ount.

"I'm going, and I'm going to have some white shoes and a pale blue silk
poplin dress with lots of little ruffles all up and down in hills--you
know," and Jane danced about on her tip-toes boastfully to be recalled
promptly to earth by Katy.

"Your mother didn't want you to tell, did she? Gee, I bet she'll be
mad!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Chicken Little conscience-stricken, "you mustn't ever
tell!"

"Well, I just guess I knew it before you told me, Jane Morton, and I
guess I didn't promise anybody I wouldn't tell. 'Sides, everybody that's
got eyes knows it. I've seen your brother out riding with her heaps of
times."

"She's got be-utiful clothes," said Gertie, "and her sister May says her
hair reaches most down to her knees and it's just as thick as----"

"Yes," interrupted Katy, "and I guess you'll have to like Jennie Gates
whether you want to or not 'cause she'll be a kind of a sister, too."

"She won't either!" denied Chicken Little hotly. "Mother said just
Marian, and she's lovely--so there!"

"Isn't it funny her name will be Marian Morton now instead of Marian
Gates," replied Katy, satisfied with the commotion she had caused and
wishing to give a new turn to the conversation.

This was a new thought to Chicken Little and she paused to ponder over
it. Of course her mother's name was Morton the same as her father's, but
then she supposed it had always been Morton. That night when she went
home she astounded her mother by asking why Frank's name wouldn't be
Frank Gates if Marian was to be Marian Morton. She also made her big
brother's face flush by asking if Marian's red hair really truly came
below her knees.

"Why, little Sis, I don't know. It looks as if it did."

Jane looked forward to the call on the new sister with mingled dread and
delight. She drove off in state beside her mother proudly arrayed in her
best red merino dress and little brown furs, and firmly resolved to put
prejudice aside for once and be a little lady.

Her awe of this new sister was so great that she followed her mother
into the Gates' parlor in such a condition of stage fright that she
resembled a jointed doll more than an active child. She extended her
small hand stiffly to the tall girl in blue who bent to greet her. But
the new sister had heard too much of Chicken Little to stand on
ceremony, and putting both arms around her, kissed her twice, once
between the wondering eyes and once on her prim little mouth.

The child's