"Not a bad idea--whenever I am tempted to be bad after this, I'll take a nap and throw the devil off the track that way."

"My mother says it isn't nice to talk about the devil." Katy looked so gravely disapproving that Marian had hard work to keep her face straight.

"Oh, excuse me--I'll be careful not to mention his Satanic majesty again. Well, Chicken Little, are you going to have a birthday party this year?"

"Not a really party, but Mother said I could have Katy and Gertie and Grace Dart come to tea. There's going to be a sure enough birthday cake with candles and my name and age in pink frosting--and we're going to have chocolate creams--and all the dolls."

"I shall bring Violet--she's got a new dress and she's just had her hair glued on--I curled it on the curling iron," said Gertie.

"I'm going to bring my n.i.g.g.e.r Dinah and you can play she helps wait on the table," put in Katy.

"Dear me, is that the latest thing in dolldom, to have the guests wait on the table?" quizzed Marian.

"I guess it would be all right to play she did," Jane responded with a grin.

"Your mother's birthday comes soon. What are you going to give her, Jane?"

"Yes, and Ernest's too, his is the twenty-second."

"And Valentine's day comes the fourteenth--just the day after your birthday."

"Yes, Father says I was intended for a valentine only I was mailed too soon. I was just wondering what I could give Mother, Marian,--and Ernest. I've only got sixteen cents. I don't think birthdays ought to come so near Christmas."

"Sixteen cents isn't much for two presents, is it? We'll have to put our thinking caps on. Let me see. How would you like to make Mother a little tidy for her rocking chair? I think I have a piece of honey-comb canvas left that would be just about the right size--you might do a Greek border with rose-colored worsted. It's fast work. You could do it easily."

"Oh, Marian, you do think of the nicest things!" and Chicken Little got up impulsively to give her a grateful hug.

"But Ernest will be harder--he wouldn't care for fancy work."

"He wants a new base ball--an awfully hard one like Carol's."

"Frank can get him that. I'll tell you, Chicken Little, I believe he'd like a nice strong bag for his marbles--it won't be long till marble time now. But, perhaps, we can think up something else."

"I wisht you'd come to my tea party, Marian."

"I'd be charmed to, and I'll bring my old doll, Seraphina. She is huge and hasn't any nose left and only one eye. Will she be welcome in this wounded state or had we better put her in a hospital?"

"Oh, Marian, will you?--I'd love to see her."

"She's down in the bottom of a trunk, but I am sure she would be delighted to get out in the world again. What are you looking at with those big eyes of yours, Katy?"

"I was just thinking she must be awful old."

"She is--frightfully--almost as old as I am. My aunt brought her to me from Paris when I was just seven. She was elegant then--all pink silk ruffles with a little wreath of forget-me-nots in her hair. I crowed over all the children I knew because she was so fine, but I must be getting home. Children dear, I wonder if your mothers would mind if you ran down to the postoffice to mail this letter for me. I want it to get off on the five o'clock train."

Chicken Little's boasted luck seemed about to fail her entirely on her birthday morning. She got up late and was so excited over her little remembrances that she almost forgot to get ready for school. She ran as hard as she could, so hard she had a st.i.tch in her side, but the last child in the line was disappearing inside the school-house door, when she was still half a block away.

She knew what that meant. Miss Brown had a harsh rule for tardy pupils--they stayed one-half hour after school, rain or shine. And to stay in a half hour on one's birthday with a party on foot was unthinkable. Why it would be most dark when she got home! And her mother--well, maybe her mother wouldn't say very much since it was her birthday, but Jane wasn't keen about hearing what she would say.

She dragged herself reluctantly up the stairs, taking an unnecessarily long time to hang up her wraps and it was fully five minutes past nine when she took her seat. Miss Brown looked severe.

"You understand this means thirty minutes after school. I have told you I will not tolerate tardiness."

Chicken Little didn't try to catch up with Katy and Gertie going home that noon. She plodded along soberly by herself with such a forlorn air that d.i.c.k Harding, just behind her on his way to his own lunch, was struck by it, and overtook her to find out what was amiss now.

"Have to stay after school on a birthday--well, that is tough. I see plainly you need the services of a lawyer. I guess I'll have to take this under advis.e.m.e.nt and see what can be done. You know it's my turn to help you out. Clear up that solemn face, Chicken Little,--that's better--I see the smile coming. I'll tell you--wait by the school gate when you come back from dinner and I'll think up some way to mend matters."

Chicken Little hurried through her dinner and back to school, posting herself expectantly to watch for d.i.c.k Harding. She did not have long to wait. Mr. Harding had hurried, too, on her account.

"I have been considering this, Jane. I don't believe it would be quite fair to the other pupils to persuade Miss Brown to let you off, as I at first thought of doing. Do you think it would?"

Richard Harding regarded the child keenly, curious to see whether she would see the point.

Chicken Little looked up at him soberly.

"No, I guess it's just as bad to be late on your birthday as any other time. And I s'pose if Miss Brown let me go she'd have to let the rest go, too. And I guess there wouldn't be any rule if she did that."

"Right you are, but I think I have a plan that won't be unfair to anybody and will still keep the birthday intact. We couldn't have the birthday hurt you know, Chicken Little. It's such a little young birthday--it might cry!" d.i.c.k Harding smiled down at her whimsically and Jane smiled understandingly back.

"Why don't you ask me what my plan is? You haven't the proper amount of feminine curiosity."

Chicken Little smiled again--a confiding little smile.

"How would it do, Chicken Little Jane, if I should get a cutter with two gray horses and lots of bells--real noisy bells--and call for your guests first, then come here to the school after you? We could go for a nice sleigh ride before that supper party."

Chicken Little's face lit up as instantaneously as if someone had just turned on an electric light before it. She gave one blissful "Oh" then stopped. "If Mother----?" she said.

"'If Mother' is all attended to. I met your father and he said he would make it all right with your mother. So if Miss Jane Morton will do me the honor to ride with me this afternoon, I shall consider the matter settled." d.i.c.k Harding made an elaborate bow.

Jane still beamed but found words difficult.

"I'm waiting, Miss Morton, you'd better hurry--I think the bell is going to ring."

The child glanced back at the school house apprehensively.

"Course I want to--awfully, and--Mr. Harding," Chicken Little reached up to whisper something and the tall man bent down.

"I love you most as well as Brother Frank."

"Thank you, dear--I've never had a little sister. Don't you think I might adopt a little piece of you?"

"That's what Alice said. She said little sisters were so nice and cuddly--I think you and Alice are a lot alike, Mr. Harding."

"I'm flattered--in what way?"

"'Cause you--she--why I guess 'cause you and she both know how little girls feel inside--and you're so comforting."

"Much obliged, little sister, I know Miss Alice deserves that nice compliment and I hope I do. Are you lonesome without her?"