none of the accidents was serious, and
no films were spoiled.

Several days passed, one or two of them rather lazy ones, for the
weather grew hotter and Mr. Pertell did not want to overburden his
players. Russ and Paul took advantage of the little holiday to pay
several visits to the cabin in the woods, but they saw no traces of
the mysterious man.

"I have something new for you to-day," remarked the manager one
morning to the actors and actresses.

"Water scenes?" asked Russ, with a sly glance at Alice.

"No, this is on dry land. You're going to school for a change."

"Going to school!" they all echoed.

"Yes. I've a new play, and some of the scenes take place in a school
room. I'll only want the younger ones in this, though. Miss Ruth and
Miss Alice, Paul and Tommy and Nellie."

"Only the younger ones! Well, I like that!" sniffed Miss Pennington,
powdering her nose. "As if we were old maids!"

"The idea!" gasped Miss Dixon. "Those DeVere girls think they are the
whole show!"

"I should say they did!"

But it was not the fault of Alice and Ruth that they were young and
pretty.

"It won't be a very large class--with just us five in it," remarked
Paul.

"Oh, I'm going to use some of the regular school children," said the
manager. "I've made arrangements with the teacher. We're to go to the
schoolhouse this afternoon. Here are your parts--it's a simple little
thing," he added, as he distributed the typewritten sheets. "Study
'em a bit, we'll have a little rehearsal, and then we'll film it."

It was not as easy as Mr. Pertell had thought it would be to get the
little scenes in the country school. His own players were all right,
but the regular school children were either too bashful or too
bold--particularly some of the boys. And, just as one side of the
room would get quiet, and Russ would be ready to grind out the film,
the other side would break out into disorder caused by some
mischievous boy.

The children did not really mean to cause trouble, but it was a new
thing for them to be made subjects for moving pictures. They would
persist in staring straight at the camera, instead of pretending to
study their lessons as they should have done.

But finally they were induced to go properly through their little
scene, and the action of the play began. At one part Alice was to go
to the blackboard to do a sum in arithmetic, and Paul was to pass her
a little love note. This was to be intercepted by Ruth, an