Lily Munsell Ritchie

“ Chicken Little and Ernest mourned Alice’s departure loudly. Ernest turned up his nose promptly at the new girl—a willing soul with scant intelligence.
“Have we got to have that thing round, Mother?” he demanded in deep disgust. He had just deluged his hot cakes with cream which Olga had put in the syrup jug by mistake.
“I’m afraid so, my son, until we can find someone better. Girls are hard to get in this town. Alice has certainly spoiled us.” ”

“ Another source of excitement was the Sunday School cantata to be given Christmas eve, in which Jane and Gertie were both to have the parts of fairies and Sherm a small role. The little girls trotted obediently back and forth to rehearsals, proud to be in it, but Sherm was in open rebellion, the said rehearsals taking away most of his time with the boys. Katy scoffed openly at the fairies, not having been asked to be one herself.
“Pooh, you won’t look like fairies if you do have a lot of spangled tarlatan. Fairies are just as tiny and they have weenty mites of feet!” ”

“ Katy had a bright idea. “Say, Jane, get your dishes and I’ll ask Mother if I can bring over our little table and we’ll have a sure enough tea party.”
“Oh, shucks, we don’t want any doll parties!” said Ernest.
“’Twon’t be a doll party—it’ll be a people’s party,” protested Jane.
“Maybe Mother’d give me some spice cakes. She’s making some,” suggested Gertie tactfully.
Carol, who was a bit of a glutton, pricked up his ears.
“Let the kids have their duds if they want them. It won’t spoil the goodies.” ”

“ Chicken Little shook her head.
“Am I hot or cold?”
“Hot! My, you’re just burning!”
Gertie, who had followed, stared up into the branches overhead, but Ernest, gazing after, caught no glimpse of Katy’s pink gingham or mischievous face.
“Bet you can’t find her,” jeered Jane; “boys aren’t smart as girls if they are so stuck on themselves.”
“Bet Alice hid her.”
“Bet she didn’t.”
At this moment a whistle at the side gate interrupted them. Ernest trilled in answer and a moment later Carol Brown and Sherman Dart, Ernest’s two sworn cronies, came round the corner with a whoop. ”

“ Katy assured her.
“My, I could stay out all day—I love it so,” Chicken Little protested.
“We’ll stay as long as you’ll let us, Mumsey.”
Mrs. Halford smiled.
Shoes and stockings came off in a jiffy and the children ran out jumping up and down gleefully. They splashed about in the little puddles in the old brick walk, and dabbled their bare toes in the wet grass. They danced and squealed, catching the splashing drops in their hands and flinging them in each other’s faces until the water was dripping in streams from noses and chins. ”

“ Sherm and Gertie found a tempting persimmon tree and there were some wry-looking faces till Alice showed them how to find the fruit the frost had sweetened. After that the persimmons became immensely popular, and dresses and jackets alike were liberally stained with the mushy orange pulp to which samples of the picnic dinner were added later. They spread their feast out in the sunshine, using the sacks of nuts for seats, and waging war on intrusive ants and whole colonies of welcoming flies. ”

“ If the trio had been clever enough to act on this suggestion and treat, the feud might have come to a speedy end, but the lads were not at a tactful age. Instead Sherm hurled the most insulting defiance he could think of.
“Go get some yourselves, you red-headed Irish beggars!”
This taunt roused the wrath of the attacking party to a white heat, and an instant later the kitchen window came crashing in and a giant snow ball burst into masses of wet snow on the floor. ”

“ Fully a dozen young heads seethed with romance. They imagined they were abused by unfeeling sisters or stern parents. They looked for unhappy lovers around every corner. They even tried to lie awake nights nursing broken hearts, but ten o’clock was the latest hour anyone reached, though Grace Dart said she knew she heard it strike one. Katy, indeed, walked in her sleep one night to her mother’s horror. Mrs. Halford promptly gave her a liberal dose of castor oil and she was never able to repeat the wonderful feat. ”

“ Well, Chicken Little, are you going to have a birthday party this year?”
“Not a really party, but Mother said I could have Katy and Gertie and Grace Dart come to tea. There’s going to be a sure enough birthday cake with candles and my name and age in pink frosting—and we’re going to have chocolate creams—and all the dolls.” ”

“ Chicken Little thought she could. Dick Harding gave her as explicit directions as he dared as to what she should say and what she should not say.
“Remember,” he added, “not a word of this to anybody—especially to Alice.”
“I’ve probably got the youngster all mixed up with my fool directions, but I believe she might make an impression on the uncle, if she can only write as she talks. Bless her tender heart. Alice has one loyal friend if she is small,” he said to himself, unconsciously echoing Dr. Morton’s words. ”

