The Moving Picture Girls at Oak Farm | Page 9

"Oh, not for some days yet, I fancy," was the answer. "Mr. Pertell will
have to look around, and pick out the best backgrounds for the different
scenes. I wonder what sort of parts I'll get? Something funny, I hope;
like tumbling into the river and being rescued."
"Alice! You wouldn't want anything like that!" cried Ruth, much
shocked.
"Wouldn't I, though! Just give me a chance. I can swim, you know!"
"Yes, I know, but tumbling into the river--with your clothes on--it
might be dangerous!"
"Oh, well, if we're in the moving picture business we will have to learn
to take chances. I read in the paper the other day how a couple leaped
from the Brooklyn Bridge with a parachute--a man and woman."
"Yes, I know; but we're not going to do anything like that! Papa
wouldn't let us."
"No, I suppose not," and Alice sighed as though she really wanted to
indulge in some such daring "stunt" as a bridge leap.
"I know one part you're going to have, Ruth," went on Alice, as she
surveyed herself in the glass.
"What is it?" asked Ruth, eagerly. "Shall I like it?"
"I think you will, dear. It's laid in an old mill--there is one on Oak Farm,
I believe. You're to be imprisoned in it, and your lover rides
up--probably on one of those silly milk-white steeds I object to--and
rescues you--breaks down the door in fact--and gets you just as you are

about to be bound on the mill wheel."
"Really, Alice?" cried Ruth, clasping her hands in delight, for she
dearly loved a romantic rôle.
"Really and truly--truly rural, I call it."
"How did you hear of it?"
"Oh, I overheard daddy and Mr. Pertell talking about it. Mr. Pertell
asked daddy if he'd object to your taking a part like that."
"And what did dad say?"
"Oh, he agreed to it, as long as you weren't in danger. But I want
something funny. I believe I'm to be a sort of 'cut-up' country maid, in
some of the plays. I'm to upset the milk pails, tie a tin can to the calf's
tail, hide under the sofa, when your country 'beaus' come to see you,
and all that."
"Oh, Alice!"
"That's all right--I just love parts like that. None of the love business
for me!"
"I should say not--you're entirely too young!" exclaimed Ruth, with
sudden dignity.
"Pooh! You're not so old! Oh, there goes the supper bell. Come on! I'm
starved!"
The entire theatrical troupe gathered about the table, and a merry party
it was. That Mrs. Apgar was a good cook was one of the first matters
voted on, and there was not a dissenting voice. It was well that there
was plenty of chicken, for nearly everyone had more than the first
helping.
"Ach! But I'm glad that I came here!" announced Mr. Switzer, as he
passed his plate for more. "Ven I get so old dot I can vork no more, I

am coming here!" and he leaned back with a contented sigh.
Even Pepper Sneed smiled graciously, and for once seemed to have no
fault to find, and no dire prediction to make.
"The meal is very good," he said to Pop Snooks, the property man.
"Glad you think so--even if we did come out on track thirteen," was the
reply. "I think that accident was the best thing that could happen. It
delayed us so we all had fine appetites."
After supper the members of the company went on the broad veranda,
to sit in the dusk of the evening and listen to the call of the night
insects.
"We'll all have a day or so of rest," Mr. Pertell said. "That is, you folks
will, while I lay out my plans and decide what we are to make first.
Russ, I'll want you, the first thing in the morning, to take a walk around
the farm with me, and we'll decide on which are the best backgrounds."
"Oh, may I come!" cried Alice, before Ruth could restrain her.
"Why, yes, I guess so," answered the manager, slowly. "Only we'll
probably do a deal of walking."
"I don't tire easily," Alice replied.
"Oh, by the way, Mr. Apgar," said Mr. Pertell after a pause, turning to
the farmer, "I am planning one play that has a barn-burning incident in
it. Have you some old barn on the premises I could set fire to."
"Good land!" exclaimed the farmer, starting from his chair. "Set fire to
a barn! Why th' idea! Th' sheriff will git after you, sure pop. That's
arson, man!"
"Oh, no, not the way I'd do it," laughed the manager. "I'd be willing to
pay you for the barn, so no one would lose anything. Haven't you some
such