The Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm | Page 4

began to take stock of themselves and their surroundings.
"Is anybody hurt?" demanded Mr. Pertell, as he surveyed the interior of
the car.
"We seem to be all right," replied Mr. DeVere, hoarsely, as he noted
where his two daughters were standing together, their arms about each
other.
"Py gracious, dot vos a smash, all right!" exclaimed Carl Switzer, the
comedian of the company. "I pelief me dot I haf busted----"

"Not your leg--don't say you have broken your leg!" cried Mrs.
Maguire, as she clasped her two grandchildren in her arms. Nellie, the
little girl, was crying, from having bumped her nose against the back of
a seat.
"No, t'ank my lucky stars I haf not broken my leg. It iss only my
shoe-lace!" exclaimed Mr. Switzer, triumphantly, as he held it up,
dangling.
"Luck!" grunted Mr. Sneed in gloomy tones. "Is there any such thing as
good luck? I knew something would happen when we started out on
track thirteen. This company is doomed--I can see that."
"Well, then, please keep it to yourself," requested Mr. Pertell, sharply.
"You are getting on the nerves of the ladies, Sneed!"
For Miss Pearl Pennington, and her friend Miss Laura Dixon--the two
rather flashily-pretty girls mentioned before--were crying hysterically.
"It doesn't seem to be a very bad smash," went on Mr. Pertell. "Suppose
we go out and see what caused it? I hope none of our baggage has been
damaged."
"Oh, let's go out and see Russ taking moving pictures of the wreck!"
proposed Alice, as she brushed off her blue suit.
"Are you sure you're all right?" asked Ruth, anxiously.
"Oh, certainly! Not hurt at all. Just jolted up a bit. Come on. You too,
Daddy!"
Indeed the whole theatrical company, as well as the other passengers,
made for the doors of the car. And while they are going out to see the
extent of the damage I will take just a moment to make my new readers
somewhat better acquainted with the characters of this story.
To begin with the moving picture girls themselves, they were Ruth and
Alice DeVere, aged seventeen and fifteen respectively, the daughters of

Hosmer DeVere, formerly a well known actor. As told in the first
volume, "The Moving Picture Girls; Or, First Appearances in Photo
Dramas," Mr. DeVere's voice had suddenly given out, when he was
rehearsing for a part in a new play.
This came particularly hard, as he had been without an engagement for
some time, and finances were low. The DeVere family lived in the
Fenmore Apartment on one of the West Sixtieth streets of New York
City. They were, in fact, about to be dispossessed for non-payment of
rent when Mr. DeVere experienced a return of an old throat affection,
making it impossible for him to speak his lines.
He was replaced in the character, and matters looked black indeed.
Across the hall from the DeVere family lived Russ Dalwood, a moving
picture operator, with his widowed mother and brother, Billy. Russ
learned of the distress of his neighbors, and suggested that as Mr.
DeVere could act he might get a place with a moving picture company
that produced picture dramas. In this work he would not need to speak
very much.
At first Mr. DeVere would not hear of it, as he was an actor of some
reputation in the "legitimate." But finally he yielded and became a
member of the Comet Film Company. How his two daughters joined
the company, through a mere accident, and how they made fame for
themselves, you will find set down in the book; also how they aided
Russ greatly when it seemed as if a valuable patent he had perfected,
for an attachment to a moving picture camera, was in danger of being
stolen.
Toward the close of that story you may learn how Mr. Pertell became
acquainted with a young farmer named Sandy Apgar, who was working
a large farm for his aged father, near Beatonville, in New Jersey. It
happened that Mr. Pertell was contemplating the filming of a number of
rural plays, and he made arrangements with Mr. Apgar to use the farm
as a background for the scenes. The company would also live and board
at the farmhouse, which was a large, old-fashioned home.
The players were on their way there when the accident occurred.

To go a little more into detail about the two girls, and the others, I
might say that Ruth was tall, with deep blue eyes and light hair. She
was rather inclined to be romantic, too, as might be suspected.
Alice was just the opposite--plump, jolly, always laughing or joking,
and with a wealth of brown hair, and eyes like hazel nuts. She was very
like her dead mother, while Ruth was more like her father