ffective bait. And such a time as I had to get Ranald's
costume! I was about to ask Betty to change his name, when Elise found
that Mardi Gras frog at some costumer's. Those webbed feet and hideous
eyes are enough to strike terror to any one's soul."

It was a play in which every one was pleased with the part given him.
Allison and Rob swept up and down in their gilt crowns and ermine-trimmed
robes of royal purple, feeling that as king and queen they had the most
important parts of all. Keith looked every inch the charming Prince Hero
he personated, and Malcolm made such a dashing knight that there was a
burst of applause every time he appeared.

Betty made a dear old godmother, and Elise, with crown and star-tipped
wand, filmy spangled wings, and big red bubble of a balloon, was supremely
happy as Queen of the Fairies. But it was the Little Colonel who won the
greatest laurels, in the tower room, making the prettiest picture of all
as she bent over the great St. Bernard, bewailing their fate.

The scenery had been changed with little delay between acts. Three tall
screens, hastily unfolded just in front of the spiked fence, hid the
orchard from view, and a fourth screen served the double purpose of
forming the side wall of the room, and hiding the ogre's tower. The narrow
space between the screens and the footlights was ample for the scene that
took place there, and the arrangement saved much trouble. For in the last
act, the screens had only to be carried away, to leave the stage with its
original setting.

"Lloyd never looked so pretty before, in her life," said Mr. Sherman to
his wife, as they watched the Princess Winsome tread back and forth beside
the spinning-wheel, the golden cord held lightly in her white fingers. But
she was even prettier in the next scene, when with the dove in her hands
she stood at the window, twining the slender gold chain about its neck and
singing in a high, sweet voice, clear as a crystal bell:

"Flutter and fly, flutter and fly,
Bear him my heart of gold.
Bid him be brave, little carrier dove,
Bid him be brave and bold."

Twice many hands called her back, and many eyes looked admiringly as she
sang the song again, holding the dove to her breast and smoothing its
white feathers as she repeated the words:

"Tell him that I at my spinning-wheel
Will sing while it turns and hums,
And think all day of his love so leal
Until with the flute he co