from the entertainment, and the committee was getting
anxious. There was little time for rehearsal, and, with Horace and Otto
doing all in their power to throw cold water on the scheme, Roy and his
friends had plenty to worry them.

But Harry proved a brick. She went into it to the present exclusion of
all else and made things hum. She talked it up everywhere she went with
the result that the affair was extensively advertised before it was well
on foot. Harry attended a girls' academy at Silver Cove, and she wasn't
satisfied until every pupil there had faithfully promised to attend the
entertainment. She also persuaded Mr. Buckman to take part, something
that Jack and the others had failed at. Mr. Cobb had already consented
to sing and do a monologue. Then Harry devised costumes and found them,
levying on the wardrobes of most of her friends and acquaintances. And
in spite of the fact that she and Chub and Jack and Roy met at least
twice a day she still maintained her air of polite indifference toward
the latter.

When the morning of the day of the entertainment arrived affairs seemed
in the wildest chaos and even Harry lost her head for awhile. Some of
the promised participators had backed down at the last moment, the
principal soloist had a bad cold, the stage was still unbuilt, several
of the costumes were yet wanting and Harris and Kirby, down for a duet
and dance, weren't on speaking terms! And just as though all that wasn't
enough to drive the committee distracted, Chub had appeared at breakfast
with a long face and announced that he had forgotten to mail the poster
to Hammond Academy. In support of the assertion he produced it, stamped
and addressed. It had been lying in his pocket for three days. As
Hammond with its seventy-odd students had been counted on to send quite
a delegation, this was a hard blow. But Jack, with the cheerfulness of
desperation, obtained permission to deliver the poster by messenger and
sent Sid Welch across the river with it at nine o'clock.

That was certainly a day of troubles. Luckily there were few recitations
for anyone. Jack and Chub spent most of the morning directing and aiding
in the erection of the stage at the end of the gymnasium. The stage was
a sectional affair which, when not in use, was stored in the furnace
room. Unfortunately one section seemed to be missing, and putting the
thing together was, as Chub said, like joining one of those geographical
puzzles.

"You kno