lar. And Alice said it would be a sight, if I
mussed it. I don't see the connection, do you? Dear Chicken Little,
I thought about you all the time I wasn't thinking about Alice,
because I remembered a certain other wedding where the dearest small
girl in the world introduced me to the dearest big girl in the
world. I thought also of the little partner who wrote a certain
letter and of many other things--I didn't even forget the baby mice,
Chicken Little! Alice says she would like to have your name on her
diploma along with the president's because--well, you know why. And
they tell us you are Chicken Big now. Thirteen going on, is a
frightful age! The worst of it is you can never stop 'going on.' I
suppose I need not expect to be asked to any doll parties, but,
Jane, wouldn't you--couldn't you, take me fishing when we come? I
will promise to be as grown up as possible.

"Yours,

"Dick."

"P. S. Do you still read Mary Jane Holmes?"

"Well, it is evident Dick Harding is the same old Dick, all right. Three
years and getting married don't seem to have changed him a particle,"
laughed Marian.

"Three years isn't a lifetime," retorted Dr. Morton, "if it does seem
'quite a spell' to young people. Thank heaven, it has changed you,
Marian, from a fragile, pale invalid to a hearty, rosy woman! Dr.
Allerton knew what he was about when he sent you to a farm to get well."

"Yes, I can't be thankful enough, Father Morton, and I don't forget how
kind it was of you all to come out so far with us."

"Mother is the only one who deserves any thanks--the rest of us were
crazy to come. We were tickled to death to have an excuse, eh, Chicken
Little?" He tweaked her ear for emphasis.

"Oh, I love the farm, Father, only I wish Ernest could go away to
school. He's awfully worried for fear you won't feel able to send him to
college this fall. He studies every minute when he isn't too tired." Dr.
Morton's face grew grave.

"Yes, it's time for the boy to have a better chance. I wanted him to go
last year, but the drought and the low price of cattle made it
impossible. And I don't quite know how it will be this fall yet."

"There mustn't be any if about it this fall, Father. Ernest is working
too hard here and now is the time for his education if he is ever to
have one," Mrs.