"I've nothing more to say, Mr. Ga.s.sett."

Mr. Ga.s.sett did not take the trouble to say good-by. He clapped his hat on his head and banged out the front door.

Mrs. Morton seemed paralyzed with astonishment.

"And he is a member of our church! Alice, I believe you are right--I believe he did steal them. He didn't act like an honest man."

So Alice won one more friend in the Morton family.

They poured the tale into Dr. Morton's ears when he came home to dinner.

"Well, Alice, I'm afraid you have a law suit on your hands. Have you kept your father's papers?"

"Yes, I've got a box full of old letters and papers."

"She'll have to have a lawyer, won't she?" asked Mrs. Morton anxiously.

"Oh, dear, how can I ever pay one?" Alice clasped her hands in despair at this new thought.

"You might get someone to take the case on a contingent fee. You don't understand--do you? Lawyers often take cases for poor clients with the understanding that they are to have part of the money if they win the case, but get no pay if they lose it."

"Oh, that would be fine! Do you suppose I could get somebody that way?"

Chicken Little and Ernest had been interested listeners.

"d.i.c.k Harding's a lawyer," observed Ernest.

"He is--and a mighty good one for a young chap," replied his father.

"Yes, and he's awful sorry for Alice, too. He said she was a plucky girl," Chicken Little broke in.

Alice blushed and Dr. Morton laughed.

"Here's a lawyer ready to your hand, Alice. But Ga.s.sett may think better of his threat when he cools off, though I think you may look for trouble."

The following evening Dr. Morton handed a letter to Alice.

"O dear me," she said, "do you suppose it's from Mr. Ga.s.sett? No, it's from Cincinnati. Why it has 'Fletcher Iron Works' in the corner--I wonder--you don't suppose it could be from Uncle Joseph, do you?"

"Maybe he's dead and has left you something, Alice," suggested Dr.

Morton.

Alice hurriedly opened the envelope, her amazement increasing as she read.

"Why, I can't understand--why how strange! Chicken Little Jane, did you write to Uncle Joseph?" she demanded, turning suddenly to Jane.

Poor Chicken Little sadly needed d.i.c.k Harding for reinforcements during the next three minutes. The entire family turned astonished and accusing eyes upon her, and it was plain to be seen by her flushed and startled face that she was guilty.

But before either Dr. or Mrs. Morton could demand an explanation, Alice had dropped down beside her and was hugging her tight, half laughing, half crying.

"Oh, you darling, how did you ever happen to think of it? Oh, I'm so happy--I can go to school all I want to, he says. I'll never forget what you've done for me as long as I live, Chicken Little."

When Alice quieted down, it took the combined efforts of herself and Chicken Little to explain the situation to Dr. and Mrs. Morton.

d.i.c.k Harding had guessed off Uncle Joseph's character pretty shrewdly.

The latter's pride had been touched at the idea of his brother's child working out.

"I am sorry," he wrote, "you had so little confidence in me that you would not write me of your difficulties! I was inexpressibly shocked to learn that your mother suffered want. I supposed her family would look out for you both--she had two brothers living the last I knew. At the time of your father's death I was extremely hard up myself and thought they were better able to care for her than I was."

"They were both killed during the war," Alice stopped reading the letter to explain.

"I am sending you money for clothes and railroad fare, and I trust you will let the past be bygones and come at once to make your home with us.

You shall go to school till you are thirty if you want to. Tell Chicken Little Katy was right. I am stuck up--too stuck up to want my only niece to suffer. Tell her, too, I owe her a debt of grat.i.tude for her frank letter that I shall try to pay at some future time."

"But Chicken Little Jane, how did you know where to send the letter, and what made you think of writing to Mr. Fletcher in the first place?"

demanded Mrs. Morton, puzzled.

"Why d.i.c.k Harding said----" Chicken Little got no further.

"d.i.c.k Harding!" interrupted Dr. Morton. "Oh, I see," and throwing back his head, he laughed uproariously.

CHAPTER VIII

CHRISTMAS AND THE DAY AFTER

Chicken Little's silver-spangled tarlatan skirts stood out crisp and glittering. Her straight brown hair had been coaxed by dint of two rows of curl papers to hang in shining brown curls. A silver paper star shone above her forehead and slippers covered with more silver paper made her feet things of beauty even in Katy's skeptical eyes.

She and Gertie fluttered in among eighteen other pink and white fairies in the improvised dressing-room at the front of the church.

A huge Christmas tree occupied the spot where the pulpit and the minister's chair usually held sway. The tree was likewise adorned with silver paper and tinsel, and pink and white tarlatan in the shape of plump stockings filled with candy and nuts. Each of the little girls was to have one of these, and each boy a candy cane. These also hung in red and white striped splendor on the tree.

The children sniffed the fragrance of the evergreen and eyed the candy longingly. The distribution of presents was not to come off until after the cantata. They peeped out at the sea of faces in front of the brown calico curtains separating the stage and dressing rooms from the audience.

"My, I just know I'll be scared," said Gertie with a little shiver.

"I sha'n't," declared Chicken Little stoutly. "Katy said I would and I won't! I'm going to pretend we're just playing ring-round-a-rosy on the school grounds and then I sha'n't mind the people."

The fairies had to circle round the despairing heroine while their queen promised her good gifts because she had been an astonishingly good little girl.

Sherm was to appear later when the good gifts began to arrive in visible packages borne by human messenger boys. The heroine and her Sunday School teacher, and her aged mother were supposed to weep for joy while the presents poured in, and ended by singing a hymn in which the messenger boys joined. Sherm came in and deposited his bundles with great eclat. Unfortunately he dropped one on the heroine's toe startling her so that she said "Oh!" quite audibly. Sherm's voice was a little weak on the hymn till the last Halleluyah, when it came out strong and a little off the key.

It was ten-thirty P. M. before Ernest and Jane got home and settled themselves before the grate fire to munch candy and talk it over.

"I wish we could do it all again," said Chicken Little regretfully.

"Mrs. Dart said we made beautiful fairies and I guess Katy thought so too. She said she never thought I could look so nice." She gave a little simper of satisfaction.