heart was captured immediately and she joyfully cuddled up
close to this new relative, who drew her with her to a big chair
relieving her own nervousness, at this interview with dignified Mrs.
Morton, by petting Chicken Little.

Marian Gates soon noticed that Jane seemed specially interested in her
hair. She detected small fingers feeling it cautiously and saw Mrs.
Morton shake her head. Finally, Chicken Little reached up and whispered
something. Marian laughed and nodded, then turning to Mrs. Morton
explained: "She wants me to take my hair down."

Mrs. Morton protested but Marian bent her head and told Jane to pull out
the pins. The child's fingers trembled and she touched the soft dark
masses almost reverently.

When the last pin was out and the hair tumbled a shimmering cloud over
Marian's shoulders, over the chair arms, and on down to the floor, Mrs.
Morton exclaimed in admiration and Chicken Little stood spellbound.
Marian, blushing, got to her feet.

"There's really too much," she apologized. "It's hard to do anything
with."

Chicken Little stepped forward fascinated, slipping her fingers among
the shining strands.

"It is"--she gasped finally, "it is--clear below your knees--and it's
real!"

She could hardly wait to get home and assure brother Frank of the
miraculous fact. He seemed deeply interested. When he went to see Marian
that evening he remarked:

"Why this _unfair discrimination_? Don't you love me as well as you do
Jane?"

And blushing Marian displayed her wealth of hair to a second audience no
less admiring than the first.

It seemed to Chicken Little that the day of the wedding would never
come. She bubbled about it till each individual member of the Morton
family, including the sympathetic Alice, wished she hadn't been told.
Ernest, who was secretly almost as excited as Jane, though he considered
it the manly thing to pretend that he wasn't, listened eagerly to all
her facts, but got tired of her questions.

"Girls and women are always fussing about clothes. Mother says I've got
to wear a stiff collar," he complained. "Anyway, I hope they'll have a
lot to eat."

"Oh, I know they will," said Chicken Little. "Jennie Gates said they
were cooking and packing all the time at her house this week. She says
Frank gave her a quarter. I wish he'd give me a quarter."

"Ah, he's just makin' up with Marian's family. You don't have to be
paid to like Marian--you think she's the only person on the