“I think it likely some day. When you do, I’ll promise to see you off and bring you a big box of candy, if I’m round when you start. Say, how would it do to stop in at Jackson’s and get the candy today? I might not be there when the time comes, you know.”
They stopped and made the important purchase after much deliberation as to kinds.
“I like gum drops and chocolate creams best,” Jane volunteered naively.
“Mr. Harding is too generous,” her mother remarked with a wry smile when Jane proudly displayed her trophy. She had never had a whole boxful of candy before. Usually a dime’s worth had been the maternal limit.
Chicken Little treated Katy and Gertie and Ernest and Carol and Sherm and the new maid, with lavish generosity. She also ate all her mother would let her, herself. Finally, Mrs. Morton ordered her to put the rest away for the next day. It would have been well for Chicken Little if her mother’s direction had extended to the next day as well. But by morning Mrs. Morton had forgotten all about the candy. Chicken Little had strict orders not to eat sweets before breakfast so she heroically withstood temptation until her last bite of waffle was swallowed, then munched away till school time. The box with its remaining contents accompanied her to school to her later undoing.
She had never known such popularity as was hers when the other children found what the big box contained. One boy made her a present of a brand new slate pencil on the spot. She was allowed to choose up for her side in “No bears out tonight,” though this honor usually fell to one of the bigger girls. By the time the bell rang she felt blissfully important. She settled regretfully down to her work with the candy snugly tucked away inside her desk.
All went well until about the middle of the geography recitation, when turning around from her work at the board, she caught the small boy, who sat across the aisle, in the act of helping himself to a handful of her cherished sweets. She was surprised into forgetting where she was and exclaimed out loud:
The teacher looked up in pained amazement.
“Who was that spoke out loud?” she demanded.