n she found it wasn't the creek at all, but the Wattles'
place."

"Whew!" exclaimed Frank, "you didn't get over to black Charlie's? Why,
that was three miles out of your road!"

"Yes, Frank, and you ought to have seen him. He was scared to death when
we came pounding on his door in the middle of the night." Chicken Little
giggled at the recollection.

"And there was a trundle bed full of pickanninies and they kept popping
their heads up. They were so ridiculous--with their little pigtails
sticking up all over their heads, and their bead eyes."

"Well, old Charlie warmed us up all right and started us back on the
road again," said John Hardy gratefully.

"And there's another thing sure," said Marian, interrupting this flow of
reminiscence, "you can't go back to town to-night, and you must be tired
to death, all of you. Mother Morton, if you will take the girls over
with you, Frank and I will make some pallets by the fire for these boys,
and let them get some sleep."

* * * * *

The real sport of this excursion came the next day when Frank Morton
hitched an extra team on in front of the livery horses and drove the
party back to town himself, to make sure they did not come to grief
again in the piled-up drifts. But Chicken Little and Sherm were not
along. They watched them drive off with never a pang of envy.

"I have had enough bobsled riding to do me for this winter," said Jane
wearily. Her evening at Fatinitza seemed a thousand years away.

"Ditto, yours truly!" And Sherm yawned luxuriously.

CHAPTER XVIII

AN APRIL FOOL FROLIC

Mrs. Morton and Marian were sitting by the great open fire at the
cottage sewing for Jilly. Jilly herself had constructed a wonderful
vehicle of two chairs hitched to the center table, and she was vainly
trying to persuade Huz and Buz to occupy seats in this luxurious
equipage. Lazy Buz, having once been dragged up into a chair, stayed
put, though he looked aggrieved, but Huz had his eye on the braided rag
rug in front of the fireplace. The moment Jilly's gaze was attracted
elsewhere, he would jump softly down and curl up on the rug.

Marian had risen three times to restore him to Jilly because she mourned
so loudly, but she finally began to sympathize with the pup.

"Let him be, Honey, you've got Buz for company. Huz doesn't want to
play."

Jilly opened her mouth to wail. Then she suddenly changed her mind,
climbed down, and