"Anyhow, we can tell which bunch to cut out by Alice and d.i.c.k," Ernest answered.

Mrs. Morton was horrified. "Ernest, the idea of your talking about our friends as if they were cattle! I do trust you children will not mortify me before our guests by using such vulgar expressions."

"Never mind, Mother," Frank consoled her, "Alice and d.i.c.k will revel in these vulgar westernisms. See if they don't. Why Mother, it's by slang that a language is enriched, didn't you know that?"

"That will do, Frank. I should think you would try to help me keep up correct standards instead of hindering. You will feel very differently when Jilly is a little older."

The train was due at two-thirty at the neighboring town of Garland--the neighboring town being some nine miles distant. They decided to have an early dinner at home, then Dr. Morton would drive the spring wagon in for the guests, Frank would take the farm wagon for the trunks, while Jane and Ernest formed a sort of ornamental body guard on their new ponies.

"My, but you present an imposing appearance!" laughed Marian coming out to the road with Jilly to see them off.

"We do look rather patriarchal," said Frank, glancing around at the impressive array. "If we only had you and Mother mounted on donkeys, the reception committee would be complete. I will do my best to apologize for your absence."

"If you are late, send Jane on ahead, they can see her a mile off on that calico pony."

"The piebald is conspicuous," said the Doctor, "I guess Captain Clarke picked him out for the Chicken so her mother could see her from afar."

Chicken Little ignored this pleasantry. "Thank you for saying calico, Marian. I was just wondering what to call him and that will do beautifully."

"Oh, have some mercy on the poor beast," put in Ernest. "Think of his having to answer to the name of Calico. Why don't you call him gingham ap.r.o.n or something really choice?"

"Allee samee, his name's Calico. If you want to call yours, Star of the Night or Aladdin or something high falutin, you just can." Jane set her lips firmly. She didn't specially care for Calico but she wasn't going to be laughed out of it.

"That will do, children, it's time to be off." Dr. Morton suited the action to the word by clucking to the team of bays he drove, and the procession started.

They reached the station in good time. Both Ernest and Chicken Little wanted to stay on their mounts and dash up beside the train, but their father forbade it.

"Those ponies have never been properly introduced to an engine, and I don't wish to take you back in baskets. You can show off sufficiently going home."

So the ponies were left with the teams at a safe distance from the railroad.

The train was twenty minutes late and it seemed an age to Chicken Little. "I don't see why you always have to wait for nice things, while the unpleasant ones come along without ever being asked," she complained.

"What about the ponies? Do you cla.s.s them with the unpleasant things?"

queried her father. "But here comes the train."

Jane watched it puff in with a roar and a rattle and sundry bangs, her eyes strained for the first glimpse of Katy and Gertie, Alice and d.i.c.k.

She really didn't know which one she wanted to see worst.

"Bet Sherm will be the first one out," said Ernest.

"Bet you Katy will!"

But it was d.i.c.k who hailed them first, before he turned to help down the little girls. Alice came next, with Sherm who was still rather bashful, bringing up the rear loaded down with satchels and lunch baskets. Katy and Gertie fell upon Chicken Little instantly and Alice had to embrace the whole bunch, because they kept on hugging and kissing Jane, laughing hysterically.

"Here, where do I come in?" d.i.c.k rescued Jane from her friends and gave her a resounding smack himself. After which he held up his hands and exclaimed: "Say, Doctor Morton, what do you feed these infants on to make them grow so fast? Jane's a half head taller than either Katie or Gertie and we thought Sherm would surely top Ernest. In fact, we had our money on him to beat any of your mushroom Kansas effects, but Holy Smoke, I have to look up to Ernest myself."

Alice and Katie and Gertie were looking at Jane's riding habit, Gertie in considerable alarm.

"We don't have to ride to the ranch on horseback, do we?"

Before the doctor could rea.s.sure them, Frank replied gravely:

"Of course, what did you expect in Kansas? We've brought six horses and we thought two of the girls could ride in front of d.i.c.k and myself. It's only nine miles and the horses don't gallop all the way."

The girls looked panic-stricken, even Alice seemed a little dazed, Frank was so very plausible. d.i.c.k helped him on delightfully.

"I told you, Alice, you'd better put your riding habit in your satchel.

I suppose the horses are gentle, Frank."

"Oh, they don't often throw anyone that's used to them. Naturally, they're a little gayer in summer when they're in the pasture so much."

Ernest could not resist adding his bit. "I was thrown three times last week, would you like to try my pony, Katy?"

This revealed the game to Alice.

"You awful fibbers, don't you believe a word they say, girls."

"Honest Injun," said Ernest, "I was."

"It's the truth," Frank confirmed.

Poor little Gertie, who was already beginning to realize that she was very far from home and in a strange land besides, commenced to cry.

Dr. Morton came promptly to the rescue.

"That'll do, boys. Save your joking till our guests are rested from their journey at least. Frank, you and d.i.c.k look up the trunks while Ernest and Sherm help me bring up the wagons. It's all right, dear," he put his arm rea.s.suringly around Gertie, "you shall ride in one of the most comfortable of vehicles if we haven't a carriage to offer you. You mustn't pay any attention to their teasing."

After the first two miles of their homeward journey, Chicken Little gave up her pony to Sherm and climbed in with the girls. Ernest offered to change saddles, but Sherm declared he didn't mind the side saddle and cheerfully bore all the jokes the party cut at his expense. Dr. Morton watched him approvingly. "Good stuff," he said to himself, as Sherm returned the sallies without wincing. The boy's long legs dangling from the side saddle were a comical sight. Sherm, if not quite so tall as Ernest, was rather better proportioned and delightfully supple and muscular. He was the same matter-of-fact, straight-forward boy he had always been, but his father's long illness had sobered him, though he could be hilarious, as he was proving now.

"Say, Sherm," Katy prodded, "why don't you borrow Jane's riding skirt too?"

"Yes, Sherm, go the lengths--you'd make a beautiful girl," teased Alice.

Sherm laughed. "Chicken Little may have something to say to that!"

"I thought you'd be making excuses."

Sherm was not to be bluffed. "Not much, hand it over, Chicken Little."

"You never can get into it, Sherm."

"What'll you bet?"

"It'll be too small around the waist."

Dr. Morton stopped and Jane hastily slipped off the skirt, presenting rather a funny appearance herself with her habit basque and the blue lawn dress showing beneath. Sherm dismounted, turning Calico over to Ernest to hold. The entire party shouted when Jane reached up on tiptoe to throw the clumsy skirt over his head. Sherm neglected to hold it, and the shot in the hem promptly dropped it to the ground.

"Gee," exclaimed Sherm, "the cranky thing seems to have a mind of its own."