"Looks that way. They're such little fellows--I suppose they're squealing down there in the slough in that swamp gra.s.s--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 ap.r.o.n 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 gra.s.s 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 rea.s.sured 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 gra.s.s next the water, and I'll come along half way up the bank and Gertie can walk through the meadow gra.s.s--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 gra.s.s and was captured once more.

They plodded back to take up the search where they had left off, going through the shorter gra.s.s 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 G.o.d 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 Laoc.o.o.n 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.