ect District Thirteen is having on her," Marian
explained.

"I was just saying, Father, that she is getting too old to be
associating with Tom, Dick, and Harry the way she is doing up at the
schoolhouse."

"There you go again, Mother. You don't go about enough among the
neighbors to know what good kindly people they are. Of course, they are
plain, but the Tom, Dick, and Harry you complain of, are more wholesome
than lots of more stylish youngsters I know. I wish you'd try to be a
little more neighborly. I am constantly hearing little thrusts about our
family being stuck up. Frank will bear me out in this."

Frank had followed his father and was warming his hands in the blaze.

"Oh, the Creek thinks the Morton family has a good opinion of itself,
all right. But I have been thinking for some time that it wouldn't hurt
us any to have some sort of a merry-making and invite all the neighbors
in." Frank looked at Marian.

"What could we have, Frank?" Marian inquired, her brow puckered a
little.

"Well, April Fool's Day is next Wednesday--why not get up a frolic for
that evening?"

"Just for the young folks?"

"No, men, women, and children. Invite the families. Send out an
invitation to the whole Creek. There will be a lot who can't come. Cook
up plenty of stuff and we can play tricks--they won't need much
entertaining. How would that suit you, Chicken Little?"

Jane had just strayed in to join the family group and was listening with
interest.

"I think it would be bully."

"Jane, where did you pick up such a coarse expression? Father, that's
just what I complain of. How am I to teach my daughter to be a gentle
woman, when she is constantly hearing vulgar language?"

"Chicken Little is old enough to know better than to use such words, but
she probably got that from Ernest or Sherm, if the truth were known."
Frank laughed.

Chicken Little looked injured.

"Why, bully isn't a by-word--or strong language--and Ernest said it a
lot. You never said anything to him about it's being vulgar."

"My dear daughter, can I never make you understand that little ladies
may not do everything their brothers do?"

"I don't care, Mother, I'm sick of hearing about ladies, and if bully is
so vulgar, I don't see why it isn't vulgar when a boy says it. You
expect Ernest to be a gentleman, don't you, just as much as you do me to
be a lady?"

"Come, Chicken Little, don't speak to your mother that way," Dr. Morton
reproved her.