wedding during the
next few weeks. Her father and mother had their heads together over
something most of the time. Once she found her mother crying and she
seemed grave and worried.

"I wish people weren't always having secrets," Jane complained to
Ernest.

"It won't be a secret very long, Sis. They'll tell you as soon as they
really truly decide."

"Decide what?--tell me, Ernest."

"I can't because Father and Mother don't want it talked about, if they
don't go."

"Go where? Ernest, tell me. You're just as mean as you can be--I always
tell you things."

"Well, I know Mother is going to give in because Father's dead set on
going. Cross your heart that you won't tell a living soul till Mother
tells you."

Chicken Little crossed her heart emphatically. Ernest was quite as eager
to tell as she was to hear and soon poured out his tale.

"Maybe we're going to Kansas with Frank and Marian to live on the ranch.
I hope we'll go. Father says I can have a horse and there's lots of
hunting, quail and prairie chicken and plover--and a man killed some
antelope about sixteen miles west of the ranch last winter. There are a
few deer left, too, on the creek, Father says. Oh, I'm wild to go, but
Mother doesn't want to a bit."

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.
Wouldn't that be jolly?"

"Oh, could I sleep in one of the little beds?"

"Of course, I told you we'd be all night on the train."

"Why doesn't Mother want to go?"

"She doesn't want to leave her friends and she doesn't want to live way
off on a farm where there isn't any church close by and only a country
school. What do you think, the school house has only one room and one
teacher? You'd be in the same room with me. Father says he'll have to
prepare me for college at home. I have to begin Latin next year. Gee, I
bet Father'll make me study. He thinks if you haven't got a lesson
perfect, you haven't got it at all."

Ernest was standing by the open window idly playing with the lace strap
that looped the curtain back.

"Say, there's Frank and Marian coming in