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. "d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k. 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 d.i.c.k'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 cla.s.s 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 b.u.mp 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 d.i.c.k 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. d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k 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. d.i.c.k 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 d.i.c.k just as they had all learned to love her--she must stay with them as long as possible.

d.i.c.k's letter was as full of nonsense as d.i.c.k himself. It was written with many flourishes to:

"Miss Chicken Little Jane Morton, Big John Creek, Morris County, Kansas.

"Dear Miss Morton,