attention.

She relieved her mind of a few questions at noon.

Was the wedding going to be at night? Could she sit up till it was all
over? Was Alice going? Were Katy and Gertie going?

General conversation at the dinner table had to be largely suspended
till her curiosity was satisfied.

"Well, Miss Interrogation Point," laughed her father when she had
finally subsided for a moment, "any other little matters you'd like to
know about?"

Chicken Little was too intent on her own ideas to notice his pleasantry.

"Why isn't Alice going?"

"Because she won't be invited, my dear," responded Mrs. Morton shortly.

"Why won't you invite her, Mother?"

"My dear, I do not do the inviting. Marian and her mother will attend to
that part. Besides, my child, it is hardly customary to send wedding
cards to hired girls. I may offer Alice's services to Mrs. Gates to help
in the kitchen."

Chicken Little finished her apple dumpling in silence and her mother
supposed she was satisfied.

She took up the question with Alice when she came home from school that
afternoon.

"I wisht you were going, Alice."

"I wish I were, Chicken Little. Your mother suggested that I might go
and help, but I used to play with Marian Gates when I was a little girl
and I couldn't bear to go there as a servant. I would like to see your
brother married--and Marian, too."

After her talk with Alice, Chicken Little started over to Halford's
feeling very important but vowed to silence. Alice cautioned her as she
went out the back door, "Don't tell Katy and Gertie, Chicken Little."

She rather resented this. She was resolved to die rather than tell
anyone--as if she couldn't keep a secret!

But her reception was certainly disconcerting. Katy and Gertie met her
at the gate, bubbling with information and determined to get all the
facts they didn't know.

"Say, Jane, your brother's going to be married isn't he?" questioned
Katy, and Gertie added:

"The wedding's in November isn't it? And he's going to marry Marian
Gates and she's to have a white silk dress. I heard your mother tell
Mamma this afternoon when I came home from school."

How could a ten year old maiden already full to bursting with a secret
withstand such an attack?

Jane hesitated, got red in the face and tried to pretend not to know
anything about it, but sharp little Katy had it all out of her in no
time, and the deed once done Jane joyfully volunteered a few facts on
her own acc