t over."

"Think it over? Why, Mother, you're going to ask them to come, aren't
you?" Chicken Little's eyes were big with pained surprise.

"My dear, I think it likely that I shall invite them--it would be good
for you to have companions of your own class once more. But it will mean
a great deal of extra work, and unless I can get someone to help me, I
do not see how I can manage it."

"Mother, I'll help, and Katy and Gertie won't mind washing dishes."

"Now, little daughter, we will let the matter rest for a day or two.
Don't you want to hear about Alice's wedding?"

"Read it aloud, Mother Morton." It was Marian speaking. She was standing
in the door with Jilly fresh and rosey from a long nap.

Mrs. Morton looked up.

"Jilly doesn't seem any the worse for her bump this morning, does she?"

"No, that's the blessed thing about children, they get over things so
easily. By the way, Father, Frank told me to tell you that he had taken
Ernest with him over to the Captain's after a load of hay. They'll
probably have supper there and be late getting home--that is if Captain
Clarke asks them to stay--he is such a queer old duck."

"He doesn't seem very neighborly, according to reports. I've found him
pleasant the few times I have met him," said Dr. Morton, "but let's have
Alice's letter."

Mrs. Morton adjusted her spectacles and began to read.

"Dear, Dear Mrs. Morton:

"If we could only have had all the Morton family, great and small,
present, the Harding-Fletcher Nuptials, as Dick insists upon calling our
wedding--he quotes from the Cincinnati paper--would have been absolutely
perfect. Uncle Joseph and Aunt Clara couldn't have done more for me if I
had been their very own. Aunt Clara insisted upon having the big church
wedding, which I fear your quiet taste would not approve, but it was
very lovely. And I do think the atmosphere of a big church and the
beautiful music are wonderfully impressive. Dick says it's the proper
thing to tie the bridal knot with all the kinks you can invent--it makes
it more secure. He said it was miles from the vestry to the chancel and
his knees got mighty wobbly before he arrived, but after thinking it
over, he concluded I was worth the walk--the heathen! Oh, I almost
forgot to tell you that the sun shone on the bride most gloriously and
the old church was a perfect bower of apple-blossoms and white lilacs.
My wedding dress was white satin with a train. I wore Aunt Clara's
wedding vei