CHAPTER XIV OFF TO ANNAPOLIS "Golly, I sha'n't have any fingers left by the time I finish this needle case! King's excuse, Katy, you needn't mind. I know I said it, but if you tried to push a needle through this awful leather and pricked yourself every other stitch you'd say Golly, too." Chicken Little edged off as she saw Katy approaching. Katy was not to be deterred. "You said to pinch you every single time, Jane Morton, and you've said it twice. Besides, your mother said she hoped I could cure you." Katy gave Chicken Little's arm two vigorous pinches to emphasize this statement. Chicken Little did not take this kindly office in the spirit in which it was intended. She hated to sew and she had been toiling all morning on a little bronze leather case to hold needles, buttons, and pins--a parting gift to Ernest. "Katy Halford, I told you not to! I think you are real mean to do it when I'm having such a hard time. I'll thank you not to any more, if I do say it." "You don't need to go and get mad! You told me to." "Yes, and I just now told you not to!" "I guess you'd say King's excuse every time if I'd let you. A lot of good it's going to do, if you sneak out of it whenever you want to." "I don't sneak out of it--this is the very first time, and you know it!" "I don't know any such thing, but I don't think it's very good manners to be telling your guests they're saying something that isn't so! The day before they're going home, too!" Katy forgot the dignity of her fifteen years. "Well, I think it's quite as good manners as to tell your friends they're sneaks!" Jane's tone was icy. Gertie came between the belligerents. "Please don't quarrel, girls. It'd be dreadful the very last day, after we have had such a beautiful summer. I never did have such a good time in all my life. I most wish I could live on a ranch always." "I shouldn't like to live on a ranch, but we have had a jolly time, Chicken Little," Katy recovered herself enough to say graciously. Chicken Little was not to be outdone. "I suppose I was ugly, Katy. It always makes me cross to sew. I wish nobody had ever invented needles. O dear, I shall be as lonesome as pie when you are gone. It isn't much fun being the only girl on the ranch, I tell you. Sometimes, I don't even see another girl for weeks." "But your school begins soon, doesn't it?" "Yes, and I'll have Sherm. I just don't believe I could bear to have Ernest go if Sherm wasn't going to stay." "I'm awful glad Mr. Lenox put off coming for another day so we can go on the same train with Ernest." Katy had been exulting over this for the past twenty-four hours. "Ernest will be on the train for three days. I feel as if he would be as far away as if he were going to China." Their conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Morton's entrance.