"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."

d.i.c.k 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 amus.e.m.e.nt. "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 d.i.c.k's invitation.

"Come on, Mother, don't mind d.i.c.k'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."

d.i.c.k 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." d.i.c.k's tone sounded injured.

Alice kissed the tip of his ear and shoved him out of the way. "You're so big, d.i.c.k, there's never room for anyone else when you're around."

Alice deftly opened trays and lids, pulling out protecting papers; she handed d.i.c.k a large flat parcel.

d.i.c.k received it with his hand on his heart, then striking an oratorical att.i.tude, 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 grat.i.tude 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.

"d.i.c.k, 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.

d.i.c.k 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 rea.s.sured 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 d.i.c.k 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