It was well they did. The wee stray would have led them a chase. He had found his way almost to the creek, and it took the boys a good hour of wading and beating the swamp grass to discover him.
Just as Chicken Little was dropping off to sleep that night, Katy roused her.
“Do you suppose we’ll get as much as five dollars apiece from those pigs?”
A PARTY AND A PICNIC
Gertie looked wistful. Dick and Alice were going on to Denver that morning to return a month later for the little girls. All three were to drive into town with Dr. Morton to see them off. The mere thought of anyone going away made Gertie a little homesick. She went out to the chicken yard, where nine of the young prairie chickens were flourishing under the care of a much-deceived hen, who had adopted them with the mistaken notion that they were her own egg kin. The little mottled things seemed very much out of place among the domestic fowls. They were wild and shy and astonishingly fleet on their reed-like legs. Gertie loved to watch them. Two of the chicks had died the first night, and one, two days later. But the rest survived, and, 142in the course of time, flew away to join their wild mates.
“Dear me, I wonder what we can do next?” said Chicken Little, as they watched the train pull out with Dick waving from the rear platform.