember that party at +Jenkins'? Well, I've been thinking about it a good deal since. I guess +Sherm sort of set me to thinking with his fuss about the kissing games. +At any rate, I've made up my mind I don't intend to be like any of the +boys on this creek, and I don't propose that you shall be like any of +the girls if I can help it. It isn't that they aren't smart enough and +good enough. The people round here are mighty touchy about one person's +being just as good as another. Maybe one person is born just as good as +anybody else, but, thank goodness, they don't all stay alike. I mayn't +be any better than the Craft boys, but I know I'm a sight cleaner, and I +don't murder the king's English quite every other word, and I know +enough to be polite to a lady. And if I take the trouble to make myself +decent, and they don't, I don't see any reason why I should be expected +to pretend they're as good as I am." + +Ernest was waxing wroth. The insistent equality of the Creek was on his +nerves. + +"I don't care if people do think I'm stuck up--I'm going to try to +associate with the kind of people I like. It isn't money--it's just nice +living. If it wasn't for people like the Captain and one or two others +we'd forget what lady and gentleman meant. And that isn't saying that +there aren't lots of good kind people on the Creek, too. But they're so +dead satisfied with themselves the way they are--they don't seem to know +there is any better way to live." + +Chicken Little was listening eagerly. + +"I know what you mean. Lots of it's little things. I noticed that night +at the Jenkins'. Mamie's prettier than me and the boys like her better, +but I don't want to be like her all the same." + +"I should think not, Chicken Little, and you needn't worry. You're +nothing but a kid yet, but by the time you're eighteen, Mamie Jenkins +won't hold a candle to you. And while I think of it, Sis, the less you +see of Mamie the better. And I don't want you playing any more kissing +games--you're too big." + +"Humph, you just said I was nothing but a kid. You're as bad as Mother." + +Ernest was not to be diverted. "None of your dodging. I want you to +promise me you won't." + +Chicken Little considered. + +"It isn't that I want to play them," she argued, "but if I don't, I'll +have to sit and look on and all the old folks'll ask me if I'm not well, +and the girls'll say I'm stuck up. It wasn't as easy as you seem to +think, Ernest Morton, but I'll promise, if you'll promise not to kiss +any girl while you're gone." + +"Nonsense, Jane, you don't understand. It's different with a boy." + +Chicken Little fixed her brown eyes upon Ernest's face musingly. + +"How is it different?" + +"Chicken Little Jane Morton, haven't you had any raising? You know as +well as I do it isn't nice for a girl to let boys kiss her." + +Chicken Little considered. "You needn't be so toploftical; girls don't +want most boys to kiss 'em." + +"Most?" + +"That's what I said. I hated it when Grant kissed me at Mamie's party, +but I don't know that I'd mind if Sherm----" + +She got no further. Ernest bristled with brotherly indignation. + +"Has Sherm ever----" + +"Of course not, Sherm wouldn't! I guess it's because I know he wouldn't, +that I shouldn't much mind if he did." + +Chicken Little said this soberly, but her face grew a little red. + +Ernest's brotherly eyes were observant. + +"Oh, Sherm's all right, but Sis, I want that promise." + +"I told you I'd promise if you would." Chicken Little drew her lips +together in a firm way. + +"But I can't--it would be silly--I might look ridiculous sometime if I +refused. The fellows would guy me if they knew I made such a promise." + +"Well, I just told you they'd guy me if I refused to do what the others +do." + +"But, Chicken Little, it isn't nice." + +"I guess I know that as well as you do. And I don't know that I shall +ever play that kind of games again, but I'm not going to promise if you +won't. Boys don't need to think they can do everything they want to, +just because they're boys. You don't want anybody to kiss me, but I'd +like to know how you are going to kiss a girl without making somebody +else's sister do something that isn't nice, Ernest Morton." + +The discussion ended there. Ernest was not very worldly wise himself, +and Chicken Little's reasoning was certainly logical. + +They had but little time to talk after that. The cattle began to roam +restlessly once more and they were in the saddle pretty constantly for +the remainder of the afternoon. + +Ernest took the trouble to lift her down from Calico when they reached +the stable that evening, an unusual attention. He also gave her a shy +kiss on the cheek and whispered: "I'll promise, Sis. I don't know but +you are about half right." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +OFF TO ANNAPOLIS + + +"Golly, I sha'n't have any fingers left by the time I finish this +needle case! King's excuse, Katy, you needn't mind. I know I said it, +but if you tried to push a needle through this awful leather and pricked +yourself every other stitch you'd say Golly, too." Chicken Little edged +off as she saw Katy approaching. + +Katy was not to be deterred. "You said to pinch you every single time, +Jane Morton, and you've said it twice. Besides, your mother said she +hoped I could cure you." Katy gave Chicken Little's arm two vigorous +pinches to emphasize this statement. + +Chicken Little did not take this kindly office in the spirit in which it +was intended. She hated to sew and she had been toiling all morning on a +little bronze leather case to hold needles, buttons, and pins--a parting +gift to Ernest. + +"Katy Halford, I told you not to! I think you are real mean to do it +when I'm having such a hard time. I'll thank you not to any more, if I +do say it." + +"You don't need to go and get mad! You told me to." + +"Yes, and I just now told you not to!" + +"I guess you'd say King's excuse every time if I'd let you. A lot of +good it's going to do, if you sneak out of it whenever you want to." + +"I don't sneak out of it--this is the very first time, and you know it!" + +"I don't know any such thing, but I don't think it's very good manners +to be telling your guests they're saying something that isn't so! The +day before they're going home, too!" Katy forgot the dignity of her +fifteen years. + +"Well, I think it's quite as good manners as to tell your friends +they're sneaks!" Jane's tone was icy. + +Gertie came between the belligerents. "Please don't quarrel, girls. It'd +be dreadful the very last day, after we have had such a beautiful +summer. I never did have such a good time in all my life. I most wish I +could live on a ranch always." + +"I shouldn't like to live on a ranch, but we have had a jolly time, +Chicken Little," Katy recovered herself enough to say graciously. + +Chicken Little was not to be outdone. "I suppose I was ugly, Katy. It +always makes me cross to sew. I wish nobody had ever invented needles. O +dear, I shall be as lonesome as pie when you are gone. It isn't much fun +being the only girl on the ranch, I tell you. Sometimes, I don't even +see another girl for weeks." + +"But your school begins soon, doesn't it?" + +"Yes, and I'll have Sherm. I just don't believe I could bear to have +Ernest go if Sherm wasn't going to stay." + +"I'm awful glad Mr. Lenox put off coming for another day so we can go on +the same train with Ernest." Katy had been exulting over this for the +past twenty-four hours. + +"Ernest will be on the train for three days. I feel as if he would be as +far away as if he were going to China." + +Their conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Morton's entrance. + +"Would you rather have chocolate or cocoanut cake for your lunch, girls? +Annie has killed three chickens, and I thought you could take a basket +of those big yellow peaches; I only wish I could send some to your +mother. And I'll put in cheese and cold-boiled ham and a glass of +current jelly. Mr. Lenox may want to get a meal or two at the stations, +but you are so hurried at these--and it's always well to have plenty of +lunch in traveling. Dr. Morton told Ernest that he'd better get all his +breakfasts at the eating houses to have something hot. And by the third +day his lunch will be too stale--even if there is any left." + +Ernest was creepy with excitement between joy at going and his haunting +fear that he might disgrace the family by failing to pass the +examinations. + +"Buck up, old chap," Frank admonished, "you've got facts enough in your +head if you can only get them out at the right time. My advice is to +forget all about exams and enjoy your trip. One doesn't go to Washington +and Baltimore every day. You ought to have several hours in St. Louis if +your train is on time. Be sure to eat three square meals every day and +keep yourself as fresh as you can and I'll back you to pass any fair +test." + +"If you have time in St. Louis I want you to be sure to go and see +Shaw's Gardens. They used to be wonderful and they must have been +greatly improved since I saw them," said Mrs. Morton. + +Each individual member of the Morton family, except Jilly and Huz and +Buz, took Ernest aside for a parting chat with advice and remembrances. +Jilly and the dogs secured their share by getting in the way as often as +possible. + +Chicken Little had her turn first. She tendered the needle case +doubtfully. + +"Mother said you would have to sew on your own buttons at the Academy +and that you'd find this mighty handy, but I'd loathe to have anybody +give me such a present. And, Ernest, here's the five dollars I got last +birthday. You take it and buy something you really want." + +Ernest demurred about accepting the money, but Jane insisted. + +"Little Sis, you're sure a dear----" Ernest found himself choking up +most unaccountably. He gave her a good old-fashioned hug in conclusion +to save himself the embarrassment of words. + +Dr. Morton took his son into the parlor and closed the door immediately +after dinner. They stayed an hour, during which time the Doctor gave +Ernest much practical advice about his conduct and sundry warnings not +to be extravagant or careless in handling his money. No sooner had they +emerged, Ernest looking important and rather dazed, when his mother laid +her hand upon his arm, saying: "My son, I also wish to have a little +talk with you. We shall be hurried in the morning so perhaps we would +better have it now." + +Ernest returned to the parlor with his mother. Chicken Little lay in +wait outside in the hall. She and Katy had a beautiful plan for a last +boat ride that afternoon. She knew Ernest would be going over to say +good-bye to the Captain anyway. + +Chicken Little waited and yawned and waited and squirmed for a solid +hour and a quarter. The steady hum of her mother's voice was interrupted +occasionally by brief replies from Ernest. At last, Chicken Little heard +a movement and roused herself joyously. But her mother began to speak +again--this time with reverent solemnity. Chicken Little forgot herself +and listened a moment. + +"Umn, I guess she's praying--they must be most through. Golly, I bet +Ernest's tired!" + +When the door opened a moment later there were tears on Mrs. Morton's +lashes and Ernest looked sober. He held a handsome Oxford bible in his +hand. Mrs. Morton glanced at Jane suspiciously, but passed on into the +sitting room. + +Chicken Little surveyed her brother wickedly. + +"Did Mother give you a new bible?" + +"Yep." + +"I thought you had one." + +"Got two--Mother forgot, I s'pose." + +"Bet you'd rather have had a new satchel--that bible must have cost a +lot." + +"Yes, I would, but don't you dare let on to Mother. I wouldn't hurt her +feelings for a farm! She's awful good, but she doesn't understand how a +fellow feels about things. I'd rather be licked any day than prayed +over. I guess if I attended all the 'means of grace' she wants me to, I +wouldn't have any time left for lessons. I'm going to try all-fired hard +not to do anything to hurt Mother or make her ashamed of me, but I'm not +calculating to wear out the pews at prayer meetings--not so you'd notice +it." Ernest grinned at Chicken Little defiantly. + +Jane replied soberly: + +"A prayer meeting's a real treat to Mother. She hasn't had a chance to +go to one for so long she is just pining for the privilege, but I bet +she didn't feel that way when she was young! But she thinks she did, so +there's no use fussing." + +Marian's admonition to Ernest was brief and to the point. She stood him +up against the wall and looked him so squarely in the eyes that she +could see her own reflection in the pupils. Ernest's six feet of +vigorous youth was good to look at. His hazel eyes gazed back at her +steadfastly. Marian smiled up at him. + +"Ernest Morton, I'm downright proud to be your sister, and if you can +look me in the eye as fearlessly and unashamed when you come home, I +shall be still prouder. I want to tell you something I overheard in a +store the other day about Father. Some men were evidently discussing him +in connection with a business deal, and one remarked emphatically: 'Old +man Morton may have his weaknesses like the rest of us humans, but his +word's as good as his bond any day, and there's precious few men you can +say that of.' It's worth while to have that sort of a father, Ernest, +but it makes the Morton name somewhat of a responsibility to live up to, +doesn't it?" + +Marian gave him a pat and pulled his head down to kiss him. + +Katy and Gertie had been busy all day with their own preparations for +departure. Marian was helping them with their packing, because Mrs. +Morton had her hands full with the lunch and Ernest's clothes and trunk. +Chicken Little vibrated between the two centers of interest. Jilly also +assisted, contributing articles of her own when she caught the spirit of +packing. Her mother rescued a cake of soap and one of her shoes, but +after Katy and Gertie arrived at home, they discovered one of Jilly's +nighties reposing on top of their Sunday hats and her rag doll neatly +wedged in a corner of their trunk. Ernest was not overlooked either. +When he unpacked at Annapolis, his recently acquired New York roommate +was decidedly amazed to see him draw forth a small, pink stocking from +the upper tray and a little later, a soiled woolly sheep along with his +shirts. Ernest found his explanations about a baby niece received rather +incredulously until a choice packet containing half a doughnut, a +much-mutilated peach, two green apples, and a mud pie appeared. Jilly +had evidently prepared a lunch for her uncle. They both went off into +rumbles of mirth over this remarkable exhibit and began a friendship +which was destined to be enduring. + +Jane's boat ride scheme found favor, but Mrs. Morton declared they must +put it off till after supper. They drove over and found the Captain +smoking contentedly on the veranda. + +"I was hoping you young people would come to-night," he said, "though I +intended going to the train to see you off in any event. I shall miss +these young ladies sadly, and Ernest seems to belong to me a little, now +that he has decided to be a sailor, too." + +"If I get in, I shall owe it to you, for I should never have thought of +Annapolis if you hadn't suggested it," Ernest replied. + +"Well, I trust I have not influenced you to a decision you will some day +regret. You seem to me to have many of the qualifications for a naval +officer." + +"Do you think he is sufficiently qualified to row the _Chicken +Little_, Captain Clarke?" asked Jane suggestively. + +The Captain's eyes twinkled. "If he isn't, I think Sherm is. We might +let the one who gets there first prove his skill." + +The boys were not slow in acting upon this hint. They sprinted their +best without waiting for a starter, and reached the skiff so exactly +together that the question of precedence was still unsettled. The boys +did not wait for an umpire. Ernest untied the boat and both attempted to +fling themselves in with disastrous results. The _Chicken Little_ +had not been built for wrestling purposes. She tipped sufficiently to +spill both boys into the creek. The water was shallow, but Sherm was wet +well up to the waist, and Ernest, who had been pitched still farther +out, was soaked from head to foot. They appeared ludicrously surprised +and sheepish. + +The girls and the Captain laughed most unfeelingly. But Chicken Little +immediately began to consider the consequences. + +"Poor Mother, she'll have to dry that suit out and press it before it +can be packed. It's a blessed thing you didn't wear your new suit as you +wanted to, Ernest Morton." + +"My, but you are wet!" exclaimed Katy. "Oughtn't you to go right home +and change?" + +"Come with me into the house, boys. I think Wing and I can fix you up." +The Captain cut a laugh in the middle to offer aid. + +The lads were so ludicrously crestfallen; they were doubly comical. + +Wing, fortunately, had a good fire in the kitchen and soon had their wet +garments steaming before it, while the Captain hunted out dry clothes +for them. Some spirit of mischief prompted him to array Ernest in an old +uniform of his own, with amazing results, for Ernest was considerably +slimmer than the older man, and fully two inches taller. The ample blue +coat with its gold braid hung on him as on a clothes rack. The sleeves +were so short they left a generous expanse of wrist in view, and the +trousers struck him well above the ankle. + +The Captain saluted him ceremoniously, chuckling at the boy's absurd +appearance. The girls were openly hilarious. + +Chicken Little struck an attitude. "Behold the future admiral! Ladies +and gentlemen, permit me to introduce Admiral Morton, of whose +distinguished exploits you have often heard. His recent feat of +capsizing the enemy's frigate single-handed, has never been equalled in +the annals of our glorious navy." + +She was not permitted to finish this speech undisturbed. Ernest had +chased her half way round the house before she got the last words out. + +He clapped his hand firmly over her mouth to restrain her from further +eloquence. + +Jane struggled helplessly. "Katy--say, Katy, come--help----" + +Katy, nothing loath, flung herself on Ernest from the rear and the three +had a joyous tussle, with honors on the side of the future admiral, till +Sherm, who had been a little slower in dressing than Ernest, came out +the front door. + +Jane called to him despite the restraining hand and her shortening +breath: "Sherm, he's choking me----" + +"Choking nothing--it's Katy who is choking me--just wait till I get hold +of you, Miss Halford!" + +Katy had both hands gripped fairly on his coat collar and was tugging +Ernest backward with all her might, while Chicken Little struggled to +get away. + +"Come help,--Sherm, please!" Chicken Little loosened herself from the +gagging hand enough to plead again. + +"Keep out, Sherm. Three against one is no fair." + +Sherm watched the fray a moment, undecided. + +"You may have bigger odds than that, Ernest," laughed the Captain. "You +might as well be getting your hand in." + +Sherm sauntered leisurely over and helped Chicken Little wrench loose, +then, whispering something hastily, took her by the hand and they both +made for the creek. + +Ernest, relieved of his sister, swung quickly round, catching Katy by +the shoulders before she could save herself. + +"I've a mind to----" At this moment he detected Sherm's game. "No, you +don't, smarties!" + +Katy likewise saw and acted even more quickly than Ernest. She was very +light and swift, and she darted past Sherm and Chicken Little like a +flash, reaching the boat twenty seconds ahead. + +"Come on, Ernest!" She slipped the rope deftly from the post, not +waiting to untie it, and, pushing off, leaped lightly into the row boat. + +Ernest needed no second invitation. Katy motioned to him to run farther +along the bank and paddled the skiff in close enough for him to climb on +board. Sherm and Chicken Little, dazed by the suddenness of this +maneuver, were still some feet away. + +"Katy Halford, you're a pretty one to go back on your own side that +way," Jane scolded. + +"Katy, I didn't think it of you--after asking me to come and help you, +too!" Sherm was also reproachful. + +"I didn't ask you, Sherman Dart. It was Chicken Little." + +"Of course," Ernest encouraged. "Katy's been on my side all the time. +Haven't you, Katy?" + +Katy nodded, laughing. + +The Captain, who had followed the young people at a more sober gait, +smiled at this outcome of the skirmish. + +"When a woman will she will, you may depend upon it," he quoted. "The +trouble is to find out what she wills." + +Ernest, secure in the rower's seat, could afford to be generous. He +brought the boat in and took them all on board. Gertie had been a quiet +spectator of the frolic. She had little taste for boisterous fun. + +Captain Clarke handed her in with a flourish. "Gertie is my partner." + +Sherm had his revenge. Ernest rowed energetically--so energetically that +he was tired enough to be willing to resign the oars before a half hour +had gone by. Under the circumstances he did not quite like to ask Sherm +to relieve him. Sherm seemed to be oblivious to the fact that it +required energy to propel the boat. He was strumming an imaginary banjo +as an accompaniment to the familiar melodies the girls were softly +singing, occasionally joining in himself. Katy did not fail to observe +that Ernest dropped one of his oars to regard a blister ruefully, and +she did her best to help. + +"Say, Ernest, let me try one oar. I believe I could row with you if you +would take shorter strokes." + +Ernest hadn't much faith in Katy's