e's address. And what do you think?
Dick Harding told me this morning that Gassett tried to get him to take
the case. Foxy, wasn't it? Dick declined promptly."

"Alice would do well to get Dick for her lawyer."

"I imagine Uncle Joseph will attend to that."

"Still, I think I'll drop her a hint."

But Alice had evidently not forgotten Dick Harding or Dr. Morton's
remark about his being a good lawyer. Before the doctor's letter could
reach her, a formal missive from Uncle Joseph requested Dick Harding to
defend Alice's side and to get an older lawyer to help him.

Dick went promptly to work. Dr. Morton sent down the box of letters and
papers Alice had left in his charge and Dick went over them carefully,
but did not find what he was hoping for.

"It is a queer mix-up," he wrote Alice. "I cannot understand why there
isn't a scrap of writing anywhere from Mr. Gassett to your father. There
surely must have been some correspondence between them on business
matters. Many things in your father's letters to your mother show
this--but the letters are missing. It hardly seems likely your father
would have destroyed them all. Do you suppose that he could have left
them at the store and that they have fallen into Gassett's hands, too?
Or could your mother have accidentally destroyed them? I remember though
you said she was most careful to keep old letters. I have a queer
feeling about all this--that the missing letters and papers still exist
and will turn up yet. But feelings don't go in law courts. Is there an
attic to the old house or any secret closet where they could possibly
have been concealed?"

Alice talked the matter over with Uncle Joseph and he started rummaging
among his papers to see if he could find anything in her father's old
letters that would help. There were few references to business matters
in these and no reference to Mr. Gassett except a mere mention of the
fact that he had gone into partnership with him.

"It's no use, Alice. I am afraid we'll have to let Gassett have the
stuff though I hate like sixty to give up," he said after his fruitless
search.

"Well, I'm not ready to own beat yet--I have one last hope," Alice
replied bravely.

That night she sat down and wrote a letter to Mrs. Morton.

CHAPTER XVII

COUSIN MAY'S PARTY

Chicken Little found Pete Parrot a great joy and a great nuisance. Dr.
Morton was right about his reproaching her if she neglected him. When
Pete began to call