"What are you sighing for, Jane? Don't you like it?" her hostess inquired.

Chicken Little gave a little wriggle of joy. "Like it? I just love it--it's like b.u.t.terflies keeping house. Don't you wish everything was like that--pretty and gay, with all the lovers getting things straightened out right?"

"Dear me, Jane, do you get all that out of this poor little comic opera?

I must have you come in to all our amateur things if you love music so."

"I don't love music so very much--I hate to practice. I shouldn't care for their singing very much by itself, it's seeing the actors and thinking how they feel--and their pretty clothes and----"

Mrs. Webb laughed.

"Chicken Little, I envy you--you are going to see so many things that most people shut their eyes to."

Jane studied about this, but she hardly liked to ask what things Mrs.

Webb meant, because that lady seemed to expect her to know, and she felt she would appear stupid not to. She lay awake a long time that night; the music seemed to be splashing over her in little waves of melody.

Even after she had once fallen asleep, she awakened to find her brain still humming the insistent measures. The next morning she went downtown with her hostess and met Mamie Jenkins in a store.

"Why, Chicken Little, I didn't know you were in town? Your brother didn't say anything about your being here."

"Frank? Is he in already?"

"Yes, I just saw him. Say, did you know a crowd of us are going out to his house to-night to an oyster supper?"

"No, who's going?"

"Oh, a lot of the town boys and girls, and Grant Stowe and me. John Hardy asked him if a crowd of us couldn't come out to-night and surprise your sister, and Frank said come along, he'd have some hot oysters for us. The boys have got a big bobsled from the livery stable. I bet we have a lovely time. Why don't you and Sherm stay in and go out with us--I guess there'll be room. Anyhow, you can always crowd more into a bobsled, it's more fun when you're packed in."

Mamie giggled expressively.

Jane was surprised to learn that Sherm had come in with Frank and she was also extremely doubtful whether her mother would approve of her waiting to come out with the party. John Hardy's crowd was one of the gayest in town and they were very much grown up. But her outing the previous evening had given her a taste for grown-up things; she was eager for the lark and resolved to tease Frank to let her stay in.

Frank studied the matter for several minutes, but finally consented rather reluctantly. He saw Sherm was also keen for the fun.

"All right, Sis, that set are pretty old for a kid like you and I'll have a time squaring myself with Mother. But you don't have many good times and Sherm's steady enough to look after you. They are planning to start early. I guess you'll get home by eight."

Frank left for the ranch about three o'clock to warn Marian of her surprise party. Mrs. Webb had insisted that Sherm stay with them for an early supper. The party had arranged to start at six. With a good team they should reach the ranch easily by eight, have two hours for merry-making, and get back to town by midnight.

The cold had moderated through the day; by five o'clock, the sky was leaden gray and it looked like snow. Some of the fathers and mothers were doubtful as to whether they ought to risk so long a drive. But the weather was ideal, if it only didn't snow, and there might not be another night during the holidays when they could all go.

The expedition had bad luck from the start. The livery man, disliking the weather prospects, had had an inferior team harnessed to the big sled. John Hardy and the other young men stood for their rights and after a long wrangle, succeeded in getting what they wanted. But this had consumed precious time. They drove out of the livery barn at six-thirty instead of six, as they had intended. Then two or three of the girls were not ready. One of the last called for, having sat with her wraps on for over three-quarters of an hour, had finally removed them and her party frock as well, in disgust, thinking the jaunt had been given up on account of the weather. By the time she had dressed herself afresh it was a quarter past seven. There was still one young man to be picked up at the hotel. He, too, had grown tired of waiting and had started out to hunt the sleigh. Ten minutes more were consumed searching for him. The clock in the schoolhouse tower was striking the half hour as the sleigh load pa.s.sed the last house in the little town, and turned into the country road leading to the ranch.

Sherm pulled out his watch. "Whew, Frank and Marian will have a nice wait for us! We can't possibly make it till after nine."

The next two miles went with a dash. The moonlight was a dim gray half light instead of the silvery radiance they had counted upon.

"Those clouds must be beastly heavy--there is scarcely a star to be seen," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed John Hardy, who was on the driver's seat with a sprightly girl of nineteen for his companion. "What'll you bet the snow catches us before we get home to-night?"

"I'll bet you it catches us before we get out to Morton's," retorted one of the other young men.

"Well, I'm glad I am taking my turn at driving going out, if that's the case. I shouldn't like the job of keeping the road on these prairies in a nice blinding snowstorm."

"Oh, that's just because you're a town dude," said Grant Stowe boastfully. "It is just as easy to follow a country road as a street in town if you only know the country."

"All right, Grant, if it snows, we'll let you drive home."

"If it snows?" exclaimed one of the girls. "I felt a flake on my nose this very minute."

The party surveyed the sky.

"Oh, you are just dreaming, Kate."

"Somebody blew you a kiss and it cooled off on the way," teased another.

"Just wait a minute, smarties. There--there was another!"

"Yes, I felt one, too!" exclaimed Mamie.

"You're right, it's coming." Sherm stared at the sky in some concern.

"Better whoop it right along, John," advised one of the young men thoughtfully.

"I am not so sure that we shouldn't be sensible to turn round and call this frolic off for to-night," John Hardy replied.

There was a chorus of No's.

"Nonsense, who's afraid of a little snow? Besides, we'd disappoint the Mortons and Jane's mother would be frantic if she didn't come. Don't crawfish, John Hardy."

"I'm equal to anything the rest of you are. I merely thought it might be rough on the girls, and occasion some alarm to other fond relatives in town, if we failed to get back to-night."

"Oh, stop your croaking!"

"There will be no trouble getting back."

"Of course not, the horses can find the way if we can't."

"Here, start something to sing and shut off these ravens!"

The crowd sang l.u.s.tily for the next twenty minutes, then the snow began coming down steadily and the majority of the young people commenced to disappear under the robes and blankets.

"The pesky stuff is getting inside my collar!" exclaimed one of the men who had insisted upon keeping his head out.

"Why don't you tear yourself from the scenery and come under cover?"

asked Mamie pertly.

"Yes, Smith, I'm only holding one of Mamie's hands. You may keep the other warm."

"He's not either. Don't you believe him, Mr. Smith," Mamie protested.

John Hardy spoke to the girl beside him. He had been watching the road ahead too closely for several minutes to do any talking.