skill, but the experiment gave him an +excuse to rest a minute. He moved over and handed her the oar with a +little smile of gratitude. + +"You're a trump, Katy," he whispered. + +Darkness dropped softly in the timber. They heard a distant splash where +a muskrat had taken to the water. Every one wished solemnly by the +evening star. And two of the wishes came true in record time. The +Captain wished that he might find the son so long lost to him. Katy +wished--she didn't quite put the wish into words--but she did want +Ernest to have what he wanted. One by one the other stars twinkled forth +and the darkness deepened till their faces were dim, white blurs, and +the girls' pink-and-blue dresses faded into patches of dusk in the +blackness. Fireflies winked in the gloom. At the Captain's suggestion, +Katy and Ernest rested on their oars. They stopped singing and listened +to the night's silences--silences broken by rustling movements from a +thicket on the farther bank or by eery creakings of the branches +overhead. The little group felt vaguely the bigness of things, though no +one but the Captain knew exactly why. + +It was ten o'clock before they went back to the house. Wing had +performed a miracle in the meantime; the boy's suits were not only +dried, but neatly pressed. + +Mrs. Morton let them all sleep late the next morning in view of the long +journey ahead for Ernest and the girls. + +Poor Sherm found this last day trying. His father's health was not +improving and a fear lay close in his heart that he should never see him +again. It was almost more than he could bear to hear the girls talk +about going home. He eased the ache by keeping at work. Dr. Morton had +already initiated him into Ernest's duties. The others were too busy to +think much about Sherm but Chicken Little, who sat beside him at the +table, noticed that he scarcely tasted his dinner. She started to remark +about it, but a glance at Sherm's drawn face warned her in time. + +Presently, she had a gracious thought. "Sherm, let's ride Caliph and +Calico in to the train, then the others won't be so crowded and Marian +and Jilly can go, too." + +Sherm somehow felt better immediately. The brisk gallop they took at +starting helped still more. Sunflowers and golden rod lined the roadside +for miles; brown cat tails nodded above the swales. A bobolink, swaying +on a weed stalk near by, answered Sherm's chirrup to the ponies with a +volley of golden notes. + +"Chicken Little," he remarked, apropos of nothing, after they had ridden +a few miles, "you are a mighty comfortable person to have 'round." + +"Maybe you won't think so in a day or two. I shall be so lonesome I may +be tempted to follow you about like Huz and Buz." + +"You can't scare me that way, Chicken Little, I think the ranch is going +to be a pretty loose fit for all of us for a few days. But your school +begins about the middle of September, doesn't it? That will help." + +"Yes, I wish you were going to school, too. Say, Sherm, why couldn't you +arrange to take one or two special studies under the new teacher? They +say he only lacks one year of graduating from college and knows a lot. +He's teaching to save the money for his last year. Perhaps you might +take some of your freshman work." + +"I wish I could--I hate to get behind the rest of the boys. But your +father is hiring me to work, not to study." + +"I know, but when winter comes you won't need to work all the time, and +you'll have all your evenings--Jim Bart does." + +"If I could only keep up my mathematics and Latin, I wouldn't be losing +so much." Sherm was considering. + +The nine-mile ride to town seemed shorter than usual to most of the +party that afternoon. Ernest, in spite of his joy in actually going away +to school, found home and home folk unexpectedly dear now that he was +leaving them for many months. Poor Mrs. Morton could hardly tear her +eyes from the son who was taking his first step away from her. Chicken +Little was feeling disturbingly sober; no Ernest, no Katy, no +Gertie--how could she ever stand it? + +"Sherm, if I start to cry, just wink, will you--that funny way you do +sometimes. Ernest bet I would--and I won't, but I know I'm going to want +to dreadfully." + +Chicken Little was as good as her word. She didn't--that is, as long as +Ernest could see her. She kissed him good-bye and gave him a playful box +on the ear. She threw kisses, smiling as the group at the car window +slid by, then the lump in her throat grew startlingly bigger. + +"Race you to the horses, Chicken Little," said Sherm. "If it's all right +with you, Mrs. Morton, we'll go straight home." + +Chicken Little raced with Sherm and with her tears. She beat Sherm but +the tears won out. She could hardly see to untie Calico's rein. Sherm +took the strap out of her hand, fastened it, and swung her up. + +"Shut your eyes and open your mouth," he commanded, as soon as she was +securely seated. + +Jane obeyed meekly and Sherm popped a big chocolate drop in. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, smiling through the trickling tears, "was that what +you stopped down town for? My, what a baby you must think me!" + +Sherm reached over and patted her hand. "I think you are several +pumpkins and some squash, Chicken Little. Have another?" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +SCHOOL + + +The days crawled by during the next two weeks. + +"I hate them so by night, I want to shove them off into to-morrow by +main force," Jane told Marian complainingly, the third day after Ernest +and the girls had gone. + +"You'll be all right in a day or two. It's always hardest at first," +Marian consoled her. + +"I suppose it doesn't make any difference whether I'm all right or all +wrong--the folks have gone just the same." + +"And you might as well make the best----" + +"Oh, yes, I might as well! 'Count your blessings, my brethren, etc.' +I've done counted 'em till I'm sick of hearing about them! Marian, if +you don't find me something new to do I shall bust!" + +Marian was particularly busy that morning and not so patient as usual. + +She waved her hand around the room ironically. "I shall be charmed, +Chicken Little, will you finish these dishes or sweep the sitting room +or sew on that dress of Jilly's? I can furnish you an endless variety to +choose from." + +"I said something new." + +"Jilly's dress is brand spanking new." + +"You know what I mean." + +"Yes, I know, Jane, I have had the feeling myself, but I don't imagine +the heavens are going to open and shower down something new and choice +on you because you're lonesome and bored. If you can't amuse yourself, +you might as well be useful and have something to show for a tedious +day." + +Chicken Little drummed on the window for several minutes without +replying, then swung round with a grimace. + +"Hand over the dress--I can run up the seams on the machine all right, I +suppose." + +The family waited, excited and expectant, for the report on Ernest's +examinations. They had had a long letter telling of his journey and safe +arrival. Katy and Gertie and Mrs. Halford had each written long letters +full of Centerville news and references to their pleasant summer. Mrs. +Halford could not say enough concerning the girls' improved appearance. +Katy wrote the most interesting item. "What do you think? Carol Brown +left for Annapolis, too. Do you suppose Ernest will know him? P. S. We +showed him your picture and he stared at it awful hard and said--you've +got to get me a trade last for this--'Say, Chicken Little's going to be +a hummer if she keeps on!' Don't you think I'm nice to tell you?" + +Jane gave the letter to Sherm to read, forgetting this part. Sherm +snorted when he came to it, glancing up curiously at her. + +"Do you like that sort of stuff, Chicken Little?" he asked later. + + * * * * * + +It was almost two weeks after Ernest went, before Dr. Morton, on his +return from town one September evening, came up the walk excitedly +waving a telegram. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Chicken Little. + +"He must have passed or Father wouldn't look so pleased," said Mrs. +Morton. + +The doctor came in slightly breathless. + +"Well, Mother, I'm afraid you have lost your boy." + +Mrs. Morton looked startled for a moment, then, reassured by her +husband's smile, fumbled nervously for her glasses to read the yellow +paper he handed her. + +She was maddeningly deliberate. Jane, perched upon the arm of her chair, +tried to anticipate her, but her mother held it so she could not see. + +"It's Mother's place to see it first, daughter." + +Reproving Chicken Little steadied Mrs. Morton's nerves, and she read the +few words aloud with dignity. + +"Sworn in to-day--hurrah!" Ernest. + +"That means that he----?" She looked inquiringly at her husband. + +"That means he has passed both physical and mental examinations and has +been regularly sworn in to Uncle Sam's service." + +"But I thought he was just going to the Naval Academy--why does he have +to be sworn in as if he were enlisting?" + +"Because he, practically, has enlisted. He enters the government service +when he enters the academy, and he simply takes his oath of allegiance." + +Mrs. Morton's questioning was interrupted by the entrance of Sherm, +Frank, and Marian, who came in demanding news. + +"Don't worry, Mother," said Frank, patting her shoulder, "your precious +lamb is in good hands. He'll be back next September such a dude the +family won't know how to behave in his presence." Frank couldn't resist +teasing even when he tried to comfort. + +Mrs. Morton sighed. "A great many things can happen in a year." + +"Yes, Mother dear, they can, but most always they don't. The only things +you can depend on are bad weather and work." + +A letter soon followed the telegram, giving details of the examinations, +and a glimpse of Ernest's new life, which comforted his mother, because +he was forming punctual habits and had to go regularly to chapel whether +he wished to or not. He had met Carol unexpectedly, to their mutual joy. +"He's an awfully handsome chap--knows it, too, but I think he has too +much sense to let it spoil him. It's jolly to have some one I know +here," Ernest wrote. + +School began for Chicken Little at the little brown schoolhouse a mile +distant, on the fifteenth of September. Chicken Little and the whole +Morton family rejoiced, for she had been a most dissatisfied young +person of late. Her mother watched her walk away down the lane, +immaculate in her new flower-bordered calico, lunch basket in hand, with +positive thankfulness. + +"Glad to have her out of the way, aren't you, Mother? Jane is too +restless a girl to be idle," laughed Marian. + +Jane had spoken to her father about her plan for Sherm and he had +heartily agreed. But Sherm was not to begin until the first of November +when the most pressing of the farm work would be over. + +Chicken Little promptly talked the matter over also with the new +teacher, Mr. Clay, a young man of twenty-one, fresh from his junior year +at college. He was wide awake and attractive, and while ignorant, as +they, of many of the niceties of polite society, seemed a very elegant +being to the majority of his new pupils. Mamie Jenkins had concluded to +stay at home for the fall term instead of going to the Garland High +School. For some reason it took an astonishing number of consultations +with the teacher to arrange Mamie's course satisfactorily, especially +when she learned that Sherm would be coming soon. She quizzed Chicken +Little carefully as to what studies Sherm would take. + +"Geometry and Latin, I think. I asked Mr. Clay and he said he could. +Maybe bookkeeping, too." + +"I was just thinking I ought to go on with my Latin. I had Beginning +Latin last year, and I really ought to take Caesar right away before I +forget." + +Jane regarded her thoughtfully. She happened to know that Sherm was +planning to study Cicero. How mad Mamie would be if she started Caesar +all alone! She had half a mind to let her go ahead. Mamie had spent the +entire morning recess telling her how the boys bored her hanging round. +Yes, it would do Mamie good to have to recite alone. Chicken Little shut +her lips firmly for a second. When she opened them, she replied that she +understood Caesar was a very interesting study. + +Mamie bridled and said condescendingly: "It's a pity you haven't had +Latin so you could come into the class, too." + +"Oh, I see enough of Sherm at home!" returned Chicken Little +maliciously. Mamie had the faculty of always rubbing her up the wrong +way. + +Mamie gave her shoulders a fling. "Of course, I always forget you are +just a little girl, Jane. You're so big and----" Mamie didn't finish her +sentence. She merely glanced expressively at Jane's long legs. "I think +I'll go in and talk to Mr. Clay. He must be sick of having all those +kids hanging round him." + +Mamie sailed off in state, leaving Jane feeling as if she had run her +hand into a patch of nettles. She was standing there in the sunshine +looking after Mamie resentfully when Grant Stowe came along. + +He nodded toward the schoolhouse door through which Mamie had vanished. +"What's Miss Flirtie been saying to make you so ruffled? She's begun to +sit up nights now fixing her cap for the teacher. Bet you a cookie he's +too slick for her." + +Chicken Little laughed, but retorted: "Humph, how many times have you +sat on her front porch this summer?" + +Grant reddened. "Oh, we're neighbors, and a fellow has to kill time +summer evenings. Father and mother always go to bed with the chickens +and it's no fun listening to the frogs all by yourself. Suppose your +folks wouldn't let anybody come to see you--I hear they're all-fired +particular." + +Jane did not have an opportunity to answer. One of the little girls came +begging her to play Blackman with a group of the younger children. Grant +suggested that she choose up for one side, and he would for the other. +She had just begun to choose when Mr. Clay appeared at her elbow. "May I +play on your side, Jane?" + +"Teacher's" entrance into the game acted like magic. The few big boys +who had come on this first day, edged near enough to be seen and were +speedily brought into the sport. Mamie, venturing languidly to the door +to see what had become of Mr. Clay, suddenly decided she was not too big +to play "just this once." + +Teacher and Jane were both swift runners and Grant had hard work to make +a showing. Mamie sweetly let herself be caught by teacher the first +rush, to Grant's openly expressed disgust. The big boys warmed into +envious rivalry with Mr. Clay right from the start, but he soon +convinced them that they would have to work, if they worsted him at any +of their games or exercises. + +Chicken Little found team work with him very delightful and could +scarcely believe the noon hour was over, when he pulled out his watch +and announced that he must call school. She turned a radiant face up to +him. + +"Oh, it's such fun to have you play--I wish you would often." + +"Thank you, it's fine exercise, isn't it?" + +Mamie began her Caesar the next day, requiring much help from "Teacher." +She also came to school in her best dress. Mamie had faith in first +impressions. Chicken Little had been tempted the night before to betray +Mamie's schemes to Sherm, but she stopped with the words on the tip of +her tongue. She couldn't exactly have explained the scruple that would +not let her "give Mamie away," as she phrased it. + +"Is the teacher any good?" Sherm had asked, meeting her at the ford on +her way home, and taking lunch basket and books with an air of +possession, which was the one trick of Sherm's that annoyed Chicken +Little. He never asked leave or offered to relieve her of burdens; he +merely reached over and took them. + +She minded this more than usual to-day; Mr. Clay's manner had been so +delightful. She couldn't even thank Sherm. They trudged along in silence +for a few minutes. Finally, Sherm asked dryly: "Left your tongue at +school, Miss Morton?--you're not very sociable." + +Chicken Little responded by making a face at him, which brought an +ominous sparkle into the boy's eyes. Things hadn't gone very well with +him that day and he had waited for Jane for a little companioning. + +"Well," he demanded gruffly, "what's the matter? Did Mr. Clay stand you +in a corner the first day or did the handsome Grant neglect you for +Mamie?" + +The last thrust put fire in Chicken Little's eye. She turned and looked +at him squarely. + +"Sherm, if I slapped you some day would you be surprised?" she demanded +unexpectedly. + +Sherm flashed a sidelong glance at her. "Not as surprised as you'll be, +if you ever try it." + +Chicken Little considered this remark. Just what did he mean? + +Sherm's face was flushed a trifle angrily. He looked as if he might mean +most anything. She replied demurely with a provoking shrug of her +shoulders. + +"I didn't say I should--but I wanted to dreadfully a minute ago." + +The tall lad beside her seemed genuinely surprised at this statement. + +"I suppose you know what you are talking about, Chicken Little, but I'm +blamed if I do." + +"It's the way you take my books and----" + +"Yes?" Sherm was still more surprised. Then an idea popping into his +mind, "Oh, I presume you'd like to have me take off my hat and make you +a profound reverence as your favorite heroes do in novels. What in +thunder you girls find to like in those trashy novels is more than I can +see!" + +Chicken Little bristled. "Hm-n, Walter Scott and Washington Irving, +trashy! Shows how much you know, if you have graduated from High School, +Sherman Dart! Besides, I didn't mean any such thing. Only, you sort of +take my things without asking--as if--as if----" She was getting into +rather deeper water than she had anticipated. + +"Yes, as if what?" + +"Oh, I don't suppose you mean it that way--but you act as if I was only +a silly little girl--and didn't count!" + +Chicken Little was decidedly red in the face by the time she finished. + +Sherm didn't say anything for a moment, but he continued to look at her. +He looked at her as if he had found something about her he hadn't +noticed before. + +"Who put that idea into your head?--Mamie?" + +She shook her head indignantly. + +"Grant Stowe?" + +"Nobody, thank you, I guess I have a mind of my own." + +"New teacher start in by giving you a lecture on deportment?" + +Chicken Little stamped her foot. "You're perfectful hateful--and I +sha'n't walk another step with you!" + +They were near the gate leading from the lane into the orchard and she +suited the action to the word, by darting through it and running off +under the trees. + +Sherm looked after her a moment, undecided whether to stand on his +dignity or to pursue. He had considered Jane a little girl--most of the +time. Some way she was alluringly different to-day. He suddenly resolved +that he would not be flouted in any such fashion. It took him about two +minutes to catch up with Chicken Little and slip his arm through hers. + +"No, you don't, Miss. You are going to sit down here under this tree and +tell me exactly what's the matter!" + +Chicken Little struggled rebelliously, but Sherm held her firmly. + +"I can't--Mother told me to come straight home from school; she wanted +me." + +"Fibber! Your mother and Marian went over to Benton's this afternoon. +You needn't try to dodge--you and I are going to have this out right +now. So you might as well be obliging and sit down comfortably." + +"It wasn't anything to make such a fuss about." + +"Then why are you making such a row?" + +Chicken Little flung herself down upon the grass. + +Sherm stretched his muscular length on the sward in front of her and +began to chew a grass stem in a leisurely fashion while he watched her. + +Chicken Little pulled a handful of long grasses and commenced plaiting +them. Her hair was windblown and her face rose-flushed from her run. She +declined to look at Sherm. + +"Chicken Little--O Chicken Little, are you very mad? Chicken Little?" + +Chicken Little kept her brown eyes fixed upon the pliant stems. + +"Chicken Little," Sherm murmured softly, "you have the prettiest eyes of +any girl I know." + +Chicken Little caught the touch of malice in his tone and shot an +indignant glance at him from the aforesaid eyes. + +Sherm laughed delightedly. "Chicken Little, you don't need to tell me +what's the matter with you--I know." + +Chicken Little shot another indignant glance. "There isn't anything the +matter except what I told you--of course, it wasn't anything +really--only----" + +"Yes, there is, Chicken Little, that was only a symptom." + +"Stop your fooling." + +"Don't you want me to tell you?" + +"No!" + +"Bet you do--honest, don't you?" + +"I haven't the least curiosity--so you can just stop teasing." Jane was +positively dignified. + +"Well, I'm going to tell you, whether you want to hear it or not. You're +growing up, Chicken Little, that's what's the matter with our little +feelings. But don't forget you promised to give me part of Ernest's +place this winter. It was a bargain, wasn't it?" Sherm reached over and +took possession of her busy fingers. "Wasn't it? Chicken Little Jane, +wasn't it?" + +Jane looked at this new and astonishing Sherm and nodded shyly. + +Sherm gathered up her books with a laugh. "Come on, your mother wants +you." + +"She does not--and I'm going to sit here till I make a grass basket for +Jilly." + + * * * * * + +September and October slipped away quietly, their warm, hazy days gay +with turning leaves and spicily fragrant with the drying vegetation and +ripening fruits. Chicken Little found school under Mr. Clay unwontedly +interesting. He departed from the