Mrs. Morton’s consent was soon obtained as well as Mrs. Halford’s. Grace Dart intended to use her own skates, but Mrs. Morton said Jane might as well buy a pair, if she were really going to learn. Marian volunteered to get them for her on the way down.
Chicken Little was gay as a robin redbreast when she ran to meet Marian at the side gate. She was in red from top to toe, red coat, red leggings and red hood. And she was so excited she acted like a much distracted robin, as Marian told her a little later.
“She does enter into things so heart and soul,” Marian confided to Frank, “she fairly quivers with excitement sometimes. Katy and Gertie are so different. They enjoy themselves just as much but they don’t tire themselves out as Chicken Little does.”
“Sis is too high strung, I guess—gets it from Father’s people. Funny, too, she’s a sober little puss a good deal of the time.”
The new skates were soon purchased and slung over her shoulder in exact imitation of the way she had seen the boys carry theirs. They looked delightfully sharp and glittering. Chicken Little felt immensely superior to Katy whose skates were two years old and not nearly so shiny.
It was a radiant afternoon, frosty and clear. The pond was covered with skaters of all ages. Some of the men were pulling women and children on sleds.
Frank strapped the little girls’ skates on firmly. Katy struck off boldly for herself, while Marian helped Gertie. Frank undertook to keep Chicken Little from measuring her length on the ice—no small task for the child was ambitious and daring. Great was her joy when she finally succeeded in taking a few short strokes without having her feet shoot out from under her. Presently Frank left her to her own devices while he went to skate with Marian.
“My feet don’t seem to want to go the same way I do,” she complained to Gertie after two hard bumps.
Gertie was proceeding more cautiously and had fewer falls in consequence.
“I guess you’ll learn pretty soon—my—just see Katy!”