“ Chicken Little felt immensely superior to Katy whose skates were two years old and not nearly so shiny.
It was a radiant afternoon, frosty and clear. The pond was covered with skaters of all ages. Some 166of the men were pulling women and children on sleds.
Frank strapped the little girls’ skates on firmly. Katy struck off boldly for herself, while Marian helped Gertie. Frank undertook to keep Chicken Little from measuring her length on the ice—no small task for the child was ambitious and daring. ”

“ Kansas is exactly the place for Marian—not so hot as Arizona, no startling change from hot days to cold nights as I found in Colorado. Now, dear, I want to know if you would be willing to consider coming out here to live also. The ranch is almost too big a thing for Frank alone and as you know I find my practice pretty hard work for a man of my age, but we’ll talk all this over when I come home. Tell Ernest for me that he would never have weak eyes here. There is fishing and hunting enough to keep any boy out doors, not to mention having a horse of his own. ”

“ She saw some of the older girls buying candy hearts at the grocery store one Saturday when she went downtown on an errand for her mother. That would be just the thing she thought. If she could find one with a nice motto it surely wouldn’t be very hard to turn around and lay it on Johnny’s desk.
The more she thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed. Sunday afternoon she went upstairs and shook a nickel out of her bank which she invested in candy hearts the next morning, going downtown on her way to school—a thing strictly forbidden in the Morton household. ”

“ Chicken Little was seated on the end of the kitchen table swinging her legs and watching Alice make pies.
“Look out—you’ll get your stockings black off the stove,” warned Alice lifting a pie from the oven.
“I wisht I didn’t always have to wear white stockings—they’re such a nuisance.”
“They are hard to keep clean. But the nice families always make their children wear white, I notice. I don’t see why black wouldn’t look just as well with black shoes—especially for school.”
“Grace Dart has two clean pairs every day. Did you wear white stockings when you were a little girl, Alice?” ”

“ Katy was inclined to favor Stella. More than one little girl loyally voted for her own child. Others offered to vote for their friends’ dolls if they in turn would vote for theirs.
The dolls were examined and compared most critically. Many of the little mothers took the matter very much to heart and resented any criticism. Gertie picked her Minnie up and cuddled her tenderly after a thoughtless child had hurt dolly’s feelings by exclaiming, “What a homely doll!”
Chicken Little’s eyes shone as she saw the many admiring glances Victoria received. ”

“ Morton looked puzzled.
“I gave him to Pat—when he came for the things.”
“Well, I declare,” ejaculated Mrs. Morton. “You certainly are the queerest child! Well, I suppose if you wanted to give your pet to a little Irish boy instead of to your best friends it’s all right.”
Katy looked reproachfully at Jane, but Mrs. Halford understood.
“I told you Chicken Little wouldn’t give you Pete when you teased him. I am glad you gave him to Pat, dear. He is a kind boy and the parrot will mean far more to him than to my little spoiled girls.” ”

“ There was no need to ask who had given Chicken Little the trophy. Only Johnny Carter possessed such a one—and the handkerchief was undeniably big and masculine. But Jane’s troubles were not over yet. Grace had a good memory.
“I don’t care if he did give it to you. I saw him chewing gum this morning coming to school.”
Chicken Little felt that having a beau was harder work than she had bargained for. She privately resolved never never to have one again, even if she never grew up to be like Rosamond Clifford. But she hated to back down on any part of her program before Grace. ”

“ You have always wanted a sister—now you will have one. Won’t that be nice?”
Chicken Little was too astonished to answer and her mother continued: “I am going to take you over to see Marian tomorrow afternoon and you must be a little lady so brother Frank will be proud of his little sister.”
Chicken Little was so absorbed with the main idea that the hated “little lady” passed unnoticed. When her mother had finished telling her some of the details about the wedding, which was to be a quiet one at Marian’s home, she went off to school in a maze of wonderment. She had never seen a wedding. ”

“ Chicken Little opened her mouth to protest but Alice interposed.
“We will think up something nice to do here. We might hunt for it over on that wooded bank. Nobody seems to know where it was—it’s just as likely to be one place as another.”
“We might find some bitter-sweet berries. Mother said she wished we’d bring her some if we saw any.” Gertie was getting to her feet stiffly, her legs cramped from being doubled under her.
“Yes,” added Katy, “she wants some sumach leaves, too. You boys can just go off by yourselves. I bet we have the most fun.” ”

“ Just before they turned into Front Street they passed a yard where men had been digging a well. A quantity of the yellow clay had been carelessly tossed over the fence upon the sidewalk to be hauled away. This, alas, had been thoroughly soaked by the previous night’s rain and when Chicken Little stepped upon it with her cherished white shoes, her small feet sank in up to her ankles. The white kid was sadly stained. Katy and Gertie did their best to help her get it off, but the white shoes were destined never to be white again. ”

