t it as a present to keep that
autograph album company?"

Chicken Little put her hand to her head in dismay. Captain Clarke must
have thought she wanted it. She stammered awkwardly:

"Oh, Captain Clarke--I--couldn't take it. I oughtn't to have put it on."

Sherm calmly took the matter out of her hands.

"She didn't put it on, Captain Clarke. I'm the guilty party. I thought
it would be so becoming to Chicken Little--her dark hair and eyes--you
know. I didn't realize till we came across the picture that it belonged
to your wife--and--you might not like to have us handle it."

"It was never Mrs. Clarke's," the Captain said evenly. "I bought it for
her, but she"--he hesitated an instant--"she--died before my return. I
told you to rummage the drawers, and that scarf is entirely too becoming
to Chicken Little's bright eyes to be wasted in a drawer any longer. You
will be doing me a favor, my dear.

"You seem to have an eye for color, Sherm. Juanita loved color, too,
that is why I picked up so many gay things for her." Captain Clarke
seemed to have formed a sudden resolution. He plunged his hand down
among the rustling silks and brought up the picture. His hand trembled a
little as he handed it to Chicken Little. "I have never shown you her
picture before. She had eyes something like yours."

Chicken Little took the picture and tried to look as if nothing had
happened. She described the scene to Marian afterwards. "O Marian, I
felt as if I were standing in a story book. The Captain's face was as
white, but he went on talking just as if I knew all about his wife,
and--I do wonder! I felt so sorry for him. Sherm said he wanted to kick
himself for being so thoughtless."

"Don't worry about it, Jane, and don't be trying to make a mystery out
of what was merely a big sorrow. It must have been an awful blow to him
to come home and find wife and baby both dead, but it happened years
ago. I expect it did him good to talk to you and Sherm about it."

Chicken Little forgot about it after a few days, except when she went to
the box where she kept the scarf. She always thought of the picture of
the young mother and baby whenever she saw it.

"I don't believe I ever can wear it," she told Sherm.

"Oh, yes, you will, some of these days; the Captain would be hurt if you
didn't."

* * * * *

Sherm hadn't heard from his mother for over a week when a neighbor came
one evening and handed