regulation mixture of three parts +study and one part recitation and tried to lead his pupils' thoughts out +into the world a little. Indeed, some of his innovations were regarded +with suspicion by certain fathers and mothers in the district. When he +advised his advanced history class to read historical novels and +Shakespeare in connection with their work, there was much shaking of +heads. But when he took advantage of the coming election to waken an +interest in politics, the district board waited on him. If the visit of +the school board silenced Mr. Clay, it did not discourage his charges, +and partisanship ran high. The favorite method of boosting one's +candidates being to write their names on the blackboard at recesses and +noons, and then stand guard to prevent the opposing faction from erasing +them. + +The fun grew furious. The Mortons were staunch Republicans, and Chicken +Little strove valiantly to write "Garfield and Arthur" earlier and +oftener than the Democrats, led by Grant Stowe and Mamie Price, could +replace them with "Hancock and English." + +Grant was the biggest and strongest and bossiest lad in school. His +favorite method of settling the enemy was to pick them up bodily and set +them outside the schoolhouse door while he rubbed out their ticket. Or +better still, to hold the door while Mamie or some other democrat turned +the entire front board into a waving sea of "Hancocks and Englishes." + +The Republicans were in the lead as to numbers, but they were mostly the +younger children. But few of the older boys could be spared from the +farm work to enter school so early in the fall. So Chicken Little +captained her side, aided by quiet suggestions from Mr. Clay who did not +wish to take sides openly. + +Many were the ruses employed to capture the blackboards. Jane stayed one +evening after school to have things ready for the morrow, but, alas, +Grant Stowe was in the habit of waiting to walk a piece home with her. +He waited down the road till he grew suspicious, and, coming back, +caught her in the act. + +He took swift revenge, none too generously, by forcing her to erase +every line, then rubbed it in by guiding her hand to make her write the +names of the opposition candidates. Despite all Chicken Little's +struggles, he persisted until the hated names were finished in writing +that decidedly resembled crow tracks, but could be read by anyone having +sufficient patience. + +Chicken Little was furious but helpless. Mr. Clay had gone home early in +order to drive into town that evening. Grant treated her anger as a good +joke. She finally wrenched her hand loose and gave him a resounding +smack across the cheek, that made her tormentor's face tingle. + +It was Grant's turn to be vexed now. He caught her arm and twisted it +till she winced. "Say you're sorry!" + +"I won't!" + +Grant turned the supple wrist a twist farther. "Now, will you?" + +"No sir, not if you twist till you break it--I won't! I'm not going to +be bullied!" + +Grant began to be afraid she meant what she said. But his pride would +not let him give in to a girl. "All right, little stubborn, I'll kiss +you till you do." + +As Grant loosened his hold on her wrist, Jane jerked away and fled +toward the door in a panic. She was more than half afraid of Grant in +this humor--and then her promise to Ernest. + +"Oh, dear, I knew better than to do that, but he made me so mad!" she +mourned. + +Grant was close upon her. She fairly hurled herself out the door and +most unexpectedly bumped into Sherm, who caught her in time to save her +catapulting down the steps. + +"Save the pieces, Chicken Little, what's your hurry?" + +"O Sherm,--oh, I'm so glad you came--I----" + +Before she could finish Grant reached the door, stopping short on seeing +Sherm. + +Jane clutched Sherm's arm tight. "Don't let him, please don't let him!" + +Her words were not entirely clear, but Sherm promptly shoved her behind +him and confronted Grant angrily. + +"Big business you're in, frightening girls--you bully!" + +Sherm had taken a dislike to Grant that evening at Mamie's and exulted +in this opportunity to pick a quarrel. Grant was equally ready. He +scorned explanations and replied by pulling off his coat. Sherm swiftly +peeled his also. Chicken Little was alarmed by these warlike +preparations. + +"Don't, boys, don't! I guess it was part my fault, Sherm. Grant didn't +mean any harm. We were scrapping over the election and----" + +"I don't care whether it was your fault or not, Jane. If Grant doesn't +know enough to be a gentleman, it's time he learned." + +Sherm sprang forward and the boys clinched. They were pretty evenly +matched. Grant outweighed Sherm, but the latter was quicker and had had +some training in wrestling. This was the popular method of settling +quarrels, boxing not having come into vogue. Inside of three minutes +both were down, rolling over the ground an indiscriminate, writhing heap +of arms and legs. + +Chicken Little was utterly dismayed. She didn't want either of the boys +hurt, but they heeded her remonstrances no more than if she had been a +mosquito. She even tried pulling at the one who came uppermost, but they +both pantingly warned her off. Chicken Little set her jaw firmly. She +flew into the schoolhouse to the water bench, and seizing the water +bucket, flew out. Pausing long enough to take good aim, she dashed its +contents over the boys' heads with all her might. + +Grant being underneath at the moment, with lips parted from his +exertions, received the full force of the water in his mouth and nose, +and nearly strangled from the dose. Sherm had to let him up and apply +first aid to help him recover his breath--the lad was purple. When he +began to breathe readily once more, both boys got to their feet, glaring +reproachfully at Chicken Little. Each was restrained by the presence of +the other from expressing forcibly his opinion of the young lady. The +heroine was in wrong with both the villain and the hero. However, the +heroine did not care. + +"You boys ought to be ashamed of yourselves, both of you--fighting like +a pair of kids. I wish you could see yourselves! You look exactly like +drowned rats!" + +The lads could not not see themselves, but they could see each other, +and the exhibit was convincing. Sherm's mouth puckered into its crooked +smile. + +"Well, if that's the way you feel about it, Chicken Little, it's all +right with me. So long, Grant." + +Sherm picked up his coat and cap and set off, leaving Jane to follow or +linger as she saw fit. She turned to Grant. + +"I didn't mean to get you into trouble, Grant." + +"Don't mention it, and, truly--I didn't intend to frighten you, Chicken +Little. I guess you aren't like most of the girls on the Creek--I didn't +suppose you'd take it that way. Good-bye, Sherm," he called. Grant also +picked up his belongings and departed. + +Chicken Little rescued the water pail and carried it into the +schoolhouse. She secured her hat and lunch basket, and was starting for +the door when a wonderful idea buzzed in her brain. Slipping to the +window she glanced out. Grant was striding rapidly off up the road. She +ran to the board and hastily erased that hateful "Hancock and English" +and as hastily wrote the names of the other presidential candidates in +letters a foot high across the front board, underlining them heavily and +putting hands pointing toward them on each of the side boards. This +done, she locked the schoolhouse door, as she had promised Mr. Clay, +and, taking the key over to a neighbor's a few rods away, joyously +departed homeward. + +Sherm was not in sight when she started. A little farther down the hill +she saw him waiting beside a haystack. He had evidently been watching to +make sure she did not get into further trouble. He walked briskly on as +soon as he caught sight of her. + +Young Mr. Dart looked a trifle sulky at supper that evening. Chicken +Little tried to attract his attention in various ways without success. +Sherm was resolved to ignore her. Finally, she addressed him directly. + +"Won't you please pass the water, Sherm?" she asked with exaggerated +meekness. + +Sherm grinned in spite of himself. The other members of the family +looked at Jane inquiringly. Jane, having received the water, ate her +supper in profound silence. + +He came on her unexpectedly down by the spring a little later. It was +growing dark and he did not see her until he was almost beside her. He +hesitated a moment, then joined her. She glanced up demurely. + +He regarded her an instant in complete silence. Chicken Little tossed +her head. + +Sherm came a step closer and Jane prepared to fly if necessary, but +Sherm contented himself with staring at her till he made her drop her +eyes. + +"You mischievous witch, I'd like to shake you hard!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE PRAIRIE FIRE + + +The prairies were brown--a dead, crisp brown, as if they had been baked +by hot suns through long, rainless days and nipped by a whole winter of +killing frosts. + +"I don't understand why the grass is so dry by the middle of November," +said Dr. Morton. "Of course the summer was pretty dry, but then we had +rains in September." + +"Yes, Father," Frank replied, "but there has been less rainfall for the +past two years than Kansas has known for a decade. I imagine the ground +is baked underneath on the prairies, and the rains only helped for a +time." + +"Well, whatever caused it, we shall have to feed earlier than usual. I +am afraid we may have some bad fires, too, if we don't have rain or a +snowfall soon." + +"There was a fire over on Elm Creek night before last," spoke up Sherm. +"Grant Stowe's cousin was telling us about it at school." + +"I saw smoke off to the north yesterday," said Chicken Little. + +"Oh, I hope we sha'n't have any bad fires this fall!" exclaimed Mrs. +Morton. "I do think a big prairie fire is one of the most terrifying +sights, especially at night. I couldn't sleep that first fall for +dreading them. I used to get up in the middle of the night and look out +the windows to see if that awful glare was anywhere on the horizon." + +"Don't go borrowing trouble, Mother. There hasn't been a bad fire on Big +John for years. The country is so thickly settled a fire doesn't have +the sweep it used to." Dr. Morton tried to reassure her. + +"They must be wonderful things to see. I hope there won't be any bad +ones, but if one shows up anywhere within ten miles, I propose to be on +hand," Sherm said eagerly. + +"You won't be so keen after you have fought one or two, Sherm." Frank +smiled with the wisdom of the initiated. "Say, Father, I think Jim and I +had better fire round those stacks on the north eighty. It would be hard +to save them if a fire got started on the divide." + +"Yes, I don't know but you'd best do it this afternoon. Burn a pretty +wide strip. And we ought to run a guard on the west from that field of +winter wheat to the county road. If a fire ever got in there, it might +come down on the house." + +Chicken Little spoke up. "May I go, too, Frank? I love to watch you." + +"You will be in school, but you can come home that way if we are still +at work. You can easily see the smoke. We won't try it if the wind +rises, and I believe it is going to." + +"Chicken Little, if you see the smoke you may tell Mr. Clay I won't come +for my recitation this afternoon. I am going to find out how this +back-firing business is done." + +Sherm had begun his studies some two weeks previous and was making rapid +progress, studying evenings, and going to the school a half hour before +closing time to recite. + +Chicken Little found this arrangement extremely pleasant, because Sherm +was always there to walk home with her. They took all sorts of detours +and by-paths through the woods, instead of coming along the road to the +ford. They discovered unexpected stores of walnuts and acorns and wild +rose hips, and scarlet bitter-sweet just opening its gorgeous berries +after the first hard frosts. + +Jane helped Sherm press autumn leaves and pack a huge box of nuts to +send home. His mother wrote back that his father hadn't showed as much +interest in anything for weeks, as he did in the nuts. They seemed to +carry him back to his own boyhood. + +Mr. Dart seldom left his bed now, and Sherm's mother told but little of +his condition. Sherm understood her silence only too well. Chicken +Little noticed that he always worked hard and late the days he heard +from home. She began to watch for the letters herself, and to mount +guard over the boy when he looked specially downcast, teasing him into +going for a gallop or wheedling him into making taffy or playing a game +of checkers. She got so she recognized Sherm's blue devils as far off as +she could see him. + +Sherm did not notice this for some time or suspect she was looking after +him, but one day he remarked carelessly when she thought she had been +specially clever: + +"Chicken Little, don't make a mollycoddle of me. A man has to learn to +take what comes his way without squealing." + +"Yes, Sherm, but if you get thorns in your hand, it's better to try to +pull them out than to go on pushing them in deeper, isn't it? I know +when I was a kid, it always helped a lot to have Mother kiss it better." + +"How'd you get so wise, Chicken Little?" The lad smiled his wry smile. + +"Don't make fun of me, please, Sherm." + +"Make fun of you? Lady Jane, I've been taking off my hat to you for a +week. How in the dickens you girls find out exactly what's going on +inside a chap beats my time. It's mighty good of you to put up with my +glooming and try to cheer me along. Maybe I don't look grateful, but I +am." Sherm was eager to make this acknowledgment, but found it more +trying than he had anticipated. He revenged himself by starting in to +tease. + +"Say, I wish you'd try your hand at this splinter--I can't budge the +critter." + +Jane flew for a needle, unsuspecting. The splinter didn't look serious, +but she painstakingly dug it out. + +"Is that all right?" she demanded, looking up to encounter a wicked +glint in Sherm's gray eyes. + +"Hm-n, aren't you going to put any medicine on it?" + +"Medicine?" + +"Well, you know you said it helped." Sherm was grinning impishly. + +"Sherman Dart, I think you're too mean for words!" She was about to turn +away affronted when she had an inspiration. + +"Mother," she called, "O Mother!" + +Mrs. Morton had been placidly sewing in the sitting room while the young +people were studying their lessons by the dining-room table. She came to +the door, inquiring. + +"Mother, Sherm's had a splinter in his finger and he wants you to kiss +it better." + +Sherm started to protest, but Mrs. Morton did not stop to listen. + +"Jane, I think that kind of a joke is very ill-timed, making your poor +mother get up and come to you for nothing. You must remember I am not as +young as I once was." + +Mrs. Morton departed with dignity. + +"Now will you be good?" chuckled Sherm. + +"Oh, I guess I'm square," Chicken Little retorted, going back to her +lessons. + +Mrs. Morton had said truly that she was not so young as formerly. She +had not been well all fall. Dr. Morton had persuaded her to see another +physician, who, having assured her that she was merely run down, had +prescribed the usual tonic. He had told Dr. Morton, however, that her +heart action was weak and warned him to guard her against shocks of any +kind and to have her rest as much as possible. This had agreed with the +doctor's own diagnosis of her condition, and the family had been trying +to save her from all exertion. So Chicken Little was a tiny bit +conscience-stricken. + +High winds and more pressing farm duties had interfered with running the +fire guards. It was not until the week before Thanksgiving that the men +got at it, then they succeeded only in protecting the stacks. They had +intended to finish the job the following morning, but one of the +neighbors, passing through the lane, stopped to tell Dr. Morton of a +sale of yearlings to be held the next afternoon in the neighboring +county. + +"It must be part of the Elliott herd. They're three-quarters bred +shorthorn; I'd like mighty well to pick up a bunch of them. We have +plenty of feed for any ordinary winter." Dr. Morton was talking the +matter over with Frank after supper. + +"Suppose we ride over, Father, it's only about twenty miles. We can +start early--we don't need to buy unless they are actually a bargain." + +They were off at six the following morning, planning to return the same +day. Dr. Morton, however, warned his wife not to be anxious if she did +not see them before the next afternoon. If they bought the steers, they +would not try to drive them home the same day. + +The morning was bright and pleasant, but the wind rose toward mid-day +and was blowing a young gale by the time Chicken Little returned from +school at half-past four. Mrs. Morton began worrying lest the doctor and +Frank had not wrapped up sufficiently. + +"Why, it isn't cold yet, Mrs. Morton. In fact, it is astonishingly warm +for November. And there's the queerest, yellowish haze I have ever +seen." Sherm said this to reassure her. + +"Probably dust," replied Mrs. Morton carelessly, relieved from her +anxiety about her family. + +Chicken Little hurried through her supper and went over to see Marian. +Presently Marian threw a shawl over her head and they both climbed the +hill back of the house. The wind was still blowing fiercely. Sherm saw +them on the ridge and followed to see what was tempting them to a stroll +on such a night. + +"What's up?" + +Marian answered. "Why, Jane thinks all this yellow haze comes from a +prairie fire. We've been trying to see if we could see any trace of it. +It seems to me I do smell smoke--there's a kind of pungent tang to the +air, too." Marian sniffed uneasily. + +"Like burning grass or leaves?" + +Marian's face paled. "Sherm, that's exactly what it is! What can we do? +And the menfolks all away except Jim Bart, and he's gone to Benton's on +an errand. He'll be back in a few minutes though." + +"Don't worry, Marian," said Jane, "if it's a prairie fire it's miles and +miles off. It must be on the other side of Little John. It can never +cross the creek--besides, the wind is blowing the wrong way for it to +sweep down on us." + +"That's so--but the wind might change any minute, and in a gale like +this I'm not so sure it might not jump Little John. I do wish Frank had +finished that back-firing." + +"I suppose it wouldn't be possible to do it until the wind lulls, but +Mrs. Morton, I'll sit up and watch to-night--at least until the wind +goes down. It often falls about midnight," said Sherm, looking troubled. + +"It looks to me as if we were in for a three-days' blow," Marian replied +despondently. "But I'd be much obliged if you would, Sherm, I don't +quite like to ask Jim Bart to, for he's had such a hard day. Do you +think you can keep awake? And, Chicken Little, don't let on to +Mother--we mustn't worry her." + +"Sherm," said Jane, after they went into the house, "I'm going to stay +up, too; I'll slip down again after Mother goes to bed. It's a lot +easier for two people to keep awake than one." + +"No, Chicken Little, I don't believe you'd better. Your mother wouldn't +like it. And we'd be dead sure to laugh or talk loud enough for her to +hear us. I hope the wind will go down early. If it doesn't and I find I +can't stay awake, I'll call you and let you watch while I doze on the +couch here." + +Jane stayed up as late as her mother would let her, and Sherm made the +excuse of having special studying to do, to sit up later. After Mrs. +Morton had retired he made frequent excursions to the hill top. A lurid +glare lit up the horizon to the northwest. He could still catch the tang +of smoke and whiffs of burning grass, but these were not so pungent as +earlier in the evening. The fire seemed farther away. By eleven, the +glare was decidedly fainter and the wind had subsided noticeably. At +twelve, he concluded it was safe to go to bed. + +Chicken Little waking about two, stole down stairs and finding +everything dark, made the rounds of the windows, but the distant fire +showed only a faint glow in the night. + +When they arose the next morning there was no trace of the fire to be +seen. Sherm hailed some men passing, for news. They reported that it had +swept the north side of Elm Creek and said it had burned up a lot of +hay. There was a rumor that two of the upland farmers had lost +everything they had and that a man and team had been caught in it. But +they hadn't been able to get any details. + +"Though it wouldn't be surprising," one of the strangers added, "that +fire was traveling faster than any horse could run." + +Chicken Little had come out and was standing beside Sherm. Her eyes grew +big. "Do they really think somebody got burned?" + +One of the men nudged the man who had spoken. + +"No, Sis, it was just a rumor--I don't 'low it was true. When folks +can't give you any name or place--it most generally ain't so." + +The men drove on. + +It was Saturday. Jim Bart had gone down to town for the weekly supplies +and Sherm was busy with odd jobs. He asked Jane to go up to the hill top +occasionally to make sure there were no fresh signs of the fire, though +Jim Bart had assured him the danger was over. Sherm noticed that the +wind had changed. It was blowing freshly from the very direction where +they had seen the fire the preceding night. + +Chicken Little obediently made trips once an hour until noon; she could +detect nothing to occasion alarm. After dinner her mother set her to +making doughnuts and she forgot all about it. + +Mrs. Morton was not so well to-day and Jane persuaded