treet
where you can see through the gate and watch the people go through."

"Say!" Again the woman searched his face and broke into her friendly
smile. "Say, you're a real nut, aren't you? How'd you ever get this
way?"

And again he was talking, telling now of his past and his struggles to
educate himself as a screen actor--one of the best. He spoke of Simsbury
and Gashwiler and of Lowell Hardy who took his stills, and of Tessie
Kearns, whose sympathy and advice had done so much to encourage him. The
woman was joyously attentive. Now she did more than smile. She laughed
at intervals throughout the narrative, though her laughter seemed
entirely sympathetic and in no way daunted the speaker.

"Well, Merton, you're a funny one--I'll say that. You're so kind of
ignorant and appealing. And you say this Bughalter or Gigwater or
whatever his name is will take you back into the store any time? Well,
that's a good thing to remember, because the picture game is a hard
game. I wouldn't discourage a nice clean boy like you for the world,
but there are a lot of people in pictures right now that would prefer a
steady job like that one you left."

"It's Gashwiler--that name."

"Oh, all right, just so you don't forget it and forget the address."

The new applicant warmly reassured her.

"I wouldn't be likely to forget that, after living there all those
years."

When he left the window the woman was again saying into the telephone,
"No, dear, nothing to-day. I'm sorry."

It was that night he wrote to Tessie Kearns:

Dear Friend Tessie:

Well, Tessie, here I am safe and sound in Hollywood after a long ride
on the cars that went through many strange and interesting cities and
different parts of the country, and I guess by this time you must have
thought I was forgetting my old friends back in Simsbury; but not so, I
can assure you, for I will never forget our long talks together and how
you cheered me up often when the sacrifice and struggle seemed more than
any man could bear. But now I feel repaid for all that sacrifice and
struggle, for I am here where the pictures are made, and soon I will be
acting different parts in them, though things are quiet on the lot now
with only two companies shooting to-day; but more companies will be
shooting in a few days more and then will come the great opportunity for
me as soon as I get known, and my different capabilities, and what I can
do and everything.

I had a long talk to-day wi