Chicken Little finished her apple dumpling in silence and her mother supposed she was satisfied.
She took up the question with Alice when she came home from school that afternoon.
“I wisht you were going, Alice.”
“I wish I were, Chicken Little. Your mother suggested that I might go and help, but I used to play with Marian Gates when I was a little girl and I couldn’t bear to go there as a servant. I would like to see your brother married—and Marian, too.”
After her talk with Alice, Chicken Little started over to Halford’s feeling very important but vowed to silence. Alice cautioned her as she went out the back door, “Don’t tell Katy and Gertie, Chicken Little.”
She rather resented this. She was resolved to die rather than tell anyone—as if she couldn’t keep a secret!
But her reception was certainly disconcerting. Katy and Gertie met her at the gate, bubbling with information and determined to get all the facts they didn’t know.
“Say, Jane, your brother’s going to be married isn’t he?” questioned Katy, and Gertie added:
“The wedding’s in November isn’t it? And he’s going to marry Marian Gates and she’s to have a white silk dress. I heard your mother tell Mamma this afternoon when I came home from school.”
How could a ten year old maiden already full to bursting with a secret withstand such an attack?