her to go to bed. +Drawing the blinds to, she put a hot iron to her mother's feet and left +her to sleep. The clock striking four attracted Jane's attention as she +came back into the sitting room, the last doughnut was draining in the +collender while Annie mopped the kitchen floor. + +She stood irresolute for an instant, undecided whether to read or to +fetch some walnuts from the smokehouse for Sunday. Dr. Morton always +liked to have a basket of walnuts handy on Sunday afternoons. "I guess +I'll get the nuts, and perhaps I'd better run up the hill to be sure +that old fire hasn't had a change of heart. Father says often some +little side fire smolders and burns after the main fire is all out. +Though I guess one would have showed up long before this if there'd been +any this time." + +She argued with herself for two or three minutes, finally deciding that +it wasn't much trouble to go take a look, even if it were foolish. Just +outside the door she met Sherm and he walked up to the crest with her. + +Half way up the slope Chicken Little suddenly stopped, sniffing +suspiciously. "Sherm, I believe I smell smoke again." + +Sherm stopped also to draw in a long breath. He did not wait to announce +his observations, but broke into a run for the top of the hill. Chicken +Little followed him a length in the rear. Sherm took one look and gave +vent to a surprised whistle. Chicken Little stared, fascinated, at a +tiny line of fire burning merrily on a hillside not a mile distant. + +"Jumping Jehosophat!" exclaimed Sherm, "how did it ever creep up on us +this way?" + +Jane was thinking rapidly. She scarcely noticed what he said. + +"Sherm, Frank left the water barrels and the mops and everything on the +wagon, didn't he?" + +"Yes--what----" + +"Are the barrels filled?" + +"Yep, do you think----" + +"Sherm, run hitch the bay team to the wagon quick. I'll get Marian and +warn Annie not to tell Mother--she's asleep still. Hurry, Sherm, every +minute's precious!" + +Sherm's "All right" drifted from him on the run. He was already on his +way to the stable. He realized that Jane knew more about fire fighting +than he did. + +Jane hurried to the cottage. Marian listened to her news, white to the +lips. + +"Annie can take Jilly. Perhaps I'd better ride over after Mr. Benton." + +"Marian," protested Chicken Little, "there isn't time. And if Mr. +Benton's home, he has probably seen it, too, and is trying to protect +his own place. No, we've got to work fast. Unless we can run a fire +guard before the fire reaches that tall grass on the division line, the +whole place is a goner! It isn't coming very fast yet. Here, I'll run +with Jilly over to the house and you put on a pair of Frank's +trousers--your skirts might catch. I'll get that old pair of Ernest's. +Hurry, Marian, hurry!" + +Chicken Little gathered up Jilly and started on the run. + +Both Marian and Jane reached the stable yard just as Sherm drove the +heavy farm wagon clattering out of the gate. They hurriedly climbed in +and Sherm lashed the horses into a gallop. As they passed the cottage, +Marian exclaimed: "Did you get matches either of you?" + +Sherm slowed up the team and examined his pockets. + +"A handful." + +"Stop a moment--I'll run fetch a box. It takes a lot." Chicken Little +was over the wheel before the words were fairly out of her mouth. + +She was back in a jiffy with the matches, which she proceeded to divide +among them, while the horses leaped forward again. + +"Stop on the backbone where the Santa Fe trail strikes the road." + +Precisely four minutes later Sherm pulled up the panting team. Chicken +Little promptly took command. She had been out many times with her +father and brothers and knew exactly what to do. + +"Wet your mop--take a bucket of water and fire right along the trail, +Marian,--that buffalo grass burns slow. Call if it starts to get away +from you. I'll begin there by the hedge. Drive about fifty yards farther +on, Sherm,--the horses will stand. Fill all the buckets and wet the +extra mops. We're liable to want them in a rush." + +"All right, Jane, save your breath--you'll need it. Careful there, Mrs. +Morton, beat out the flames along the trail as you go. Never mind how +fast it whoops the other way. Caesar's ghost! that fire is getting +close!" + +The waving, irregular lines of flame on the hillside were coming +steadily on, now leaping up several feet high as the breeze freshened, +now creeping close to the ground when the gusts died away. The wind was +fitful. + +Marian and Sherm both had their trail of fire flickering into a blaze +before Chicken Little got hers kindled. Her hands shook so she could +hardly hold the match. The first flickered and went out, a second, then +a third, blackened, before she could coax the stubbly grass to burn. She +caught up a bunch of weeds, set it blazing in her hand and dragged it +swiftly along the ground. Tiny swirls of yellow flame wavered in her +wake, crackled feebly for an instant in the shorter herbage, then, +reaching out tongues into the longer blue stem beyond, leaped forward +like a frolicsome animal. Sherm's and Marian's lines of fire were eating +their way merrily toward hers on each side. + +It was easy to beat out the flame in the Buffalo grass, which formed +their safety line toward the house, and the three soon had several +hundred feet of fire running to meet those menacing flames on the +neighboring hillside. For a while it seemed almost pretty play save for +that haunting dread of disaster. But the dripping mops were heavy for +girls' wrists and arms, the constant stooping and rising and the lifting +of the heavy buckets pulled painfully on aching muscles. They must +backfire for a third of a mile before they dared hope the place was +safe. + +A field of winter wheat adjoining the wagon road where they had started, +and extending down to the bank of Big John, was the best of protection +to the lower half of the farm. West from this, there was neither track +nor field to break the tindery sweeps of prairie grass, until the strip +of breaking on the north boundary of the pasture was reached. The old +Santa Fe trail along which they were firing, fortunately extended to +within some two hundred yards of the breaking, and was their safeguard +against the ever-present danger of letting the fire get away from them +to the rear. + +Older heads would have selected that hundred yards of high grass as a +starting place, while they were fresh and best able to cope with its +perils. Chicken Little was leaving it to the last. Swiftly as the three +worked, the head fire was rapidly gaining on them. Again and again, one +of them glanced toward the house in the hope that Jim Bart might have +returned, or some neighbor have seen their danger and be on the way to +help. Not a human being was in sight in any direction. + +Marian straightened up with a groan and glanced despairingly at the head +fire. Sherm's gaze followed hers anxiously. + +"We've got to do better than this, girls. Here, Chicken Little, make a +torch of some of those resinous weeds--those long crackly ones--and fire +just as fast as you can. I'll follow with the mop and yell if I can't +manage it." + +The plan worked well for a time--their haven of hope, the brown strip of +breaking, seemed to move steadily nearer. But Chicken Little and Marian +were fast becoming exhausted. The main fire was now so close that its +smoke was beginning to drift in their faces. Prairie chickens and quail, +startled and confused by the double line of flame, whirred above their +heads, uncertain how to seek safety. A terrified jack rabbit leaped up +almost at Sherm's feet. Rabbits, ground squirrels, one lone skunk, and +even an occasional coyote, darted past them. Back at the road where they +had begun, the head fire was already meeting their line of back fire and +dying down in sullen smoke. Still, that hundred yards of blue stem was +untouched. + +They paused a moment at its edge in hurried consultation. + +"Let's souse all the mops--dripping wet--and trail across first," +suggested Chicken Little in short, labored gasps. She had been running +for several minutes. + +"Yes, and then fire back. Christ!--we must hurry!" Sherm, too, was +breathless. "Can you stick it out a few minutes longer, Marian?" + +Marian Morton's face was drawn and colorless. She nodded and rested a +moment, leaning on her mop. + +For the next sixty-five yards the blows of the wet mops rained down with +the precision of clock work. Twice the flames started in quick eddies +back of their line, but, panting, the girls almost sobbing, they beat +them back. The smoke was growing stifling. The wind, freshening, blew it +from both fires full in their faces. They could see only a few feet +ahead. + +"Light another torch and run, Chicken Little--there's no time to +lose--we must chance it!" + +Chicken Little obeyed silently. Half way to the breaking she stumbled +and fell. Her torch of twisted grass flew from her hand, scattering the +burning fragments about her. Before she could get to her feet, the grass +was ablaze all around. Quick-witted Sherm threw her a mop, then beat his +way toward her. Marian, summoning her last remaining strength, ran to +help, but sank to the ground in a faint before she could reach Jane. + +Sherm and Chicken Little, beating, stamping madly, did not see her fall. +The flames fairly licked up the long grass. They beat them out around +Jane only to see them spread in an ever-increasing circle. Chicken +Little's legs gave way under her and she sank helplessly down, watching +the rushing fire. Sherm struggled on with parched throat and stinging +eyes, but he, too, was fast becoming exhausted in the unequal fight, +when a strong pair of hands seized the mop from his straining arms and +rained swift blows on the flaming grass. Answering blows resounded from +four other stout pairs of hands and an irregular line of charred +vegetation was soon all that was left to tell the tale of the danger +they had escaped. + +"Thank God, we got here in time!" Captain Clarke ejaculated fervently, +raising Marian's head and dashing water in her face to restore her. + +"We're so shut in by the timber at our place, I didn't dream the fire +was in this part of the country till one of the hands went up in the +pasture. We mounted and came double quick, I tell you. And we'd have got +here quicker, if I'd known what straits you were in. You're a plucky +lot! Easy there, Mrs. Morton, you are all right, and the fire is safe to +smoke out at its leisure. Here, drink a drop of this whiskey." + +Sherm had gathered up Chicken Little and carried her beyond the smoke, +then dropped down beside her with a sigh to recover his breath. He felt +numb and so dazed he hardly heeded what the Captain was saying. + +"Pretty well done for, yourself, aren't you, lad?" one of the men +inquired. "You sure knew exactly what to do, if you are a tenderfoot." + +Sherm roused himself enough to twist the corners of his mouth into his +wonted smile. + +"Me? I didn't do anything--Chicken Little was the boss of this gang." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE LOST OYSTER SUPPER + + +Thanksgiving came and went its turkey-lined way rather lonesomely. +Christmas preparations also lacked their usual zest. + +"Everything seems to have caved in round where Ernest was," Chicken +Little confided to Marian. "You see, we always talked everything over +and planned our Christmas together. Sherm takes Ernest's place in lots +of ways, but, of course, he isn't interested in what I'm making for +Mother, or in helping me make $5.25 go clear round the family and piece +out for Katy and Gertie besides." + +"If sympathy is all you need, Jane, I can lend you a listening ear." +Marian crocheted another scallop. + +"I'd be thankful for a few suggestions, too, I can't think of anything +to send Ernest. When he has to have everything regulation, and the +government furnishes him with every single thing it wants him to have, +why--it's awful." + +"Yes, I agree with you--I've been racking my brains for Ernest, too. +Mother is patiently knitting him a muffler, which I know he won't be +permitted to wear, but I haven't the heart to discourage her--she gets +so much comfort out of it. Uncle Sam should be more considerate of fond +female relatives. He might at least tolerate a few tidies and +hand-painted shovels or a home-made necktie." + +"Or a throw or a plush table cover with chenille embroidery. Mamie +Jenkins is making one for Mr. Clay. He will be too cross for words. He +loathes Mamie, though he tries not to show it, and plush is his special +abomination. He says it reminds him of caterpillar's fuzz." Chicken +Little's eyes danced maliciously. + +Marian looked at her young sister-in-law meditatively. + +"Mamie doesn't seem to be dear to your heart just now. Is she too +popular or too affected or too dressy?" + +"Oh, she's just too utterly too too all around. I do have lots of fun +with her--she can be awfully nice when she wants to be, but----" + +"But?" + +"Oh, I don't know--she swells up so, lots of times over things I'd be +ashamed to tell--they're so silly." + +"Yes, I guess Mamie's pretty cheap, but as long as you make friends with +her, don't rap her behind her back. It was all right to tell me--I +quizzed you anyhow. I wish you didn't see so much of her." + +"Why, she's the only girl at school I can go with, who is anywhere near +my own age. The Kearns twins aren't even clean--I don't like to go near +them." + +"I shouldn't think you would. Our public school system has its drawbacks +as well as its virtues. Well, Jane, be nice to Mamie, but don't--don't +be like her." + +"You needn't worry; she's going to town to school after Christmas, so I +sha'n't see much more of her." + +Mrs. Morton was still far from well, and she hung on Ernest's letters +almost pathetically. Ernest, boy fashion, was inclined to write long +letters when he had something interesting to tell and preserve a stony +silence when he didn't. Life at the academy was monotonous and he had to +work hard to keep up with his studies. Further, his father and Frank +suspected he was having many disagreeable experiences which he kept from +his family. These were still the days of rough hazing at the academy and +Ernest, being a western boy, big and strong and independent, was likely +to attract his full share of this unpleasant nagging. He revealed +something of his experiences in a letter to Sherm. Sherm showed the +letter to Chicken Little and Chicken Little, vaguely worried, told her +father. Dr. Morton talked it over with Frank. + +"There isn't a thing you can do about it, Father. Most of it does the +boys more good than harm anyway. I talked to a West Pointer once about +the hazing there. He said some of it was pretty annoying and at times +decidedly rough, but that if a fellow behaved himself and took it +good-naturedly they soon let him alone. He said it was the best training +he had ever known for curing a growing boy of the big head. Don't +worry--Ernest has sense--he's all right." + +To Chicken Little, Ernest confided, two weeks before Christmas, that he +was getting confoundedly tired of having the same things to eat week +after week. "Say, Sis, if you and Mother would cook me up a lot of +goodies for Christmas, I'd like it better than anything you could do. +Send lots, so I can treat--a turkey and fixings." + +This letter did more for Mrs. Morton's health than the doctor's tonic. +She tied on her apron and set to making fruit cake and cookies and every +delicious and indigestible compound she could think of that would stand +packing and a four-days' journey. Chicken Little and Sherm spent their +evenings making candy and picking out walnut meats to send. Dr. Morton +made the nine-mile trip to town on the coldest day of the season to +insure Ernest's getting the box on the very day before Christmas. + +The family at the ranch had a quiet holiday week. The day after New +Year's, Jane was invited to come to town and stay over night to attend +an amateur performance of Fatinitza, a light opera the young people had +staged for the benefit of a struggling musical society. Chicken Little +was excitedly eager to go. Mrs. Morton deliberated for some time before +she gave her consent. Marian and Frank and Sherm all teased in her +behalf, before it was won. + +Sherm drove her in, and Frank, having business in town the following day +with a cattle buyer from Kansas City, volunteered to bring her home. +Jane wore her Christmas present, a crimson cashmere with fine knife +plaitings of crimson satin for its adorning. Frank lent her his sealskin +cap and she felt very grand, and looked piquantly radiant, as she +revolved for her mother's inspection before slipping into her big coat. +Sherm, standing waiting, inspected her, too. + +"Scrumptious, Lady Jane, you look like that red bird I've been trying to +catch out in the evergreen by the gate." + +Mrs. Morton shook her head disapprovingly. "No compliments, Sherm, Jane +is just a little girl and she must remember that pretty is as pretty +does. Don't forget, dear, to thank Mrs. Webb for her hospitality when +you come away. Are you sure your ears are clean?" + +"Oh, Mother, I'm not a baby!" Chicken Little protested indignantly. "You +talk as if I were about five years old." + +"My dear daughter, your mother will speak to you as she sees fit. Have +you got the high overshoes? I think, perhaps, you'd better take Father's +muffler. Sherm, have you both buffalo robes?" + +Chicken Little relieved her feelings by making a little moue at Sherm. +He winked discreetly in return. + +"Why," she said disgustedly after they were started, "won't mothers ever +let you grow up? I am a whole inch taller than Mother now, and half the +time she treats me as if I didn't have the sense of a chicken." + +"Well, you see you're the only girl in the family, and you've been the +littlest chicken so long your mother kind of likes to shut her eyes to +all those extra inches you've been collecting. By the way, Miss Morton, +I don't notice that muffler your mother mentioned, and I think you'll be +cold enough before we get to town to wish you had it." + +"You don't suppose I was going to wear that clumsy thing? I can snuggle +down under the robes if I get cold." + +"No, I didn't suppose, so I brought the red scarf Mother gave me +Christmas, for your ears. They'd be frosted sure without anything. Did +you think your pride would keep you warm, Chicken Little?" + +Chicken Little was inclined to resent this delicate attention; Sherm +seemed to be putting her in the same class her mother had. But her ears +were already beginning to tingle as they left the timber and got the +full force of the wind on the open prairie. Sherm was swinging the bays +along at a good pace. The cutter glided smoothly over the frozen snow. +She submitted meekly while he awkwardly wrapped the muffler over her cap +with his free hand. The soft wool was deliciously comfortable. She +neglected, however, to mention this fact to him. + +"Too stubborn to own up, Lady Jane?" + +Jane stole a glance at the quizzical face turned in her direction. Then +she evaded shamelessly. + +"Sherm, don't you just adore to skate?" + + * * * * * + +Chicken Little was in a pulsing state of excitement that evening as she +listened to the pretty, lilting music and watched gorgeously clad young +people, many of whom she recognized, moving demurely about the little +stage. To others it was merely a very creditable amateur performance; to +Chicken Little, it opened a whole new world of ideas and imagining. She +had been to a theatre but twice in her whole life, once to Uncle Tom's +Cabin and once to a horrible presentation of Hamlet, which resulted in +her disliking the play to the day of her death. She loved the light and +color and harmony of it all. She delighted in it so much that she sighed +because it would be so soon over. + +"What are you sighing for, Jane? Don't you like it?" her hostess +inquired. + +Chicken Little gave a little wriggle of joy. "Like it? I just love +it--it's like butterflies keeping house. Don't you wish everything was +like that--pretty and gay, with all the lovers getting things +straightened out right?" + +"Dear me, Jane, do you get all that out of this poor little comic opera? +I must have you come in to all our amateur things if you love music so." + +"I don't love music so very much--I hate to practice. I shouldn't care +for their singing very much by itself, it's seeing the actors and +thinking how they feel--and their pretty clothes and----" + +Mrs. Webb laughed. + +"Chicken Little, I envy you--you are going to see so many things that +most people shut their eyes to." + +Jane studied about this, but she hardly liked to ask what things Mrs. +Webb meant, because that lady seemed to expect her to know, and she felt +she would appear stupid not to. She lay awake a long time that night; +the music seemed to be splashing over her in little waves of melody. +Even after she had once fallen asleep, she awakened to find her brain +still humming the insistent measures. The next morning she went downtown +with her hostess and met Mamie Jenkins in a store. + +"Why, Chicken Little, I didn't know you were in town? Your brother +didn't say anything about your being here." + +"Frank? Is he in already?" + +"Yes, I just saw him. Say, did you know a crowd of us are going out to +his house to-night to an oyster supper?" + +"No, who's going?" + +"Oh, a lot of the town boys and girls, and Grant Stowe and me. John +Hardy asked him if a crowd of us couldn't come out to-night and surprise +your sister, and Frank said come along, he'd have some hot oysters for +us. The boys have got a big bobsled from the livery stable. I