th eagerness as she
tossed the letters into her mother's lap.

"Don't be so impatient, child! Little ladies should cultivate repose of
manner. Where are my spectacles? I was sure I laid them on the desk."

Mrs. Morton was peering around anxiously on desk and table and mantel,
when Chicken Little suddenly began to laugh.

"On your head, Mumsey, on your head! Hurry up and read the letter--I
just can't wait."

Her mother carefully unfolded the sheets and read them to herself
deliberately before satisfying Jane's curiosity.

"They are not coming until the last of June," she said finally. "Dick
has an important case set for the tenth and they would have to make a
hurried trip if they came before that, so they have settled down in the
old home till the law suit is over. Then they are coming for a nice long
visit. Alice says if Dick wins the case they are going clear to San
Francisco, but if he doesn't, they'll go only as far as Denver. Oh,
here's a note for you, Chicken Little, from Dick. And Alice says,
perhaps they'll bring Katy and Gertie with them, if it is convenient for
us to entertain so many, and leave them here while they go on out West.
Dear me, I don't know! Gertie hasn't been very well, it seems, and Mrs.
Halford is anxious to have her go to the country somewhere. Why,
child----"

Jane had paused with Dick's cherished note half-opened to skip and jump
deliriously till she was almost breathless.

"O Mother, wouldn't that be glorious? You could put another bed in my
room, and, maybe, they'd stay all summer. Oh, goody-goody, goody, goody,
goody!"

Dr. Morton coming in, caught her in the midst of her war dance and gave
her a resounding kiss.

"Here, Mother, where did you get this teetotum? We might sell her for a
mechanical top--warranted perpetual motion. When the legs give out, the
tongue still wags."

"I don't care, Father, Katy and Gertie are coming. I just can't wait!"

Jane hugged her father and did her best to spin his two hundred pounds
avoirdupois around with her.

When she had sobered down a little she remarked doubtfully: "But,
Mother, Katy and Gertie didn't say a single word about coming, in their
letter."

"Probably Mrs. Halford hasn't told them. She would naturally write to me
first, to find out if it is perfectly convenient for us before she
roused their expectations. I presume Alice's letter is only a
suggestion, and if I reply to it favorably, Mrs. Halford will write. I
shall think i