y hoping for
several minutes that her mother would call them in.

A blinding flash put a period to her sentence. There were three alarmed
"Ohs!" and three pairs of frightened eyes blinked an instant from the
glare.

Then Gertie picked herself up resolutely.

"I'm going straight in to Mother. I am 'fraid of lightning and I don't
care who knows it--and you don't like it any better than I do, Katy, but
you just think it's smart to pretend." And Gertie gathered her flapping
gossamer about her and scurried for the house.

Katy looked at Chicken Little and Chicken Little looked at Katy. They
were both longing to follow but neither would give in.

Suddenly another and then another dazzling flash blinded them. The
forked flames seemed launched straight at them and the deafening crash
that followed shook the very ground under their feet.

With a wild yell in unison, the children fled screaming to the house.
Mrs. Halford met them at the kitchen door white and worried. She had not
dreamed they would hold out so long.

The piece of carpet was left to a watery fate under the bushes. The book
dropped from Katy's nerveless fingers unnoticed and forgotten till the
next day, when Maggie picked it up limp and discolored near the kitchen
door.

It took Mrs. Halford a full hour to dry and comfort the terrified trio.
But once warmed and reassured Chicken Little and Katy promptly quarreled
as to who deserted first.

"I wouldn't have come if Chicken Little hadn't been so scared. Of
course, I didn't want to stay there all alone," Katy asserted blandly.

"It's no such thing, Katy Halford--I'm most sure you started first. It
was 'cause you yelled so I got so scared. My mother always says I'm real
brave about thunder."

"You did start first, Chicken Little Jane, and I just wish you could 'a'
heard yourself yell!"

"Girls," said Mrs. Halford with a twinkle in her eye, "stand up together
there."

The children wonderingly obeyed and she surveyed them both carefully.

"Do you know," she said reflectively, "I am sure it took you both to
make all the noise I heard--I wonder how you did it--it sounded like a
whole tribe of wild Indians. And if either of you beat the other to the
house, it was because she could run faster."

The little girls edged apart sheepishly. The subject was dropped. Mrs.
Halford was a quiet little woman who seldom scolded, but she had a way
with her that silenced even obstreperous Katy.

"Now if you want to kn