bet we +have a lovely time. Why don't you and Sherm stay in and go out with +us--I guess there'll be room. Anyhow, you can always crowd more into a +bobsled, it's more fun when you're packed in." + +Mamie giggled expressively. + +Jane was surprised to learn that Sherm had come in with Frank and she +was also extremely doubtful whether her mother would approve of her +waiting to come out with the party. John Hardy's crowd was one of the +gayest in town and they were very much grown up. But her outing the +previous evening had given her a taste for grown-up things; she was +eager for the lark and resolved to tease Frank to let her stay in. + +Frank studied the matter for several minutes, but finally consented +rather reluctantly. He saw Sherm was also keen for the fun. + +"All right, Sis, that set are pretty old for a kid like you and I'll +have a time squaring myself with Mother. But you don't have many good +times and Sherm's steady enough to look after you. They are planning to +start early. I guess you'll get home by eight." + +Frank left for the ranch about three o'clock to warn Marian of her +surprise party. Mrs. Webb had insisted that Sherm stay with them for an +early supper. The party had arranged to start at six. With a good team +they should reach the ranch easily by eight, have two hours for +merry-making, and get back to town by midnight. + +The cold had moderated through the day; by five o'clock, the sky was +leaden gray and it looked like snow. Some of the fathers and mothers +were doubtful as to whether they ought to risk so long a drive. But the +weather was ideal, if it only didn't snow, and there might not be +another night during the holidays when they could all go. + +The expedition had bad luck from the start. The livery man, disliking +the weather prospects, had had an inferior team harnessed to the big +sled. John Hardy and the other young men stood for their rights and +after a long wrangle, succeeded in getting what they wanted. But this +had consumed precious time. They drove out of the livery barn at +six-thirty instead of six, as they had intended. Then two or three of +the girls were not ready. One of the last called for, having sat with +her wraps on for over three-quarters of an hour, had finally removed +them and her party frock as well, in disgust, thinking the jaunt had +been given up on account of the weather. By the time she had dressed +herself afresh it was a quarter past seven. There was still one young +man to be picked up at the hotel. He, too, had grown tired of waiting +and had started out to hunt the sleigh. Ten minutes more were consumed +searching for him. The clock in the schoolhouse tower was striking the +half hour as the sleigh load passed the last house in the little town, +and turned into the country road leading to the ranch. + +Sherm pulled out his watch. "Whew, Frank and Marian will have a nice +wait for us! We can't possibly make it till after nine." + +The next two miles went with a dash. The moonlight was a dim gray half +light instead of the silvery radiance they had counted upon. + +"Those clouds must be beastly heavy--there is scarcely a star to be +seen," ejaculated John Hardy, who was on the driver's seat with a +sprightly girl of nineteen for his companion. "What'll you bet the snow +catches us before we get home to-night?" + +"I'll bet you it catches us before we get out to Morton's," retorted one +of the other young men. + +"Well, I'm glad I am taking my turn at driving going out, if that's the +case. I shouldn't like the job of keeping the road on these prairies in +a nice blinding snowstorm." + +"Oh, that's just because you're a town dude," said Grant Stowe +boastfully. "It is just as easy to follow a country road as a street in +town if you only know the country." + +"All right, Grant, if it snows, we'll let you drive home." + +"If it snows?" exclaimed one of the girls. "I felt a flake on my nose +this very minute." + +The party surveyed the sky. + +"Oh, you are just dreaming, Kate." + +"Somebody blew you a kiss and it cooled off on the way," teased another. + +"Just wait a minute, smarties. There--there was another!" + +"Yes, I felt one, too!" exclaimed Mamie. + +"You're right, it's coming." Sherm stared at the sky in some concern. + +"Better whoop it right along, John," advised one of the young men +thoughtfully. + +"I am not so sure that we shouldn't be sensible to turn round and call +this frolic off for to-night," John Hardy replied. + +There was a chorus of No's. + +"Nonsense, who's afraid of a little snow? Besides, we'd disappoint the +Mortons and Jane's mother would be frantic if she didn't come. Don't +crawfish, John Hardy." + +"I'm equal to anything the rest of you are. I merely thought it might be +rough on the girls, and occasion some alarm to other fond relatives in +town, if we failed to get back to-night." + +"Oh, stop your croaking!" + +"There will be no trouble getting back." + +"Of course not, the horses can find the way if we can't." + +"Here, start something to sing and shut off these ravens!" + +The crowd sang lustily for the next twenty minutes, then the snow began +coming down steadily and the majority of the young people commenced to +disappear under the robes and blankets. + +"The pesky stuff is getting inside my collar!" exclaimed one of the men +who had insisted upon keeping his head out. + +"Why don't you tear yourself from the scenery and come under cover?" +asked Mamie pertly. + +"Yes, Smith, I'm only holding one of Mamie's hands. You may keep the +other warm." + +"He's not either. Don't you believe him, Mr. Smith," Mamie protested. + +John Hardy spoke to the girl beside him. He had been watching the road +ahead too closely for several minutes to do any talking. + +"Hadn't you better go back with the others--there's no need for you to +get wet and cold." + +"Oh, I am all right--it isn't cold--very." + +"I am afraid it is going to be--the wind is rising and it's coming right +in our faces. We're a pack of fools to go!" + +"We must be nearly half way there, aren't we?" + +"I think so--I have never been out to the Morton ranch. Well, if worst +comes to worst, I guess they'll keep us all night." + +The crowd was beginning to quiet down. By the time they had covered two +more miles the wind was blowing the snow in their faces with stinging +force. John Hardy was having trouble to keep the horses in the road. +They, too, recoiled from the snow drifting in their faces. He finally +persuaded his companion to go back under the robes. Sherm volunteered to +take her place. + +"I don't like the look of things," said Hardy in a low tone as Sherm +climbed up beside him. "Can you tell where we are?" + +Sherm stared at the snow-covered waste ahead and tried to recognize some +familiar land mark in the white gloom. + +"Yes, I think so. That was Elm Creek you crossed some time back. We must +be about half way from Elm to Big John." + +"How far now?" + +"Three miles." + +"Can you see the time?" + +"Nine-twenty." + +"The dickens, we ought to be there!" + +"It oughtn't to be long now. Let me take the reins--your hands must be +cold." + +"Just a minute till I start the circulation. I feel sort of responsible +for this gang, because I got up this fool enterprise." Hardy clapped his +hands together vigorously. + +"It wouldn't be bad except for the wind!" Hardy said presently. + +"That's the worst of Kansas, there always is a wind!" Sherm had not yet +been entirely converted to the charms of the sunflower state. + +When Hardy took the reins again, Sherm still peered ahead, watching the +road. He had been finding something vaguely unfamiliar about the +landscape, though this was not strange since neither house nor tree nor +haystack was visible through the storm until they were almost upon it. +Then it loomed up suddenly shrouded and spectral. This feeling of +strangeness grew upon him and he felt uneasy. + +"Stop the team a minute, Hardy." Sherm got down and went to the horses' +heads, peering all about. He scraped the snow away with his foot and +examined the ground. + +He let out a shrill whistle of dismay, as he uncovered grass spears +instead of the hard-trodden road bed. + +"Say, Hardy, we're off the road. I thought so from the way the sled was +dragging." + +Hardy climbed hastily down with an exclamation that sounded profane. The +boys in the sleigh also piled hurriedly out. They soon assured +themselves of the sorrowful fact. + +"What can we do?" + +"Isn't there a house somewhere near where we can inquire?" + +"What did you fellows go to sleep for when you were driving, anyhow?" + +"You'll have to go back on your tracks till you find the road again." + +Questions and offers of advice were numerous. + +Sherm had walked a short distance back, exploring. He returned in time +to hear this last remark. + +"The trouble is, Grant, the snow hasn't left us any tracks. Two hundred +yards back you can hardly see where we came." + +The others began to wake to the seriousness of the situation. + +"Haven't you any idea where we are, Dart?" + +"Not the faintest notion, except that we are somewhere between Elm and +Big John. Perhaps Jane might know. She usually has a sixth sense for +direction. + +"Chicken Little," he called, "do you mind getting out and seeing if you +can tell us where we are?" + +Chicken Little was on the ground with a spring before Sherm could help +her. She strained her eyes through the gloom. She, too, examined the +ground, then, accompanied by Sherm and Hardy, waded through the snow for +several hundred yards in each direction, the men kicking the snow in the +hope of finding the track. Finally, Chicken Little gave it up. + +"I don't know a blessed thing more than the rest of you. But I have the +feeling we must be near Charlie Wattles' place--you know that old +darkey. You see the wind was right in our faces most of the way, and it +isn't now. It's coming obliquely--course the wind may have changed. +Let's try heading west a while--and see if we can find the road. Let me +sit up there with you and Sherm; I might see something I'd recognize." + +"Chicken Little, you'd freeze," objected Sherm. + +"Not any sooner than you will, Sherman Dart." + +"We can wrap her up in a blanket and she might help us--we have got to +get out of this some way. It's ten o'clock." + +They drove about slowly for half an hour, but they could find nothing +that looked like a road. Some of the sleigh load were openly +apprehensive and inclined to blame Hardy for their plight, but for the +most part they were plucky and good-natured, trying to turn off their +growing fear with jests. + +Chicken Little glued her eyes to the dimness ahead. + +Sherm suggested that they give the horses their head. + +"They'll try to go back to town if we do, and I don't believe they could +hold out--that off one is blowing pretty badly now. This snow is heavy +as mud to pull through." Hardy looked dubious. + +"Turn due west, Mr. Hardy--we can't be far from Big John." + +Hardy obeyed and they drove another half hour, seeing nothing save the +fluttering snowflakes and the snowy wastes opening out a few feet ahead +as they advanced. + +"Chicken Little, your theory is all right, but it doesn't seem to work," +Sherm remarked regretfully. + +In the meanwhile, time had also been moving along at the ranch. The big +sitting room at the cottage was brightly lighted and glowingly warm from +an open wood fire. By eight o'clock, coffee was steaming on the back of +the kitchen stove, the extension table pulled out to its full length, +was set with soup plates and cups and silver. Piles of doughnuts and +baskets of apples and walnuts stood awaiting the sharp appetites the +Mortons knew the cold ride would bring to them. Marian had the milk and +oysters ready for the stew and sat down to rest a moment before the +arrival of the guests. She hardly noticed the clock until the hand +pointed to half-past eight. + +"My, they're late!" she exclaimed. + +Frank got up and went to the door. He encountered Dr. Morton just coming +in. + +"When did you say those youngsters were coming? It's snowing like fury." +He paused on the porch to give himself another shake. + +"I don't believe they'll try to come out to-night. I guess you've had +all your trouble for nothing. I only wish Chicken Little and Sherm had +come home with you." + +Frank, being a good many years nearer to understanding the rashness of +youth than his father, disagreed with him. + +"I bet they tried all right, but they may have had to give it up. I +wonder how long it's been snowing this way. I haven't been out since +supper." + +Dr. Morton sat and visited for a half hour, then said he guessed he'd +better go back to Mother. She was worrying a little about her baby being +out such a night. + +"She needn't," he concluded, "even a child like Jane would have sense +enough not to start on a nine-mile ride in such weather." + +After his father had gone, Frank put on his coat and went down the lane +with a lantern. He came back presently and sat down by the fire without +saying anything. + +Marian saw he was worried. "You don't think they've got lost, do you, +Frank?" + +"I don't know what to think. I hope Father is right and they had sense +enough not to start. But I wish to goodness I hadn't let Jane stay in." + +They sat there listening for every sound until the clock struck ten. +Frank had twice gone to the door, imagining he heard sleigh bells. He +got to his feet again at the sound of the clock. + +"You might as well go to bed, dear. We sha'n't see them to-night, but +I'll sit up till eleven myself to make sure." + +[Illustration: A half hour later when they were warmed] + +Marian waited a little while longer, then took his advice. Frank sat by +the fire and pretended to read until five minutes of twelve, then he, +too, gave up the vigil as hopeless. + +At ten minutes past two they both sat up with a start at the sound of +sleigh bells. An instant later there was a vigorous pounding on the +door. + +Frank stared into the darkness for one confused instant, then leaped out +of bed, and wrapping a dressing gown about him, flung open the door. + +Twelve numbed and snow-covered figures stumbled into the room. Two of +the men were half carrying one of the girls. + +"Fire up quick, Frank, we're most frozen! And get some hot water!" Sherm +exclaimed, suiting the action to the word by stirring up the coals of +the dying fire and piling on wood. + +It was not until a half hour later when they were warmed and fed, that +the Mortons had time to listen to any connected account of the night's +adventures. Frank had speedily summoned his father to prescribe for +frosted cheeks and fingers and toes. Later, it was discovered that John +Hardy had a badly sprained wrist. Marian and Mrs. Morton made the girls +comfortable and finished preparing the belated oyster supper. + +"I am glad we didn't lose this oyster supper altogether," said Grant +Stowe feelingly. "I never tasted anything better." + +"Same here," a half dozen laughing voices echoed. + +"I wasn't so darned sure an hour ago that some of us were ever going to +taste anything again," said John Hardy soberly. + +"Things didn't look exactly rosy, specially when we got spilled out," +one of the girls added. + +"What, did you have an upset?" Dr. Morton looked as if this were the +last straw. + +"Yes, that's how Hardy sprained his wrist!" + +"Chicken Little had just assured us that if we would drive a little +farther west, we should surely find something, when we struck the +sidehill and went over as neat as you please." Mamie enjoyed this thrust +at Jane. + +"Well, we found something, didn't we?" defended Sherm. + +"I should say we found out how deep the snow was." + +"Yes, and the sidehill made Jane sure we were near the creek, and then +she saw the trees and----" + +"Yes, and then she found it wasn't the creek at all, but the Wattles' +place." + +"Whew!" exclaimed Frank, "you didn't get over to black Charlie's? Why, +that was three miles out of your road!" + +"Yes, Frank, and you ought to have seen him. He was scared to death when +we came pounding on his door in the middle of the night." Chicken Little +giggled at the recollection. + +"And there was a trundle bed full of pickanninies and they kept popping +their heads up. They were so ridiculous--with their little pigtails +sticking up all over their heads, and their bead eyes." + +"Well, old Charlie warmed us up all right and started us back on the +road again," said John Hardy gratefully. + +"And there's another thing sure," said Marian, interrupting this flow of +reminiscence, "you can't go back to town to-night, and you must be tired +to death, all of you. Mother Morton, if you will take the girls over +with you, Frank and I will make some pallets by the fire for these boys, +and let them get some sleep." + + * * * * * + +The real sport of this excursion came the next day when Frank Morton +hitched an extra team on in front of the livery horses and drove the +party back to town himself, to make sure they did not come to grief +again in the piled-up drifts. But Chicken Little and Sherm were not +along. They watched them drive off with never a pang of envy. + +"I have had enough bobsled riding to do me for this winter," said Jane +wearily. Her evening at Fatinitza seemed a thousand years away. + +"Ditto, yours truly!" And Sherm yawned luxuriously. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AN APRIL FOOL FROLIC + + +Mrs. Morton and Marian were sitting by the great open fire at the +cottage sewing for Jilly. Jilly herself had constructed a wonderful +vehicle of two chairs hitched to the center table, and she was vainly +trying to persuade Huz and Buz to occupy seats in this luxurious +equipage. Lazy Buz, having once been dragged up into a chair, stayed +put, though he looked aggrieved, but Huz had his eye on the braided rag +rug in front of the fireplace. The moment Jilly's gaze was attracted +elsewhere, he would jump softly down and curl up on the rug. + +Marian had risen three times to restore him to Jilly because she mourned +so loudly, but she finally began to sympathize with the pup. + +"Let him be, Honey, you've got Buz for company. Huz doesn't want to +play." + +Jilly opened her mouth to wail. Then she suddenly changed her mind, +climbed down, and going over to Huz began whispering vigorously into his +ear. Her warm breath tickled Huz and he flopped his ear to drive away +the annoying insect. Jilly beamed, calling joyfully to her mother: "Huz +say ess, Mamma, Huz say ess." + +"But Jilly, Huz can't talk." + +"He nod he's ear, Mamma. Huz nod he's ear." + +The unfortunate Huz went up into the chair once more. + +Mrs. Morton glanced out the window where the March wind was whipping the +bare branches of the cherry trees into mournful complaining. Eddying +leaves fluttered from the heaps accumulated in fence corners or beneath +the friendly shelter of the evergreens. A huge tumble weed went whirling +down the road, passed on by each succeeding gust. In and out of the +cedars, the robins were flying, prospecting for new nests. She pushed +back her hair and sighed. + +"It doesn't seem possible that April is almost here. Ernest has been +gone nearly a school year. I am beginning to realize that I sha'n't see +much more of my boy." + +"But, Mother Morton, he is doing so beautifully and he likes the life. +You couldn't keep him with you much longer, even if he were not in the +academy. Besides, you still have Jane." + +Mrs. Morton sighed again. + +"That is the worst of this ranch life. Jane is growing so fast I shall +soon have to be sending her away to school. If we only lived some place +where she could be right with me till she finished her education." + +"Oh, Mother Morton, I am glad she can't. It is the best part of a girl's +education to go away from all the home coddling and have to rely upon +herself. I wouldn't give anything for what I learned by being away from +family and friends, and having to exert myself to make people like me, +instead of taking it for granted." + +"I don't doubt what you say is true, Marian, but Ernest is gone, and you +don't know what a wrench it is going to be to send my baby away, too." + +"Are you thinking of sending her next year?" + +"I think I must, unless I can persuade Father to move to town for the +winter so she can go to the High School. It isn't merely the studies--I +am most dissatisfied with her associations here." + +"I know--the Creek is certainly a little crude. Still I think Jane is +pretty sensible. And she is learning a lot about human nature--human +nature without its party clothes. It's good for her, Mother, if she +doesn't get too much of it." + +"What's good for whom?" Dr. Morton, coming in, was attracted by Marian's +earnest tone. + +"Jane, and the effect District Thirteen is having on her," Marian +explained. + +"I was just saying, Father, that she is getting too old to be +associating with Tom, Dick, and Harry the way she is doing up at the +schoolhouse." + +"There you go again, Mother. You don't go about enough among the +neighbors to know what good kindly people they are. Of course, they are +plain, but the Tom, Dick, and Harry you complain of, are more wholesome +than lots of more stylish youngsters I know. I wish you'd try to be a +little more neighborly. I am constantly hearing little thrusts about our +family being stuck up. Frank will bear me out in this." + +Frank had followed his father and was warming his hands in the blaze. + +"Oh, the Creek thinks the Morton family has a good opinion of itself, +all right. But I have been thinking for some time that it wouldn't hurt +us any to have some sort of a merry-making and invite all the neighbors +in." Frank looked at Marian. + +"What could we have, Frank?" Marian