protest again when Gertie came to the rescue.

"You're going to hang one for Miss Burton--I heard you say so--and one
for Cousin May, aren't you?"

"Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. Perhaps I haven't decided."

"You are too, Katy Halford, you said you were."

"I s'pose I ought to hang one for Miss Brown," sighed Jane. "I don't
want to very bad--she's been awful cross--and Marian. I'm going to give
her the prettiest one I have. I wish I could send Alice one."

"How is Alice getting on?" asked Mrs. Halford.

"All right. I guess she's learned a lot--she says she stays up till ten
o'clock every night studying. Her aunt Clara gave her a pretty new
dress--and a new coat. Her aunt's going to take her to the seashore with
them this summer, maybe. I wish I could go to the seashore."

"I've been to the lakes--that's most like the seashore, isn't it,
Mother?" Katy boasted.

"A little. But you haven't told us about the baskets, Katy. Where are
the other four going? I'm getting curious myself."

Katy looked up at her mother's teasing face.

"I'll tell you, Mumsey, but I sha'n't tell the girls." Katy jumped up
and whispered something to her mother.

"There, there, dear, you tickle my ear and I didn't half hear."

Katy put her mouth close to her mother's ear and hurriedly mumbled six
names.

"That'll do--it feels as if you were exploding firecrackers in my ear. I
guess I got them all."

"I heard, too," piped Chicken Little and Gertie almost in concert.

"You didn't either!" Katy looked up indignantly.

"I did, too. You said Miss Burton and Cousin May and Marian Morton and
Papa and Grace Dart and Ernest--so there!" Gertie reeled off the names
almost as quickly as Katy had.

"Gertie Halford, I think that was real mean of you to tell."

"I heard them all but Ernest, anyhow," Chicken Little said quickly.

"Jane Morton, if you ever tell Ernest I'm going to hang a May basket to
him, I'll never speak to you again."

"You don't need to get so mad--I wasn't going to tell, but I just guess
you told on me--and----"

"And what?" demanded Katy icily.

It had been on the tip of Chicken Little's tongue to add, "and you
thought you were awful smart, too," but she suddenly remembered Mrs.
Halford's presence and she didn't want to be a tattle-tale.

"Nothing," she finished lamely, and was deaf to further questioning.

The Fates favored Chicken Little and Gertie for Miss Brown suddenly
decided to have a May Day hunt for wild fl