“ They someway did not care to meet the little girls. Ernest twisted his scalp lock in deep thought.
“Say, I’ll cut home and ask Sister Sue for it,” volunteered Sherm, who didn’t have red hair and freckles for nothing. “She’ll almost always help a fellow out.”
The boys watched impatiently. Fifteen minutes passed. They could see from the window that the little girls were all on the front fence watching for their return.
“How’ll Sherm ever get in?” asked Carol gloomily.
“He won’t! They’ve seen him now, I bet. Watch them all running. Sherm must be trying to make it in the back way. ”

“ But Uncle Joseph rose to meet her with a broad smile making little kindly wrinkles around his eyes.
“So this is Chicken Little Jane,” he said, taking both her hands and looking down into her wondering brown eyes. “Well, Chicken Little, I believe I should have known you anywhere. You look so exactly like yourself, big eyes and all.” ”

“ It was Dick Harding.
“Going straight home? I’m going your way then. Here, let me carry your books.”
They passed a greenhouse en route and Dick asked Jane if she thought her mother would mind her going in with him a moment.
Chicken Little adored going through the greenhouse. She often stopped outside on her way to school to look at the flowers, but children were not encouraged inside. She wondered what Mr. Harding was going to do with the heliotrope and verbena he was selecting so lavishly. He was having the flowers made into two bouquets, one big and one little. ”

“ Chicken Little was dazed for a moment.
“Would we stay there always? Wouldn’t I ever see Katy and Gertie and Dick Harding again? Why doesn’t mother want to go?”
“Goosie, you could come back here to visit. Father told mother she should come back at the end of a year. And maybe you could have a pony. I wouldn’t mind your riding mine sometimes when I don’t want him, after you learn how to ride. We’d be a whole day and night on the train. ”

“ Morton should take a trip west to look up a suitable location.
Without telling her the real reason, Frank had talked Marian into the idea of ranching and the older people found her eager zest and enthusiasm for the new life, pathetic.
“I know I’ll be lots stronger on a farm,” she declared. “I shall have chickens and make butter. You can all come out and spend the summers—won’t that be grand?”
Dr. Morton had offered to buy a ranch for Frank taking over their cozy Centerville home in part payment. Ernest had been taken into the family councils and understood all this. ”

“ Alice had been cheering the besiegers and now joined their counsels. After some whispering they divided forces, and King Richard climbed up the old apple tree at the corner of the house while King Philip led his forces up the scaling ladder again.
The sultan was at his wit’s end, but finally left Captain Jane in command at the head of the ladder while he tried to repulse this flank movement. Captain Jane fought valiantly, and once more France was driven back. The sultan was equally successful. ”

“ The men had made their last turn and were heading swiftly toward them on the home stretch. Harding had gained a little on his antagonist and was scarcely three feet behind.
“He is gaining—if Sanders will only play fair!” said Frank tensely, his eyes glued on the two dark forms.
The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Sanders made a feint to cross directly in front of his competitor and Harding lost a length in consequence.
“Confound him!” growled Frank, “the judges oughtn’t to stand for that!”
Chicken Little stood fascinated, gazing at the advancing figures. ”

“ Chicken Little began to lose faith in the superiority of her new skates.
“Katy skates most as well as the boys—I don’t see how she does it,” she said enviously.
“Cousin Sim taught her last winter. Oh, see, those boys are making an eight on the ice and,—Carol’s writing his name I do believe.”
167“Yes, and there’s Pat and Mike—dear me, it seems as if everybody can skate just as easy ’cept me.”
The little girls stood watching the boys wistfully as they glided along cutting marvellous figures on the ice. The boys were bent on showing off for Marian’s benefit. ”

“ You remember almost all of the closets run off under the roof. It is a wonder we don’t have rats with them all open that way.”
“It would be an unpleasant task to explore. I suppose there’s twenty years of dust and cobwebs stored up in those nooks and crannies. There are places where the roof slopes to form the gables where a man could hardly crawl through. I suppose I might hire some boy to go through and see if he can find anything.”
Ernest and Chicken Little had been interested listeners to this conversation. ”

“ Jane subsided for several minutes then interrupted again.
“Could you put a kitty in a basket?”
“I guess so, but don’t interrupt me so much, child.” Dr. Morton replied carelessly.
“Yes, Jane, that is a very bad habit you are forming. It is not polite to break into a conversation that way—especially when older people are talking,” Mrs. Morton added impressively.
After dinner Chicken Little began to rummage. First she found a collar box with a cover. She took this to her mother and asked if she might have it. Her mother readily gave it to her, but apparently the child was not satisfied. ”