inquired, her brow puckered a +little. + +"Well, April Fool's Day is next Wednesday--why not get up a frolic for +that evening?" + +"Just for the young folks?" + +"No, men, women, and children. Invite the families. Send out an +invitation to the whole Creek. There will be a lot who can't come. Cook +up plenty of stuff and we can play tricks--they won't need much +entertaining. How would that suit you, Chicken Little?" + +Jane had just strayed in to join the family group and was listening with +interest. + +"I think it would be bully." + +"Jane, where did you pick up such a coarse expression? Father, that's +just what I complain of. How am I to teach my daughter to be a gentle +woman, when she is constantly hearing vulgar language?" + +"Chicken Little is old enough to know better than to use such words, but +she probably got that from Ernest or Sherm, if the truth were known." +Frank laughed. + +Chicken Little looked injured. + +"Why, bully isn't a by-word--or strong language--and Ernest said it a +lot. You never said anything to him about it's being vulgar." + +"My dear daughter, can I never make you understand that little ladies +may not do everything their brothers do?" + +"I don't care, Mother, I'm sick of hearing about ladies, and if bully is +so vulgar, I don't see why it isn't vulgar when a boy says it. You +expect Ernest to be a gentleman, don't you, just as much as you do me to +be a lady?" + +"Come, Chicken Little, don't speak to your mother that way," Dr. Morton +reproved her. + +Mrs. Morton was more severe. + +"You may go to your room and remain until you can address your mother +respectfully, my daughter." + +Frank's plan was carried out. There were no formal invitations issued. +Frank and Dr. Morton and Jim Bart spoke to every neighbor they met for +the next few days, inviting them to come to an April Fool frolic at +seven on the evening of April first, and asking them to pass the +invitation along to the other residents of Big John. Chicken Little and +Sherm rode over to give Captain Clarke a special invitation, fearing he +might not have become sufficiently used to Creek ways to come on the +more general bidding. + +The Captain was charmed and begged leave to send Wing over to help that +evening. Wing delighted in every new experience he was having on the +Creek. He grinned joyously at the prospect. + +The entire Morton family entered into the preparations for this novel +party with enthusiasm. Even Jilly and Huz and Buz caught the excitement +of something unusual going on, and hung round, and got under everybody's +feet, more successfully than usual. Jilly had the privilege of scraping +icing bowls while Huz and Buz looked enviously on. They licked their +sticky chops ecstatically when Jilly turned the bowl over to them after +she had done her best with the big tin spoon. Her mother reproached her +for letting the pups eat out of one of the family dishes, but Jilly +couldn't see why her mother was so particular. + +Mrs. Morton and Annie and Marian baked cakes and doughnuts and cookies +and mince pies and custard pies, and roasted turkeys and whole hams, +until pantry and cellar and spring house were all overflowing. It would +be a never-ending reproach, if there should not be an abundance for all +who might come, and no one could even guess how many would come. + +"It looks like enough for a regiment," said Mrs. Morton wearily, +dropping into a rocking chair on the afternoon of the thirty-first day +of March. + +"Yes, but country men do have such astonishing appetites. I am sure it +would feed all Centerville for twenty-four hours. Of course, some of the +things are not eatable," Marian replied. + +They had carried out the April Fool idea as much as possible without +spoiling the supper. Six nice brown doughnuts had wads of cotton +concealed in their tempting rings. These were to be mixed with the good +ones. Pickles just out of the brine, were to be put in the same dish +with deliciously perfect ones. There was to be just enough of the false +to keep the guests on the alert and make fun. + +While they were sitting there resting, Frank and Dr. Morton came in from +a trip to town. Frank tossed a package into Marian's lap with a laugh. + +"These ought to do the work for somebody. I'd like to fool old Jake +Schmidt. It would be worth ten dollars to see his face--he is such a +screw about driving a bargain." + +Marian untied the string and opened the parcel, revealing a handful of +the most luscious-looking little cucumber pickles that ever lured the +unwary. + +"They certainly look all right," said Marian, "what's the matter with +them--salt?" + +"Feel them." + +Marian picked one up gingerly as if she were afraid it might prick her +or explode in her hand. Then she threw back her head and laughed +merrily. + +"Frank, they are just perfect. I never should have guessed it. You can +fetch Jake all right with one of these. Let me know when you do, I'd +like to be round to see the fun." + +"Aren't you afraid you will hurt somebody's feelings with all these +pranks? They don't seem quite dignified some way for grown up people." + +"That's just why we want to have them, Mother. The Creek thinks the +Morton family is entirely too grown up and stiff. They'll be +good-natured, never fear." + +That evening Chicken Little and Sherm put their heads together. + +"We just must find some way to fool Frank--I sha'n't be happy if we +don't." Chicken Little bit her lips and studied. "Can't you think of +something, Sherm?" + +"Not right off the bat, but if we keep our eyes open, we'll find a way. +It would be jolly if we could do it before the crowd. They would so love +to see Frank have to take his own medicine. Say, this party is going to +be a Jim dandy!" + +It had been decided to have the gathering at the cottage, as the big +sitting room and the bedroom adjoining would hold more people than Mrs. +Morton's parlor, sitting room, and dining-room all three. Further, the +parlor, being separated from the other rooms by a short hallway, was of +use only for some little group who wished to be by themselves. Sherm and +Chicken Little were busy all day trimming up the pictures and the +windows with evergreen and bitter sweet berries, mixed with trailers +from the Japanese honeysuckle, which still showed green underneath where +it had escaped the hardest freezes. Marian flitted in occasionally with +suggestions, but the two did most of the work alone. Chicken Little +began by giving Sherm precise directions as to how he was to arrange +each branch and spray, but, presently, he began to try little effects of +his own so much more charming than hers, that she called Marian in to +see. + +"You certainly have a knack for decoration, Sherm. I never dreamed you +were artistic. Why didn't you tell us? That spray against the curtain is +exquisite. Have you ever taken drawing lessons?" Marian was both +surprised and interested to discover this unexpected talent in the +self-contained lad. + +"No, I have never taken real drawing--I used to copy little geometrical +designs at school along with the rest." + +"Well, you surely ought to have lessons. I shouldn't wonder if you had +the making of an artist in you." Marian hurried back to her custards. + +Chicken Little went on tying evergreen into ropes, but Marian had put +several new ideas into her head. + +"Do you want to be an artist, Sherm?" + +"No, I want to be an architect." + +"You never said anything about it before." + +"What's the use of talking? Doesn't look as if I would ever get the +education to be one now." + +"Why, you can't tell. Even if your father can't send you, maybe you +could work your own way--Mr. Clay has." Chicken Little looked troubled; +Sherm's tone revealed a yearning she had not suspected. + +"Yes, I could work my way if I had the chance. I guess Father is never +going to be well again and----" He paused for a moment as if it were +hard to go on. "Even if he lives, I may have to keep at work to support +the family. Mother never says anything, and Father never told me much +about his business--I don't know how much we have, but I'm afraid there +isn't a great deal left." + +There was a hopeless ring in his voice that hurt Chicken Little. She +wanted to double up her fist and attack somebody or something in Sherm's +behalf. + +"I think they--your mother ought to tell you." + +"Oh, Mother doesn't realize I am most grown--she--she doesn't think I +amount to much I guess." The boy had been brooding; his manhood +affronted because he had not been permitted to share in the family +councils. + +"Don't feel that way--she doesn't mean to leave you out, Sherm. You know +it's awfully hard to write things and you have been away most a year." + +"That's just it. I've been away most a year, and Mother doesn't even +hint at my coming back!" + +"But Sherm, she's so worried all the time about your father." + +"All the same, I bet your mother wouldn't forget about Ernest if your +father was ill. I am the only boy in the family and I know I could help, +if they'd only trust me. It's being left out that hurts, Chicken Little. +But forget everything I've said. I didn't mean to blab this way. I +s'pose Mother's right--I can't even keep my own affairs to myself." +Sherm shut his lips together tightly. + +Jane tactfully changed the subject. + +"I suppose you'd have to know a lot to be an architect." + +"Yes, right smart--I'd need a college education, and then I'd like to go +to Paris and study at the Beaux Arts." + +"What's that?" + +"Oh, it's a school for architects and artists. I don't know very much +about it myself. The New York architect who designed the new court house +at home told me I ought to go there, if I ever wanted to be a real +honest to goodness architect. I had a talk with him one day. He said if +I ever got ready to go, to write to him, and he would give me some +letters to people in Paris." + +"My, wouldn't that be grand to study in Paris? I most wish I was a +boy--they can do such wonderful things." + + * * * * * + +The neighborhood gatherings began early. By half-past seven, hitching +posts and trees and fence were all in use for the teams. Frank was +pleased. + +"If there is anything in numbers, this party is going to be a success. +Sure you have plenty to eat?" + +Marian groaned. "Frank, I am dead sure we have all the food we can +possibly serve between now and midnight. I don't see how we are ever to +manage." + +"Don't worry, I'll impress about a dozen of the young folks as +waiters--they will like nothing better. The boys each have one more pair +of hands than they know what to do with. Look at the Raddon boys over by +the fireplace. They have put their hands in their pockets, and taken +them out, and dropped them by their sides, and picked up every bit of +bric-a-brac on the mantel, and smoothed back their hair, and Heaven +knows what else, during the last ten minutes. Hands are an awful +responsibility! It will be a Godsend to them to give them something to +do." + +Chicken Little came out, after helping with wraps and seating guests, in +a gale of merriment. + +"Oh, Marian, do take a peep at Mrs. Brown. She has a purple skirt and a +blue polonaise and a red bow on her hair, and she's got her hair banged +in front and pulled back tight as can be behind." + +"Hush, Jane, they're our guests." + +"I know, and I didn't mean to be making fun--but Marian, she's a sight! +And Jake Schmidt's wife and sister have the loveliest hand embroidered +caps and aprons, with exquisite lace, that they brought from the old +country, and some of the other women are sort of turning up their noses +at them. I wish you'd go and say something extra nice to them." + +Marian found her way to where Christine and Johanna Schmidt were +shrinking into a corner, painfully aware that their festal dress was +very different from their neighbors'. Marian asked after the children +and said one or two pleasant things to make them feel at home, then, +raising her voice a trifle so that the whole room might hear, she lifted +a corner of Johanna's apron, exclaiming: "Where did you get this +exquisite apron? I don't believe I have ever seen such a beautiful one. +May I look at the lace?" + +Johanna colored with pleasure. She forgot her shyness and explained +eagerly. Marian did not leave her until she had made every woman in that +part of the room admire both hers and Christine's old country handiwork, +and they had promised to show her how to make the lace. There was no +more smiling at their unusual dress. Others followed Marian's example in +asking to be taught the beautiful craft. Old Jake himself, who had never +before considered his women folk as amounting to much, was so gratified +by the attention they were receiving, that he was more offensive than +usual. + +"Never mind," said Frank, "I'll fix Jake." + +The early part of the evening passed in visiting and games. Supper was +served at ten. There was a stir when the refreshments appeared. Word had +gone about that there was to be some hoaxing in connection with the +supper and everybody was firmly resolved not to be fooled. Marian +allayed suspicion by starting them off with delicious coffee and rolls +and cold ham and turkey. Having tasted these gingerly, and found them +delicious, both young and old grew less wary. Chicken Little came in +demurely with a great dish of pickles. The Creek loved pickles. It +helped itself plentifully. Captain Clarke got the first taste of brine, +but after one surprised grimace, he went on eating it heroically, while +he watched the others. Old Jake promptly fixed his eye on a nice +firm-looking green one. He lifted the fork awkwardly and attempted to +take the pickle. The pickle slid from under the fork as if it had been +greased. Jake was terribly afraid of being a laughing stock; he glanced +slily around to see if any one had noticed. Frank was watching from the +opposite side of the room, but Jake did not see him. He grasped the fork +firmly in his great fist and speared the pickle as if he had been +harpooning a fish. The pickle resented such violence. It shot out of the +dish and half way across the room with old Jake, the fork still clenched +firmly, gazing stupidly after it. + +"April Fool, Jake!" called one of the men who saw the joke. Some one +picked up the pickle and passed it from hand to hand. After that, people +avoided the wooden pickles, but several took liberal bites of +brine-steeped ones. + +The fun was well under way by this time. So many people had been +victimized that many refused the dainties they coveted, for fear of +being deceived, only to find their next neighbor enjoying them. The +guests began to try to catch each other, and the young men would get +Marian to point out the traps. But, so far, Frank had escaped, though +Sherm and Chicken Little had been plotting all day. They took Captain +Clarke into their confidence, but even he failed, until he had the happy +thought of getting Wing to help. Wing had been working busily in the +kitchen assisting Annie. + +Frank had steadily refused cotton wool doughnuts and sanded pie and +every doubtful delicacy, but he was extremely fond of cup custard. When +Wing approached him, urging that he be served now, Frank hesitated a +moment, then said: "Just bring me a custard, Wing. And Wing, don't let +anybody meddle with it." + +Wing came grinning to the conspirators. + +"Oh, dear," said Chicken Little, "I think the custards are all right." + +Marian overheard. "Trust me, Chicken Little, I have one very special one +for Frank--I didn't intend to have him crowing." + +Wing bore in a most tempting custard. Frank inspected it carefully to +make sure it had not been tampered with. In so doing he attracted the +attention of those round him. He took a generous spoonful and made a +hasty dive for the kitchen amid lively applause from the whole room. + +"What was in it?" The Captain was still shaking. + +"Mustard--Marian made it bad enough so he couldn't hide it!" Chicken +Little was dancing up and down in glee. + +"Wing, you rascal, I'd like to choke you." Frank was still sputtering. + +Wing assumed a mournful expression. "Me velly sorry--nobody touch, samee +you say." + +It was the second of April before the last rattle of wheels died away +down the lane. + +"Well, Mother, I think it paid for the trouble," said Dr. Morton, as +they were starting homeward, his arms laden with chairs. + +"Yes, I guess, perhaps, I have been inclined to stand too much aloof. +That little Mrs. Anderson is really a cultured woman. She comes from +Maine. I asked her to come and spend the day Tuesday." + +Marian's comment was brief. + +"Frank, I am dead, but I'm glad we did it." + +"So am I--put out the light." Frank was already half asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +SHERM HEARS BAD NEWS + + +"Sherm, don't you just love this room?" Chicken Little gazed about +Captain Clarke's big library with a real affection. "I don't know why it +is, but this room makes me feel the same way a sunset, or the prairie +when it's all in bloom, does. I can't just tell you, but it makes me so +satisfied with everything ... as if the world was so beautiful it +couldn't possibly be very bad." + +"I know--it's the harmony, like in music. The colors all seem to go +together ... everything seems to belong. I like that, too, but it +doesn't mean just that, to me. I see the Captain every time I step in +here. It's a part of him--almost as if he had worked his own bigness and +the kind of things he loves, into furniture and books and--fixings." + +"Yes, there's so much room to breathe here--I s'pose being at sea so +much, he had to have that. And he picked up most of these things on his +voyages--he must have wanted them pretty bad or he wouldn't have carried +them half around the world with him." + +The young people had come over to the Captain's for supper. School had +closed the day before, and Chicken Little was the proud possessor of an +elaborate autograph album, won as a spelling prize. Captain Clarke had +attended the closing exercises at her request. He had invited them over +to celebrate, this evening. He declared he had never learned to spell +himself and he wanted the honor of entertaining some one who knew how. + +Chicken Little had brought the album along for the Captain's signature. +"And write something, too, won't you? Something specially for me," she +had begged winningly. + +"Have they all written something--specially for you, Chicken Little? I +should like to read them." + +"I haven't asked very many people yet, just Mr. Clay and Grant Stowe and +Mamie Jenkins' little sister--Mamie's in town you know. I asked Sherm, +but he hasn't thought up anything." + +The Captain glanced at Sherm and smiled whimsically. "Now, if I were as +young as Sherm, I shouldn't have to think up things--the trouble would +be to restrain my eloquence." + +Sherm grinned and looked uncomfortable. + +The Captain was merciful; he changed the subject. + +"Isn't the middle of May a little early to close school?" + +"No, it is the usual time. You see the older children have to help at +home as soon as the weather gets warm." + +"Of course. What are you going to do this summer?" + +"Wish Ernest was home," Jane answered pertly, but there was a wistful +look in her eyes. + +Before the Captain could reply, Wing came to the door to announce a man +to see him. The Captain was gone some time. When he returned, he +explained that it was a buyer from Kansas City after his corn, and he +should have to leave them to entertain themselves for a while. + +"I'll tell you what you can do," he paused in the doorway as the idea +occurred to him. "You two may rummage in the drawers of the cabinet. +Take out anything you like the looks of. I think you will find a lot of +interesting stuff there. Make yourselves at home." + +They lingered, discussing the room for several minutes after his +departure, then Jane went over to the cabinet. + +"Come on--there are heaps of wonderful things here. He showed me some of +them the day I ran off and came to see him on my own hook. That's a year +ago! My, I feel as if it were a dozen--it seems as if I were just a +little girl then." + +"And now?" Sherm adored to set Jane off. + +"None of your sarcasm, Mr. Dart." Then soberly: "Truly, Sherm, I know +I'm a lot older. Things seem so different to me." + +"I know you are, too, Lady Jane. I was only teasing you." + +They had a beautiful half hour among the Captain's treasures. Sherm +gloated especially over the prints--their wonderful composition and soft +color. + +"Say, the Japs know a thing or two, don't they? That wouldn't be my idea +of what to put into a picture, but it's awfully satisfying." He held the +print off and closed one eye to see the outlines more vividly. + +"Sherm, you surely were intended for an artist." Chicken Little had gone +on to the drawer below. "Oh, Sherm, I believe this is the drawer the +Captain didn't show me before. Do you suppose he wants us to go through +it?" + +"He said all of them. What's in it?" + +"Oh, sashes and scarfs and things. I thought maybe they used to belong +to his wife." + +Sherm lifted a Roman scarf of crimson and yellow and rich blue, and +examined it admiringly. "It doesn't look as if this had ever been worn. +I guess he wouldn't have told us to go ahead if there had been anything +here he didn't want us to find. Say, Chicken Little, this would look +dandy on you. Here, I'm going to fix you up for Captain Clarke to see." + +Sherm shook out the glowing silken folds and proceeded to wreathe the +scarf around Chicken Little's head, turban fashion. Her brown eyes +glowed and the color in her cheeks grew deeper, as she met the +admiration in Sherm's eyes. He was staring at her, enchanted at the +result of