h guesses as to what her mother was to give her. She had exploded the
Santa Claus fiction two years before.

"Alice, do you s'pose she will get me that wax doll? There's a perfect
dear down at Wolf's. It has blue eyes that shut--and real hair--oh, it's
just as yellow. I never saw such yellow hair, but Mr. Wolf said it was
really hair. Oh, do you think she'll get that for me? Alice, I wish
you'd just tell her that's what I want."

A few days later she rushed in pink with excitement.

"Alice, it's gone! Do you s'pose Mother got it? Katy says she thinks
Grace Dart's mother bought it for her. I'm going to ask Sherm. Maybe
he'd know. Oh, I do hope Mother got it!"

Another source of excitement was the Sunday School cantata to be given
Christmas eve, in which Jane and Gertie were both to have the parts of
fairies and Sherm a small role. The little girls trotted obediently back
and forth to rehearsals, proud to be in it, but Sherm was in open
rebellion, the said rehearsals taking away most of his time with the
boys. Katy scoffed openly at the fairies, not having been asked to be
one herself.

"Pooh, you won't look like fairies if you do have a lot of spangled
tarlatan. Fairies are just as tiny and they have weenty mites of feet!"
and Katy pointed this last remark by a withering glance at Chicken
Little's feet which were beginning to be much too big for the rest of
her, and were encased in stout boots with tiny copper rims on the toes
which she heartily loathed. Dr. Morton had insisted upon these as being
the only proper foot-gear for children in winter, and many were the
jibes Jane suffered from her schoolmates because of them. Katy and
Gertie wore lovely button boots, shapely if not sensible.

"You don't need to talk, Katy Halford, my feet aren't much bigger than
yours, and I'm going to wear my white shoes and Miss Gray said I'd look
lovely, so there!"

Katy, who was swinging on the gate looking down on her small sister and
Chicken Little on the sidewalk outside, took three entrancing swings
before replying:

"Well, maybe, but Miss Gray don't look so awful nice herself and your
hair isn't a speck curly and I never did see a fairy with straight
hair."

Jane was sure she had, and Gertie said pretend fairies didn't have to be
exactly like really fairies, but Jane was troubled and resolved to
consult Alice immediately.

Alice guessed Katy had been up to mischief purposely.

"Nonsense, Katy's just talking about the li