tion. She
knew her parents would not return before evening, and if Marian hunted
her up, she would think she had gone down to eat her lunch with Frank
and Ernest.

It was almost noon before she entered the belt of timber along the creek
at the southern boundary of their ranch. Across the stream, she knew,
lay the Clarke ranch, and she had heard the house and stables were close
to the timber. Jane had resolved to call on the Captain, and going on
foot, had selected the shortest route. It was over two miles between
houses by the road. Further, Chicken Little, preferred that her visit
should seem accidental--at least to the Captain. She hardly expected to
convince her family that she had wandered over there without intending
to. But she felt sure the Captain would receive her more kindly if he
thought she were taking a walk and got lost. She would be very hot and
tired when she arrived, and ask for a drink so politely that not even a
woman-hater would have the heart to let her go on without asking her in
and offering her some refreshment.

She had never been in this part of the woods before. It was very
different from the timber and groves near the ford where they often
picnicked in summer or went nutting in the fall. There, the cattle and
hogs had been allowed to range, at certain seasons of the year, until
most of the thick undergrowth was nicely cleared away. But the wood,
here, was dark and shadowy. Dead branches and tree trunks lay where they
had fallen or been torn down by storms. Weeds and flowers had grown up
among these, and the wild cucumber vines and clematis festooned the
rotting logs with feathery green. It was a wood full of creepy
noises--noises that made one keep still and listen. The coarse grass and
herbage were so rank you could scarcely see the ground. It looked
decidedly snaky, Chicken Little reflected dubiously. And water moccasins
were abundant along the creek, and poisonous, as her father had often
warned her. Chicken Little was usually plucky when she actually saw a
snake, but the snakes she feared she might see always made her panicky.

Still she hated to give up anything she had undertaken. She stood
staring into the thickets for some minutes. Huz sat on his haunches
beside her and stared too, whining occasionally as if he didn't quite
like the prospect either. Buz had found a gopher hole and was having a
merry time trying to dig it out. She could hear the creek singing over
the stones a few r