"I'd be thankful for a few suggestions, too, I can't think of anything to send Ernest. When he has to have everything regulation, and the government furnishes him with every single thing it wants him to have, why--it's awful." "Yes, I agree with you--I've been racking my brains for Ernest, too. Mother is patiently knitting him a muffler, which I know he won't be permitted to wear, but I haven't the heart to discourage her--she gets so much comfort out of it. Uncle Sam should be more considerate of fond female relatives. He might at least tolerate a few tidies and hand-painted shovels or a home-made necktie." "Or a throw or a plush table cover with chenille embroidery. Mamie Jenkins is making one for Mr. Clay. He will be too cross for words. He loathes Mamie, though he tries not to show it, and plush is his special abomination. He says it reminds him of caterpillar's fuzz." Chicken Little's eyes danced maliciously. Marian looked at her young sister-in-law meditatively. "Mamie doesn't seem to be dear to your heart just now. Is she too popular or too affected or too dressy?" "Oh, she's just too utterly too too all around. I do have lots of fun with her--she can be awfully nice when she wants to be, but----" "But?" "Oh, I don't know--she swells up so, lots of times over things I'd be ashamed to tell--they're so silly." "Yes, I guess Mamie's pretty cheap, but as long as you make friends with her, don't rap her behind her back. It was all right to tell me--I quizzed you anyhow. I wish you didn't see so much of her." "Why, she's the only girl at school I can go with, who is anywhere near my own age. The Kearns twins aren't even clean--I don't like to go near them." "I shouldn't think you would. Our public school system has its drawbacks as well as its virtues. Well, Jane, be nice to Mamie, but don't--don't be like her." "You needn't worry; she's going to town to school after Christmas, so I sha'n't see much more of her." Mrs. Morton was still far from well, and she hung on Ernest's letters almost pathetically. Ernest, boy fashion, was inclined to write long letters when he had something interesting to tell and preserve a stony silence when he didn't. Life at the academy was monotonous and he had to work hard to keep up with his studies. Further, his father and Frank suspected he was having many disagreeable experiences which he kept from his family. These were still the days of rough hazing at the academy and Ernest, being a western boy, big and strong and independent, was likely to attract his full share of this unpleasant nagging. He revealed something of his experiences in a letter to Sherm. Sherm showed the letter to Chicken Little and Chicken Little, vaguely worried, told her father. Dr. Morton talked it over with Frank.