"I'll write to him to-day, Sherm, and you might write, too, for I'm going in to town about noon. Any commissions, Mother? Why don't you drop things and come along? A change will do you good--you haven't been off the place for two weeks or more." "I don't know but I will. Chicken Little, you girls might get up a little picnic lunch for yourselves and the boys, and have it out in the orchard. Annie has a big ironing to-day and it would help her out not to have a dinner to get. Then we'll have a hearty supper this evening." "Yes, and Chicken Little, did you girls feed the porkers last evening? I heard them squealing and grunting in the night." "Golly!" said Chicken Little, sitting up with a start and looking at Katy. Katy looked guilty, and Gertie concerned. Dr. Morton did not need any further answer. "Well, you'd better run right out. Remember dumb beasts must never be neglected, daughter." "And Jane, I don't want to hear you say Golly again. By-words of any kind are objectionable for young girls, and that is particularly rough and coarse," Mrs. Morton added severely. "You never say it is coarse when Ernest says it--and he uses it an awful lot." "My dear, you are not a boy," Mrs. Morton replied with a dignity that was final. "I don't care," said Chicken Little when the trio got out doors, "it's not one bit fair to let boys do so many more things than girls! You just wait, if I ever have a daughter she's going to do every single thing her brother does. So there!" Sherm overheard and later in the day when he and Jane were talking together, he remarked: "Chicken Little, I don't think it is exactly fair either to hold the girls in so much tighter than boys, but your mother is right, allee samee. I have heard the fellows talk often enough to know they think a lot more of a girl who isn't slangy, than of one who is. Of course, mild ones like 'Oh dear' don't matter, but you see a man kind of likes to have a girl, well--different." Sherm was getting in a little beyond his depth. The girls carried two pails of sour milk and a great basket of parings to their greedy pigs and watched them feed without interest. "The only reason I'm glad to go home is I won't have to feed these horrid pigs any more. I never saw anything grow and eat like they do. They ought to be worth a lot of money after all the stuff they've eaten." Katy kicked her toe against the log pen to emphasize her remarks. "I don't think they're worth so very much yet." Chicken Little was regarding them with no very friendly eye. "I wouldn't mind so much if they weren't getting so ugly and smelly," said Gertie plaintively. Frank, happening by just then, was amused to see their disgusted expressions. "Say, Frank, how soon will these pigs be big enough to go in the corral with the others?"