ied to appear unconcerned.

"Pooh, that's nothing--all the girls have."

Katy ignored this remark and returned to the charge.

"Jane Morton's got a beau! Johnny Carter is Jane's beau!"

Chicken Little began to feel distinctly uncomfortable. She did wish Katy
wouldn't sing it out so loud.

But Katy was thoroughly enjoying herself. She had discovered Ernest and
Carol coming along the walk and she saw her chance to make a hit. She
took up the refrain again with embellishments.

"Jane Morton's got a beau
And I know what'll please her,
A bottle of wine----"

but she got no further. Chicken Little, too, had caught sight of her
brother Ernest and Carol, and she flew at Katy like a young fury.

The remainder of the doggerel was largely drowned in the scuffle that
ensued, but Katy managed to get "Johnny Carter" out in a shrill treble
that carried far, in spite of the hands clapped over her mouth.

The boys heard it, grinned, and passed on. Chicken Little was furious.

"I'll never forgive you, Katy Halford, as long as I live, so there!" And
she turned her back on the offending Katy, stalked straight out of the
yard and banged the gate after her emphatically.

The feud lasted a week. Chicken Little passed Katy by as if she did not
exist, and Katy lost no opportunity to hector her. She chanted Johnny's
name every time Jane came in sight till the child loathed the sound. To
add to her woes, Grace Dart began to demand some visible proof that
Johnny was her beau.

"He hasn't ever given you anything, has he?" she quizzed. "He gave
Sallie a big red apple yesterday at recess--I saw him."

Chicken Little grew desperate. She didn't care very much to have Johnny
or anybody else as a beau. She wished there were no such things as beaux
on the face of the earth, but her pride was stung to the quick. She
began to imagine that Johnny grinned when he saw her. Suppose he had
heard. She wanted to run every time she saw him coming, but she felt
that she must do something to make friends with him.

Finally she thought out a way. She saw some of the older girls buying
candy hearts at the grocery store one Saturday when she went downtown on
an errand for her mother. That would be just the thing she thought. If
she could find one with a nice motto it surely wouldn't be very hard to
turn around and lay it on Johnny's desk.

The more she thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed. Sunday
afternoon she went upstairs a