s were in a pretty poor business trying to hog half a public pond
for yourselves. Now you have six times the opportunities for fun these
boys have, and yet you try to spoil their skating. Pretty small I call
that!

"As for you boys," turning to his captives, "you weren't helping matters
any by being mean--now were you? You didn't think acting that way would
make you any more popular did you? By the way you're Mrs. Casey's boy,
aren't you? Your mother is a fine woman and she works too hard to have
to pay for broken windows, don't you think so, Son?"

Frank laid his hand on the boy's shoulder and looked straight into his
eyes.

Pat shifted from one foot to the other uneasily.

"Yes, sir," he mumbled with an effort.

"Well, she isn't going to have to this time. I will give you a chance to
earn the money to pay for it yourself? Want to?"

The boy nodded eagerly. Frank smiled in return.

"Ernest, pass that candy over here and you boys shake hands with Pat and
Mike and see to it you treat them white after this! My brother and his
friends aren't as small as they let on, boys," he added turning to the
others.

The Irish lads grinned sheepishly, and shyly accepted the candy and
apples which the trio, with a complete change of heart pressed upon
them.

Chicken Little not to be outdone made them all laugh by offering her
small fist, which was hopelessly gummed up with the taffy she had
forgotten in the excitement.

CHAPTER IX

CHICKEN LITTLE JANE'S GIFT

"Well, Alice," said Dr. Morton, coming in one noon stamping and shaking
the snow off his broad shoulders. "I have discovered why you haven't
heard from Gassett again. He is down with typhoid fever--looks like a
bad case. He won't be in a condition to start lawsuits for some weeks,
so you may set your mind at rest for the present."

The Christmas holidays had gone by all too quickly for the Morton
family. The children were already grumbling about starting back to
school. Dr. Morton had a number of very sick patients on his hands and
looked worried in consequence. Mrs. Morton was helping Alice with her
simple wardrobe, and Alice was helping Mrs. Morton break in a new maid.

It was really a great comfort to Mrs. Morton to feel that Alice could
now be received as an equal. She had grown fond of her unconsciously,
but according to her rigid ideas, friendship with a servant was
impossible. "I have always felt," she told her friends, "that Alice was
too refined