his efforts. Jane moved restlessly. + +"Hold still there, can't you? I want to try it another way. Didn't I see +one of those sleeveless jacket affairs in there?" + +Jane rummaged and brought to light a crimson silk Turkish jacket +embroidered in gold thread. She noticed that it, too, seemed perfectly +fresh. + +"Sherm, I do wonder how Captain Clarke happened to buy all these woman's +things. Do you suppose he bought them for his wife and she was dead when +he got home with them?" + +"I wonder. Perhaps we oughtn't to be handling them. See all those queer +beads, and there's a bracelet! Isn't it a beauty? See, it is like silver +lace. I guess those blue stones must be turquoises." + +"Isn't it dainty? That must be the filigree work we read about." + +Sherm was staring thoughtfully at the contents of the drawer. "One thing +sure," he muttered, "he must have thought a heap of her." + +Chicken Little had continued exploring. "Here's a photograph and two +locks of hair in a little frame. Oh, Sherm, it's her! Yes, it must be, +this is the same baby. I wonder why he doesn't have this on his bureau, +too." + +Sherm took the picture and stared at it so long that Jane grew +impatient. + +"What is it, Sherm? What's the matter?" + +Sherm started, passing his hand over his forehead and eyes as if he were +dazed. + +"Funny, the face seems sort of familiar. I had such a queer feeling +about it for a minute." + +"I know why it looks familiar--there's a tiny bit of resemblance to +you--not as much as in the pictures of the baby. I suppose the baby got +it from the mother. Still, I think it looks like Captain Clarke, too, +don't you?" + +"Let's put these things back, Chicken Little. Poor little lady, I wonder +what happened to her." Sherm laid the picture gently back in the bottom +of the drawer and helped Jane fold and lay away the other things. They +had both forgotten the Roman sash which still adorned her dark hair. + +Captain Clarke, coming in soon after, started when he saw her and +glanced at the cabinet. + +"Dressing up, Chicken Little? That gew gaw was evidently intended by +Providence for you. Won't you accept it as a present to keep that +autograph album company?" + +Chicken Little put her hand to her head in dismay. Captain Clarke must +have thought she wanted it. She stammered awkwardly: + +"Oh, Captain Clarke--I--couldn't take it. I oughtn't to have put it on." + +Sherm calmly took the matter out of her hands. + +"She didn't put it on, Captain Clarke. I'm the guilty party. I thought +it would be so becoming to Chicken Little--her dark hair and eyes--you +know. I didn't realize till we came across the picture that it belonged +to your wife--and--you might not like to have us handle it." + +"It was never Mrs. Clarke's," the Captain said evenly. "I bought it for +her, but she"--he hesitated an instant--"she--died before my return. I +told you to rummage the drawers, and that scarf is entirely too becoming +to Chicken Little's bright eyes to be wasted in a drawer any longer. You +will be doing me a favor, my dear. + +"You seem to have an eye for color, Sherm. Juanita loved color, too, +that is why I picked up so many gay things for her." Captain Clarke +seemed to have formed a sudden resolution. He plunged his hand down +among the rustling silks and brought up the picture. His hand trembled a +little as he handed it to Chicken Little. "I have never shown you her +picture before. She had eyes something like yours." + +Chicken Little took the picture and tried to look as if nothing had +happened. She described the scene to Marian afterwards. "O Marian, I +felt as if I were standing in a story book. The Captain's face was as +white, but he went on talking just as if I knew all about his wife, +and--I do wonder! I felt so sorry for him. Sherm said he wanted to kick +himself for being so thoughtless." + +"Don't worry about it, Jane, and don't be trying to make a mystery out +of what was merely a big sorrow. It must have been an awful blow to him +to come home and find wife and baby both dead, but it happened years +ago. I expect it did him good to talk to you and Sherm about it." + +Chicken Little forgot about it after a few days, except when she went to +the box where she kept the scarf. She always thought of the picture of +the young mother and baby whenever she saw it. + +"I don't believe I ever can wear it," she told Sherm. + +"Oh, yes, you will, some of these days; the Captain would be hurt if you +didn't." + + * * * * * + +Sherm hadn't heard from his mother for over a week when a neighbor came +one evening and handed Dr. Morton a yellow envelope. "No bad news, I +hope," he said. + +It was addressed to Dr. Morton and read: "My husband died this morning. +Break news to Sherm--he must await letter." + +Sherm, too, was older than he had been a year before. He was coming up +the lane whistling, swinging his supple young body along at a good pace, +as if he enjoyed being alive. Dr. Morton watched him, dreading to have +to tell him the bad news and wondering how he would take it. "It's a +pity," he thought, "Sherm's a fine manly fellow and ought to have his +education and a chance at life, and I am afraid this means more than +losing his father." + +He waited until the boy came up to him. He was still holding the +telegram in his hand, but Sherm did not notice it until he spoke. + +Dr. Morton's voice was very kind. "My boy, I am--afraid----" He got no +farther. Sherm saw the telegram and understood. "Father?" he questioned. +Dr. Morton nodded. + +Sherm stood motionless, as if he were trying to realize that the blow he +had so long dreaded, had fallen. Presently he looked up at the Doctor. + +"There isn't any train before to-morrow, is there?" + +"No, Sherm, and I don't think your mother expects--here, read the +message." + +Sherm's hand shook. He read the meager words through twice, then crushed +the paper in his fist. + +"I am going home to-morrow," he said doggedly. "I've got enough saved up +for the railroad fare. He was my father--I haven't seen him for a year. +They might have told me! I am not a child any longer!" + +Dr. Morton laid his hand on his shoulder. "Don't, Sherm--don't add +bitterness to grief. Your mother may not have known in time. Death often +comes suddenly at the last in such cases. And, my boy, I would think +twice before setting out rashly. Your mother asks you to wait for her +letter--she must have some good reason. The message was sent this +morning. There will probably be a letter to-morrow." + +"I don't care whether there's a letter or not, I'm going." There was a +hard look on the boy's face. + +Chicken Little came running up, with Jilly panting alongside. "My, we +had a good race, didn't we, Jilly Dilly? Why--what's----" She stopped +short at sight of their grave faces. + +Dr. Morton told her. + +She stood a moment awestruck; Chicken Little had never had death come so +near her before. Then she turned to Sherm, her face so full of tender +pity that his face softened a trifle. + +"Don't worry about me, Chicken Little," he said gruffly, "I am all +right. If you'll help me knock my things together after a while, I'll be +grateful. I guess I'll take a--walk--now." His voice broke a little at +the last. + +He did not wait for an answer, but walked hurriedly away. Jane gazed +after him, undecided whether to follow or not. Dr. Morton divined her +thought. "I wouldn't, dear. Let him have it out alone first--you can +comfort him later on. I want you to help me persuade him not to rush off +before he receives his mother's letter. I must say I don't blame Sherm +for resenting his mother's attitude. I think she is making a big +mistake." + +Dusk came and the darkness closed round while Chicken Little strained +her eyes in vain for Sherm. It was almost ten before he came back. She +was standing at the gate watching for him. The rest of the family had +gone to bed. "Chicken Little can comfort him better than any of us," Dr. +Morton had told his wife. "He will be glad not to have to face any of +the rest of the family to-night." + +"You shouldn't have stayed up, Chicken Little," Sherm called, as soon as +he caught sight of her. "I forgot I asked you to help me--I'd have come +home sooner if I'd remembered. The duds can wait till morning--I can get +up early." He spoke quietly. + +"Do you think you ought to go, Sherm?" + +Sherm's eyes smouldered. Jane could not see him very distinctly, but she +could fairly feel his determination. + +"It's no use talking, I'm going!" + +They went up the walk in silence. The lilacs and the white syringia in +the borders were in bloom. She hoped Sherm did not notice the heavy +fragrance--it was so like a funeral. He did not say anything till they +got to the foot of the stairs. + +"Thank you, Jane, for--for waiting." His voice broke pitifully. + +When Dr. Morton discovered the next morning that Sherm was not to be +moved from his purpose, he decided to go into town early and see if by +any chance there might be another telegram or a letter. Letters from the +east sometimes came down by a branch line from the north. There was +nothing, and he finally resolved to telegraph Mrs. Dart as to Sherm's +state of mind. Sherm was to come later in the day with Frank in time to +catch the evening train, which was the only one that made close +connections at Kansas City. It was late afternoon before he received a +reply. The message was emphatic. "Sherm _must_ await letter." + +"Mrs. Dart evidently knows her own mind," thought the Doctor. He drove a +little way out of town and waited for Frank and Sherm. Chicken Little +was with them. He gave the boy this second message, explaining what he +had done. Sherm read it over and over, as if he hoped in some way to +find a reason for his mother's decision lurking between the lines. + +At length he said stolidly: "I'll wait till to-morrow. Perhaps the +letter will come to-night." + +They talked it over and Sherm and Chicken Little went on to town with +the light buggy to wait for the mail, while Dr. Morton and Frank drove +home. + +There was a handful of letters in the box. Sherm took them out hastily. + +"I guess this is it," he said, stuffing one into his pocket. "And here's +three for you." + +"Three? Whoever from?" Jane held out her hand. "Ernest and Katy--and +here's another with an Annapolis postmark. Who do you suppose?" + +Sherm glanced over her shoulder. "That's Carol Brown's handwriting." + +"Carol?--writing to me? How funny!" + +They hurried out to the team. + +"Let me drive while you read your letter, Sherm." + +Sherm shook his head. "Read yours first--this will keep." + +"The idea--I wouldn't be so piggy selfish." + +"Please, Jane, I'd rather get out of town before I tackle it." + +"Sherm, I wish I could----" She didn't need to finish. Sherm understood. + +"Read Carol's first," he said. + +She read it with a beaming face. Sherm was looking at her without seeing +her. She started to tell him the contents of the letter, then suddenly +stopped. She couldn't rejoice over being asked to a hop when Sherm was +in such trouble. Laying the letter in her lap, she took up Ernest's. +Sherm noticed the movement and, remembering, asked her what Carol had to +say. + +She handed him the letter. He read it through absently. The houses were +thinning along the road. The prairie stretched ahead of them in solitary +sweeps of tender green, dappled with flowers. Jane reached for the +reins. + +"Read your letter, Sherm." + +He obeyed in silence. Chicken Little kept her eyes on the road ahead. A +sharp exclamation from Sherm startled her: + +"God, it can't be true!" + +Sherm swearing? She looked at him in amazement. The boy was not +swearing; he had cried out in utter agony. He dropped the letter on the +floor of the buggy and buried his face in his hands. + +"Sherm, Sherm, what is it?" Chicken Little was frightened. + +He did not answer. He did not seem to have noticed that she had spoken. +She reached over and touched him. "Sherm! Sherm!" He shook off her hand +impatiently. + +Chicken Little hesitated a moment, then flicked the horses into a swift +trot. She must get him home. Perhaps he was going to be ill. The boy did +not move or look up for miles. When the horses splashed through the ford +at Elm Creek, he roused himself and looked dully at Jane. + +"Sherm, please tell me. It will make it easier for you to tell somebody, +and I'm worried to death." + +He stooped and picked up the letter. Smoothing it out, he thrust it into +her hand. "Read it." He took the reins. + +Chicken Little ran over the letter hurriedly. It bore a date some days +previous. + + * * * * * + +"My Dear Boy: + +"Dr. Jones has just told me it can be only a question of days now. I +have been studying whether to send for you or not. Father settled the +question for me. He said he wanted sorrowfully to see you, but in view +of the things that must be told you, it would be too painful an ordeal +for all of us. He said to tell you you were very precious to him--as +precious as if you had really been his own son." + + * * * * * + +Chicken Little gave a little cry. "Sherm, what does she mean?" + +"Read it all." + + * * * * * + +"For, Sherm, you are not our own. If Father could have lived, we never +intended you to know this--at least not until you were a man and had +made a place for yourself. But Father's illness is leaving us penniless. +Sue's husband has offered Grace and myself a home with them, but he +thinks you must be told the truth--that it is only fair to you. We took +you when you were about two and a half years old under very peculiar +circumstances. It was while we were still living in New York, and Sue +was a tot of five. We were going up to my father's in Albany and were a +little late. Father told the hackman to drive fast; he'd give him an +extra dollar if he'd catch the train. The man had been drinking and +drove recklessly. He was just dashing round the corner to the +station--the train was already whistling--when he knocked down, and ran +over, a woman with a child in her arms. The child was pitched to one +side and escaped with a few bruises. The woman never regained +consciousness. You have probably guessed that you were that child. We +could never find out who she was, though we advertised for several +weeks. We decided to bring you up with Sue, and when we moved to +Centerville, soon after, no one knew you were not our own child. We had +you baptized Sherman after the great general who had just won his way to +notice then. I have saved the clothing you wore, and a brooch and +wedding ring of your mother's. I will send them to you, together with a +hundred dollars, which is all I can give you to start you on your way." +The remainder of the letter was filled with her grief over parting with +her husband, and her separation from Sherm himself. + +Chicken Little swallowed hard--something seemed to be gripping her by +the throat. + +"And your father isn't your father, Sherm?--or your mother or Sue or +Grace?" The tragic extent of what had happened was dawning slowly upon +Jane. + +Sherm's lips trembled. + +"No, I--haven't any father--I've never had a father!... I haven't got +anybody.... I haven't even got a name that belongs to me!" Sherm's voice +grew shriller and shriller till it broke with a dry sob. + +Chicken Little slipped her hand into his and the boy clung to it +spasmodically, as if that slim, brown hand were all he had in the world +to cling to. The tears were raining down Jane's cheeks, but Sherm's eyes +were dry and burning. The team trotted along evenly. They turned +mechanically into the stable yard when they reached the ranch. It was +growing dusk. + +Sherm helped her out, saying: "Will you please tell them, Chicken +Little? I won't come in just yet." + +She ran to the house and poured out her tale. Her father hurried to the +stable. Sherm was not there. Jim Bart, who was milking in the corral +near by, said he had saddled Caliph and gone off down the lane. Dr. +Morton talked it over with Frank and they decided that Sherm had done +the wisest thing possible in going for a gallop. + +"He doesn't mean to do anything rash or he wouldn't have taken Ernest's +horse," Frank declared. + +But as hour after hour went by, the family grew more and more anxious. +At eleven o'clock, Frank saddled Calico and tried to find him. He +returned some time later in despair. + +"You might as well try to look for a needle in a haystack. Poor lad, I +have faith he will ride the worst of it off and Caliph is a pretty +steady little beast now. He'll bring him home." + +A few moments after his return, a messenger came from Captain Clarke, +saying that he had been wakened by Caliph neighing at the gate and had +gone out to find Sherm dazed and apparently completely exhausted. He had +got him to bed where he was sleeping heavily. Captain Clarke was afraid +they must be worried. He would care for him till morning, but he would +be glad to have some inkling of what had happened so that he might know +what to say to the boy when he waked. + +Dr. Morton got out his medicine case and went back with the man. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE CAPTAIN FINDS HIS OWN + + +Chicken Little climbed the hill of sleep painfully that night, and +slept late the following morning in consequence. While she was eating +breakfast, Frank came in with two tear-stained, dusty letters, which he +had found in the bottom of the buggy. + +"Is this the way you treat your correspondence, Sis?" + +"The idea--it's Ernest's and Katy's letters and I never read them. +Sherm's trouble drove them clear out of my mind." + +"Evidently, one is torn part way open, and the other hasn't been +touched." + +"Hurry up and tell us what Ernest has to say. I was wondering why he +hadn't written." Mrs. Morton paused expectantly. + +"He says a lot of things," replied Jane, skimming rapidly through the +letter. "He says they are going to start on their summer cruise next +week and the boys are tickled to death to go, though they're probably +just going to cruise around to Navy yards and see dry docks and +improving things. He says that it's rumored that Superintendent Balch is +going away and Old Rodgers is coming back as superintendent. And this +year's class graduated three Japs--the Japanese government sent them +over. He gives the names, but I can't pronounce them. One is +I-n-o-u-y-e." + +"Skip the Japs and give us the rest." Frank was waiting to hear the +news. + +"That's about all that would interest you." + +"My dear, anything concerning Ernest interests me," protested her +mother. + +"But it isn't about Ernest; it's about Carol Brown." + +"Well, what is it?" + +"Oh, nothing much--he just took a fancy to my picture and asked Ernest a +lot of questions." Chicken Little folded the letter and hastily slipped +it back into the envelope, devoutly hoping her mother wouldn't demand to +see it. She tore open Katy's. Before she had read two lines she gave a +little cry of delight. + +"Oh, Mother, do you think I could? Oh, wouldn't it be just too +wonderful? Oh Mother, you must say Yes!" + +"Jane, what are you talking about? Calm yourself and tell me." Mrs. +Morton looked up over her spectacles severely. + +"Why, she says her mother wants me to come and live with them next year +and go to the High School and that Alice and Dick want me to come there. +And, perhaps, I could stay part of the time at one house and part at the +other, and for me to tell you and let you be thinking about it, and +Alice and Mrs. Halford are both going to write you all about it, +and--oh, Mother, wouldn't it be too wonderful?" + +Mrs. Morton looked both surprised and worried. "It is certainly most +kind of them all, but I shall have to think the matter over." + +"Well," said Frank, "that doesn't have to be settled to-day. Jane, +Marian wishes to know if you want to go over to the Captain's with her +to see Sherm. She is going to start in a few minutes." + +Chicken Little jumped to her feet. "I'll be ready in a jiffy!" + +Sherm had still not wakened when they arrived. He had roused once toward +morning; Captain Clarke had spoken to him, telling him where he was, +then he had dropped quietly off to sleep again. + +Captain Clarke asked Chicken Little a good many questions. + +"I should like to see that letter," he said. + +"It's in his coat pocket. I tucked it in--I was afraid he'd lose it." + +Dr. Morton, who was still there, sat for several minutes in a brown +study. + +"I think," he said presently, "that under the circumstances we should be +justified in reading it without waiting for Sherm's permission." He +looked at Captain Clarke. + +The latter nodded assent. + +Both read it and discussed it briefly. Still Sherm did not waken. + +"I believe I'll drive over to Jake Schmidt's while I am waiting--I have +an errand with him. Marian, don't you want to ride over with me?" + +"Captain Clarke," said Jane rather timidly after they had gone, "would +you mind showing me that picture of your baby again?" + +Captain Clarke rose and brought the photograph. Chicken Little studied +it carefully, then glanced up at the Captain. Sherm certainly was like +the picture--as much like it as a boy who was almost a man grown could +be. Should she dare to ask him? Chicken Little felt herself growing hot +and cold by turns. Her heart was beating so she thought the Captain must +surely hear it. One minute she was sure she didn't dare, the next, she +remembered Sherm's broken-hearted words about not belonging to anybody, +and she was sure she could screw her courage up--in just a minute. +Captain Clarke helped her out. He had been observing her restless +movements for several minutes and was wondering if she could possibly +have guessed what was in his own mind. + +"Out with it, little woman, what's