Dr. Morton studied a moment, perplexed. "Well, the grain is worth more than the pigs. I guess they'll have to go until evening and then we'll all go down and see how many we can find. They won't suffer greatly before night unless they find enough water to drown themselves in." "Oh, the poor piggies!" exclaimed Chicken Little. "Why, they'll be most starved and maybe the bull snakes might get them." "I hardly think they could manage a pig. But I can't help it, unless you think you could rescue them, daughter." Dr. Morton said this last in fun, but Chicken Little took it seriously. "What could I put them in, Father?" "Oh, you might take a small chicken coop," replied her father carelessly. The wagons coming from the barn were already rattling into the road and he was in a hurry to catch one and save himself the hot walk to the fields. Chicken Little was thinking. She sat twisting a corner of her apron into a tight roll. "I believe we could do it," she said presently, "and the bull snakes are perfectly harmless if they are big, ugly-looking things. Will you help me, Katie?" "Ugh, are there really snakes there, Jane?" "Yes, but we've never seen any poisonous ones along there, though I saw a water moccasin once right down by the spring, so you never can tell. But snakes sound a lot worse than they really are, 'cause they're such cowards they always run." Katy considered. The task did not sound attractive, but Katy was plucky. "I guess, if you can do it, I can." Jane had not thought of asking Gertie and she was surprised to hear her say: "I'm coming, too." "Oh, Gertie, won't you be afraid?" "Yes, I'm afraid, but I don't want the little piggies killed--just think how you'd feel if you were lost in such a dreadful place and there were snakes and awful things. If I see a snake I'll yell bloody murder, and I guess it'll let me alone." Jane threw herself on Gertie and hugged her. "Gertie Halford, I think you'd make a real, sure enough book heroine, because you do things when you think you ought to, whether you're scared or not." "I wish Dick hadn't gone to town to-day," said Katy. Chicken Little had her campaign already planned. "I'm going to get Ernest's and Frank's and Sherm's rubber boots for us. They'll be lots too big, but we can tie them around the legs to make them stick on. They will be fine in the mud and water if we have to wade in the slough. Yes, and they will protect us from the snakes, too. We won't put them on till we get down there; they will be too hard to walk in. And we can take Jilly's red wagon and put the smallest chicken coop on it. It isn't heavy."