troubling you?" + +Chicken Little got up from her seat and went and stood close beside him. +"I want to say something to you awfully, only I am afraid you--won't +like it," she said earnestly. + +"My dear child, don't be afraid of me." + +Chicken Little summoned up her resolution. + +"I wanted to ask--to ask you, if you wouldn't adopt Sherm. You see he +looks like your little boy would have looked, and he hasn't got anybody +or any name, and he isn't going to want to live hardly, I am afraid. And +I thought.... You don't know how fine Sherm is. He's so honorable and +kind--so--so you can trust him. I just know you'd be proud of him after +a while." + +Chicken Little was pleading with eyes and voice and trembling hands. The +Captain gazed at her a moment in astonishment, then he tenderly drew her +toward him. + +"Chicken Little, I doubt if Sherm would agree to that. But if he is +willing, I should be proud and happy to call him my son. But don't get +your hopes up--I fear Sherm is too proud to let us find any such easy +solution of his troubles. But we'll find a way to put him on his feet, +you and I--we'll find a way, if it takes every cent I have! + +"I think perhaps the first thing to do, Chicken Little," he continued +after some pondering, "is to try to find out something about Sherman's +real parentage. It hardly seems possible that a comfortably dressed +woman could have disappeared with her child without making some stir. I +am in hopes, by getting somebody to search through the files of two or +three of the leading New York newspapers immediately following the day +of the accident, we might secure a clue. I shall write to Mrs. Dart at +once for particulars, and then send to a man I know and pay him to make +a thorough investigation." + +They were so interested discussing what could be done, that Sherm +entered the room before they knew he was awake. The boy was calm, but +looked years older, and very white and worn. Captain Clarke greeted him +cheerfully. + +"I hope you rested. Jane tells me you had a staggering day yesterday. +Chicken Little, would you mind telling Wing to serve Sherm's breakfast?" + +As soon as she disappeared, he gripped the boy's hand, saying +confidently, "I don't wish to talk about your trouble just now and I +have no words to comfort you for your loss, lad, but I want to tell you +not to begin to worry yet about your identity. I believe we shall find a +way to get track of your people and that you will find you have an +honorable name, and, possibly, a living father to make up a little for +the kind foster-father you have lost." + +"I don't see how we could--after all these years." + +"Will you leave the matter to me for a few days? And Sherm, make an +effort to eat something for Chicken Little's sake--she is worrying her +heart out over your trouble. You have some good friends right +here--don't forget that. Dr. Morton watched by you all night. Brace up +and be a man. I know you have it in you, Sherm." + +Letters came to Sherm in a short time from Sue Dart, from Dick and Alice +Harding, and from Mrs. Halford, who painstakingly wrote him all the +details of his supposed father's last days. She evidently knew nothing +of his not being the Dart's own son. Sue's letter seemed to comfort him +a little. He did not show it to anyone, even to Chicken Little. He +confided to her, however, that the folks were sending his things to him +the next day. They had already broken up the home and were going back to +Chicago with Sue the following week. + +When the express package arrived, Sherm took it straight to Jane. + +"You open it," he said. + +Chicken Little took his knife and cut the string and folded back the +paper wrappings carefully. It seemed some way as if she were meeting +Sherm's mother. + +The quaint little old-fashioned garments were musty and faded. A frock +of blue merino braided in an elaborate pattern in black lay on top. +There was a cape to match, and a little cloth cap. Beside these lay a +funny pair of leather boots with red tops--almost like a man's--only, +oh, so tiny! + +Chicken Little hardly knew whether to laugh or cry at these. + +"Oh, Sherm, did you ever wear them? How you must have strutted! I can +fairly see you." + +Sherm smiled and took them up tenderly. Did he, too, feel as if there +were another presence haunting these relics of his childhood? + +The tiny yellowed undergarments came next, all made by hand with minute +even stitches. A pair of blue and white striped knitted stockings was +folded with these, and last, at the bottom, a little pasteboard box +appeared, containing a ring, a brooch, and a flat oval locket on a fine +gold chain. + +Sherm examined the ring first. Inside was inscribed William-Juanita. May +1860. + +The brooch contained a lock of dark hair under a glass; the whole set in +a twisted rim of gold. The locket held miniatures of a white-haired man +and woman with foreign-looking faces. Both Sherm and Chicken Little +looked these over in silence. Presently Sherm sighed, then laid the +trinkets all back in Chicken Little's lap. + +"I don't see anything there that could help much," he said hopelessly. + +Chicken Little slowly folded up the little garments and laid them neatly +back in their wrapping. Her brow was puckered into a frown. + +"I am trying to think where I have heard that name Juanita--some place +lately. I don't remember ever to have known anybody by that name. It's +Spanish, isn't it?" + +"I guess so, but what you're thinking of is the song, 'Juanita.'" + +"Oh, I expect it is. Sherm, do you mind if I take these things over and +show them to Captain Clarke? He said he would like to see them when they +came." + +"No, take them along. If you'll wait till I get the feeding done, I'll +go with you." + +"All right, let's take Calico and Caliph." + +Sherm lingered out on the veranda while Chicken Little displayed the +contents of the package to the Captain. He examined each little article +of clothing for some identifying mark. + +"There doesn't seem to be anything to help on those," he said, +disappointed. "Let's have a look at the jewelry." + +Chicken Little unwrapped the ring from its layers of tissue paper, and +handed it to him. Captain Clarke took it, regarded the flat golden +circle intently for an instant, then turned it to read the inscription. + +A pained cry broke from his lips. Chicken Little glanced hastily up to +find him holding the ring in shaking fingers, staring off into vacancy. +"Juanita!" he whispered, "Juanita!" + +Chicken Little touched his hands in distress. + +"Captain--Captain Clarke, what is it?" + +He looked down at her with a start. "I--it is----Excuse me a moment, +Chicken Little." + +He walked into his bedroom with the ring still in his hand and closed +the door. + +Chicken Little waited and waited, not knowing whether she ought to go +and tell Sherm what she suspected. It seemed too strange to be possible. +And if it were true, surely Captain Clarke would want to tell him +himself. Perhaps she oughtn't to be there. She rose softly and slipped +out to Wing in the kitchen. After a time she heard Sherm get up from his +seat on the veranda step and go into the library. Immediately after, the +bedroom door opened and she heard the murmur of voices. She left a +message with Wing and running quietly out to Calico, untied him, and +rode home in the twilight. + + * * * * * + +"You needn't ever say again, Ernest Morton," she wrote to her brother +the next evening, "that E. P. Roe's stories are too goody-goody and +fishy to be interesting. He can't hold a candle to what's happened to +the Captain and Sherm. I have to go round pinching myself to believe it +is really so. I am almost afraid I will wake up and find it isn't, +still. Do you remember the picture of the Captain's little boy that +looked like Sherm? Well, it was Sherm. I can hear you say: 'What in the +dickens?' So, I'll put you out of suspense right away. The Captain's boy +was not dead, only lost, and he is Sherm or Sherm is he, whichever way +is right--I'm sure I don't know. You see the Captain went off on a long +voyage and got shipwrecked and was gone ages and ages. And Juanita's +father and mother were way off in California--they used to be Spanish. +That's what made them so foreign-looking in the locket picture. Well, +nobody knows exactly what happened. When the Captain got back to New +York and hunted up the boarding house where she had lived, they said she +had left six months before to go to her parents in California. Captain +Clarke wrote to California and found that her father was dead and her +mother hadn't heard from Juanita for months, and didn't know anything +about her coming home. Wasn't it dreadful? He paid detectives to hunt +her up, but they never found the slightest clue. The Captain thought +she'd gone off and left him on purpose--that's what made him such a +woman-hater--and so sad all the time. You wouldn't know him now. He +looks like Merry Christmas all the year round. You should see him gaze +at Sherm. Marian says it makes her want to cry, and Mother says it is +the most wonderful manifestation of Providence she has ever known. It +seems to me Providence would show more sense not to muddle things up so +in the first place. Sherm is as pleased as can be to find he really is +somebody, and he's awfully fond of the Captain, but you see he'd got so +used to loving the Darts as his own folks that he can't get unused to it +all of a sudden. He choked all up when he tried to call Captain Clarke +'Father,' and the Captain told him not to. There's heaps more to tell, +but Mother has been calling me for the past three minutes." + + * * * * * + +"No wonder Sherm feels dazed," said Dr. Morton two evenings later, +watching the boy, who was making a vain pretense of playing checkers +with Chicken Little. + +He was so heedless that she swept his men off the board at each move, to +Chicken Little's disgust. Sherm usually beat her when he gave his mind +to the game. Presently, she picked up the board and dumped the checkers +off into her lap. + +"A penny for your thoughts, Sherm." + +"I was just wondering if Captain--Father--would find out anything more +in New York." + +"How long will he be gone?" + +"I guess that depends on whether he gets track of anything new. After he +comes back we're going to Chicago to see--Mother." + +"Oh, I am so glad. It will make you feel a lot better to have a good +visit with them all." + +"Yes, and he told me I might buy back the old home for her if she wants +it--if I'd only known last week, she needn't have sold the place. And +the Captain--Father--says he will give me some money to put out at +interest so she'll have enough to live on comfortably. He says he owes +her and Father a debt he can never repay for bringing me up." + +Chicken Little was thoughtful. "Sherm, he seems to have plenty of money, +maybe you can go to college and to the Beaux Arts, too." + +"He said I could have all the education I wanted." + +"Will you go to college next year?" + +"Yep." + +"O dear, it will be awful here unless Mother lets me go to Centerville." + +"Don't fret, she is going to." + +"How do you know?" + +"She told Marian so last night." + +Chicken Little got to her feet and shot two feet into the air with a +whoop of joy. "Goody! Goody!! Goody!!!" + +"Save a little breath, Jane. I know something better than that. Promise +you won't tell--your mother would skin me if she knew I were giving away +her cherished plans." + +"Don't be afraid, she just wants me to act surprised, and I can do it a +lot better if I know about it before hand." + +"Well, she's coming on at Christmas time for a visit in Centerville, and +she's going to take you on to visit Ernest." + +"Sherm, truly?" + +"That's what she said." + +Chicken Little gave an ecstatic hop. "Sherm," she exclaimed presently, a +new idea striking her, "I can go to that hop with Carol!" + +"Carol?" Sherm sat up a little straighter. "What do you mean?" + +"Don't you remember that letter I got from Carol? You don't remember a +single thing about it, do you? He wrote to ask me if I wouldn't come on +some time and go to a Navy hop with him. He said he was asking me in +time so I couldn't promise anybody else." + +"It strikes me Carol is getting mighty fresh." + +Chicken Little stole a surprised glance at Sherm. + +"I don't see anything fresh about that--I think it nice of him to +remember me so long. My, I used to think Carol was the most wonderful +thing. I hung a May basket to him the last spring we were in +Centerville." + +"You did? Why, I thought I got yours. Who hung mine?" + +"Gertie. I guess she won't mind if I tell--it's been so long." + +Sherm whistled. After a little he inquired rather sheepishly: + +"Say, Chicken Little, you don't like Carol best now, do you?" + +Chicken Little looked up hastily. She was disgusted to feel her face +growing hot. "Why, Sherm--I haven't seen Carol for four years. I don't +know what I should think of him now." Then, seeing the hurt look in +Sherm's eyes, she added: "I guess I'd have to like him pretty awfully +well, if I did." + + * * * * * + +Captain Clarke was gone two weeks and he had added only two facts to +those they had been able to piece together. He had accidentally run +across an old friend. This friend had supposed him dead all these years, +and could scarcely believe his own eyes when he saw him. From him, he +learned that his wife had also believed him dead before she would +consent to leave New York. This friend told him he had suspected that +her money was running low and had offered to help her, but she refused. +He thought, after hearing the Captain's story, that she must have had +barely enough left to take her home, and that this explained why she was +walking to the wharf instead of taking a hack, the day she was run down. + +Sherm stayed on with the Morton's until the following week when he set +out with his new-found father to visit his adopted family. Youth +recovers readily from its sorrows. It was almost the old Sherm who +raised his cap to Chicken Little as the train got under steam and slid +away from the long wooden platform. + +"O dear!" she exclaimed, "seems to me I haven't done anything this whole +year but see somebody off. I think it ought to be my turn pretty soon." + +"Have a little patience, Humbug," said her father, "your turn is almost +here. It is hard for me to realize how fast my baby is growing up." + +Chicken Little liked the sound of those words--"growing up." There was +something magical about them. They lingered in her mind for days. + +One hot Sunday afternoon late in June, she arrayed herself in an old +blue lawn dress of Marian's that trailed a full inch on the floor at +every step. She coiled her hair high on her head and tucked in a rose +coquettishly above her ear. Highly gratified with the result of her +efforts, she swept downstairs in a most dignified manner to astonish the +family. Unfortunately the family--Father and Mother, and both pups, were +taking a siesta. She went over to the cottage; a profound silence +reigned there also. She rambled around restlessly for a few moments, +then, taking "Ivanhoe" and a pocketful of cookies, went out into the +orchard. It was hot even there. The air seemed heavy and the birds +contented themselves with lazy chirpings. She swung herself up into her +favorite tree and began to munch and read. + +But she did not read long. The charm of the green world around her was +greater than the pictured world of the book. Chicken Little fell to +making pictures of her own--dream pictures that changed quickly into +other dream pictures, as real dreams sometimes do. As she stared down +the leafy arcades between the rows of apple trees, she saw an immense +ball room hung in red, white, and blue bunting and filled with +astonishingly handsome young men in blue uniforms. Ernest was there. And +a tall, curly-headed Adonis, who looked both like, and unlike, the +good-natured, plump Carol of Old Centerville days, was close beside her. +But when the supposed Carol spoke, it was certainly Sherm's voice she +heard, and it was Sherm's odd, crooked smile that curved the dream +midshipman's lips. Chicken Little recognized the absurdity of this +herself and laughed happily. A bird on a bough nearby took this for a +challenge, and burst into an ecstasy of trills. + +"Pshaw," she whispered to herself, "I wonder what it would really be +like." She kept on wondering. She felt as if she and the orchard were +wrapped about with a great cloud, like a veil, and that beyond this, all +the wonderful things that must surely happen when she grew up, were +hidden. The twilight was falling before she stretched her cramped limbs +and slid down the rough tree trunk. She picked up her neglected book, +which had fallen to the ground unnoticed, and said aloud, with a little +mocking curtsey: + +"Your pardon, Sir Walter, but I made a romance of my own that +was--nicer." + +Then she tucked the slighted author under her arm and flew to the house +before the pursuing shadows. Chicken Little was growing up. + +THE END + + + + +Every grown-up will remember the time when + +"Chicken Little" + +was a most wonderful tale with which to open wide the eyes of children. + +Many a fond mother will be glad to know of another "Chicken Little" just +brought to light in handsome book form under the alluring title + +CHICKEN LITTLE JANE + +A DELIGHTFUL STORY BY LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE + +Little folk will at once fall in love with this new "Chicken Little" of +the far western prairies--the same being an affectionate nick-name given +to a dear little girl and always used when she was very, very good--but +when she misbehaved it was "Jane"!--just Jane! + +This book is illustrated and decorated with unusually attractive +pictures by Charles D. Hubbard. Cloth, $1.25 + +Britton Publishing Company--New York + + + + +Of all the charming books that may come forth this year, none will be +more welcome than + +GEORGINA'S SERVICE STARS + +By Annie Fellows Johnston + +TO BE PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1st + +In it will be found a new story of beloved Georgina whose Rainbow +adventures led into her tenth year. Now she is older--sweet sixteen, if +you please--and Richard, her playmate of childhood days, is a grown man +of seventeen--and as devoted as ever. Of course he got into the great +war enough to give Georgina a second star to her service flag; her +father, being a famous surgeon, his star is rightfully at the top. But +watch out for Richard! (Beautifully illustrated. $1.50 net.) + +AS USUAL--FOR ALL THE FAMILY + +GEORGINA of the RAINBOWS + +Now selling in beautiful popular edition, 60 cts. + +Britton Publishing Company--New York + + + + +LITTLE STORIES FROM THE SCREEN + +By WILLIAM ADDISON LATHROP + +Filling a long-felt want of thousands who desire to know the methods of +the top-notch moving picture writer, this celebrated photo-dramatist has +sanctioned the use of eighteen of his best synopses, and one full +scenario, representing a wide range of successful productions +participated in by world-famous stars familiar to millions. Each +Synopsis is accompanied by one or more actual scenes of the finished +play in which twenty-five screen favorites are pictured in their +strongest acts. + +Cloth--Highly Illustrated--$1.25 net + +UNCLE BILL'S LETTERS TO HIS NIECE + +By RAY BROWN + +Here's as gay a little gift as any girl could wish. Bright, sparkling +and joyous--letters from a matter-of-fact old uncle who talks to his +young niece straight from the shoulder, exactly as he might to a boy. + +Uncle Bill gives facts about moonlight, becomes violent over athletics, +taboos snobbery, takes a fling at heredity, and touches up a few +complexions. + +The result is extravagantly and deliciously funny--Just the Book for an +Ingenue. + +Cloth Decorative Cover and Jacket--60 cents net + +Britton Publishing Company--New York + + + + +OVER THE SEAS FOR UNCLE SAM + +By ELAINE STERNE, Author of "The Road of Ambition" + +Miss Sterne is Senior Lieutenant of the Navy League Honor Guard, which +has charge of entertainment and visitation in behalf of sick and wounded +sailors sent home for hospital treatment. Their experiences, such as may +be published at this time, now appear in book form. This book brings out +many thrilling adventures that have occurred in the war zone of the high +seas--and has official sanction. Miss Sterne's descriptive powers are +equaled by few. She has the dramatic touch which compels interest. Her +book, which contains many photographic scenes, will be warmly welcomed +in navy circles, and particularly by those in active service. + +Cloth--Illuminated Jacket--$1.50 Net + +AMBULANCING ON THE FRENCH FRONT + +By EDWARD P. COYLE + +Here is a collection of intensely interesting episodes related by a +Young American who served as a volunteer with the French Army--Red Cross +Division. His book is to the field of mercy what those of Empey, Holmes +and Peat have been in describing the vicissitudes of army life. The +author spent ten months in ambulance work on the Verdun firing line. +What he saw and did is recounted with most graphic clearness. This book +contains many illustrations photographed on the spot showing with vivid +exactitude the terrors of rescue work under the fire of the big guns. + +Cloth--16 Full page Illustrations--$1.50 Net + +Britton Publishing Company--New York + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHICKEN LITTLE JANE ON THE BIG +JOHN*** + + +******* This file should be named 30629.txt or 30629.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/0/6/2/30629 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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